Disney to acquire Marvel for $4 billion

It's not Hansen.

Eric = egieszl = URC

Thanks Jeff..

Through rereading the last few posts prior, I deduced that was the person.. Thanks for confirming.

Sorry about that...egieszl has been using the same username since about 1993, so I didn't figure his identity was any secret :)

I actually didn't realize he hadn't signed his posts; I saw the username and automatically expanded it; that habit goes back to rec.roller-coaster...!

--Dave Althoff, Jr. <- never used a handle until GTTP launched...

Was that when you were posting from your Apple IIgs? :) (I'll never let you live your retrogrouchery down!)

As a matter of fact, Jeff, it was! I bought the dual-G4 desktop in November of 2002. And I'm using it right now. Unfortunately it became officially unsupported last Friday. The trigger that finally got me to buy was the availability of Avid Xpress DV for OS-X.

Pity the hard drive crashed in the IIgs (yes, it had a 250Mb hard drive, and I had it expanded to 5.25Mb of RAM) a couple of years later. I've still got data there that eventually I'm going to recover... (it's still there, the thing just won't boot..unlike the //e whose HDD controller seems to have a stuck bit meaning that every other character may or may not get munged. And that was the OTHER reason the Almanac updates abruptly stopped in 2004... :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Here are some of the other licensing arrangements Universal has... http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/business_tourism_aviation/2009/09/...enses.html

The one I'm really curious about is Harry Potter. Yes, its popular, but the books are done. The movies will be done in 2 years. Does Harry have the staying power to still be popular in 5, 10, 15 years?

I seriously doubt that "there will be no more Potter movies". Too much money to be made, too many story lines to be explored. Even if Rowling decides she wants out, she can stay involved to whatever extent she chooses and make crazy cash putting in as much or as little effort as she desires.

If you've read interviews with her, money is not a motivator. She's fairly particular about her story.

But regardless, time isn't that big of a deal. How long did they hang on to Back to The Future? Jurassic Park (the IOA section) is just as cool as it ever was, and that movie is now 16 years old. And how old is Jaws and E.T.?

(Sidebar: The E.T. house, now occupied by some guy, was in danger as of yesterday of being eaten by the fires in California.)

I agree that there are other franchise lines that have had that kind of staying popular long after the movies were done. That's what I'm curious about with Harry Potter. Will it be able to stay and be at least somewhat relevant, or will it flame out a couple years after the movies are done.

I realize there are plenty of sidebars to be told yet, but Rowling has made every indication that it is over and she has no interest in continuing any part of the story. And unlike Lucas, she's not willing to open up the universe to fans to write approved stories to fill it in.

So you're saying she's not interested in writing a bad set of prequels that makes hash of the original series? ;)

^ That would be more of a George Lucas thing.

"My name is Anakin!" Sorry, I couldn't hear over your crappy acting and horrible dialog.

You say that like the dialog in the orginal 3 was written by Shakspeare. It was just as bad (but delivered much better).

Exactly....

When was the last Dr seuss movie or book put out?

I am not a harry pothead fan, but I do think it is a good move for the park. The pictures and renderings that are floating around, look mind blowing. Can't wait to check it out.

Where do you read between the words I typed that I was giving a glowing endorsement to the first trilogy?

I think John may have been talking more to me. Unfortunate dialog or not, at least the original trilogy actually worked as movies -- while dazzling many a young Nurf-herder like me at the time with their imagination and reach.

The ORIGIONAL "Star Wars" triliogy (ep. 4,5, & 6) will go down as movie masterpices with the likes of Gone With the Wind, Clerks, and the Wizard of Oz for decades to come.

The story holds up and the characters are timeless.

Star Wars revived a dying genre.

Star Wars revived a dying genre, sure, but then the sequels did their best to try to kill it again.

Not that it's a real danger, but anyone else read Penny Arcade?