By George Robbins
This year has been a rough one by many different standards at this point and things aren’t exactly bound to get any better with this ongoing pandemic. The movie industry specifically has had a lot going wrong with it, especially over the past few months and things aren’t necessarily getting any better as time passes. The problem with the way things are working out in the movie industry at the moment is highly proportioned to the fact that theaters are all but shut down at this point. Movie theaters haven’t been able to consistently bring in customers since they had their official re-openings. As a result of this, they have lost a lot of business over the course of the past few months and it has even resulted in the AMC theater company possibly going bankrupt by the end of this year.
So if theaters are truly doing this terribly with everything going on in the world, how is it that studios in the industry are managing to cope with all of this. They are either delaying the releases of most of their films or they are taking the alternative approach which would be a direct-to-digital approach to release. With the latter approach, there is a lot going on that needs to be accounted for and a lot that needs to be recognized by the studio doing it. The big takeaway is that whatever studio decides to go with a digital approach right away will inevitably lose out on the chance to have a theatrical release later on. This is precisely the reason why they will only really be taking this approach with movie that they feel will be better for an at-home experience as opposed to a theatrical one.
Disney recently decided that this would be the proper release method for their live-action version of ‘Mulan‘ instead of waiting for a theatrical release. This was because the movie was first meant to release back in March, but when the pandemic hit, it was pushed back until theaters would be able to reopen their doors to the public. Therefore, the film was given a release date of around the end of July and finally a release date near the end of August. As they got closer to that theatrical release date, they finally made the decision to just release the film for a premium on their Disney+ service rather than await a proper release window. In the end, despite a lot of controversy that ended up surrounding the film, the movie brought in a lot of new subscriptions and a large spike in viewership on the service.
The movie has now been out a couple of months on Disney+ for the premium price of $30 and won’t become a free part of the service until later this year. Even though it hasn’t been long since its initial release, it doesn’t seem like it matters all that much with theaters essentially out of business at the moment. Without theatrical exclusivity, it would appear that the timeline of events surrounding movies can go faster and faster than it ever has before. Therefore it would seem that they can now release movies on Blu-ray and DVD far sooner than they would if the movie had a theatrical release. So as of November 10th, the movie will actually be available for purchase in that method of purchase for anyone who wants to own it physically.
By George Robbins
Movie productions have had quite a time trying to get done at the moment considering the fact that the pandemic is making things difficult for companies to work properly. With the pandemic in play, many companies working within the film industry have had to come up with new ways to handle the world we now live in. As such, new guidelines have had to be put into place so that production crews could work in a safer environments where people wouldn’t have to worry so much about catching the virus while they were working. These new guidelines were put into place in more than just movie production crews as they were also put into effect in businesses like movie theaters. As we all know by now, movie theaters have had it the worst among the movie industry and it hasn’t gotten any easier for them as time has gone on.
Movie theaters have had a lot going wrong for them as of late and there is not much that can be done to help them except move forward. While it has been suggested from Christopher Nolan that the film industry as whole should look for better solutions to their problems than just delaying their films, there have been no good ideas to come forward thus far. As such, theaters have mostly shut their doors to the public and even those that haven’t have been losing business hand-over-fist because they can’t get people to come in. This has a lot to do with the fact that people are not willing to take the risk and go out to public theaters even with the new safety guidelines in place to protect them. These guidelines have been both helpful and harmful in the theater industry as they limit the overall number of people who can be in the building simultaneously. Obviously this helps prevent spread of the virus but it has a detrimental effect for the business.
When a company relies heavily upon having as many people present as possible to make their money, it becomes problematic when they aren’t allowed to bring that many people in. On top of that, many people like going out to theaters with both friends and family and when they can’t readily do so, it no longer becomes fun for them to try. Therefore, movie theaters only ended up in even more trouble because they couldn’t readily convince people to go out and see movies. The final straw that broke theaters was the fact that people are really only mostly interested in going to theaters as a way of seeing entirely new films. Unfortunately, there has pretty much been a lack of those new films over the past months due to the pandemic and worry from companies that people won’t want to go see them during this time period. This fear was correct, but it is also a part of the problem that theaters now have to face on a regular basis.
