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What Happens After the Super-Hero Movie Bubble?
mattnyc99 writes "In the wake of a not-that-exciting Comic-Con come some (perhaps premature) reports on the so-called "Death of Superheroes" — what one financial group calls "the top of the (comic book) character remonetization cycle." In response, Esquire.com's Paul Schrodt has an interesting look down Hollywood geek road. From the article: "What happens after The Avengers, or Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman movie — after we've seen all there is to see of the best comic-book blockbusters ever made?""
TSIA
They'll reboot the franchise and start again. Just like with Batman and Spider-Man.
qntm.org
There is a recent movie called Super, which is really funny. It even has the "superhero" and his sidekick having sex with each other, true batman and robin style.
At the end of the cycle, they'll wait a few years and then start it again. That's why it's called a cycle...
we've had disaster movies, monster movies, historical, fantasy, sci-fi and others.hollywood will find another genre and milk it.
plenty of books out there that haven't been made into movies or in need of a modern CGI refresh. Bible movies anyone?
Battleship, Asteroids, what else!
Bat(e)man reboot IMO.
Remakes, Reimaginings, Reboots...who says it EVER has to end?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Heaven forbid they have to *gasp* come up with original material!
Cartoons!! They've already done two that I can think of off the top of my head, Transformers and now Smurfs, oh and GI Joe.. so maybe we'll see more pop up?
A reboot of the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns?
Of course, Gollyweird will have more blood, gore, tits, ... OK tits are good.
Thomas Jane's "Punisher" was, I'm told, based on the Ennis run of the book. I'd love to see a "Preacher" movie. Or an HBO series.
Maybe a reboot of "Constantine," except, you know, with a British guy this time?
If only Nintendo would let the Animal Crossing anime film be dubbed and brought over to North America. Or allow a Super Mario Bros. movie more along the conceptual lines of the animated series and completely unlike the Hoskins/Hopper disaster.
It's clear they should make another Uma Thurman movie :)
Galactus: a Tragedy of Universal Proportions.
Dr. Doom vs Mephisto. Yo Mama Fight. ("Yo Mama was so dumb, I stole her soul and am keeping it in Hell!")
Red Skull, an insightful look into the caring side of a Megalomaniac Nazi General.
Solomon Grundy vs "The Zombie" crossover film. A new cult classic!
The Osprey. What happens after the Osprey is rejected from the Frightful Four tryouts? It's a madcap whirlwind rush for a one page wonder from Marvel comics golden age!
Mr. Mxyzptlk. Four hours of a stationary picture of Mr. Mxyzptlk, with a rumor that there's a cliffhanger scene after the credits. There is not.
You know, films that had more dialog than car chases? Ahhh... the good old days.
The Weekend at Bernie's franchise will get the 'reboot' treatment.
"The #1 movie in America was called "Ass." And that's all it was for 90 minutes. It won eight Oscars that year, including best screenplay."
Now that every old TV show and comic book has been remade and the Justin Bieber movie done, next will be the Kardashians movie, and then it's time for "Ass" the movie.
Might as well put "Ow my Balls" on TV, too.
Godaddy is a scam and a ripoff.
Since copyright law allows publishers to own the rights to anything perpetually (I know the law says 100 years, but they will no doubt get an extension come 2026 when Disney Corp is about to lose rights to Mickey mouse again as they did in the 90s), there is very little motivation to come up with new characters.
Investing in and developing new concepts is a risk, and it's a lot cheaper to just maintain their monopoly via huge marketing machine structures that have already been built.
This will continue as long as people shell out money to see reboots.
I personally am about done with 'reboots' (I will probably NOT bother to see any of the spiderman reboots for example).
The whole situation reminds me of television (I almost never turn on the Television anymore) -- putting themselves out of business by abandonining any creative core it may have pretended to have had before it became a wrapper for marketing.
Can Ace and Gary make it in the theater?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
You'll probably start to see a trend of Hollywood adapting Youtube shorts directly to the big screen. I have to laugh everytime I see some news program turning to the internet to show what is going on there. They just can't compete with it.
Next they'll remake japanese anime
As long as they don't have to write it by themselves
Although they most certainly will, they don't have to. I think that the comic book corpus is deeper than you think. Fables was highly enjoyable to me and The Sandman wasn't bad. Are they perfect for a movie adaptation? Maybe not. But I can think of many comics with great story lines that aren't common household names. I really wouldn't mind seeing more comic book movies like The Watchmen. I guess the primary problem with that is they would most certainly have to be rated R and that stunts your market. I can think of examples suitable for children like Percy Gloom that I think Pixar could really run with ... of course, these aren't traditional superhero constructs (neither was The Watchmen), they're more complex than that.
