Fair use ?

Hi I was wondering if a movie that is based on copyrighted work (say a video game)but only uses that work for background history and some weapons (and a costume )that the characters uses but there are no characters that are actually in any of the copyrighted works and the story is a completely fan made story. Would this be covered under fair use ?

You're not going to get any legal advice here that's worth a damn.
Go talk to a lawyer.

You're probably fine, if it's like the characters are fanboys or something. But to be on the safe side, why not make a popular in-film video game? It'll achieve the same goal and you could make the video-game blatantly obvious that it's based on (for example) Mario

The title of the work and general premise will probably be covered by Copyright.


I could easily write a story about a bunch of characters and their journey through the story... and title it as an adventure within the Star Wars Universe.
I would however, more than likely, have my @ss sued to high heaven by Disney and LucasFilm.


I could do the same with Alien.
Write a story based within that Universe, like, say a story about Colonial Marines... but again, 20th Century would pull the rug out and sue me.
Funnily enough this happened recently... someone made a fan fiction movie called "Alien: Identity" set in the Alien/Xenomorph Universe... and they had their movie blocked and locked up before it was even released, as the story was apparently very close to the same story that is being used for Neill Blomkamp's upcoming Alien 5.
It's a total coincidence that the fan fiction movie is similar, yet 20th Century Fox have still managed to get the movie blocked.




If you're going to write fan fiction, go for it, but don't expect it to get past the Copyright Watchdogs if you want to publish it.
Also, if you do try to publish it, be prepared for the Men In Black to come knocking at your door.

__________________