More on Remakes
I came off as a bit sympathetic towards studio execs, but I’m not. There are plenty of studios out there making truly great, original films. Killer Films is a great company, putting Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kids, and Boys Don’t Cry, to name a few. But they aren’t exactly rolling in the dough. Most studio execs aren’t approaching film as an art form, and it shows. The process a movie goes through before it gets to the screen can be completely demoralizing and sad. There’s a reason they tell screenwriters that if they really love a script; the characters, world, and the story, don’t sell it. Because it will either get shelved or turned into a bastardized version of the original.
Smaller theaters are having a harder time staying open and making money nowadays. They earn less on the films they show now. And so they can’t even afford to not show the big blockbusters (unless they are in an area with an active independent crowd like Austin, NY, College campuses). This lack of public interest in the “artsy” films can be seen on the Oscars. The amount of viewers is directly proportional the gross take on the movies up for awards. Even if the Oscars are just goofy, political awards, the viewership still shows the general disinterest the public has for movies that stick to a formula that works (big action sequences + Megan Fox + happy ending = $$)
I’m starting to ramble, so I’ll end there. I haven’t slept for a while, and so there are probably errors all over, and I didn’t cite anything. Meh. I need to sleep.
I always thought that studios should re-release movies theatrically from years past and grab new audiences. How about instead of releasing a shitty sequal for a movie made 20 years ago (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) why not just re-release the originals on the big screen and get new generations excited about these amazing movies? Puting a movie on the big screen gives it a life it doesn’t have on home video.
The great filmmakers are making movies they want to make within the studio system. Look at P.T. Anderson. He loves the studio system and he makes the movies he wants to make. The same goes for Charlie Kaufman and the same went for Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick had Warner Bros. under his thumb. Have you heard the story about A Clockwork Orange? After A Clockwork Orange was released, a “surge” in violent activity occured in Great Britain. The angry public started blaming Kubrick’s movie for the increase in violence. Kubrick even got death threats from people. So, Kubrick told Warner Bros. to pull the movie from the theaters. Just like that, Warner Bros. agreed. That had never happened before. A director never had so much power. Kubrick started out making his first movies using his unemployment checks and then doing Spartacus five years later for Universal Pictures.
It’s true that the little guys who are making great movies have a hard time. But if you look at all the greats, they started small, getting shit on by studios that wouldn’t give them money, but eventually they were working for the bastards and doing whatever they wanted. Studios have hands in both worlds; the disposable/shit/money making projects and also the art/mindful/classic/long-term investment type movies. Warner Bros. put out A Clockwork Orange but they also put out 10,000 B.C. What it all comes down to is “what makes money and when?”
