By George Robbins
There have been plenty of movies that have released over the years which have been based on books that have been adapted for the big screen. More times than not, people end up complaining that the film adaptations of their favorite books don’t meet the expectations they had for the movie to begin with. This isn’t all that surprising though because movies cannot go into the same depth that novels can go into with their limited runtime. Novels are capable of going into every possible minute detail that the author wants to make available to the reader if it suits the purposes of their story. In order for authors to get people to experience their novels the way they want them to, they have to give details which describe exactly what is going on and what the scene looks like so readers can imagine it properly.
Novels are a medium that is difficult to understand by the general public because it is a medium where we have to interpret what the author is trying to tell from their story. Just what is meant with every single detail we have read in a novel needs to be interpreted by the reader in a way that the author’s meaning could not be misinterpreted. Unfortunately, this will never not be an issue because people have a habit of taking stories and twisting them how they want them to be for the sake of their own argument or imagination. However, there are also plenty of opportunities that have shown that people can correctly interpret what an author was going for in their novels and people can appreciate the work that went into putting those words on a page. Plenty of authors have managed to make this possible by writing out every detail of what they imagine would be important to their stories.
When an author writes a novel, they often times include as many details as necessary to get the scenes across in their novels since we can’t see these scenes directly play out in front of us. One of the most important things that an author needs to do to get people interested in their novels is to draw them in with scenes that people can play out in their heads in extravagant ways. Needless to say, there are reasons why fictional novels usually sell more copies than non-fictional stories since they can take people to entirely different worlds and give them a lot to imagine. That being said, their are plenty of non-fiction novels that people have fallen in love with over the years because they tell an interesting story about something that happened in our own world. It is harder to capture interest with non-fictional stories, but they are much easier for people to get used to.
If a person can read something in a novel which has happened in this world, they can much more easily adapt to this and put themselves in the shoes of the characters better. Still, while this may not be the worst type of story to be told in a movie format, the most common type of film to be made is obviously going to be a non-fiction movie. More times than not, those novels which have been adapted to the big screen ended up being fantasy or science fiction novels that have captured people’s imaginations over the years. The popularity of a novel can immediately make people think about ways that it can be adapted to the big screen, but it is not an easy discussion to be had in the end. If someone wants to make a live-action or animated version of a film, there are a lot of hoops that must be jumped through to make that a possibility.
When a movie is being considered for a chance to make its way to the big screen, there are a number of factors which must be considered before a movie can even be put into the works. This is done when they storyboard for a movie and they plan out just how that film would end up turning out without even really going into detail until later. Sometimes a film could get most of the way through and they realize that it just wouldn’t make much sense to make a movie out of a certain novel. Other movies can get past this stage and they can begin working on a script that will fit the movie while also trying to adhere closely to the story of the novel. If the story of the novel cannot be adapted as well as they originally thought, they will either scrap the movie in storyboarding or they’ll make an entirely new movie with the same name.
Obviously, people are not going to like the fact that a favorite book of theirs was taken and changed in order to adapt it to the big screen so that a studio could go on and try to make money off of it. Usually, the movies that end up doing this end up failing in theaters and it ends up coming off as a surprise that people didn’t like it that much. Movies that do try to closely adhere to the original story can only end up doing so much to try and stay on track though. As stated already, books are the perfect place for an author to give all of the details they feel are necessary to make the story feel even more real. Obviously a lot of these minute details cannot be adapted to the big screen in a way that can get the audience to understand why they are there to begin with. Also a lot of details are given to set up the scene whereas in a movie, the scene can very easily be seen on screen.
While not having all of the details from their novel counterparts, people immediately become disappointed that the reasons for certain things happening on screen were never explained properly like in the novels. Inversely, the exact opposite can end up happening and a single novel can end up being turned into a couple of different movies instead of just a single movie. Much of this comes from books that filmmakers believe would not be able to show off everything that happened in the book or they felt there should be more to the story. The latter is what ended up happening with the ‘Hobbit’ trilogy of films as they were adapted from a single book by author J.R.R. Tolkien. The end result of the whole affair with the ‘Hobbit‘ films was that they ended up being much more inferior to the ‘Lord of the Rings‘ trilogy that came before them.
