Hot Toys: MMS 139 Resident Evil: Afterlife: 1/6th scale Alice Collectible Figure

[abake]

Well... you can follow her and send her the good pic...
The thing is, this is the latest pic, and it definitely looks like a different sculpt, so what would the sense be in sending her a good pic of an old sculpt?
I know you feel it's the same sculpt, but I don't, so I won't send her a pic of the old one.

 

[maverick86]

And you guys are sending her the ____ty pic to look at. You're all FULL OF WIN!!!!

i sent her one of the HT product shots so she could see the original but she didn't respond

 

[DirtyDale]

When I asked her about her involvement a few months back I linked her to the older photos of the figure. She didn't say anything about the quality of the likeness, just that she has not been contacted by anyone from the HT company.

 

[maverick86]

Would HT even need to contact her for whatever reason since the figure is based on a movie character and not her as an individual?

 

[abake]

I've no idea.
I always assumed that actors would have some kind of control over how they are portrayed if they allow their likeness to be used, but I guess it would be very impractical for a studio to be constantly at the mercy of a stars' fickleness and ego.

 

[toylion]

Would HT even need to contact her for whatever reason since the figure is based on a movie character and not her as an individual?

It's the common practice that the Actor/Artist give approval.

 

[lerath666]

Not really. It all depends who owns the likeness rights.
and these days ( since George Lucas Started doing it) It's common practice for studios to retain control of the actors likeness as that character they portrayed. It's generally in their contracts. they give up their own likeness rights, but still retain some residual income from merchandising sales.

if Milla and her agents have had zero involvement with HT, then this means she doesn't personally own the likeness rights to alice, which is not surprising.

 

[toylion]

Not really. It all depends who owns the likeness rights.
and these days ( since George Lucas Started doing it) It's common practice for studios to retain control of the actors likeness as that character they portrayed. It's generally in their contracts. they give up their own likeness rights, but still retain some residual income from merchandising sales.

if Milla and her agents have had zero involvement with HT, then this means she doesn't personally own the likeness rights to alice, which is not surprising.

True, if they give up the rights. Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood and some others refuse to. Pacino did for Scarface and now refuse to give them up. Sly Stallone gave his approval on his likeness.

 

[lerath666]

you mean for the barney ross figure?

i thought the first time he saw the figure, or even found out about its existence was just before the asian release of the expendables. and he was surprised at how good it was.

regardless, you're right, it does vary with the actor. Bill Murray is another one who refuses to let his likeness rights go. which is 1/2 the reason it took so long to get ghostbusters movie toys made.
the other half being that murry is his own agent, and it's apparently a nightmare to get into contact with him now.

 

[DirtyDale]

Hasn't HotToys been marketing the figure as "officially approved"? I remember a post on OSW about a HK article talking about the figure and apparently there was a part where they said they had to do the head four seperate times because it kept getting disapproved by Milla herself.

If HT is going to claim for a fact that they have Milla's actual permission/blessing on this figure and used that as a major selling point but they didn't actually have any contact with her, isn't that sort of misleading on their part?

 

[thenammagazine]

Would HT even need to contact her for whatever reason since the figure is based on a movie character and not her as an individual?

Again, given she has a million dollar smile and is paid the big bucks by cosmetic companies to promote their products, I'd say moreso than other actors, yes. Any potential blemish on her likeness could result in said companies filing a suit against her for liability through loss of revenue should something go bad. That said, if she has an agency handling this so she can go about her day, they may be the ones dealing with this and not her. She'll just get a check at the end.

 

[lerath666]

all "officially approved" is whoever holds the rights said it was good.

and like nam said, she likely has people to do that for her.

 

[RIDDICK]

Just hope that HS will be at least the same.
Yes I'm still tryin' to believe that this is just silly ass crap pics

 

[DirtyDale]

But does anyone honestly believe that if it were Milla's "people" (manager/agent/publisist) that were dealing with HT that they would keep Milla completely in the dark about something like this?

Milla is a model and an actress. She makes her living off her face and if their is a product out there that had even the slightest chance of effecting her income (positively or negatively) don't you think she would be kept in the loop?

