movies

[JL21]

Probably a little bit of both- your age means you're noticing it more, but it's also happening more.

Ghostrunner's the one that first pointed it out in this thread a long time ago, and he's dead right... Think about how many Dracula movies, Frankenstein movies, Sherlock Holmes movies, movies about Cleopatra, Ben Hur, etc... have been made, and were made through the bulk of the 20th century. Hollywood has always loved to run [expletive] into the ground.

[pioneer98]

This article from Roger Ebert last year also made me start paying attention to this stuff more.

Sequels and Unoriginality in Hollywood

No movie executive has ever been fired for greenlighting a sequel. Once a brand has been established in the marketplace, it makes sound business sense to repeat the formula. When Procter & Gamble discovered that Ivory soap would float, do you think they came out two years later with a soap named Buoyant?

Movie critics despair of sequels as betraying a lack of imagination and originality. There is truth in that. But they address a hunger among fans of popular movies, who currently are waging an Internet war against Paramount for deciding not to make a sequel to 2004’s Anchorman. Will Ferrell, who starred in the original, has helpfully called the executives who made that decision “idiots,” and told the movie’s fans, “You really have to assert some sort of email hate campaign to Paramount Pictures. They told us, ‘We’ve run the numbers and it’s not a good fit.’ ”

They’ve run the numbers? This is more evidence, not really needed, that a majority of modern big-studio releases are marketing decisions yoked however reluctantly to creative ideas somewhere farther down the food chain. The majors in general make good films either (1) for Oscar season or (2) purely by accident. Weekend releases between May and September might better be covered by marketing specialists than film critics.

According to Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo, who ran his own numbers, 2011 will see a record 27 sequels. I’m just going to go ahead and list them: Cars 2; Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2; The Hangover Part II; Happy Feet 2; Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil; Johnny English Reborn; Kung Fu Panda 2; Piranha 3DD; Sherlock Holmes 2; Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked; Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son; Madea’s Big Happy Family; Paranormal Activity 3; Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Those are the second and third sequels. Gray’s accounting is precise; he finds there will be the highest number of fourth sequels ever: Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol; Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; Scream 4; Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World; and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One), with its own sequel set for 2012.

This year includes five fifth sequels (Fast Five; Final Destination 5; Puss in Boots; X-Men: First Class; Winnie the Pooh), two seventh sequels (The Muppets; Rise of the Apes), and the eighth Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two), itself a sequel.

The idea of a sequel is harmless. One Thin Man movie is not enough, nor one Tarzan, James Bond, Star Trek, or Star Wars. There may have been an excess of zeal with Francis, the Talking Mule. Some sequels improve on their predecessors, such as Spider-Man II and The Dark Knight. Others were possibly doomed, such as Sex and the City 2, because of its inexplicable decision to send the girls on holiday to Abu Dhabi. Those are Manhattan women.

The beat goes on. As the leadership of many studios is taken from creators and assigned to marketers, nothing is harder to get financed than an original idea, or easier than a retread. The urge to repeat success can be found even in the content of modern trailers, which often seem to be about the same upbeat film. Even The Beaver, with Mel Gibson battling mental illness, is made to look like a hopeful comedy with a cute stuffed animal.

Trailers also do their best to spoil secrets and sight gags for you. One executive told me: “We want them to feel like they’re seeing the whole movie, except that it’s longer.” This model can also be found in the aisles of supermarkets, where you’re offered a bite of cheese on a toothpick. After you eat it, you know everything there is to know about that cheese except what it would be like to eat a pound of it.

At Oscar time, the backstory of the nominees often seems to be the same: every studio in town turned them down. Some studio divisions have been forthright about their decision to stop making grown-up movies at all, focusing on superhero comic-book franchises, 3-D animation, and raunch romps. It doesn’t really take a movie person to approve such films.

[JL21]

Thanks for that link. That's good stuff.

