Can you spare 300 million?

Black Eye Guy

Black Eye Guy

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Firefly fans have launched a Web site and Facebook page trying to rally support to help Nathan Fillion buy the rights to the canceled Fox series.

Earlier this week, Fillion told EW he'd be willing to reprise his Firefly role as Captain Mal again. Then he added: "If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet."

Well, be careful what you wish for, because Firefly fans think that's a great idea! And they're not the only ones"¦

Jose Molina, a producer on Syfy's Haven, former Castle producer and author of two Firefly episodes tweeted Friday regarding Fillion's comment: "For what it's worth, I've told him I'd drop what I was doing and follow."

Then Jane Espenson, writer of a Firefly episode, a producer on Battlestar Galactica and co-creator of Warehouse 13, replied to Molina: "I'm there, if needed."

Now, there's a couple different sentiments going on here so let's look at each separately.

Buying the rights: $300 million wouldn't be necessary. Terminator rights sold for about $30 million (and, as much as we love Firefly, let's face it, Serenity was hardly T2 at the box office). Still, we're talking a shiny chunk of change. Then the show still needs to be produced (= more money).

The only problem (well, not the only problem, but a significant one) is Firefly studio 20th Century Fox probably isn't willing to sell the rights. The Terminator owners were bankrupt, while 20th is doing just fine and holds its properties as long-term investments (remember George Lucas talking 20th Century Fox out of the Star Wars sequel rights back in the 1970s? Yeah, they don't fall for that anymore). One insider said he couldn't think of a case of 20th outright selling the rights to a property.

The fan site is not accepting actual donations, just pledges (wisely), waiting to see if it can drum up enough support. Still, Fillion's Lotto quote is probably being taken too literally. It's one thing for the actor to say, you know, answering a reporter's hypothetical question between takes on Castle, "if I won the lottery," it's another to be faced with the prospect of fans passing around the hat.

In other words: Even if fans miraculously raised millions, the studio is not likely to part with the rights to Firefly "” if anything, such an act would prove to them the rights are worth keeping. However: Like all studios, 20th is generally open to new opportunities to make more money from its existing properties if given an assured path to profitability. Which brings us to"¦

Rebooting Firefly: This sentiment, one suspects, is more likely what the Firefly writers and most fans are responding to. And there's few things more durable and renewable in media than a beloved sci fi brand. If all everybody who bought the Firefly DVD set during its first year of release (500,000 strong, according to one report) declared they were willing to shell out $40 in hopes of resurrecting the franchise as, say, a two-hour TV movie+DVD or something, well, you'd certainly get the studio's attention. But that's if the show's very busy creator Joss Whedon and Fillion, etc. would be willing and contractually available in the first place, and that's if the studio were on board "” and those are real Ifs.

BTW: Firefly ratings back in 2002? About a 2.0 in the adult demo. Which nowadays is considered survivable even on broadcast. Not that the space-western would likely get the same numbers if on the air today when there's so much more competition from cable, but it's interesting to think about.
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Side note, if you can lead 300 million, I have a favor to ask....
 
You gah damned beat me to it!😀

If Fillion did buy the rights could he bring back the rest of the gang and if he did how would he bring back Wash and Book?, would he set it after Season 1, carry on from Serenity or say Serenity was the last tale of Firefly and begin a completely different story line?
 
Apparently Nathan has been tweeting about it,

And their not actually taking donations, just pledges!

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Yeah I've seen his tweets and all the pledges. But I read that Fox or someone wasn't going to sell the rights over at all. 😛 Oh well, guess I will put my faith on the Cap'n and see what happens.
 
$300 million is nothing. A spit in the ocean. Call President Obama. Te throws the taxpayers' money at everything else with no hesitation. Making a movie, with an actual chance of getting a return on the investment, could be looked upon as a positive step towards reelection.
 
It's not a hoax.

And here's the good news.... it should cost much less than $300,000,000.00! 🙂

And here's the bad news.... Fox has never sold the rights to anything since a young kid named George Lucas said... "Hey, can I have the rights to any sequels to my movie, that probably won't be a hit, ... Star Wars?" Fox said "Yes" and has never forgotten that billion dollar mistake. 🙁
 
Maybe if the fans can do this, Fox will be convinced to reboot it themselves. What? I said maybe...
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EntertainUs said:
Maybe if the fans can do this, Fox will be convinced to reboot it themselves. What? I said maybe...
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CNN said Fox sold 500,000 Firefly DVDs. That is a shockingly high amount of DVDs for such a short lived and "unpopular" show.
 
1) I'm certain Nathan Fillion was joking.
2) It's still fun to think about.
3) This group is taking pledges, NOT money, and will NOT take any money until there is an actual verified and official plan to get Firefly back. Mostly, this group's agenda seems to be get a TON of supporters, loads of interest, to show Fox (and any other tv company) that there IS a huge fanbase for Firefly and the potential for buckets of cash to whoever would re-take Firefly on.
4) Read this. It's awesome. And, again, endlessly fun to think about.
 
NF is now saying not to contribute money toward this. There is a website set up by the folks who are trying to do this, but honestly I don't see how a bunch of fans are going to put this together. I highly doubt that Fox will sell the rights. What would be really awesome is if due to the current replay on Discovery's Science Channel some new eps or a miniseries of some sort could be done. Wasn't that done with Futureama when olds eps were replayed on another network (Science Channel maybe)?

I would be seriously happy with a miniseries of some kind. I think Joss & everybody else is way too busy with everything to do an ongoing series. Yes, everybody said they'd come back, but I'd rather they do something shorter & be able to really devote their energies then to stretch themselves too thin with a less than stellar result. Of course they'll have to introduce a few new characters to replace the ones we lost. And no, I hope they don't retcon the movie. Those characters died sadly, they need to stay dead. This isn't the Buffyverse lol.
 
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