I think that if Hollywood and the comic publishers had more fairly compensated the original artists that they wouldn't be facing a lack of material. Here's a research exercise I'll leave to the reader: Who personally profited more from Spiderman: ${Sony CEO} or co-creator Jack Kirby (and his estate)? If a large enough percentage of profit is pumped back into the creators, you'd see an explosion of people vying for that market with new and original ideas.
More and more with the creative art that I consume I strive to make purchases directly from the artist themselves because we have the internet and the internet enables this so why not? Hollywood and their accounting methods are absolutely horrible about this so why should I worry that they're not going to have anymore comic books left to rape soon?
My work here is dung.
How about this: they could make a series of movies about a bunch of kids with special abilities that fight against and eventually triumph over someone evil. I know, The kids could be young witches and wizards in training and the big evil person could be a megalomanical evil wizard determined to rule the world! Maybe the evil wizard killed the parents of one of the kids so we open with this boy living in the under stair cupboard of his aunt and uncle. Yeah, that's it....
I have no doubt that Hollywood will lose its taste for the cash cow it's currently grinding into hamburger (note: not the mixed metaphor that it sounds like). But fretting over The Next Big Thing, simply because a clear winner hasn't emerged yet? That's pathetic.
For one thing, take a look at the movie listings. There's currently a lot more out there beside the "superhero" movie. Some of it is older genres, some of it is niche new stuff that someone felt was good to throw against the wall, just to see if it stuck. If the superhero genre can be said to be "dominating," it's only because they're making more money, not because they're filling every theater and pushing the ordinary genres off the screen.
Second, when their star finally does fade, who's to say it'll do so completely? Like I said, a lot of older genres are still being explored. Who's to say we won't get a satisfying drip of interesting empowered individual films in the future?
And third, it's entirely possible that the reason that the superhero film has dominated Hollywood's rather Asperger's-like focus is that the Next Big Thing hasn't come along yet. I have every confidence that when it does, filmmakers will jump upon it with both feet and kick the Current Big Thing to the curb.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
In 20 years all movies will be made from Holograms and they will reboot all the super heroes again!!
Independence Day 2 and 3, Men in Black 3, Jurassic Park 4, Twister 2(Supposedly Bill Paxton is pushing for this), Ghostbusters 3, etc. Seems they want to pull out franchises that are at least a decade old(or at least a decade since their last good movie) and start again. Supposedly they're even looking at making another Evil Dead sequel.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
There's not too many more superheroes the can make movies out of. Once you have to make a movie about Thor, you know you're reaching the bottom of the barrel. I bet you we'll see Aquaman soon.
It's really the only think I'd like to see made at this point. It would make LoTRs look like a walk in the park. Just keep Jackson and his revisionist hands(no Scouring of the Shire) off of it. Heck, I"m sure he'd Sauron out as a sympathetic character at this point.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
we all get to enjoy movies again? Wait... that didn't happen much before the SHB (super hero bubble) either.
my site of misleading and incorrect information!
...what else? With a new Cantina scene including Lady Gaga appearing as an alien (or vice versa).
I think a federal agency is needed to provide backstop funding for Hollywood superhero productions. Socializing the losses of superhero productions will provide the signals needed for funding to flow away from the improper non-superhero productions and into the proper superhero productions. If we are lucky, 80% or more of Hollywood productions will end up being superhero movies. In fact, every person should be able to participate in the American dream of going to a superhero movie. All movies should be superhero movies and all restaurants should be taco bell.
Given how few of the truly great comic stories have made it to the big screen it's hard to see how these have peaked. Most of the time they scarcely make it past origin stories and start telling another story.
Why not just say all the great movies that are going to be made have already been made? Given the low percentage of super-hero movies relative to all the other movies that have been put out, it's more likely to be true.
...they have a Squirrel Girl movie.
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
What happens after the 'Bubble' bubble?
Is anyone else tired of hearing the term 'bubble' being used so ubiquitously and loosely now?
I think the next wave of movies is based on board games. I know there is a Candyland and a Battleship in the works.