The original novels written by fiction writer J.R.R. Tolkien are widely regarded as some of the most incredible high fantasy novels to have ever existed. Tolkien had done something that almost no other author had been able to do and he handcrafted an entire universe which he wrote out on paper with incredible stories that people have fallen in love with over the years. He wrote countless novels all based within the same universe that went into incredible depth to explain exactly how that world came to be and what was happening in that world. Among those novels were a certain trilogy known as the ‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy which told a very specific story about a group of heroes doing what they could to save the world. What would follow was a long period of time where studios were trying to get their hands on the rights to make movies based on the novels.
The studio that would eventually end up getting the rights to work on the movie was Warner Bros. who would wait until a time where they knew they would be able to make the movie properly. While they were figuring these things out, they had to decide who would end up taking up the helm when they started working on the movies. That lucky soul ended up being director Peter Jackson who had taken those famous novels and adapted them in such a way that those movies are now considered among the best fantasy films to ever exist. Jackson easily created a set of films that became beloved not only by fans of the original novels, but also the general public at large. He made his vision of those films become reality on the big screen and people fell in love with all of the work that went into the making of the films.
The wild success of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies gave the idea to the studio that they could definitely continue to make movies based out of that universe. After all, Tolkien created such an incredibly diverse universe that they had a ton of additional content to play off of if they wanted to make a future film. The only issue presented to them was that there was not really a story left to tell after ‘Return of the King‘ and thus they had to go back in time. For those that didn’t know that there was another novel that served as a prequel but had seen the trilogy, they were given a jump-in point near the start of the first film. They explain at the start of the first film and at the end of the third that Frodo’s father figure and family, Bilbo, was an adventurer that was a part of a big adventure of his own when he was younger.
Bilbo’s story was the story of ‘The Hobbit’ which was mentioned as being the basis for the story “There and Back Again” in-universe. This journey was one that saw Bilbo going on a journey with a group of dwarves so that they may finally find their way back to their kingdom which was taken over by a dragon. The original novel, as already stated, was originally just one novel that told Bilbo’s story, but this did not fit well with the version of the film that Jackson wanted to adapt. Thus, he decided that he was going to turn the novel into an entire trilogy which would have shown off his vision of the novel’s story to the world. In the end, the prequel trilogy ended up being considered simply inferior to the original ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy that people loved.
We now know that the reason as to why the films probably turned out the way that they did was because Peter Jackson was not able to make the movies that he originally wanted to make. This could have easily affected the work because it made it difficult for Jackson to make something that he would be proud of making. According to actor Jed Brophy, who played dwarf Nori, Warner Bros. interfered with the prequel trilogy while it was under production which led to Jackson not being able to do the things that he wanted to with the film. It isn’t all that surprising that the studio ended up interfering with the production since it was such an important property to be adapting to the big screen. However, they shouldn’t have done that since they already knew that Jackson would have done a good job with directing the film from how he handled the original films.
This is not the first time that Warner has done this as they have been pointed at recently by a number of different directors who have said they have interfered with productions they were working on. Director David Ayer has been doing his best to make this apparent to the general public as of late with information that Warner was responsible for how ‘Suicide Squad’ ended up turning out. Apparently Ayer was only able to put one part into the final version of the film while everything else was left out or changed by the studio. While it hasn’t been stated exactly what was interfered with in the ‘Hobbit’ movies, it can be assumed that it was a fair bit of the films that ended up being dictated by the studio. This would mean that most of the film would really be worked on by the studio and not the director they chose to be in charge of the films.
Jed Brophy admitted recently that the studio did not allow Jackson the freedom to do what he wanted with the film which led to him not being able to really change things on the fly. He said that when Jackson worked on the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, he was able to shoot a scene and then think about how he wanted to work on the next scene to make it all flow together. Unfortunately, he was not afforded the same opportunity when he did the ‘Hobbit’ movies as the studio had a much more set schedule that they did not want to deviate from and they wanted it all done as quickly as possible. There is no telling if the movies would have really ended up better if Jackson was able to do things the way he wanted to, but it still would have been much more interesting to see. What’s done is done though so we can only imagine at this point how differently the movie would have turned out.
