Let's say that you were somebody in the business who had talent, money, and connections. What would you do? Would you give up on it, find a surrogate, or create your own like George Lucas did when he couldn't get the rights to Flash Gordon?
- If I wanted to make a live action Mario movie, and Nintendo said no, I could easily settle for doing a Joe & Mac movie.
- Looking at Warner/DC, if they said no to me doing a Batman movie or a Catwoman movie, I would just do a film based on Miss Fury/Black Fury (the first female superhero to wear a black cat costume and one who is in the public domain). She's from World War II, so it'd be like an Indiana Jones movie starring Catwoman.
- If I wanted to do a Ninja Gaiden movie, but couldn't get the rights, I would see about acquiring the rights to remake American Ninja. If I couldn't do that either, I'd make an original property about a female ninja battling demons.
- If I wanted to do a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and Viacom said no, I'd probably have to let that one slide. I wouldn't want to do a film adaptation of Street Sharks or Biker Mice from Mars, nor would I want to create an original series of anthropomorphic animal heroes.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/38ef341b.jpg
Edit: This doesn't have to be exclusive to movies. You could be talking about a comic book adaptation, animated series adaptation, video game adaptation, etc.