|
Enjoy good movies while you can
Published October 7, 2007
Last week, I wrote about how with the fall season here, the movies reaching theaters should pick up in quality, with Oscar-hopefuls and prestige pictures all hitting theaters with expectations of winning little gold men and making boffo box office.
Well, enjoy it while you can, because it’s not looking so good past December.
In fact, prepare to see a lot of sub-par films rushed into theaters with half-baked scripts, poorly cast leads and rushed special effects, as the great disaster prepares to wash over Hollywood.
There’s a strike coming.
When I’m not working hard on filling this paper with hard-hitting journalism, or at least fluffy feature pieces, I tend to haunt various sites on the Internet relating to movie news. I like to know what sort of films will be coming down the pipe months from now, which is why you read so many columns about it in this space.
Almost every big film announcement in the past few months has had the word “pre-strike” in it, as studios rush to get films done before next August in hopes of having enough movies to fill 2009.
In August, the various guilds in Hollywood, most especially the Screenwriter’s Guild, will be coming to the studios for contact renewals, and they have some new demands in mind.
Of course, they want more money, especially on DVD sales and digital rights, on which they currently receive nothing.
Studios, on the other hand, hate giving away money. These are the business, after all, that constantly proclaim they barely break even on some of their biggest hits.
In the 1980s, for instance, when “Coming to America” almost quadrupled its budget in box office returns, the studio tried to claim it lost money on the film when questioned in court on salary payments.
It doesn’t look like it will end quickly, so everyone in Hollywood is preparing for a strike.
So to beat the deadline with enough films in hand to prevent a drought, studios are stockpiling scripts and rushing them into production. This is how movies based on bad cartoons like “Voltron” and “Robotech” can get film adaptations ready to roll in front of the cameras.
What is getting the most attention, then, are these big, effects-driven films that are more likely to see big returns due to the narrative-light, explosion-heavy plots on display.
The prestige pictures aren’t very high on the list of films to greenlight.
Hopefully the strike can be averted — not because I don’t want to see the guilds get more money of the tight-fisted Scrooges in Hollywood, because I think it’s only fair — so I can depend on seeing some good films come into theaters the next couple of years.
After all, a year when giant robot cats dominate the box office is just frightening to contemplate.
On the other hand, the urge to rush films into production means “Transformers 2” is already on the shooting schedule, a move I can only applaud.
That almost makes up for a “Voltron” movie.
Almost.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print
|