By George Robbins
The Jurassic Park franchise is easily on of the most successful series of films to have ever existed and whether people admit it or not, the box office numbers don’t lie. Not every movie in the franchise has been loved over the years, but they all have their part to play in the overall narrative, at least to some degree. That said, the third movie ‘Jurassic Park 3,’ did not really serve any purpose in the overall narrative of the original trilogy, so people did not like the film as much as the first two in the series. What would end up following years later was the ‘Jurassic World‘ movie which not only continued the story of the original movies, but further expanded upon it. The movie showed us a modern society where dinosaurs were actually a reality and gave us a lot to fantasize about after the film ended.
The plots of the most recent entries, ‘Jurassic World’ and its sequel, focused heavily on the production of hybrid dinosaurs and how they would interact once introduced to the park and its ecosystem. Also it focused on the reason why they felt that the hybrid dinosaurs were considered necessary because of lack of enthusiasm from the public. The sad truth explored in the films was that the majestic creatures we always fantasized about living alongside would become nothing special to us after a while and we would get bored. They realized that hybrids weren’t so important to the story though, and it was confirmed that the third and final film in the new trilogy, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion,’ will not have hybrids in it. Instead it will focus more on what the original trilogy touched on.
In the original trilogy, it was brought up what it would mean for the world if dinosaurs were let out to the public and allowed to live in the world like any other animal. By the end of the most recent film in the series, all of the surviving dinosaurs were let loose into the wild where they decided to all split off and go to various locations all over the world. This means that the upcoming film will touch on how this ends up changing the world and what the consequences of dinosaurs in the modern world would be. As it would seem, this is not the only thing that will be touched on in the film according to Jeff Goldblum who has said that the story was actually changed to adapt to the pandemic and how it has affected the world. This means that we will end up with a movie that resonates more with us than we originally thought it would.
We weren’t sure just how the movie would be affected by the pandemic because of every other production being shut down, but it turns out it wasn’t that serious. They were able to get work done on the movie despite the fact that the physical production was shut down because they were able to do CGI work from home. This gave them the perfect opportunity to look over the script of the film and see how they could change things to make them better before the film’s release. Apparently, they took that opportunity to adjust the movie to include aspects of the Covid pandemic that would fit into the movie. Considering the fact that movies are a representation of the way the world is and the Jurassic Park movies have always looked into how humans fit into the world’s ecosystem, this all just seems fitting for the upcoming final film in the series.
By George Robbins
The pandemic has been a huge drain on everyone and it has especially been rough on the economy as a whole which has been suffering ever since it began. There is a lot wrong with the economy right now and some specific industries are currently suffering more than others. Fortunately, they have managed to make due by using other means to make up for their current predicament. The most unfortunate aspect of the industry at the moment is the fact that they cannot release movies the same way that they normally would. Normally, studios would release movies through movie theaters which would have exclusivity rights to films for a set amount of time before releasing to the public for purchase.
Ever since the pandemic began, movie theaters have had nothing but trouble with trying to get business back on track. The biggest issue that many of them are facing is the fact that they can’t attract people back because of the risk that is involved with doing so. The simple fact of the matter is that people are justifiably scared to go out to theaters because of the risk of getting infected with the virus. They have tried to assuage people’s fears by stating the fact that they have changed their guidelines to be much more safety conscious. Despite this fact, people don’t want to take the risk when they have already gotten used to watching movies from the safety and comfort of their own homes.
Of course, studios want to have their movies go to theaters before they release them on digital and DVD, but the fact of the matter is that this isn’t readily possible. If there is no one going out to see movies, what chance do they have to actually get to have people go out and see their movies. The market for movies was not great from the start of the pandemic because people were so used to going out to see movies in theaters. However, people have now spent enough time indoors that they have instead changed their viewpoints so that they now think the opposite of how they originally thought. Now, they are much more comfortable with staying in to watch new movies rather than going out to theaters where they could end up getting sick.
