Tale of Two Fandoms

Recently, Lucy Lawless tweeted that the Xena movie isn't going to happen. While the chances of a Xena movie with the original cast is not going to happen, there's always a chance that Universal will reboot the franchise with an all new cast. Fans are not going to like that, in fact many are pretty much against the idea and will not see it.

Let's talk about a little old soap opera that aired on ABC from 1966-1971. Dark Shadows was the first gothic soap opera and made vampires hip. Before Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries, the ABC soap opera series had cult following that is almost as large as Star Trek. The DS fans hold annual conventions routinely attended by the cast members--both original and the revival series. Several of the cast members have written books about their time on the series.

It was also the start of the careers of David Selby, John Karlen, and Kate Jackson. It made a household name out of Jonathan Frid, probably the first soap superstar.

So when it was announced a few years ago that the series would be going to the big screen, fans were skeptical. In a few weeks, the Tim Burton directed film starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins opens in theaters. Burton and Depp extended invitations to Frid and series actresses Kathryn Leigh Scott and Lara Parker for cameo appearances. They were humble by the invitation and they accepted.

And the fans couldn't be happier.

See, this is where a fandom which is as old as Star Trek has also embraced the reboot of their beloved series. Dark Shadows fans have, by and large, accepted Burton's direction with the movie and Depp's portrayal of the original vampire heartthrob. They are excited about the movie and all of the active Dark Shadows websites have given credit to the reboot. They've embraced it. They welcome it. They're ready to line up at the theater to go see it.

Why can't Xena fans seemingly accept the same fate for their beloved characters?

Part of it, I believe, has to do with the possessiveness of the fans today. If it doesn't have Lucy Lawless as Xena, they're not interested. Instead of giving another actress a shot, they'd rather throw the whole idea under the bus.

They cannot wrap their head around another actor playing the lead character.

As a Dark Shadows fan, I was skeptical about the reboot but after hearing what Burton and Depp had in mind, I came around.

The moral of the story is, don't judge a book (or in this case, idea) by its cover. Let the pieces fall where they may. You never know what may come out on the backside of all of this. After all, the original Dark Shadows series is seeing rebirth as a result of the movie. And that, my friends, is an awesome thing.

Another campaign, another let's give it a try

This is not to attack the current Xena movie campaign. In my best guesstimate, this is like campaign movement number 6,520,146. So, it's all been said and done before. I think with each influx of new fans or fans rediscovering the series, there's always an attempt to get the studio (Universal) to recognize the potential that a movie would bring.

The reality is, no amount of writing campaign, postcards, video watching, or Facebook likes will get the studio to budge on something nobody is entirely sure the actors want in the first place.

Yes, I know that Lucy Lawless has stated that she'd love to do a movie; however, given the fact she's stated and re-stated the fact that she's moved on with that part of her life just makes the issue all the more confusing. After all, if knew a good portion of my audience was still Xena fans, I'd probably say things that won't hurt their feelings either. And who can blame Lucy? After the vitriol spewed at her in the year after Xena ended, I'd probably play the safe bet too. The Xena fandom, yeah sure it's all nice and charitable, but when things are said that upset them--they're worse than Xena on a bad day. Now, I'm not picking on Lucy for any particular reason. I speak with fair certainty that she doesn't mean to harm people with saying she'd love to do a Xena movie.

Even if the actors were fully behind the project, that doesn't make it any more possible. The problem is, is that Universal has said repeatedly over the past six years that they are not interested in making Xena film in any shape or form. They asked people to stop writing about it because it's not going to happen.

Why history matters:

Back in the early 2000s, the Firefly fandom raised up holy hell at FOX for canceling the series without giving it a proper send off. Cult favorites tend to generate a firestorm and most never really get what the want. The Browncoats (as Firefly fans are called) started up a writing campaign to get something to wrap up the series. FOX wasn't budging--but Universal said they were interested. More fans wrote in... then in 2005 they got their wish. Universal released "Serenity."

The movie flopped at the box office. Didn't even make back what it cost to film the movie. While the home video sales did well, the reality set in for Universal that taking a series to feature film with the original cast based on a bunch of letters proved to be an utter disaster.

