Wait... Marvel Might Not Get The Rights Back To FANTASTIC FOUR Even If Disney Buys FOX!?
When we first learned that Disney was looking to buy 20th Century Fox, one of the things that I was most excited about with this acquisition was that Marvel Studios would not only get the rights back to X-Men but for Fantastic Four as well!
Now it looks like that might not get the rights back to Fantastic Four even if the sale closes. Why? You ask. Because Fox doesn't technically own the rights to Fantastic Four! Fox never bought the rights from Marvel. They inherited the rights from the German production company Constantin Film, who has held the rights since 1986. They picked up the rights for an estimated $250,000 dollars. CBR explains:
Under the terms of the option, rights would revert to Marvel unless Constantin began production on a film by December 31, 1992. But, Constantin could not figure out how to make the film—which would need to star four superheroes with four very different power sets—with a reasonable budget. Instead, the film languished in development hell. With the contract set to expire, Constantin asked for an extension from Marvel, but Marvel refused.
So in an effort to keep the option, legendary B-movie filmmaker Roger Corman was hired by the studio in 1992 to make a Fantastic Four movie on the budget of $1 million. Corman took on the challenge and started shooting only three days before the option expired.
This movie ended up becoming a thing of legend and no one who worked on it ever wanted to see it released. To this day, it's never been officially released even though you can find it and watch it online. Constantin Film and Marvel killed it. The full story of the making of the film's story is recounted in the documentary Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four.
Regardless of how bad this movie turned out and that it never officially saw the light of day, Constantin Film got to hold on the rights for a bit longer and they eventually teamed up with Fox to help develop the films.
Marvel did have a chance to get the rights back in In early 1999, but Constantin and Fox approached Marvel to extend the option once more, and since Marvel was still weak from its mid-90s bankruptcy, they agreed to the extension and in 2004 production started on director Tim Story's Fantastic Four film.
As for how things are with the agreement for right now, Fox and Constantin have a "perpetual right to make Fantastic Four movies, expiring only if more than seven years elapses without active production on a new film." This means that Marvel won't officially get the rights back until 2022.
While it is clear that Fox and Constantin collectively control the cinematic rights to the Fantastic Four, it is not actually clear how they’re divided between the two companies. Constantin has produced all four Fantastic Four films, while Fox has distributed all three that have had cinematic releases. Things are further complicated by the fact that we are really talking about two sets of rights: production rights, which let someone make a movie, and distribution rights, which allow them to distribute the completed film to theaters.
It seems to me like Constantin retains the production rights first sold to them in 1986, but that Fox has exclusive distribution rights as part of the 1999 deal with Marvel.
So when Disney buys Fox, the fate of the Fantastic Four rights is unknown. Will the deal that Constantin Film made with Fox go over to Disney or will they have to try and strike up a separate deal? Or will Disney just try an buy back the rights to the property separately while they are in the process of buying Fox?
One thing is for sure. Marvel will get the rights back in 2022 if Constantin Film doesn't do anything with the property within that time frame. If Marvel just waits it out, they should be fine. Even if Marvel did get the rights immediately, it's unlikely that Marvel would even put a Fantastic Four film into production until after 2022 anyway.
What do you think about all this?