First there was Predators versus Aliens, then Batman versus Magneto, Star Trek versus the Empire, Borg versus Spiderman, and finally, My Little Ponies versus Zombies.
Hopefully set in Rome or medieval europe. Less cgi and slo-mo, though. I want backstabbing, bone-cracking and wenching on the big screen.
It seems like they are transitioning from the '70s and '80s remakes to '90s remakes with the upcoming "Total Recall."
Where is the Halo movie? Gears of War? Uncharted? Zelda? Be sure that the Videogame theme based movies are going to be the next big thing. They have the potential to be more popular than any comic on earth... How many people really buy comics and read them right now? On the contrary, just look how millions of human beings waste hours of their lives in front of their consoles not just reading about an imaginary world, but playing in them... I assure you, when a movie studio gets out a Marvel Studio-like success out of a movie franchise... It will be bye bye to the comic theme based movie...
Look, this has been going on since the early 1990s with the Michael Keaton Batman movie. Its been 20 solid years. I'm not sure why its suddenly going to end.
Turns out audiences like simple-minded melodramas with clear-cut good guys and villains. They love fight scenes and over-the-top special effects. Comics fits perfectly with what most moviegoers want. Christ, Michael Bay can do this with something as worthless as a cartoon to sell toys. I think more well rounded characters are a shoo-in.
Of course there are lots of stinkers. Most notably Ang Lee's Hulk (sounds like simpsons parody) and the weird stalkerish Superman Returns. Hollywood's economics are setup in a way for them to easily absorb bad movies as long as they have a handful of hits every year.
Westerns will be the next build thing. Bonanza movie.
and Groo Too.
rewriting history since 2109
Already one of the largest trends on Netflix, lower budget but creative and interesting.
They can always redo the classics like Deep Throat
New ideas, fresh blood? Grown up plots?
This happens. I think board/video games will be the next wave of things they appropriate because they weren't able to come up with any original ideas.
Not that they haven't started already (Doom, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, etc.), but I think we're going to see a lot more. Expect "Connect Four: The Movie" to premier in summer 2012. I'm sure Michael Bay will be happy to direct it.
I'm hoping for more wacky comedies about law enforcement officers and their pets.
. . . after we've seen all there is to see of the best comic-book blockbusters ever made . . .
What is this "best" of which you speak?
Adherence to the truth is a form of disloyalty.
Some of them are even begging for a movie adaptation. At least something on "Good Omens" is finally moving forward, even if it's Terry Jones on TV instead of Terry Gilliam on the big screen.
*** Mild Spoiler Ahead ***
The latest pet idea I had, after seeing Harry Potter get a successful 8-movie run, was Alistair Reynold's "Pushing Ice". The novel could be well done in 3 separate movies. (names are not titles, just plot segments)
Part 1 - In the solar system
Part 2 - In transit
Part 3 - At the Nexus
Finally, since the book doesn't end conclusively, they could always give it the "Spaceballs 2" treatment - "The Search For More Money" and do at least Part 4.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Clue was actually pretty good. It was very loosely based on the game, and turned out to be very funny. Battleship, however. Let's just say I won't be standing in line for that one.
Especially the marvel movies outside of maybe spiderman, super dark super big, and so fucking dull you want to gouge your eyes out on the exact same story arch every time
now what is wrong with your movie (lets say xmen) when you have all this OVER THE TOP action and effects and the best the audience can to is collectively sigh out "who gives a fuck"
Dragon Ball Evolution, fucking Dragon Ball Evolution.
Just don't dare.
But... the future refused to change.
1. Horrible movies come out.
2. Some artsy movies gain traction.
3. People who hate artsy movies go crazy and crave superhero movies again.
4. Re-make of superhero movies in 6D sweeps the nation for the next 12 years.
Simple; there's much more to milk dry and they'll probably continue until that moment when the cashflow starts to show that it isn't worth it.
Example; We had some transformers movies (which I thankfully never watched); now its time to go after the Go Bots. We had movies like He-Man and Scooby Doo and such, now its time to focus on stuff like M.A.S.K. (might even make EXTRA cash by re-starting the action figure franchise) and perhaps Penelope Pitsstop (a damsel in distress is always good for some extra cash; esp. if you show some skin too).
And well; who says that it should be a one-way street (as in; making movies out of comics and animations) ? I bet that someday we'll get to see some Harry Potter animations appear to milk that topic out even more as well.
The rap^D^D^Dfilming never ends!