At the time of the failure (or least scary feelings of a possible failure), Universal dropped the Xena movie project in 2005. The "reported" story was conflict over the budget killed the movie. It might have well have been budget, but I think the failure of Serenity sealed the fate of a Xena movie. Universal is in the business of making money, Xena was a risky gamble.

Other attempts where made with Rogue Studios (a subsidiary of Universal) in late 2005 and throughout 2006. Over the next few years, rumors went around about a possible direct-to-DVD. That too failed. In 2008 and 2009 Rob Tapert officially announced that the movie was dead and that wasn't going to happen.

This is not to say don't do it. But no matter how many signatures you all get or Facebook likes you get, it won't change that the fact that Universal is NOT going to make a movie.

No 'movie'

Boy, this sure as heck doesn't come as a surprise. Rob Tapert is officially on the record as stating that there will be no Xena movie. It's official. It's dead.

This what he had to say:

“It’s something that just won’t happen,” Tapert told TheTorchOnline.com in an exclusive interview. “I don’t think it’s going to happen for Lucy and Renee. In twenty years or ten years, in some amount of years, like McGyver, like Charlie’s Angels, it [could] happen like that [with other actresses].”

Now that we have that out of the way. I won't slam people that that had some hope of there being a film on the way. I'm too old and far too tired of doing that everytime movie news comes around. But let me just say this: This shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone when for the last four years or so, TPTB constantly said: it's on the way or we'll see in a couple of months.

Personally, I think a lot of it was just mouth music and the reality that they can't keep it up any longer finally settled in and they had to square it all away.

I for one, would like to know JUST what did Ms. Katherine Fugate have in mind for a movie.

You can read more of Tapert's interview here.

Xena movie news!

Creators would love a Xena reunion

Rob Tapert, former producer of TV's Xena: Warrior Princess, told SCI FI Wire that pretty much everyone involved in the old show would love to see Xena (Lucy Lawless) pick up her chakram once again for a TV movie or some other kind of reunion project.

Tapert said he even had an idea in mind, but that matters are entirely out of his hands.

"That's a Universal question," Tapert said in an interview, adding: "Meaning [NBC] Universal ... Television [Group]. I don't control the strings."

Xena ran from 1995-2001 and starred Lawless--aka Mrs. Rob Tapert--as the title heroine and Renee O'Connor as her plucky sidekick, Gabrielle. The show was both a mainstream and cult success during its time on the air, and to this day its stars and makers attend conventions worldwide.

Unfortunately, fans' hopes for a reunion movie have yet to be realized. "We've said long ago that we'd love to do something," Tapert said. "We have a fun, 300-style idea for it. ... I can't answer [why nothing's happening]." (NBC Universal Television is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) --Ian Spelling

Source: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=61261

Xena Movie News : An Explanation of Sorts

I haven’t made a ‘Xena’ movie post for a while. It was time to make a post since well, there’s all sorts of things floating about at the moment. The fact is Universal isn’t interested. They’ve told Rob Tapert and he has in turn told the fans that Universal is not interested and that writing in won’t make a difference.

Before I continue further, I’m going to provide links the previous posts I’ve made about the movie:

Under the Movie News label for my blog, I’ve written about the movie 21 times.

Questions from the Query (January 4, 2008)
http://xenaonline.blogspot.com/2008/01/questions-from-query.html

Is it too late for a movie (October 27, 2007)
http://xenaonline.blogspot.com/2007/10/xena-movie-is-it-too-late-for-lucy-and.html

YouTube and Xena’s Popularity (June 26, 2007)
http://xenaonline.blogspot.com/2007/06/youtube-and-xenas-popularity.html

I want a movie (June 16, 2007)
http://xenaonline.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-want-movie-they-should-just-make-it.html

More Thoughts on the Xena Movie (June 8, 2007)
http://xenaonline.blogspot.com/2007/06/more-thoughts-on-xena-movie.html

Why You Simply Can’t Buy the Rights to Xena (June 6, 2007)
http://xenaonline.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-you-cant-simply-buy-rights-to-xena.html

Xena Movie FAQ #2536 (April 27, 2007)
http://xenaonline.blogspot.com/2007/04/xena-movie-faq-2536.html

Now, I do have a lot of other posts. But I picked out the ones that offer the most insight and information about the ‘Xena’ movie. Everything that is being talked about from letter writing to handing out flyers at a convention has been done at one time or another. The key thing to remember in all of this is that the movie industry is now focused on making money. Twenty years ago, it was about making movies. Now with the way studios have merged and with the way things are set up now with actors and directors signing huge salaries, the studios are in the business of making money—no longer movies for fun.

