Alien and Predators decline: Franchise ownership being to blame?

[Anomaly]

As much as I have apathy for George Lucas's creative decisions, I respect his business savvy, and thats what the classiest of fiction directors such as Cameron, Fincher, Mctiernan and Scott are missing for the most part.

The best possible solution to keeping a saga fresh is for the creators to OWN their works. No studio interference, no playing the slots on directors and writers, no middle man, the owner of the franchise chooses who can make what. Perhaps we wouldnt be having as much problems with the saga in this situation.

For the Predator franchise, who owns that? What happened with Alien 1 and Ridley Scott? And how does fox end up owning BOTH franchises to this day? Its just WRONG.

[Xhan]

Do you REALLY think that Fox is going to let something like Star Wars merchandising rights happen again, ever?

substitute "Weyland-Yutani" for "Fox" and there you go.

Most execs come from marketing, law and production.

Lookie a writers strike wherein writers don't get paid shit for DVD or direct-to-web products.


hmm.

A trend emerges.

[SM]

And how does fox end up owning BOTH franchises to this day? Its just WRONG.

No, it's usually called "We paid for this, ergo we own it".  That's wrong, how?

[Anomaly]

And how does fox end up owning BOTH franchises to this day? Its just WRONG.

No, it's usually called "We paid for this, ergo we own it".  That's wrong, how?

So FOX bought the rights... who the hell put it up for sale?

Can we get some history on this please?

[SM]

They financed the original films.  Part of that deal was they own the rights to everything connected to those films including sequel rights.  Pretty simple really.

I dunno about Predator but in the case of Alien, Brandywine bought the script from O'Bannon and Shusett and got Alan Ladd Jnr at Fox to finance it.

[Daniel]

Indeed.  When a studio offers to finance a movie, you often have to sell your movie to them in the process.  They pay for the movie to be made, but the catch is that they now own the rights.  You have to be on their good side if you want to make a sequel.

[Anomaly]

Good god... we sold our soul long ago 

They needed to pull a lucas. Guerilla film making.

[Xhan]

same for Predator.

our soul

The corporation's take is they funded your monotonous cheesy art film even though they know for a fact it won't make enough money to justify the costs.

When they recoup the cost and then some through DVD home sales that your lawyer forgot to account for, well them's breaks.

[Pvt. Hicks]

Fox messed it up. They had a great thing going.

[SM]

Good god... we sold our soul long ago 

They needed to pull a lucas. Guerilla film making.

Like the X-Man said, the chances of something like the deal with Star Wars ever happening again are pretty slim.  It cost Fox untold millions.

And "we" didn't sell anything, if you're going to get melodramatic about it.  If Fox hadn't paid for the original films, they may never have been realised.

And Star Wars was hardly "guerilla film making".

Fox messed it up. They had a great thing going.

When they're checking the box office for AvP and no doubt the new film - they stil lhave a great thing going and didn't mess up shit.

[Anomaly]

And "we" didn't sell anything, if you're going to get melodramatic about it.  If Fox hadn't paid for the original films, they may never have been realised.

Thanks for sticking up for fox... 

wtf...  lots of oddness on the boards recently.     

Maybe i should just tip toe away now, weirded out...

[Xhan]

Fox isn't concerned with story. They hire people to do that for them.

[SM]

Exactement.

Thanks for sticking up for fox... 

It's not really a matter of sticking up for them.  It's just the way it is in show BUSINESS.

Fox finance lots of stuff I like.  They also finance stuff I don't like - their news network would be top of the list.  And I think they've dropped the ball with Alien.  Just the way it is.

[Daweism]

Well, after AVP we bitched about a PG13, now we're gonna bitch about a movie with not enough funding.

f**k FOX

[Anomaly]

They need to find a way to get Lucas's status.. and soon. Someone find a way. I dont care.