That was an email I received recently. I politely pointed the person to the blog and highlighted several comments I've made over the last year concerning the reasons why there hasn't been a movie.
The fans got that 'Firefly' movie made! We can too!
In 2004, fans of the television series "Firefly" banded together got Universal to make a movie based on their beloved canceled series. Universal threw $40 million at Joss Whendon to make "Serenity."
And in 2005, when the movie was released into theaters, its total box office receipts didn't even reach the total budget of the movie. Now, while the DVD sales were strong, initially (these were the fans who didn't go to theater to see it), the movie is still considered a flop by industry standards.
And soon there after, the executives who were responsible for green-lighting the movie quietly moved onto other jobs.
'Serenity' has pretty much DOOMED all future TV shows from going to the big screen. (The exception being "Star Trek.")
The fandom is huge! It'll make a bazillon dollars!
I think the common misconception here is that the "Xena" fandom is filled with a lots of people and they'll go see it. The truth is, for every one fan that'll go to theater to see it, there'll be at least 500 that won't. (This is what hurt "Serenity"---the fans didn't show up, even though they wrote in demanding a movie.)
To add on to the misery of all of this, are people who are writing in because their family or friends asked them too. They aren't going to go see it. Nor are they going to buy it when comes out onto DVD.
Universal knows this. They know it from "Serenity." And they remember. They're basing their decisions on past performances of not just "Serenity" but also on the genre centered pieces, action here pieces, and a female-lead cast.
It comes down to financial reasoning.
I think we should write to GE. What's their address?
This question was in the same email. I scratched my head and thought: don't let the people suffering from the Lucy Lawless mailing list sway into thinking that GE (General Electric and the parent company of Universal Studios) holds the key.
Harassing those people aren't going to get you anywhere. GE doesn't make movies. They make appliances, lightbulbs and the like.
Don't waste the stampe folks. Or the gass. Dont' write to GE.
Can't we buy the rights and give them to Rob?
Unless you have tens of millions of dollars you want to throw away, then no. You can't buy the rights. And people with that kind of money, aren't going to hand it over unless they know they're going to get a return on their investment.
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