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TrooperCooper

Doom: The Comic - The Movie?!

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Hey guys :)

So, I am a film prop collector. For my sins, I love the Doom movie, and I watch it regularly. I have several key props including a set of John Grimm's costume and rifle from the FPS sequence. Got loads of other guns - I spent far too much time on them really **

Anyway. I've been looking at my props from time to time, then reading the Doom comic... props... Doom comic... props and Doom comic... Rip and tear...

Reckon I would get sued by id if I went out of my way and made a movie of the Doom comic using the props from the original movie? c_c;;

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I've not managed to actually find email contacts to discuss a fan movie to date. I figured asking here would also be a gauge of reaction/interest. :)

The asterisks were some failed smiley I think :\

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Technically, derivative works aren't illegal as long as you don't try to capitalize on them. So no worries.

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Jodwin said:

Technically, derivative works aren't illegal as long as you don't try to capitalize on them. So no worries.

Yes they are. It doesn't matter weather you get money or not.

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MikeRS said:

Yes they are. It doesn't matter weather you get money or not.

Watch out Mega64, and about a million Star Wars fan films.

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MikeRS said:

Yes they are. It doesn't matter weather you get money or not.


Classified as a parody or satire they would not be subject to said laws. So depending on how you went about it you could avoid the penalties.

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Bank said:

Classified as a parody or satire they would not be subject to said laws. So depending on how you went about it you could avoid the penalties.


And let's be honest - a YouTube movie featuring the line "RIP AND TEAR YOUR GUTS" is hardly going to be serious c_c

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Inferno said:

A parody would work fine, but he probably wants to take a more serious approach.


My original idea was to try to take it semi-seriously while also playing with it a little. Dialogue and monsters would remain the same, props and style would mimick the movie.

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Legal stuff about the legality of derivative works/parody


Theory:
Parody and satire are legal, direct taking of ideas, even 'with credit' and making your own stories, isn't. Even if it's given away for nothing.

Reality:
It's as legal as the company you are taking stuff from wants it to be. Some won't mind, others will pull out all the stops and spend hundreds of thousands to get you shut down. If you aren't rich yourself it'll be best to back down and shut up as soon as they so much as look at you funny.

Note: Fox, whoever owns Barney The Dinosaur (http://www.urban75.com/Punch/barney.html) and, curiously, the current copyright own of Dan Dare (http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2008/03/comics-cuts-comics-uk-forum-and-dan.html) are notoriosuly arsey.

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Considering Doom's roots, a film adaptation of the comic would turn out to be something like Evil Dead-- kind of a satire horror offshoot. So you're both safe because it's satire, and because no one owns the rights to Evil Dead. WIN WIN!

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Coopersville said:

Considering Doom's roots, a film adaptation of the comic would turn out to be something like Evil Dead-- kind of a satire horror offshoot. So you're both safe because it's satire, and because no one owns the rights to Evil Dead. WIN WIN!

Oh, the mess that is Army of Darkness' legal rights.

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A completely po-faced Doom comic movie would be pure genius.
Besides, making a parody would be pointless since the source material is already so preposterous that nothing anyone could ever do would make it any stupider. It would be a bit like that parody Satanic black metal band I was in for a while - no matter how many songs I wrote about frostbitten monoliths penetrating Seraphic gates of purity I couldn't make it any more overwrought than Immortal's lyrics.

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Just a little heads up on this, as the project is actually progressing. :D

A screenplay has reached its first draft, and the film based on the screenplay will have an estimated runtime of between 30 and 40 minutes. The monsters in the film will be full suits and with the minimum of CG being applied!

The current prospective budget for the film is somewhere in the region of $40,000 all told which is apparently a staggering figure for a fan film, though I am trying to work out ways of trying to bump that figure up a bit more. A suggestion given was setting up a site for donations but I am unsure how people would respond to such an approach. Any other ideas guys?

I've sent a couple of emails to id with no response, so I am figuring on them not really caring much about such a film. Hopefully that means I won't suffer any legal repurcussions should I decide to go ahead with making it.

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I think it is a great idea, and I would love to see it come to pass. Be realluy careful of the concept of "intellectual property". I know very little of how this concept is applied in terms of the computer gaming and movie industries, but I do know quite a bit of how it works in the music industry.

The general idea is this, at least in the music biz.

"everything has been done before. Therefore everyone can sue everyone." The reason this doesn't happen all the time is because most composers don't have any money to be worth suing, and even those that do, it is notoriously difficult to prove that people have used your creativity as their own. It is worth noting that almost every major artist (Madonna, Christine Aguilera, Eminem, the rolling stones etc) has been sued by someone at some point. It just seems to go with the territory.

In terms of your movie, just be careful. The reality is that you will be using the intellectual property of iD software. The monsters, the layouts, the logos, the Doom Guy, the look of the weapons, the sounds, the textures, the sprites, the game balance, anything that took any creativity at all, all of these constitute intellectual property. I personally would get something in writing, but the reality is that unless you start turning over some serious money, you should be fine. And even then, the worst that will happen is that iD may sit down with you and organize a share of royalties. Much easier and less effort than for them to sue anyone.

Man that sounds negative. But I really hope you do this movie. Good luck with it. Ive probably made it sound worse than it is.

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wow, your willing to spend all that to make this? damn
it would be awesome. i know alot of people who quote lines from the comic all the time, they would totally cream there pants if they saw a movie of it

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I don't think anyone ever sued the guys who made Batman: Dead End, which featured not only Batman but also Predator and Alien. I really doubt you're at any considerable risk of legal repercussions. There's at least one big web community out there for non-profit fan films, if you find it I'm sure you can find some thread or article regarding legal shit.

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When the film first started, it was suggested that I play the guy assuming I lost a little weight (as I already have the general build to pull it off). The film has since expanded in scope and potential quality and lord knows I wouldn't want to let that down - at the most I may get a Doom fandom themed cameo. ;)

The problem is the film will be made in the UK and finding someone with actual acting talent, a suitable decent American accent as well as the build and looks to try and play the guy, isn't exactly easy. We'll see how casting goes.

Any money that would be received from making the film would go toward paying loans off and perhaps funding another project. While I do have a completely original series of screenplays in the works, they are very much large-scale and would only deserve being made in a big-budget film.

Current long term ideas being floated are using the creatures and so on (assuming they are not sold after the production is done) from this film to have a stab at a feature length original story based on Doom 3, or alternatively going off to try and do a "high-budget" fanfilm in another gaming universe - perhaps Halo or Resident Evil. As such, there is no profit to be gained - only further reinvestment and no material bonus. I would be all for splitting revenues though - 'tis only fair. :)

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It depends which DoomGuy look you're going for, really. The hud face is the most obvious choice, then there's the guy from the Doom II titlepic with the rather jagged haircut, then finally, the ginger skinhead dude from E4's endpic, heh.

Hopefully your film will have no such blatant continuity errors. Maybe just wear a helmet the entire time, heh.

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Your project sounds ambitious.

Why not make something like this.
It is less work, allows you to clearly demonstrate your weapons and is more fun to watch :-).

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True, it is ambitious - but I don't see ambition as being a bad thing. If there is still interest in the project then I would say it's worth it. I'm probably going to set up a site on IndieGoGo to garner interest and perhaps make a news post.

The next couple of months, gauging interest and feasibility and so on, will decide whether I go ahead with the project. I believe this movie can be made, and I firmly believe it can also be very good! :D

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