Post by President Ackbar™ on Dec 11, 2017 17:22:46 GMT
Disney Won't Get Fantastic 4 Rights in Fox Purchase
The Walt Disney Company is close to acquiring 21st Century Fox’s movie and TV divisions, namely 20th Century Fox.
If a deal goes through, comic book fans may finally get to see the X-Men fight alongside the Avengers on the big screen.
However, if Disney does indeed acquire 20th Century Fox, the mutant superhero team may be moving into the MCU without the Fantastic Four.
Although it’s been long perpetuated that Fox owns the rights to Marvel’s First Family, they actually only license them; Fox doesn’t own the Fantastic Four, and they never have.
In 1983, German producer Bernd Eichinger met Lee and eventually agreed to option (not purchase) the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer’s film rights (read: production rights) for $250,000 in 1986, and he would keep the rights so long as a movie for either property entered production by end of 1992.
Eichinger then tasked B-movie producer Roger Corman with making a low-budget Fantastic Four film, an ashcan copy, just so he and his company, Constantin Films, could retain the superhero team’s rights.
Constantin Films and 20th Century Fox later spent years developing big-budget Fantastic Four movies.
Because Fox co-produced and distributed the only Fantastic Four movies ever to make it onto the big screen, they’ve been associated with the franchise in the eyes of the general public – but the Fantastic Four’s production rights aren’t theirs to sell.
The Walt Disney Company is close to acquiring 21st Century Fox’s movie and TV divisions, namely 20th Century Fox.
If a deal goes through, comic book fans may finally get to see the X-Men fight alongside the Avengers on the big screen.
However, if Disney does indeed acquire 20th Century Fox, the mutant superhero team may be moving into the MCU without the Fantastic Four.
Although it’s been long perpetuated that Fox owns the rights to Marvel’s First Family, they actually only license them; Fox doesn’t own the Fantastic Four, and they never have.
In 1983, German producer Bernd Eichinger met Lee and eventually agreed to option (not purchase) the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer’s film rights (read: production rights) for $250,000 in 1986, and he would keep the rights so long as a movie for either property entered production by end of 1992.
Eichinger then tasked B-movie producer Roger Corman with making a low-budget Fantastic Four film, an ashcan copy, just so he and his company, Constantin Films, could retain the superhero team’s rights.
Constantin Films and 20th Century Fox later spent years developing big-budget Fantastic Four movies.
Because Fox co-produced and distributed the only Fantastic Four movies ever to make it onto the big screen, they’ve been associated with the franchise in the eyes of the general public – but the Fantastic Four’s production rights aren’t theirs to sell.
