"If that's the case, then I have a suggestion for that." Alexander said, "Actually, if we really want the copyright of a superhero, we don't necessarily have to buy it from Marvel, we can also buy it from someone else, which may save more money, and the copyright may be better." ”

Now that he had agreed with Levy, Alexander began to offer his proposal. And his suggestion only made Levy frown, "It's even more impossible for DC's copyright to make a move, right?" Da Chao and the old man are both cash cow-like existences, and they have to give DC money when their images are used in commercials, how can Warner sell these characters? ”

There are many comic book companies in the United States, but DC and Marvel together monopolize 70% of the market. If you want to shoot a well-known hero, it is natural for these two companies. DC is a subsidiary of Warner, it is impossible to sell the copyright, and if you want to buy the copyright, in Levy's opinion, you can only find Marvel.

"I'm not talking about DC, I'm saying that we can consider buying the superhero rights that Marvel has left out from other studios."

Lost copyright? Levy still didn't understand, but Alexander immediately began to explain.

Marvel didn't have its own film department, so in the early years, if they wanted to make a movie, they had to sell the rights to the production company.

In the early days, Marvel sold a lot of copyrights. It's just that they signed a contract with a stipulation that if they don't shoot a movie for ten years, the copyright will be automatically withdrawn. It's hard to make this kind of movie repeatedly within ten years, for example, the Punisher was made in '88, but when the Punisher's copyright expired, Marvel took back the copyright - and then sold it to Lionsgate again without discipline and made a fortune again......

There are not a few such wandering copyrights now, and if Levy really wants to, he can try to buy them.

"If you want to talk about the copyright of other companies, I'm not sure if it's for sale, but I think it shouldn't be difficult for us to try to buy the copyright of Fox's X-Men."

The news Alexander said was a little unclear to Levy, he inquired in detail, and only then did he understand the cause and effect: as early as the 80s, Marvel was thinking about making movies, and they sold the movie rights of Spider-Man to Carlock in 85, and in 90, they sold it to Carlock X-Men. So, in the early 90s, the Carlock company was also preparing to shoot Spider-Man, and they hired James Cameron as a screenwriter and director to let him plan the film shooting.

It's just that, because in the early 90s, the Terminator was filmed well, and Cameron was preparing for the filming of Terminator 2 at that time. It's a pity that Cameron himself is a technical freak, and in the original comics, Spider-Man himself made a spider silk ejector that the United States invested countless times and did not succeed in researching for five years, such details are completely unacceptable in his opinion, so he made major changes to the script, and Spider-Man sprayed spider silk from his wrist instead of the comic book version of the homemade device, which was his idea. By the time he had written the script for Spider-Man, the Carlock company had gone out of business. The copyrights to these two works flowed into Marvel, and Marvel first wanted to sell them to Sony, and after Sony refused to buy them, they sold the rights to Fox.

Tossing copyright back and forth is quite time-consuming. It wasn't until 94 that Fox bought the copyright, but it was less than a year before the expiration of Spider-Man's copyright. It wasn't until this time that Fox found out that Marvel had made a stumbling block in the contract - they only bought the production rights of the movie, and the distribution rights were sold by Marvel to Sony. In other words, if Fox makes a movie, he loses his own money, and wins and gives Sony a share. Fox is unwilling to suffer this kind of big loss, so although James Cameron approached them and asked to shoot Spider-Man, Fox thought that they needed to fight with Sony to get the copyright, and then they had to shoot it in a short period of time before the copyright expired, the process was too difficult, and they refused to invest.

This made the Spider-Man copyright, which was sold in 85, not filmed at all, and went around and returned to Marvel, which changed hands again and sold them to Sony. Cameron was obsessed with this until Fox agreed to shoot the big ship. ――Even he thinks so, Fox spent money to sell the copyright but didn't shoot anything, and the loss is not small, so he is naturally even more angry.

