Any thoughts on development hell?

A

Aspiring Mogul

If you google the phrase, you'll see lots of very lucrative properties that are stuck for various reasons. I'm wondering if anyone can give any thoughts on that, especially on how to get out of that hell. In fact, if a project is famous and stuck, perhaps we can pick it up from the majors for a penny.

Rik, what do you think?
 
Maybe the director doesn't have the time to do the project. Maybe the studio blew its wad on special effects and now they're up to their eyeballs in debt. Maybe it's corporate bureaucracy. I wouldn't count on being able to pick up anything famous for a song and dance at any rate, because you'd still have to secure rights from the IP owners if the studio in question just licensed it.
 
ClockworkNinja said:
I wouldn't count on being able to pick up anything famous for a song and dance at any rate, because you'd still have to secure rights from the IP owners if the studio in question just licensed it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was told you can't pick anything up for pennies, because they won't sell it. But, while I'm not a copyright lawyer, I think that a standard agreement would say that, if a studio had the film rights, it can assign or sell those rights to another person.
 
Studios will not give up a project for pennies. If they have spent,
say, $2.5 million in development over five years but still don’t feel
the project is ready they are not going to sell it for a loss. Put any
number in there you want. No studio will sell a project they own
for less then they have already invested.

Even if a studio no longer believes in the project and will never
make the movie they will not sell it at a loss.
 
Aspiring Mogul said:
Yeah, I was told you can't pick anything up for pennies, because they won't sell it. But, while I'm not a copyright lawyer, I think that a standard agreement would say that, if a studio had the film rights, it can assign or sell those rights to another person.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure where you're getting this idea about standard agreements from, but I don't see why the original IP holders would shoot themselves in the foot like that. If you're talking about a famous property like Lord of the Rings, (for example) the owners aren't just going to sign an agreement that lets Peter Jackson offload the script to someone they don't approve of handling it.
 
directorik said:
Studios will not give up a project for pennies. If they have spent,
say, $2.5 million in development over five years but still don’t feel
the project is ready they are not going to sell it for a loss. Put any
number in there you want. No studio will sell a project they own
for less then they have already invested.

Even if a studio no longer believes in the project and will never
make the movie they will not sell it at a loss.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've been told that. I wonder, however, if MGM or Orion, which went bankrupt, could have been forced to sell lucrative properties in development hell. I mean, in real estate, lucrative properties are often foreclosed, so wise investors can pick them up for pennies, so, in theory, the same should be true in film. But that's just theory.

So any other thoughts on development hell?
 
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