Although they don’t necessarily want to give up on having their movies release in theaters because it is another source of revenue that they don’t want to give up on, they have to compromise somehow. For those wondering just how bad the market is right now, it is very easy to go back and look at the ‘Tenet‘ situation that made things the way they are now. Back in August, theaters were just beginning to resume normal activity, meaning that they reopened their doors to the public when they needed new movies to show to the public. At the time of reopening, they had no new movies to really show to the public that people were looking forward to. In came ‘Tenet’ which was the new Christopher Nolan blockbuster that people were curious about for the longest time and it needed a release date of some kind.
Originally supposed to release in July, ‘Tenet’ had its release date pushed back a couple of times and finally it was given a release date. Things were actually so bad at the time that the movie released internationally first before releasing domestically one week later. So by the end of August and beginning of September, ‘Tenet’ was finally able to make its way into theaters where it had a relatively strong opening to the public. Given the state the world is in and the fact that theaters have to function on limited capacity, there was much less money made the first week which was what they really expected. This showed that there could, in fact, be a market for movie releases, but this was unfortunately not meant to last as they immediately realized the following few weeks. By the movie’s third week of release, the box office income had dropped tremendously and the market for the film was essentially dead domestically.
Warner Bros. was the studio responsible for putting out the film and they are all too well aware of the situation they were put into by the film’s lackluster release. They became the pariah studio in this case as they were the ones that made other studios realize that the movie market is pretty much non-existent at this point in time. Every other studio proceeded to move their films out of this year’s line-up almost entirely with only a few films being a part of the exception. Even then, they are having tremendously different releases from how they would normally do things and it is still heavily affecting the movie theater market. As of now they either push their films, release them in theaters and get them out a few weeks later on digital, or they release them on both platforms simultaneously.
The last two options were pretty much unheard of before the pandemic began, but unfortunately the practice had to come into being so that studios aren’t sitting on all of their films for over a year. The last option is one that is considered the most controversial because it most definitely messes with theaters who are already struggling as it is. At least with option number two they can make money with a 17 day exclusivity deal, even if it isn’t a lot. For some studios, especially Warner, this seems to not be a very viable option because they are already hurting due to the previously stated issue. The third option is the one that Warner now seems like they will be going with for some of their films. In an unseen turn of events, they even changed the release plans of their ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ movie.
The movie was originally meant to release in theaters on December 25th where it would remain exclusive for the agreed upon 17 days with theaters before releasing on digital. They have since changed those plans and they will now be releasing the movie simultaneously on both digital and in theaters on the 25th. While certainly not what theaters were expecting, it is a move that some people are seeing as a change in the way theaters function moving forward and how they interact with studios. They will be releasing the movie on both their HBO Max streaming service as well as in theaters to try and drive traffic to both. While this may not be what they were expecting from this whole situation, it is the decision that they finally came to.
This may not be the last time that they end up doing this though as it would appear that they are talking about doing this with the upcoming ‘Tom & Jerry’ live-action film. This movie is going to be a sort of reboot for the characters and therefore, it is a big movie release that we will be seeing unfold. The movie will see the two characters retaining their cartoon appearances in the real world instead of trying to make them appear more life-like. This is a decision that a lot of people are hopeful for because it means that they will get a movie that plays heavily off of the original cartoon that they loved growing up. Needless to say, this is another release that means something to the Warner Bros. studio and they want to handle it with just as much care as any of their other films.
If things end up working out with the release of ‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ then we could see the same exact thing happening with the upcoming ‘Tom & Jerry’ movie. No one was quite sure of when the movie would be ready for release, but it would now appear that they have a date in mind and that date is some time in May of 2021. The idea is to have the movie release on both HBO Max and in theaters like Wonder Woman, but if things don’t work out with that, they will have to come up with another plan of action. Unfortunately, this means that Warner will once again be the sacrificial lamb that will be checking to see if something works the way they hope it will. These upcoming few months will be a strong determinant for them as they try to make their decisions moving forward.
Warner Bros. has really been trying to put their best foot forward with everything that has happened thus far and even though it is still dangerous, they are trying different tactics. In order to try and come up with the perfect form of release that could work for them, they are trying everything they can with various methods. On top of trying to come up with better release methods, they are trying to drive traffic towards their other revenue stream, HBO Max. They are trying to get as many new subscribers as they can, but things are not working out as intended with not a lot of people wanting to sign up for the service. Hopefully the releases of their upcoming movies work out for them or else they will have hemorrhaged money for nothing.
