July
29
Comic-Con: Platinum Studios Shines Bright
[Posted by Erin Maxwell]
Platinum Studios founder Scott Mitchell Rosenberg is a force to be reckoned with. Rosenberg first started turning heads when his company, Malibu Comics, produced and distributed a little comic known as "Men in Black." That small indie strip spawned a billion-dollar franchise that made Hollywood take notice.
In 1994, Rosenberg sold Malibu Comics to Marvel, and in 1997, he set up shop with Platinum Studios. Now ten years later, Rosenberg is flying high with fistfuls of projects in development for both TV and film. Platinum Studios holds a peculiar position in the comics game. Unlike its big brother counterparts, Platinum uses its immense collection of characters and acts as both content creator and distributor, thus eliminating the pesky middleman. This gives the studio the upper hand in all development deals and the freedom to wheel and deal for TV and film rights. "I don't think anyone else has a model like us," said Rosenberg. "We don't care if we create it or find it from the outside with first-timers. 'Men in Black' was created by a first timer. Right now, we probably have 60 or 70 feature projects that we are developing."
According to Rosenberg, his interest in comics began when he was born. "I remember seeing a drawer in my brother's room and inside was 'Spider-Man' and 'The Hulk' of the original series. I thought it was the coolest," said the CEO.
He began collecting and selling comic while still a kid, but when he got to college, the game changed at bit. "When I went to college, I couldn't collect like it did before, so I speculated," said Rosenberg. "When I got out of college, I did something I never thought I would do: publish comics. I published 30,000 copies of my first comic, and we got 80,000 orders. I was pretty happy."
Over the years, Platinum has garnered the interest of Hollywood's top players and studios, including Disney, DreamWorks, New Line and Sony, to name a few. Upcoming projects at Platinum include Universal/DreamWorks and Imagine's soon-to-be-released tentpole "Cowboys & Aliens," the sci-fier "Unique," hit-comic-turned-hit-game "Darkness," "Witchblade" and "Magdalena,” the first religious-themed comic to make the jump to the silver screen. "This year we are putting together some tremendous packages," said the studio head.
But pics aren't the only focus. Recently, Platinum nabbed DrunkDuck.com, an online comics community that spotlights emerging talent. "When we acquired it, we were trying to find what to buy. So I went poking around on the web and found this one that no one was talking about. Then I found out that it when dark for months, but when it came back, the community came back. I was impressed," commented Rosenberg. "We are finding we get more people online then with the comic stuff."
In its ongoing hunt for new talent, Platinum holds the Comic Book Challenge, an “American Idol”-style talent contest to find newbie artists. Last year’s winner D.J. Coffman brought a hit to the studio with his entry “Hero by Night.”
The studio is also trying to tackle the cell phone content industry with a foray into cell phone comics. "We have our own mobile division, which doesn't work in the U.S., but is huge overseas," said Rosenberg. "We go full circle with the characters. Take a circle, draw a dot in the middle, the dot is the character. From that character, you get a comic book, a t-shirt, a toy, whatever. Our feeling is that you can start with a cool design, and just grow. We want comics to fuel media."
Check out Platinum Comics' official site.
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