It seem like the on-again off-again merger talks between Twentieth Century Fox and Disney might be back on again.
Deadline’s Mike Fleming is reporting that that –
Disney is progressing speedily toward that rumored acquisition of Fox… Radio silence right now from both studios, and given how Disney made the Marvel and Lucasfilm deals under the cone of silence, if this happens we’ll probably only know it when it’s announced. It is certainly being talked about today.
News originally broke back at the beginning of the month that Disney was in talks to acquire the film and television side of Twentieth Century Fox’s holdings, as well as its FX and National Geographic cable channels. The newly divestified Fox would then concentrate on its news and sports outlets.
Fleming also noted that not everyone in Hollywood is thrilled with the idea of a merger between the two.
Not surprisingly, the reaction around town is not enthusiasm, because of the uncertainty that comes with potentially reducing a major studio to content generators under the Disney silo system.
This concern echoes just one of the issues we saw with the potential merger when the news first broke. Some fans of Marvel Studios’ Cinematic Universe say the merger as a way for the film rights to Marvel Comics properties the Fantastic Four and X-Men to return back to the company. However, while such a move would probably be for the best for the Fantastic Four given Fox’s dismal track record in bringing them to the big screen, the far more successful X-Men franchise would suffer cutbacks to their three-films-a-year current release schedule.
