General / Off-Topic Constant stupid movie reboots

lysan

lysan
I'm getting tired of reboots, what is wrong with the old movies?? Writers today must be braindead or gee ... maybe AI the old 12 monkeys and one typewriter kind of thing.
There are so many good books and stories out there already written and waiting to be turned into movies, but no, we need to reboot the same movie 10 times constantly.

A reboot if they absolutely need to reboot a movie need to be very good like Dune, some movies don't need to be rebooted, because the original is just perfect, imagine Blade Runner as a reboot?
or The Godfather it would be a sin to reboot those movies, so let me know what movies should not be rebooted, like ever!!!

Oh Back to the future should not be rebooted but I know they are working on it, let it be, please get creative and make something new, don't be a copycat.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Why are you blaming writers? Writers don't decide which movies are made, if they did we'd have all sorts of films. Producers make the call as to which ones get funded and they do that because all business is risk adverse. Given a known property which a predictable (or at least they assume predictable) market, they will always go for that. This is the failure of capitalism - total lack of imagination.
 

lysan

lysan
metatheurgist said:
Why are you blaming writers? Writers don't decide which movies are made, if they did we'd have all sorts of films. Producers make the call as to which ones get funded and they do that because all business is risk adverse. Given a known property which a predictable (or at least they assume predictable) market, they will always go for that. This is the failure of capitalism - total lack of imagination.
Click to expand...
Because today most writers are not writing anything worth watching, of course there are gems, however they are far and between, just as an example ghostbusters 2016, what was that for? Who was the audience? Clearly not for the fans of the two first movies.
 

ethelred

ethelred
Studios decide what films are made, and they chase dollars.

A reboot minimises the risk as it is trading on an established name, arguably even reduces the marketing spend.

Major studios are very risk averse.

A24 is responsible for "Civil War" that's just been released - that's a smaller independent studio. I think you'd agree that's a new story that's not been told before?

It looks very likely this film will make back it's $50m budget

FWIW, Ghostbusters has made back it's estimated budget of $100m with (according to IMDB) worldwide gross of $141 to date so whilst it might be a terrible film (haven't seen so can't comment) it's certainly washed it's face.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
lysan said:
Because today most writers are not writing anything worth watching, of course there are gems, however they are far and between, just as an example ghostbusters 2016, what was that for? Who was the audience? Clearly not for the fans of the two first movies.
Click to expand...
A studio decided they wanted to make $$$. They hired a writer to make write it, the guy was literally a mercenary, he took a paycheck. I doubt they ever had any desire to write a remake of Ghostbusters. Who was it for? It was for the studio.
 

shreddog

shreddog
Reboots can be good if done right.
Battlestar Galactica was rebooted some 20 years ago and it was magnificent, superb :love:
I have ZERO expectations for the new reboot though.. We're in a terrible garbage trend of entertainment.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
shreddog said:
Because most of what they write is so bland, simple, and boring, it's just not worth watching.
Click to expand...
That's debatable and either way they're not responsible for movie reboots which is the topic. Start a new topic about the quality of writing or maybe "Have you watched any good movies recently", that would actually be a pretty decent topic come to think of it.

Oh, on topic, wasn't that new Dune movie terrible? :p
 

Morbad

Morbad
shreddog said:
Because most of what they write is so bland, simple, and boring, it's just not worth watching.
Click to expand...

Few writers of original screenplays are pitching speculative scripts for existing properties. When it comes to established franchises getting a sequel, reboot, or remake, the studio is actively soliciting submissions with specific criteria and has final say over what gets accepted and how it's modified. Most of these shoddy reboots/remakes are conceptually flawed from their inception ("How about Robocop, only PG-13, and with less satire?"); the best writers in the world would be hard pressed to turn in a screenplay that wasn't trash because the studio is requesting trash, usually on short notice, and if it's not trashy enough it will either be rejected or doctored into trash by some committee of overpaid producers before being passed off to a frustrated director.

