Thursday, February 4, 2010

Where Have All The Ideas Gone?, part 1

Ideas are everywhere. They can come from something you see or hear or read. They can come from an experience in your life or a story from someone else's. And some of them are, as a memorable episode of Seinfeld taught us, simply "in the air". With that being the case, why in the world do the powers-that-be in Hollywood ignore the aforementioned sources and insist on rehashing ideas over and over again? Over the next few posts, allow me to explore a few of the ways in which Hollywood is being neither creative, original, creatively original, nor originally creative.

It's not "top of the muffin TO YOU!"
The Sequel
Now, I'm not talking a sequel that was meant to happen from the word go—in fact, when a sequel is planned from the beginning, it is oft-times better than the original (read: The Two Towers or The Empire Strikes Back). Sadly, though, most sequels come to be because the original made a lot of money, and some studio executives had the following conversation:

  Studio Executive 1: "You know, _______ did extraordinarily well at the box office."
  Studio Executive 2: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's greenlight _______ 2!"
The preceding conversation is then usually followed with the subsequent one:
  Studio Executive 1: "_______ 2? But [the main character [or bad guy] died/ there is no more conflict/ the world has been saved]!
  Studio Executive 2: [shrugs shoulders] "...meh."

And so it is that we are subjected to a barrage of horrible sequels, some of which have nothing to do with the original, some of which actually undo/write-off the events of the first film to make room for a second one, and some of which are created literally 20 or 30 years after the fact.

Now, that is not to say that all unplanned sequels are bad. The Dark Knight, Evil Dead 2, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico are all great. It is to say, however, that for every good sequel released, we are given half a dozen Saw iterations.

Saw VI? Really?
  Most grievous offenses—
Live Free or Die Hard, The Matrix Revolutions, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  Ones I'm glad they haven't made... yet—
Leon (the Professional) 2: Mathilda's Revenge, Armageddon 2: Armageddon, Groundhog Day 2: Back 2 Punxsutawney

This time, it's personal.
The Prequel
Much like the sequel, the prequel comes from a similar conversation between studio executives:

  Studio Executive 1: "You know, _______ did extraordinarily well at the box office."
  Studio Executive 2: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's greenlight _______ 2!"
  Studio Executive 1: "_______ 2? But [the main character [or bad guy] died/ there is no more conflict/ the world has been saved]!
  Studio Executive 2: [thinks for a moment] "Ok, then. Let's tell the story of what happened before."

And thus the prequel came to be. Now, again, there are exceptions to every rule—The Godfather II is half-prequel and it is incredible. But the risk that is run with prequels is that the story already has an ending point (i.e. the starting of the original film), so anything that happens in the prequel has to line up to the original. In other words, it's like reading the last chapter of a book first: it pretty much renders moot the rest of the story.

As hot as Hugh Jackman is, did we really need this?
  Most grievous offenses—
Star Wars: The New Trilogy (all of them), Tremors 4: The Legend Begins, The Scorpion King, Cube Zero
  Ones I'm glad they haven't made... yet—
Casablanca: The Early Years, Harry Potter: Dumbledor's Story, Fight Club: I Am Jack's Childhood

This summer, see how it all began.
Coming up Tuesday: What happens when old movies need a new spin?

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