The Rebooted "Keep Hope Alive" (that the rights can revert back to Marvel) Thread - Part 7

[Dark Raven]

Can Sony sell off certain properties to different companies? They could sell off Spider-Man to Marvel/ Disney. Would Disney really want to buy everything else? That would be rather a lot to have to spend. They'd get James Bond, but is that really a Disney brand? What we don't want is someone else acquiring all these properties, especially someone like Fox. Weren't Fox interested in potentially acquiring Sony's TV/ Movie division, or was that someone else?

 

[Orba]

One factor in what happens is the question of how much having the Spider-Man film rights adds to the value of Sony's film and tv division. Just how much did Disney offer Sony for the rights and was it greater than the effect it would have on the value of the Sony portfolio. It may be that it would be better to sell the rights back to Disney than to sell them as a part of a larger bundle.

When you think about it how much value does the Spider-Man rights to companies outside of Disney, the most valuable part of the franchise is the mechandising, which Sony don't have. Some have estimated that the last film may have made as little as $25million profit (which is horrible considering the money it cost to make) so the only real potential the franchise has atm is due to the fact that Marvel have taken over the production. In any sale negotiation Disney could threaten to pull out of the current agreement, greatly lowering the value of the rights since anyone taking over would have to do their own reboot.

So I can see in the case of a sale Disney making a deal for the rights to return due to the fact that they can make it so that the rights have far less value to others that might be interested.

 

[Dark Raven]

If they have another Spidey reboot, this time Aunt May will be in high school with him.

 

[harryoscop]

Lol if Spidey gets rebooted again.

Well, at least he'd likely be an adult.

 

[Zarex]

Can Sony sell off certain properties to different companies? They could sell off Spider-Man to Marvel/ Disney. Would Disney really want to buy everything else? That would be rather a lot to have to spend. They'd get James Bond, but is that really a Disney brand? What we don't want is someone else acquiring all these properties, especially someone like Fox. Weren't Fox interested in potentially acquiring Sony's TV/ Movie division, or was that someone else?

According to an earlier NY Post article, CBS has expressed interest in buying SONY Pictures, though Moonves was mostly interested in their TV production. Add to the fact that CBS is much smaller than their peers and I could see Sony flipping Spidey to the Mouse in that scenario.

Sony doesn't have any rights to Bond. They are with MGM and EON. Sony is negotiating to continue their distribution deal, but there are no guarantees.

So I can see in the case of a sale Disney making a deal for the rights to return due to the fact that they can make it so that the rights have far less value to others that might be interested.

I agree. Wanda, Verizon, CBS or whomever may very well want to continue the relationship. But if Disney forces them to make a choice between rebooting for a fourth time with non MCU Spidey or making a deal, it makes sense to work something out.

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

Can Sony sell off certain properties to different companies? They could sell off Spider-Man to Marvel/ Disney. Would Disney really want to buy everything else? That would be rather a lot to have to spend. They'd get James Bond, but is that really a Disney brand? What we don't want is someone else acquiring all these properties, especially someone like Fox. Weren't Fox interested in potentially acquiring Sony's TV/ Movie division, or was that someone else?

I think the potential to make future Spider-man films is probably the most lucrative component of any Sony film deal.

What Marvel would pay (as the only potential bidder who could buy the rights by themselves) for the rights is likely less than the difference in sale value of Sony films (including Spider-Man) vs Sony Films (not including Spider-man).

But those numbers are highly dependent on what potential bidders are looking for.

No matter how things go, the nature of the Spidey rights are likely to have a huge impact on any potential sale.

 

[Dark Raven]

What is another studio going to do with Spider-Man anyway? He'd be unconnected to anything, and it's not like they can start another Spidey cinematic universe. Unless of course, Fox were to acquire him, in which they might try to put him in the same cinematic universe as the X-Men and FFINO (which didn't end up connected to X-Men anyway as they wanted to distance themselves and not have that associated with the X-Men).

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

What is another studio going to do with Spider-Man anyway? He'd be unconnected to anything, and it's not like they can start another Spidey cinematic universe. Unless of course, Fox were to acquire him, in which they might try to put him in the same cinematic universe as the X-Men and FFINO (which didn't end up connected to X-Men anyway as they wanted to distance themselves and not have that associated with the X-Men).

Presumably, ideally, a potential buyer would pick up where Sony left off with the Marvel partnership intact and producers and other key personnel continuing in their current positions.

The actual owner should have little impact on the operations (unless, for some reason, they completely clean house and fire everybody and replace them with new people... but if somebody wants to do that, there would be no point in buying Sony's assets - just start from scratch with your own people).

 

[harryoscop]

What is another studio going to do with Spider-Man anyway? He'd be unconnected to anything, and it's not like they can start another Spidey cinematic universe. Unless of course, Fox were to acquire him, in which they might try to put him in the same cinematic universe as the X-Men and FFINO (which didn't end up connected to X-Men anyway as they wanted to distance themselves and not have that associated with the X-Men).

They could always do a high-budget tv series reboot. That'd be something we haven't seen before. Spider-Man's soap opera-esque stories lend themselves well to a continuous seriesb

If Homecoming & the silly Miles animated stuff is the best we can get with the Sony & MARVEL deal I will take another reboot

The worst thing about this interpretation is that terrible characterization of Spider-Man. I don't like that they turned him into a starry-eyed, impressionable kid because that's NOT who he was when Stan Lee created the character, in fact, he was suppose to be the opposite of that.


