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No moxy7. I am only a shareholder now.
Wrong yet again!
I don't have private reply capabilities because I refuse to give iHub any of my money. Send me a private message with your email address and I will email you my cell phone number and prove it directly.
Oh, Kimble. Only YOU provide misinformation in your postings. You have only opinions yet you fail to post that they are your opinions. Nothing you say is based in any fact. Anyone can go back over your postings and see that most of what you say is conjecture and musings with tiny bits of truth sprinkled in order to APPEAR credible. The only correct thing you have said here is that there is no CFO. If anyone has any questions about the financials of the company, I suggest you call the company and ask who is responsible for filing the numbers - I guarantee you there is an actual person (or two) who are responsible for the financials and who deal with PCBOA-approved audit firm to supply the basis for these filings. And while we are at it, to clarify: Quarterly filings by all public companies are reviewed and approved by auditors before being made public. The audit standards are slightly different between quarterly and annual filings but the auditors MUST give their consents for EVERY 10-Q filed. Again, you are giving misinformation.
And while I'm here, I'd like to clarify the point that you continue to MISINFORM people about box office bonuses on Cowboys & Aliens, and while perhaps a moot point at this stage in the game, this was very real at the time the original information was posted. Platinum was not required to make their Option/Acquisition deal with DreamWorks public but I assure you and all posters, that there were indeed bonuses on top of the $2MM acquisition fee tied to box office milestones. The milestones were in the $250MM Domestic/$500MM Worldwide range and it appears that those numbers will now not be reached but when I posted that information on this board in April, 2010 as final casting was started (casting that, at that time, was about to include previously unannounced Harrison Ford), the possibility of box office bonuses were thought possible by all parties involved. This was not a lie, mistruth or anything but accurate.
YOU have continued to spread lies and innuendo about this company on this board and this is one perfect example. You kept telling posters that B.O. numbers were not important to Platinum but, in fact, quite the opposite: Box office numbers have always been important in the grander scheme of things. Good domestic box office dictates international marketing spend, which in turn, begets better international box office numbers. All of those numbers dictate whether or not a sequel, prequel or other spinoff film would be prudent. Those numbers also dictate the marketing support from the studios on merchandising. So yes, Kimble, box office numbers on a tentpole feature film, especially one that is a potential franchise, are ALWAYS important, contrary to your OPINION.
While you claim to be knowledgeable in the ways of the OTC and penny stock market world, and while you have claimed to make millions in profits, you are obviously not in the entertainment industry. I suggest you keep your comments restricted to facts on what you know and label your opinions as that, merely conjecture. You have made enough comments on this board and on others, that when taken on the aggregate, show a very clear agenda. It is definitely intended to inform - unfortunately, your information appears to be intentional misinformation on a consistent basis.
Good luck to you.
-Brian
Kimble, you wrote: "why all the selling?? makes no sense...
i personally feel we will see TWO RUN UPS
1) immediately after C&A opens and gross revenues for C&A becomes clearer.....the price will dive after that due to hype and over buying
2) second run up will be when another property is sold with much more favorable terms...due to better negotiating position
this second runup will be sustained
kimble"
So now you think there will be a runup on the market that will be sustained? You have spent quite a bit of time on other message boards calling me a scammer and a pump-and-dumper and yet the company where I formulated the entire going-public process from 2006 through just a few weeks ago is about to see that a "runup will be sustained?" Which is it? Are you now saying you believe that PDOS is a legitimate company? Sounds like it to me. Yet you don't hesitate to hide behind your anonymity and post drivel, lies, innuendo and conjecture about me and any of the public companies with which I have been associated as if it is scripture.
Platinum is weeks away from having a blockbuster feature film with the highest-profile studio execs, producers, director and actors in Hollywood. That was a goal we set out to achieve when we started down this path 5 years ago. Did we predict the poor market conditions of '08 thru '10? No. Neither did a majority of investors, bankers, managers, nor financial planners. Did we expect the stock price to fall to these levels? No. I bet the management of many public companies don't fully expect to see their stock prices where they sit, high OR low.