Blaming the writers for delivering what they were told to deliver is like blaming the chef when you order something you know you don't like.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Yep, studios aren't interested in art, their interest in entertainment is only adjacent to how much money they think they can make off it. Keyword think. Movie production is a cynical exercise in money making, their bean counters, marketers and focus groups have already made the formula for the movie sausage and it says make a movie about X, target audience Y, spend less than Z and expect to make N. N is the only part they're interested in. Pure capitalism.

The only time you get exceptions is when some other media becomes so popular they can't ignore it, that's when you get gems like 50 Shades. ;)
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
ethelred said:
FWIW, Ghostbusters has made back it's estimated budget of $100m with (according to IMDB) worldwide gross of $141 to date so whilst it might be a terrible film (haven't seen so can't comment) it's certainly washed it's face.
Click to expand...
Are you factoring in advertising spend too though? If the production budget alone is 100 million, studios often spend at least half that again on promotion - so in this case 50 million or more.

Add to that the gross figure- has that taken into account the cut cinemas take? In the UK IIRC is something like 40%, and I bet is similar overseas.

The saving grace used to be physical sales (like DVD, Blu ray), but those days are going- although studios can also make money selling the product to and through streamers like Netflix.

Back to the topic:

Sadly a lot of writing these days is crap, and its down to them and not just producers wanting 'safe' properties. Many writers lack life experience to base scripts on and it shows- contrast classic Star Trek films where talking, reason and acting like an adult were normal, where now....its all yelling and crying. And then more crying and yelling.

Or take Marvel- poor writing and direction killed everything after End Game (which in itself was a ten year endevour that was probably the most successful and profitable run of films in history). Its not 'superhero fatigue', its just a poor product- badly written and rushed out.

A good product will always sell in the end.

lysan said:
Because today most writers are not writing anything worth watching, of course there are gems, however they are far and between, just as an example ghostbusters 2016, what was that for? Who was the audience? Clearly not for the fans of the two first movies.
Click to expand...
That film was an abomination and painful to watch. It tried so hard to riff from the original but forgot what made it work (or be funny).
 

Dragsham

Dragsham
The new dune reboot is much better than any of the others.
Knowone should ever touch the godfather series, or movies like brando and sheen in apocalypse now.
Or platoon.
And as for the Peter Jackson Lord of the rings trilogy, must not be touched.
Didn't like the hobbit movies though.
There's lots of films that are In their own category. But l agree with Op. Some remakes are awful 😖
 

varonica

varonica
shreddog said:
Because most of what they write is so bland, simple, and boring, it's just not worth watching.
Click to expand...

They write what they are paid to write. Let's face it movie studio execs are in fact bland, simple and boring, it's how they got where they are, make no waves. The writers could write incredible stuff, and you know how far it would go? To the executive floor round filing bin. The writers write what the movie studio execs find acceptable, that's why some of the greatest films are indie or producer financed, ok granted some of the worst are also, but they are willing to take the risks, that's something movie studios are becoming more averse to as required investment in making a film increases. It is what it is, producing a film the traditional way requires huge sums of money, and the people with the money only like to bet on what they think are good things.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
I've read some accounts by writers of some seriously hare-brained ideas they got from producers (from some pretty big projects). It's a shame I can't remember any of them well enough to dig up a URL.
 

Dragsham

Dragsham
Blade runner was a masterpiece. The cinematography is in my view as yet unparalleled. The atmosphere, the rain!!
The script was spot on. Harrison ford's best performance ever. And Rutger hauer just made this film.
I remember seeing it as a teenager and it blew me away.
So why can't anyone make a film so powerful now?
Only one I can think of is saving private Ryan.
Its a shame.
Oh l gotta mention Alien. That film was amazing.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Dragsham said:
The new dune reboot is much better than any of the others.
Click to expand...
Both the 1984 film and 2000 miniseries did Dune well with the former (although flawed) doing concepts much better. For example Lynch visualized Guild travel in a visually rich way that was epic in the cinema, and dealt with the more mystical dream aspects far more effectively than Villeneuve. When not over-acting, the Baron too was much more menacing and Dr Yuehs motivations made sense- not to mention the Emperor acted like an emperor. And the set / costume design were epic.

Its a pity that the Spicediver mega edit of 1984 Dune was not the cinematic version because it really makes the film shine- but then in 1984 film lengths were much more constrained.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom