1) Producer Linda Obst on Why movies suck so much right now. Don’t miss the comics fanboy outrage in the comments.
2) 2010 Best illusion of the year. For best effect, watch the video before reading the article.
3) Robbing from the poor (writer)–how NOTTINGHAM, a script that featured the Sheriff of Nottingham using CSI techniques to track a wanted terrorist and which was the hottest script at auction in Hollywood for a while, became the completely tedious ROBIN HOOD. Aka why modern movies suck part 2
4) You know how neat-freaks have germ pron? This is vertigo pron. Gah! Heights!
5) Why I don’t get Archie comics for my son anymore.
6) via madrobins: A real-life Miss Marple for the internet age. International access to chat sites, fake online identities and suicide pacts. Jesus, this would make a great book (and I’m sure someone is already writing it).
Hafta say regarding Obst on item #1 from will not sell: “It makes you cry.”
Must not be paying attention to the fact that every book from that The Notebook guy has been turned into a movie.
I also wonder what decade it was when theatrical tearjerkers were big. There’s actually a very good market for them as Movies of the Week.
Also, superhero movies sell if they’ve pre-advertised via comic books. In fact, for some odd reason studios prefer anything that has pre-advertised in some fashion. I can’t imagine why!
What is having trouble is 3-12 million dollar indie films — but I think it’s actually indie genre films that have taken a bigger hit than indie art films.
Art films still get people playing them for cheap in hope of an Oscar, or simply by getting people motivated behind them.
The indie genre film (like Terminator 1) has lost its big DVD market, so they’ve had to either go cheaper or go bigger. This should recover sometime as online distribution matures.
Though a really big help would be studios charging 15-20 dollars for Blu-Ray instead of $30.
Horror films are on a downswing right now and comedies on an upswing. But I think that’s mainly due to national mood. People want to get cheered up.
Back in the thirties and earlier, there were a lot of “weepies” being made–essentially, films for women. Many, many films were written by women, too, but as the industry became more lucrative and prestigious, those jobs were taken over by men.
Every once in a while, a studio finds success with a movie aimed at a female audience but seems utterly unprepared to capitalize on it.