crazy off the wall probaly won't work idea

POSTED BY: ianw
UPDATED: Monday, March 26, 2007 00:56
VIEWED: 8300
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IANW

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 3:00 AM

hey guys,

I've been a phantom from the boards for some time but seeing the firefly universe in the MMO business made me look at this website again.

Up to this point, us fans have taken firefly quite a way-> the browncoats are directly responsible for "Serenity" and other media in books, music and so forth. As of December 2006 though, it looks like firefly won't make it much further- Joss hasn't been approached to create any more spinoffs and most likely won't in the future.

So what do we do?

well, i'm just offering this idea up, it can be shot down, but i'm just keeping open minded and optimistic becuase the browncoats have done things most wouldn't have dreamed of.

what would happen if we created an orginaztion, with the express purpose, to purchase the rights to the firefly?

I offer this idea with no knoledge in how much that would cost nor how that would even work, but it's got to be possible. If that said orginization purchased all FUTURE ideas and creations on firefly it could be offered to some brodcasting company (i believe HBO would be the best) at a discounted price.

Raising money and legal fees and so forth would be up to debate but let's just focus on purchasing the FUTURE creations from FOX (meaning they can still benifit from the licensing of the MMO and sales of the 1st season)

I can think of more details from there but what do you think?

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 3:08 AM

I'll tell you what man... not sure if it would be possible, but that's probably the best gorram idea that I've heard in quite a while.

Anybody have any thoughts as to where you could go about finding how much something like that would cost? I know we have some lawyer browncoats in here.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

IANW

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 3:21 AM

well, i would ASSUME that it would be in the millions, which would be quite a large task to take on ourselves- but ya know, if we got all the SCI-FI junkies included on this i bet we could bring up a sizable chunk of change. Plus, we have time on our side- we can raise money for a few years with interest it could be possible.

NEVERMORE

Friday, December 22, 2006 1:46 AM

Thats a very interesting and feh chun jing chai idea!

I dont have much money, but I'd be willing to get on board and help in anyway possible if this turns out to be viable. hell even if im just donating a couple bucks a month.

all i have to say, if the folks at applegeeks can sell a wallscroll fro nearly 600 bucks to a fan on ebay, we should be able to find some damn nutty but wealthy fans around.

ECGORDON

Friday, December 22, 2006 2:02 AM

I'm not opposed to the idea, but it is also not a new one. The major problem would be in finding the right people to manage the money and holding them responsible. When you're talking about millions, and I'm sure we are, the likelihood of some creative bookkeeping going on is almost a certainty.

Also, let's not forget Ace Underhill and firefly-season2.com, as well as whoever was responsible for trying to organize browncoats-rise-again.com. Both ran into considerable legal and financial obstacles.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

GHOULFISH

Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:24 PM

I think that the main problem we would have is with getting a lawyer. Most fans want to donate money to a cause that is guanteed to have some effect. We cant just ask for money to hire a lawyer to see if it is possible. And also because of the size of firefly's fan base we are streached over many sites. It would be hard to create an organization with a structure. We really need a leader with their own large amount of capital before asking for donations to hire a lawyer.

And if we did succeed in getting the rights a massive amount of legailities would come into effect for the organization formed.

Buying the rights is a brilliant idea but it will take a lot of work to make it happen.

JORUNE

Saturday, February 17, 2007 11:54 PM

It's a fine idea but in all fairness it's probably a very expensive idea. Does anyone know of a precedent where rights were bought and what was involved?

HELL'S KITTEN

Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ianw:
what would happen if we created an orginaztion, with the express purpose, to purchase the rights to the firefly?

So. Um....

You want to purchase the rights to Firefly from Joss...?

Or is it that you want to purchase the TV rights?

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HELL'S KITTEN

Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:36 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by jorune:
It's a fine idea but in all fairness it's probably a very expensive idea. Does anyone know of a precedent where rights were bought and what was involved?

"Rights" are bought and sold - for various reasons - all the time. Movie rights, TV rights, broadcast rights, character rights, trademarks, etc. Cost depends on a lot of things.

I can think of one example off the top o'my head, but it has to do with comic book characters sold at auction due to bankruptcy... which isn't at all applicable here. (Sorry.)

IANW

Sunday, February 18, 2007 2:59 AM

well, I believe that the first step would be to create an orginization, reconized by the IRS and gov't so for financial purposes, it would be legit. The orginization would have prez, vp, etc and it's own bank account. I'd figure, a website would need to be created in order to communicate to all the fans.