So what can the fans do? Quite honesty, nothing can be done. I don’t mean to be a pessimist about this but it’s the truth. Universal has made it known to Rob that they’re no longer interested. Rogue Pictures is also not willing to make a movie.

There are also a lot of other problems. In the past, a female lead (think about how quickly Sex and the City went by the wayside at the movie theater) films have struggled to capture an audience. It’s even harder when it’s an action film—like ‘Electra’ with Jennifer Garner is a prime example. She was a successful character in the movie ‘Daredevil’ but when it became a spin-off it failed to capture an audience. Same thing with Halle Berry in ‘Catwoman’ it failed to capture an audience. You can even make an argument for the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ films. Those films along with ‘Tomb Raider’ never would have been possible without ‘Xena.’ Yet, the four films struggled at the box office. The ‘Tomb Raider’ movies faired better because of the popular video game franchise and well to be honest, Angelina Jolie was Lara Craft. But there are movies that have struggled to get off the ground.

‘Wonder Woman’ has been on again and off again for the last five or six years. It’s gone from writer to writer and it’s never been made. Nor will it probably be made.

The industry has taken to going to their vaults and re-making old movies for a more modern and sophisticated audience.

‘Red Sonja’ is also in the works and now has Red Sonja in Rose McGowan (terribly miscast if you ask me). If this movie works and succeeds (it doesn’t look likely given past records) does it beef up a chance for a ‘Xena’ movie? The short answer is no. Not very likely because with ‘Xena’ there are a lot of strings attached in terms of a story. (Remember, they’re in the business of making money.)

And there are films that have been in the works for years that are finally coming out.

This is the case for the ‘X-Files’ movie. This movie has been talked about since before the series ended in 2002. It finally was green-lighted last year and is due to come out this summer. Will this help the possibility of a ‘Xena’ movie if the movie is successful?

Again, the short answer is no. ‘Xena’ and the ‘X-Files’ are two different animals. There’s not a whole lot of baggage attached to the series. They can make the movie without fear of upsetting a portion of the base.

‘Xena’ doesn’t have the luxury. Everyone has a different opinion about the movie and everyone thinks their idea is the best one. If you do Story A you might piss off Group B. If you do Story B you might piss off Group A. There is very little middle ground for Rob. And what he does have is paper thin. He can’t do a story that’ll please the fans because that’ll alienate the larger potential movie going audience. Again, studios are in the business of making money nowadays.

This brings up ‘Serenity.’ Here, the fans were successful in their grassroots campaign. But unlike ‘Xena’ where there was an ending (whether one accepts it or not) ‘Firefly’ (which the movie was based on) had no finale. It was kicked to the curb by Fox. Universal snatched it up. The studio made marketing mistakes along the way. First, they relied on the grassroots method of publicity—it was cheap—the fans do your dirty work. Secondly, they marketed the show to fans who are about as reliable as a skyscraper built on swampland. It’s a shaky practice. And lastly, the movie failed in the box office. The fans failed to come out to the theater and they failed to bring in those who were not familiar with the ‘Firefly’ franchise. The movie was a success on home video. The reason why is probably because like a lot of people, they didn’t see spending $20 or more at the movie theater when they weren’t sure of the quality. The true test came on home video. It remained in the top 25 for something like eight weeks or so. That’s pretty good for a DVD.

So then it brings up the question would a DVD release benefit ‘Xena.’ This is about the only thing I can say might have a chance of working. You get passed that issue having to market your film to the general audience. But you also run into the same story problem you would with a feature version. But if the DVD sales of the series are any indication, a DVD release wouldn’t even happen either. They were disappointing. I think even Anchor Bay which was a distributor of the sets were shocked at how flat they were.

