Quite An Insane Idea - TTLG Forums

V-Raptor on 4/6/2006 at 18:21

Don’t you know by chance, whether the Thief screening rights were sold out or not? If “yes”, to whom then?

godismygoldfish on 4/6/2006 at 18:45

I've done some research on the subject, but nothing has been listed in any of the film trade magazines or databases. If there is a deal, I'de say it would likely be with a company like Daybreak Productions or another company doing game to film adaptations, though that's highly unlikely at this point, the franchise really isn't well known enough to be a lucrative IP right now.

My plan is to get a screen rights lawyer on it after I've gotten a few successful films under my belt. Hopefully they haven't been optioned yet, and even if they have, I don't think it's likely well see a thief film from the company that has optioned it. Hell, Deus Ex was a more succesful and well known franchise than thief, and the scriptwriting for that film adaptation has been in development limbo for years.

So if the option for thief expires, they'll be up for grabs again. :)

Werewolfintheshadows on 5/6/2006 at 18:47

I may be alittle out of touch here, but IMO thief has been abit of curse to every company that took it on, its not a massively successful video game, it has a great cult following, its the Wickerman of the video game world, if it was marketable for a 4th in the series to make decent turnover, we'd soon see thief 4 on the shelves. The corporations deal in profit, not popularity with fans, thief would be a difficult story to tell on film, you have too many stages in his exploits to explain and give credit to, and as a game, it's a niche audience to market to, like it was advertised in 1998, its a sneakem up, and most game players want to drive fast or shoot fast, and since garret doesn't have a 9mm or valid driving license (he was caught DUI outside Bafford's) it isn't going to re-emerge anytime soon, it would be a risk for a company to take and why take a risk to satisfy a minority?

I agree with the starter of this thread that the rights to thief are definitely a valuable object, and the fan community only really wants the game rights, we aren't going to go producing Garrett page turners or Garrett LOTR scale movies. As for getting fans/designers/editors/programmers and practically every member of crew necessary to produce a game to collaborate and eventually merge their personal creations into one global hybrid universal individual game project to form the finished product, you have to be crazy. It would be much more sensible, if someone very rich just bought the rights from Eidos, employed fans and designers alike to put into thief 4 what we all know and love, the essence of the thief series, built by fans for fans, without concern over profit margins. If I win the lottery it's on my cards anyhow. Until then, I suggest we keep plugging with the editors, helping each other out, mixing ideas, and keep the spirit of thief alive in the forums so that hopefully it'll be reincarnated in the not too distant future.
:cool: Werewolf

Griffin on 5/6/2006 at 20:03

Quote Posted by Dot

Right, well, I'm sorta' new here, but even so, I must say that I love the community here at TTLG Forums. I've recently come up with an idea...

Ah well, it's always been a nice idea, one that's brought up for just about every beloved television series, game, movie, etc. that has dropped by the wayside. I don't know, but doubt that it's ever worked though. Others have given the details as to why - basically legal rights and money.

Anyway, welcome to the community, we were all new once.

Komag on 5/6/2006 at 20:38

That brings to mind a good question - has this type of thing ever been done?

Have super fans who somehow got rich or raised all the money ever bought the rights to some older IP (game, movie, show, toy, etc) and made something cool out of it?

godismygoldfish on 5/6/2006 at 20:55

Quote Posted by Werewolfintheshadows

As for getting fans/designers/editors/programmers and practically every member of crew necessary to produce a game to collaborate and eventually merge their personal creations into one global hybrid universal individual game project to form the finished product, you have to be crazy.

(http://www.thedarkmod.com) SHAZAM!

(was gonna make it 'BAM!' but alas, stupid character restriction)

sparhawk on 5/6/2006 at 21:04

Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall

It's just too expensive (and too risky).

Expansive I could understand, but risky???

Quote Posted by V-Raptor

PS These are the facts, it is not fiction. :ebil:

Facts from where? Links please?

sparhawk on 5/6/2006 at 21:08

Quote Posted by Komag

Not really the same, but the closest example would be Blender IMO. When the company went down, the author spoke to his shareholders (or such) and they agreed. A fund raising was done which had to raise a certain amount withing a given timeframe and it worked. Blender is now open sourced because of that.

Dot on 6/6/2006 at 00:07

Thanks for all the responses!

You all raised up some pretty good points, and yes, I understand the compleixty of the, uh, goal here... But anyways, I had another thought today as I was driving home from work:

What if we formed our own group, and didn't totally buy the Thief rights, but instead, purchased a limited license? You know, something along the lines of: We're allowed to produce only one Thief related game with all Thief properties included, HOWEVER, Eidos must be in charge, and thus, requires weekly updates on the progress (oversee how it's coming along) and must be credited, as well as have the right to check/proofread the game before it's finalized in some way.

That may spark a little bit of interest with Eidos, as they have the comfort of knowing that, ultimately, they're still in charge...

Quote Posted by Griffin

Anyway, welcome to the community, we were all new once.

Thanks. :D

Renault on 6/6/2006 at 01:08

Two things:

1) People use Garrett and other Thief trademark items all the time, and to my knowledge, no one has ever been asked to stop before. So why buy any kind of license from Eidos? Granted, it might be different if a group were to put together a whole Thief game in this manner (such as a user made Thief 4)

2) Even though there is a very dedicated fan base for the Thief games, only one commerical game sized project has ever been completed in the 7+ years Thief has been around. Not to be a cynic, but I doubt we'll see another one again. This requires a large group of talented people, and most talented people are also busy people. Most real authors stick to one mission, or a short campaign.