39 CLOUD FOCUS Wildmoka
FEED: What about dealing with the rights problems involved in a big collection like this? NICOLA MAZZANTI: You need somebody to go through the paperwork of Mr McBoolean and understand when he acquired the collection. What does the contract say? Does it say that the person selling it would also transfer rights? Which rights? The rights to what and for what? If your market is theatrical or Netflix distribution of the new, most complete version of The Magnificent Ambersons , then it is a completely different ball game. The budget for complete restoration is between $100,000 and $200,000. In the case of Ambersons , we know who owns the rights. Let’s say you make a deal. In the deals I’ve seen of this kind, money is rarely exchanged. You make a deal with the studios and get something in return, but you can’t really expect them to give you any
rights or a significant amount of money. You can participate. You can make a deal, a contract, depending on the value. ‘Value’ meaning it’s a missing scene, a completely different editing or something like that – not just because it’s a print, even if it is good looking. Because they already presumably own a lot of assets on that title. The famous rule of these archives is: the sales of 1% must pay for 100% of the collection. The problem is, you never know which 1%. If you find a second Zapruder film, then you can make some money. FEED: So this is a bad investment for the Goody Group? NICOLA MAZZANTI: There is no way, when you factor in costs, that the return on investment is positive. There is the possibility that maybe the son of Mr McBoolean is a film freak – he had a very bad relationship with his father,
who made money by killing whales – then you might set up a foundation. The inheritance from the whales pays for the preservation. But it is a bottomless pit. There is no monetisation. However, there are other returns for him: the name, fame, the fact that you are doing something culturally or socially important, all of that.
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