Every so often the rights issue comes up as an excuse. That’s a long settled issue. Universal owns the rights. Rob can’t buy them because he can’t afford to and even if he did with financial, he’s confronted with commitments to deliver a successful product to his backers. He can’t guarantee that because the fandom is unpredictable. No one is going to invest millions of dollars in a product that doesn’t show it’s going to be successful. They’re going to do research to see how much money the movie would get them. If they see that there’s no chance of a profit, it’s dead. (This is what happened in the first place.)

What’s the best way to get Universal’s attention? There isn’t any. Sending the studio emails, letters, faxes and postcards aren’t going to get it anymore noticed now than what it has in the last few years.

Clueless in Xenacyberland

Okay, so I get this email the other day...

Hi,

My name is Jerome and I'm working on gathering fans from around the world to get a movie studio to make a Xena movie. As a Xena fan, you have to be for a movie. Xena never gives and nor should the fans. Xena deserves a movie. We need to contact everyone to get them interested. We need annoy them with letters and post cards and emails and phone calls. They need to know that they need to make a movie!

We can do this by having posters, petitions, and protestes at conventions. We should march in front of Universal Studios. We need to be proactive about this. It's the only way they'll listen.

Ugh! At first I though he was joking. But I don't think he was. He's another clueless fan roaming around on the internet and not up with the latest developments.

My reply to him was a very long-winded rant on how he needs to do some research on the matter before randomly emailing people asking for support.

I sent him links of all the posts I've made on this blog about the movie. Hopefully he'll get the picture that his attempts to get a movie made are futile, at best.

The fact is, Universal Studios has made it known to Rob Tapert that they aren't interested in making a Xena movie. He's relayed that to us. It's not going to happen. I'm sorry to be the person to break it.

And if you're going to be a pain in the ass about it, you're going to make the fandom look bad and make us look like a bunch cry babies. No one ever accomplishes anything by being a bastard about something.

Questions from the query...

Here are some questions I recently received from people asking about Xena, the movie, and some other questions...

How come there hasn't been a movie yet?
The studio simply isn't interested. Without going into a lot of technical detail, there has to be a "profit" for a studio (or at least the potential to earn a profit) and after doing reseach, the studio doesn't find it finanically feasible to do a movie at this time with the original cast.

Can Rob write something for Lucy and Renee to (sic) do a convention?
No. Rob doesn't own the rights to Xena, so therefore writing anything and the producing it for a stage would be copyright violation. One of the reasons why Steven Sears can't publish his Xena play from the 2005 Burbank Convention is because of "copyright." Sure they could do it, but it would be unprofessional, if not career "altering."

Who owns the rights to Xena?
Universal Media Services LLC (or Universal Television Distribution LLC).

If Renee took money to complete Diamonds and Guns from the "fans", then why can't Rob?
There's a difference in "taking one's money" and "raising funds through legimate means." Renee auctioned off photos, personalized autographed photos and artwork to complete work on an already filmed movie.

As for why Rob can't take fans money--aside from being a logistical nightmare of who donated what and how much, he said he just couldn't do it. He'd use his own money first. (Producing 101, never use your own money to finance films, always use someone else's money.) Since there is no movie, taking money is pointless.

Why can't Rob buy the rights?
And then do what with them? You still need a studio to make the movie and they're going to look at the same information that Universal did and they'll come to the same conclusion. The movie industry is in the business of turning a profit. They're no longer in it for the art.

Will there be another midwest convention?
I don't know. That's up to Creation Entertainment. From what I saw at the Chicago convention in October, it was well attended. Though, I wonder how much of that was from the other convention held upstairs. I'm sure there were quite a few BSG fans in the back.

I would like to see them come back, as it's about $1500 cheaper for me. It was $75 for the bus ticket to Chicago and another $600 in rooming and food fees for the Chicago convention. My suggestion? Write to them and say: I'd really like you to come back to Chicago. After all, the man himself Buddy Guy did say for Lucy to come back, he loved having her!