With a lack of variety in films at theaters, there is yet another reason why people may not want to go out to theaters because they wouldn’t have anything there that they want to watch. So now, people are just sitting at home waiting patiently along with studios for the time when things get just good enough in the world that releasing new movies will seem like a good idea. When that time finally arrives, new movies will become readily available, but until then, there are countless productions being worked on to make up for the lack of productions going out into the public. This isn’t really anything new though as there have always been countless productions going on in the world, it is just that things are more complicated now. They are just getting these upcoming movies ready for what is to come in the, hopefully, not-too-distant future, but it is more difficult now than usual.
For movie productions to actually get to work properly, they must follow the new health and safety guidelines the same way all other companies must. If they don’t follow the new guidelines then they simply aren’t allowed to work on any projects that they have coming up due to safety concerns for the crews. This has resulted in many different productions all over the world having to be pushed back significantly to make sure they were up to code. None of that necessarily mattered at all though because movie releases were being pushed back regardless of what was going on with movie productions. There are now many movies that have been finished and are prepped for theatrical release that just got pushed back tremendously, so it doesn’t matter if other movies still being worked on get pushed back either.
Among the movies still being worked on, there are plenty that have had the opportunity to start back up again and ended up being shut down for a short time yet again. This is because if anyone tests positive for the virus, then the whole production gets put on lockdown for the required two weeks. This may be an annoyance to the studios, but it does really help the films in the end as they are ultimately being worked on harder than ever. On the overall list of productions that are being worked on so hard is the ‘Jurassic World: Dominion‘ production that began in earnest earlier this year. It figures that when they had just begun working on the production that they almost immediately had to shut down because that was when the pandemic first began.
Despite the long shut down that they were forced to sit through before they could resume filming, there was actually a lot of work that ended up being done in the meantime. This ended up being a huge help for the production without people even realizing it at first because it meant that work could be done on the CGI stuff at home while everyone else was given time to work on other projects or even take some time off. In the end, the first shut down they had ended up helping them get work done as they could concentrate solely on the CGI instead of trying to multi-task. Considering the fact that this is meant to be the last film in the new ‘Jurassic World‘ trilogy, it is a pretty big deal that this film ends up being a well put together film. With that in mind, it has been pretty rough for them recently as they had to recently shut down again due to confirmed cases, but this hasn’t deterred them in any way, shape, or form.
‘Jurassic World: Dominion’s’ most recent shut down obviously occurred as there were positive virus cases reported on the production set. This resulted in a full shut down of the set in accordance with the health and safety guidelines with only a few weeks left in regards to the filming of the movie. Even though it became impossible for them to work on the upcoming final film in the new trilogy, the fact remains that they have plenty of time before the currently set release date for the film. It is due to this that there isn’t really any worry about getting the film done on time and they are still fine with the way that things are going. If anything, they think that this will actually make the film better by the end of production and by the time of the film’s release. More specifically, it is director Colin Trevorrow that believes that this is the case when it comes to the movie’s production.
Trevorrow believes that although the new guidelines and safety protocols that were put in place were difficult for the overall production, it helped make the movie better in the end. With the new protocols in place, everyone had to stay on set close to one another which only made the experience more surreal for all of them who felt the same emotional weight thrust upon them while working on the film. If everyone on the set has this common thing between them all, then they can come together and make a better film with all of their emotion behind them. In a creative capacity, this allows for plenty of different interactions to happen which could make the overall movie better in the end. Unfortunately, it will be a long time before we have the opportunity to see whether this ended up working out for them in the end or not, but we can certainly remain hopeful between then and now.
By George Robbins
There are plenty of iconic movies that will always have us thanking the movie industry simply due to the fact that they exist and ‘The Terminator‘ is one of those movies. James Cameron’s iconic 80’s action film was something unlike anything that came before and will always remain a classic film in movie history. It is quite easy to say that the movie went on to influence countless action films in the coming years and it very easily cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of the biggest actors of the era. Not only was the actor cemented as one of the biggest of the era, but ‘The Terminator’ was cemented as perhaps one of the greatest films ever made. There is hardly a person alive today that has no idea what ‘The Terminator’ is or what the general premise of the film is. Without a doubt, we have that movie to thank for a lot of the action films to follow it.
