Yeah, originally they wanted to make the movie a bit darker... not much but some according to what Dave Stevens told me a couple of years ago. I'm not clear on what rights he owns... I'd assume he could still do comics if he wanted to but when I asked him about that (and again, this was a couple of years ago now) he gave me an odd story about having an idea for it but having some trouble finding someone that would publish it the way he wanted... something like that. I didn't get the vibe he really cares much about pursuing it personally.
Dave and (I believe) Joe wanted to buy the movie back from Disney so they could release either a director's cut or a special edition but Disney won't sell. All Disney has done is license a couple of things for the Medicom figure and the MR helmet.
He said that Disney kept wanting to push the picture to be for kids but, of course, I think the movie turned out great in the end despite the problems. And yeah, it didn't do well though I'm not sure exactly how bad it did at the theater. It's release date fell between T2 and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, both of which had major marketing pushes at the time.
Personally, I'd like to see *something* happen with the franchise. Comics... animation, sequel... anything. I think a tv series would be cool but most networks don't like to do period tv series because of the ongoing costs of finding and making sets and costumes. Animation would be cool but most American animation is too kiddie oriented and the Rocketeer isn't popular enough to pull the ratings to get a show like Batman the Animated Series... I'd rather see a Japanese anime series based on the franchise so it could be a bit more mature than the typical Teen Titans, Ben 10 kinda tv series. That's just my 2 cents
And to get back on topic, the original artwork for the portfolio is relatively small and while I don't know for sure where Mechinyun got that though I suspect I can guess (
) and if I'm right, I know a lot of love and work went into making the art look great at larger sizes. And great job on the frame restoration as well... the frame really does make it pop.