Are they?
(If I wasn't totally intune with the fandom, I'd probably go huh?)

That my friend, is in the eye of the beholder.

The new comic books suck, why did Universal give the license to these hacks?
Ouch! That's gotta hurt. I agree, they do suck. But it's Xena, so I'm willing to overlook the crappy storytelling for a piece of Xena action.

As to why Uni gave the license to Dynamite Entertainment, I don't know. I know that Rob doesn't like them (nor the Evil Dead ones).

I think the comics are coming back sometime in 2008. No word on when the next issue is coming out.

When does (sic) Lucy's films come out?

Dragonlance comes out January 15. And Justice Leauge is released Feburary 26.

Does Renee have anything coming out?
You can catch Renee in Boogeyman 2 coming out January 8. Genesis Code is slated to air on the Sci-Fi channel sometime this year. She is also going to appear in two episodes of Army Wives, which at the moment, is in limbo because of the Writer's Strike.






Do you have a question about the show that you'd like to see my response to? (Remember, I'm not an official authority on anything officially related to the show. I just provide you with common sense answers to questions from a fan's perspective.)

Xena Movie: Is it too late for Lucy and Renee? Is it too late for a Xena movie in general?

A subject recently came up on the XOC about the Xena Movie and whether or not it's too late for a movie.

The question is basic: is it too late for a movie. As of this posting, 61 people have participated. The "yes" and "no" category is tied with 24 votes each. The remaining 13 are undecided.

It's not about how old the actresses are, but about the timing of the movie (note: there is no word on whether or not there'll be a movie). It's too late, realistically speaking. The honeymoon is long over.

It has been over five years since the finale has aired. Many people who watched the show regularily have since moved on. Note, I determine "regularily" under the studio model of those that watched eight episodes or more a season. So, with that being said, the fandom is smaller than what it was during the series run.

Movies, like television, have a series of patterns it sees during the course of a few years. In the early 2000s, it would have been easy to get a genre piece action film made. 'Gladiator' was the catalyst in the genre that spawned dozens of like-minded films. But of those films, 'Gladiator' got the awards and the acclaim. The other films fell to the wayside, only to be discusse in times like this.

If this was six years ago and 'Xena' was still fresh in the minds of the studio and the actresses were interested, it might have been made or at least given a chance to get made. The reality is, is that neither actress was interested in returning to their roles. (After the negative feedback of wishing their careers to be sacrificed for upsetting the fandom, can you really blame them??)

The movie could have catapulted on the success of 'Gladiator.' But the time of epic sword-and-sandle films are gone. The last few struggled to capture an audience. Even with the success of '300' (which was not that great of a movie), there are others that have failed in the past two years.

The time for 'Xena', has come and gone. One can only hope that the need for a female action series will return and hopefully it'll be as groundbreaking as 'Xena.'

The otherside (rather, the hidden meaning) to the poll is that are Lucy and Renee too old to reprise their roles? Not yet. But it's impossible to determine when is it they'll be too old to reprise the roles. Lucy has often said she invisioned herself playing Xena's mother.

Fans should be greatful for what they have. One of the reasons why George Lucas has never made any post-Jedi films, is because of all the books that have been written. There's tons of fan fiction out there for 'Xena' fans to read to "fill the void" no movie.

Raimi queried at Comic Con about the 'Xena' movie

Nothing like asking the wrong person. But anyways, Sam Raimi was asked about the possibility of a 'Hercules' or 'Xena' movie he said that it could happen, it's really up to Rob.

Raimi always has and always will have nothing to do with either franchise in terms of a movie. It's not his thing. It wasn't his thing when the series was in production and it's not his thing now. So why he was asked, I don't know.

Maybe perhaps the person felt he'd give a straight answer? Probably.

But don't read anything into the news. Any movie *could* happen.

Wonder how that meeting with the studio went...

I checking around the Xena fandom this morning, and I came across a post about the movie. It got me thinking: I wonder how that meeting Rob was supposed to have the first week of June with Universal faired.

We never heard back on how that meeting went.

You have to laugh at that. You really do.