Who wouldn't watch "Superman Vs. Batman" or "Wolverine Vs. Spider-Man"?
Now you have n! new movie "plots" to choose from.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
There are plenty of comic books out there that could be done. Invincible Nemesis (an anti-batman) A Justice League movie (maybe starting with this new Superman) would be cool, but I'm sure hollywood would just re-invent Batman for it, even though it's completely unnecessary.
REBOOT Man is here!!
This is getting ridiculous. I have read comic books for 45 years, and hardly ever read an "origin" story. They are there, but THEN THEY MOVE ON!
The movies can't seem to get past origin stories, and their direct aftermath.
Why not do a Starwars? Just leap into the story, and let the audience figure it out? Maybe do a flash back here and there, and move on with the plot?
We have the technology to tell the stories now. But we can't get to the meat of what it means to be Spiderman when every time we have to switch out an actor, we are forced to see the one plot we (comic fans) really know well, over and over again. We know these heros had an origin. We know they have to come to terms with their power. We know they have to find balance between being a hero and being a person. There are so many possible stories to tell! Tell one of them already!
I would point out that if comic movies suffer the flaw of origin focus, fantasy suffers the flaw of world wide destruction. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, the Matrix (really, this is just a tech fantasy), The Mummy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars (really, another tech fantasy), etc. are all driven by the idea that unless the unlikely hero beats some terrible foe, the world will end.
There are many films that escape the terrible gravity wells of these plot paths, so maybe I troll when I say "All we have are...", but I just wish sometimes there were more standout exceptions to the rule....
Did you really just refer to the likes of Thor, Green Lantern, and Green Hornet as "the best" of anything? Wow. That is a seriously low bar.
Spiderman reboot actually looks pretty darn good.
I was hoping for wonder woman. If you see what a magnificent job they did with Captain America doing 40s Dieselpunk, theres no reason
Wonder Woman wouldn't work. Of course with the exception of Batman, and Daredevil(I liked it) most of the recent DC comic movies have kinda sucked.
Then again Id rather see a live-action version of "Air master" than most of the crap that comes out of hollywood.
At least three TV shows, cartoons, dozen movies ...
Missing option Man vs ZOMBIES!
Come on, how can anyone forget that?!
Oh and there's still one unexplored option: Plants vs Zombies!
http://www.popcap.com/games/plants-vs-zombies/pc
The next movie bubble will be based on breakfast cereal brands. There is precedent, of course: Super Mario Brothers the Movie was based on the tasty breakfast cereal of the same name. I hear they've just started filming Frosted Lucky Charms.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
...masturbatory spectacle of Sucker Punch
Alright, so he's just not a fan of the genre.
Christ, do you remember how bad Watchmen was?
Hang on, WTF?
Even if we never move beyond the superhero movie — or even if we do — there will always be plenty else worth watching.
What is that even? A better submission summery might have read "Guy who hates movies about costumed heroes and is a bit hung up about it reminds self that movies without costumed heroes will continue to be watchable."
There's the Director's Cut Edition.
And then the Remasterized Hi-def with Aragorn singing Edition.
And then the Collector's pack.
And it continues and continues.
Reboot Harry Potter. I mean, 7 billion dollars or whatnot can't be wrong, right? (Bleh) Also, I think a lot of the Oz stuff is in the public domain now.
Don't forget the super hi-def after they make all of us buy new TVs over again in 10-20 years (because they dropped the ball on digital tv... the FCC that is, industry loves being short sighted.)
They don't even need to wait 20 years to reboot them. If they can make enough money from running them all into the ground LONG ENOUGH they can simply reboot the whole process over again.
CG is making it all into realistic styled cartoons and getting cheaper (I still can spot the CG ) -- to the point where now it costs too much to put in the real actors so we have whole scenes that are 100% CG. If they can remove the expensive live action and get past the actor name brands then they can crank out profitable films for LESS .... meaning that everybody will have to be extremely sick of it before they stop.
Fantasy, horror and musicals do better during bad times. expect more.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Will Smith Be In It?
After the Super Hero thing is done, I think we'll see space operas coming back into fashion; albeit for a short time.
We've done fantasy, urban fantasy, super heroes... maybe horror movies will be big again. But given that there are plans for THE FOREVER WAR and OLD MAN'S WAR to make it to the screens, people might want to see some traditional sci-fi coming out of Hollywood again. I know I would.
