That Nikki Finke over at Deadline.com is such a joy. Nikki gets to talk to Hollywood execs all the time. At breakfast, at lunch, at her daily kneeling nooners, I mean this lady is just chalk full of information. Nikki has even gathered data that will answer one of Hollywood's best kept secrets these days, which is: 'Where the hell did all the originality go after it left Hollywood?' Which is a brilliant question. Haven't you ever pondered why we have not gotten classics out of Hollywood like Star Wars, Back to the Future, ET, or Indiana Jones in over 20 years?
I have and so has Nikki Finke, who asked a bunch of well-established Hollywood writers, executives and deal makers to list the reasons why Originality has left the likes of Hollywood, and here they are:
A) An aversion to risk-taking which is a lingering byproduct of the recession and credit crunch. "Studio executives are always afraid of taking risks unless they can point to a big success,” said one writer's agent. “If a Western did well, they'd want another Western, and they'd get a lot of bad Westerns."
B) An over-reliance on “branded” properties that became prevalent over the last several years. Rights holders got first dollar gross deals and say over creative issues and release deadlines, even though they don't know the first thing about making a good movie.
C) The rise of one-step screenwriter deals and sweepstakes pitching (where multiple writers compete for a job by pitching ideas for the same assignment). Several writers admitted to me that when their priority is advancing to the next draft, originality goes out the window. They try to please studio executives and producers who thrive in a comfort zone of sameness.
D) The growing influence of marketing executives in the selection of films that get made. Those executives favor films they know how to sell, which means films they've sold before.
So there you have it. Not a total shock but a good explanation of why in the next two decades or so we wont see any truly original concept crawl it's way out of Hollywood.
The above is one side of the coin, the other side of the coin benefits us Comic Book Movie Maniacs greatly. 'What's the other side of the coin J-Man?' well I'll tell you. Hollywood has abandoned all sense of Originality for an established concept to turn into a movie. That thinking has opened the door to this era of Comic Book Movies. Hollywood has always thought that Comic Book Movies are for kids and childish but once they figured out that they had over 75 years (in some cases) of original story lines (Comic Books) to look through and turn into movies, they became giddy, like schoolgirls playing hop scotch.
Studios rushed to buy up all the rights they could (Fox, Sony) in an attempt to hoard as many characters as they could to in turn make as many Comic Book Movies as they could, good and bad. Since originality has no place in Hollywood anymore this was the next logical step. Hollywood would take an established character (Wolverine, Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four) and put in and take out what they wanted of the already successful Comic Book storyline. As a result the studio gets what it wants and releases what it feels it can market, leaving the fans wondering why the movie is not closer related to the source.
The above 4 reason also explain why we are getting flooded with remakes (Clash of the Titans) instead of new storylines and concepts to make into movies. Hollywood is scarred to take any risks that may or may not pan out so we are forced to watch movies that where created by what would sell good at Wal-Mart instead of what would translate well to the big screen.
So where does this leave us? As long as we financially support the remakes and the hacking (granted, all Comic Book concepts will not work well on the big screen) of our favorite heroes then that's all we are going to receive. I realize, and I'm sure you all do as well, that this problem is bigger then CBM's. It effects everything these Hollywood suits do.
Where is the next Spielberg? Where is the next Lucas? Where is the next guy to come along and not want to, but need to make their mark on Hollywood? The currant legends wont be around forever, and for any remake to be successful it can only happen once a generation. So What's Up Hollywood? Are you ever going to be about it? Or just talk about the good old days when Originality was still in town?