Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[GuruAskew]

Originally Posted by Gold Ranger

The only money Fox makes off of X-Men and The Fantastic Four are from the movies themselves. Toys, clothes, TV Shows, Soap, literally everything else goes to Marvel/Disney!
Same goes for Sony with Spider-Man.

You're right, and even with Spider-Man movies that nobody likes the Spidey merch is still the most popular Marvel merch by a shocking margin, and that is a perfect illustration for why LucasFilm is worth $4 billion without the rights to release the original Star Wars film. I've spent about $100 on the original Star Wars on video over the years and probably about $25 on seeing it in theaters. I have single pieces of Star Wars merchandise that have cost two or three times that.

There is a key difference though: when it comes to future films Sony and Fox can keep Spidey and Wolvie out of Disney's hands forever. Disney WILL see a rival studio make blockbusters that gross hundreds of millions of dollars with their Marvel characters. This is not something they have to worry about with Star Wars.

And it won't be long before Spider-Man Movies reverts back to Marvel either.

Spidey won't revert back. If they want to hold onto the rights they'll crap out ridiculous movies to do it. Why do you think they were recently developing an Aunt May movie?

I actually don't think Sony will have the rights forever and I think there's credibility to the reports that Marvel is close to getting Spidey back but Sony could easily secure them forever if they wanted, and just a few years ago Amy Pascal was very open about doing just that.

Disney only gets Spidey if Sony allows it, and in an alternate universe where Sony wasn't in financial troubles and the Spider-Man film series was still a top-tier franchise Sony wouldn't even consider allowing it. Yet Disney still bought Marvel.

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

[Show spoiler]You're right, and even with Spider-Man movies that nobody likes the Spidey merch is still the most popular Marvel merch by a shocking margin, and that is a perfect illustration for why LucasFilm is worth $4 billion without the rights to release the original Star Wars film. I've spent about $100 on the original Star Wars on video over the years and probably about $25 on seeing it in theaters. I have single pieces of Star Wars merchandise that have cost two or three times that.

There is a key difference though: when it comes to future films Sony and Fox can keep Spidey and Wolvie out of Disney's hands forever. Disney WILL see a rival studio make blockbusters that gross hundreds of millions of dollars with their Marvel characters. This is not something they have to worry about with Star Wars.

Spidey won't revert back. If they want to hold onto the rights they'll crap out ridiculous movies to do it. Why do you think they were recently developing an Aunt Mae movie?

[Show spoiler]I actually don't think Sony will have the rights forever and I think there's credibility to the reports that Marvel is close to getting Spidey back but Sony could easily secure them forever if they wanted, and just a few years ago Amy Pascal was very open about doing just that.

Disney only gets Spidey if Sony allows it, and in an alternate universe where Sony wasn't in financial troubles and the Spider-Man film series was still a top-tier franchise Sony wouldn't even consider allowing it. Yet Disney still bought Marvel.

They were not making an Aunt May movie. That was debunked long ago.
And it wouldn't/couldn't be Spider-Woman because those movie rights belong to Marvel/Disney.
It was most likely Spider-Girl, but probably not Mayday...

[GuruAskew]

It's funny that you will run with any rumor that supports your position but Sony saves face by issuing a stock debunking of one of the most mocked and universally-reviled applications for the Spidey franchise and you buy it, no questions asked.

What did you expect, that they'd come out and admit it was real after realizing everyone hated it?

[Elvis]

Wow its now morphed into a Spiderman thread.

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by Elvis

Wow its now morphed into a Spiderman thread.

[GuruAskew]

I agree that we shouldn't be talking in-depth about this Spider-Man stuff but I think we can all agree that it's not inconceivable that Disney bought LucasFilm without the rights to the original Star Wars when they bought Marvel.

Wherever you stand on this debate that particular argument is worthless.

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

It's funny that you will run with any rumor that supports your position but Sony saves face by issuing a stock debunking of one of the most mocked and universally-reviled applications for the Spidey franchise and you buy it, no questions asked.

What did you expect, that they'd come out and admit it was real after realizing everyone hated it?

No, it was in the leak that it wasn't an Aunt May film.

[GuruAskew]

Originally Posted by Gold Ranger

No, it was in the leak that it wasn't an Aunt May film.

Not every single development from Sony was leaked. I never said they wrote a script or cast anyone or scouted locations. If I found out that it never advanced beyond a pitch meeting and only leaked because some low-level employee overheard it I'd believe it. But I have no doubt that Sony has considered ridiculous things to keep the rights.

[kobol]

Originally Posted by Gold Ranger

There is something that we've all been overlooking...
even though we've talked about it.
The Special Editions...
I pointed out that they stopped being officially referred to as the Special Editions back with the last VHS release.

