With Christopher Nolan making a lot of money with his Dark Knight trilogy for Warner Bros., it would make sense for them to keep some sort of working relationship with the director, especially on his new sci-fi movie Interstellar. It was announced in January that both Warner Bros. and Paramount would be distributing the movie, even though the project was conceived solely at Paramount.
But how was such a deal made?
Well, it’s been revealed that in order to get 50% of the rights to Interstellar, Warner Bros. had to give up the rights to the Friday the 13th name (which includes the Jason character) as well as a potential South Park movie sequel.
Not only do Paramount now have Friday the 13th and South Park movie rights, but Warner Bros. will co-finance any movie that might come from them – as well as a ‘to-be-determined’ A-list Warner property.
So, the deal has worked out well for both. Warner Bros. lose two franchises they weren’t going to do anything with in exchange for 50% of a sci-fi movie that could be the next Inception, while Paramount gain creative rights of one of the most successful horror franchises of all time and an animation juggernaut (and only have to pay for half of them should they get made).
According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s sources however, Paramount only has the rights for the next five years, with the deals extending by another 5 years if / when the movies get made. So if there are going to be any new movies coming out of Crystal Lake or South Park, expect to hear some news pretty soon.
Originally published June 5, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
