Thursday 6 June 2013

Hollywood Babble On & On #1029: Random Drippings From My Brain Pan

FLICKER FRAUD

A British filmmaker has been found guilty of defrauding the UK's film production tax credit program by claiming more money than his horror comedy El Dorado 3D actually cost.

Meanwhile the big studio productions that are all flying to London to take advantage of the same tax credit program are calling this guy an "amateur."

But seriously, I wish the independent film business would just get rid of the scammers and the schemers. It's a high risk business even in the best of times and with the best of intentions. The business doesn't need fly-by-night scammers making it not only riskier, but look like a hot-bed of fraud.

KEVIN SAYS HE WON'T KICK


Going by Kevin Smith's past history of statements and actions, he'll probably be launching a Kickstarter campaign sometime next week.

GRUMPY CAT MOVIE?

Tardar Sauce, the foul tempered feline who is the current darling of the internet, has a deal for a movie to be made from its vicious visage.

I won't cast any aspersions on the owners of the Grumpy Cat for making the deal. When money literally falls out of the sky you grab what you can.

However I will drop a hearty "WTF?" to the producers who are spending hard earned money on something that has literally all the odds against it.

The Grumpy Cat phenomena isn't like other properties that have been adapted into films. It's not a novel, a TV show, a comic book, a video game, or even a self-help book, all things that have at least some semblance of a narrative and a creative vision behind them.

Grumpy Cat is an internet meme.

Basically, it's a bunch of pictures of a sour-faced cat that people then caption with whatever cranky joke they feel like doing at that moment.

Unlike Garfield, whose past success the producers are hoping to cash in on, this isn't a comic strip produced with a singular voice, it's literally millions of people doing their own jokes, and they probably won't like yours.

Then there's the whole fad element.

The whole Grumpy Cat fad could be done and dusted while they're still trying to put together a script. People could look at that scowling cat's face & decide that they're sick of the sight of it.

Then what are the producers going to do?

Hope that Gangnam Style the movie hits big?

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