The most iconic part of the original ‘Terminator’ film itself is the obvious titular antagonist, played by Schwarzenegger himself. The mechanical terror, otherwise known in-universe as the T-800 is a menace that generally terrified not only the characters on screen, but also the audiences that saw the film. While we were told early on that the character was a machine, he was given a mostly human appearance throughout most of the film. The reason for this was explained in the movie so that people would understand the reason why he was such a threat to humanity as a whole. At the time where most horror movie villains were just un-killable for supernatural reasons, James Cameron gave us a villain that was un-killable for justified reasons. This is what ended up making the film such a suspenseful thriller in the first place as we knew that it was an extremely dangerous killing machine with one centralized mission on its mind.
While the overall premise of the film made it both a suspenseful thriller and an action film, the movie aired more so on the side of overall suspense and it shows. Everything about the film sets it up to be more of a horror movie than an action movie and James Cameron made it so that we wouldn’t forget this fact. No matter what point in the film we were at, there were moments when we just weren’t sure of when the T-800 terminator would show up and try to kill the main characters. When we got to the end of the movie, we were finally given the opportunity to breath a sigh of relief because the titular machine was finally destroyed. Unfortunately, we knew in the final scene that things were only just beginning when we saw Sarah Connor pregnant with the future John Connor.
Even though the T-800 is perhaps the most iconic villain in movie history, it is also a role that became a hero in some form in the next film, ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day.’ What became a larger surprise to the general public in the second film was the fact that the T-800 we had grown to fear from the first film became a face we would grow to appreciate. Instead of trying to kill John Connor, the T-800 was sent back to protect him and thus, instead of another suspenseful film, the movie became an action film. What would be a good enemy for the T-800 to take on though since it was already proven to be capable of taking down just about anything in its path. The new role of film antagonist would actually then be passed onto the equally as famous T-1000 terminator played by Robert Patrick in perhaps his most iconic role.
With two entirely different breed of terminator now taking one another on in combat, the sequel took the turn from suspenseful thriller to straight-up action film. This was not necessarily something that we were expecting to see, but it was a welcome change once the film came out. From that point forward, both films were remembered for entirely different reasons and were both equally loved for said reasons. What made the second film so much more terrifying in some ways than the first is that the T-1000 that tormented the characters in the second film was able to be whatever it wanted to be. A being made entirely out of liquid metal which was capable of taking on whatever form it wanted was something that was even more terrifying than a huge man with a metal skeleton.
So then, if the T-1000 didn’t make its premiere as the sole antagonist of the second film and appeared in some fashion in the first film, what would that have done to the films. First of all, was the T-1000 even something that was being discussed for the first film or was it made just afterwards to be put into the second film. As it turns out, the idea of a liquid metal terminator was made up to be a part of the first film as it turns out that the film was set up to be even more ambitious than the product we received in the end. Apparently, the original script saw a couple of key differences from the final version of the film we got to see on screen including the overall events that happened throughout. For instance, a major difference was that Kyle Reese was meant to be sent back with another protector who was going to be killed early on. This wouldn’t have made too much of a difference as Sarah and Kyle would still have to take on the T-800 on their own anyway.
While the idea of having another protector in the film is major in terms of what we now know, it isn’t really game-changing. What was game-changing was the fact that the two characters were actually meant to find a way of defeating the titular antagonist by about the halfway point in the film. In the events that would proceed that, Skynet would then send back an experimental terminator unit made of liquid metal; the now known T-1000 terminator unit. In the end, these ideas would end up being scrapped due to the fact that this was all far too complex for a brand new film with no background to it. On top of that, Cameron was a new director in the Hollywood scene with a limited budget which meant that he also lacked the means to make the T-1000 exactly the way that he felt it would fit into the movie. This was all probably for the best in the end as we ended up with the incredibly suspenseful first film and the action-packed second resulting from the first script being re-done.
If the first movie managed to play out the way that the original script intended for it to be, we would most certainly have received an entirely different experience than the one we ended up with. Considering the way that every movie after the second one turned out, it is a gift that we ended up with the first two the way that they are now. With a suspenseful thriller/slasher film set during the era where slashers were popular and a sequel action film set in an era where over-the-top action was king, there was nothing more we could have anticipated. These two movies, despite being two different genres set in the same universe, managed to make something that will never be forgotten. Not many sequels can live up to their original films, but due to the fact that James Cameron ended up changing his mind in the end, he made two unique unforgettable films where a sequel actually managed to live up to the original.
