Just thought this looked interesting enough to pass along. -Mike
http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/27/0926218 ------------------------------------------- What kind of movie would you make? by chadjg (615827) Let's say that you come into posession of a large ( $100,000,000) stack of money and you have a burning desire to make a movie that you know your fellow geeks would enjoy; what would it be? What is missing in most movies today, if anything? Is it possible to make a geeky movie that has a chance of commercial success? Are we stuck importing Japanese anime? WW: I absolutely hate that what passes for Sci-Fi in movies much of the last ten years is really just the action movie formula with laser guns and rockets instead of machine guns and motorcycles. So if I had a pile of money, I would make a Sci-Fi film based on a classic novel, like [insert your favorite title here. There's no fucking way I'm picking one, and dealing with the ensuing flamewar]. I would love to do American Gods or Sandman, and my dream is Watchmen as twelve two hour episodes: the first 90 minutes would be the main story, and the last 30 minutes would be Hollis Mason's book, and Tales of the Black Freighter. I'd also like to do Preacher or Fables. Okay, those are mostly graphic novels . . . but can you honestly tell me you wouldn't want to see Sandman? (If it was done right, without Vin Diesel.) I believe that there are two vital things missing from the film industry today: the first thing is a willingness at the studio level to take risks. As Hollywood's consolidated, and studios have been bought up by multinationals who don't make movies as their primary product (Seagrams, Sony, etc) the industry has become very risk-averse, and if you're not willing to take risks, how can you be truly creative? That's why we see the same old dogshit repackaged year after year. The head of a studio can stand up and say, "We made you X dollars with Mega Crap Blockbuster last year, and this year, we'll be giving you Mega Crap Blockbuster II: Electric Boogaloo! Lindsey Lohan is attached, so we'll make 2.5X dollars!" The second thing missing from movies is even worse: story. We say it all the time: "If it's not on the page, it's not on the stage." When a studio spends 20 million dollars on some currently-hot celebrity and pays the writer 50K . . . well, we get what they paid for. Since most geeks are smarter than the average bear, we have slightly higher standards for movies (and I'm not even talking about the film geeks, who both terrify and impress me) so paper-thin stories tend to annoy us more than the average audience member. We need someone to step up and be to 2005 what Robert Evans was to 1970. Okay, have I managed to come off like a total elitist film snob yet? On the off chance that I haven't, I'd like to once again observe that Tom Cruise is one of the most over-rated, worst actors in history, and Michael Bay should not be allowed near a film set for the rest of his life. Or at least the rest of mine. Jon Favreau is a fantastic actor who should write and direct more, Lorne Michaels should stop trying to turn unfunny three minute sketches into unfunny 90 minute movies, and where, for the love of god, is my generation's Steve McQueen?! Hrm. Looks like I crossed the line from elitist film snob to never working in this town again. Uhh . . . let's see if I can get this back on track before the goon squad shows up: I think there is a silver lining here for geeks. Lord of the Rings proved beyond any doubt that it's possible to make geeky movies that still appeal to a broad audience, as long as there is a director with a clear vision who understands and respects the material. Lord of the Rings had both elements I think are important to successful movies: the studio took a huge risk, and Peter Jackson worked with amazing screen writers to bring one of the greatest stories in history to the screen. This tells me that there is some hope for us geeks. We could see a resurgence of geek-friendly movies that actually reward our intelligence (ie: more The Matrix, and less Catwoman). And if not, there's always Firefly on DVD. ____________________________________________________ Yahoo! Sports Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com
