"Okay, well, first of all, this is an excellent story, and I think you'll have no problem turning this into some comic company like DC. The thing is though, I think this can go much further. I have been working on a horror movie with a similar theme and I think your alien is just the thing to push it over the edge."
"Okay, that sounds good-"
"-But! It's going to be pretty hard to convince investors to do something like this, there aren't too many sci-fi movies if any that have done well. Investors aren't keen on doing the whole alien thing right now, and lord knows I've tried. Me and some other people have been trying hard to pitch this half-baked alien movie of mine, but they just can't see the vision. But, if we use this comic and make a more complete version of my script, I think we can make an awesome movie."
"Right... That sounds great, but how would we split the credit?"
"Oh, well, umm... I mean, I guess we could you know, split it 50/50?"
"Hmm... Well actually I just wanted some simple advice, so maybe I'll just run it by someone else first before making a decision. Goodbye!"
James says that as he slowly turns around to open the door.
"Wait, wait, wait! I'm just kidding, I was kidding! Honest! Hahaha, of course, you'd get most of the credit, I mean, just look at this story, it's great! But, umm, you know, I've sort of been working on my script for a long time, so it's kind of hard to just let go of my baby like this. Haha." Dan said speedily, but also awkwardly as he desperately grabbed onto James' shoulder
"Haha, it's fine Dan! Can I call you Dan? Anyways, I know you've been working hard on this too, so as long as you help me get investors and work on getting the production-ready, I'm more than willing to share 40- I mean 30% of the credit!"
James was feeling a bit bad about cutting Dan completely out of the picture, so he was willing to do that much. Although, it wasn't fair for James to be taking anything in the first place, hey, he needed money!
"Oh, wow, that's great! But, actually, first, you know you really should get this under copyright."
"Oh, right!"
Now it was time for James to feel awkward.
James felt like a really big idiot now, given the fact that in the future this was going to be a big deal for him with all of the IPs he was going to be using.
"We should go do that."
"Yes, we can do that right now with this comic, and put it in your name. Then after I finalize a new script using your comic, we can put both of our names on it."
"Sounds good! I'm gonna go work on another comic afterward then, just call me when you get started on the production!"
"What do you mean? You're not gonna help?"
"Well, I don't know anything about production, props, or cameras. How am I going to help?"
"No, I know that, but still, since we are gonna be making a whole movie, I thought you would want to be involved in the process."
"The thing is I do, I really do, but I have another volume for the comic that I want to produce, and another idea that I want to get copyrighted."
"Well, aren't you just filled with ideas!" Dan said incredulously.
"You have no idea!"
---------------------------------
As Dan said, James had a tone of ideas, 50 years worth to be exact.
James also needed to get started quickly with the comics, JUST in case, the whole movie thing didn't work out for a while.
So, naturally, after Alien, there comes Predator! Predator was the perfect series to go after, given how well the series ties into Alien. There is a lot of lore that can be more deeply explored, such as the way of life of the Predators, their technology, their mortal enemies being the engineers, and the epic duels they have with the xenomorphs.
Things such as their honor system and their long history of living for the hunt can also be explored. Also, how strictly they follow their own rules and purge their kind if they choose to disobey them.
James worked on this using a very similar style to the Alien series to more closely connect the two. As James was working on this, Dan was having a rough time finding people who were willing to invest but he did find a visual effects studio that was interested in their designs.
This studio had been helping out bigger studios as a contractor to design costumes as well as props but had been looking to expand by making a movie of their own.
When Dan showed them James' comic, they were blown away by the level of detail and fairly straightforward design. They believed that these designs, as well as the props needed for the movie, could be made in-house with the resources they had plus some outside investment.
All this studio wanted was for James and Dan to give them the copyright, so that they could work on it themselves.
James and Dan couldn't agree to this, so they requested that they come together to work on the terms.