Oh and remember, Capcom and Sony didn't create the character Alice. Milla wasn't hired to play a pre-existing character from the games. Paul Anderson is the one that came up with Alice and then he eventually married Milla after they made the third movie. So I don't see how Sony could be in charge either since all they do is market and distribute the movies in the US. The actual production companies for the movies are Constantin Film, Davis Films and Impact Pictures (which is a company Anderson created with his friend and long time partner, Jeremy Bolt).

 

[lerath666]

depends. the reason people like her have people to do those things is she might not have time to do them herself.

 

[thenammagazine]

But does anyone honestly believe that if it were Milla's "people" (manager/agent/publisist) that were dealing with HT that they would keep Milla completely in the dark about something like this?

Milla is a model and an actress. She makes her living off her face and if their is a product out there that had even the slightest chance of effecting her income (positively or negatively) don't you think she would be kept in the loop?

Oh and remember, Capcom and Sony didn't create the character Alice. Milla was hired to play a pre-existing character from the games. Paul Anderson is the one that came up with Alice and then he eventually married Milla after they made the third movie. So I don't see how Sony could be in charge either since all they do is market and distribute the movies in the US. The actual production companies for the movies are Constantin Film, Davis Films and Impact Pictures (which is a company Anderson created with his friend and long time partner, Jeremy Bolt).

Sony owns the rights to the Alice character. It was their movie. Regardless of who wrote the character, it's theirs. However, they likely don't own the rights to Milla's likeness as I doubt that'd be something she'd sign away in the contract, especially given the companies she's paid to endorse.

 

[DirtyDale]

Resident Evil isn't Sony's movie and they don't own the rights to Alice. All Sony does for Paul Anderson's Resident Evil movies is market and distribute them in the United States and select foreign territories.

The companies that actually spend the money to make the movies are the three I mentioned above. If Columbia Pictures (owned by Sony) was one of them then maybe you could say they owned the Alice character but they aren't.

 

[Something Sexy]

But does anyone honestly believe that if it were Milla's "people" (manager/agent/publisist) that were dealing with HT that they would keep Milla completely in the dark about something like this?

Milla is a model and an actress. She makes her living off her face and if their is a product out there that had even the slightest chance of effecting her income (positively or negatively) don't you think she would be kept in the loop?

Oh and remember, Capcom and Sony didn't create the character Alice. Milla was hired to play a pre-existing character from the games. Paul Anderson is the one that came up with Alice and then he eventually married Milla after they made the third movie. So I don't see how Sony could be in charge either since all they do is market and distribute the movies in the US. The actual production companies for the movies are Constantin Film, Davis Films and Impact Pictures (which is a company Anderson created with his friend and long time partner, Jeremy Bolt).

According to wiki Constantin Film has the rights to the 1,2 and 4th film and Screen Gems has the rights to the 3rd film.

What all the means, I dunno.

 

[DirtyDale]

According to IMDB these are production companies involved with actually making each movie.

Resident Evil (filmed in Germany)
Production Companies
•Constantin Film Produktion
•Davis-Films
•Impact Pictures (in association with)
•New Legacy

Resident Evil Apocalypse (filmed in Toronto)
•Constantin Film Produktion
•Screen Gems
•Davis-Films
•Impact Pictures
•Constantin Film Ltd.

Resident Evil Extinction (filmed in Mexico)
•Resident Evil Productions
•Constantin Film Produktion
•Davis-Films
•Impact Pictures

Resident Evil Afterlife (filmed in Toronto)
•Constantin Film Produktion (as Constantin Film)
•Davis-Films (as Davis Films)
•Impact Pictures

Screen Gems/Sony were distributors for all the movies but Screen Gems only had a production credit for Apocalypse. Everything else is Anderson/Bolt's company Impact Pictures, the German production company Constantin and French production company Davis-Films.

 

[toylion]

Celebrities deny rumours all the time and sometimes to find out it was true. Just because someone said she tweeted she knew nothing about Hot Toys doesn't make it gospel. It was probably an assistant who answered anyways.