Where have all the good ideas gone?

Whatever happened to good ideas? It’s a real shame that Hollywood these days seems to think that people will only pay money to see something they’ve seen before. Perhaps they’re right, but that would be even more sad. I’m prepared to believe that Hollywood are a bunch of money grabbing parasites, but I’d rather not think the general public are totally stupid. I know, there’s often so much evidence to the contrary that it seems hard to think otherwise, but let’s have a little faith in our fellow man here, people!

What am I rambling about? Good question.

I’ve just read that there’s going to be (another) remake of My Fair Lady (with the currently in favour Keira Knightley touted as the front runner to get the lead role, by George.) Why?

It seems that unless it’s a remake of a previously successful film or television series, or a sequel to a previously successful film, Hollywood won’t touch it. I’m a great fan of movies, but I want to see new movies. I don’t give a good hoot if Jessica Simpson is hot in denim hot pants, that’s no excuse for making a movie from the Dukes Of Hazzard tv series. The series was bad enough in the first place. Distressingly, even Peter Jackson is guilty, remaking King Kong. The original film was an absolute blinder, years ahead of its time. Why does Jackson feel the need to do it again seventy years after its time? Sit back and have a think for a minute about how many sequels there have been in recent years. Then consider how many of those sequels were even close in quality to the first, let alone better. I’d like to cite the truly awful Matrix trilogy as a perfect example of a great initial film sequel’d into stinking dogmeat. I’m sure with very little thought you can come up with your own examples.

There are so many creative people out there with so many good ideas. If people voted with their wallets and stopped going to see these rehash “blockbusters”, then maybe Hollywood would look to a new direction. All the time that people are getting sucked in by extravagant effects and seriously obscene budgets, there’s no need for Hollywood to change its modus operandi. Keep churning out the remakes and all the stupid people say, “Oooh, look! A shiny new thing that I know I’ll like because it’s just the same as the old thing that I already liked!”

There is some hope, however. The Oscars this year gave Best Picture to Crash. A new story from independent producers. So we can hope that there will be more interest in making films that people don’t already know the ending to. If anyone out there is interested in starting something really magical, I’ve written a very original novel that many people seem to think will make a great movie. I’m open to offers.

This entry was posted on April 11, 2006 at 1:57 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.