'Dazzler' may well be one of Marvel's obscure and unknown heroines, but she does have an extremely intriguing history behind her. Dazzler's inception came about by way of a multi-media project, with Casablanca Records approaching Marvel about the creation of a disco-themed superhero; Marvel would develop the narrative and characterization, whilst Casablanca themselves would provide an actual singer who would then record an actual album (a fairly common set-up for comic book companies, but typically with toys and cinematic releases, rather than with singers). However, Casablanca Records would prove to be an unreliable partner, and were constantly demanding changes. Even the most basic aspects of the character, like her powers, couldn’t be nailed down. The character was originally named “The Disco Queen” which was then changed to “Disco Dazzler” which was then changed to just “Dazzler.”
Eventually a 34 page comic was produced by Tom DeFalco and John Romita Jr, but Casablanca then decided that they wanted more than just a comic and album, and demanded an animated special. This animated special was not only supposed to promote the Dazzler character, but also used as cross promotion for basically everyone Casablanca had a contract with, including Cher, Donna Summer, the Village People, KISS, Rodney Dangerfield and Robin Williams. A treatment for this animated special was swiftly penned by Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, and Casablanca brought in Peter Guber's Filmworks Inc. to produce it, forming Casablanca Record and Filmworks, Inc. in the resulting merger; but with Casablanca Records' ambitions for the character and their corroboration with Marvel Comics growing ever loftier, the animated movie was quickly scrapped in 1978, and instead a full live-action movie was planned, which would have also guest-starred Spider-Man and the Avengers (yes, the first ever film in the MCU was supposed to have been 'Dazzler').
However, by this stage, PolyGram had acquired a 50% stake in Casablanca Records, and citing Casablanca FilmWorks' overspending and accounting irregularities, PolyGram got financial cold feet and pulled out of the project, along with all of the others that Casablanca FilmWorks had had in the pipeline for the big screen, leaving Marvel Comics in the lurch. However, Peter Guber refused to give up on the project; managing to convince PolyGram to create PolyGram Pictures in 1979 in a partnership with him (as a spin-off of sorts to Casablanca FilmWorks, but separated from the Casablanca label; earmarked to become the foremost British film studio competitor to Hollywood) under the condition that PolyGram would reserve the finances and Guber would run as CEO. Casablanca had intended for Dazzler to be black, as most of the best selling disco singers were black women; John Romita Jr. had even specifically designed Dazzler to resemble Grace Jones, who had already been cast to play the titular lead role in the live-action 'Dazzler' movie (which would've been her first breakthrough into mainstream films).
However, PolyGram Pictures wanted actress Bo Derek to take on the role instead. So Marvel had to change everything (again) to replace the Grace Jones version of Dazzler with a Bo Derek version, in order to entice her to accept the lead role. Everything was proceeding ahead, with the movie all set to commence production in 1979 (originally intended to be the second film credit of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment after The Hollywood Knights, scheduled to be produced and released in late 1980, before King Of The Mountain). But then, Bo Derek threw a spanner in the works by demanding that her first husband, John Derek, be allowed to direct the film. But Peter Guber had already formed a partnership with Barbera Streisand's hairdresser and romantic partner Jon Peters, whom it had been agreed would produce PolyGram Pictures' films and had become a stockholder. As such, PolyGram Pictures baulked at this demand, and canceled the entire project before the start of 1980 (with Guber & Peters having joined the project of producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan, who'd purchased the film rights of Batman from DC Comics on October 3, 1979, in November 1979; pursuing the launch of a Batman film series as their 'Plan B').
