Disney Loses The Rights To Roger Rabbit Characters As They Revert To Original Author Of Novel
ID:
TMS-5888
Source:
BoingBoing.net
Author:
Ruben Bolling
Dateline:
Posted:
Status:
Current
Gary K. Wolf, the creator of Roger Rabbit in his novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? on which the hit 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit was based, says he has re-gained from Disney full ownership rights to Roger and the other characters from his book.
Wolf said in an interview with ImNotBad.com that the copyright reversion was accomplished pursuant to a copyright law that allows for authors to petition to terminate a grant of copyright assignment or license after 35 years. Wolf says he now owns the sole right to make sequels and derivative works, and that Disney no longer has the right to create Roger Rabbit merchandise.
If the law reverts all rights in the characters from Disney to Wolf, it's unclear to me why Disney would still have the right to display and distribute the existing movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit and maintain other existing related works such as the Disneyland ride Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin. But there's no indication that they do not.
It is clear that the versions of the Roger Rabbit characters that were created by Disney, including the character designs, were not transferred to Wolf.
Wolf said he is developing various Roger Rabbit projects, including a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie.
''The one that is most prominent … is a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie based on the book Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business. That was the first project that we took a look at and the first we started developing. It's probably the one that's furthest along right now.''
Wolf says he bears no animosity toward Disney at all, and would like to work with them again. In fact he'd like to work with the Who Framed Roger Rabbit team again, including producers Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall, and director Robert Zemeckis.
But Zemeckis has said that there's no chance Disney will make another Roger Rabbit movie because of new sensitivities. He cited as an example the fact that a few years ago on the Rabbit Car Toon Spin ride, Disneyland downplayed Jessica Rabbit's sexiness by covering up her revealing dress with a trenchcoat.
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