By George Robbins
This year has been a long and arduous one and although it is getting closer to ending, the challenged that have come with it are going to continue into next year. Even though there is so much going on right now, people are still trying to put their best foot forward for the future to come and it can be seen in the projects being worked on at the moment. There are plenty of projects specifically that are being worked on by the movie industry at the moment to make up for the fact that they aren’t actually releasing anything out into the public. It is very unfortunate for the movie industry, but they can’t find the best way to release films at the moment leaving them with not much else to do but work on other projects. That being said, there are many projects people are waiting for a release for and among them in ‘No Time To Die.’
The upcoming Bond film is one that people have very much been looking forward to ever since the movie’s initial announcement was made. This has led to people excitedly preparing for the upcoming 25th entry into the Bond universe and the consequences that the film will bring with it. In an incredible fashion, the current actor playing Bond at the moment, Daniel Craig, will be retiring from the role after he plays his part in the upcoming film. This film is meant to be a movie unlike the others as it will be a testament to the mettle that makes the character what he is and how the events of the film will take a heavy toll on the character. While much of the plot is still relatively unknown to the public at large, we already know a few details revolving around the main villain of the upcoming film.
We know now that the villain of the upcoming film, played by Rami Malek, will be a threat to both Bond and the world at large and that he will bring with him untold consequences. These consequences, while largely unknown, will definitely spell out the end of the current James Bond as we know him. This isn’t really surprising since we already know that this will be Craig’s last time playing the agent in any film, but it was just a matter of how his exit from the films would take place. While it might not have been a very largely discussed topic, the topic of who will end up taking the mantle of agent 007 by the end of ‘No Time To Die’ was discussed. It has now been confirmed by actress Lashana Lynch that her character Nomi will be the one who will end up carrying on the legendary agent number. All-in-all, this seems pretty fitting given the way this series of Bond films has played out and when the movie eventually releases, it will certainly be an interesting one.
By George Robbins
These past months have proven to be quite a difficult time for just about everyone and the TV and Movie industry are in the same boat as everyone else. It has become a tremendous effort for studios to try and come up with ways to capture the attention of people when their minds are focused on so much more. Unlike the movie side of things though is the TV side which has actually managed to flourish more in this new environment than its counterpart. The movie industry is in a state of near suspended animation with a few notable exceptions being laid out here and there in such a way that they can make some kind of revenue. That part of the industry is the section which has become more devoted to the streaming side of movie releases.
The fact remains that movie releases are the toughest decisions being made within the industry at the moment because studios are trying to figure out just what the best move to make would actually end up being. For most studios, they believe the best choice at their disposal is to wait for the pandemic to either be over, or to wait until there is a much better handle on things. This has become a way of thinking that some within the industry are not happy with and even director Christopher Nolan has said that they should really be looking at alternative solutions for these issues. The alternative approach some studios are taking with some of their films is the aforementioned alternative, straight-to-digital releases. Whereas these are the problems being faced by the movie industry, the TV industry is facing its own issues.
While not as terrible as what is happening in the movie industry, the TV industry is trying to deal with the fact that they cannot as readily make content. This means that they are stuck trying to come up with better ways to try and get people’s attention and keep that attention since television relies almost entirely on viewership. With this in mind, TV studios are trying to play shows to the best of their ability in an effort to keep viewership even if it means just playing re-runs. Unfortunately, we all know that re-runs of TV shows can get very boring after enough time passes seeing the same old thing. Thus, a majority of TV viewership has been going to streaming services and while this may be working out for some companies, there are many who are now suffering.
Like television, streaming services are all under different contracts and they possess a lot of different programming depending on those contracts. Hence, the reason why you need to have something like 10 different streaming networks is so that you can watch the various shows and programs as much as you want. That is the main selling point for many streaming services since watching whatever you want, whenever you want is kind of a gift. Unfortunately though, some things we want to watch are under exclusivity contracts which force us to only be able to watch them on television. This just so happens to be the case with the ‘Harry Potter‘ movies which are under contract to appear on NBCUniversal cable networks instead of their streaming service Peacock.