This left Marvel Comics with sole ownership of their newly-created character Dazzler, along with a fully completed 34 page comic starring her. And having invested so much of their time, effort and finances into creating this character, and already developed so much material for her (with Dazzler having already guest-starred in several other Marvel titles, such as The Uncanny X-Men, The Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and The Avengers, as well as the Marvel crossover Contest of Champions), Marvel Comics decided to simply go ahead and launch her own title anyway; splitting her debut comic into two parts that would act as the first two issues (and adding extra pages). Unfortunately though, by this stage, Casablanca and Filmworks had wasted so much time on developing Dazzler projects that it was now the ‘80s, and as they say, "Disco was dead". Frank Springer took over from John Romita Jr. from the 3rd issue onwards, and the Dazzler comic actually sold quite well, lasting a very respectable 42 issues. She also had her own miniseries, 'Beauty and the Beast', and in 1982, Jim Shooter took his original idea for the film's plot and adapted it into a stand-alone Marvel graphic novel, called "Dazzler: The Movie."
But Dazzler’s main problem was that she represented a genre of music that was becoming increasingly perceived as outmoded and campy in the ‘80s; wearing a silver disco jumpsuit, and going around on roller disco skates. Within the comic, Dazzler quickly switched to rock and roll, and eventually would completely ditch the silver jumpsuit and roller skates. But no matter how she was reinterpreted, she was always closely associated with disco; and this led to her comics' readership taking a nosedive, as her original target demographic was abandoned, and the new readers Marvel hoped for never materialized. After her comic's cancellation, she was earmarked to be a founding member of X-Factor by Bob Layton, only for Marvel's writing team to elect to make one of the biggest, most infamous and controversial ret-cons in comic book history, by resurrecting Jean Grey (who'd been killed during the seminal Dark Phoenix Saga in 1980) to take her place. Dazzler was shuffled over onto the left-over X-Men roster instead, but after longtime writer Chris Claremont left the X-Men, the new writers were completely uninterested in the character; dropping her from the series, and leaving her out in limbo, until she returned to monthly publication for the first time as a prominent cast member in over fifteen years with the launch of New Excalibur.
As for PolyGram Pictures, with Dazzler's cancellation, its first major theatrical release film wound up being King of the Mountain (1981), which was a box-office flop. More money-losers followed, with PolyGram's European investors growing increasingly dissatisfied, as they'd lost about $80 million on its film division. Guber and Peters' involvement in PolyGram Pictures ended with both leaving PolyGram Pictures in 1982 (with PolyGram Pictures' film and TV units eventually closing down by 1983, and Guber selling his interest in PolyGram in that year), and taking the Batman film rights which they'd acquired with them, along with a few other projects (although PolyGram would retain at least 7.5% of the profits of said rights, due to a contractual agreement as part of their exit proceedings). Guber and Peters then formed and co-owned the Guber-Peters Company (GPC) in 1983, and immediately set up shop at Warner Brothers Studios; which finally decided to accept Batman, and began the creative process which led to the inception of OTL's original Batman film series. And whilst PolyGram would return to the film industry with the relaunch of a film and TV division, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, in late 1986, and partially compensate for the terminal decline of the British film production industry in the early '80s, PolyGram Pictures' original hopes of "building a British-based company which could compete with Hollywood in its home market" had to be abandoned.
So then, here's the question- what if the original Dazzler movie had been produced and released as intended by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (earmarked to be filmed and produced at Pinewood Studios after Superman II, with the project's delays being responsible for the 2yr delay at Pinewood between its filming and that of Dragonslayer), before being theatrically released with Universal Pictures in the later months of 1980 (with PolyGram still retaining the film rights to Marvel's superheros as well in the process, as per Guber and Peters' original plans)? For added butterfly-effect points, let's say that PolyGram Pictures doesn't order Marvel to 'white-wash' Dazzler to resemble Bo Derek, and agrees to go along with Casablanca's original plan to give Grace Jones her Hollywood mainstream film debut as a lead actress (which she'd only ever get with the critically panned 'Vamp' IOTL, 6yrs later) instead- making TTL's 'Dazzler' not only the first theatrically released live-action Marvel film (preceding OTL's Howard The Duck by around 6yrs), but also the first ever black superhero film as well (preceding OTL's The Meteor Man by 13yrs), and first ever black super-heroine film (which I suppose would be Halle Berry's 2004 Catwoman film IOTL, and thus have come a full 24yrs later).
