Superhero Movies

[nacho]

Okay, so they do the origin thing...and then they do a "one year later" jump to a montage that explains that now they're all in control of their powers and have become the Fantastic Four.

[nacho]

"We should use our powers to --"

"They're not powers!! They're aggressively abnormal physical conditions!"

Yeah.

[RottingCorpse]

Fantastic Four time!

Wow. What a shit show that was.

You know what's sad? I think there's a pretty interesting movie buried underneath all that studio interference and director ego. In fact, I'd be inclined to see what the dictator's cut would look like if Trank ever got the chance to do it. Now, granted, I think it would be there and a half hours long to be effective.

This movie's also an argument for superhero (and maybe FF in particular) on TV. Imagine if all the beats of that story had the opportunity to play out over an 11 episode season?

[nacho]

This movie's also an argument for superhero (and maybe FF in particular) on TV. Imagine if all the beats of that story had the opportunity to play out over an 11 episode season?

Be careful what you wish for.

[Sirharles]

While I liked the movie, it was exactly as he explains.

[RottingCorpse]

I got busy before I could post this yesterday, but it looks like I would have been spreading bullshit anyway.

My thought was (and remains) that FOX would be smart to go all in on X-Men, by using the remaining Marvel rights it holds as bargaining fodder. Marvel is shrewd enough to realize that Fox's X-Men movies are too solidly entrenched for them to fuck it up easily. This is why they've all but banished the X-Men from their comic book stories which while a little catty, allows them to coalesce their published and film universes.

http://io9.com/rumor-has-it-marvel-is-clawing-fantastic-four-back-from-1736693837

That "Marvel Taking Back Fantastic Four" Rumor Is False [UPDATED]

You’re going to need a giant salt lick for this one, but it’s not totally out of line with Marvel’s history: there’s a rumor that Fox exchanged the movie rights to Fantastic Four for the two X-Men series that were announced yesterday. Update: We’re hearing from multiple credible sources that this is not true.

Den of Geek does caution that they don’t have independent verification of what their source told them, but it’s hard to discount the possibility. Marvel’s through-2020 slate does have three untitled movies on their schedule, and one is supposedly Fantastic Four.

The facts are that Fantastic Four did not do well for Fox, the X-Men TV deal is huge, and Marvel has already done something exactly like this for Spider-Man. It’s all circumstantial evidence that makes this rumor much more plausible than it would otherwise be.

On the other hand, without any official confirmation or verification from another source, who knows? Basically, we kind of just have to shrug at this and say, “Could be true.” But it’s definitely to a nod to Marvel’s current power that this is believable at all.

Update: Believable or not, we’re being told by our sources that this isn’t currently true. Whether or not that means Marvel will never get back the rights to Fantastic Four remains up in the air. But for now, it looks like everyone’s staying where they are.

[Reginald McGraw]

Knowing now that it's false, has there ever been any precedent for anything like this between studios? "I'll trade you the rights to Grapes of Wrath for To Kill a Mockingbird?"
That seems more like how fans think than studios.

[RottingCorpse]

I'd have to go back and do some research. However, I know in the early days of home video, some film studios licensed home video rights to films to third party distributors rather than get in the game themselves. In some cases, some of the bigger studios realized sooner that home video was lucrative and licensed their competitors products. Later there would be a lot of wrangling in order for the studios to get those rights back.

I'm sure the story is online somewhere (and maybe linked in our Spider-Man thread), but Spider-Man went though a world of legal wrangling as to who owned what rights before a movie could be made. It's hard to believe there was a time when Marvel was nearly bankrupt and sold away all the movie and TV rights to their characters super cheap just to keep the lights on.

Swamp Thing has through similar legal wrangling with its film and TV rights , though I think Warner Bros. (who owns DC Comics) has gotten it all back at this point.

Not sure I answered your question exactly.

[Reginald McGraw]

You answered it as well as you could without doing research, which is great. I think my answer based on what you said is "No," no one has traded rights straight-up like that.

I remember the legal wrangling over Spiderman, and even some of the 'Company X had the movie rights, but Company Y had distribution, and Company Z had home video rights." None of that rises to the level of a swap though, in my mind.

[RottingCorpse]

Too. Many. Characters.

[nacho]

Too. Many. Characters.

Man... haven't we gone back and forth...and back and forth...and back and forth about this in about a dozen threads right here on the forums for the last 12 years?

[RottingCorpse]

Yes. We have. And we're all pretty much in agreement that too many characters gum up the works, correct?

[Reginald McGraw]

Correct.

[nacho]

Woah, woah, woah...wait a minute...wait a minute... Ant-Man is good?

[RottingCorpse]

I still haven't seen it. My Edgar Wright allegiance is strong.