I’m taking the next couple of weeks off to finish reading all the Scriptshadow 250 scripts. I’m going to try and publish mini-posts here and there but can’t promise a post every day. I’ll most certainly comment on the Black List, which I’m assuming will come out later today (I’ll comment on it the day after – so likely Tuesday). In the meantime, feel free to comment on Star Wars The Force Awakens (opening this week!!!), the weekend at the box office (a disaster!), or anything else screenwriting/movie related that sparks your fancy.
As far as this weekend goes, the big story was the box office failure of In the Heart of the Sea. Except the only surprise here is that Warner Brothers didn’t see this one coming from a mile away and kill the project.
Ron Howard is probably the nicest guy in Hollywood, but he still thinks it’s the 90s. His movies have an old-fashioned feel in a marketplace that wants fresh and new. And Deadline was right. Why would anyone think that Chris Hemsworth’s fan base would want to see him in non-fantasy driven over-serious period piece?
So how did he end up in the picture? This is one of the major chinks in Hollywood’s system, and something they haven’t figured out in 30 years. When you’re shopping a movie to actors, you have “The List.” “The List” consists of your dream casting choice for the lead that’s simpatico with the studio’s need for an actor who drives box office.
So it’ll go something like “1) Christian Bale, 2) Ben Affleck, 3) Leonardo DiCaprio” and so on down the line. The thing is, if none of those actors bite, you now dip into people who are no longer right for the role but who the studio will still greenlight the movie for. Because you want to get the movie made, you go with them, convincing yourself you’ll “make it work.” And while sometimes they work out (Keanu Reeves in The Matrix) they usually don’t.
When they don’t, you get something like In the Heart of the Sea, a movie that needed an older more established actor who audiences identified with in this kind of genre. Bale actually would’ve been perfect. Still, even if you get all these things right, you’re still making a movie where the main goal is to kill a beloved animal. This isn’t a shark. It’s a whale! I just don’t know why anybody thought this would work.
Speaking of whales, the trailer for the new Independence Day film just dropped and I have to say, something very strange is going on here. The initial reaction is over-the-moon when I could swear this isn’t even better than the trailer for Battleship. I started looking into the commenters, to see if, coincidentally, this is the first time they’d ever commented on something. But many of these commenters have established history. Am I off my rocker here? Do people actually think this looks good? It doesn’t even have that “must-see” shot that made the original’s trailer so famous. Help me understand, Scriptshadowers!!!
TWITTER FUN!
Moving on to a funner topic, The Force Awakens premieres TODAY exactly 6 blocks from my place! I’m going to try and make it up there and tweet a few pictures. And speaking of tweeting, since I’ll be reading contest scripts non-stop the next 2 weeks, I’ll be live-tweeting script-thoughts throughout. Just follow me at (@Scriptshadow) on Twitter to hear my sometimes insightful but mostly disposable thoughts. You can also search for the hashtag – #ss250 – to see all tweets related to the Scriptshadow 250 reads. Enjoy!
