IMDB poll

I have a dreadful suspicion that I might get a call to work on almost any of those, before too long...

...better hope there aren't any development executives, reading that poll...
 
No, seriously...

By the time I reached "Resident Evil: Apocalypse Now" (my favorite), I had tears coming out of my eyes and laughing in unexpectedly high notes.

Then it got much worse...
 
American History X-Men would be a damn good movie. Neo-nazi X-Men fights holocaust survivor Magneto.

Cinema Gold.
 
Well, whenever I have no opinion about something, I know that I want to make sure the whole world knows it...
 
It's absurd how the highest $$$-budgets usually go to the most talent-less of all projects.

It should be the other way around.

Sean Connery stated that one of the reasons for him to quit is that today's cinema is in the hands of people who know almost nothing about filmmaking.
 
Ain't that the truth.

I just found out that we have to chop up and re-build sets that are already f*cking built and finished, because we are six weeks into shooting and don't even have a finished script yet.

Why is it that low-budget/indie/first-timers realize that you must have a locked script, if you want to have *any* hope of knowing what you're doing, but the majors just...don't...get...it?

Well, I know the answer.

It's just too depressing to dwell on.
 
"Big Momma's House of Flying Daggers" gave me this picture of Martin Lawrence in a fat & in drag, flying through the air on a wire in slow motion, dodging, well, flying daggers. :D

And now the other people in the office are wondering why I'm laughing my head off...
 
Sad Max said:
Why is it that low-budget/indie/first-timers realize that you must have a locked script, if you want to have *any* hope of knowing what you're doing, but the majors just...don't...get...it?

Well, I know the answer.

It's just too depressing to dwell on.
Click to expand...

what is the answer?
 
ugafan said:
what is the answer?
Click to expand...

The answer is that at high-budget levels, decisions are made (a) by people who are not film people, they are corporate people to whom film is just product, like baby formula, or tissue paper, or dog food, or anything else (b) by people who have zero interest in/knowledge of how anything is actually done, the result being that, so long as the end-product is at least marginally acceptable, no degree of waste, inefficiency, mismanagement or stupidity is too much for them (c) the system-in-place primarily rewards conservatism, fear of innovation, me-tooing, ass-covering, desperate need for ego-gratification and political infighting skills, over any abilities actually related to the process of producing something halfway worthwhile.

That's off the top of my head.

[/rant]
 
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Sad Max said:
by people who have zero interest/knowledge of how anything is actually done, the result being that, so long as the end-product is at least marginally acceptable, no degree of waste, inefficiency, mismanagement or stupidity is too much for them
Click to expand...


this sounds like my dream job. where do i sign up? :beer:
 
Sad Max said:
The answer is that at high-budget levels, decisions are made (a) by people who are not film people, they are corporate people to whom film is just product, like baby formula, or tissue paper, or dog food, or anything else (b) by people who have zero interest in/knowledge of how anything is actually done, the result being that, so long as the end-product is at least marginally acceptable, no degree of waste, inefficiency, mismanagement or stupidity is too much for them (c) the system-in-place primarily rewards conservatism, fear of innovation, me-tooing, ass-covering, desperate need for ego-gratification and political infighting skills, over any abilities actually related to the process of producing something halfway worthwhile.

That's off the top of my head.

[/rant]
Click to expand...

This is really sad. But, in the long term, aren't the studios actually killing themselves this way?
 
Yes, the good old days of Hollywood are long gone. I met a guy that worked on this film twenty plus years ago. He said this listing isn't half of what really happened, and this was actually not that uncommon back then, though this was the worst. But in an odd way, sets like this were a lot of fun much of the time. Now, everything is all bottom line, corporate controlled, just like Sad Max explains.
 
karapetkov said:
This is really sad. But, in the long term, aren't the studios actually killing themselves this way?
Click to expand...

Depends upon how you define 'killing themselves.'

If your definition is based upon producing-little-of-intrinsic-merit-or-lasting-value, than the answer is probably "yes."

If your definition is based upon failing-to-rake-in-gigantic-paydays-for-a-few-strategically-placed-people-for-whom-product-doesn't-matter, then the answer is probably "no."

The best thing about the increasing availability of the tools of production to indies, is that the studios per se are losing/have lost control over what-gets-made.

Although the MPAA still has a death-grip over how things get theatrically released, which is alas a large part of the battle.

Check out a doc called This Film is Not Yet Rated, if you are in the mood to get seriously pissed off.
 
Found it:

"I'm fed up with the idiots, the ever-widening gap between people who know how to make movies and those who green-light them. I don't say they're all idiots - I'm just saying there's a lot of them. It would almost need a Mafia-like offer I couldn't refuse to do another movie." Sean Connery.
 
I saw This Film is not Yet Rated, and even as cynical as I am, I was a bit shocked.

But in the big picture I don't see what is going on today as being much different than what has always happened. Aside froma few blips on the radar, like the early seventies, the industry has always been run by the suits. For every Thalberg there is a Schenck
 
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