Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
May 5, 2008, 5:13 PM
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Seth MacFarlane's deal with Fox worth over $100M?
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A new deal signed with 20th Century Fox TV could make "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane television's highest-paid writer-producer, the Hollywood Reporter said Monday.
The agreement would keep MacFarlane at the studio through 2012 and could be worth over $100 million, the trade paper said.
However, neither side would comment on the size of the deal, which followed two and a half years of negotiations. "No one will ever have to offer Seth a handout of any kind," said a terse 20th Century Fox TV chairman Dana Walden.
Covered is MacFarlane's work on Family Guy, as well as his other two animated series for 20th Century Fox TV and the Fox network: American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, an upcoming FG spinoff.
Also subject to the deal are MacFarlane's series development, including a multicamera comedy with Family Guy writer Gary Janetti, and new-media projects related to his TV series -- along with derived DVD and merchandising revenue.
"I get a lot of pleasure out of making shows. It's a bonus to be getting paid well for it, and it's a double bonus to be getting paid exorbitantly for it," said MacFarlane, who also voices most of the FG characters.
MacFarlane's previous pact with the production company expired more than a year ago. The new agreement is retroactive.
"It's a relief to have it done," said 20th Century Fox TV chairman Gary Newman. Said Walden: "Today marks the first time in a long time [company business affairs executives] Howard Kurtzman and Neal Baseman did not have their shoulders up to their ears with anxiety."
The current record-holder for a deal is the $60 million five-year accord for feature films and TV that J.J. Abrams (Lost) signed in 2006 with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. TV.
MacFarlane acknowledged that during the negotiations, he mulled moving to another studio.
"But it didn't seem like anything was worth leaving Family Guy. And despite all the statements to the contrary, with the lawyers getting at each other's throats, deep down I knew it would eventually be resolved in a positive way," he said.
Both sides agreement that negotiations weren't affected materially by the Writers Guild of America strike, when talks stopped.
"No one can afford for the strike to permanently affect the relationship with the studio that you work for," MacFarlane said. "And on some level, you have to pretend it didn't happen, and at the same time continue to press ahead."
20th Century Fox TV helped keep Family Guy going after Fox canceled it.
"I'm lucky to be at a place that creatively had been nothing less than 100 percent supportive," MacFarlane commented. "Signing such a long contract is something I can feel good and relaxed about because I know they have tight pursestrings, but they certainly give you a lot of creative freedom."
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
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