The market does what the market does. There are company fundamentals to review and that analysis could determine investors' buy/sell price but that determination is a factor of subjectivity. Every investor has their own threshold of risk/reward and they invest of their own volition. That is exactly the basis of the creation of the SEC acts of 1933 and 1934 - public companies have to disclose ALL actions so investors can make an educated decision. By your own admission, there is "hype and over buying" - that is a factor of the market and the individual issuers have absolutely NOTHING to do with those momentum runs and presumably illogical movements in stock price, up OR down. When investors take all of the information in front of them, including market conditions on any given day or other time period, they then make their own individual decisions to buy, sell, hold or just watch from the sideline.
I have seen that you actually post intelligent observations on occasion. Stop assuming that every management team is made up of crooks, thieves, liars and scumbags. While that may be true for some companies, I can say with certainty that it is not true of the CEOs I deal with. Some have shortcomings, but that is called "being human." Like you, they are trying to follow the American Dream and make a good living. Unlike you, they are trying to build a successful business and they have to show the entire world every mistake, trip up, hiccup, bump in the road, failure and error in a completely public manner and endure the scrutiny and second-guessing from anonymous posters who don't really care about the company or its employees or investors, but just want to be opportunistic and make as much money as they can, spitting out as much vitriolic drivel as they want, protected by First Amendment rights. It's very sad.
You wrote: "And go...
https://viewer.zoho.com/docs/z5Sac"
This is a link to a document from a year ago. What are you trying to suggest with this?
That's not a "rip cord" John. It's like an alien lasso that grabs townsfolk and yanks them out of their boots. More to come as we get closer to July. It's called a "teaser" trailer for a reason. You won't see a lot of detail for quite some time but you can get a sense of what it's about.
-Brian
Caution, I'll be at next week's screening. I hope you can make it - I look forward to catching up with you there, if not before. Dog, wish you could make it.
-Brian
NYC, independently-financed films generally wait until ALL post is complete before getting a domestic distribution partner. Special screenings have been scheduled for some of these folks next week and the week after. With the Cannes Film Festival fast approaching, it is the start of buying season for distribution companies so the timing is right on. Hopefully, there will be good news to report in the not-so-distant future.
In other news, casting for C&A is continuing to grow - hopefully, the studios will start to make that information public soon. Again, unfortunately, they are controlling the flow of that information and have requested that Platinum not steal any thunder by making announcements prematurely. As for what Platinum receives on that deal, there is a rights acquisition fee of almost $2MM on greenlight of the film. That fee will have bumps upon certain box office milestones so it could increase by another $2MM or more over the year following release. There is also participation in DVD sales and other merchandising and licensing revenues. Amounts to quite a bit for PDOS.
On Dead of Night, as producing entity and rights holder, PDOS earns about a decent percentage of ALL revenues after negative costs and P&A are recouped. If it does moderately well, it could be a substantial gain for Platinum.
For everyone else on this board, the flow of Press Releases has slowed down for PDOS because the company has really focussed its efforts on Film and TV projects and because partners like to control the info flow, PDOS can't always report on activities. There is a lot still going on. Partnering with the "A-Team" on C&A will put Platinum on the map as far as broad awareness is concerned. That can only help bring interest on the public market part of the business. As a significant shareholder, that is my hope.
-Brian
As usual, ironyman, you have no idea what you are talking about.
Hey Madddog. That's definitely a shot from the movie. The marketing push behind this movie is being handled very deliberately. I know that can be frustrating for some who want all pictures, videos and behind-the-scenes footage all at once but that would spoil it in the end. We gave certain industry bloggers and journalists exclusive photos that they could run to expand the exposure. This is a great shot of Dylan and Marcus in a signature convertible VW bug (although in the comic, the bug is white, but we discovered there are limitations to the use of a white VW bug in a movie, courtesy of a little studio whose mascot is a mouse...)
