Sprawa dotyczy fanowskiego filmu pt. "The Dead Can't Be Distracted" opartego na komiksie Grega Rucka. Odpowiada za niego Mike Pecci. W oficjalnym piśmie Marvela najbardziej zaskakuje powód. Otóż według nich ten film wprowadza zamieszanie wśród widzów, którzy traktują to jako oficjalną produkcję studia, a nie fanowską twórczość, więc chcą bronić swoich interesów. Innymi słowy produkcja Pecciego była tak profesjonalnie stworzona, że Marvel mógł poczuć się zagrożony.
W grę mogą wchodzić też plany Marvela na adaptację tego samego komiksu - stąd taki zaskakujący ruch, gdyż wielkie studia i twórcy komiksów zawsze pozwalali na fanowską twórczość, gdyż jest ona realizowana non profit. Żądają od Pecciego natychmiastowego wstrzymania produkcji i usunięcia wszystkich materiałów promocyjnych.
Na całą sytuację zareagował producent filmowy Adi Shankar, który ma na koncie fanowski film o Punisherze pt. "Dirty Laundry". Napisał on otwarty list, piętnujący zachowanie przedstawicieli studia Marvel. Uważa, że jest to niebezpieczne zagranie narażające przyszłość fanowskiej twórczości i mające negatywny wpływ na kulturę.
Poniżej otwarty list do przeczytania w oryginale:
[info]
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. [/info]