sorry mate, i'm still not getting it. but maybe i didn't explain my thoughts well before.
i imagine that devoting a portion of the budget to a "sure thing" would be considered a no brainer in-house and would naturally be prioritised, but it's still a portion of the overall spend allowed for that year. that's money/resources that won't go elsewhere.
so, yes, from a business standpoint we look at that and say "cool". spend that money on the hollywood name rather than the indie creator.
but from an artist's point of view? man, that sucks hard.
(again, provided marvel works in a way similar to the networks or corporations i’m familiar with. they may have a magic money tree for all i know)
i've never worked on the production side of theatre, but i've been involved in the development process.Regarding your experiences as a former producer, I'm wondering how easily something similar to this could have happened in your line of work. Did you work in Australian theater? If George Miller wanted to make a play, cowritten by one of his kids, would he be turned down?
so, in this hypothetical, george is approached by a premier theatre company MTC or STC. they pay him development costs to write, rewrite, edit and workshop this screenplay for himself and his daughter (who's actually a mate of mine. funnily enough she develops her own projects and has always tried to walk her own path and not use dad's name to open doors).
that means S/MTC devote money, time, their in-house directors and producers and casting agent to this process (workshops and pre reads will be organised with a skeleton cast and crew so the writer can "hear" his screenplay). this is even before the writing is even finished. $$$
after that, the costs of hiring full crew and cast (including casting sessions), advertising/marketing for the upcoming show come into play. all that money will not be going towards developing any other writer's play.
the play is then slotted into the next year's season, which is typically about 10-12 shows in total. there simply isn't time, money or enough people to make more. so, at the end of the day, george's play will take an existing slot. it's not an added extra.
that being said, our theatre companies have allocated budget and quotas aimed at developing new talent, which is essential to ensuring the next generation. so they have a mandate to make sure a certain amount of emerging creatives are nurtured every year.