Hell, I'd love to see one of Iain M Bank's books make it to the big screen, although things like CONSIDER PHLEBAS and USE OF WEAPONS might be a little tough on audiences' tastes.
Don't count on Alastair Reynolds, either - way too heavy. Peter F Hamilton's stuff would probably require about 3 movies just for one book, too.
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
We need the sequel to Splice.
Yes, we do.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
In the last 15 years or so, CGI became good enough to do just about anything the writers can imagine. There was a backlog of stuff to do - not just SF and comics,but historical epics, like Rome in "Gladiator". At last, the viewer could walk through a large alien city or a an alien planet. Scale was no longer a problem. Nonhuman characters could interact with human ones. (This gave us Jar Jar Binks, but we'll pass over that.) Magic worked just fine.
All those things have now been done, and well. "Avatar" nailed "alien planet". "Harry Potter" nailed "magic". "Titanic" nailed "big disaster". "Lord of the Rings" nailed "fantasy epic war". "Batman" nailed "comic book hero". The backlog has been worked down. Audiances can no longer be impressed by doing any of those things.
It wasn't cheap. Movies once boasted "a cast of thousands". Now, major films do have a cast of thousands - of artists and animators. "Captain America"'s credits have about 850 people on the effects side alone. Anything can be put on screen, but it costs about $100 million.
That's the problem. The technology didn't make movies cheaper to make. Even if the whole thing is done in front of a green screen, it doesn't save much money. ("Sky Captain" was supposed to cost $20 million, but ended up costing $80 million.) We're not seeing good $20 million movies with high production values. Those economics lock Hollywood into what are considered sure wins.
Automation helps, but tweaking it adds the cost back in. SpeedTree, the program that automatically generates realistic trees, each different, in quantity for video games, has a version for films. Cameron used it on one of his films, and demanded manual tweaks, wanting branches moved so as to obscure or not obscure the action. (This sort of thing, by the way, is why dealing with Hollywood is a pain. Either they're in development and have trouble coming up with a valid credit card number, or they're in production and want a new feature yesterday.)
Eventually, effects costs will be low enough that these can be produced as television series. Then Marvel and DC will create their own television networks with shows that parallel their comic books.
Summer crossover events are going to take up a lot more time.
Could someone please confirm the following?
If Sony doesn't make another Spider-Man picture within a given time frame, the rights will revert to Marvel/Disney.
If Warner Brothers doesn't make another Superman film soon, they have to ask for permission from the heirs of one of the co-creators.
I assume this is the reason Fox rebooted the X-Men series so soon. They didn't want rights to go back to Marvel/Disney. In a few years, they'll probably be making weird impressionistic art films involving the X-Men that is shown on 1 screen in L.A. to maintain rights to the movies.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
Doom Patrol movie yes!
It Never Happened
Who cares? Hollywood's creative accounting practices ensure that virtually no movie ever "makes money" anyway so technically ALL movies are flops in every sense of the word.
Even if they sell a billion dollars worth of tickets and even if they win a boatload of Oscars. All it takes is some creative bean counters to juggle the numbers and suddenly the money vanishes.
When THAT sort of chronic underacheivement, when "losing money" is your ultimate goal that you and everyone else actually works toward every single day, is it any wonder that the creative side of making movies is also bankrupt?
This is an industry that WANTS to fail. It has no idea how to succeed or what to do if it accidentally made a movie that "made" money. And many of these same companies are also the ones who make TV shows and own the TV networks and reach deeply into our lives and culture.
They say Hollywood's morals are bankrupt but the way they aim to fail is actually more dangerous.
So-called reality programming has taken over television, presumably due to the low cost of production, and the low standards required by viewers.
It seems like the studios will come up with a way of pumping out low production value reality content with a rapid release schedule.
Lower cost of production, more releases, more profit.
Fucking hell, it seems like we have actual things to be concerned with. Perhaps we should be discussing what will happen when people get tired of broadcasting their random thoughts minute by minute to the world? But I guess that's pretty much how this "news" could be categorized.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
IRON SKY
http://www.ironsky.net/
But, Hollywood is in a very risk-averse mood right now. The reason every comic book movie looks like the one from last year is Hollywood is afraid to stray from the formula. Audiences might want to think they're sophisticated, but Michael Bay is cynical enough deliver us the shit sandwiches we keep asking for.
