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Disney planning to buy Fox

DSM2337

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So it looks like Disney won the rights to Fox, Comcast backing down from the full purchase of Fox.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44887750

The fight for Sky continues, which I see going Comcast's way. This makes me sad. Sky have a pretty good reputation in their field, for service and content. Comcast don't.  :(
 

TomH1138

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Yeah, there's been a lot of crazy ups and downs, but it does look like Disney is the clear winner now. 

One of the last remaining hurdles to clear was that the board of directors at each company had to accept the deal. But two weeks ago, both companies have accepted the merger, in meetings that had so few objections that they lasted less than 15 minutes apiece. 

All along, I’ve been trying to caution people against believing that the deal was done yet, for better or for worse. But with the only remaining issue being to clear the deal in a few foreign territories, I would say that the deal is about 90% done at this point. (Yes, I did just make up that statistic. Thanks for asking.)

The lawyers on both sides will probably take about a year to get everything settled, and much of the next year will involve planning the new corporate structure. But things are so close now that I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an X-Men reference in the end credits scene of next year’s Avengers movie.

It’s astonishing that Fox has been brought this low in the first place. For many decades of recent history, a Fox film was at the top of the all-time highest grossing films, unadjusted for inflation (1977-82 for the original Star Wars, then again in 1997 after its re-release; Titanic from 1997 to 2009; and then Avatar from 2009 to 2015). Disney never had a film at the very top during that period until 2015 with--you guessed it--Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And now Disney will own all of those films. I suppose it shows that even the occasional huge success can’t compete with the reliability of Disney’s hit-making machine.

Perhaps the craziest part of all of this? Back in June, AT&T bought Time Warner…and there was hardly a peep out of the news media about that.

One of the sadder things that also hasn’t got much press about this story is that there will undoubtedly be a lot of layoffs in the company, as many jobs are about to become redundant. (I feel bad that it didn’t occur to me sooner either.) Part of me still wishes this could have played out differently, but there will undoubtedly be some positives to come from this merger. And since I have no control over it anyway, all I can do now is watch and continue to report on both the good and things that happen as this fascinating deal continues to unfold.
 

TomH1138

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Here's the latest news: The merger (which originally looked like it was going to take more than a year to complete) looks like it will be done by January of next year.

As such, Fox has shuffled around the dates of its upcoming movies; some speculate that this is at least partly so that they don't compete with Disney films. Alita: Battle Angel has been moved from Christmas to Feb. 14, and Dark Pheonix has been moved to Jun. 7 (its second shuffling). Meanwhile, Alita's December date has been taken by a bizarre-sounding PG-13 Deadpool 2 re-edit. (These developments were discussed a bit in the "X-Men Continuity Series" thread, pgs. 31 and 32.)

Now, the latest news is that Dark Pheonix will probably be the first Fox movie released under the Disney regime.

The above Screen Rant article is intriguing, but I think it's inaccurate on several points.

Even if Disney technically owns Fox by the time Dark Phoenix is released, I can't imagine that they would rebrand the end of the previous X-Men continuity as being part of the current MCU. That would just cause needless confusion.

When they start fresh with a reboot (and they will reboot), the new X-Men movies will have the MCU branding. Dark Phoenix (and New Mutants, coming Aug. 2) will likely have the current Fox/Marvel branding so that it's clear that this is part of the old continuity. I hope these movies are good, but if they're bad (or even if they just remind people too much of the X-Men movies' messy timeline), the last thing Kevin Feige would want people to think is that this is the first of his new X-Men films.

I think it's a bit funny that the Screen Rant author suggests this movie might open with a Disney castle logo. None of the other live-action superhero movies have started with this (probably for fear of teenagers thinking it's lame), so why would they start now, especially when this looks to be a pretty dark, non-Disney-esque film?

I also don't think Disney/Marvel wants to have two competing X-Men franchises going at the same time. These movies are getting released because a bunch of money has already been spent on making them, but Feige and co. are going to want to move on as quickly as possible. They may even go as far as cancelling the TV series The Gifted  and Legion; despite all the buzz around these shows, they'll likely be considered remnants of the past the way Spectacular Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes were. 

