Attack of the celebrity superheroes

Diverse Media Group is purchasing a stake in Celebrities In Action, in order to create a joint venture to develop superhero character franchises based on real-life Hollywood celebrities. The new characters will be developed in cooperation with film, music and television and sports stars and original storylines will span multimedia and multiplatform projects. Plans include television, film, home entertainment, videogames, publishing, consumer products and merchandising.

Celebrities In Action has an existing deal with Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment to develop, produce and distribute animated programming, content and merchandise based on the premise of real-life celebrities in competition against characters from other worlds. Diverse Media Group will identify and secure the celebrity participation and Stan Lee will provide the creative vision to shape these novel superhero personas.

Praised as a legend worldwide and honored with his own Hasbro Marvel Legends action figure, Stan Lee is associated with such breakthrough superhero characters as Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man and Daredevil. He is also recognized as an innovator in creating new media opportunities and revenue streams for the superhero genre. Among his accomplishments, Stan Lee is credited with leading the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia corporation, and developing his characters into longstanding franchises.

It was also recently announced that Stan Lee and POW! would develop a one-hour superhero drama series for Showtime; he is also developing several feature films for Paramount Studios.