Here's another article/infographic about it:

http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2012/01/0 ... t-its-way/

There's also a Film Crit Hulk thing about it out there that I thought was really good, but I can't seem to find it.

[Vidor]

Worth noting, as well, that most of the movies that aren't sequels or remakes are adaptations of comic books (sorry, "graphic novel"), real books, video games, toys, etc.

Best Original Screenplay nominees, 2011
Midnight in Paris (winner)
The Artist
Margin Call
A Separation
Bridesmaids

So a foreign film, three niche-y art films (I loved "The Artist", but Best Screenplay for a silent film? really?), and exactly one mainstream hit.

2010
The King's Speech (winner)
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right

Art, art, art, mainstream hit, art.

[ghostrunner]

(I loved "The Artist", but Best Screenplay for a silent film? really?)

I've seen people say this, but it's an award voted on by other screenwriters. I'd bet the idea of writing minimal dialogue scares most of them [expletive] and they probably respect it. You could argue it actually puts more on the writer's shoulders.

This is the script, FWIW:

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Artist,-The.html

[ghostrunner]

Disney has purchased LucasFilm. And at least one more "Star Wars" film is on the way.

The landmark deal was made for $4 billion in cash and stock, and includes Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound.

A seventh “Star Wars” film is in development for release in 2015.

I can't lie, for a moment a piece of me I didn't know still existed got excited about this. Lucas will have nothing to do with it, and it's the sequel most SW fans probably wanted in the first place.

[pioneer98]

Disney has purchased LucasFilm. And at least one more "Star Wars" film is on the way.

The landmark deal was made for $4 billion in cash and stock, and includes Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound.

A seventh “Star Wars” film is in development for release in 2015.

I can't lie, for a moment a piece of me I didn't know still existed got excited about this. Lucas will have nothing to do with it, and it's the sequel most SW fans probably wanted in the first place.

I really didn't get excited about it. I always thought I would get excited, but the last 3 movies were just not as good. I think that is what did it. I do have a kid who will be excited. But for me it just means I'll be pressured to buy more toys and Legos and things.

Disney is an example of a company that has become enormous while generating few original ideas of its own. So many of its biggest films over the years were old fables they turned into a screenplay (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Cinderella, many others). Now, they just buy out companies that had some original ideas, but who have slowed down a bit themselves (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm).

[robbotis]

Disney has purchased LucasFilm. And at least one more "Star Wars" film is on the way.

The landmark deal was made for $4 billion in cash and stock, and includes Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound.

A seventh “Star Wars” film is in development for release in 2015.

I can't lie, for a moment a piece of me I didn't know still existed got excited about this. Lucas will have nothing to do with it, and it's the sequel most SW fans probably wanted in the first place.

I really didn't get excited about it. I always thought I would get excited, but the last 3 movies were just not as good. I think that is what did it. I do have a kid who will be excited. But for me it just means I'll be pressured to buy more toys and Legos and things.

Disney is an example of a company that has become enormous while generating few original ideas of its own. So many of its biggest films over the years were old fables they turned into a screenplay (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Cinderella, many others). Now, they just buy out companies that had some original ideas, but who have slowed down a bit themselves (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm).

Episode III was good.
Even Episode II had that sweet and huge Jedi battle, but, overall it wasn't great.
Don't lump Episode III with the other 2,

[JL21]

This artist's entire line is themed around Wes Anderson movies.

http://spoke-art.myshopify.com/collecti ... ads?page=1

It's really cool... and borders on the bizarre. He has several that are Bill Murray as other Wes Anderson movie characters. The $1,400 mashup of Mr. Fox with naked Natalie Portman from Hotel Chevalier is something else.

[ghostrunner]

Speaking of Disney, hearing pretty good things about Wreck-It Ralph. The director worked on the Simpsons and Futurama. Lots of 80's arcade game references, so it ought to be fun for people old enough to remember them. Thinking about taking my son this weekend or next.