Yeah, anyone willing to place bets on whether or not the meeting really happened?

YouTube and Xena's popularity

This recently came into my comments:

Already 6 years have passed.. My god..Speaking of the Xena fandom. I've noticed how many youtube vids there are on youtube. Couldn't we like use youtube to show the popularity of Xena? Show it to Universal? I don't know if the number of viewed are those of unique views, but anyway, it could be a thought to set up a little movie, adding it to youtube, not giving it the tags of xena, and tell nobody.

That won't work. It doesn't matter how popular Xena is on YouTube. Internet popularity doesn't amount to a hill of beans to these guys, and rightfully so.

As I have explained SO MANY TIMES before, it's not the size of the fandom or not realizing the size of the fandom (which is probably quite small when you get down to it). It's probably not even the fact that they don't "get Xena."

It all boils down to (say it with me now kids) the FINANCIAL ASPECT OF THE INDUSTRY. The fact is, Universal had a very bad experience with the "Firefly" movie. They are not likely to make that mistake again.

I want a movie! They should just make it! It'll make a lot of money!

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.

Attention Xena fans, GE has nothing to do with Universal

A word to the group that wishes to harass the poor board of directors at GE (General Electric, the parent company of Univesal Studios):

GE, the board of directors, and their stockholders don't give a flying flick about the XENA MOVIE.

GE and it's board of directors are not involved with the movie making business, so harassing those people is not going to help you any. It may lead to certain people getting pissed at you folks because you're barking up the wrong tree and you make, in effect, make matters worse.

Keep writing to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. They own the damn rights. They own the FATE. Not GE. Not their board of directors. Not their stockholders. (Word up: those guys look at the numbers too... see a pattern here?)

Direct your anger at right people.

Edited to add:

Yes, I know that GE owns Universal. But the movie studio operates as a seperate entity from GE. So hence, writing to GE won't make your case any more important. You'll just annoy the hell out of them like you did poor Mr. Andrew Rona (who is the president of Rogue Films).

Wonder how that meeting went

Rob was supposedly meeting with people from Universal this past week to discuss other options. Wonder how that turned out.

More thoughts on the 'Xena' movie

It basically comes down to the climate of the movie industry folks. Not knowing the product plays little into the final decision.

For starters: the Xena film was pitched "as a female action hero in ancient greece" not exactly your opening weekend winner at the box office material.

Secondly, it's a genre film. If this was 2001 and riding on the heals of "Gladiator" it probably wouldn't have gotten a second thought. It would have been rushed into production.

Thirdly, largely a female cast. Not going to work, given the recent trend at the box office. In fact, it usually always been the trend.

Fourthly, TV shows to feature films always lose a bit of something in that transition process from small to big. You lose something. Take a look at 'Firefly.' It had a huge cult following when it was on TV. But when it transitioned to film, it failed. Why? Because the general movie going audience wasn't impressed.

"Serenity" (the 'Firefly' film) costed around $40 million to make. Domestically, it made about $25 million. The foreign release captured about $13 million. Its total box office receipts was $38.9 million. It was a box office failure.

The Star Trek franchise, being the exception here. But that franchise had it's bad films.
In order for a movie to be considered successful, it has to earn at least 3 times the actual production cost. So, if a film costs $100 million to make, it would have to make at least $300 million to be considered a box office hit.

When you crunch the numbers, financially speaking, there's no market for it. No amount of letters is going to change that.

For the record, if Rob and Universal were 'truly' interested in the sales of the DVD, the man should call up Anchor Bay Entertainment and find out exactly how many units they sold to retailers/third party distributors (Rentrak/Ingram) and how many were actually sold by retailers and how many units were BSI (Back Stock Inventoty) returns. They were the ones who actually "distributed" the DVDs. Davis-Anderson did all the work on the production of them (the transfer, the extras, etc).


Oh well. I wonder how that meeting went...

Misguided souls

If anyone knows me, they know I like to take shots at fans because well... we fans tend to be a bit fanatical (if not looney). And it's done sometimes with utter disbelief, sometimes with love, and other times just about being sheered annoyed and sometimes is just plain funny.