How successful do you feel that TTL's Dazzler (1980) film could've been, then? How much more of a critical and commercial success do you feel it could've been than OTL's 'Howard The Duck'- enough to lead the way for a 1980s' Marvel Cinematic Universe? With the X-Men having played an integral role in the film's plot, with both Spider-Man and the Avengers having made noteworthy cameos, which of these other superhero properties do you envision would've been lined up as sequels to follow on from its success, and how differently would they have been adapted as feature films in this era, by those entasked with producing them (for instance, given Jon Peters' assigned role as primary producer, and his infamous obsession with including 'giant mechanical spiders' into scripts, do we see a Spider-Man film series kicking off with him fighting the Smythe's Spider-Slayers, in a vaguely similar manner to how the 1990s TV series did IOTL- one of the only conceivable instances where Peters' obsession with giant mechanical spiders in films might've actually worked)?
With the Dazzler film project, and their hopes of establishing their own MCU, still on track, would Guber and Peters have still proceeded with their 'Plan B' of joining Melniker and Uslan's Batman film series project, as IOTL? And if they still did, and maintained their productive partnership with PolyGram (how much longer? Might Peter Guber and Jon Peters wind up never leaving PolyGram ITTL, with the majority of GPC's productions in this period IOTL- which garnered over $3bn of worldwide revenue and more than 50 Academy Award nominations, including four Best Picture nominations- still being produced ITTL, but predominantly via PolyGram Pictures' film division?) how much more successful might PolyGram have been ITTL? Enough to make the British feature film production industry more competitive with Hollywood, and allow PolyGram to achieve its ambitions for the British film industry, off of the back of this success (not only of TTL's 'PolyGram MCU, but potentially the Batman film franchise, as well as others) at the first attempt, rather than only half-managing to bring about a semi-revival/stabilization of the British film industry's fortunes at the second attempt with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment's co-productions?
How much do you envision that this might have had the potential to alter the course of history, particularly popular culture, ITTL relative to OTL? And would anyone else be interested in collaborating on a TL, or a Vignette/AH-Wiki Blurb Writing Thread with me- set ITTL, following the history of TTL's MCU (and potentially DCCU as well, if they still go ahead with producing the Batman film series as well, and Jon Peters still manages to acquire the rights to the Superman film franchise by the early 90s as IOTL)?
Eventually a 34 page comic was produced by Tom DeFalco and John Romita Jr, but Casablanca then decided that they wanted more than just a comic and album, and demanded an animated special. This animated special was not only supposed to promote the Dazzler character, but also used as cross promotion for basically everyone Casablanca had a contract with, including Cher, Donna Summer, the Village People, KISS, Rodney Dangerfield and Robin Williams. A treatment for this animated special was swiftly penned by Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, and Casablanca brought in Peter Guber's Filmworks Inc. to produce it, forming Casablanca Record and Filmworks, Inc. in the resulting merger; but with Casablanca Records' ambitions for the character and their corroboration with Marvel Comics growing ever loftier, the animated movie was quickly scrapped in 1978, and instead a full live-action movie was planned, which would have also guest-starred Spider-Man and the Avengers (yes, the first ever film in the MCU was supposed to have been 'Dazzler').
However, by this stage, PolyGram had acquired a 50% stake in Casablanca Records, and citing Casablanca FilmWorks' overspending and accounting irregularities, PolyGram got financial cold feet and pulled out of the project, along with all of the others that Casablanca FilmWorks had had in the pipeline for the big screen, leaving Marvel Comics in the lurch. However, Peter Guber refused to give up on the project; managing to convince PolyGram to create PolyGram Pictures in 1979 in a partnership with him (as a spin-off of sorts to Casablanca FilmWorks, but separated from the Casablanca label; earmarked to become the foremost British film studio competitor to Hollywood) under the condition that PolyGram would reserve the finances and Guber would run as CEO. Casablanca had intended for Dazzler to be black, as most of the best selling disco singers were black women; John Romita Jr. had even specifically designed Dazzler to resemble Grace Jones, who had already been cast to play the titular lead role in the live-action 'Dazzler' movie (which would've been her first breakthrough into mainstream films).