NBCUniversal, like most other major networks at this point, owns Peacock which is meant to be their premiere streaming service that houses all of the movies and shows under contract with the network. The ‘Harry Potter’ films were all put onto the service as a way for fans to be able to go on and watch the films they have loved for so many years. Unfortunately this was not mean to last though as they inevitably took the movies off of the service and put them back onto their cable channels in an effort to follow contractual obligations. Those obligations made it so that the movies would be on television networks for the foreseeable future, so anyone who wants to stream the movies will have to wait awhile in order to do so once again. In the meantime, plenty of other content is available on the service and there are plenty of shows on the network to fill space between movie airings.
By George Robbins
Over the past few months, it has been a struggle for people in the movie industry to try and come up with ways to move forward with their plans due to the pandemic. This isn’t really all that much of a surprise because what else would people be doing other than figuring out how to both alleviate boredom and plan for the future. Without this pandemic, we would have just seen things continue on their merry way where new movies would have released and there would be new productions taking place. These new productions are now the only things we primarily hear about anymore as people have nothing better to work on within the film industry due to the new guidelines in place. After all, it is kind of hard for movies to release the way things currently stand, especially when it comes to movie theaters.
Movie theaters are in a spot of bother at the moment because they are lacking in both new content and potential customers as people don’t want to go to theaters. Not only are movie theaters a high risk environment, but they have a lack of overall seating now that capacity has been severely limited by new health guidelines. This has made people even less enthused by the whole situation and given people less of a reason to get a small group together to go out and see any kind of movies whatsoever. Even if the restrictions weren’t so bad, people still have no reason to go out to theaters because of the aforementioned lack in variety we have seen with new releases. After studios decided to push back their new movie releases in favor of a better release window, theaters no longer have any upcoming movie releases to play to the public.
Variety is something that is important in every single aspect of life and variety in movie theaters is just as important as variety in the culinary world. If there are more options available to the public, especially more diverse options, then people would much rather spring for that scenario as more choice can health people in the end. The problem with theaters nowadays during this pandemic is that they have almost no new options to give people who actually want to go out to the movies. Therefore, there is no incentive given to the people who want to go out to theaters because there may not be something there that they want to watch. This lack of variety stems directly from studios deciding not to put their films out so that they can instead try and beat out the pandemic for a better release window.
No matter how we look at the current situation for theaters, it all looks grim in the end and we don’t know what will happen with them. Some are closing down until further notice, while big theater chains like AMC are going to be bankrupt by the end of the year. We don’t know if theaters will really ever be the same again, but we do know for a fact that the industry is moving on whether we decide to recognize that fact or not. So if the industry is moving on, then how exactly are they deciding to move forward if they cannot release any of their films that they have been working on? They are just steadily building up a catalog of films that they can set future dates for when things start to calm down with the pandemic. A number of films have been getting back to work recently while there are now many more films currently awaiting their chance to start working.
The best way people in the film industry have been keeping busy despite all that is that they have been trying to come up with new movie ideas to pass the time. Among those ideas is one from writer Bobby Herbeck and producer Kim Dawson which sees the hopefully inevitable return of the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ to the big screen. The titular turtles Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, and their mentor/ father-figure Splinter were originally part of a hit animated show from the late 80’s which showed them in all kinds of situations where they would show off their ninja skills. While the show itself was a hit success, especially among younger crowds, what really cemented its place in pop-culture was the 1990 movie of the same name which brought the turtles to life. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop animatronics brought them to life on screen and many fans still fondly remember the film.
Riding on the back of the TV show’s success, the 1990 live-action movie managed to be a success worthy of an entire live-action trilogy. That popularity never really died down as a new animated movie was made in 2007 and Michael Bay rebooted the films in 2014. However, the popularity of the original trilogy of films was never truly forgotten by the general public. With that fact in mind Bobby Herbeck and Kim Dawson want to bring the original trilogy back into the public eye and give it a proper sequel instead of a reboot like we got in 2014. This is an idea that plenty of fans of the Turtles would probably love to take to fruition but even if this idea gains traction, it will be a long time still before we get to see a new film come out involved with that trilogy. While it could potentially come out a long time from now, it would still be interesting to see happen and at least by then, things should be going back to how they were originally.
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