By George Robbins
Disney is easily one of the largest companies worldwide and probably takes the top spot for the largest entertainment business there is in the world. They have there hands in just about everything that is related to the entertainment industry which has given them the ability to gather large crowds of fans over the years. Starting as just a small animation company, Disney became popular because of the extremely detailed work that they put into making their animated movies. What most people may not even know is that the company almost ended up going under when they just started. If not for Walt Disney not giving up and putting all of him money and property on the line, then they never would have finished their first film, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’
After the release and smash success of their first film release, they were able to expand upon the foundations which were now laid out and Disney was able to expand. Next, we saw the creation of countless films which would make the Disney company capable of taking on larger projects and building up a fan base that would continue to last for many years. With the continued success that their animations brought in, Walt Disney decided to open up a theme park in order to play off of the popularity of the animations. This is how we ended up with the inception of Disneyland in Anaheim, California and eventually, the building of the massive multi-park location known as Disney World. While initially not that huge, both locations have built themselves up tremendously over the years while staying up to date.
Not only did they create a Disney Parks division, but they continued to put out stunning films that have managed to create a bunch of different generations of fans. They built up their fan base and then sold them on going to their Parks which would further play on what they loved about the films they had seen. This tradition has continued even today and is responsible for bringing in a countless number of people in an effort to keep getting bigger as a company. Obviously this tactic worked wonders because they eventually managed to become one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. Although they had rocky beginnings, they were able to spend many years creating something that other companies have been trying to do for years.
There was a reason why the “Happiest Place on Earth” and the “Most Magical Place on Earth”(Disneyland and Disney World respectively) were given those nicknames in the first place. The overall purpose of the parks was to make people feel comfortable in the parks and be happy with everything they find in the parks. In truth, this was widely considered to be an accepted fact that people were usually just happier in general while they were in the parks. While this continued to be the case over the years, it started dawning on the parks that customers were losing satisfaction more quickly than before and expectations have changed from customers as time has gone on. Now, customers expect to get what they see online from the Parks and it has hindered customer happiness over the past couple of years.
Despite the lack of overall happiness that people experience in the parks, the fact remained that people still like going to the Parks because it has still brought them overall happiness over the years. The enemy of progress is nostalgia, and in this case, it is also the enemy of true happiness as people only go because of the nostalgia they get from seeing their favorite things before their eyes from their childhoods. If people wanted to be happy with where they go on vacation it should be a place that they have always wanted to go and they should plan it properly. Instead, many will continue going to the Parks because they grew up loving the content showed off in the parks growing up. When they capture a child’s attention with their films, they create fans for life and that has worked well for them over the years.
This has always been their method of making the most amount of money over the years and it has allowed them to renovate and expand on a number of occasions to always keep things fresh for guests both new and old. Regardless of when a person and their family members may go to the parks, they can find some kind of happiness in the parks, especially if other people around them feel the same way. As of late, they have not been able to bring anybody in because of the Covid-19 pandemic shutting down pretty much every facet of all of the Parks. With that currently happening, Disney Parks division has been suffering tremendously and have been trying their best to reopen to some degree, but it is just too risky at the moment. There is no telling when they will actually be able to reopen to any degree in the future, but with things the way they are now, we shouldn’t expect it to be any time soon.
When the pandemic began back in the middle of March earlier this year, all Disney Parks worldwide had been shut down like every other business. In an effort to keep as many people as possible from getting infected, non-essential businesses like entertainment businesses and, subsequently, theme parks closed their doors and gates to the public. This was to be expected because the theme parks are easily one of the largest factors in someone getting infected. After all, it is a massive location with countless people all huddled together or stuck in line together for hours at a time. Since the danger was ever so clear, they knew immediately that amusement parks would be among the last businesses which would get to reopen to the public at large.