However, PolyGram Pictures wanted actress Bo Derek to take on the role instead. So Marvel had to change everything (again) to replace the Grace Jones version of Dazzler with a Bo Derek version, in order to entice her to accept the lead role. Everything was proceeding ahead, with the movie all set to commence production in 1979 (originally intended to be the second film credit of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment after The Hollywood Knights, scheduled to be produced and released in late 1980, before King Of The Mountain). But then, Bo Derek threw a spanner in the works by demanding that her first husband, John Derek, be allowed to direct the film. But Peter Guber had already formed a partnership with Barbera Streisand's hairdresser and romantic partner Jon Peters, whom it had been agreed would produce PolyGram Pictures' films and had become a stockholder. As such, PolyGram Pictures baulked at this demand, and canceled the entire project before the start of 1980 (with Guber & Peters having joined the project of producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan, who'd purchased the film rights of Batman from DC Comics on October 3, 1979, in November 1979; pursuing the launch of a Batman film series as their 'Plan B').
This left Marvel Comics with sole ownership of their newly-created character Dazzler, along with a fully completed 34 page comic starring her. And having invested so much of their time, effort and finances into creating this character, and already developed so much material for her (with Dazzler having already guest-starred in several other Marvel titles, such as The Uncanny X-Men, The Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and The Avengers, as well as the Marvel crossover Contest of Champions), Marvel Comics decided to simply go ahead and launch her own title anyway; splitting her debut comic into two parts that would act as the first two issues (and adding extra pages). Unfortunately though, by this stage, Casablanca and Filmworks had wasted so much time on developing Dazzler projects that it was now the ‘80s, and as they say, "Disco was dead". Frank Springer took over from John Romita Jr. from the 3rd issue onwards, and the Dazzler comic actually sold quite well, lasting a very respectable 42 issues. She also had her own miniseries, 'Beauty and the Beast', and in 1982, Jim Shooter took his original idea for the film's plot and adapted it into a stand-alone Marvel graphic novel, called "Dazzler: The Movie."
But Dazzler’s main problem was that she represented a genre of music that was becoming increasingly perceived as outmoded and campy in the ‘80s; wearing a silver disco jumpsuit, and going around on roller disco skates. Within the comic, Dazzler quickly switched to rock and roll, and eventually would completely ditch the silver jumpsuit and roller skates. But no matter how she was reinterpreted, she was always closely associated with disco; and this led to her comics' readership taking a nosedive, as her original target demographic was abandoned, and the new readers Marvel hoped for never materialized. After her comic's cancellation, she was earmarked to be a founding member of X-Factor by Bob Layton, only for Marvel's writing team to elect to make one of the biggest, most infamous and controversial ret-cons in comic book history, by resurrecting Jean Grey (who'd been killed during the seminal Dark Phoenix Saga in 1980) to take her place. Dazzler was shuffled over onto the left-over X-Men roster instead, but after longtime writer Chris Claremont left the X-Men, the new writers were completely uninterested in the character; dropping her from the series, and leaving her out in limbo, until she returned to monthly publication for the first time as a prominent cast member in over fifteen years with the launch of New Excalibur.
As for PolyGram Pictures, with Dazzler's cancellation, its first major theatrical release film wound up being King of the Mountain (1981), which was a box-office flop. More money-losers followed, with PolyGram's European investors growing increasingly dissatisfied, as they'd lost about $80 million on its film division. Guber and Peters' involvement in PolyGram Pictures ended with both leaving PolyGram Pictures in 1982 (with PolyGram Pictures' film and TV units eventually closing down by 1983, and Guber selling his interest in PolyGram in that year), and taking the Batman film rights which they'd acquired with them, along with a few other projects (although PolyGram would retain at least 7.5% of the profits of said rights, due to a contractual agreement as part of their exit proceedings). Guber and Peters then formed and co-owned the Guber-Peters Company (GPC) in 1983, and immediately set up shop at Warner Brothers Studios; which finally decided to accept Batman, and began the creative process which led to the inception of OTL's original Batman film series. And whilst PolyGram would return to the film industry with the relaunch of a film and TV division, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, in late 1986, and partially compensate for the terminal decline of the British film production industry in the early '80s, PolyGram Pictures' original hopes of "building a British-based company which could compete with Hollywood in its home market" had to be abandoned.