More to come. Stay tuned.
-Brian
Hi Caution. We have been spending quite a bit of time and effort to reduce the overhead expenses and when the 10-Q comes out next week, you can judge for yourself how we have been doing in reducing both overhead expenses and outstanding liabilities. I think we've done pretty well and, as I have said in my updates on MoneyTV, we have really narrowed our focus on film and television projects that have a better than average chance to get into production. This narrowed focus and reduction of liabilities and overhead have made Platinum a leaner organization with an eye on increasing shareholder value. It really is at the top of mind for us.
Thanks for hanging in - lots of great stuff on the horizon.
-Brian Altounian
What do you want to know about me, Waka or Kimble? As the bio on the Platinum Studios website says, I have been involved in 9 early-stage companies that have gone on to the OTC market to obtain early round financing in order to move from development stage to full commercial-scale production. Through my association with an angel investment group, I was involved in those companies before you ever heard of any of them. It was due to our collective effort that they became public companies in the first place. There are common investors in all of those companies so it really should be no surprise that there are a number of common posters on those boards. I have an investor list that exceeds 500 early-stage investors that have all taken advantage of the access to these companies and invested in one or more PPM rounds. Some have seen their early stage investments yield extremely successful results and the companies have benefited from their involvement.
Your "beginning to question the technology" because of an association with me is a ridiculous statement and shows a complete lack of investment sophistication. I have never hidden from anyone or any questions about my involvement in these companies - in fact, I have been very vocal on behalf of all of them and continue to be. If you have a question, call me at the Platinum Studios office and ask instead of posting rhetoric. I consider Dean to be a very close friend - we speak often and have much respect and admiration for one another. His willingness to post here on this board and be forthcoming about the stressful process he is enduring shows that he is one CEO who is concerned about his investors, his company, his employees and his own future. He has integrity and patience and while none of us is happy with an undervalued stock price, there is little Dean can do to control the stock market - eventually, the market will reflect the true value of this incredible technology. Until then, let me assure you that there is not a single person, on this board or otherwise, who is more stressed out about this situation or more anxious for a positive outcome than Dean.
Dean won't have to do any "fancy dance steps" about his relationship with me, I assure you. Unlike you, I post using my real name and you can find me at the Platinum Studios offices very easily. Pretty ironic that you question MY character, considering you post under a pseudonym.
Thanks for posting that, Chevyman. In reality, it is possible that 90% to 95% of OTC companies have that Going Concern Doubt in their filings. They are microcap companies at various stages of their business, but most likely in a pre-revenue, pre-positive EBITDA and pre-profitability stage. SAS guidelines make it nearly impossible for early-stage companies to have filings that don't include a going-concern doubt from their auditors. Primarily, it's a CYA from the auditors' perspective.
That was from LAST YEAR, Madddog. Wizard postponed this year's show indefinitely: http://www.wizarduniverse.com/010909wwtxwwlarelease.html.
We're involved, guys. Can't say much more than that at this point. That story was leaked from the other side without our knowledge.
You're wrong.
Hey guys. Thanks for keeping this board going. One thing to keep in mind when it comes to Dreamworks is that they are two companies now. Jeffrey Katzenberg runs Dreamworks Animation, which was spun off as a public company a couple of years ago. They created the Shrek series and now the Madagascar movies and they are coming out with a movie called Monsters & Aliens next year (not to be confused with our Cowboys & Aliens project.) Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider are co-chairmen of the live action film company Dreamworks that just split with Paramount recently and set up shop with a distribution deal at Universal. Our projects are live action films with the Spielberg/Snider team.
As for the stock price, we're not happy about it. We wish there were more buyers in the market right now but with the broad market experiencing 11-, 16- and 50-year lows, it looks like everyone is sitting on the sidelines. With the economy taking such a big hit, investors have to look for access to cash from every asset and, even if they sell at a loss, they all have their own reasons to sell. You have seen the activity on our projects and know that at this current market cap, we believe we are undervalued. Until the market turns around, there's not much we can do but continue to press forward and get deals in the pipeline and generate revenues and profitability. That's what we're striving for and our entire team is committed to increasing shareholder value and we think about that everyday. Thanks for hanging in there with us.