The real question about branding, and a question I have yet to hear answered in any news article on this subject, is: Who gets the Fox logo? After all, New Fox (containing many broadcast and cable channels) will continue to operate as a separate entity. Did Disney buy the library or also the name and logo? If the latter, expect Dark Phoenix and New Mutants to get a typical Fox opening logo. If not, there will probably just be a generic Marvel (non-MCU) logo.

(Sidebar: If Disney does get the Fox logo, expect them to add that to the beginning of Star Wars: Episode IX in their ongoing attempt to win back disenfranchised fans. That's just good business sense.)

Anyway, sorry for once again dumping out the entire contents of my brain. :D
 

Handman

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Their career may be over, but at least they got a severance package!
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Personally, I think that's one of the possible reasons for a creative decline in the industry. You can't throw your all into something and bank on it being there tomorrow, so people play it safe and go with popular vs creative. On the flip side, creativity also gets backlash.....so I guess my point maybe pointless.....ha... :dodgy:
 

TomH1138

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Handman said:
Their career may be over, but at least they got a severance package!

Their jobs are over but not their careers. There are other companies that can hire them, after all. 

I'm not trying to gloss over the difficulty of all the layoffs, but I suppose it's better than nothing. Hollywood jobs are often very transitory. And I've been in and out of work very often in my life, and it didn't usually come with a severance package. So I'm glad when I hear that a company's doing that.

You're certainly not wrong that this whole situation is less than ideal. But apparently Fox was doing so poorly that the employees' jobs were on the line anyway. (Part of the deal is that Disney will pay off Fox's creditors.) So at least this is something.

Metaphorically, I'm not being glib that the ship sunk; I'm relieved that at least there are some life preservers.

Sorry for the long-windedness of this post!
 

TomH1138

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In my Facebook "Memories" today, I saw that I posted about a Princess Bride stage musical in the works five years ago, from Disney Theatrical Productions. (Even though Disney didn't own the property, they were licensed to work on it.) 

But, apparently, this project has been stalled. I just did a search for "Princess Bride musical," and there haven't been any updates since 2016, and that was just Rob Reiner saying he still hopes it will happen.

However, 20th Century Fox distributed the film theatrically, yet sold the home video rights to MGM years ago (before it gradually became a big hit). Fox retains rights to sequels and spinoffs, though. With Disney on the verge of buying Fox, but not being able to get any money from the home video releases, they may spend more time investing in other ways to get revenue from this property, including reviving the stage musical idea. (Hey, they already have the rights anyway!)
 

TomH1138

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The deadline for when this deal will be completed seems to change from day to day. At one point it was January, then it was March, then June. Now the latest reports suggest that it's March again.

Disney has settled its legal issues with Brazil, one of the few remaining holdout territories, by agreeing to sell its stake in Fox Sports there. Assuming everything goes according to plan this time, the deal may be finalized as soon as next week.

In such a case, the June release of Dark Pheonix would be the first Fox movie under Disney ownership.

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/d...qajrFVSCi-dTk288F9wz00uN_r_lTP57_UWNVSvT_igL0
 

TomH1138

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The sale didn't quite make it for the first week of March, but sources now point to the likely date being Mar. 20.

A couple of interesting notes in this article that hadn't been mentioned elsewhere:

--The Fox sports and news stations will now simply be known as "Fox," whereas before they were going to be called "New Fox" (unless the author of the article simply forgot to include "New"). If that's the case, does Disney get to call its new division "20th Century (or 21st Century) Fox"? Or are they not getting the name at all, and releasing any upcoming Deadpool, Die Hard and Alien movies under the Touchstone banner?

--Fox gets to keep their famous studio near Century City. Apparently that wasn't part of the deal.

https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-disney-fox-deal-march-20-20190312-story.html
 

TM2YC

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TomH1138 said:
Disney has settled its legal issues with Brazil

Terry Gilliam gets a break at least.
 

TomH1138

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It's official, folks. As of 12:02 am Central Time on Mar. 20 (tomorrow), Disney finally owns Fox.

Apparently, they own the portion called 21st Century Fox, with just plain "Fox" being the separate entity that owns the cable networks. It's not 100% clear from the press release, but it sounds like 20th Century Fox ceases to be at this point.

