8 Ridiculous Behind-The-Scenes Struggles Over Movie Rights

5. Why The It's A Wonderful Life Sequel Nobody Wants To See Can't Actually Be Made

The 1946 Frank Capra movie It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas classic starring James Stewart as the goodhearted George Bailey. Despite its enduring popularity the film has a complicated legal history. Before the film reached its current revered status, the movie slipped into the public domain in 1974 because the copyright was not renewed. However, in 1993 Republic Pictures claimed the copyright because it owned certain elements of the film, including The Greatest Gift, the short story the movie was based on. Despite this more-or-less ironclad grip on the rights to the film by Paramount (which now owns Republic Pictures), in November 2013 little-known production companies Star Partners and Hummingbird Productions cited the film's prior public domain status as the reason why they would make a sequel titled It's a Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story about the mean grandson of George Bailey featuring Karolyn Grimes, who played George Bailey's daughter Zuzu in the original (but has not acted in a film in six decades). The announcement in Variety was met with mostly outrage by film fans who are already sick of unnecessary sequels to classic movies. Especially a sequel that sounds this hackneyed! Shortly afterward, Paramount pointed out that it would fight any attempts by Star Partners and Hummingbird Productions to make a sequel. No word yet on if the production will start as planned in February 2014, but it's probably less likely than Christmas coming early this year.