-Brian
Hey Bill. Great to see you here. Your sentence about the current model is not exactly true. When a book is selected, for example, if I select your property, "Ace of Diamonds," I get the information page that includes a banner right now that says "Your next Comics & Graphic Novels download is free - a gift from EA Sports. Click Download PDF to use your credit." Then on the "Download PDF" button, which is right next to the "Add to Library", "Read Online" and "Send PDF as a gift" choices, it clearly says "Free with Gift Credit." So the reader can see right away when they are just looking at information about the book.
And I don't agree that the viewer is a bad idea and I'm sorry that you feel that way. In worldwide territories where the downloads create a channel conflict for many traditional publishers, the viewer is the only way to get to see the material. Publishers have the option of adding a button on each property to make it available for purchase, whether through Amazon, Barnes & Noble or from the publisher directly. We have found that free views actually increase the number of hard copies purchased by readers. We have read that Amazon discovered that sales of hard copies of books increased for titles that were given away as free e-book previews. So we think the viewer is actually a really good idea.
To your question about increasing the number of advertisers, we are absolutely working on increasing the number of category sponsors and advertisers. As for the checks, we have left the communication about timing to the folks at Wowio and so I will refer you to them to discuss.
Thanks again and I appreciate you being on this board and participating.
-Brian
Hi Caution. You asked what the profit margin would be on the $250,000/month of revenue ($3MM/year). It's a little difficult to give you a straight answer to that because there are about 7 different revenue streams that could contribute to that number and the revenue share numbers are a little different for each stream. A very conservative number would be approximately half but it can be and most likely will be higher in a blended model of these 7 different streams.
Sorry I didn't respond earlier and I hope that answers the question for you.
-Brian
I'll make you a deal, IronyMan. Instead of sending me flowers, make a contribution to a non-profit organization. I have one you can send it to: Lost and Found in America - www.lafia.org. It's a non-profit I helped to start last year. Here's the mission:
Through the use of television, film and digital media, Lost & Found in America promotes the efforts of organizations and individuals committed to providing dignity, faith and hope to those in need in their communities. We believe that as Americans, we have a rich tradition of helping individuals who are less fortunate than ourselves. LAFIA strives to inspire in each of us, the power to save the world, one life at a time.
In fact, why don't you donate $100 for every penny over $0.15 on July 15 of next year? That way, I won't have to throw away any flowers after a week and you'll be helping people who help others in our communities.
Thanks for your support, IronyMan. Good intentions followed by great execution makes a lot of people happy.
-Brian
Hey folks. This is a great deal for us, for Wowio, for the publishers and readers and for all of you as investors as well. The deal was an all-stock deal, with the payments spread out in three traunches, 1/3 at signing, 1/3 in 3 months and 1/3 in 12 months. If the stock price goes up, less stock is issued in subsequent payments. If it goes down, the downside is limited to $0.15/share. In addition, the stock is restricted and the Wowio principals have all signed a lock-up/leak-out agreement so there is no way that they will be able to actively manipulate the stock price on the market. The earn-out is directly related to revenues generated by Wowio and is paid out in stock - look at that as a bonus. If we're generating $250,000/month in revenues, that translates to $3,000,000 per year and if we are doing that, our valuation should be significantly higher than it is now and an issuance of a bonus at that stage will make us all happy.
There are numerous revenue streams associated with this new iteration of Wowio, a plan that our team helped to craft. For Platinum, this represents a significant foray into the digital distribution world, which we hope will bring ongoing monthly revenues into the company while getting more content to more readers around the world. Why is this a bad deal? How is this like a debenture? We will do a press release soon announcing the acquisition and a list of some of the publishers who are on board, from both the comic space AND the traditional book industry. We believe this will be very exciting.
