A Los Angeles Times article on the upcoming release of “Iron Man,” the first film out of the new Marvel Studios, highlights the changing nature of ’story’ in film thanks to the ongoing digital revolution.  While of Marvel Comics’ most exciting characters – the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, the X-Men and others – are in the hands of other studios, how to leverage the company’s lesser known figures?  And perhaps more importantly, given the economics of moviemaking, ”why go into the movie-making biz now?”

Maisel said the question is the wrong one. “We’re not in the movie business, we’re in the ‘Iron Man’ business right now. Marvel owns the intellectual property. We have an Iron Man video game coming, the toys, the comics, we have an animated television show coming, a direct-to-DVD animated Iron Man movie last year. We’re going to have an Iron Man ride at an amusement park in Dubai in a few years. We have a different perspective.” 

Now there’s an interesting topic for a Comic-Con panel…

 Meanwhile, Gore Verbinski, of “Pirates of the Caribbean 3” fame, talks to the Business section of the Times about his move into gaming with “a secret project that would let him apply his creative vision to the games business.” Again, the nature of narrative itself is at the core of Verbinski’s approach:

After working seven years straight on five movies back to back, I picked up my game controller and started playing. I just was blown away by the potential. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel that we are on the brink of something phenomenal. It’s a completely different form of narrative than being told a story in the traditional sense. So all the narrative rules, although I enjoy them, you have to start throwing them away and say, “Wow, look at what you can do here in this world!”