Superheroes, SF, nostalgia – and no one caring

As soon as the whole Disney/Marvel mess was announced, there was talk of Fox doing a new Fantastic Four film.  Of course I suspect that was a case of wanting to assert their current rights, but it has had me thinking.

The second recent Hulk film was sort of sequel, sort of reboot.  There's talk of a new origin-of-Superman film.  A new Fantastic Four Movie doesn't seem unlikely.  We just had a GI Joe movie.

I've wondered if the recent rush to superheroic/SF-ish movies, the desire to maximize properties, and the fact only some of the big superhero/SF/nostalgia properties have big name recognition means that past a certain point people will stop caring.

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News of the Day 9/24/2009

Career:
Not-to-do's in Social Media – A nice simple guide.

A nice guide on telling hobbies from passions – I approve.

A (sad) roundup of health insurance issues and freelance writers.

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics:
Decline in weekly unemployment rates – Doesn't mean we're out of the woods, but there's SOME good news. For now.

Media:
Judy Sims, formerly of the Toronto Star Media Group, takes a look at how newspapers can re-invent themselves – A nice read that's probably extensible to many businesses related to information.

Have we always been hung up on vampires? It seems they keep coming back and burning out.

Social Media:
Twitter's recent venture capital also comes from T. Row Price – I think this is the last round of funding – they now go public and profitable (or get sold). Seismic shift coming soon in social media – watch out.

An unofficial Twitter App store? Yes, apparently so. A central place for the huge amount of twitter-tools. I get the intuitive feel that we're seeing something big happening here, but I'm not sure what – the idea of a simple service people build onto, universal app availability, etc. Could Twitter become the foundation of entire services? Or tools? (a $99 Twitter-gizmo with wireless?).

Technology:
Nvidia will make Chrome OS devices – So we've already got people heavy into Chrome OS. That puts a bit of a bite on Windows and Microsoft (and continues the Everything Wars).

Video Games:
Console status report – Sony's PS 3 Slim has sold a million units worldwide, and Nintendo confirms the Wii price will drop to $199. I want to see the effect the Nintendo cuts have on prices – as one possibility I foresee is that there's nothing past this Nintendo can do to move systems.

– Steven Savage