HWI 246

Hollywood What If Chapter 246

The movie copyrights of Spider-Man were quite complicated. Sony-Columbia and MGM believed that both companies had stakes over the copyrights. 

There was a Spider-Man TV show back in the 70s, titled The Amazing Spider-Man. It was aired on CBS, with one of the producers Colombia Pictures Television(before Sony). 

Another adaptation was the Japanese version with the title of Spider-Man, or Supaidāman, also referred to as Japanese Spider-Man or Toei Spider-Man. The production company of this TV show was Toei Company. Produced in the 70s as well. 

So yeah, the copyrights of this superhero character were complicated. 

After some legal stuff, the copyrights returned to its original holder, which was Marvel Comics. 

MGM and Sony-Columbia had some disputes over these copyrights, trying to figure out which company should acquire the movie adaptation. In the end, the two companies fixed the problem and Sony-Columbia rightly bought the copyright from Marvel Comics. 

When Sony-Columbia acquired the superhero, a famous director expressed his intentions to be the director of the movie. It was none other than James Cameron. 

He has been interested in this superhero since a long time ago. The initial plan was already set up, the project was approved by the management as well. The budget was brought up, Sony would invest in the movie. 

However, perhaps because of some negotiations, James Cameron stepped down before the project officially started. Well, someone like James Cameron was hard to hire. Another thing, James Cameron had the habit of overspending and his projects were usually late the schedule. Perhaps this was the factor why James Cameron didn't get the position. 

James Cameron already recommended that he wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to be Peter Parker and Sony-Columbia felt like it was adequate, knowing that the young actor was super famous after the success of Titanic. 

Then, Sony-Columbia felt like Sam Raimi, the director of Evil Dead, could fit the position of director for this project. Sam Raimi was not only good at horror movies, he was good at other genres as well. Sony-Columbia decided to hire the director because his salary sat well with them. 

Everyone thought that the project was already on the right track. The director, producer, budget, and production crew, the initial stage was happening.

Yet three days before Sam Raimi could sign the contract, he found that his wife was two months pregnant. 

Working on a movie would take months or a year to be finished. Sam Raimi knew that so he decided to decline the project and put his attention to his wife. 

Was this an intervention? Or perhaps the original timeline was already gone since 1994. The year when a certain man started his career and slowly became successful. 

Anyway, Sam Raimi was now out of the future. Because of that, Sony-Columbia struggled to find a director who could take over the project. 

The company already invested almost $5 million for the initial stage and this amount would go to waste if they postponed the production. It was painful for them. 

Suddenly, the current CEO of Sony-Columbia, Frank Price, recalled that Grey Pictures had a nice relationship with them. Furthermore, Marvel Comics hinted that they wanted to meet Kazir Grey. 

Yes, Frank Price was interested in Kazir Grey to be the director of Spider-Man. The man said that he wanted to cooperate with the Big Six again. As long as the conditions were right, perhaps Kazir would agree to be the director of Spider-Man. 

For the record, Kazir Grey had a better portfolio than other directors. All of his movies this past five years were all blockbusters. None of them suffered loss, not even John Wick. 

Frank Price believed that Kazir had the talent, charisma, and authority to be the director of this movie. 

Sony-Columbia knew that they were the lowest of the Big Six and they needed a franchise that could save them from destruction. Bruce Almighty was going to be released next month but that was another story. 

All Frank Price and the management of Sony-Columbia wanted was that their projects wouldn't lose against the rivals. 

Since Kazir Grey was the hottest director right now and his filmography was amazing, Sony-Columbia had no problem with hiring him.

Now, this was where the problem happened. Apparently, Warner Bros, Walt Disney, and 20th Century Fox had the same intention as Sony-Columbia. 

They wanted Kazir to be the director of their respective movie. 

In Frank Price's opinion, the strongest opponent would be 20th Century Fox. After all, the success of Star Wars was very high. Star Wars was not a movie, this was a culture. People would not hesitate to spend their money on buying tickets for Star Wars. 

Surely, if Kazir didn't want to gamble his career, the man would choose the safest movie. 

Yet, here they were, in the office, where Frank Price and Salvatore Barlowe were having negotiation. 

"My client wants a 25+25 contract and a 10% profit share of videotapes/DVDs, merchandise, and other peripherals related to Spider-Man."

"..."

As expected, Salvatore Barlowe would ask for something extravagant. Well, his client had the right to do so, considering that his latest movie was still making huge money. 

As of July 21, 2000, Wanted just made $404.62 million. The international release of Wanted already happened two weeks ago and the international box office was around $134 million. 

Combined, the worldwide box office of Wanted was $538 million. With that as a reference, Kazir Grey had the status to ask for a high contract. 

Furthermore, Sony-Columbia was not the only company that wanted to work with Kazir Grey. The other companies were definitely ready to snatch Kazir.

None of the Big Six knew that Kazir had no intention of working with 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney. 

Star Wars was criticized by so many people while John Carter was not promising. 

Kazir's attention was on Spider-Man and Harry Potter. These two had a high chance of being successful. 

Sony-Columbia and Grey Pictures had a negotiation for about two weeks. In the end, Sony-Columbia did its best to lower the contract down to 25+25 deal 10% videotapes/DVDs and peripherals profit share.