Beast
10-06-2003, 12:20 PM
Ugh. I can't believe that McFarlane is gonna mine the depths of depravity even more so, by making a movie out of his disgraceful toy line. Another example of Toddy flipping the finger to the Classic version of Wizard of Oz. Frank L. Baum is probably spinning in his grave now. It's a real shame that Oz is in the public domain, so it can be mined by idiots like McFarlane. This is from a post over on the Spawn boards by the Dark Prince of Depravity himself. :rolleyes: :dead:
Todd McFarlane
McFarlane Staff
posted 10-03-2003 07:39 PM
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I haven't posted here for awhile so I thought I would drop in and give a little info on some of the potential happenings as they pertain to our Land of Oz images.
As Jon as told you in broad strokes, I have taken a big sweeping idea of a retelling of the OZ legend into hollywood. Our first meeting involved one of the bigger directors in town. He had just released a new movie that made over a hundred million dollars and sat down with my agent and the head of the agency that represents me. I told everyone that although a pitch usually takes about twenty minutes, I was going to need thier attention for a lot more than that.I then set up all of the toys as well as some other figures that would be prominent, a map, a miniture model of Emerald City, photos and sketches.
An hour and fifteen minutes later the pitch was over and I was left to wait for their reaction. Fortunately, all of those in the room were very enthused about the project. After talking about how we would try to sell the pitch to a studio, it became very clear that the big scope of the idea would easily require us having to ask for a budget of over 110 million dollars. This, we were now convinced, could be a huge summer launch film.
A week or so later the director officially signed on to the project. Next he needed to return from travelling abroad promoting his new movie before he would be able to personally walk into the office of the head of one of the studios and make the pitch himself. That happened last week and we now have a follow-up meeting next week to condense the story into a twenty minute presentation that will then give them enough information to either say "yes" or "no" to this project right there on the spot.
If the particular studio decides that it is too big an idea, we will then go to some of the other studios around town that have been calling and wanting to work with this particular director and his production company. We all feel confident that someone will snap up the story within two weeks.
The story that was pitched isn't the same as the one on the toy package. That one was a terrific idea in and of itself, but we didn't want the big sweeping story we took to hollywood to be out there until we had given the studios a chance to respond to my new "epic".
Now given that we are dealing with Hollywood, all of this could just mean that we sell another idea and then spin our wheels in developement. On the other hand, the cost to acquire this idea along with tying up an A-list director will be a nice incentive for them to keep moving it forward. And if they attach an expensive writer on the project we will be in as strong of a position as we ever have been with a project in that town.
And the nice thing would be that if some momentun were to come from this film idea, then it would also help along our other ideas such as SPAWN, Tortured Souls (with Clive Barker) and Torso (the Elliot Ness sequel). As well as the new Spawn animation talks. I will pass on the update as to how next weeks meeting goes or at the very least will get Jon to give you the scoop.
Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our efforts.
Todd McFarlane
MTFBWY and HH!!
Jar Jar Binks
Todd McFarlane
McFarlane Staff
posted 10-03-2003 07:39 PM
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I haven't posted here for awhile so I thought I would drop in and give a little info on some of the potential happenings as they pertain to our Land of Oz images.
As Jon as told you in broad strokes, I have taken a big sweeping idea of a retelling of the OZ legend into hollywood. Our first meeting involved one of the bigger directors in town. He had just released a new movie that made over a hundred million dollars and sat down with my agent and the head of the agency that represents me. I told everyone that although a pitch usually takes about twenty minutes, I was going to need thier attention for a lot more than that.I then set up all of the toys as well as some other figures that would be prominent, a map, a miniture model of Emerald City, photos and sketches.
An hour and fifteen minutes later the pitch was over and I was left to wait for their reaction. Fortunately, all of those in the room were very enthused about the project. After talking about how we would try to sell the pitch to a studio, it became very clear that the big scope of the idea would easily require us having to ask for a budget of over 110 million dollars. This, we were now convinced, could be a huge summer launch film.
A week or so later the director officially signed on to the project. Next he needed to return from travelling abroad promoting his new movie before he would be able to personally walk into the office of the head of one of the studios and make the pitch himself. That happened last week and we now have a follow-up meeting next week to condense the story into a twenty minute presentation that will then give them enough information to either say "yes" or "no" to this project right there on the spot.
If the particular studio decides that it is too big an idea, we will then go to some of the other studios around town that have been calling and wanting to work with this particular director and his production company. We all feel confident that someone will snap up the story within two weeks.
The story that was pitched isn't the same as the one on the toy package. That one was a terrific idea in and of itself, but we didn't want the big sweeping story we took to hollywood to be out there until we had given the studios a chance to respond to my new "epic".
Now given that we are dealing with Hollywood, all of this could just mean that we sell another idea and then spin our wheels in developement. On the other hand, the cost to acquire this idea along with tying up an A-list director will be a nice incentive for them to keep moving it forward. And if they attach an expensive writer on the project we will be in as strong of a position as we ever have been with a project in that town.
And the nice thing would be that if some momentun were to come from this film idea, then it would also help along our other ideas such as SPAWN, Tortured Souls (with Clive Barker) and Torso (the Elliot Ness sequel). As well as the new Spawn animation talks. I will pass on the update as to how next weeks meeting goes or at the very least will get Jon to give you the scoop.
Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our efforts.
Todd McFarlane
MTFBWY and HH!!
Jar Jar Binks