Contract, Rights & Money by FyrFly

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Contract, Rights & Money

POSTED BY: FYRFLY
UPDATED: Monday, February 26, 2007 13:56
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Monday, February 26, 2007 12:53 PM

I am new to the Browncoats. I am not a lawyer. I am merely trying to figure this out…
Please feel free to correct any errors I may have inadvertently made.

Does any body REALLY know what the contract for ‘Firefly’ specifies?
Also, where do the actual property rights for ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’ lie?
(Meaning, who ultimately holds the cards?)

Although I personally believe that Fox ultimately holds onto the contract & rights for ‘Firefly’, there is some confusion.

I’ve been doing some research around the internet in regards to this topic, and I am finding it difficult to find any concrete answers on this one. Most of what I’m finding is speculative and/or unverified.

I have read that Fox’ contracts allow them to hold the property/broadcast rights for 10 years. In which case, Fox can sit on the program until either: 1) someone pays the amount of money that they want or 2) until the time runs out or 3) they see it as a viable money-maker and restart the project.

I’ve read that Joss was shopping around to the various stations trying to sell ‘Firefly’ after it was dropped from Fox. I’m assuming that he was trying to sell the off Fox’ contract with all rights intact and that he (Joss) doesn’t hold those rights.

[Another issues that has occurred to me: Would Joss be willing to even work Fox again if they hypothetically decided to restart this project? Or would he set this project aside (as a TV series) because of an unwillingness to work with them?]

The SciFi Channel apparently has bought some of the broadcast rights, but to what extent? Did they buy just the rights to Broadcast the already made episodes ONLY? It appears that this is the case.

On the topic of the BDM, what rights did Universal purchase (if any) to make this film? Was this just an overlooked stipulation of the Fox contract? By this, I mean that the ‘Serenity’ contract is not at all connected to the ‘Firefly’ contract. If this were the case, it would make sense that our favorite crew would continue on the big screen as ‘Serenity’ and not as a TV series.

I have read in several places that Universal has a contract to do ‘Serenity’ as a three film series. Of course, continuing as a movie would be dependent on ratings and how well the movie did monetarily and whether or not they wanted to take another chance on it. I have read that this contract runs out at the end of 2007.

[However, I have also read others state that Universal has a 3 movie contract WITH rights to continue the series on TV - which would mean that Universal has all of the rights for ‘Firefly’ AND ‘Serenity’. I don’t believe this to be the case.]

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Is this just a matter of contracts & rights?
What are the specifics to the contract(s)?

Or is this also a matter of, even with rights, the willingness to bankroll and support the Firefly project?

Is there something else I missed that I am unaware of?

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More than anything I would like to see this series continue – I would prefer as a TV series, but movies would also be good.

Does anybody have any concrete information/thoughts/ideas on this topic?

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Monday, February 26, 2007 1:47 PM

HELL'S KITTEN

It's quite simple!

* Joss holds creator's rights to everything
* FOX holds the TV rights
* Universal holds the Movie rights
* Universal (who owns Sci Fi) purchased the syndication rights in order to broadcast the series

Until such time as the contract(s) expire:
* Joss can't do more TV without FOX's permission
* Joss can't make another movie without Universal's permission
* And neither FOX nor Universal can do anything without Joss' permission

See? Simple! *snikker*

You are not getting anything "concrete" on the whole situation because, at least in my experience, contracts are confidential. (Not to mention that this industry is mighty wacky when it comes down to how things are done.)

'Versal's goal for Serenity was to get a trilogy out of it, so they contracted everyone involved for a certain period of time. Box Office for the movie didn't do as well as hoped, so there has been no published movement on a sequel (that I'm aware of).

Quote:
I have also read others state that Universal has a 3 movie contract WITH rights to continue the series on TV

This, I have not heard. I imagine there are two ways this could happen:
(1) 'Versal purchased the contract from FOX
(2) 'Versal plans on doing a spin-off, not a continuation of Firefly, thereby getting around the Firefly TV rights contract (??)

I did hear a snippit about a "spin-off" at the Universal Serenity thing the weekend the movie premiered, from either Buchanan or Baldwin (can't remember), but there are no details to that.

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Monday, February 26, 2007 1:56 PM

FYRFLY

Wow. Thanx.

You answered my quesion quite handily and quickly.

Yep - thats what I wanted to know...

Thank you, Hell's Kitchen!

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