-Brian
Yeah, don't we wish! While we would love to have been involved with the Iron Man movie, you folks all know we were not. It is amazing to me what passes for journalism today. What happened to the days of fact-checking, or heaven forbid someone should write an article with fair and balanced reporting! This article was great press for our CBC contestant - we helped to coordinate local hometown coverage for all of the contestants, actually - and we hope it propels them to the next level in pursuing their dreams. The journalist just needed to get some facts straight.
Anyway, to answer your questions about CBC and ComicCon, our development team and some of our Wowio folks will be down in San Diego next week to usher in the new era for Platinum Studios. We won't have a booth (and I may have discussed this in an earlier post) because the San Diego ComicCon is primarily a consumer show and until we have a product that we are marketing to the public, we would rather focus on meetings with publishers and the comic industry. The timing of the relaunch of Wowio may not coincide with the Con this year as we just completed the transaction yesterday so we didn't want to have a poor showing. We'll do a bigger splash at the upcoming comic and book shows and obviously online.
The CBC wasn't a public event in the past - it was held in a hotel just outside the convention center and closely contained. We discovered that since there are over 150,000 people attending the Con, our contestants had a hard time finding affordable travel and lodging, which precluded some from entering the contest. So, we opened it up by having the submissions entered online and the top 50 will be submitting their 3- to 4-minute pitch via uploaded video content. Our judges will review the pitches and we will film that process and that footage will become part of a larger plan for online voting. It should be a better experience for the contestants as they won't have to stress about a face-to-face confrontation with the judges. We'll see how it goes.
Hope that helps clarify.
-Brian
It's not true, Madddog. -Brian
Just to clarify, Madddog, and I know it's just semantics but we don't own Top Cow "Properties", we just control the Film and TV RIGHTS to their properties. There's a very fine line between owning rights versus owning properties and I just wanted to make sure to point it out here. Wanted was in development before our deal so unfortunately, we don't participate in that deal. The good news, though, is that it creates great awareness for Top Cow properties, which will help with box office expectations on Witchblade and any other TC property we develop. We are thrilled with the success of Wanted and all of this summer's comic-based movies, which have all exceeded expectations, with the most anticipated one coming this weekend with Dark Knight. It's a good time to be in this industry from the perspective of comics-to-film adaptations.
And to quell any other rumors about Scott, he's not leaving the company. I have taken a more active role in the public perception of the company as I am focussing on the broader business and we have made some significant moves in areas outside of film. That may have increased my profile a little more but Scott is diligently working on increasing deal flow in the Filmed Entertainment side of our business.
Thanks again for all of the support.
-Brian
In response to a couple of items from past posts:
Wizard World, Philadelphia. We will be in attendance and may have a booth presence with Arcana Studios. These trade shows are good for being in communication with artists and other comic professionals but we have specifically chosen to NOT spend marketing dollars at this time to exhibit there. Trade shows are great for marketing to customers and potential customers but our customers are studios, networks, financiers, game companies, merchandisers and investors, but those folks generally don't attend the Wizard World shows. We're not marketing our company to the comic trade at this point in time. Next year, after we've had some movies in production, we may spend more dollars marketing those movies at the trade shows but until then, we are keeping our costs down and we'll continue to exhibit with Arcana to the comics trade.
Slaughter. As with all film projects, until word comes officially from the companies involved, you should consider treating all information as rumor. In the film biz, there are so many agendas (read: egos) involved and there are lots of reasons why people talk about projects coming out. For talent, maybe they want to mention a film they are signed on to in order to get another project or to be considered for another genre outside what they are known for. Brandon was known for Superman Returns but may not have been considered for a genre project like Dylan Dog so maybe he wanted it to be known that he really is a versatile actor. Now that the film has been confirmed by the production partners, the film project can be considered closer to reality. In Hollywood, keep in mind that until the cameras are actually rolling, everything is still fairly up in the air. Things that come up like the WGA strike in November, the pending SAG strike in June, a changeover in executives at studios and networks, changes in the financial markets (the Canadian dollar being on par with the US dollar, for example), natural disasters, man-made disasters, etc, etc, etc, all can have an impact on a movie getting done. When we are able to comment specifically about a project moving forward, we definitely will. I will say this, Platinum Studios is aggressively moving forward in order to close deals on all fronts and we are looking at our involvement in entertainment projects across the board. There may be an opportunity for Platinum to participate at some level with projects that don't start out as comic books/graphic novels but could eventually contain that component. Until there is a formal announcement about Platinum's involvement with Slaughter, consider it a rumor.
