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"Goldmember" GONE as title for Austin Powers 3! (1 Viewer)

Ben Motley

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Just ordered my poster. Hopefully my source gets the restock they'ye scheduled to get. Geeze, go to eBay. Wacky.
 

Rob Lutter

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I just ordered from www.pixposters.com I would buy it just to EBAY it if I were you... they are selling for over $100 on EBAY right now
EDIT: Ben, I put spoiler tags around the retailer so less people will see our 'source' ;)
 

Craig S

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This is just stupid! It's going to result in nothing but bad publicity for MGM. I guess we can't be too surprised - remember it was an entertainment lawyer who dreamed up the idea for Divx. ;)
 

Ben Motley

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ROB!! You revealed my source!! ;)
I actually called them today, and it is in fact out of stock, but they're expecting a new shipment Friday, so keep your fingers crossed. Boy, I'm gonna feel pretty dumb if they hammer out a deal with MGM to keep the name.
 

Rex Bachmann

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Goldmember was a crappy title anyway, sounds like a credit card ad, and nearly as bad as Attack of the Killer Clones.
It sounds like a pretty clever spoof (double entendre) of both Goldfinger and the credit-card company to me ("member", of course, referring to that part of the anatomy BELOW THE BELT: "Yeahhh, Ba-by!!!").
 

Matt Stone

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I've got to say...this is quite stupid on MGM's part. Much ado about nothing if you ask me...

Regarding the trailer...hehe, maybe I won't have to see it anymore when I go see LotR. I mean...it was funny the first time, hell, maybe even the second...but at number 10 it's pushing me towards suicide!
 

Seth Paxton

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Well, Ben, that's bad news. We'll see what happens on the restock. I have an order in as well. If the recall is going through, the distributor may get them yanked back before FRI I would think.

Bummer if true.

The name, logo, ect are genius to me. That's the fun of it. MGM is pissing away free adverts IMHO.
 

Michael Boyd

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I'm done with Bond if this goes thru and AP3 is ruined. I'm guessing much of the picture will need to be re-shot.

Is it time for another petition?
 

Jonathan Perregaux

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They have to axe the title Goldmember because it's too similar to the immortal Goldfinger...? I'm stumped. Does that mean that The Spy Who Shagged Me has absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the title of James Bond's 1977 stunt spectacular The Spy Who Loved Me? Come on. This is bullshit.
 

Rob Lutter

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I think if worse comes to worse... they could just call it Austin Powers 3
I don't get it...
Gold-member
Gold-finger
what does a 'member' have to do with a 'finger'?
does MGM suddenly own all the movie titles that start with Gold-? I personally don't think MGM has much of a case against them. They should fight it!
 

Adam Tyner

Screenwriter
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Sep 29, 2000
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Is it time for another petition?
What good would that do?

I believe this is just about the title and nothing related to the film's content, Michael.

...and to reply to the two previous posts, I think the concern on MGM's part isn't the similarity, but the combination of the similarity and the fact that the minor change involves a penis reference.
 

John Berggren

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I can't beleive that this charge by MGM is defensible. Parody is accepted as a legitimate use of what otherwise would be copyrighted. Certainly Austin Powers is clearly parodying James Bond - that's the whole point of the film series.

This makes me want them to do 21 AP films - each to dig at the Bond films.
 

Jason Seaver

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Just to play devil's advocate here, why shouldn't MGM try and protect their assets? They could safely argue that it's one thing for The Spy Who Shagged Me to play on a Bond title, but that New Line trying to build a franchise out of the practice is less savory. You could also argue that the characters in the previous AP films were parodies playing on fixtures of the genre as a whole, but that "Goldmember" is a very specific infringement on their intellectual property. I'm not saying I necessarily subscribe to this viewpoint, or that I think it would hold up in court should it get that far, but I can see why MGM would make the challenge, especially considering how their entire mode of operation since emerging from bankruptcy has been about exploiting existing franchises and brand names, from Bond to Carrie.

Besides, look at the bright side - this could create such bad blood between Mike Myers and MGM that Birth Of The Pink Panther could be killed, or at the very least not spawn the franchise MGM is hoping for.
 

Ken_McAlinden

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In a related story, Chattem, Inc., the makers of Gold Bond medicated foot powder will be filing a cease and desist order against MGM over the use of the Bond name. MGM is frantically recalling all of their pre-promotional materials for the next Brosnan film and is, for the present, referring to the production as "The 20th intsallment of James"

Regards,
 

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