Stan Lee to be made into superhero action figure
Friday, 22 June 2007
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At the age of 84 Stan Lee is exhibiting the stamina and energy of some his superhero creations such as Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, having just signed a deal with Walt Disney to come up with new characters.
And to pay tribute to him, Hasbro has created a 6in-tall Marvel Legends action figure action figure of Lee. The toy shows his likeness wearing khaki pants, a blue windbreaker and glasses.
Lee, the creator behind hits such asX-Men, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Daredevil, will provide ideas for new films, games, books, comics and other formats as the chairman of his own company POW! Entertainment Inc (Purveyors of Wonder).
"I have got millions of them," he said of his ideas. "I have file cabinets filled with ideas for movies and television shows and all sorts of things, and I have been waiting to be associated with someone like Disney so I can start tearing into these things."
Pow! Entertainment said that about 20 characters, with names such as Chameleon, Thunder Rider, Whirlwind, Doubleman, Nightbird and Blaze, were in the "active stages of development".
Dick Cook, the chairman of Disney Studio, said the deal was designed to create characters and projects that can become franchises for Disney.
Lee was born in New York in December 1922 and has made a habit of appearing in the movies featuring characters he created. In Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, for example, he plays "Rejected Wedding Guest".
Lee's characters have made hundreds of millions of pounds for other studios. Six films based on Spider-Man and X-Men have made more than £1.8bn at box offices. A second Fantastic Four film is about to be released, while other Lee creations or co-creations - The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Nick Fury - are also being turned into movies.
Lee is no longer associated with Marvel, which produces comics and films based on characters he created while employed there.
At Disney Studios, part of The Walt Disney company, Lee will develop characters for films, games, comics or other formats. Some of the characters that Lee developed at POW!, such as the superhero stripper, Stripperella, featuring the voice of Pamela Anderson as "Erotica Jones", will not be made into Disney films.
