Universal Pictures has just inked a three-year, worldwide production and distribution deal with Dark Horse Entertainment. Dark Horse Comics has been home to a number of popular genre titles, and Dark Horse Entertainment will bring many of them along to Universal. It’s unlikely that would include outside properties which Dark Horse publishes comics for though, actually it’s certain. For instance they create comics and products based on Star Wars. I’m pretty sure George Lucas is happy working with Fox.
However, under the terms of deal Universal would have creative access to all of the characters and properties actually owned by Dark Horse, with an eye to turning those into motion pictures. At the same time, Dark Horse can distribute anything they make through the long arm of Universal. For instance, Hellboy is a Dark Horse character already at Universal, with Hellboy II due out this summer.
So just in case you didn’t think there were enough comic books being made into movies already, Universal has you covered. Get ready for a movie version of SpyBoy. It’s just over the horizon.
