Lionsgate wants to make more Twilight features, and they don't care that the story ended with the third novel. They're considering everything from further movies to a TV show. I understand that the studio needs cash, but the statements made by the Lionsgate CEO sound like such cheap shilling.
“It's hard for me to imagine a movie that does $700 million-plus doesn't have ongoing value."
Wow. Feel the passion! Was this stupid series so popular with YA readers due to its value? 3 posts ago, I wrote about studios' self-defeating obsession with names, and that's at play here. Maybe they'll just wait 4 years, then remake the whole trilogy.
If you want an example of real passion, look no further than the new video that combines Star Wars scenes reenacted and filmed by fans of the original movie. Casey Pugh began crowd-sourcing for a collectively fan-made remake 2 years ago.
People responded, and this excellent idea took off. The various scenes have been spliced together, giving us a fan-made version of the whole picture. It's incredible to see how inspirational a Lucas film could be.
A new report says that modern 3D movies are really, really good at causing headaches. This makes me laugh because I've heard of 2, maybe 3, good films in the format. Otherwise, the "buzz" is mostly complaints about the 3D retrofit pix.
In case, like me, you worry that your fellow Americans are becoming the world's whiniest idiots, fear not! We have competition: many British people demanded (and got) refunds because thy went to see The Artist and didn't know it's a (mostly) silent film. Isn't it fun when people pass on the blame for their own ignorance and bad taste?... No, no it's not.
This is hardly perfect, but it is a bit inspired: the first verse of Lionel Ritchie's "Hello," as clipped together from various movie scenes.
Meanwhile, George Lucas declared last week that he might turn Red Tails into a trilogy (ugh). A few days later, Lucas announced that he'll retire from film-making and will work on a few "art house" pictures in the future. His stated reason: everybody complains about all the movies he makes, so why should he make more movies?
I've complained and taken pot shots at GL before, but I won't spike the ball now that he's sort of crying "uncle." If GL thinks he can reinvent his career like Francis Ford Coppola, I wish him the best of luck. However, I do want George to be clear on something:
- people are pissy with you because you have unlimited resources, yet produce repetitive, tedious pictures with poor dialogue and characterization;
- people are pissy with you because your work was better when you were poor;
- and they're pissy with you because you make boatloads of money on crappy, shameless promotions like the "yoda man" ads, for which you deserve a mildly-severe beating.
Um, Lionsgate honcho? You can think things like that, but you're not allowed to SAY them.
ReplyDeleteI started watching the Star Wars movie, but after 3:11 I said to myself "Yeah, I can't watch this at work."
Yeah, that studio exec sounds like the kind of guy who says "I hope my wife isn't sick for long - the bills will be enormous."
ReplyDeleteI could run SW in the background and enjoy it, but I'd have to watch the fan-made version to see the differences. Maybe I'll watch during my flying lessons?...