And what makes Fox even more depressed is that the X-Men copyright is still in their hands, after 95 years, the box office failure of Batman in 97 makes people shy away from superhero movies all of a sudden, and the X-Men's copyright still expires in three years, whether to invest in filming or not, this problem is enough to make Fox sick to home. If you invest, how can you guarantee that you will not lose money? Batman has just lost a shocking loss, this is the Batman whose influence is firmly in the top three in the United States! Although the X-Men are also the second most influential in Marvel, second only to Spider-Man's comics, they are still far behind, and they are group heroes, who is to blame? If you don't invest, will you wait for the copyright of X-Men and Spider-Man to expire and go back automatically? Isn't that also a stable loss?

For Fox, it's a dilemma. It's not easy to do if they've already been cheated once - in Levy's memory, they only made the film in 2000, not necessarily because they couldn't make up their minds.

"If we bid a high price to buy it, they will definitely sell it. There are only three years left, and the market is not optimistic, and they probably will not object. It's just that you have to think about it, what we bought is a dilemma. ”

Alexander's idea is closer to Fox's: it is difficult to decide whether this film should be filmed or not.

"Moreover, not only the X-Men, but also the Fantastic Four, if you are not afraid of disputes, you can also negotiate with Marvel and buy it."

Alexander introduced the situation of another film: the Fantastic Four series, which was sold to Constantine in 1986. Because there was an agreement to take back the copyright, in order to keep the copyright, the Constantine company played rather shamelessly: they made a low-budget film in 1992 as a 'trash can copy', that is, the film was not for sale, but to preserve the copyright. And in fact, the film was never released.

But no matter how clumsy the means, the film rights are indeed in the hands of Constantine now. If Levy really thinks he can shoot it, he can buy the rights.

Listening to Alexander's introduction, Levy also smiled speechlessly: he didn't pay much attention to superhero movies before, and he took Marvel's propaganda that the technology was immature before the 21st century, so he didn't shoot it seriously. But look at how happy they are to sell the copyright, they have been selling since the 80s, and they have been preparing to make movies since the 80s, saying that they don't want to make movies, which is really overestimating their temperament. It's not that they don't want to shoot at all, it's that they don't have the conditions to shoot.

And think about it again, if they are really full of discipline and resolutely refuse to sell the adaptation rights of their works for the quality of their works, where will they quarrel so much in the future because they can't recover the copyright? Marvel's funeral festival is not necessarily less.

This news is a little different from what Levi knew, but being able to hear it also allowed Levi to find a possible way. Marvel's economic crisis began in 96, and now the copyrights they are willing to sell are almost sold. Captain America, Iron Man, they don't want to sell, and there is no need to buy heroes who are too bad, if they can buy more popular heroes from others, it would be great.

"Contact Fox to see if we can buy the rights to the X-Men." "If Fox feels that it is too much of a loss, we can negotiate with them: we buy the production rights of the film, they keep the distribution rights, and we can promise that a movie will be released within three years, otherwise we will compensate them." ”

As soon as these words came out, Alexander was a little surprised: this is tantamount to gambling on his own, with the current market of superhero movies, is it appropriate to make such a gamble?

Of course, it's not hard to buy the rights to the film: if they were just buying the production rights, Fox would have been happy to buy it. Such a movie, even if Fox shoots it himself, he has to contact other film production companies, and they can keep the distribution rights and share the money, and they are not in a hurry about shooting.

"Again, contact Constantine and buy the rights to their Fantastic Four. Say hi to Marvel, they should be willing to help us. ”

Needless to say: Constantine's hand was so vicious that the movie even called Stan Lee to shoot, but it was not released after filming, which was completely a joke. Although the Enigma Company has not made a superhero movie, it also makes a better impression than the Konstantin Company. Although Constantine Company retains the copyright, they have already lost their reputation, and they can only sell it for money if they keep the copyright, and it is not difficult for Mystery Company to buy the copyright.

"After buying the rights, are you really ready to shoot the movie right away?"

"Just put it there for now - anyway, the X-Men expire in 2000, and the Fantastic Four expire in 02, so there's no hurry. Now the priority is to buy a special effects company and shoot my new movie. The New Year is almost here, and I don't want to spend another year preparing a movie, this time let's be quick, this movie, I hope it will be released in the summer. ”