Marvel’s last-ditch effort for cash was a character licensing bonanza, an effort that finally brought the characters to the silver screen (starting with 1998’s Blade).

In 1996, the company filed for bankruptcy. Despite the ’80s launching a handful of ripe-for-franchising blockbusters and the next comic book event film, 1989’s Batman, Marvel couldn’t sell Hollywood on its “niche” roster. “I often wonder if they rue that day.”ĭonenfeld-Vernoux’s chase for Marvel cinematic glory came four years after Jaws, two years after Star Wars, and a year after Richard Donner’s Superman, at that point one of the most expensive movies of all time. “I’ve often wondered if any of the guys that I pitched to at the majors thought about the fact that they had turned down Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk,” Donenfeld-Vernoux says. The executive, who later helped Filmation launch He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, founded Alice Entertainment, and wrote a few novels (ranging from erotic romances to canine-themed mysteries), now lives an idyllic retired life down in Mexico, and can only laugh thinking about the pile of gold she tried to hand off.

In 1979, no one wanted to make a Marvel movie.Īlice Donenfeld-Vernoux, a former vice president of business affairs at Marvel, had one mission during the late ’70s: Bring the comic company’s heroes to the big screen.