Everything in the entertainment industry comes down to formula. They actually have software that determines if a book, movie, tv series, comicbook, or song is going to be a success.

Art, creativity, none of that means anything anymore. It's all about the formula that makes the most amount of money for the least amount of work. Period.

Projects that are too far outside the mainstream just can't be properly calculated into the formula so they're ignored. Basically the studios don't want to take a chance on something outside the predictable. They'd rather let somebody else take that initial risk and then if it does succeed the data is added to the formula and the formula is adjusted and the project gets copied.

This might sound like a pretty bleak future for entertainment as everything is reduced to a computer formula and all creativity and art is removed from the equation and consumers just get the same bland recycled hash but it actually isn't so bad because technology is delivering the means for artists to self produce.

That has already happened for musicians. Professional production equipment is cheap and world wide distribution and promotion is attainable with the internet. It's all a matter of finding your niche market. Writers and comicbook artists are also able to produce their own stuff inexpensively and distribute it on the internet. Movies are a bit more difficult because they require a collaboration of a whole lot of different artists. Cinematopgraphers, writers, directors, special effects artists, make-up artists, costume designers, editors, and of course actors. But even with movies technology is making it cheaper and easier to do more with less and I can foresee a future where feature length films are produced as a communal effort with all participants getting a share of any profits rather than a salary upfront.

There will be two industries. The mainstream entertainment industry which simply recycles entertainment based on formula. They'll have the advantage of better production values and promotional power. And then a independently produced entertainment industry. They'll have the advantage of creativity and artistic expression on their side. Their production values won't be as high and they won't have the promotional power but these will be the people who will be more bold and innovative with what they create because for them it's not about maximizing profits, it's about the work itself.

Ghastly: There will be two industries. The mainstream entertainment industry which simply recycles entertainment based on formula. They'll have the advantage of better production values and promotional power. And then a independently produced entertainment industry. They'll have the advantage of creativity and artistic expression on their side. Their production values won't be as high and they won't have the promotional power but these will be the people who will be more bold and innovative with what they create because for them it's not about maximizing profits, it's about the work itself.

There is also a theory that states that this has already happened.

Haha yeah, ok. I bet everyone that will be claiming they want originality in this thread is also totally clamoring to go to the local indie movie house or renting French New Wave from Netflix.

It's out there if you want to find it. It's always been out there. You just have to take a minimal amount of effort but that would take work on your part so it's not going to happen.

Haha man studio system? No way man, movies used to be about ART!

Mel Gibson cut out the news article and carefully taped it in a scrapbook.

epoc_tnac: Yeah yeah, originality is good and everything, but when are they going to remake The Matrix? That thing is LONG overdue for a remake.

Pffffft. Please. They need to re-boot "Green Lantern." Yeah, I know it's not even out yet, but it looks LAME.

What's the hold-up, Hollywood?

Benjimin_Dover: Well when your new ideas are "about a dead king who stutters" then yes, they will get rejected.

Srsly? about a dead king who stutters?

The scene where he tries to order a single tuna fish sandwich will move you to tears.

MaxxLarge: epoc_tnac: Yeah yeah, originality is good and everything, but when are they going to remake The Matrix? That thing is LONG overdue for a remake.

Pffffft. Please. They need to re-boot "Green Lantern." Yeah, I know it's not even out yet, but it looks LAME.

What's the hold-up, Hollywood?

I think they should redo The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

They could have Brendan Fraser, Ben Affleck and the grumpy kid from Twilight in it.

Universal working to bring Stretch Armstrong to the screen, while Paramount develops a Magic 8 Ball movie

Dear Hollywood,

Please kill yourselves. Now.

Thanks,

The World.

MaxxLarge: epoc_tnac: Yeah yeah, originality is good and everything, but when are they going to remake The Matrix? That thing is LONG overdue for a remake.

Pffffft. Please. They need to re-boot "Green Lantern." Yeah, I know it's not even out yet, but it looks LAME.

What's the hold-up, Hollywood?

I'm still waiting for a third "Alien" movie and those Star Wars prequels Lucas promised.

way south: epoc_tnac: Yeah yeah, originality is good and everything, but when are they going to remake The Matrix? That thing is LONG overdue for a remake.

You mean a prequel.

/musical
/on ice
/"There is no SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNN!"
/*twirls*

Mis-ter Anderson!
Can't let you do that Mis-ter Anderson!

raygundan: We're really down to two years for the remake cycle?

We've been there since the early 90s. True lies and Three men and a baby were made 2 years after the French movies on which they were based, and Point of no return, 3 years after Nikita.

We needed an entire long winded article to tell us what everyone already knew? Hollywood banks on proven franchises. Wow, thanks for the scoop.

Cromar: It's always been like that. Any art form with the suffix "industry" is like that. Don't pretend like this is something new.

darthaegis: "people want to see the same thing they've seen a hundred times before, being clever makes them feel stupid, and new things makes them feel scared."

So much a combination of these. Hindsight is 20/20, folks. There is and always has been worthless, derivative crap... we just aren't constantly bombarded by commercials for old, worthless, derivative crap. (ie)

Esc7: Anayalator: By the end of 2011, Hollywood will break their record for most sequels released in a calendar year. According to Box Office Mojo, 27 films released in 2011 will be sequels, up from 24 in 2003.

Here's how it breaks it down. 27 sequels total. Nine second movies (up from eight in 2010), five third movies (down from seven), five fourth movies, five fifth movies, two seventh movies and one eighth movie. 9+5+5+5+2+1=27.

The second movies are Cars 2, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, The Hangover Part II, Happy Feet 2, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, Johnny English Reborn, Kung Fu Panda 2, Piranha 3DD and Sherlock Holmes: The Book of Shadows.

The third movies are Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, Madea's Big Happy Family, Paranormal Activity 3 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

The fourth movies are Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Scream 4, Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One).

The fifth movies are Fast Five, Final Destination 5, Puss in Boots, X-Men: First Class and Winnie the Pooh.

The seventh movies are The Muppets and Rise of the Apes.

And the eighth movie is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two.Link (new window)

Can you please tally up all the movies that are also remakes and translations from other media??? Pretty please??

Reading all of that made me depressed.

/ Obvious tag busy on the casting couch?