Independent remakes of old movies

S

spec24

I'm actually looking to do a remake of the old 1977 movie The Last Dinosaur. Does any one have any information about the legal issues invloved with a remake like this? From what I can gather, and it's not very much, the movie may be owned by Warner - but I see other companies distributing it with their own labels. I'm new at this so excuse my ignorance :) Thanks for any help.
 
Most likely it is still copyrighted. The country of origin is Japan. Ordinarily foreign films are protected for 95 years from date of publication. That varies from country to country, with Japan being one that offers copyright protection of as few as 50 years. However, even if it were only a 50 year copyright, it will be protected until sometime in 2027. ;)

It is also known as: Kyokutei Tankensen Pora-Bora
The production company is Tsuburaya.

There's a good book about Copyright/Public Domain info that I picked up and would recommend to anyone interested in researching this kind of stuff, I've provided a link below.

The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More by Attorney Stephen Fishman

You also might want to look at another of his books:

The Copyright Handbook: How to Protect & Use Written Words

That's the most info I can give at the moment.. I highly recommend that first book.
The short answer: it's probably still under copyright, but you could always ask (nicely) for permission to do a remake, who knows, maybe they'll grant you permission for cheap, or free. :)
 
You could get into alot of trouble if it's still under copyright, which I bet it is. Unless it has fallen into the public domain. Now you can make or remake a film or writting that's in the public domain. Here are a few links that will help you out. This table is helpful to see if something is in the public domain. Here is a site that lists some public domain movies Another table can be found here with dates

Hope some of these links help you out. :) Will beat me to some of the links. But the more the better!
 
Will Vincent said:
Most likely it is still copyrighted. The country of origin is Japan. Ordinarily foreign films are protected for 95 years from date of publication. That varies from country to country, with Japan being one that offers copyright protection of as few as 50 years. However, even if it were only a 50 year copyright, it will be protected until sometime in 2027. ;)

It is also known as: Kyokutei Tankensen Pora-Bora
The production company is Tsuburaya.

There's a good book about Copyright/Public Domain info that I picked up and would recommend to anyone interested in researching this kind of stuff, I've provided a link below.

The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More by Attorney Stephen Fishman

You also might want to look at another of his books:

The Copyright Handbook: How to Protect & Use Written Words

That's the most info I can give at the moment.. I highly recommend that first book.
The short answer: it's probably still under copyright, but you could always ask (nicely) for permission to do a remake, who knows, maybe they'll grant you permission for cheap, or free. :)
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actually is was produced and owned by Rankin/Bass - was co-produced by Tsubaraya studio. As far as I know Warner Bros. now owns the film.
 
Why not go the Peter Jackson route...make a few interesting a diverse indies then do all the adaptations and remakes you like.

Poke
 
this movie is has been released by a few different small video and DVD companies like Alpha, Goodtimes and others, none of which from what I understand actually had any copyrights or licenses to the film. I know of one video company that is doing it right now and has no "permission" to speak of. How might this relate to what I'm attempting???
 
How about this... do your homework (ie, check out books about copyright law, contact copyright holders, etc), or just go out and make it... at your own peril. ;)
 
Will Vincent said:
How about this... do your homework (ie, check out books about copyright law, contact copyright holders, etc), or just go out and make it... at your own peril. ;)
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Well - I m doing my homework - that's why I'm on here :) It's tough finding out things about this movie. The copyright office list the copyright of it to Rankin/Bass - but they are no longer in business. Hopefully the guy at www.rankinbass.com can help me. He forwarded my request to Arthur Rankin. So hopefully he'll have an answer for me. Copyright Laws?? HAHA! Copyright laws can't be pinned down - that's the problem. It's never black and white with this type of thing. I'm hoping I can find the person/institution that holds the copyright and he'll say "go ahead" - if not you're right, I may have to move ahead at my own peril :)
 
Well the laws are easy enough to come by.. it's tracking down whether or not the copyright is active or not that's usually most challenging.. good luck with finding the owner. ;)
 
I'm just saying that Copyright laws can sometimes be screwy. Obviously if I take the movie and word for word make a remake then yes, there's a problem. But if I alter it just enough I can get away with it. That's the grey area. Then of course it's up to the judicial system to decide if it has been changed enough. I mean let;s face it - The Last Dinosaur is a rip-off of a bunch of other movies and books that came before it. :)
 
Poke said:
I assume that's why you want to remake it.

Poke
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Not sure what you mean by that, but no, I want to remake it because as a child it held a special place for me. I watched it whenever it was on and would pretend play the movie when I was out in the woods.
 
spec24 said:
Not sure what you mean by that.
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I assumed that you wanted to remake it because it was badly done. But looking back at the wording, that's not what you meant. So that leads me to wonder, if you consider it a rip off, then why not try to remake the movie it ripped off?

Poke
 
Poke said:
I assumed that you wanted to remake it because it was badly done. But looking back at the wording, that's not what you meant. So that leads me to wonder, if you consider it a rip off, then why not try to remake the movie it ripped off?

Poke
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Well - that is one reason :) I think that the movie itself had a great feel to it - it's too bad for the cheesy effects and "interesting" characters. I consider it a rip-off of a few movies - it steals elements from others - which of course is legal - if done correctly. I want to remake this one though because this is the one that was special to me as a child (no Doug McClure - HA!). I want to use it's title and it's characters. Apparently Arthur Rankin owns the rights, I am in the process of writing him as we speak. I'll keep you posted :)
 
Hi Guys - If someone has already covered this angle I apologise, I'm in a bit of a hurry today.

Even if you find that the movie you want is a public domain movie that isn't the issue, the issue about the reamkae is copyright status of the original script. So a film can have public doamin copyright but the script is still legally covered. Personally this kind of isssue is why media lawyers make the big bucks and I wouldn't even think about looking at this without having my lawyer look at it.
 
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