American McGee cancels OZombie to pursue Alice film rights
American McGee has abandoned the attempt to crowdfund his warped vision of the land of Oz in favor of another Kickstarter project to secure the film rights to his Alice franchise. Kickstarter rules say only one project can be active at a time.
American McGee has abandoned the attempt to crowdfund his warped vision of the land of Oz in favor of another project: to secure the film rights to the Alice franchise.
McGee had originally included the film rights as a stretch goal for the OZombie game, as well as some Alice goodies for higher pledge tiers, but funding was slow and it was obvious that goal would not be reached. In announcing the cancellation, McGee said the Alice film rights had to take precedence for crowdfunding, so the Oz project needed to be terminated. He said that, while the decision was difficult, he was being realistic.
"As it is, we've reached 15% of our goal with 20 days left in the campaign. Projections suggest we'll hit 30% of our goal by campaign end," he said, adding that OZombie could be revisited at a later time.
He explained the process to secure the film rights previously when it was a stretch goal: "As with most things in Hollywood, the deal is a little complex. It's structured as a purchase option, which is like 'rent to own.' We pay $100,000 USD to secure the option, which also enables us to make animated shorts based on the Alice property. In order to purchase the license outright and be able to make a feature film we need to pay $500,000 USD in total. The initial payment of $100,000 USD goes towards that final purchase price."
McGee has already released the video for the planned Alice Kickstarter:
-
Shacknews
replyJohn Keefer posted a new article, American McGee cancels OZombie to pursue Alice film rights.
American McGee has abandoned the attempt to crowdfund his warped vision of the land of Oz in favor of another Kickstarter project to secure the film rights to his Alice franchise. Kickstarter rules say only one project can be active at a time.-
Is this another chapter in this saga? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee's_Alice#Film_adaptation
In December 2000, director Wes Craven signed on to develop a film adaptation of the game, with screenwriter John August hired to adapt the game for the big screen. American McGee had begun negotiations with Dimension Films 10 months before, with the studio committing to the project before Craven's signing. In September 2001, August explained that he had turned in a script treatment for Alice and was not attached to develop fuller drafts for the film adaptation. In February 2002, Dimension Films signed brother screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber to write the screenplay for Alice. In July 2003, the brothers announced that they had completed the script for the film adaptation.
In 2004, the project moved from Dimension Films to 20th Century Fox, but in 2005 Universal Pictures acquired the rights. As of June 2008, producer Scott Faye indicated the film was in "turnaround" from Universal. He admitted that the script needed development, but would be used to attract the attention of a new studio. At one point the film rights were reported to have been owned by Sarah Michelle Gellar, a self-confessed fan of the game, who noted in 2008 that she's "not giving up" on the film, but a few months later she was reported to have left the project.
Tim Burton's film version contains some very original ideas which seem to come from McGee's treatment, including the landscape, the tower and the overall "look" of the final battle is also very close in Burton's movie to McGee's vision. It is not known if McGee sought story credit for Burton's script.
This is longer running than Warren Spector's Disney addiction. -
[deleted]
-
and the worst name since WiiU
-
-
I have never found any of this guy's stuff compelling. I wish he'd just stop, and stop putting his useless name on shit.
-
[deleted]
-
