Who owns Fantastic Four now?

[Orba]

You do realize that Marvel and Sony had a much healthier relationship with each other before the whole Spider-Man deal happened which is why they managed to make that deal. Their relationship with Fox? Nowhere near as friendly.

To be honest its their poor relationship which has made everyone curious about the deal for the X-Men TV shows. Disney don't need money so a straight cash deal seems unlikely, and with their poor relationship it would seem strange for Disney to make a deal for cash they don't need to someone to don't like that much. Something like that would seem to have Fox coming out of the deal far better than Disney. Its why so many people think that there had to be more to the deal than cash.

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

You do realize that Marvel and Sony had a much healthier relationship with each other before the whole Spider-Man deal happened which is why they managed to make that deal. Their relationship with Fox? Nowhere near as friendly.

Of course I realize that Marvel and Sony had a much healthier relationship a year ago than Fox and Marvel HAD a year ago. Bud since that time, Kevin Feige took responsibilities that Ike Perlmutter previously had.

And I also realize that Perlmutter and Fox hated each other while Feige and Fox get along to some extent (you can bet no Fox films would mention Perlmutter the way Deadpool mentioned Feige).

And I also realize MANY things that never would have been dreamed of between Fox and Marvel a year ago have happened since Fall of 2015.

That mysterious and dramatic change in the nature of the relationship that started in Fall of 2015 is something that most participants of this thread have been watching very closely because we've been waiting for something like that since Marvel bought Disney. That change is the entire basis of this conversation.

We have seen that, since the fall of 2015, Fox has gotten a lot from Marvel - X-Men TV shows along with previously unprecedented levels of support for X-Men and Deadpool with merchandise, video games, comic books etc.

So Fox has gotten a lot more support from Marvel and Marvel has gotten . . . jack sh**?

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

In the mid to late '70s, I saw something interesting in a Fantastic Four comic book. At a time when Spider-man, Hulk, Daredevil, Thor and Dr. Strange (might be missing a few) TV shows were either being aired or considered for production, someone wrote a letter and asked when we would get a Fantastic Four film.

Stan replied (paraphrasing): 'We are actually looking into a live-action, big-budget FF film.'

That was pretty exciting. From that moment on, I looked for and read everything I could on potential FF films. I followed the Corman film from the beginning (in those days the internet was in its infancy and I got my information from print magazines like Comics 2 Film and Fangoria along with talking to people at comic shops). I bought a VHS version of Roger Corman's Carnosaur just because there was a trailer for FF attached.

I watched that Corman film disappear without ever showing up in theaters. There was a period of quiet and then we learned that Fox had attained the rights and we started seeing rumors about Raja Gosnell, Pete Segal and Peyton Reed directing.

I followed every detail through the Tim Story films and beyond. I saw Fox, on the day after Disney bought Marvel, announce they were going to do a 'reboot' which was (at one time) titled 'Fantastic Four Reborn'. I read the rumors about Bruce Willis as Ben and Guy Pearce as Reed.

Basically, I have read, assimilated and interpreted every bit of information I have been able to find related to FF films over the past 40 years.

At this moment, after 40 years of collecting all that information, I believe the following: The next Fantastic Four film will be made, at a minimum, with a large amount of input from Marvel.

Some people seem to think that's crazy talk. Okay, fine, I'm willing to consider all information. Lay out a logical reason that Fox management - despite the fact that each FF film they have made was less successful than the one before, despite the last one being such a mess that it has sucked all life out of the franchise and promised a rabid reaction from fans, media and shareholders if they try again and despite the fact that something happened in the Fall of 2015 that shook up Marvel management and improved the relationship between Fox and Marvel - is dead set on making FF films without input from Marvel.

If you're someone who believes, despite all that, Fox is determined to go it alone and continue to make FF films that nobody wants for some unknown purpose, fair enough. But you won't convince me of that without more solid, logical reasoning than I've seen so far.

 

[GoblinScrier]

Well I am with you Willie, something has happened with Fox and Marvel...no denying that one...I am convinced we will get news of some sort at Comic Con...Kevin Feige is usually in attendance and will probably address Phase 3, the future of the MCU, and I believe if the deal has happened, then he will probably make it the last piece of news, to end Comic Con with a bang! If we hear nothing, then the news is that Fox DOES still own Marvel and all of this has been for naught...it is still a daily reminder of when I see footage from GOTG or Civil War and knowing that the F4 has not been given any bit of a redeemable film, just makes me sad. The future has the potential to be FANTASTIC if these characters come home cause you just add 10 plus years easily to the MCU with the quartet, Doom, Galactus, his heralds, and more....so many great stories to tell!

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

If we hear nothing, then the news is that Fox DOES still own Marvel and all of this has been for naught.

I'm hopeful, but not convinced, we'll hear something at Comic-Con. I'll be thrilled if we do, but I won't be overly bummed if we don't. Whether we get an announcement or not won't drastically change everything we're seeing on the ground.

The way I'm going from here is that every year that passes with no news is one less year Fox has to screw things up.

If we hear nothing this year, that means Fox has six years to start production. That's not nearly long enough for everybody to somehow forget that awful, awful 2015 effort.

Marvel probably already has a pretty good idea of what films they'll be making in 6 years (and might announce or hint at some of them at Comic-Con).

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

.it is still a daily reminder of when I see footage from GOTG or Civil War and knowing that the F4 has not been given any bit of a redeemable film, just makes me sad.

I have mixed feelings whenever I see great new trailers and reviews for upcoming Marvel films. Sure, like you, I feel a certain sense of frustration, anger and disappointment that Fox has crapped all over FF while Marvel just continues to make great films.

