Hollywood What If Chapter 246
The movie copyrights of Spider-Man were quite complicated. Sony-Columbia and MGM believed that both companies had stakes over the copyrights.
There was a Spider-Man TV show back in the 70s, titled The Amazing Spider-Man. It was aired on CBS, with one of the producers Colombia Pictures Television(before Sony).
Another adaptation was the Japanese version with the title of Spider-Man, or Supaidāman, also referred to as Japanese Spider-Man or Toei Spider-Man. The production company of this TV show was Toei Company. Produced in the 70s as well.
So yeah, the copyrights of this superhero character were complicated.
After some legal stuff, the copyrights returned to its original holder, which was Marvel Comics.
MGM and Sony-Columbia had some disputes over these copyrights, trying to figure out which company should acquire the movie adaptation. In the end, the two companies fixed the problem and Sony-Columbia rightly bought the copyright from Marvel Comics.
When Sony-Columbia acquired the superhero, a famous director expressed his intentions to be the director of the movie. It was none other than James Cameron.
He has been interested in this superhero since a long time ago. The initial plan was already set up, the project was approved by the management as well. The budget was brought up, Sony would invest in the movie.
However, perhaps because of some negotiations, James Cameron stepped down before the project officially started. Well, someone like James Cameron was hard to hire. Another thing, James Cameron had the habit of overspending and his projects were usually late the schedule. Perhaps this was the factor why James Cameron didn't get the position.
James Cameron already recommended that he wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to be Peter Parker and Sony-Columbia felt like it was adequate, knowing that the young actor was super famous after the success of Titanic.
Then, Sony-Columbia felt like Sam Raimi, the director of Evil Dead, could fit the position of director for this project. Sam Raimi was not only good at horror movies, he was good at other genres as well. Sony-Columbia decided to hire the director because his salary sat well with them.
Everyone thought that the project was already on the right track. The director, producer, budget, and production crew, the initial stage was happening.
Yet three days before Sam Raimi could sign the contract, he found that his wife was two months pregnant.
Working on a movie would take months or a year to be finished. Sam Raimi knew that so he decided to decline the project and put his attention to his wife.
Was this an intervention? Or perhaps the original timeline was already gone since 1994. The year when a certain man started his career and slowly became successful.
Anyway, Sam Raimi was now out of the future. Because of that, Sony-Columbia struggled to find a director who could take over the project.
The company already invested almost $5 million for the initial stage and this amount would go to waste if they postponed the production. It was painful for them.
Suddenly, the current CEO of Sony-Columbia, Frank Price, recalled that Grey Pictures had a nice relationship with them. Furthermore, Marvel Comics hinted that they wanted to meet Kazir Grey.
Yes, Frank Price was interested in Kazir Grey to be the director of Spider-Man. The man said that he wanted to cooperate with the Big Six again. As long as the conditions were right, perhaps Kazir would agree to be the director of Spider-Man.
For the record, Kazir Grey had a better portfolio than other directors. All of his movies this past five years were all blockbusters. None of them suffered loss, not even John Wick.
Frank Price believed that Kazir had the talent, charisma, and authority to be the director of this movie.
Sony-Columbia knew that they were the lowest of the Big Six and they needed a franchise that could save them from destruction. Bruce Almighty was going to be released next month but that was another story.
All Frank Price and the management of Sony-Columbia wanted was that their projects wouldn't lose against the rivals.
Since Kazir Grey was the hottest director right now and his filmography was amazing, Sony-Columbia had no problem with hiring him.
Now, this was where the problem happened. Apparently, Warner Bros, Walt Disney, and 20th Century Fox had the same intention as Sony-Columbia.
They wanted Kazir to be the director of their respective movie.
In Frank Price's opinion, the strongest opponent would be 20th Century Fox. After all, the success of Star Wars was very high. Star Wars was not a movie, this was a culture. People would not hesitate to spend their money on buying tickets for Star Wars.
Surely, if Kazir didn't want to gamble his career, the man would choose the safest movie.
Yet, here they were, in the office, where Frank Price and Salvatore Barlowe were having negotiation.
"My client wants a 2525 contract and a 10% profit share of videotapes/DVDs, merchandise, and other peripherals related to Spider-Man."
"..."
As expected, Salvatore Barlowe would ask for something extravagant. Well, his client had the right to do so, considering that his latest movie was still making huge money.
As of July 21, 2000, Wanted just made $404.62 million. The international release of Wanted already happened two weeks ago and the international box office was around $134 million.
Combined, the worldwide box office of Wanted was $538 million. With that as a reference, Kazir Grey had the status to ask for a high contract.
Furthermore, Sony-Columbia was not the only company that wanted to work with Kazir Grey. The other companies were definitely ready to snatch Kazir.
None of the Big Six knew that Kazir had no intention of working with 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney.
Star Wars was criticized by so many people while John Carter was not promising.
Kazir's attention was on Spider-Man and Harry Potter. These two had a high chance of being successful.
Sony-Columbia and Grey Pictures had a negotiation for about two weeks. In the end, Sony-Columbia did its best to lower the contract down to 2525 deal 10% videotapes/DVDs and peripherals profit share.