So then, here's the question- what if the original Dazzler movie had been produced and released as intended by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (earmarked to be filmed and produced at Pinewood Studios after Superman II, with the project's delays being responsible for the 2yr delay at Pinewood between its filming and that of Dragonslayer), before being theatrically released with Universal Pictures in the later months of 1980 (with PolyGram still retaining the film rights to Marvel's superheros as well in the process, as per Guber and Peters' original plans)? For added butterfly-effect points, let's say that PolyGram Pictures doesn't order Marvel to 'white-wash' Dazzler to resemble Bo Derek, and agrees to go along with Casablanca's original plan to give Grace Jones her Hollywood mainstream film debut as a lead actress (which she'd only ever get with the critically panned 'Vamp' IOTL, 6yrs later) instead- making TTL's 'Dazzler' not only the first theatrically released live-action Marvel film (preceding OTL's Howard The Duck by around 6yrs), but also the first ever black superhero film as well (preceding OTL's The Meteor Man by 13yrs), and first ever black super-heroine film (which I suppose would be Halle Berry's 2004 Catwoman film IOTL, and thus have come a full 24yrs later).
How successful do you feel that TTL's Dazzler (1980) film could've been, then? How much more of a critical and commercial success do you feel it could've been than OTL's 'Howard The Duck'- enough to lead the way for a 1980s' Marvel Cinematic Universe? With the X-Men having played an integral role in the film's plot, with both Spider-Man and the Avengers having made noteworthy cameos, which of these other superhero properties do you envision would've been lined up as sequels to follow on from its success, and how differently would they have been adapted as feature films in this era, by those entasked with producing them (for instance, given Jon Peters' assigned role as primary producer, and his infamous obsession with including 'giant mechanical spiders' into scripts, do we see a Spider-Man film series kicking off with him fighting the Smythe's Spider-Slayers, in a vaguely similar manner to how the 1990s TV series did IOTL- one of the only conceivable instances where Peters' obsession with giant mechanical spiders in films might've actually worked)?
With the Dazzler film project, and their hopes of establishing their own MCU, still on track, would Guber and Peters have still proceeded with their 'Plan B' of joining Melniker and Uslan's Batman film series project, as IOTL? And if they still did, and maintained their productive partnership with PolyGram (how much longer? Might Peter Guber and Jon Peters wind up never leaving PolyGram ITTL, with the majority of GPC's productions in this period IOTL- which garnered over $3bn of worldwide revenue and more than 50 Academy Award nominations, including four Best Picture nominations- still being produced ITTL, but predominantly via PolyGram Pictures' film division?) how much more successful might PolyGram have been ITTL? Enough to make the British feature film production industry more competitive with Hollywood, and allow PolyGram to achieve its ambitions for the British film industry, off of the back of this success (not only of TTL's 'PolyGram MCU, but potentially the Batman film franchise, as well as others) at the first attempt, rather than only half-managing to bring about a semi-revival/stabilization of the British film industry's fortunes at the second attempt with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment's co-productions?
How much do you envision that this might have had the potential to alter the course of history, particularly popular culture, ITTL relative to OTL? And would anyone else be interested in collaborating on a TL, or a Vignette/AH-Wiki Blurb Writing Thread with me- set ITTL, following the history of TTL's MCU (and potentially DCCU as well, if they still go ahead with producing the Batman film series as well, and Jon Peters still manages to acquire the rights to the Superman film franchise by the early 90s as IOTL)?