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Post by Limity (BLM) on Oct 3, 2021 11:09:28 GMT -5
This was inspired by the thread about the Friday the 13th writer situation. In the course of the discussion, a couple different situations where the rights to various things are strange and confusing.
- Apparently the writer of the first F13 movie owns it, and nothing else
- besides that, I think the rest of the F13 series is still a mess?
- when Billy Corgan first purchased the NWA or some part of it, he only owned certain physical assets not including any kind of tape library
- one guy has rights to only one James Bond movie, Thunderball
- for a time there was a lot of controversy around who owned the rights to the Hellraiser series
- in Star Trek Discovery, apparently they had to create their own version of the TOS Constitution-class Enterprise, as they did not have the rights to?
Can anyone think of other instances, and/or elaborate on these?
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Post by DSR on Oct 3, 2021 11:43:35 GMT -5
- one guy has rights to only one James Bond movie, Thunderball Can anyone think of other instances, and/or elaborate on these? Ian Fleming wanted to get James Bond movies made. Kevin McClory was a producer, he disliked Fleming's books but liked the character. So he, Fleming, and Jack Whittingham worked on a screenplay, ultimately titled THUNDERBALL. Then Fleming adapted the script into a novel, also titled Thunderball, but he didn't give credit to the other two. So they sued him. McClory got the rights to story, plot, and characters from Thunderball. While their attempt to bring Bond to the movies never got off the ground, the character got there thanks to Eon Productions. They didn't want a rival James Bond franchise in theaters, so they brought McClory on as producer for an adaptation of Thunderball. McClory's copyright prevent the use of the character Blofeld in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and also granted him the ability to remake THUNDERBALL. He did so in 1983, bringing Sean Connery back as Bond in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. McClory had planned to remake THUNDERBALL again in the 90s, but the plans fell through. Eon ultimately bought up McClory's rights after he passed away. |
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Post by Feyrhausen on Oct 3, 2021 13:21:57 GMT -5
DC and Marvel with Captain Marvel and Shazam.
Fawcett comics created Captain Marvel and had a lot of success. So DC sued them claiming Cap was too similar to Superman. Fawcett went out of business and the trademark lapsed. Eventually Marvel bought the trademark to Captain Marvel and created Mar Vell. DC bought the rights to the original Captain Marvel but since they did not own the trademark they could only call him that in story. The books had to be marketed under another name, they used Shazam.
DC eventually just changed his name to Shazam as the situation was too confusing to most people.
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Post by ltcproductions on Oct 3, 2021 13:38:06 GMT -5
DC and Marvel with Captain Marvel and Shazam. Fawcett comics created Captain Marvel and had a lot of success. So DC sued them claiming Cap was too similar to Superman. Fawcett went out of business and the trademark lapsed. Eventually Marvel bought the trademark to Captain Marvel and created Mar Vell. DC bought the rights to the original Captain Marvel but since they did not own the trademark they could only call him that in story. The books had to be marketed under another name, they used Shazam. DC eventually just changed his name to Shazam as the situation was too confusing to most people. An obscure fact: In between the disappearance of Shazam and the debut of Mar-Vell, MF Enterprises had a Captain Marvel. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(M._F._Enterprises) |
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cosmo
Unicron
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Post by cosmo on Oct 3, 2021 13:38:30 GMT -5
So you know how the video for Metallica's "One" is full of clips from the 1971 movie Johnny Got His Gun? Metallica ended up buying the rights to the entire movie outright just so the video could stay in circulation without having to keep paying royalty and licensing fees.
Turns out Metallica eventually forgot they were the sole owners of the movie, and because of that, it had next to no presence at all on home video until Shout Factory released it on DVD in 2009. |
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Post by dirtyoldman on Oct 3, 2021 13:47:01 GMT -5
The rights to the N64 game Goldeneye I believe are all over the place with rival companies owning certain aspects of it.
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Post by ltcproductions on Oct 3, 2021 13:52:31 GMT -5
The rights to the N64 game Goldeneye I believe are all over the place with rival companies owning certain aspects of it. Yep. There's Nintendo owning the game itself because they published it, Microsoft owning Rare nowadays, and of course the Bond license itself. |
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Post by James Fabiano on Oct 3, 2021 14:00:23 GMT -5
Video game wise, Sonic 3 being blocked because Michael Jackson wrote/was sampled in some BGM.
Warner Bros. having rights to the Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four cartoon.
Dastardly and Muttley being blocked from Laff-a-Lympics because Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley had a claim to them (as they co-produced Wacky Races).
The damn Bat-Embargo made no damn sense.
Nor did the whole deal with certain Disney characters as it related to the 20XX DuckTales.
Before it got resolved to make the DVD set, the 1966 Batman was like this. 20th Century Fox had the rights to the show, then there were rights to the music, the design of the Batmobile, the guest characters in the window climbing scenes....
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Post by wildojinx on Oct 3, 2021 14:09:48 GMT -5
It's rumored that Nintendo bought the rights to an adult movie that parodied the Mario Brothers just so it couldnt be distributed.
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Post by DiBiase is Good on Oct 3, 2021 14:20:44 GMT -5
The epic clusterf*** that is the rights to certain Beatles songs.