Personally, I'd love to see more obscure, interesting comics get a shot, like Alien Legion for instance. Also, I'd love to see some of the RPGs I played as a kid on the big screen, like Skyrealms of Jorune (not much more original and interesting than that) or Rifts.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
this is what polytheism always has been like in human society since day 1. polytheism and hero worship has always been part of human culture
the rise of monotheism, aka spiritual fascism (there is only one god and you must destroy all others!), has not stopped this sort of mythmaking, and never will
there is no bubble. it's the status quo for human culture
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Bible movies
They'll be only vaguely based on the source material, bloody as hell, sequel friendly, and the titles (to be) have great emotional impact and brand recognition.
With 20+ years of content in some comic books Hollywood can't come up with more than a few good movies? Sad.
There will be a reboot...of this or that idea... then a writer will get a job to write about what will happen after the next trend ends... rinse and repeat...
As in most religions, it's the followers that turn people off to the religion. And Mac users are the worst.
> "What happens after The Avengers, or Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman movie — after we've seen all there is to see of the best comic-book blockbusters ever made?""
Must superhero films be "blockbusters"? Must they all be multi-hundred million dollar tentpoles? Will every writing team from now on be so micro-managed by a terrified studio that we never get anything anymore except multimillion dollar tepid crapfests like Green Lantern and the last Superman abortion?
Because that's the real issue. "The time of superhero movies is over" is an argument by studio apologists to excuse the box office failure of ultra-expensive, timidly made films. There are plenty of other properties, perhaps not as well known, over the complete gambit from children's stories (shazam, metal men) to R-rated adult (sandman, miracleman) and everything in between. The studios have planted only the half acre closest to the farmhouse (and in some cases forgot to water it) when there are huge fields still lying fallow. The issue is not that there are no more easily recognizable properties. The issue is a reluctance to take chances and maybe give us something we haven't seen before. It seems like the more a property is recognized as a "blockbuster" (coughsupermancough) the more likely it is that the only film anyone will have the guts to make will be a rehash of an earlier film.
There is room in the genre for innovation. "The Dark Knight" was, in many ways, a huge departure from the usual superhero film, and last I heard it did pretty good at the box office.
I mean, it's like saying "Science fiction... ok, there's Star Wars and Star Trek... what else?" Well, like, I dunno, EVERYTHING???
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
For the past decade or so, whenever I went to the movies, I would always consider what would make the movie experience more interesting, entertaining, and enjoyable. What I've come up with is the following. I dub it, SENSORY IMMERSION.
Physical Immersion: Though I'm not sure of the proper way to implement it, synchronizing and shifting seat position and movement with the film needs to be done. Pneumatics and hydraulics would probably come into play here.
Visual Immersion: There may be presently be technical limitations to this one, and it's probably not the best idea for every film, but having video display to 180degrees of ones spherical periphery would add quite a bit to the visual experience. Yes, I'm talking both sidewalls, ceiling, and the floor beneath the seats being added to the mix here.
Olfactory introduction: Recently, I'd wondered what would happen if they started pumping faint smells of butter and popcorn into the theater. Would sales go up? Highly likely. Now extend that to the movie. The actors are walking through a forest. Pipe in some fragrance of pine or cedar or what have you.
Yes, I've watched Star Trek my entire life, and all of this obviously screams of holodeck, but we don't have that tech yet, do we. What we do have however, is the current ability to add the above scenarios to the movie experience. Perhaps I'm asking too much. Someone has to, right? It's not like Hollywood is pushing the experience forward. I certainly don't see 3D as riveting or groundbreaking for the movie experience, and I know loads of others who don't see it that way either. Then there's some who won't go to 3D at all. That would be a step backwards, wouldn't it?
All in all, there are things Hollywood could do to the movie experience that would draw me out more than I presently do. Are they doing them? No. It's been said there's been a lack of creativity in Hollywood in recent years. That's fairly obvious. What's obvious to me, is that we've moved passed the simple Audio-Visual aspect that modern cinema was, and currently is. Or, perhaps it's just me expecting more from an almost centuries old industry that has constantly strived to push entertainment envelope forward. Well, until recently that is....
ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE.
It is stupid to think that this bubble will burst and the super-hero movie genre will end. Its has and always will be perpetual. Once this round of movies and franchise have exhausted their audience, a few years will go by and then someone will "remake" them, so a whole new generation of "origin" movies will appear for Spider Man, Super Man, X-Men, etc, etc, etc.