Everyone knew that the pandemic was not going to be over any time soon, but people were hopeful about businesses being able to reopen to the public once again in the near future. Unfortunately, this would be a much harder feat to pull off than initially anticipated because the pandemic has gotten worse as time has gone on. Eventually, the Disney Parks division was able to reopen to the public once again in Hong Kong and Florida, but they have been very rocky re-openings at best. Just like every other business, they had to wait their turn to reopen as it was based upon the local governments as well as the overall number of new cases reported. Thus, they have reached a point where they can’t even reopen in certain locations because things are still far too dangerous.
The Disney Parks division was trying their best to reopen Disneyland in California back in July but this became a bit of an impossible task due to a rampant wave of infection. Back over the summer, their was a massive surge in newly reported virus cases and because of this, some governments started shutting some businesses down again. Even if they didn’t shut down some businesses, the governments would make it even more difficult for those that were opened to stay open. This is why Disneyland was not able to make its reopening when they originally planned for it and now they have reached a tipping point that will be hard to come back from. In California, for them to have even been able to reopen, there were set guidelines created by the Government of California which had to be met before parks like that were able to open again.
The new guidelines put in place by the state government were seen as being unfair by the Disney Parks division because they made it so that a certain threshold of new cases had to be under a certain amount before places like that could reopen. This wouldn’t be seen as too terrible by some companies if not for the fact that the State of California is very strict about the number of new cases and the threshold it would take for certain businesses to reopen to the public. They have to have an extremely low number of new cases before they are actually allowed to reopen to the public which has led to many companies getting upset that they are being so strict. Fortunately, this has paid off a bit because we are now facing another massive wave of the virus and it would be too dangerous if they reopened anyway, so they would have had to shut down again anyway.
With the initial fact that they could not open they made the decision to lay off a total of 28,000 employees who they could not afford to continue paying as they already lost billions this year. With so much money being lost, it was a surprise that it took as long as it did before they finally laid off their employees. Unfortunately, nothing else could have been done and they were already catching flak because they allowed employees that tested positive to go back to work in the Parks that were open. As an employer, they have the duty to keep both their customers and employees safe so in terms of safety this was a good reason to lay them off as well. It would seem that they did not do enough though because they are now talking about laying off another 4,000 employees early next year.
The ongoing closures and loss in revenue is the reason as to why the company has made the announcement of the next round of layoffs. Layoffs will be primarily in the Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products divisions of the company and there is no feasible way for them to keep their employees on. This is an unfortunate side effect of the current pandemic but there is nothing that can really be done in the meantime as they are still losing a lot of revenue overall. Disney is easily one of the largest companies out there which has both its advantages and its disadvantages. The advantages are mostly based around the fact that Disney now owns a large number of intellectual properties that are easily recognized by people all over. The disadvantages are the incredible cost that is incurred by the fact that they are no longer functioning at full capacity.
Disney now owns so many streams of revenue that it is easy to forget that if one of them fails, then they are going to have a hard time getting enough money elsewhere to cover it. This pandemic has been a huge pain for everyone, especially since people are now losing their jobs because of it and this isn’t bound to get better as time goes on. Hopefully, the vaccines being developed will work the way people are hoping for, but this just may not end up being the case which means the pandemic will be going on for a long time still. As such, companies are going to be having a hard time making up for lost revenue especially if things continue getting worse as predicted. Disney is a pretty good example now of how the pandemic can definitely affect larger companies.
While the Parks division may not be the most profitable of their revenue streams, it is easily one of the most important and this is seen as a bad sign. Not only is Disney losing money from that source of revenue, but they are also losing money because they cannot properly release their new films. With theaters the way they are now, it is no surprise that they would have a hard time getting their films out there. It is because of this that they pushed back the release dates of a vast majority of their films and they won’t see release dates any time soon. All of this has gone to show that even the biggest corporations out there and the people working for them are all being affected heavily by this pandemic. Hopefully things will not stay this way for much longer, but we have no way of knowing this for sure.
By George Robbins
This upcoming year is going to be a big one for movies, even if a large majority of them don’t even end up releasing because of all of the upcoming projects. There are many movies that have unfortunately been pushed back into next year or even 2022 because of this pandemic and the fear that movie theaters won’t be able to drum up customers. Those two things go hand-in-hand and it is not so much of a surprise to see that most studios are trying their best to get their films to release to large crowds. That is pretty much the goal of any studio; to get people to go out, or at least want to go out, to see a new movie of theirs especially if it is a bigger film that a lot of effort and money went into. If there are no people going out to movie theaters then why would they even bother with trying to release to theaters, especially with their bigger films.
