New Doc Savage Movie - Rights Have Been Licensed!!!
Tahir
Nast lawyer in charge of the copyrights to Doc Savage. Let me go back
and provide some background for this post.
Over a year ago Mary, a long-time Doc fan, sent me a copy of a letter
she got from this same lawyer. They could not grant her permission for
making a Doc product as Conde Nast told her they were close to making a
deal for a new Doc movie and they could not allow third parties to make
Doc items as there would be a merchandising component to the new movie.
As the letter had Jerry's e-mail, I decided to see what would happen
with an e-mail query for more specifics about this possible movie. This
was his reply back in October of 2005:
"The only thing I can tell you at this time is that we have excellent
producer and a top notch director interested in doing a new Doc Savage
movie, and that we are in serious discussions with a major studio for
rights to the film. At this point I cannot say more, but we are very
hopeful of concluding a deal in the near future. Thank you for your
interest. Hopefully soon I can tell you more."
After I posted this other members of this group told me that this was
not the standard or typical response from the Conde Nast lawyers in
charge of Doc Savage.
Just yesterday I decided to send Jerry another e-mail to see if
anything has transpired on the Doc Savage movie front. He promptly sent
me this e-mail back today:
Dear Mr. Bhatti:
"I am pleased to tell you that the movie rights have been licensed to a
major studio, as referred to below (this referring the last e-mail he
had sent, which is written above). I cannot provide any more detail at
this time, but we are very excited."
Jerry
It may be moving at a snails pace, but the rights have been licensed.
Now we as Doc fans have to do some digging to see if we have any
contacts to learn what studio got the rights and who is the director,
producer, etc?
If any one has any clues or leads, please speak up.
Thanks, Tahir
lokke...@yahoo.com
> If any one has any clues or leads, please speak up.
>
> Thanks, Tahir
I don't have clues or leads, but basically Doc has been in "development
limbo" for about 20 years. Some movement happened when Arnold S.'s
people got into the game, which you probably know about already, but
his involvement in politics has made him probably very uninterested in
pursuing this, and frankly he's already too old to play the part. He
might, at some point play producer, though.
It's very common in Hollywood to snap up options to material like Doc,
because the cost of an option is relatively cheap, so they have little
to lose. They buy an option, then renew the option every 3-5 years or
so, depending on which way the weather is blowing. This can go on for
decades. We'd be approaching PD time soon, except &*(&% congress
extended copyright to go on basically forever, for material after 1922.
Having said that, it's all about attachment. If someone with a little
muscle, say Joe Dante, or an actor riding some success, shows an
interest, things can happen.
If someone out there wants to do a little homework, a phone call to
whatever production company Arnold has ties to would be the start. A
few phone calls might tell you who has the current rights. Unless you
have some inside connections, though, it is almost only of academic
interest.
Dave
won't be made than on movies thatwill be made.
And yet, SNAKES ON A PLANE?
Dave
lokke...@yahoo.com
As strange as it may seen, Snakes on a Plane is a "high concept" film
in the sense that you can get the entire idea of the film in four
words. True, you may want to call it a "low concept" film, but that's
arguing semantics.
So SoaP is a high concept film that sells itself. As filled as
loathing as I am for what has happened to Hollywood films, if I had 20
million to invest, I have to admit I'd probably come on board a lot
faster for that film, than say an attempt to do a film on an action
hero from a series of pulp stories written more than half a century ago.
Anim8rFSK
"lokke...@yahoo.com" <lokke...@yahoo.com> wrote:
And yet the studio tried to force them to change the name to Assault on
Flight 121 or something equally lame.
--
"He'll succumb to all who find
DOC SAVAGE! DOC SAVAGE!"
Hey, that's what we THOUGHT the words were,
first time we saw the movie in the theater . . .