We haven't got anything Non- Special Edition since then.
EXCEPT for the DVD ports of the Non-Anamorphic ones.

I no longer own them.
I'm sure someone here does...
Can someone check to see if they altered the Copyright on them? Not just the Disk art, but in the Credits as well?

I'm not saying that this will solve anything, but it could help to end this back and forth for the time being.

I hope.

On the non-special edition film as the credits end it says: Copyright 1977 by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. (after Copyright there is the ''c'' inside the circle)

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Gold Ranger

Sony is bleeding money bad.
The only thing really keeping them afloat right now is the PlayStation Brand.

Sony banked on Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which I love) hard.
It failed to live up to Sony's own lofty expectations.
Sinister Six, Venom/Carnage, Amazing Spider-Man 3, Female Spider Film and Amazing Spider-Man 4 have all been indefinitely postponed until they come up with some sort of plan.

There has been talk between Marvel and Sony USA about how to continue on. Sony USA doesn't want to give up or in.
Sony Japan is about to either Partner up with Marvel or outright sell back to Marvel all of the Movie rights to Spider-Man.

Sony is too big to really fail. They might get bought out and cut to ribbons, but they won't collapse. They have too much profitable and popular stuff to really die, someone would buy them and keep what's worthwhile.

Whoever takes over Sony in a hypothetical situation like that would make sure they did what they had to in order to keep the Spider-Man rights.

[Merlinpants]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

If anything should be pinned to the top of the thread it's the fact that this argument is easily disproven and worthless

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...0rights&f=true

Page 16, final paragraph on from Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace By Jonathan Bowen

Important part- finally after more than 20 years, lucas finally controlled all rights to Stars wars: a new hope

[GuruAskew]

It's just some unsourced passage from some nobody's self-published eBook?

There's a major credibility problem when it comes to the idea that Fox no longer controls the first film. The stuff that is cited to support it is embarrassing.

[Merlinpants]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

It was never officially reported, but the LA Times mentioned it in 1998 -- that no one could talk officially but inside sources indicated Lucas got Star Wars back in exchange for distribution agreements for the prequels and TV broadcast rights for at least Episode I.

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr...iness/fi-35475

Lucas owns the entire franchise except for the original film, which Fox financed for about $10 million. Though executives from Fox and Lucas' San Rafael, Calif.-based Lucasfilm Ltd. declined to elaborate on most specifics of the deal, one source hinted that in exchange for a much-lower-than-usual (likely less than 10%) distribution fee on the films plus the rights to debut "Episode I" on its Fox TV network, Fox gave Lucas the rights to the original "Star Wars," making his empire complete.

[Merlinpants]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

It's just some unsourced passage from some nobody's self-published eBook?

There's a major credibility problem when it comes to the idea that Fox no longer controls the first film. The stuff that is cited to support it is embarrassing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anticipation.../dp/0595671489

[GuruAskew]

It's still a self-published book from somebody with zero credibility. I could literally write a book that says the exact opposite and you'd be able to buy it on Amazon from the same publisher. It's a worthless source.

[GuruAskew]

"The way I organized the research materials for Anticipation was also poor, because of my lack of experience." - author Jonathan Bowen

Another gem:

"Anticipation was my first attempt at writing a book." - author Jonathan Bowen

Wait a minute... You're not Jonathan Bowen are you?

Source:

http://starwarsprequelappreciationso...owen-part-one/

And by citing my source I instantly have more credibility than Jonathan Bowen

[Merlinpants]

The way I organized the research materials for Anticipation was also poor, because of my lack of experience. I gathered the articles and sorted them into folders by year, then by month, which made sense from an archival standpoint but not when one is writing a book.

Half quote, half truth

Anticipation had a literary agent attached to it, one of the best in the world actually, but when the major publishing houses claimed it would appeal only to “a small audience of die-hard fans,” I lost support for the project and had to publish it years later through iUniverse.

[GuruAskew]

Again: ARE YOU JONATHAN BOWEN? Be honest.

And plagiarists have literary agents. People who write fraudulent memoirs have literary agents. Are you suggesting that an unproven claim of having a literary agent is an indicator of credibility?

[Merlinpants]

http://lucasfilm.com/faq

Lucasfilm manages the rights to films in the Star Wars saga and the Indiana Jones trilogy, as well as Red Tails, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Willow, and Labyrinth, and requests related to those films should be directed to ClipAndStill@Lucasfilm.com.

[GuruAskew]

And most of those are known to be controlled by other studios like Fox, Sony, Paramount etc. You're grasping at straws.

And still not denying that you're Jonathan Bowen, by the way.