Idea Man

It's only stealing when you don't have
a multi-million dollar studio.

In a stunningly creative move, 20th Century Fox has tasked X-Men First-Class producer Simon Kinberg with creating an interlinked superhero movie universe, combining the X-Men franchise with Fox's soon to be rebooted Fantastic Four series. Yup, superheroes from different movies teaming up, what an ingenious idea! And if sounds a little like what Marvel has been building up over the last five years, that's just because it's exactly like what Marvel has been building up over the last five years.

Above: Kinberg, building the shit out of brands.

"I have a lot of ideas on how to build those brands and do what everybody is thinking these days: Be like Marvel. I want to be able to build stories over multiple movies."

-Simon Kinberg, whose actual job 

description is to rip-off Marvel

You know, I'm not really sure that intentionally imitating someone else's work really constitutes having an idea, but then I'm not getting paid to do it. Although that would be...hey, I've just had an 'idea.' What if we adapted a series of popular young adult novels for the big screen and made hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. See? I'm a goddamn producer. Who wants to hire me?

People seem to like this Hunger Games thing,
ever think of making a movie about that?

The Adventures of Captain Worf:
coming this fall, because fuck yeah.

Look, I'm not trying to pick on this Kinberg guy, I mean, I know that movie studios risk a shitload of money on every production so it makes sense that they want to play it safe. It's just that I can't help but feel a seething jealousy towards him and what he does for a living. You see, as a nerd between the ages of 18-35, I am convinced, like on a neurological level, that I'd be perfect for the job of sci-fi/fantasy movie producer. As far as I can tell it consists of recognizing something as an awesome idea, and then telling other people to do all the work. It's the perfect job for an obsessed/lazy fan.

Ever see Game of Thrones? The TV show was totally my idea. Back in 2003 when I picked up the first book, I said 'Hey, this would make a great TV show, but like on HBO so they can keep all the murder and screwing'. A few years later? Blamo, everyone in America knows how to pronounce Daenerys Targaryen and I'm still waiting for my check.

Ok, so George R. R. Martin actually wrote the damn thing, but I was the one who
thought it was neat. Isn't there some way I could be getting paid for that?