$POWN GILL CHAMPION: A POW!ERFUL PARTNER Posted by: Matt

$POWN GILL CHAMPION: A POW!ERFUL PARTNER
Posted by: Matt Murray - Feb. 25th, 2013

by Matt. Murray


Ask Gill Champion, CEO of Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, for a story about his partnership with the Generalissimo, and he may offer the following:

“For years, Stan and I have been having lunch together and it’s been a tradition that the only exercise we get now is to walk around a couple of blocks after we eat. People are always stopping us... and he’ll introduce me as his partner – and (he) or I will always add ‘business partner’.”

For the record, that last part is clarified not as some old school method of masculine back pedaling, but in an effort not to offend either Lee or Champion’s wives, who for the better part of two decades have had to watch their husbands share what Champion himself describes as a kind of “bonding… a respect” and “a very special love affair.”

It’s a relationship that has survived longer than a lot of actual Hollywood marriages, and has been through a series of trials and successes, but through it all Stan has always maintained that Gill is: “Brilliant, honorable, and 100% dependable.” Lee adds, “Gill has made all the business decisions for us—and they’ve always been the right ones.”

Making the right choice isn’t just a matter of commerce for Champion or POW! “What we try to do is combine the business with the show… we try to maintain the right blend… That’s really important to everyone here at POW! (We’re) in the business of trying to create franchises around Stan’s new characters (and) it is a business. We have a great team, and everybody is part of pitching in and we like to share every one’s ideas and thoughts and hopefully stir up the pot enough that when it’s served it’s going to be a great stew.”

As a metaphorical chef in the entertainment kitchen, Champion has decades of experience cooking up top tier entertainment and has had his fingers in a lot of different pots throughout all media. Starting out at a casting office in his native New York, Gill was involved in the selection of talent for films as diverse as Three Days of the Condor, The Way We Were, and the original Death Wish, as well as television classics like Kojak.

“I realized I was the low man on the totem pole. The whipping boy out in the cold – talk about cold -- in the snow, in the rain… I was always on set, and I realized that I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life as a casting director. In order to gain some respect, I figured I better learn how to become a producer… So, my former partner and I formed a production entity… I worked on a number of low budget movies -- low, low, budget movies -- (and) working on those films you really had to do everything yourself. So, it was like going to an advanced course in film school.”

Eventually that entity grew into an enterprise called The Producer Circle Company. During his tenure there Gill worked on shepherding adaptations of the novels The Boys from Brazil and The Shining to the screen, in addition to Fort Apache, The Bronx which earned him a Producer of the Year award, an honor he shrugs off with a dose of self-deprecation: “Yeah, I guess no one else was there that day, (and) they wound up having to give it to me. So, I took it.”

In regards to his time with Producer Circle, Champion considers himself “fortunate enough to produce a number of successful films that fulfilled a fantasy of mine to be both in front of a camera, in the sense of casting,” (Boys stars Laurence Olivier, James Mason, and Gregory Peck whom Champion directed in his screen test for the part of Josef Mengele; The Shining boasts an iconic performance by Jack Nicholson; and Fort Apache is headlined by Paul Newman with breakout turns by Ken Wahl and Danny Aiello) “and to see and understand the business side of the process.

“To me the love of this world that I’m in is that it’s show business… and having worked on those movies really gave me the opportunity to understand – hopefully – the full cycle of what it is to start a movie, from conception, and see it go to completion, and then distribution.”

In addition to their film output, The Producer Circle Company also put their mark on the world of theatre with the original Broadway productions of Chicago and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street among others.

“We did so many shows I can’t remember them all,” mourns Gill. There is one production in particular that does jog his memory, Bob Fosse’s masterpiece, Chicago, which was nominated for no less than 10 Tony Awards in 1975. “Chicago was with Jerry Orbach and Gwen Verdon (both Tony nominated for their work on the show.) It was a terrific cast, and a great learning curve for me to understand the world of theatre which has always been and still is a great passion for me. “

“Passion” tends to be a word that Champion uses often in reference to his work; however it is not one that he uses so lightly that it loses its meaning.

He speaks similarly of his connection with motion pictures:

“I love movies. I go once, maybe twice a week. I love being in the social environment of sitting in a dark theater watching the big screen, looking at the reaction of the crowd around me… There’s something so magical about it.”

“Initially, it might have been (a form of) escapism,” Gill recalls of his first trips to New York’s movie houses to catch the Saturday matinees. “It was trying to live in a different world... Fantasy and reality sometime become blended… We never lose the excitement of imagining ourselves in a (different) world – keeping one foot in reality and one foot in fantasy.”

