Filmism.net Dispatch November 29, 2015
Well, before you read the next Filmism.net Dispatch, you'll most likely have seen Star Force: The Force Awakens and it's probably already going to be up to $2bn globally.
Here's something that hasn't been commented upon; Disney are doing the opposite with Star Wars that they did with Marvel. We're stepping back into the Star Wars universe with a major bang, joining the core story that will then spread out to a galaxy of spin-offs and anthologies like Star Wars: Rogue One and the as-yet untitled Han Solo film.
Marvel was in a very different position when it started Phase One of its current assault on the box office with Iron Man. It went on to introduce more characters like Thor and Captain America, and only then did it spend big on The Avengers when the market was more or less proven.
You could argue that Iron Man came prior to Disney's ownership so the company had little choice, but if there was ever a plan inside Marvel to build steadily up instead of start big and then build out, Disney stuck with it.
Now here's another interesting Hollywood trend. What do these films and/or characters have in common (deep breath)?
Evil Dead , American Gigolo, Snowpiercer, Star Trek, Jack Ryan, Shutter Island, Psycho , The Mist, Sleepy Hollow, All of Me, Taken, Training Day, To Live and Die in LA, Rush Hour, Minority Report, Limitless, From Hell, In The Heat of the Night, Tremors, Summer of Sam, Constantine, Supergirl, Lost in Space, Monster in Law, Mortal Instruments, The Illusionist, Bachelor Party, Hitch, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Omen , Shooter, The Expendables, Galaxy Quest, Urban Cowboy, The Lion King and The Notebook?
They're all going to be, are now, or have already been (as in, already cancelled) TV shows.
WT, in the words of the sage, F? Supergirl and Bates Motel (based on Psycho ) are both hits, Minority Report is doing okay, Constantine has already flopped and been shuttered. But a so-so film about a marksman, a cowboy learning to live in the city, William Friedkin's most embarrasingly 80s movie, a YA adaptation that bombed as a movie?
Will they make a TV show out of absolutely anything? The answer coming from the offices of showrunners and writing rooms seems to be a resounding 'yes', but maybe the most interesting aspect of all this gravedigging is that it hasn't been accompanied by the same eye-rolling resignation with which the media usually treats the endless parade of sequels and reboots on big screens.
I guess you've got to be a producer or a focus group tester to see what people will really watch, so it's going to be even more interesting to see how this all plays out. All I can think is that it makes sense to do Gotham or Agents of Shield or Supergirl because of the orgiastic lust for superheroes the world's still gripped in, but you'll note there are a lot of names in the list above that were, frankly, crap the first time around.
And creative decisions in Hollywood usually make so much sense...