WHY PUT SUCCESS OUT OF REACH?
Disney's upcoming sci-fi adventure John Carter of Mars has to be a record breaking hit if it's to make money after it's $250 million production budget, and upcoming minimum $120+ million P&A outlay.
Now the question I have to ask is...
WHY?
Why was the film's budget allowed to get that obviously out of control especially at the usually cost conscious Disney?
Why are the big Hollywood studios shooting themselves in the foot by making movies cost so much they are going to literally price themselves out of profitability and possibly business?
Sometimes I feel like that guy who ran for governor of New York on the platform that rent in New York City was too damn high...
He's right you know.
WHY REDO A CLASSIC?
AMC has announced plans to develop a TV series based on the events that inspired Martin Scorsese's classic gangster movie Goodfellas.
Now some are you are probably asking...
WHY?
And to that I say...
WHY NOT?
Goodfellas, which was based on series producer Nicholas Pileggi's true crime book Wise-Guy. In case you don't remember it, it was based on the life of Henry Hill, a half-Irish/half-Sicilian hoodlum who worked the fringes of the Lucchese crime family, and was involved in everything from drug dealing, and arson, to the multi-million dollar 1978 Lufthansa heist.
Goodfellas was a great movie, but it was really a greatly condensed version of the people and events it depicted. A well done TV series could tell a more complete version of the story, including many of the events the movie had to skip.
WHY ARE THEY EVEN THINKING OF THIS?
The Lifetime Channel is reportedly in talks with Lindsay Lohan to play Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor in a biopic about her relationship with Richard Burton.
Now if you have more intelligence and taste than a cow-pat you're probably asking...
WHY
Lifetime thinks that this woman...
...could possibly portray....
...this woman?
I mean Lohan has pretty much burned out any of the talent or charisma she showed as a child star, and is now best known for wooden acting, drug addiction, and unprofessional on set behavior, and that's if you can actually get her on set. And to play the famously porcelain complected Taylor would probably require an inch thick coating of make-up to cover up the tramp stamps, accidental cigarette burns, and sun damage.
The only rational reason I can think of is that Lifetime knows they have a turkey on their plate and are hoping that making it an attention grabbing complete train wreck will get them some publicity and hopefully ratings.
Is John Carter Andrew Stanton's passion project or something?
ReplyDeleteI really don't know about that. One hopes that director is passionate about the material he's doing, just not in an over the top nutty kind of way. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI, for one, would love to see a quality movie made about one of ERB's literary heroes. Tarzan has, even after all these years, never had an adaptation that was true to the source material. The old Doug McClure movies were actually the best of the lot. But the cost involved in "John Carter" is staggering. I hope the movie is good, I hope it makes money, but it looks like it might be an uphill climb.
ReplyDeleteI think Demi Lovato when she has black hair can pass off as a younger Liz taylor in a film
ReplyDeleteAs I understand, other directors like Robert Rodriguez and the Sky Captain director were attached to the project at one time or another. It's one of those cult projects every hip director would like to do. I think Stanton picked up the project because of his clout at Pixar and Disney and because of the Pixar guys hopes to branch out into more adult material without using the Pixar name.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that the same thing happened on JC that has happened with other useless superhero films like Green Lantern or Captain America. Just add more graphics, more one upping the FX.
I'm skeptical for the time being. This is the most PC company in Hollywood. If the princess starts doing some gurrl power bullshit to show she's one of the guys then I'm walking out.
Speaking of which, I'd love to know D's thoughts on Brave. I'm not projecting a Mars needs Moms level bomb, but I doubt another xena as a young girl story will sell tickets. It may turn out to be Pixar's first dud.
Wasn't that Cars 2 (sort of)?
ReplyDeleteD obviously forgets how awesome Jennifer Love Hewitt was playing Audrey Hepburn. I can honestly say that I think Lindsey Lohan will be entirely as good as that.
ReplyDeleteLindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor? Now that does not make sense at all.What does Hollywood owe Lohan?If I were a member of Taylor's family I'd raise royal hell. A very BAD judgement call and hardly respectful.But that is the 21st century movie business.
ReplyDelete