Development

Post by **Wonderlicious** » July 29th, 2006, 4:33 pm

Does anyone here know exactly why the development bills for films are so expensive? I believe that Superman Returns had $60 million spent on its development. Is it due to the salaries of those developing the ideas?

Post by **ShyViolet** » July 29th, 2006, 8:09 pm

I think it was that as well as paying the various directors and producer for the preproduction work they did...even though it went nowhere.

That's my guess.

Post by **Sullivan** » July 30th, 2006, 12:10 am

They had something like ten years of false starts on Superman. Whole other versions that took place in outer space, with different directors. Nicholas Cage was going to play Superman for awhile, then Ashton Kutcher, etc.

You better believe ALL of those people got paid off and bought out at various times. I bet Cage got paid millions for Not playing superman.

Superman is an anomoly, though. Most movies don't have that kind of really wierd track record.

Post by **Chaya** » July 30th, 2006, 3:00 am

Is obtaining rights to a story considered part of 'development'? If so, that would also explain the extemely high costs.

Post by **Meg** » July 30th, 2006, 7:59 am

then Ashton Kutcher

Post by **Ben** » July 30th, 2006, 8:56 am

WB didn't need to obtain rights to Superman. They own DC Comics.

The high price for Superman is, as Sully says, an anomoly. Usually a film's developmental costs are a fraction of the overall budget. A story or script goes for anything between $200,000 to $5m based on the author and if it's a bestselling book, etc, and then there's some development work, but this is usually by the director/producers and, later, the cast so it counts as part of their fees as opposed to any specific development.

Supes was different, as that $60m was all about the various attempts to get if off the ground BEFORE Bryan Singer came in.