As of now, most studios have about three options on the table: release anyway and then release digitally after a few weeks, release their film digitally, or wait for a better release window where movie theaters may be able to get more business. Obviously the third option is the best option, but it is the option that would take the longest for them to do successfully because of the implications behind it. Those implications mainly being that studios kind of need money to function and they are losing money by not releasing any of their films waiting for something that may not come for a long time yet. In the meantime, they have yet to actually stop any future productions because there would be no point in doing so since having more movies in their catalog works out for them in the long run. The start of the next year is going to be a strong one as many movies are going to be starting up production.
Among the movies that will be starting filming in early 2021 is one ‘Thor: Love and Thunder‘ which is going to be the fourth entry for the Thor series of Marvel Cinematic Universe films. The movie is meant to start filming in January with some actors and crew even showing up for filming in Australia already. A recent set of photos of director Taika Waititi and actor Idris Elba has sparked a big online conversation now that discusses the possibility of Elba’s character Heimdall returning to the series in some way. As many well know, Heimdall was killed by Thanos at the start of the ‘Infinity War’ movie and thus, we expected him to have completely been put out of the series. However, these new photos have many fans clamoring for news in regards to this meeting because it could end up meaning the return of the character. While it may have been a small role, Elba had a role that many people loved and felt was important to Thor’s stories so they are hopeful for his return even if it is a small bit.
By George Robbins
Many franchises hold a place in the hearts of movies fans everywhere for some reason or another and among those franchises are some that manage to worm their way into people’s hearts in the weirdest ways. A surprise to no one, some people are just into watching different things, even if there are reasons why people didn’t like the movie to begin with. In fact, it is due to this strange love for certain films that people sometimes go back to see what other people were talking about and end up liking the film after a re-watch. Thus, cult classic films became a thing for this very reason and have become wildly popular over the years, bringing in a lot of people who originally turned their heads to these types of films. Most notably among those types of films were the horror genre films which drove many people away from theaters instead of bringing them in.
Despite the wide variety of issues that people have with going out to see horror movies of all types, the fact remains that there is a dedicated crowd who are willing to go out and see these films. This drive is what eventually led more people to go out to theaters to see what others were talking about and therefore created new horror movie fans. This is easily how an entire generation of horror movie fans was created because originally, horror movies found it hard to make a spot for themselves among other movies. There were a lot of horror movies which ended up releasing in the 70’s and 80’s and for the longest time, they couldn’t find a way to draw people in to see those movies. This is where it came in handy to have people come in after some time had passed because it brought interest back to the genre.
Of course, there have been some notable exceptions to horror movies where the movie immediately gained critical acclaim, but most movies in the genre were not so fortunate in the end. Over time people would start to flock to the genre because there were many interesting movies to be made with horror as a base component. Eventually, we got hybrid movies which combined the adrenaline inducing horror with things like action thrown into the mix to spice the film up a bit. With the hybridization of movies in this way, they have had no choice but to try and one up themselves with every sequel that would follow. Most of the time this would end up not working out because movies that constantly tried to one-up themselves eventually collapsed under their own weight.
The most notable horror film to have strong action elements was the ‘Predator‘ movie which released back in 1987 and introduced the world to a different type of film. This film did something that no one expected and that was the fact that the movie was a combination of a few different genres which ended up meshing together to make something great. At first glance, people only saw it as another action film which may have had some kinds of twist added to it. Since the main premise of the film is set in a jungle with a group of deadly commandos, no one expected to see aliens making an appearance in the movie. This is what we ended up with though because that was the plan; to lull people into wanting to watch a crazy action film, but it ended up a crazy hybrid film.
