The Four Color Media Monitor

CNBC has an article about IDW's plans to follow in Marvel's footsteps by setting up a production outfit for movies and TV:

A few years ago, comic book publisher IDW Publishing had licensed one of its properties to 21st Century Fox to be developed for television, but the studio decided to drop the project.

The top brass at IDW was frustrated. Believing the project had potential and should have moved forward, IDW decided to shake things up. The company would no longer simply license comics to studios and take a passive role — it would partner with production houses to develop its own properties, and kick in part of the early financing.

Personally, I think it signals they're more interested in developing films than the illustrated books they're already notable for, which is exactly where Marvel and DC wound up going. But for now, that's probably beside the point. What matters here is that it looks like IDW's efforts to adapt for live action include diversity pandering, most notably with a book called Wynnona Earp:

The show has struck a chord among LGBTQ viewers in particular. More than one fan at the panel expressed thanks to Andras for including a gay character in Officer Nicole Haught, who struck up a relationship with Wynonna's sister Waverly in season one.

"It's not a pandering relationship. It's treated like any other relationship in the show, and people are really looking for that kind of representation in TV," Adams said, adding LGBTQ people "just don't get to see themselves on TV much."

As expected, this is pretty dishonest given that LGBT characters have actually been particularly noticeable on TV of recent. And their claim this isn't pandering is dreary by now, because sexuality is almost entirely what these scriptwriting steps are all about.

Although "Dirk Gently" stars two white men, IDW and its production partner AMC sought to once again cast an ensemble that reflected a diverse viewership, and will strive to do so with future shows, Adams said.

If there's no Chileans, Portuguese, Armenians, Croatians and Finnish with an emphasis on their backgrounds, then there's no diversity. But most importantly, if they're not building these TV shows and films with talented scriptwriting, then diversity's not going to salvage them. And there's no way to tell from this article if quality scripting was taken into account by the IDW producers.

Labels: indie publishers, msm propaganda, politics