Hollywood What If Chapter 247
The problem with Spider-Man was the profit sharing. Note that Marvel Comics had a share of this because they were the rightful owner of the copyrights. Marvel Comics was just renting it to Sony-Columbia. If Salvatore Barlowe fought for such a big cut of profit share, then it would be bad for Sony-Columbia.
Yet, the Spider-Man project was already late on schedule and more money would be wasted if Frank didn't make a decision.
"... 2727 contract and 7% peripherals profit share."
In the end, Frank Price decided to increase the salary and box office share and lower the peripherals' profit share.
Frank Price kept his face serious. The two stared at each other. A few seconds later, Salvatore Barlowe nodded.
"Alright."
"I'm glad to hear that."
Frank Price sighed secretly.
Salvatore Barlowe knew that it would be hard for Sony-Columbia to let go of their peripherals profit and Kazir agreed with the 7%.
The two sides actually fought hard just to reach this amount.
Now that the two sides agreed. They have to finalize the contract and Kazir would sign it.
Sony-Columbia was in a desperate situation. In this case, they might as well choose the best director out there who could give them a lot of money. After all, they couldn't fuck up Spider-Man intentionally, it was written in the contract between Sony-Columbia and Marvel Comics.
All they hoped was that Spider-Man had at least half of the performance that Wanted had right now. Oh boy they were wrong, it was more than half. The Spider-Man trilogy was the start of the superhero movie era.
...
...
...
"So you're telling me that both sides made an agreement?"
Michael Eisner asked his secretary, quite disheveled. He thought Walt Disney had the chance to work with Kazir Grey.
'I can't understand, I thought we had an initial agreement.'
At that time, four of the Big Six had an initial agreement with Kazir Grey. But of course, Kazir could only promise one project at a time. He could not work with all of them.
The old man sat down and sighed with defeat. He did his best though. He promised Kazir a contract that only a few directors had the privilege of getting. Yet it seemed that the guy was more interested in working with a washed superhero from a broke comic company...
"Anyway, the project is still ongoing. We can hire other directors... Try contacting Fremont Smith, and ask him if he is interested. As long as the conditions can be met, we can work with him."
Most of Kazir's movies were original scripts except for The Bourne Identity. Since that was the case, they might as well look for others.
Fremont Smith was related to the Continental Cinematic Universe and he had an idea of how Cinema Universe works. He fit the criteria.
"Yes sir."
The secretary left, quite tense because the Chairman was clearly in a bad mood.
"Kazir, are you still mad about what happened back then?"
Walt Disney and Universal Pictures joined hands together to defame Kazir, and behind them was WMA.
"Or perhaps you didn't like that we didn't kick Harvey Weinstein out of the company?"
Honestly, he should have done it. Now, Harvey Weinstein was like a rat in the wooden wall, slowly destroying the house he built. The fat guy kept sucking up to Roy Disney.
Harvey was still trying to hide from the public after the incident of the Blair Witch Project. But he was active in company politics.
Now, Chairman Michael Eisner felt that his days in his position were going to end... Perhaps it the time to retire.
"No, I love the authority that I have. It's impossible to leave this job, this drug, that keeps me and my ego high."
This John Carter, this movie should be successful.
"I should talk to Steve Jobs too. Walt Disney needs Pixar."
...
...
...
Having a contract like the one had right now was the highest and absurd contract he had in his lifetime.
What?
2727 contract with videotapes/DVDs/merchandise/peripherals 7% profit share?
Kazir would receive half of the $27 million at the start of the production, then the latter half would be sent to his bank account once the project was done.
Half of $27 million was $13.5 million. Meaning, that Kazir immediately had that amount in just the first day of his job.
But this stuff didn't matter.
At this moment, Kazir was just the most sought director and Sony-Columbia was insane enough to agree.
Here was the thing, in the next two decades, James Cameron earned at least $95 million for being the director of Avatar 2. So yeah, the Big Six was insane enough to hire people for that amount.
Anyway, Kazir's side and Sony-Columbia's side finalized the contract.
Sony-Columbia wanted Kazir to sign a trilogy contract but Kazir could only promise 2 movies. The two sides compromised and the profit sharing of peripherals and such lowered down to 6%.
So yeah, it was now 2727 and 6% peripherals profit share. Was it a loss? In my opinion, no it was not... That amount was so freaking huge.
The two sides signed a contract and the project officially started.
However, Kazir realized that this job was not that simple at all. He realized that the project was in shambles.
First, the production crew. Kazir has to hire his crew members from Grey Pictures. So now, the production crew responsible for the project was Grey Pictures. But this was the first time these crew members worked for the Big Six after The Hangover and they were adjusting.
The second was the creative team of Marvel. Of course people from the Marvel Comics would participate. Especially Stan Lee, the man himself.
Because this project was an adaptation and Kazir didn't have absolute authority, it was hard to put his opinion on some matters.
Another problem was the producer. The producer was mostly responsible for the financial stuff and governing of the staff, she was from Sony-Columbia and Kazir had no working experience with her.
Let's just say that she had a thing with women. No, not that thing, she hated women. Especially beautiful and sexy women, she hated them for some reason and that affected their project.
[I'll write two chapters again tomorrow.]