Magic Johnson Invests in "The Marvel Experience"

Earvin “Magic” Johnson Joins Hero Ventures to Support The Marvel Experience

NBA Icon and Legendary Entrepreneur Joins Hero Ventures for Next Generation Touring Entertainment Attraction

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hero Ventures, a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, announced today that Los Angeles Lakers legend and NBA 2-Time Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson joined the team as an investor and Board Member for The Marvel Experience. He joins an accomplished Board that includes, among others, Michael Cohl, Steve Tisch, Stanley Gold, Jere Harris, Maurice Marciano, Basil DeVito of the WWE and Company founders Rick Licht and Doug Schaer.

    “Magic Johnson stands for greatness in every way possible. We are thrilled that he is joining The Marvel Experience team. I look forward to working with him again. It's going to be great to take a Step Into Hyper Reality with him on board.”

The Marvel Experience’s massive Dome complex launches January 10, 2015 in Dallas, Texas following a preview beginning next month on December 19th in Phoenix, Arizona. The singular story line running through the Experience will engage guests for two hours or more in an adventure unlike anything ever before produced. This first-of-its-kind premier touring experience features a dynamic 4D motion ride, the world’s only 360-degree Stereoscopic 3D Dome, a wide range of technologically advanced interactive and immersive elements, state-of-the-art projection techniques and dozens of Marvel’s most popular Super Heroes.

Earvin Johnson is not only an accomplished athlete but also a very successful businessman and philanthropist. His vast business achievements include co-ownership of key sports and entertainment properties, Los Angeles Dodgers, LA Sparks and LA Football Club. Johnson brings a wealth of business knowledge and marketing across multiple industries, and charitable experience to Hero Ventures.

“The Marvel Experience is a traveling destination that not only provides unique high quality entertainment for families and fans of all ages but will create jobs in each city that it visits,” said Johnson. “I’m excited to partner with Hero Ventures and bring this affordable entertainment option around the world; specifically to ethnically diverse communities that over-index as followers of the Marvel Super Heroes. Growing up watching the Hulk as my favorite Marvel character, and this opportunity to work with a team of business all-stars, made this partnership an easy decision.”

“We always felt like there was a bit of ‘magic’ in The Marvel Experience, and now it’s official! From unparalleled success on the basketball court to unparalleled success in the business world – Magic Johnson has done it all at the highest level,” said Rick Licht, Hero Ventures CEO. “When you look at our Board and partners that we’ve assembled for The Marvel Experience, there aren’t very many people who can measure up to our team, but Magic is in a class by himself and, just like when he played, he does everything possible to make everyone on our team better.”

Executive Producer Michael Cohl stated: “Magic Johnson stands for greatness in every way possible. We are thrilled that he is joining The Marvel Experience team. I look forward to working with him again. It's going to be great to take a Step Into Hyper Reality with him on board.” Steve Tisch, the first investor in Hero Ventures, added, “I have cheered for Magic the player...and known Magic the executive, Magic the philanthropist, and Magic my friend over the past few decades. No matter what role he is playing, he has continually proven his expertise. We are excited to welcome our own ‘modern day Super Hero’ to our Board to help us build this franchise of the future – The Marvel Experience.”

“Hero Ventures has done a fantastic job in assembling the best and the brightest for this unique experience. Adding Magic, who has a proven track record on and off the court, is a coup in itself and adds even more excitement and credibility to this venture,” said Marvel Studios Senior VP Business Development Benjamin Hung.

The Marvel Experience lands in Phoenix on December 19, 2014 and runs through January 3, 2015, before the Domes move on to Dallas on January 10, 2015 followed by San Diego and San Francisco, with more cities to be announced shortly. Tickets are available both at Ticketmaster.com and at www.themarvelexperiencetour.com/tickets.


ABOUT HERO VENTURES
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Hero Ventures, LLC develops and produces live entertainment experiences that delight and surprise consumers through innovative technology. The Company has brought together the best creative and business minds in animation, interactive technology and the live event space to create dynamic, unparalleled productions to share with audiences around the world in unique and unprecedented ways. Governing Board members include Oscar winning film producer and co-owner of the NFL’s New York Giants, Steve Tisch; WWE Senior Business Advisor, Basil V. DeVito, Jr.; Shamrock Holdings CEO, Stanley Gold; Guess Jeans Co-founder Maurice Marciano; Enlight Media’s David B. Miller; Parker Capital's Junfeng Li as well as Hero Ventures’ founders Rick Licht and Doug Schaer and Partners/Executive Producers Michael Cohl of S2BN and Jere Harris of PRG. For more information, visit www.hero-ventures.com.

