Recently
Marvel shut down a Punisher fan film that in development. This action by Marvel
brought in producer Adi Shankar, who also produced a Punisher fan film, titled
The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, which stars Thomas Jane, who played the character
in the 2004 feature film adaptation.
About
the action of Marvel to shut down the fan film, Shankar has written an open
letter in which he discusses the subject.
Upon
reading the letter, I found that from an artist point of view I totally agree
with Shankar but from a business point of view I totally disagree, and this is
something that too often happens, especially when it comes about adapting other
people or studio material.
The
studios don’t seem to mind when fans are being fans and are making fan films,
shorts, clips, fake trailers, etc… as long as you stay true to the character or
story that your content is based on, but if your endgame is to present you’re in
this case film in a commercial sense, meaning get some kind of remuneration by
making it, aka ads or direct sell, then I think they should intervene and if
necessary shut you down, because at the end of the day it isn’t your original
content you’re adapting from, it’s theirs. Of course this over simplifying things,
there are many that worked for companies like Marvel or DC Comics and have some
issue with them having pretty much all of the copyrights over their creations,
for instance the creators of Superman Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, never
really got own their character.
This
is one of those questions that unfortunately have two rights and two wrongs. Should
artists/fans be allowed to create using other people content? Yes. Should said
artists/fans make money with that creation? No. Should a company deny artists/fans
the opportunity to create something based on their content? No. Should a
company keep tabs on any new creation based on their copyrighted content and if
necessary intervene? Yes.
"Dear
Fellow Geeks,
So,
Marvel shut down a Punisher fan film and due to my side-gig as a “bootlegger”
and having made my own Punisher fan film I’ve been dragged into the
discussion. For those of you who have
asked, here’s my opinion:
My
initial reaction: Confusion. Best-case scenario a Punisher fan film gets 4
million hits on YouTube. Assuming it’s
an R-rated release, an official Marvel Punisher movie - financed and produced
by Marvel and distributed by Disney, gets a P&A (prints and advertising)
spend of at least $25 million USD (more if it’s PG-13 … vomit). Setting aside the TV spots and inevitable
viral and outdoor campaigns, the trailer alone on its first two days on YouTube
would garner more hits than the lifetime of any fan film. It would be akin to saying Batman: Dead End
hurt the Nolan movies or that random Twilight fan fiction hurts book and movie
sales (note: 50 Shades of Grey initially built its following as Twilight fan
fiction … what’s the legality there?).
The
legality and moral ambiguity of the situation is interesting. Assuming it’s not done for profit, can
LucasFilm/Disney stop me from drawing Yoda and then posting my drawing on
Facebook? What if I drew 4,000 Yodas and created an animation of Yoda
walking? More importantly what does it
say about us as a civilization that the vast majority of our culture and
mythology (yes superheroes are the American 21st century equivalent of
classical myths) is owned by corporations?
Needless
to say, a repeat of the Shazam vs Superman case from the 1950’s is a disaster
scenario for our culture. For all the
non-geeks who happen to be reading, Shazam used to regularly outsell Superman.
DC sued claiming copyright infringement and won. As a result one of the most significant
characters in the history of comics was buried. That’s an example of a conglomerate
burying our culture. What happened to Ultraforce (See: Comics, Malibu)? Grifter
only recently returned. So, in a sense all fan films are a small step towards
reclaiming the culture. As artists,
isn’t it our duty to re-imagine, parody, and re-interpret the culture?
However,
upon reflection, here’s my conclusion: As much as I love telling The Man to go
fuck himself, I think the underlying issue is that the filmmakers in question
may have been a little over zealous in promoting their short prior to releasing
it. Fan driven content strengthens ones
brand and the community around it, and Marvel obviously knows this, as
evidenced by the plethora of Marvel fan films and fiction on the Internet.
Finally,
for anyone who cares: I’m going to keep
making my “bootleg” films … I love these characters and “The Bootleg Universe”
is my way of creatively re-interpreting them without being suffocated by the
red tape of the studio system … … plus it’s a fun thing to do in-between making
movies that bomb in the box office but over perform on DVD.
Yours
truly,
Adi
Shankar
P.S.
Andy Warhol made a Batman fan film … true story … look it up."
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