Links
Monday, August 10, 2015 at 11:00AM BuzzFeed Netflix not legally responsible for your 'viewing history' - it's so funny that people thought they were
The Hairpin Mission: Impossibly Silly "I Still Don't Understand How Tall Everyone Is"
Interview Director Marielle Heller talks about the ratings and sexuality of her daring debut The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Towleroad George Takei once asked Gene Roddenberry about including gay characters on Star Trek. Interesting historical response but what's their excuse now since that franchise is still alive?
IndieWire How to apply for a Women of Color directors and screenwriters 10 day retreat
This is Not Porn Cute. Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg take a break during Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Tim is the Best
Antagony & Ecstasy revisits Dog Day Afternoon... (great films often generate great writing about film)
Antagony & Ecstasy also revisits the very first unreleased Fantastic Four (1994) and claims its still the best adaptation of Marvel's first family (bad films often generate great writing about film)
.... moral of combining them: Timothy Brayton often generates great writing about film.
Off Cinema
Laughing Squid a feline feeding machine to let your cat be more self-actualized indoors
Gothamist sad news: Annie Lennox's daughter's boyfriend has gone missing after a tandem kayak accident
"Clobberin' Time"
There's a lot of handwringing going round about what exactly happened between Josh Trank and the studio and the source material to make Fantastic Four so bad. Film School Rejects even felt it needed a six-year timeline. But there's also post-mortems about the opening weekend which are lower than usual for superheroes.Variety argues that audiences are getting wise to money grabs (with tanking reboots like FF and diminished returns for Spider-Man) and studios need to think harder about repackaging known brands. But I personally don't know if that's the case -- I mean audiences are still putting up with needlessly padded "part 1 and part 2" finales which everyone knows are not artistically motivated decisions aimed at providing them with the best possible movie. So until audiences start bailing on those, I'm not eager to give them too much credit for protecting their wallets against Hollywood's 'screw-quality / make another billion quick' tactics.
Reader Comments (7)
It will be interesting to see how next year's Avengers (excuse me, Captain America): Civil War does. Ultron is sitting at 456 million stateside as of 8/2, so it's unlikely to cross the half-billion mark, which is far less than the first film. If Civil War were to finish south of 300 million I think it could be a sign of Marvel fatigue. Winter Soldier made 259 stateside, but that was a true sequel to the first CA, with only Black Widow crossing over from the Avengers team. This is really an Avengers movie, with only Thor not crossing over.
Like I said, it will be interesting.
I think the thing with Part 1/2 finales is that the fans are already sold on the product. But with endless reboots, we go in skeptical.
I wonder if we can figure out a line of how long to have to wait to reboot your franchise for maximum success. FF has been what, 10 years? Too soon?
RE: How tall people are in the Mission Impossible movie. Reminds me of the best Nicole Kidman line ever. Post divorce on Letterman. "Well, I can wear heels now"
Yeah, reboots fire my gut up whereas splitting movies I'm merely somewhat cynical towards. I'd say that most fans arguably enjoy the Part I/II/IIIs, despite occasional whining, because they're usually splits of beloved book-based franchises and it helps prolong the experience--better an extended part of an original than an inferior replica. Not sure fans being against back-to-back reboots mean they are against the 'serialization" of cinema the way Nat is.
Sawyer: I'm going to play arm chair "Content Level, Length, Budget, Worldwide Gross" guy for the announced phase 3 entities.
Captain America: Civil War: Hard PG-13 (Yes, I'm calling it possible that Ontario slaps this with a 14A), 180-210 minutes, $220 million, $1.1-1.3 billion.
Doctor Strange: Soft PG-13, 115-125 minutes, $140-160 million, $500-600 million.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Soft PG-13, 115-125 minutes, $220-250 million, $1.2-1.4 billion.
Untitled Spider-Man Film: Soft PG-13, 140-160 minutes (more to give some more breathing room to focus on Peter's friends and co-workers than on the Raimi movies wasting time on making the villains more artificially sympathetic), $90-110 million, $500-900 million, depending on Rotten Tomatoes score.
Thor: Ragnarok: Hard PG-13, 130-150 minutes, $220-240 million, $800-900 million. (Thor's not a billion clearing franchise. I'm being optimistic, not delusional.)
Avengers: Infinity War Part I: Soft PG-13, 120-130 minutes, $270-300 million, $1.2-1.5 billion.
Black Panther: Soft R, 100-110 minutes, $60-90 million, $600-700 million.
Captain Marvel: Soft PG-13, 120-130 minutes, $140-160 million, $900 million-1.1 billion. (A superheroine movie that has a probability of not sucking? You better believe people will try it to that level.)
Avengers: Infinity War Part II: Hard PG-13, 120-130 minutes, $270-300 million, $1.2-1.5 billion.
Inhumans: Soft PG-13, 135-160 minutes, $150 million, $600-700 million.
Sawyer-I think the Captain America film might be a bad litmus test though-because Winter Soldier was so superb, I'm genuinely excited for that in a way that I am not for any other comic book film. Admittedly that's anecdotal, but I suspect that there are others who would feel the same way. Terrible reviews could wreck that, but I think it's popular enough that it'll still be a massive blockbuster.
Nathaniel, I think part of why people put up with padded part 1s and 2s is twofold. One it's got ties to the serialized nature of storytelling many are digging right now. More importantly though is that it wraps up an a story, presumably, people are already invested in that has an endpoint