Hi Audioguy,
It's a pleasure.
Obviously, it’s not the only way films get made, but with studios looking to minimise financial liability, it’s become more common than not.
For
Ghost in the Shell, Dreamworks purchased the rights in 2008, with two producers attached. They then engaged one writer, replaced him with another, then another, eventually going through seven writers, with the screenplay credited to three of those seven. All of them will have been paid, despite the fact their work may have been scrapped in part or in full.
In January 2014, six years after Dreamworks purchased the rights, and after numerous writers had attempted to adapt it (mostly unsuccessfully), Rupert Sanders was finally announced as director. But it was only once Johansson had signed on - being a “bankable star” - did Paramount agree to co-produce and co-finance the film seven months later in May 2015, essentially taking the film from being “in development” to being “in production”.
Even then, Paramount and Dreamworks would not be the only production companies to co-produce/co-finance the film, with additional resources/production support jointly credited to Arad Productions, Grosvenor Park Productions, Huahua Media, Reliance Entertainment, Seaside Entertainment, Shanghai Film Group and Steven Paul Productions. Eleven people are credited with either a line producer, co-producer, producer or executive producer role. Some of them will also have made back-end deals to take profit share should the film actually make a, er... profit.
Of course, with a film this technical, they would have already been working with production designers, art directors, visual effects companies and post-production houses well before shooting began.
I’ve shared this story before but perhaps it’s worth repeating. If all of the above feels somewhat insane, my friend did tell me she knows of a film that had €600,000 spent on development, only for it to be scrapped completely, never to see the light of day. And, apparently, it's not that uncommon either.
There’s a reason it’s called the film
industry, and it’s because a ludicrous amount of money is at stake. And none of the above guarantees the film will make back its production budget.
Be well,
853guy