Take these things:

Across my mail this morning, comes a plea to do a search for Renee O'Connor on http://www.imdb.com and then click on her film "Diamonds and Guns." Now, I'm all for supporting (ahem, sometimes) the work of actors from "Xena" and "Hercules." And for what it's worth "Diamonds" actually looks funny and interesting. But I have to say, to anyone who actually thinks that by simply searching a clicking on the page for "Diamonds" is going to make people think that it's popular is well, just plain... I don't what. I'll have to get back to you on that. Later. When I actually think of what it is I want to say what it is. (Confused?)

But honestly folks, the distributors could care less about how popular a page is on http://www.imdb.com. Anyone who's been around long enough, knows that the Internet Movie Database isn't exactly known for its accuracy. Consider it the wikipedia of Variety or The Hollywood Reporter. It's good for basic background information, but if you really want to know you'll have to dive deeper into the issue to get the full scoop.

You knew this was coming: THE XENA MOVIE!!

The second thing is this whole conspiracy theory about the letter writing campaign and that Rob was somehow secretly sending fans a message to continue to write, even though he had been asked to relay the message of asking fans to stop writing. You can write all you want in this world. It comes down to the financial end of the movie industry. That case was made very clear at the New York convention.

If you all want to kill trees and waste gasoline sending letters to Mr. Andrew Rona at Rogue. Or whomever at Universal, be my guest. But it's not very "green" of you.

I have a suggestion about how to show the suits there's interest in "Xena." How about this: go to the conventions and buy merchandise, show them that there's an interest. Show them the money.

To quote a professor of mine: It's all about the money.

(Also about the DVD sales, I think Rob has forgotten that it was Anchor Bay that distributed the DVDs, they would have a better idea was to what was sold and returned to them and to other third party distributors. But I think a good, clear indication is that within six months of the season six release, Davis-Anderson was selling the DVDs for $29.99 a pop.)

Why you can't simply buy the rights to 'Xena'

I've been monitoring the Official Lucy Lawless mailing list concerning the recent comments by Rob Tapert concerning the status of the movie (Xena Online: Movie news update). And what is surprising me, is that a number of people want to form a company to one, either buy the rights or two, get somebody famous to buy the rights to sell to Rob so he can make the movie.

I'm afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that's about as futile as you can get. You see, it's not that anyone at Universal doesn't understand 'Xena,' it's that the industry doesn't find a property like 'Xena' money-worthy.

As I've detailed many times before (Xena Online: Xena Movie FAQ #2536, from April 27, 2007), there is a lot of financial reasons (as Rob noted at the NY Con) for Universal not wanting to make a movie. (On that same note, he also said that they just dont' get 'Xena'.)

I think it's more with the financial and than a failure to understand what 'Xena' is to the fans. I've highlighted many of the reasons several times on this blog about why Universal doesn't find 'Xena' money-worthy (Xena Online: Why is there no Xena movie?, Xena Online: No Xena movie? WHY??).

So, why isn't there a 'Xena' movie. To put it in very plain terms, there's a few reasons.

1. Genre piece: The 'Xena' movie is classified as a sword-n-sandal film. Those movies have struggled domestically since 'Gladiator' was released. If this was six years ago, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.
2. Female action film: These movies, have for the most, failed at the box office and have failed to attract audiences to the movie theaters.
3. TV show property: Unless you're Star Trek (with a fanbase ten times larger that Xena's) you're pretty much dead in the water. Serenity (the Firefly film) failed to capture and audience at the box office. It's only saving grace was the home DVD release.

Now, I've highlighted over reasons in my various posts over the past year. But those are the top three.

Why you can't simply buy the rights to Xena?

It's been suggested on the Lucy mailing list that they try to form a company to buy the rights or enlist some rich people to buy the rights. It's not that simple folks. For one, the rights would cost millions and millions of dollars. You'd have to have some financial backing in order to do so and no one is going to give you money unless they know they're going to get their money's worth.

Movies are an investment for the studios. And the people who invest in movies, want to be sure they're going to get something out of it in return.

The fact is, it comes back to the three reasons why there is not a movie.