In every generation there will be some director or producer that grew up with comic books and will think they can do better (or WILL do better) then the previous generation's attempt to bring the heroes to the big screen.
But I think it is clear that people do not want to watch "the continuing adventures of ....", having 10 sequels to Batman or Spider Man will never happen. Origin movies are really the only interesting or exciting moments in a super-hero story, that or when they are killed off.
Actually, Hollywood has not tapped into any hero kill off movies, but that is because they do not want to kill off a franchise opportunity.
Hollywood is one of the best examples of recycling on the planet, the same original ideas for movies have been recycled over and over again, just put another hunk or vixen in tights and start a whole new round of the same garbage that has already been watched.
I'm waiting for the Captain Chaos movie.
There can fork the Xmen over and do the Phoenix Saga
There is always expanding Nick Fury and the S.H.I.E.L.D.
We had Xmen, Fantastic 4, Avengers, but there is still Excalibur / X-Factor
or could start up Quasar, the dude who got the wrist gauntlet things that gave him power.
Or get on with the good xmen storyline with the sentinels
the problem is Hollywood is in love with remakes and origin stories, not only are they remaking spiderman, they are redoing his origin story, which is why the movie will fail. People are sick and tired of origin stories, lets get a damn continuation for once. There is no need in doing origins stories over and over.
Good Riddance! Comics are for kids and community college geek crowd. I've never met an intelligent, adult geek who's into the stuff. How did it become such a geek stereotype?
"Liechtenstein is the world's largest producer of sausage casings, potassium storage units, and false teeth."
They'll be remaking them in 3d shortly as the same story, different movie.
Who's watching these movies? The kids, or... the nostalgic parents?
The "next thing" is already in the works, expect Hollywood to begin their interpretations of popular Japanese Anime. A few big name directors have been trying to land such a project for a while (The Last Airbender does not count, although it's failure might have derailed or set back this idea)
...at the box office, this seems like a rather logical way to go if looking for readily exploitable stories and characters.
I'd say that there is at least half a century of blockbusters right there.
Or better yet, they should film this.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
from a college class, instructor handed these out (English IB Mr. Grant). I wonder if same can be said about superhero stories and sci-fi:
THE SEVEN WAYS TO PLOT A WESTERN
by Frank Gruber
When I first began writing Western stories i'n 1934 1 learned a disconcerting fact: There were only seven basic Western story plots. I tried for months to invent an eighth and met with failure. Now, twenty-four years later, I am still using these seven basic Western plots:
1. THE UNION PACIFIC STORY. Into this classification fall all stories that have to do with the construction of a railroad, telegraph, or stage-coach line. Stories of wagon trains crossing the plains and mountains, accounts of building toll roads, also come into this grouping.
2. THE RANCH STORY. This category includes stories laid on cattle ranches; stories of rustlers, of ranchers versus nesters, of cattlemen versus sheepmen -- the typical cow country story, with typical cow-country heroes and villains. The movie Shane is an example.
3. THE EMPIRE STORY. This is not to,be confused with-Plot No. 2, although it frequently has elements of "The Ranch Story" in it. In the Empire Story, everything is on a grand scale. If the story has a ranch, it's a ranch of tremendous size, such as the King Ranch. The people, however, are more important in the Empire Story than the problems of the squatters, the fights over water holes, fencing, rustlers. The conflict is between Titans of the West, man against man, man against history. The founding of a boom town, a family dynasty, might be the problem. Typical of this category are Duel in the Sun, Broken Lance, etc.
4. THE REVENGE STORY. Someone has been wronged; and the chief protagonist devotes months, years, to a relentless pursuit of the wrongdoer, eventually bringing him to retribution. The Bravados is a recent example.
5. CUSTER'S LAST STAND. This is simply the cavalry-and-indian story, even though it may not have to do with Custer or the Little Big Horn. The cavalry-and-indian story is basic, and there is never a year without three or four good novels on this subject and at least one outstanding movie.
A change has come into this story, however, in recent years. In the old days the villains were the Indians. Today, the villain is the white man. The Indian is persecuted, maligned, mistreated by the whites, and.massacres the whites only in retaliation.
6. THE OUTLAW STORY. This is perennial fodder for the Western fan. No Jesse James or Billy the Kid motion picture has ever lost money. You can do Jesse James once every three or four years and it will be popular. You can do Billy the Kid just about as often; and in between you can fill in with Sam Bass, Butch Cassidy, John Wesley Hardin or any fictitious outlaw. If your outlaw is your lead, you must treat him with sympathy. He was forced into outlawry by people, conditions, the War.
