Like Terminators and vampires, a good franchise never dies

By Sarah Sluis

Today, the blogosphere is alight with Joss Whedon fans, whose gut reaction over the relaunch of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise, sans fan icon Whedon, is overwhelmingly negative. While it may seem a bit early to remake a film from the 1990's, the popularity of vampire titles such as Twilight and "True Blood" prompted the rightsholding couple Fran Rubel Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui (the originally credited producer) to reboot the film. It's a bit of a paradox in Hollywood that the most valuable ideas aren't the original ones, but the proven ones.

The proposed relaunch of the franchise, so far without Whedon or original stars Kristy Swanson (film version) or Sarah Michelle Gellar (television version), is the rule, not the exception. Terminator Salvation, for example, just opened to $53 million without its lead star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, since he's no longer an action performer but the governor of California.

How the fourth Terminator, Terminator Salvation, came about was the subject an LA Times story on producers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek, who bought the rights to the franchise for $25 million, while brushing off lawsuits before, after, and during the entire process. The duo learned of the "for sale" during a business lunch, and did a gutsy blind, you-have-24-hours-to-take-$25 million-or-leave-it deal--the kind that evokes Hollywood action films. The story gives unusual access into that funny world of intellectual property, where the ideas in a movie become a legal abstraction.

How were they able to pull it off? A few choice quotes lend some insight into the process:

Credentials: "...their entire producing experience consisted of one low-budget comedy that never made it into theaters." (The Cook-Off, a mockumentary)

Connections: "The pair were tipped off by Graves at their fateful lunch because they believed they had access to millions of dollars of financing from Dubai." (which never materialized)

Deal-making: "..on Super Bowl Sunday in February 2007 [they] got a commitment from Santa Barbara hedge fund Pacificor...even though his firm had never before, and hasn't since, invested in entertainment." (It doesn't say whether the deal was done in some nice box seats at the game)

Collegiality: "Borman [a producer], in the suit, accused them of "egregious fraud"..." (He will be credited in future films but not allowed to do anything)

While the LA Times seems to imply that the wake of lawsuits couldn't have occurred without reason, Anderson and Kubicek view their legal problems as a byproduct of their business. They've also locked up the current talent: director McG for one sequel and Christian Bale for two. While Terminator Salvation hasn't performed quite as well as expected, so far, just wait for the T1-T4 boxed sets to come out. As for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I hope the project is either stalled or propelled forward by the script. The franchise was surprising because the television series changed significantly from the movie, but still succeeded. With a vision to make a "darker, event-sized movie that would, of course, have franchise potential," and the idea that the movie might feature an offspring or heir of Buffy's slayer duties, the relaunch just might be able to offer a compelling new take on the fantastically rich premise of Buffy.