That drive to keep part of himself firmly planted in the fantastical and remain open to the possibilities that perspective brings to entertainment, has followed Champion throughout his career and is one of the key reasons he’s chose to begin working with Stan Lee in the late 1990s.

“Stan has created a whole new mythology,” he says of his partner’s creative output. “We never outlive our love of fairy tales from when we were young, now he’s created a world of fairy tales for adults.”

Although Gill was aware of Stan’s brand and somewhat familiar with the library of characters and stories Lee created, prior to their first collaborations he wasn't as great a fan of “The Man” as some may imagine; the fault resting less on personal interest and more on the economics of growing up in the City during the 1950s.

“Everybody complains about how their mother threw out their comic books. Well, I never had the opportunity to bring them home.” He explains: “Growing up where I grew up, the comic books were sometimes read, but most often were used in place of money when playing cards, and not being a very good card player, I very rarely had any comic books. So, I would primarily read them in the candy store prior to going to the card games.”

Since partnering with Lee, Champion has managed to catch-up on his required reading and become completely enamored not only with the creator’s inimitable prose but his work ethic. “Stan Lee sets the bar extremely high. He’s a man who works every day… Seven days a week… At least eight hours a day… and if he’s not in the office (then) he’s home working, or he’s texting, or he’s writing, or he’s e-mailing, or shouting.

“You hear him all the time,” Gill states almost seriously, “wherever he is."

“Stan is such an idea factory.” He continues, this time in earnest: “I’m determined for Stan and his legacy to have a second career beyond his original creations."

Champion says of Lee: “He’s unique. He sees things through the eyes of a child, and in working with Stan, the characters, the writing, the story is so paramount with everything we do…. It’s just amazing to hear the stories of how many people attribute their early childhood (memories), some of their education (to Stan), and now to introduce a whole new generation of fans to Stan Lee is truly amazing.”

The new demographic Gill’s referring to includes not only those fans close enough in physical proximity to stop the duo on the streets of Los Angeles (where they work from both the POW! headquarters and the Disney lot ), or those Brigadiers who wait for hours in line to meet Stan at their local convention, but a truly global network of fans.

“I think as the world becomes more connected through different means of distribution Stan’s brand will continue to extend well beyond the United States’ boundaries” Champion predicts. “We’re working on a project in India . We have a couple of these projects now that we’re attributing to closer working relationships with China. We’re into animation. We’re working on a live-action show. So, Stan’s brand is expanding to include good story-telling, internationally, for people of all ages and all races."

“I think what we’re doing in creating a Chinese super hero,” he says alluding to the recently announced Annihilator ,"(one) that is not necessarily American or English… and to have the opportunity to create an international character that will have the same appeal as any super hero that has been done in the past” is attractive to Gill and keeps his interest in the creative workings of the business. Additionally, there’s a live stage musical inspired by Asian folklore being supervised by POW! and planned for a debut in Macau, as well as a big screen adaptation of the POW!/1821 Comics graphic novel Romeo and Juliet: The War being developed as a major motion picture for international release. “I think so much of (Romeo and Juliet) is still is as beautiful and as powerful as it has ever been, and has been the basis for so many stories in one form or another across numerous cultures.”

As for what else the future holds: “All I can tell you is: stay tuned,” Gill promises, “because a lot of the best stuff is still to come.”

Ask Gill Champion for a story about Stan Lee and he’ll offer you a tale of shared passion for stories, hopes for the future, and probably laugh about the romance that can come from a business partnership like theirs. Ask Stan Lee for a story about their partnership, and he’ll most likely say: “Ask Gilbert.”



Matt. Murray is a self-described “creative non-fictionalist” with numerous credits to his name as an editor, blogger, and producer/writer/host of internet series based around the world of popular culture. He was the president and first executive director of NY’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and is acknowledged on six out of the seven continents as “The World’s Leading Smurfologist.” He has been featured on The Smurfs, Season 1 Vol. 2 DVD; a special consultant to Papercutz’ line of Smurfs graphic novels; and he wrote the first officially licensed history of The Smurfs property and its creator, Peyo (The World of Smurfs..., Abrams, 2011.) Originally from Queens, NY, he currently lives and writes in Los Angeles, CA, hoping that penguins in Antarctica eventually learn about The Smurfs so he can add that seventh continent to the list.

http://therealstanlee.com/#gill

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