Float. There are 66 million shares in the float right now. We are working on an awareness campaign to get the word out about the company. You have all made poignant observations about the stock, the market, and the economy. We are focussed on getting business done in the company and also focussed on getting the word out on the street. You have to do both to have success as a nano-cap company newly on the market.
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. There has been tremendous pickup on the Dylan Dog story in the Italian press today. We hope it translates into merchandising dollars and box-office success overseas such that when it hits the US, there will be big awareness. You guys picked up the Routh story before we did (his interview, that is) so you are doing a great job on your due diligence.
Thank you all for your support.
-Brian
Here you go, folks. We couldn't deny or confirm until all parties were ready but this was on Variety.com tonight.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117985250.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
Thanks again for all of your support. As for the loading of Comic Book Challenge videos on YouTube, our guys were doing that in order to collect all of the video from the first two contests in one online location, so we chose the largest portal to begin collecting views. And glad to see you've found our partner Wowio.com. Feel free to go by and download any of our books for free (they're in PDF form) - we'll make a few pennies for each download as the content is ad-sponsored.
Have a great week everyone and Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms.
-Brian
Well, MM, since Unique was published as a series of comic books and then a trade paperback book, we still retain the print publishing rights. Villard is an imprint of the Random House family of publishers and they signed a worldwide publishing deal to offer Unique to a broader audience via traditional bookstores and other more mainstream outlets beyond just the direct comic market.
The Disney deal is for all other rights to the property, including film, tv, games, merchandise, etc., that one typically sees from a studio acquisition. We will participate at some level on the backend but Disney controls the rights now. We have a production executive that we interface with about progress but we don't have a say in the production schedule so we don't know what the schedule looks like right now for this project.
The reason that C&A and Atlantis Rising are getting so much press right now is that the production team involved with both are really hot right now as they have come off some amazing films, including last year's Transformers and next year's Transformers II, among others. We have a mutual admiration and we hope we have a very successful production partnership together. The best thing about comics as source material for films is the fact that there is franchise-ability, meaning that comics lend themselves to a Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (how many Spiderman, Batman, Blade, Superman etc. movies have we seen over the years. All of these titles can yield multiple offshoots and that's what makes them attractive. Unique, if done a certain way, could make for a really cool television series after the film comes out.
Like you, we have to wait and see what happens...keep your fingers crossed that it's really cool.
-Brian
We're working on that now, MM. Submissions open this week on May 1 and we hope to make some announcements about the Challenge around then, including judges, prize sponsors and corporate partner. We expect this year's contest to be even bigger than last year's. Also, if you haven't picked it up yet, last year's winner, Gunplay, hit comic book store shelves this past week and the reviews so far have been amazing!! It's a phenomenal read and not like your typical comic book - mature audiences only.
With commercially-appealing properties like Cowboys & Aliens and Atlantic Rising, family-friendly fare like Hero By Night and then critically-acclaimed properties like Gunplay, we are trying to deliver as broad an offering as possible on the comic book/graphic novel side of our business. We hope it leads to good things.
Thanks again for all of your support.
-Brian
Maddog, we haven't acquired any libraries over the last two years but we have added properties to our library of material. We use DrunkDuck and the Comic Book Challenge as sources of new material to acquire - so you can look at Hero By Night and Gunplay and other properties as new properties we have acquired. In addition, with our relationship with Sean O'Reilly and Arcana Studios, we have access to material that we can exploit in various ways.