So will the famous logo be amended to "21st," or will Disney release future Fox productions under a different name? Guess we'll find out when Dark Phoenix drops in June.

https://www.21cf.com/news/21st-cent...D_ktfgH4kwJAfc0ELnWfHoZRNP2-ucmLJYYRxyHZUptWQ
 

DonKamillo

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TomH1138 said:
It's official, folks. As of 12:02 am Central Time on Mar. 20 (tomorrow), Disney finally owns Fox.

Oh...

6Kxf04P.jpg
 

TomH1138

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I just looked up Fox's release schedule on Wikipedia, curious to see what the first film will officially be released under the Disney ownership.

Based on all the media buzz, I assumed it was "Dark Phoenix" on June 7. But in fact, Fox has two movies on its release schedule before then: "Breakthrough," a Christian movie based on a true story about a near-death experience; and "Ad Astra," a sci-fi movie with an apparently original script. (Remember those?)

"Breakthrough" is one of the last films to be distributed under the Fox 2000 banner. I never knew why that subsidiary existed in the first place; even Wikipedia doesn't have much information on them. As best as I can tell, they focused on literary adaptations such as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." ("Breakthrough" is also based on a book.)

I'm really surprised I haven't heard more about "Ad Astra." It boasts a huge cast including Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones, and it's set for the busy Memorial Day weekend. Considering how much complaining I hear that everything these days is just a superhero movie, a sequel or a reboot, I would think people would give this more attention.

At any rate, "Breakthrough" will be released on Apr. 17, "Ad Astra" will be released on May 24, and "Dark Phoenix" will be released on June 7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_20th_Century_Fox_films_(2000–present)#Upcoming_films
 

TM2YC

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So do they have complete control of the original Star Wars films or what? That's the only potential silver lining to this affair.
 

Hymie

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They should.  I hope episode 9 opens with the FOX fanfare and they retroactively put it on TFA and TLJ.  The films just don't seem right starting without it.
 

Zarius

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I noticed that they removed the FOX Fanfare from the banner that precedes official downloads of their tv shows, at least on the SKY box I use.
 

TomH1138

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TM2YC said:
So do they have complete control of the original Star Wars films or what? That's the only potential silver lining to this affair.

Hey! Sorry I didn't see this comment sooner.

Yes, Disney owns all of Star Wars now. As it was, the rights to all movies from The Empire Strikes Back onward would have moved from Fox to Disney by 2020. But they never would have owned the original 1977 film because George Lucas didn't have the clout to own that film outright while making it. He successfully negotiated for all sequel rights (which Fox gladly gave him because they were certain the film was going to bomb). But they were never going to own A New Hope, and now they do.

Having to wait on the rights to the previous movies is one of the reasons (not the only reason, but one of them) that Disney got moving on making new films so fast: They wanted to produce content they completely owned. (That's also why they cancelled Clone Wars, because Warner Bros./Cartoon Network had a stake in that.)

The recent reissues, such as the digital releases in 2015, existed in some sort of weird nebulous legal state. (I mean, I'm sure the lawyers had it all worked out, but from the outside, it was confusing.) The Fox logo had been removed from the beginning, which suggested Disney was behind those releases, but as stated earlier, all media sources said that Disney didn't own those films until 2020. However, since they owned Lucasfilm, they own the franchise and the characters. Fox and Disney probably had to work in tandem for those releases. But now everything is free and clear for Disney to own.

I wholeheartedly agree with @"Hymie": I think fans would lose their minds (in a good way) if The Rise of Skywalker opened with the Fox fanfare. I was even hoping that the first trailer would have the logo, but alas, it didn't, so who knows what Disney is planning. It won't ruin my enjoyment, but it would be an amazing bonus if we got the Fox fanfare on Star Wars one last time.
 

TomH1138

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Zarius said:
I noticed that they removed the FOX Fanfare from the banner that precedes official downloads of their tv shows, at least on the SKY box I use.

That's a shame. Which shows? Do they use a Disney or Touchstone or ABC Studios logo instead?

I noticed that all TV shows previously produced by Paramount now have a "CBS Television Productions" logo on them, such as Taxi (which aired on ABC and then NBC), Cheers (NBC) and Happy Days (ABC), because CBS is the studio that owns them now.
 
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