LOGAN director James Mangold hopes Disney allows for pushing boundaries with comic book films.

Deadline, LOGAN director James Mangold described himself as being “very curious” about the news that Disney is looking to takeover 20th Century Fox; a deal that seems to be a lock and is expected to be announced early Thursday morning.

No one fully knows what will happen once the merge takes place, but Mangold shared concerned if Disney would allow for the development of R-rated comic book properties like his film and Deadpool. Will directors be given the freedom to look beyond PG-13 ratings and merchandising; an area the mouse-house is notorious for centering their projects around?

“If they’re actually changing [20th Century Fox’s] mandate, if what they’re supposed to do alters, that would be sad to me because it just means less movies,” he said while attending a LOGAN screening discussion in Manhattan with stars Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. “I just hope what we end up with is going to be a positive in terms of movies.

“The real thing that happens when you make a movie rated R, behind the scenes, is that the studio has to adjust to the reality that there will be no Happy Meals. There will be no action figures. The entire merchandising, cross-pollinating side of selling the movie to children is dead before you even start. And when that’s dead, it means you’re making a grown-up movie.”

As with his experience developing an R-rated comic book film, he added, “you don’t come under the pressure of how a 12-year-old is going to react to the movie, not just in terms of violence or language but in terms of pace or even the depth of interest in what people are talking about.

“We’ve now so co-opted this idea that these movies are not really stories, but are merchandise entities. You can’t kill the characters because they’re worth so much effing money.”

Source: Deadline