RE: Oddjob0226
And yet.... there was the Freddy Vs. Jason movie, and the Aliens Vs. Predator film. Heck, Mark McClure/Jimmy Olsen showed up in Supergirl! It may take 10 or 15 years, but if there is some money to be made in it, it'll happen.
Freddy versus Jason was a fluke. Mostly studios don't want to mix properties because they have to share the revnue. Aliens and Predator are both owned by the same company, FOX, so that is a no brainer. Jimmy Olsen showed up in Supergirl because at the time Illya Salkind owned both the rights to turn both the Superman and Supergirl characters into movies. Warners owned D.C. Comics and the characters, but they did not own the movies. As with Superman, Warner Brothers only had distribution rights to the films. The Salkinds raised the funds and paid for the filming of the first three Superman movies and Supergirl. Warner's was supposed to have originally distributed Supergirl for the Salkind's as well, but after seeing it's fist cut, the company didn't see it making a profit, and sold their distribution rights to Tri-Star.
There have only been a few movies that have been co-produced by two movie studios. The only 3 that I can think of are:
Dragonlsayer-Originally produced solely by Disney, but when it went over budget, Paramount came in and put money in to complete it and so it was released through Paramount.
Titanic-Originally a 20th Century Fox production. Again, due to the soaring budget that was not forseen when production began, Paramount came and in picked up the tab to complete the film in exchange for video distribution rights. This is why it was released in the theaters by FOX, but it is on Paramount Home video.
Ridley Scott's Legend-Funded by both companies with Universal having the American distribution theatrical rights, and 20th Century Fox having the foreign theatrical distribution rights. That is one of the reasons why, on the DVD, there are two versions of the film. Although, the DVD has "A universal Production" for the original 20th Century Fox release because Universal bought the rights from FOX and paid for the minor re-edit and restoration for the Directors Cut on the DVD. The Directors cut varies very slightly from the original FOX foreign version.
Now as far as Sony and Fox joining forces, that will never happen as now it is easier, and cheaper to finish films digitally the when the two films above where made. The problems that caused both productions to seek out completion investment from another studio is not an issue anymore.
This is also why The Hobbit has not, or had not, been made into a movie with the other movies. I believe MGM owns the rights to distribute The Hobbit, but New Line (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers) has the rights to make it. They are battling it out in court now. Why would New Line make a movie that they can't make the money that was made by the Rings movies. If they only made it, they would have to sell it to MGM, and MGM would make the bucko bucks. New line doesn't want to do that. After all, Return of the King alone made over 900 million. If they made it and sold it to MGM to distribute, they could only sell it for about 200 mill. MGM knows a Hobbit movie, given the track record and already built in advertising for it they would have from the Rings movies. would make them a hell of a lot of money and they don't have to produce it. See why they are fighting it out in courts? Jackson says it will take years to fight out between the two, and he doesn't mind as he wants to make King Kong. He does want to make it.
To go on further, this is also why you haven't seen, and you wont see, a DVD or Video Box Set for the Halloween Movies. Mustapha Aakad owns the rights to the character, and is the producer, but he has generated the funds to make the films from different companies. Anchor Bay owns the distrubution rights to Halloween 1, 4, and 5. Universal produced, and owns the rights to Halloween 2 and 3, distributed on video and DVD through their subsidiary Good Times Video. Halloween 6, 7, and 8, are owned and distributed by Dimmension films, a subsidiary of Disney. None of the current rights holders wants to go in on a box set as they would have to divey up the earnings. However, one company would have to come up with the cost of making all the new DVD's and packaging, and they would have to be the actual distibutor of the set, and therefor take more of the profit per whatever agreement all of the companie make. Because of this, until the distribution rights passes on all of the different films, and one company buys all of them up, you will never ever see a box set of all of them together. To make matters worse, if Aakad makes a 9, he might have another distibutor, so there is another film that will not be in with 6, 7, and 8.
Now Spiderman 2 did what Richard Donner wanted to do with Superman 2. When the simultaneous shooting of Superman 1 and 2 was going over time and budget, and the production was going to be kicked out of Pinewood Studios so that the next James Bond film could come in as contracted, Warner's stepped in, at the behest of Donner, with aditional funding and mandated they finish Superman 1 with the time they had, and finish the sequel later. That is why Donner got fired from the completion shoot for Supeerman 2 by the Salkind's. They were mad because he went to Warner's behind their backs. It is also why the Salkind's had (some debate here as to the actual ammount of change for the reshoot) 40 to 70 percent of the sequel re-written and reshot with another director, Richard Lester. This is because the Directors Guild of America mandated that in order for a production to change the name of a films director, a certain percentage of the film had to be shot by the new director. Although this page doesn't go into that part of the detail, you can see how much the film was changed from it's original version to the new, crappier one, (
see here)that got released. That is why Lois Lane and Superman look different in the new scenes, especially when they were intercut with scenes shot 3 years before. Margot Kidder got into a car accident prior to the reshoots, and lost 20 pounds. Reeve had trained with Schwartzenegger for the sequel reshoots, and is about 10 to 15 pounds heavier. Gene Hackman refused to be a part of the reshoots becuase of what the Salkinds were doing; and because he was only contracted to shoot all of his scenes during the inital shooting of 1 and 2, so there was a body double and voice imitator for his scenes. Also, the suit is darker blue for the reshoots. The original Donner version of Superman 2 was to have started this way (
See script and images here). And in the original version of 2. Lois figures out clark is Superman (
see script and shot images here), then confronts him with it (
see script and shot images here), then jumps out of the window at the Daily planet to try to get Clark to change to Superman and save her, but he does another way (
See script and shot images from original scene here). There are scenes of Jor-El (Marlon Brando) originally shot that it is he, not Lara, who lectures Clark about not giving up his powers up for love (
see images from scene and script here). Clark argues with his father that he does not want to go on with the mission, and that he wants a chance to be happy like everyone else. Jor-El's projected spirit runs up and glares at Lois, who is hiding behind Clark, before Clark actively gives up his powers. And unlike the current version where Clark finds the green shard left on the ground by Lois, and the scene ends. But that was only the beginging of the scene. In the original version (
see here),Jor-El gives up the lifeforce that creates the hologram, giving all of his energy to his son so that he can have his powers back, then dies. That is why at the end of the Donner version of Superman 2, Clark destroys the Fortress of Solitude in anger over the loss of his father, and the fact that he is resigned to never having a life with the woman he loves (See Script and images and video from this
here). As you can see from the two video clips of Lois and Clark ,after he has destroyed the Fortress of Solitude, realizing their love can never be (
left click and save as to see clip here). Donner's version is much richer, deeper, and personal. And there is no kiss of forgetfullness crap. In the Donner version Lois still knows he is Superman, and the both of them are still very much in love with each other, and they have to go on with their lives never being able to be with each other (
left click and save as to see clip here). This 'love that could never be' was a theme that Donner and Mankelwitcz planned to expand upon further in their planned sequels to the first two films. But instead we got Richard Pryor and Lana Lang in Superman 3. There is a petitition to get Warners to release the original Donner cut for Superman 2, which , according to recent interview with Margot Kidder (who has seen the original Donner version) states that it is in a vault somewhere in England and drastically different, and much better, then the film that was released. She also says that there are parties that are refusing to allow this version to be released.
)
