On Oct. 26, Gold Circle Films, the production company behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding, announced that it had just signed off on the biggest movie deal ever made with a comics publisher: $200 million to license 10 comic-book properties for film production.

Flush with the proceeds from Nia Vardalos' colossally popular indy film and eager to follow up on that success, Gold Circle went looking for raw material in the comics industry, a wilderness as fertilely promising to Hollywood as it is bafflingly uncharted. Which comics publisher did Gold Circle tap for this monumental deal? Marvel Comics, home of Spider-Man and Daredevil? DC Comics, home of Batman and Superman? No, the production company turned to Scott Rosenberg's Platinum Studios, a line of comics so sublimely and pristinely packaged for its Hollywood destiny that it has bypassed the hands of comics readers altogether. It is, in fact, a line of comics that don't exist. And it is an indication of the genius of Rosenberg that he has somehow sold these invisible and intangible comics to Gold Circle for $200 million.

The Beverly Hills-based Gold Circle is financed by Gateway Inc. billionaire Norm Waitt. The 10 movies, expected to go into production over the next two years, will double Gold Circle's output. The Wall Street Journal's Merissa Marr reported Oct. 26 that "Some of the movies will be based on existing Platinum comics, others launched in the movie's run-up," but, strictly speaking, there are no existing Platinum comics. Among the first properties scheduled for production through Gold Circle are Seen (a Blow-Up-style thriller about an art photographer who finds evidence that he is being stalked in photos documenting his daily rounds), Casting Shadows (another thriller about a conflict between modern-day witches) and In-Law and Order (an action comedy about a cop with a liberal retired judge for a mother-in-law). If you don't remember seeing any of these comic books on store shelves, it's because all are in different stages of completion. They are identified on Platinum's website as "upcoming comics," though, according to Rosenberg, none are expected to ship before the summer of 2005.

The comics-publishing thing may be coming along a little slowly, but the Gold Circle deal is only one of several being negotiated by Rosenberg in Hollywood. Platinum is partnering with producer Gale Anne Hurd (Terminator, Howard the Duck) and Icarus Studios to develop a movie and an online game based on Rosenberg's science-fiction/thriller premise about war with an underwater kingdom called Atlantis Rising. For Columbia Pictures, Platinum is developing the self-explanatory Cowboys and Aliens. Both Atlantis Rising and Cowboys and Aliens are ostensibly based on comic books slated for future release from Platinum. Also waiting in the wings for their chance at the big screen are "more than 1,000" Platinum comic-book characters who have yet to appear in a published comic book. Nevertheless, Gold Circle executives have been shown preliminary scripts, conceptual art and even finished comics pages from what appears to a bustling comics operation. Gold Circle's deal is for 10 comics-based properties, but only the first few have been identified specifically. Of the rest, Gold Circle demands only one thing: that they originate in the pages of comic books.

[To read the rest of this article, please see The Comics Journal #265.]

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