Spider-Man creator Stan Lee signs exclusive deal with Disney

Stan Lee, the creator of such comic book superheroes as Spider-Man and X-Men, has signed an exclusive content deal with Walt Disney Studios.

Under the multiyear agreement announced Wednesday, the studio gets first shot at films, TV shows, books and video games devised by 84-year-old Lee and his company, POW! Entertainment.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Disney Studio chairman Dick Cook said the deal was designed to create characters and projects that can become franchises for Disney.

"I've got millions of them," Lee said. "I have file cabinets filled with ideas for movies, and television shows and all sorts of things, and I've been waiting to be associated with someone like Disney so I can start tearing into these things."

Lee's characters have made hundreds of millions of dollars for other studios. Sony Pictures produced the Spider-Man film series and saw Spider-Man 3 open in early May with a record $151.1 million USweekend in North America.

Twentieth Century Fox made the highly profitable X-Men films. Also in production at various studios are movies about The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.

Sony Pictures is part of Sony Corp. Twentieth Century Fox is owned by News Corp.

Lee is no longer associated with Marvel Entertainment Inc., which produces comic books and feature films based on characters he created while employed there.

Some of the characters that Lee developed at Pow! Entertainment, such as the superhero stripper Stripperella, featuring the voice of Canadian actress Pamela Anderson as Erotica Jones, will not be made into Disney films, Lee said.

Hesaid he is not concerned that Disney's family image will hurt his projects.

"There is such a big difference between action and violence," Lee said. "I have never been a fan of violence, but I love action and so does Disney."