If they can fix that in Homecoming, I'll be more onboard and forgiving of the countless, unnecessary changes they've made to the mythos.


If another Studio gets the rights to reboot i'd be okay with that too. But the reaction ppl would have to them pulling out of the MCU & rebooting again would be crazy.

 

[TheVileOne]

Sony doesn't have the TV rights, so even if they sold film and TV units to CBS, CBS still couldn't make a Spider-Man TV series without Marvel's involvement or approval.

 

[Chris B]

Obviously there is no way of knowing for sure, but I would think that Marvel/Disney outlined more concrete terms on how the Spider-Man rights could revert to them when they made the sharing deal with Sony. I do recall speculation at the time the deal was announced of it possibly setting up for the rights to revert in full at some point in the future.

Sony selling off its film division, and the Spidey rights along with it unless there is some law or legal precedence that would forbid that, would strike me as a contingency they would prepare for.

 

[wobbly]

Obviously there is no way of knowing for sure, but I would think that Marvel/Disney outlined more concrete terms on how the Spider-Man rights could revert to them when they made the sharing deal with Sony. I do recall speculation at the time the deal was announced of it possibly setting up for the rights to revert in full at some point in the future.

Sony selling off its film division, and the Spidey rights along with it unless there is some law or legal precedence that would forbid that, would strike me as a contingency they would prepare for.

I can't see why there would be a legal issue with a condition in the contract concerning a transfer of ownership beyond Disney's control, as would happen if Sony sells off it's film division. Their IP's films rights would no longer be owned by Sony, the original partner they dealt with, so any pre existing 'good faith' would effectively be over (especially if Fox snapped them up...yikes)

With that in mind I'd have thought Disney would have had their legal sharks prepare for that possibility when the deal was renegotiated a few years back, and again made sure when amended again for the co-operation (if the previous contracts didn't already cover it).

I'd think at least a 'first refusal' clause of buying the Spider-man rights back should Sony sell it's movie arm would have been both prudent and (afaik) perfectly legal.

In Theory Sony would not lose out: They would obviously get more for Columbia with Spider-Man, but Disney would likely pay them that difference (and maybe more) for that opportunity.

 

[Dark Raven]

If Marvel did reacquire Spider-Man, what's likely to change about their portrayal and characterisation of the web slinger and his world? Will there be any noticeable difference?

 

[wobbly]

If Marvel did reacquire Spider-Man, what's likely to change about their portrayal and characterisation of the web slinger and his world? Will there be any noticeable difference?

I would not have thought so. The current Spider-Man is effectively Marvel's Spider-Man in all but ownership. I don't imagine they'd change much unless the reception to homecoming isn't great. And casting young gives them wriggle room for change. Take him on to College, etc.

 

[harryoscop]

Maybe they'd take away the Miles elements and incorporate more of the notable characters sooner like JJ (since Feige wanted MJ & Norman in his pitch to Sony)

 

[Dark Raven]

Take away the Miles elements

People would wonder where Ganke has gone and why half the cast has disappeared.

 

[wobbly]

People would wonder where Ganke has gone and why half the cast has disappeared.

Depends. Would they all go to the same college? Ned/Ganke could go bye bye just with that.

 

[Dark Raven]

They could have made Flash Manuel instead as originally rumored, and then have a traditional Flash in college who plays college football. He could be more of a spring break/ frat boy type instead of us getting an internet nerd who intimidates Peter on social media and would probably be friends with Domashev.

 

[TheVileOne]

I don't know if all that would change. Young teenaged Spider-Man is what Marvel wanted for the movies. They didn't like that Amazing Spider-Man 2 already had him ready to graduate.

 

[wobbly]

I don't know if all that would change. Young teenaged Spider-Man is what Marvel wanted for the movies. They didn't like that Amazing Spider-Man 2 already had him ready to graduate.

Atm the movies have run more or less in 'real time'. So when Civil War came out it had been 8 years since Tony revealed himself as Iron-Man and that was stated by the Vision in the film.

However, there's gonna be a couple of years at least between Spider-Man solo films. If he was 15 in CW, he will presumably be 16 in Homecoming (unless they set that immediately after Civil War). So how old for Infinity War or Spider-Man 2? In theory he'd be at graduation age for SM-H2 (I think 18 is graduation age in the US?)

So I figure they get 2 high school flicks at the most, then they have to move on (or throw out the 'real time' they have been following so far, which is unavoidable eventually if they want to keep the big guns going).

 

[TheVileOne]

They can keep him in high school as long as they want and just embellish the time frames

 

[Web-Head]

He's still 15 in Homecoming fwiw

 

[harryoscop]

Yeah, he's still 15 in Homecoming and it happens directly after Civil War. Just have Ganke move away to another state and to another school

 

[Dark Raven]

Or Ganke becomes the Hog Goblin, so bye bye friendship, hello fat boy slimming it on his glider.

 

[ADollarADay]

I don't know if all that would change. Young teenaged Spider-Man is what Marvel wanted for the movies. They didn't like that Amazing Spider-Man 2 already had him ready to graduate.

I will tell you what could change. An 8 episode origin story on Netflix or ABC/Imax (since no one wants yet another spiderman origin story movie).