I'm curious to see what comes out of the "meeting" that's supposedly happening this week.

Movie news update

There is no new news about the movie other than because Davis-Anderson (the people who put out the DVDs) owns the rights to the DVDs for the series, it kinda messes things up a bit with regards to the direct-to-DVD movie, apparently.

Universal is apparently unable to get the "sales figures" from the season DVD releases.

Rob is to meet with some people from Universal next week to see what, if anything, can be done and if perhaps he could get the rights to take it elsewhere to get made.

Xena convention this weekend

On Saturday, we'll get an update on the proposed Xena movie.

A word of advice: Don't hold your breathe.

Xena Movie FAQ #2536

Another round of questions before I dive into the stacks for my finals next week.


Will 'Football Wives' impact the movie?

There is no 'Football Wives' at the moment to impact anything. ABC is reviewing their pilots for the 2007-08 season and will make an announcement on the fall pickups and mid-season replacements in a couple of weeks.

Even if 'Wives' is picked up, Lucy has stated that it probably won't interfere with the movie.

But the problem though, is that no story (as of January 2007) exists., so it's hard for 'Wives' to impact something that does not does exist.


What can fans do?

Fans can't do anything anymore, really. The studio has extended an offer to Rob on the movie---a direct-to-DVD movie. The ball is in his court. You can write to Universal, but I'm fairly sure it's not going to work.

If 'Football Wives' is picked up and becomes a hit, wouldn't that make Lucy more bankable?

That's a misconception. Being on popular on a popular TV show (that's an ensemble piece which 'Wives' is), doesn't automatically mean $$$$ for a studio. Look at David Caruso. He left his cushy role on 'NYPD Blue' to go into film, only to turn to TV a few years later.

And it also doesn't mean that people will want to see her in other projects. It could be the success of 'Wives' is attributed to another factor. Again, it looks to be an ensemble piece which the focus point of the cast changes from week to week.

Why is the studio not doing a feature film?

There are several problems with a feature length 'Xena' movie. First is the time frame of the movie. Genre pieces are a hard sell unless there is something unique about them. '300' (which I found long and boring) appeals to a certain brand of audience, which is not, sorry to say in tune with the 'Xena' fandom.

Second, tv shows to film generally flop with or without the original cast. You lose your "fans" because of the big feel to it all. Which probably not a big problem for 'Xena' fans, because of the big production quality of the series.

Third, the story becomes an issue. If you do a post-series finale, you run the risk with having to do a lot of exposition to get the audience up to speed. Keep in mind. 90% of the audience probably will have very limited knowledge of the series.

There's a fourth factor, which is the fandom. The fandom, being as polarized as it is at times, creates a problem for the story.

1. If you do Story A, you piss off Group B.
2. If you do Story B, you piss off Group A.
3. If you play devil's advocate and do Story C, you piss of sub-group A.

Everyone wants their story told their way. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You have to find the balance to keep all people happy. Which is to do story C and hope that the fans are happy with it.

To use a quote from the series (with a change or words): You got your movie, stop complaining.

Can we donate money?

No. Purely legal reasons as to why you can't send money in to help finance the movie. That would in a sense, make everyone a "producer" on the film. And we're not talking a couple of thousands of dollars here. We're talking millions and millions of dollars.

I heard that Lucy said there's a 50/50 chance of there being a movie by 2008. So there's a chance.

There's a chance to anything life. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow crossing the street, not the best example, but you get the idea. All movies have a 50/50 chance of getting filmed. It's a crap shoot.

Do you think there'll be a movie?

Honestly? No. I think that all parties involved are focusing on other interests and have moved on to other things. Do I want a movie? No. Yes. No. No, was my original feeling. Yes, for about 4 months in 2005. No since May 2005. I don't feel a movie is necessary, needed or warranted. The story ended. Better to leave it that way.

Would I see it? Probably rent it and then buy it if it was good. (Okay, that's lie... I'd probably buy it!)

What movie would I want? A classic 'Xena' story that is either set during the series time frame (but before the finale) or a story that is completely outside of the series timeframe.

That about does it for this round of FAQs addressed to me through my website.