7. THE MARSHAL STORY is about the dedicated lawman, so ably depicted in Hiqh Noon. Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke is a dedicated lawman.
1958 by T.V. Guide
mfwright@batnet.com
Seriously? THIS is a story?
> Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman movie
Nooooooooo!
That guy makes good movies and while I don't care much for superheroes, his interpretation of Batman is simply a damn good story.
It starts with Robotech, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Akira...
Twinstiq, game news
Try to take over the world!
--- CatsCradle
Did we just hit "peak hero"?
God apparently died somewhere during the two previous century, only to be rebooted as the God of Evangelicals. Hollywood has noticed this and is at the start of re-monetizing cycle of that character, with its string of recent movies releases.
The answer:
http://www.gogoanime.com/cat-shit-one-episode-1
I just heard "ow! my balls" got greenlighted!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I can only hope.
http://nwbagpipes.com/
Rock bottom will be something like Wonder Twins VS Godzilla. "Form of a Mothra!" "Shape of a heavy water Tsunami!"
-- QED
Somebody will make a Grendel movie. Please. That's a comic franchise that naturally rebooted itself every few issues. God, I loved it.
They still have some characters from the 1979 made-for-tv, "Legends of the Superheroes". Green Lantern and Batman have been done, but not the Huntress, the Flash, Hawkman, the Atom, Black Canary, Captain Marvel, and oh yeah, Ghetto Man. Since the actor who played Ghetto Man died, they could get Morgan Freeman (just like his character Easy Reader on the Electric Company).
What about a movie based on the Viz comic strip, "Buster Gonad and his unfeasibly large testicles"?
Everyone says video game movies suck but that's usually because:
A.The video games they pick to make into movies are crap in the first place (or are unsuitable for filming)
and B.The people they pick to make the films are idiots.
The Resident Evil films aren't high art but they are no worse than any number of other action flicks like Die Hard.
Plenty of video games that could be turned into good films by the right people. Command & Conquer for one would make a good film (and since its fictional, you dont have to worry about offending the sensibilities of some war veteran somewhere)
Or you could dive into the vast catalogs of Science Fiction books to find source material. Isac Asimov. Arthur C Clarke. Harry Harrison. John Christopher. Orson Scott Card. Douglas Adams. And others.
Books like the Foundation series. Harry Harrison Deathworld 1/2/3. The Tripods. (would work great as a trilogy of films) Enders Game. Sequels to The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy.
Just as long as they dont try to re-make 2001 A Space Odyssey (there is no way ANY living director or screenwriter could come CLOSE to matching the talents of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanly Kubrick)
Or go for technology and tap into books from authors like William Gibson and Neal Stephenson (even if people havent heard of the books, the special effects would be enough to get bums in seats)
there are so many other lines you can focus one, as well as spin offs....the avengers also had the submariner, wonderman, vision etc....there are so many story lines....that could bring about another avenger movie, east coast vs west coast etc....then if you really want the greatest mish mash of all, the secret wars, .....although now that they are restarting spiderman again (i will boycott this movie, for all the right reasons..such as you dont redo movies unless they are atleast 20 years old) it should not be a problem...
although this would debunk the 3rd spider man movie in terms of where spidey's black suit truly comes from
I look forward to the next Harry Potter-Star Trek-Spiderman cross-over.
Maybe they can start make smart, original, creative stories? Nahhhhh.
Clearly after the avengers (trilogy perhaps?) they should make a movie (or three?) to do the Civil War. They are setting it up perfectly with Captain America and Iron Man.
For how many decades have they been making Superman movies?
They have barely scratched the surface of the comic book library. The more movies they make, the more widely spread the stories are, the more valuable the franchises become. We are nowhere near saturation with these franchises. People are still making money on movies from the corpus of Shakespeare, Virgil, and Homer. From the Greek gods. From the Norse Gods. Comic books often cashed in on these first, and now movies are cashing in on them.
And should we hit Peak Comic Book Movies, they can move onto the huge SciFi/Fantasy corpus. They could make 20 Stephen Donaldson movies.
We now have the means to tell any story anyone has ever imagined. And some yahoo thinks that a decade of movies has tapped out that enterprise. "640k is all anyone will ever need."