The 6.4 Billion Dollar Question

[grinninfoole]

As I may have remarked here, I am disappointed with our current crop of eccentric billionaires. With hundreds of men made ridiculously rich by the rising tide of computers in all walks of life, some of which must be hardcore SF fans, none was willing to step forward and say "hey, Joss Whedon, what say I bank roll this Firefly show of yours? Sure, it'll cost me $30 million I won't see again, but who cares? It's for art!"

It's got me wondering what I would do if I were rich beyond all good sense, and from there wondering what other people would do. So, gentle readers, I put it to you: if you had hundreds, if not thousands, of millions of dollars, what frivolous projects would spend some of them on? Whatever it is, it can't be more than incidentally beneficial to anyone, and you must cheerful expect to never recoup a dime of your money. Also, it probably shouldn't be something horrible, like buying plutonium to dirty bomb the Mall of America, or actually significant, like buying congressmen to vote for laws that you want.

Myself, I would bank roll Joss Whedon to make more Firefly (or, at least I would have) and J. Michael Straczynski to make more Babylon 5. I'd fund my own local gaming/comics/SF con, and put it in a good hotel, and pay for all the cool guests that I want, and then make it so that only people personally approved by me get to come. And I'd totally buy a geiger counter.

Which is actually a pretty boring list, now that I look at it. Perhaps more interesting stuff shall come to me. In the mean time, can you top it?

ADDENDUM: If I really had money to burn, I would start up a national direct market comics distributor to compete with Diamond.

Comments

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I would fund my own production company to make really good adaptations of all my favorite SF, probably starting with Legacy of Heorot.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Figures. :)

So, are you psyched that there is not one, but two Beowulf adaptations in the works right now? Of course, and for all I know, they may both be utter crap.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Woah, no, I hadn't heard about them before. Weird. I hope they're better than the horrible 1981 animated version of John Gardner's Grendel.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about that, but even without the adjective, the phrase "1981 animated version of John Gardner's Grendel" sounds pretty dire.

You wouldn't want to buy yourself a ride on the shuttle to actually launch your space robot?

[macropixi.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on bankrolling Joss Whedon. I'd put together and run a club/resturant/movie theater that only catered to 18+ people. I also would bankroll low income housing in mass. (I expect that to be a loss). Maybe some sort of baby wild animal park/petting zoo for big cats.

And MUPPETS, something involving muppets.

[wolfy.livejournal.com]

I'd want to find some way to "stick it to big Brother", that invloved people being both happy and free.

Something B.B. does not like but can't do a damn thing about "'cause I own this island now Get Off!!!"

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Owning your own island. How David Bowie of you.:)

[omnia-mutantur.livejournal.com]

the beneficial clause is making it hard to answer.

i'd put on a shakespeare play involving all my favorite TV/film actors, none of whom would be appropriate for the roles. Like Neil Patrick Harris as Benedick. I'd adapt Janet Kagan's Hellspark to film. I'd open a cat sanctuary/sculpture garden museum, with a room or seven devoted to word games. I'd buy a bookstore and operate it at a loss and only give books to people who i thought would appreciate them.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Janet Kagan's Hellspark, though I think I read a decent Trek novel by her about 15 years ago, when I had an interest in such things. Why that book?

[omnia-mutantur.livejournal.com]

it's linguistic dorkery, mostly. i've always been excessively fond about the the hell-spark/hell's park wordplay on the planet name.

oh, and i've decided to make a non-hasselhoff nick fury movie with my nonexistent millions, too.

[morlock.livejournal.com]

ever since the 4th ed of white wolf came out, i've wanted to bankroll a tv or movie series that was actually GOOD, unlike kindred: the horrible. there would be three concurrent shows...one for vampire, werewolf, and mage. they would all hapen in a major city, and would have a angel/buffy or a sin city feel to them. some crosshatching characters, sometimes the storylines would intertwine, and then go off on their own. the main characters would be one of each race, and they would all be connected with each other some how, but not really in a good way.

i'd love to see at least one of the games made into some sort of moving picture art that i could watch.

also getting more star trek, more firefly, and buying the rights to star wars from lucas. but for half of what they are worth, because i doctored a photo of him and some underage trassexual prostitute or something. just for making the last movies so frikkin bad.

[morlock.livejournal.com]

oh! oh! make some GOOD comic movies. like authority, or captain america, but the marvel knights version.... really i'd like to buy a ton of nintendo stock, and then put some of it in random boxes of nintendo games, so the players could own part of the company.

...i'd retain most of it tho.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I'd bankroll a Gotham Central TV show.

[macropixi.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the other day that if I had money to burn I would own a fleet of volswagon bugs painted to resemble real life beetles and bugs. Maybe do a zipcar thing with them too...

would have ladybugs, junebugs, scarabbeetles, japanese beetles...