As for the rumors about Dylan Dog mentioned in earlier posts, just to be clear, Dark Horse acquired the print publishing rights of the Bonelli library for distribution in the US but my understanding is that rights period has expired. The original publishing rights remain with Bonelli. Any material that we develop is based on the original source material from that Bonelli library. In other words, we wouldn't credit Dark Horse with any involvement in any Dylan Dog property.
Keep in mind, that until formal news is released by Platinum, anything written about the Dylan Dog property is strictly rumor. You know, the "we cannot confirm or deny any information" kind of disclaimer. The one thing we can confirm is that Dylan Dog is an extremely popular character in Italy and across the European continent. This most recent rumor was picked up by about 9,000 European websites over a 48-hour period. That's good press.
Keep up the great work. You guys have really been doing great due diligence on the company. We hope to have more info for you soon.
-Brian
Hey Maddog. It looks like the link and site provides just a listing of characters that have some religious affiliation of some sort. It doesn't look like it's a complete or exhaustive listing of any kind. There is only one listing for Platinum and the link there takes you to the Drunk Duck page for Cowboys & Aliens. Doesn't seem to be too relevant. Religious comics are an extremely niche genre and we have not actively pursued that avenue to date.
Hope that helps.
-Brian
We WILL be at NY ComicCon - Arcana Comics and Platinum will be sharing a booth and our Publishing and Content folks will be there. Scott is contemplating attending as well to speak with the press and other interested parties but hasn't confirmed that as of yet.
In San Diego, at the International Comic-Con, we'll be hosting our Comic Book Challenge off-site and we'll be attending in full-force. We like to look at these conferences and conventions as true working events with business partners and creators but manning a large booth actually diminishes our ability to have those meetings because these cons are open to the public. That may change in the future but don't get discouraged if you don't see our name listed in the directory.
-Brian
Hey folks. Yeah, MIB's film rights are controlled by Marvel. Platinum doesn't control any of the rights (wish we did!) It has been interesting to see some of the stuff you have found - I didn't realize that there was so much user-generated content on MIB. Pretty cool. The great thing to remember about MIB was the property was turned down by a bunch of publishers and didn't sell all that well as an actual comic book but book sales don't necessarily correlate to box office success. If it's a great story or has great characters, it can made into a great film or television show.
Hope that helps settle some unknowns.
-Brian
Hey GJ, Great pic. On the far left is Christopher Sohn, the President/COO and on the far right on the other side of Mike is Xavier Aguilera, the CFO. All good guys over there.
Madddog Mickee, check out the CEOCast interview Scott and I did earlier today. www.ceocast.com.
-Brian
Hey Mickee. I know it is a little confusing but the anime series that you saw was produced by an animation company called GONZO and originally aired in Japan back in 2004, which pre-dated our relationship with Top Cow and just started airing here in the US this year. We're working on a feature film project on Witchblade and we have a couple of other Top Cow projects in development as we've previously announced.
Top Cow has a fantastic library of material that is very popular in the US and is known for some of the most beautiful artwork in the industry. As such, they had many rights deals that pre-date our relationship, such as the original Witchblade TV show, the Universal film "Wanted" coming out later this year, and the Take2 video game of The Darkness, which came out last year, among others.
Hope that helps set the record straight.
-Brian
Hey Madddog. It's Brian here- I'll take this one. Platinum's deal is strictly for TV and film rights to the Top Cow properties. TC controls its own merchandising and licensing rights. You may have seen that Darkness was released as a console video game last summer via Take 2 - Platinum did not participate in that at all (although considering it outsold every other video game for a few weeks, including Transformers, I wish we did).
Hope that helps. Thanks for putting this board together.
-Brian
My phone number at Platinum Studios is (310) 276-3900. You have something to say, call me. I don't need spokespeople. I speak for myself. You have a question, ask.
-Brian Altounian