But as I've said, I'm confident that Marvel will be involved in the next FF film, and Marvel just seems to get better and more adventurous and closer to the comics with each new film, so I don't think they'll run out of air. By the time they get to FF, I think they'll have the experience, resources and technology to really do it right.

And characters as great as the FF, Doom, Galactus, Surfer etc. will fit right in while being fresh and exciting. It would be nice to have things nailed down, but I'm more confident than I've ever been that I'll live to see a great FF film.

 

[ADollarADay]

Well I am with you Willie, something has happened with Fox and Marvel...no denying that one...I am convinced we will get news of some sort at Comic Con...Kevin Feige is usually in attendance and will probably address Phase 3, the future of the MCU, and I believe if the deal has happened, then he will probably make it the last piece of news, to end Comic Con with a bang! If we hear nothing, then the news is that Fox DOES still own Marvel and all of this has been for naught...it is still a daily reminder of when I see footage from GOTG or Civil War and knowing that the F4 has not been given any bit of a redeemable film, just makes me sad. The future has the potential to be FANTASTIC if these characters come home cause you just add 10 plus years easily to the MCU with the quartet, Doom, Galactus, his heralds, and more....so many great stories to tell!

During Q&A someone should ask:

Q: Have you guys (Marvel) gotten the live movie and tv rights back to Fantastic Four?
A1: Yes we have!
Q1: What? WTF? How? When? Where? When are they gonna be integrated to the MCU? When are they getting their own movie?

A2: No we have not, the rights still belong to Fox
Q2: Given that Fox had to get blessing from Marvel to create their X-Men TV show, Marvel has now released XMen and Deadpool merchandise based on the films, which they have to pay Fox a percentage of the gross profit, and Marvel comic books based on Deadpool are front and centered, what did Marvel get out of this deal? Is it fair to say that Marvel only gets a percentage of the gross from the X-Men TV show and the re-release of their merch and comics is due only to their movie success?

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

Is it fair to say that Marvel only gets a percentage of the gross from the X-Men TV show and the re-release of their merch and comics is due only to their movie success?

In my opinion this is possible but unlikely. Marvel would do better promoting their own properties rather than Fox's.

Think about this: Disney owns ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPN Classic, The Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, Playhouse Disney etc. etc. etc.

Every viewer who is watching X-Men on Fox is not watching something on one of those Disney owned channels.

And in terms of X-Men and Deadpool merchandise, they were coming out after Fantastic Four but before Deadpool or AOA. It wasn't a simple matter of "Hey, Deadpool and AOA are doing well, let's jump on this train even though we haven't been supporting Fox in any way over the past several years."

Something changed.

Is it possible that Disney just decided to be good guys and give Fox much more than they had been giving them in the recent past to start to repair the relationship and hope Fox would be nicer in the future?

Yes.

But based on my experience in the business world and my observations of the interactions between Fox and Marvel, it seems far more likely that there was some more specific agreement in place. You don't give the kid down the street your bike and say: "And hey, if you feel like giving me $40 in a week or two, that would be cool. . . or $30 . . . or $20, whatever." You don't give someone something and expect something in return and simply hope they'll give you what you want later. And the one thing that Fox had that Marvel clearly wanted was FF rights, and since the timing was shortly after FF flopped and rendered the rights in Fox's hands all but worthless, it's a very reasonable assumption that at least some rough agreement about FF rights was part of what happened in the Fall.

BUT even if we go with the idea that the dramatically increased cooperation didn't have any strings attached, isn't it far more likely than it has been in the past that Marvel and Fox might work together on the next FF film?

I've never said that I'm certain Marvel has the FF rights. I've simply said that I believe, based on everything I'm seeing, that Marvel will be heavily involved in the production of the next FF film one way or another.

The only detail that I feel I can say with some degree of certainty is: "Fox will not just continue to blindly throw money at FF films and crank out crap film after crap film."

And as long as Fox doesn't blindly throw money at FF films, Marvel is likely to have an increased role in the next FF film one way or another.

 

[Zarex]

Q2: Given that Fox had to get blessing from Marvel to create their X-Men TV show, Marvel has now released XMen and Deadpool merchandise based on the films, which they have to pay Fox a percentage of the gross profit, and Marvel comic books based on Deadpool are front and centered, what did Marvel get out of this deal? Is it fair to say that Marvel only gets a percentage of the gross from the X-Men TV show and the re-release of their merch and comics is due only to their movie success?

There's no tie in merchandise for Apocalypse. And I believe all of the Deadpool merchandise was comic book based - there may have been a Hot Toys model based on the cinematic Wade Wilson. Under those circumstance Disney Consumer Products holds onto the entire licensing fee.

But even if FOX didn't get a check from the Mouse, having Deadpool video games, clothing and merchandise available gave the film a much bigger retail presence than the other post Disney buyout FOX/Marvel films. Marvel even had the character take a starring role in the Contest of Champions commercial that aired when the movie was in cinemas.

 

[3dman27]

I wouldn't mind seeing the F4 introduced in the MCU years they actually get their own movie/s. I definitely want to see Doom built into a major badass MCU villain.

I just wish the rights were switched over already and they could work on integrating them.

nor would i

 

[cleverusername8]

I wouldn't mind seeing the F4 introduced in the MCU years they actually get their own movie/s. I definitely want to see Doom built into a major badass MCU villain.

I just wish the rights were switched over already and they could work on integrating them.

If they got the rights, having Doom be the Loki to Thanos' Galactus for Phases 4, 5, and 6 would be glorious. Have him be a recurring villain to show up in solos as well as team ups.