I’ve read several breakdowns of who owns exactly what and every time I somehow come out less informed and even more confused. Just thinking about it gives my arse a headache.
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Bo Rida
Fry's dog Seymour
Pulled one over on everyone.
Got away with it, this time.
Posts: 23,664
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Post by Bo Rida on Oct 3, 2021 15:00:47 GMT -5
Dr Who is a mess. The most reconised baddies are the daleks but BBC don't own the full copyright to them. Same with many other earlier charachters, including K-9.
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Post by Feyrhausen on Oct 3, 2021 15:09:22 GMT -5
DC and Marvel with Captain Marvel and Shazam. Fawcett comics created Captain Marvel and had a lot of success. So DC sued them claiming Cap was too similar to Superman. Fawcett went out of business and the trademark lapsed. Eventually Marvel bought the trademark to Captain Marvel and created Mar Vell. DC bought the rights to the original Captain Marvel but since they did not own the trademark they could only call him that in story. The books had to be marketed under another name, they used Shazam. DC eventually just changed his name to Shazam as the situation was too confusing to most people. An obscure fact: In between the disappearance of Shazam and the debut of Mar-Vell, MF Enterprises had a Captain Marvel. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(M._F._Enterprises)Yeah I just skipped over that with the Eventually part. The MF Captain Marvel had that power to split his body parts and control them. Kind of like TDK from The Suicide Squad. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 15:10:28 GMT -5
The way the Child's Play/Chucky thing works.
MGM can make Child's Play remakes but Don Mancini can continue the Chucky series (and is, looking forward to the show in a few days).
Also, there's something obscure about the Ninja Turtles rights some people don't know. Peter Laird is allowed to self publish up to 18 issues of Ninja Turtles per year that take place in the original Mirage continuity. He has only published like 2 or 3 issues in the dozen years since the sale though, and recently officially shut down Mirage.
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Post by James Fabiano on Oct 3, 2021 15:51:19 GMT -5
Hollywood Squares.
Format belongs to CBS.
Reruns belong to MGM (guess Amazon now).
Somehow Fremantle must have spoken with the latter to be able to rerun the Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. Yet they have yet to obtain rights to any classic version.
And I think reruns of the Bergeron version belong again to CBS or to Sony.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 3, 2021 16:03:00 GMT -5
In the early 2000s Anchor Bay wanted to release a complete Ilsa box set. Ilsa of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS infamy. Anchor Bay secured rights to three films including one that wasn’t even originally an Ilsa film.
However, the copyright owner of the fourth film, Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia refused to license the film. As far as I can tell the US copyright owner is ashamed of it or at least just thinks it should never be seen again. Otherwise you’d figure the copyright owner would have their own release of the movie or license it to someone else. Yet to date the only way you can see Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia is on international releases, bootleg copies or ancient VHS tapes.
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Post by Limity (BLM) on Oct 3, 2021 16:12:26 GMT -5
Some great and fascinating examples in this thread. I don't know why but I find such things interesting. I think because we just get the end product, and so rarely have any clue how complicated it can be to get that end product.
Another one, is Hulk still owned by Universal, or they have like distribution rights? Which if I remember correctly, means that Marvel can use him as a character in other character's movies, but he can't have his own solo movie.
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Post by Feyrhausen on Oct 3, 2021 16:26:53 GMT -5
Some great and fascinating examples in this thread. I don't know why but I find such things interesting. I think because we just get the end product, and so rarely have any clue how complicated it can be to get that end product. Another one, is Hulk still owned by Universal, or they have like distribution rights? Which if I remember correctly, means that Marvel can use him as a character in other character's movies, but he can't have his own solo movie. Yes Universal has distribution rights to the Hulk characters movies. Marvel has character rights so they can appear in other characters movies. TV rights seem to be in Marvels hands though. Similar situation with Namor I believe. |
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Post by TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out on Oct 3, 2021 16:32:20 GMT -5
Some great and fascinating examples in this thread. I don't know why but I find such things interesting. I think because we just get the end product, and so rarely have any clue how complicated it can be to get that end product. Another one, is Hulk still owned by Universal, or they have like distribution rights? Which if I remember correctly, means that Marvel can use him as a character in other character's movies, but he can't have his own solo movie. Yeah, Marvel's been working around that by making him a main character in other films (Ragnarok was almost as much of a Hulk movie as it was a Thor movie) which works because the MCU Hulk hasn't really been made to carry his own movie |
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Post by BorneAgain on Oct 3, 2021 16:39:54 GMT -5
Thanks to Tolkien's estate holding tight reigns on pretty much everything that isn't LOTR and the Hobbit, various media adaptations largely have to work from those two works, with the upcoming Amazon series possibly being an exception given its focus on the Second Age of Middle Earth.
The Hobbit trilogy itself essentially had to invent a slightly different history for the Nazgul because their actual timeline post corruption and pre Necromancer is essentially tied up with the aforementioned estate.
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Post by Mighty Attack Tribble on Oct 3, 2021 17:38:14 GMT -5
in Star Trek Discovery, apparently they had to create their own version of the TOS Constitution-class Enterprise, as they did not have the rights to? Since been debunked: The real reason is most likely the same reason why the ship interior sets don't even remotely resemble those seen in TOS - ie. "this is how they were always meant to look, we just have the visual effects technology to achieve that look now." |
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