Kickstarter

     So we've all heard about the fantastic Veronica Mars movie that was funded on Kickstarter.com.  It did fantastic; they single handedly funded their movie, through crowd funding.  Crowd funding has been around for a while, now, and usually is used for micro-budget independent films, independent projects, or small businesses.  Big budget movies have never tried to use crowd funding, until now.
     And now Zach Braff has used Kickstarter to try and fund his new movie, "Wish I was Here."  Within a few days Zach reached his goal of 2 Million dollars.  His campaign has now reached well over 3 million.  Braff has also gotten a studio backer to fund the rest of the budget for his film.  There's no doubt Braff will also get a wide release with a giant distributor.
     This has brought a lot of attention to Kickstarter and crowd funding.  A lot of people are complaining that celebrities like Zach Braff are diluting crowd funding, and making it harder for independent artists to fund their projects.  I think it's a great way for films to be funded, and find backers.  I even think it's a great way for studios to connect more with their audiences.  Especially if they're trying to fund a fan based film.  For example, if Michael Bay had asked fans and crowd funded the upcoming Ninja Turtles movie, the backlash and turmoil that film has faced would be much smaller.  I think crowd funding is a great way to connect to your fans, and give them a movie they want, as well as making them feel involved.

Quicksilver Problem

     So who's heard of the new X-men movie coming out?  Fox is in production right now of their new film, "X-men: Days of Future Past."  This would be a no news kind of movie, as it's just another addition to a franchise, however, something interesting has occurred in the last several days.  Fox has released that they've added a new character, and actor to the roster or their new film.  The character, "Quicksilver," has been added to the cast of characters.  Now, Quicksilver is the super fast Mutant of the X-men universe.  Fox has also announced that actor Evan Peters will be playing the character.
     This brings up an interesting problem, as Marvel Studios had written the character into their upcoming movie, "The Avengers 2."  Joss Whedon, Director of the Avengers, had stated he had perfect use for the character in the Avengers sequel.
     The problem with this is that Fox owns the movie rights to all "X-men" characters.  However, Quicksilver is still a Marvel character (as Marvel owns the X-men).  The issue, now, is who is allowed to use the character in their movie.  Fox has already begun production on their film, and Marvel is still in early Pre-production.  The obvious choice is that Fox gets to keep doing what they're doing, but now Marvel is going to have to make drastic changes to their story.  This is the first time that a character has been wanted for two separate franchises.
     This comes down to different studios having control over different entities, owned by the same company.  Fox knows they have a cash cow with the X-men films, just as Sony knows they have one with Spiderman.  Marvel has been trying to gain control of their characters back, and is slowly achieving their goal.  However, with Fox and Sony holding their characters hostage, it might be a while until Marvel owns the movie rights back to all their characters.