'Conan the Barbarian' Lawsuit Seeks Character Rights

Hollywood Reporter ^ | Aug 22, 2011 | eriq gardner

[doug from upland]

If anybody thought that Stan Lee Media Inc., the company which now operates independently from its comic book legend founder, was gone for good, guess again. On Friday, SLMI made a big move in U.S. District Court in California to grab back rights on the fictional character Conan the Barbarian and win proceeds from the just-released Conan the Barbarian 3D film.

The new suit comes from SLMI, which has had a rocky history since being founded by Stan Lee in the late 1990s.

Initially, the company looked to be on its way towards success after Lee assigned SLMI rights to his famous comic book characters. In 2000, the company added to its stable of rights by acquiring full ownership of Conan Properties. Then, the following year, SLMI entered bankruptcy, and the company's IP assets were diverted, leading to a decade of protracted litigation.

Last year, SLMI found its feet again after a Colorado court recognized SLMI's new board as the duly authorized representative of the company. Since then, the company has been looking to put back the pieces.

SLMI's latest splash is a lawsuit filed on the same day that the latest Conan the Barbarian film hit theaters.

According to the complaint, after SLMI went into bankruptcy in 2001, an unauthorized agent of the company purported to transfer its ownership of Conan Properties back to Conan Sales Co.

The company claims that the transfer of the "Conan" character is void because at that time in 2002, "the shares of Conan Properties and all other assets of SLMI were part of a bankruptcy estate and protected from unauthorized transfer by the automatic bankruptcy stay."

SLMI says that the defendants obtained relief from the automatic stay in March 2002 by getting a judge to sign off on a "Settlement Approval Order" but that this order was itself void because the defendants didn't provide notice and give 1,800 SLMI shareholders an opportunity to protect their interests by opposing the motion to transfer Conan.

The transfers, allegedly made by attorney Arthur Lieberman among others, is alleged to have constituted fraud and a breach of fiduciary duties. Lieberman himself is a defendant in this lawsuit.

In 2002, after Conan Sales Co. reacquired rights to Conan, it sold those rights to a Swedish company called Paradox Entertainment, which has spent the last decade attempting to revive the character's commercial value, including new comic books, a computer game, and now a 3D film from Nu Image/Millennium and Lionsgate.

In its lawsuit against Conan Sales Co., Paradox, Lieberman, and others, SLMI is demanding it be restored its rights over the franchise and that the defendants be ordered to turn over any money or property derived from the success of the character, including the newest film. Conan disappointed at the box office this weekend, bringing in about $10 million. Reports have pegged the budget as being anywhere from $70 million to $90 million.

Paradox couldn't be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, SLMI continues to wage war against Stan Lee and Marvel Entertainment over rights to Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor, and more. Similarly, the company believes that this IP was unlawfully transfered when the company was in bankruptcy protection. A California federal judge recently stayed proceedings, awaiting a ruling by the 2nd Circuit whether an alternative lawsuit in New York can be pursued once again.

Conan the Barbarian was created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s, revived as a comic book character by Marvel Comics in the 1970s, and became a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1982.

E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com

Twitter: @eriqgardner

[doug from upland]

Caveat: I am very involved in this case. I guess it was a year and a half or two years ago that a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that POW! Entertainment did not own characters such as The Accuser and The Drifter. They made deals with properties with other companies to which they did not have ownership rights. Stan Lee was supposed to transfer properties to a company called SLC LLC, a deal approved by the bankruptcy judge. He was supposed to exploit the properties for the benefit of shareholders and creditors and make timely reports, I believe quarterly. He never made such reports. Lee even signed the court-approved agreement as president of SLC LLC. But the company never existed and was never formed by Lee. Instead, they secretly transferred assets to POW! with no knowledge or approval of the court or shareholders. This story is going to get much bigger as is the story of SLM suing Marvel/Disney for ownership rights of Lee's characters.

You may find this video very enlightening regarding the multi-billion lawsuit with Marvel/Disney. THE EPIC BATTLE OF TWO CONTRACTS

[mnehring]

bfltr

[doug from upland]

Just before the dismissal of the SLM bankruptcy (I think late 2006), Lee’s team tried to get the judge to allow them to destroy corporate records, claiming there was no money to pay for storage.

[doug from upland]

Here is the video deposition of Stan Lee in which he admits under oath laundering a 100K contribution to Hillary Clinton. He has suffered no consequences. Hillary suffered no consequences for four false FEC reports and the biggest campaing finance fraud ever. A famous attorney in Los Angeles named Pierce O'Donnell got a year in prison for laundering about 20K (I think that was the number).

[10mm]

Robert E. Howard’s Conan character dates back to the early 1930’s. How is it not in the Public Domain?

[tlb]

I’m surprised Stan Lee has stayed out of prison. Every year or two there is another major fraud or corporate bankruptcy story connected with him.

Conan the Barbarian (2011)

Domestic Total as of Aug. 21, 2011: $10,021,215
Production Budget: $90 million

Conan the Barbarian went the way of past August fantasy/ancient action movies and flopped hard. Joining the ranks of Kull the Conqueror and The Last Legion and grabbing less interest than even The 13th Warrior, Conan reaped $10 million on around 4,500 screens at 3,015 locations. It was a far cry from the 1982 Conan, which had over three times the attendance on its opening weekend.

The Conan remake’s marketing relied on the brand name and generic fantasy action instead of presenting a compelling story and strong characters. The movie’s director, Marcus Nispel, was also responsible for the similar dud Pathfinder. With roughly 2,100 locations, 3D was 61 percent of Conan’s take. Distributor Lionsgate’s exit polling showed that 65 percent of Conan’s was male and 69 percent was over 25 years old.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

I knew this movie had bomb written all over it. Director makes bombs. Cast with no real names. Appears it’s another “Clash of the Titans” type remake were it was filmed in 2D, and cheesy 3D looking effects added later.
Poorly marketed. The lead in the movie was on O’Brian being interviewed, and he looked like a clueless mimbo who didn’t even want to talk about the movie.
He’s got a supporting role on Game of Thrones. That’s really all he’s ever done.

The fans who would really flock to these movies want them to be R rated, and really go for the blood and sex. But Hollywood tries to turn out these barbarian movies like Scorpion King that end up being sad farces looking for tongue in cheek humor and PG level blood and gore. Instead of Conan the Barbarian, you get Conan the Destroyer. Ugggghhh... Hollywood will never learn.

[Recon Dad]

The suit should be over the crappy movie not whether they had the right to make it. They might have had the right but they didn’t have the talent.