The movie starts with a group of commandos pretty much wiping out a group of insurgents with very minimal effort on their part and finding a woman that they must escort out of the jungle. What followed was something that nobody would have expected if not for the promotional material and that was that the script was flipped. Normally, people would have expected a type of ‘Rambo’ film where the commandos would tactically hunt their targets in the jungle, but this is far from the end result we got. Instead, the commandos were the ones being hunted after taking out all of their former enemies within the first few minutes of the film. This created an epic game of cat and mouse that people very quickly flocked to theaters to see. After all, seeing a group of big dangerous commandos go from predators to prey was something that completely changed what people expected from an action film.
The first movie culminated with the main chracter “Dutch,” portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, coming face to face with the creature that had hunted down the rest of his crew. All throughout the film, hints were given that the creature was nothing of this world and that the final battle would end up being a spectacle because it was unknown how they could beat such a being. Between the insane physical differences and the highly advanced weaponry, the characters in the movie had no real way of fighting the titular Predator the way they normally would. It ended up taking the main character using guerilla tactics as well as other tricks to be able to finally bring the alien menace down. Unfortunately, the remaining members of his group were not fortunate enough to make it out with their lives and only he and the woman survived.
The first movie did an unbelievable job at blending both action and horror because it had people guessing when the next person would end up dying and in what way. It also had people wondering whether the characters would even end up making it out of the jungle at all and they made this an even bigger question at the climax when the alien almost blew up the main character. Now this was a film that certainly caught people’s attention and got them interested so, of course, they did not stop after one movie. They would go on to create the aptly named ‘Predator 2‘ which ended up releasing in 1990 and this time it was a bit closer to home. Unlike the previous movie which took place in a jungle in Central America, the sequel took place in the urban jungle of Los Angeles.
With the release of the second film, the filmmakers were able to give more personality to the titular Predators as a race and expand upon what makes them so terrifying. Unlike the last movie where it was just one group of men being hunted, this time saw gangs all across L.A. being wiped out by the alien hunter. On top of this, government agents who know about the alien’s existence have arrived in the city trying to capture it as a means to study it in some way and prevent it from doing what the other one did in Central America. Lieutenant Michael R. Harrigan, played by Donald Glover, is the person that the Predator holds the most interest in this time around as it witnessed his acts of heroism during the gang wars. It was because of this acknowledgement and some of the actions of the Predator that we discovered that they were not what we actually expected them to be.
By the end of the movie, we discovered that the race that the Predators were from has been hunting people on Earth for years dating back centuries. After their hunts, they would collect trophies to tout as their proof that they had taken down a worthy opponent and that they have earned their place among their people as great warriors. Not only that, but we learned that they will only attack those that they recognize as a threat or a worthy foe and they will not kill innocents. On top of this, they will not kill pregnant women because it would go against the rules of their hunt and it would be incredibly dishonorable for them to do. By the end of the movie, there was a ton of lore which had been added to the backstory of the Predators and that lore is widely accepted by fans over the years.
What followed after what many considered the hay day of the Predator movies was a long drought where we saw no new films about the now iconic aliens. In truth, the films only really just made back the money that was put into them, but the fact remained that there was a very dedicated fanbase which wanted to keep watching films with the aliens in them. Thus, in 2004 we ended up getting the crossover film ‘Alien vs. Predator’ which combined the two beloved alien franchises after a throwaway Easter egg in ‘Predator 2’ showed a xenomorph from the Alien franchise. While the movie may not have been as loved the films that came before, people were still kind of excited to see the match-up happen in the end. There would go on to be another sequel for AvP which was much less loved by people than the film that came before which led to a lot of disappointed fans.
What came next was something many people did not expect which was a direct sequel to the original films which released in 2010 which instead took the dangerous humans and brought them to the Predator hunting grounds. This is where we were introduced to a variety of Predators and we got to see how they functioned among their own kind through the eyes of humans being hunted by them on their own hunting world. The film wasn’t as great as the originals but it was something, but what followed with the 2018 film was just considered horrid by fans because it added way too much. Everything about the 2018 film just ended up feeling “off” in the end and so it is no surprise that fans did not like the movie in the end. However, it would appear that director Dan Trachtenberg’s upcoming Predator movie will not have anything to do with the 2018 film and it will instead be a reboot. Here is to hoping that the film turns out like fans hope it does and we get a good Predator film again.
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