Maybe even going as far as creating a corporation that way, instead of givign donations, people would by stock. Then, with the money from investors, the purchase would be made from fox for the television rights and the corp. could go from there.

I can't predict the future of television, but with it being integrated with the internet, i believe shows will be more "on-demand" so firefly being sold individually per show on say itunes or some other medium wouldn't be crazy. This would bypass a lot of legality that brodcast companies have to have becuase the shows is not open to the public, but is open on the market and can be marketed as such.

If i had a lot fo money, i believe this would be a GREAT financial oppertuinity- but still a decent one for a corporation. Still, i'm over simplifying becuase i'm not a lawer and don't know much of the laws regarding all of this.

in theory though, this is possible i think. By the time all of this would be done though, all the actors would be commited to their career paths and probly wouldn't be able to commit. So there's a lot of money spent on rights that you'll never use. this si the "probly won't work idea" comes in lol

-ian

CITIZEN

Sunday, February 18, 2007 3:09 AM

Aren't the rights to FireFly owned by 20th Century Fox not the Fox network?

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

DROSTIE

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 4:46 AM

The question is, why do you want the rights?

We're not presently in a situation where people are trying to make Firefly stuff but being denied the rights to make it. We're in a situation where no company is making Firefly stuff in the first place.

Why not? Because there's (sadly) not much profit to be had here.

Universal Studios worked on 19 films in 2005. They made substantial profit margins on all but four of them -- Serenity, Doom, Two for the Money, and The Producers. Serenity, after worldwide gross, broke even, and the other three were losses.

Most of Universal's total profit margin was made up, in 2005, out of three pictures: King Kong (cost: $207 million, world gross: $549 million), The 40-Year Old Virgin (c: $ 26 M, wg: $151 M), and Pride and Prejudice (c: $ 28 M, wg: $93 M).

Compare with poor li'l Serenity (c: $39 M, wg: $39 M). It was endowed with the normal (median) budget of a 2005 Universal Pictures film, and yet it didn't provide any real profit whatsoever. Maybe it didn't cause a loss (unlike Doom, which they lost about $4 million on) -- but no profit, either.

By contrast, Universal's other 2005 films had a normal (median) return-on-investment of ~100%. Universal Studios was hoping to see Serenity gross $78 M worldwide, or so. It was sorely let down.

If Serenity had either large profits (like King Kong), or a large return on investment (like The 40 Year Old Virgin), we'd see sequel opportunities. But Serenity had neither -- so a sequel is highly unlikely.

It's not the rights that you need to worry about -- it's the profits.

IANW

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 4:09 PM

the profits aren't a concern though. We want to break even becuase the stock holders sole reason to owning stock is to make it possible to buy the rights and create more firefly, weither sold to a production company or leased to some small firm that can sell the episodes individually via the internet.

i didn't say this was an easy task becuase it's far beyond the box in terms of conventionality. It's possible- but a lot of risk is involved and herin, probaly wouldn't work becuase of that risk factor.

i started this thread to see if anyone can expand off my ideas and maybe come up witha better one. unfortuinately, that hasn't happened.

it's fun to brainstorm though right?

MSG

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 4:13 PM

Well it would depend on the wording of Joss's contract. If he had time periods built in for the show to be optioned/ canceled/ and opened up then we likely could get our hands on it. If however he didn't specify time period under which control rights reverted or became open to purchase, then we'd be dependent on the good will of Fox to be willing to relinquish those rights ( and I don't think that looks good 'cause they're still making a steady stream of revenue from the box sets and such and of course from allowing SciFi to air the episodes on occasion) So it all depends on Joss and how the contract was set. Some films do not ever become open options and others do. If we could get a copy of the contract to the lawyers they should be able to tell us if it's possible and what would need to be done to secure purchasing rights. I still think we might be able to convince Fox to do some made for tv movies ( like they did with Alien Nation after the fans protested the cancellation for so long) if they see some profit in it.

"I'm not all that interested in the mental health of people who want to kill me. "- Leroy Jethro Gibbs

DOROTHEA

Monday, March 26, 2007 12:56 AM

It's been a while since I visited the boards. I guess I'm sort of resigned to the fact that Firefly/Serenity is finished. This thread sort of has reawakened my enthusiasm though...

Do we really have to buy the rights? That's already so much money without us having anything to show for it. What if we just raised the money for some studio to make a sequel? Maybe the fans could get back whatever they put in and the studio could get the profits, if there were any... Firefly cost like 40 million, rihgt?