Jim and John Thomas suing Disney to reclaim Predator rights

[skhellter]

Sad that Disney just doesn't seem willing to make a deal with the Thomas
without dragging them through lengthy painful bureaucracy.

[Voodoo Magic]

Sad that Disney just doesn't seem willing to make a deal with the Thomas
without dragging them through lengthy painful bureaucracy.

This is to the root of my fear for Predator and AvP the inevitable day the Thomas Brothers do get the US Copyright back, skhellter. It's easy to take things personally, especially after Fox/Disney waiting four years to reject the Thomas Bros' *termination letter for errors. Sometimes the animus is so bad, the question becomes how is anyone going to work together after all this? Because reclaiming just the Hunters license only in the US means they will have to work together for "Predator" to continue. 

* corrected word edit

[SiL]

Disney/TCS doesn't really have any option but to renegotiate if they want to exploit the property for perpetuity, since they don't seem to argue against the 2023 date, so it does seem a bit weird they aren't just trying to renegotiate now

The Brothers have nothing to gain by not renegotiating, though, so it's not like a deal is inconceivable either.

[Voodoo Magic]

It seems they really want that one more Predator film in the catalog free of licensing royalties.

If Disney gets their way, I hope Skulls is a big success. Because if it fails, I can see Disney being in no rush to strike a deal / fine with letting the property languish in perpetuity.

Man, Alien fans hungry for new content don't know the apparent bullet they dodged...

[SuperiorIronman]

Don't they have a date setup for settling? I could've sworn they did and the recent thing was just getting the other two dates dropped.

[SiL]

It seems they really want that one more Predator film in the catalog free of licensing royalties.

It's not even free of licensing royalties, it's just at whatever rate was agreed on 35 years ago - which I'm guessing wasn't great, hence the Brothers' actions.

EDIT

I say this assuming they didn't sign something giving them royalties for just a few years, as you'd expect that to have been mentioned in the court filings.

Man, Alien fans hungry for new content don't know the apparent bullet they dodged...

Which bullet? Alien was too early to be eligible for this provision. Or do you mean something else?

[Voodoo Magic]

It seems they really want that one more Predator film in the catalog free of licensing royalties.

It's not even free of licensing royalties, it's just at whatever rate was agreed on 35 years ago - which I'm guessing wasn't great, hence the Brothers' actions.

Man, Alien fans hungry for new content don't know the apparent bullet they dodged...

Which bullet? Alien was too early to be eligible for this provision. Or do you mean something else?

I believe you're thinking residual payments (if negotiated), where licensing fees tend to be a bigger chunk of the pie and paid out even if it doesn't make a profit.

Man, Alien fans hungry for new content don't know the apparent bullet they dodged...

Which bullet? Alien was too early to be eligible for this provision. Or do you mean something else?

Yep! Learning that this relatively new law was for transfered copyrights 1978-present, and O'Bannon apparently sold Alien prior to that.

Don't they have a date setup for settling? I could've sworn they did and the recent thing was just getting the other two dates dropped.

Do you mean the required meeting of both parties that California law requires prior to the Case Management Conference? If so yes, it's designed as a forum to hopefully work out their differences independently of the Court. It definitely gives them an opportunity to settle, if they can and are willing to come to an agreement. That's the million dollar question S.I.!

[SiL]

I believe you're thinking residual payments (if negotiated), where licensing fees tend to be a bigger chunk of the pie and paid out even if it doesn't make a profit.

I'm pretty sure they're still paid for derivative works (I mean, they're credited at least) but true, it would be residuals prior to this mess getting sorted.

Yep! Learning that this relatively new law was for transfered copyrights 1978-present, and O'Bannon apparently sold Alien prior to that.

True, although I imagine if his estate had been able to use this provision Fox might've been much quicker sorting it out

[bb-15]

I guess you didn't learn anything from Terminator: Dark Turd.  Having a lead female in a movie is perfectly okay, look at the alien movies, but when you make it about gender norms and all that, it's a movie headed for the toilet. Watchmen series was woke as hell and was dogshit. Terminator: Dark Fate was woke as hell, it bombed. Just make a normal ass predator movie that's scary and not about gender norms. Just f**king fight the predator and shut the f**k up.

I wanted to post about the Watchmen TV series on AVP Galaxy & this is what I could find.
I enjoyed the series. It is pushy with its message but I got used to it. Also, such a topic (put in a blunt way) is not new to science fiction whether from Deep Space 9 all the way back to Star Trek TOS, where the sci-fi genre can have a clear message of social justice.

While Terminator: Dark Fate bombed in terms of box office, the Watchmen TV series was a ratings success and it received 4 Primetime Emmy Awards and 7 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. So, I don't agree that the Watchmen TV series was "dogshit" in terms of the skill in how it was put together & how it connected with the original Watchmen material.

As for the original topic, we are talking about Disney here. With action/adventure, Disney cares about Marvel & Star Wars because that's where the most money is.
With the possible Predator movie, I would appreciate if anything new Predator or Alien related comes out of Disney. That would be better than nothing imo.

   

[Voodoo Magic]

Predator legal battle is transferred to Los Angeles
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2021/06/16/predator-legal-battle-is-transferred-to-los-angeles/

[Inverse Effect]

Sigh...

[Leleu]

I really hope there will be a theatrical release. Predator films aren't made to be streamed !

[XENOMORPHOSIS]

Hmm curious turn of development, If I had it my way I'd set the condition where any upcoming Predator movies are distilled with quality control, upholding them to a standard and consistency in tune with the original, AND that the creators The Thomas Brothers get their share of royalties properly compensated. Perhaps that's a tad niave of me.

[Voodoo Magic]

Hmm curious turn of development, If I had it my way I'd set the condition where any upcoming Predator movies are distilled with quality control, upholding them to a standard and consistency in tune with the original, AND that the creators The Thomas Brothers get their share of royalties properly compensated. Perhaps that's a tad niave of me.

It's certainly at least nice to think about! 

[SiL]

It's naive in that it's not like people have been trying to make worse movies.

How would you even start creating criteria to judge the quality standards against the original film? By whose objective metrics?

Trying to distill quality into a formula is what gives you interchangeable Marvel movies. I'm sure people would appreciate some better variety.