Thursday 8 October 2009

Greedy Little Piggies


Why is it when times are hard, and cuts have to be made it is always artistry that is placed on the sacrificial fire first.
Schools never cut sports, usually art and music suffer first, leaving our youth having to seek out anything different or unique in books, television of movies.

Well it seems that the list is being cut down.

Universal Studios has been re-organized.

The book keepers have stated that recent movies, films that manage to have some adult complexity (‘Duplicity’, ‘Funny People’, ‘State of Play’ and Oscar hopeful ‘Public Enemies’) have under performed at the box office.
Judging by the numbers I think that world wide most of said films made their money back.... could be wrong though - who knows how much Russell Crowe charged for anger management class.

Now NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker has stated “The mandate is to get back to making commercial pictures with a degree of responsibility.” Translation: ‘The Wolfman’ on a budget’.

Still going ahead are ‘The Wolfman’ and the Russell Crowe ‘Robin Hood’ projects.

I am sure this will mean that Universal will be spewing out lots of horror remakes and dumb gross out comedies to ensure an audience.

And not taking chances on scripts that are intelligent and/or ambitious just because they MAY not make money.

The only good thing about this is that the company may end up no longer being a factor in the yearly awards race (except the MTV movie awards and People’s Choice) and loose credibility.

When art is sacrificed for money, you loose the ability to have a creative outlet, which Universal seems to be saying is a luxury we can do without.

1 comment:

Notas Sobre Creación Cultural e Imaginarios Sociales said...

If it was up to the studios we would be back to the Studio System, in the blink of an eye.
Universal is apparently returning to what it did almost 50 years ago when it became the most blah studio by only endorsing crap.
Then again if they could ever come up with something as good as the original monster movies, I wouldn't mind.