ABOUT MAGIC JOHNSON ENTERPRISES
Magic Johnson Enterprises, formed in 1987, is owned and operated by retired NBA 2-Time Hall of Fame legend, entrepreneur and philanthropist Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The Enterprises serves as a catalyst for community and economic empowerment by making available high-quality entertainment, products and services that focus primarily on ethnically diverse and urban communities. Through strategic alliances, investments, consulting and endorsements, Magic Johnson Enterprises has a portfolio of companies that strategically work together to reinforce the organization’s focus on serving emerging, multicultural communities. For more information, visit www.magicjohnson.com.

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit marvel.com. © 2014 MARVEL

-----------------------------

Movie Review: "Brown Sugar" Was Much Needed

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Brown Sugar (2002)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content and language
DIRECTOR: Rick Famuyiwa
WRITERS: Michael Elliot and Rick Famuyiwa, from a story by Michael Elliot
PRODUCER: Peter Heller
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Earvin “Magic” Johnson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeff Barnett and Enrique Chediak (director of photography)
EDITOR: Dirk Westervelt
Black Reel Award winner

ROMANCE with elements of drama

Starring: Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Mos Def, Nicole Ari Parker, Boris Kodjoe, and Queen Latifah

National Basketball Association legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson entered the world of filmmaking as executive producer in what 20th Century Fox billed as a hip-hop romance, Brown Sugar. The truth of the matter is that the hip-hop has very little to do with the romance other than being window dressing. The fact of the matter is that Brown Sugar is actually a nice romance.

Dre (Taye Diggs) and Sidney (Sanaa Lathan, Love & Basketball) have been friends since childhood. Dre is a successful record executive and Sidney wrote articles on hip-hop music for the Los Angeles Times before moving on to run XXL magazine. They’re each other’s best friend, sharing the good times and the bad and sharing gossip and the intimate secrets of their lives. They only once came close to consummating their deep friendship as serious love, but avoided it. However, when Dre rushes into marriage with Reese (Nicole Ari Parker, Remember the Titans), a high society money girl that he hasn’t known very long, Sidney has mixed feelings, and her deeper love for Dre begins to surface.

Director Rick Famuyiwa (The Wood) and co-writer Michael Elliot seemed determined to make a film that’s simply about romance in which hip-hop is as important to the story as the romance is. Both characters are obviously big fans of hip-hop; both their careers are built around it. The writers even have the characters mouth platitudes about how great hip-hop is. But no matter how much they talk about hip-hop, rap music, or whatever you want to call it, the story of the film is about two friends finally succumbing to the love they have for each other that they both denied for so long, a denial that has one in a bad marriage and the other about to enter into one. The hip-hop love jones is strained and forced, and it severely hampers the romantic center of this movie; the love story is natural and flows.

This film may not be as well known as more “mainstream” and “traditional” romantic films like Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally, but Brown Sugar is good. It’s not perfect, but when I was growing up, films like this simply didn’t exist. They couldn’t; racist Hollywood didn’t want to make them, and the beast always claimed that there was no audience for such a film. Well, there’s always an audience for good films; it may not be as large as the audience for Titanic, but people will find a good movie.

I must say that the performances outshine the film. Taye Diggs is a good actor, and he has the stature and emotional range to play a leading man. Can’t you just see how much fun he would have been in something like Boomerang? Ms. Lathan is new to me, but I like what she has to offer. She easily skates through her character of this soft script, managing to be a comedian, a heroine, and a lovelorn professional gal just looking for true love. Queen Latifah adds spark to this film, although her part is quite small, but her hip-hop colleague, Mos Def, is another find. He played the sidekick very well, and he manages to be “real” as a hip-hop artist without once calling a bitch a ho or threatening to peal a nigga’s cap back. He’s a natural, quite comfortable on screen, and I hope to see more of him.

If Magic Johnson has more films like Brown Sugar up his sleeves, by all means, he should go to fewer Laker games and more studio briefings.

6 of 10
B