by John | Oct 4, 2017 | Industry News
Is Winter the new Summer for Hollywood blockbusters? Release dates of big films this year suggest that Winter is the season to be jolly for Hollywood.
So-called Oscar bait has always been released towards the end of Summer right through to Winter. This supposedly gives these films an edge – there’s a recency bias surrounding these films, but Winter is also slowly becoming the time for blockbusters, too.
In recent years the Middle-Earth and STAR WARS franchises have been reinvented and relocated release dates to December – which proved financially successful for them – and now the superhero films are following suit. The 2017 Spring and Summer saw the fringe films, the riskier films – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2. SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING, WONDER WOMAN, but come November, the big boys are coming back. THOR: RAGNAROK and THE JUSTICE LEAGUE both have November release dates – close enough to December to rake in the money, but far enough away from STAR WARS EP: VIII that they won’t have to fight off the Jedi fans.
While the big name films are currently few in number, it looks like Winter will become the new blockbuster season for years to come. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-19/how-hollywood-got-over-the-summer-blockbuster
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by John | Oct 3, 2017 | Industry News
Big film news as the Na’vi are finally return to Earth! AVATAR’s long-awaited sequel enters production… FINALLY.
With the plethora of sequels, prequels, franchises, and spinoffs, it feels hard to get excited about films that come from an already existing franchise. But with BLADE RUNNER 2049 being released soon, another long-awaited sequel is coming. James Cameron’s AVATAR sequel has begun filming and is set to be released 11 years after the original in 2009. The hype around these two films, in particular, seem to show a good way for companies to release sequels.
1. Nail the first film.
2. Promise nothing in way of sequels, or remain ambiguous about any.
3. Wait a long time for audiences to get hungry when the sequel is announced.
That’s not to say there haven’t been some great franchise sequels (THE DARK KNIGHT, X2, SPIDERMAN 2, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLIDER), but giving audiences a long time to wait for a new film seems to give an added hype to the release of a film – which may have even helped the new re-adaptation of IT, too!
Check out more on AVATAR 2 and more here: http://deadline.com/2017/09/avatar-james-cameron-four-consecutive-sequels-1-billion-budget-1202176798/
You can see all our collecion of news here, too: https://writemovies.com/about/news/film-news/
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by John | Oct 2, 2017 | Industry News
All is not as it seems… AMC makes an investment in a virtual reality startup company, also backed by Hollywood stars.
Hollywood and Television companies are beginning to follow in the success of gaming with increased interest and investment in VR (virtual reality) companies. Gaming consoles such as the PlayStation 4 have already taken advantage of this phenomenon to give their gamers a new experience. Companies like AMC investing in VR companies suggests that audiences of film and television should start to get ready for a new cinematic experience.
Check out more here: http://deadline.com/2017/09/amc-invests-20-million-in-dreamscape-vr-expands-theatrical-rollout-1202177023/
You can see all our collecion of new here, too: https://writemovies.com/about/news/film-news/
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by John | Sep 22, 2017 | Industry News
After the less-than-super Summer Box-Office, the power and attraction of superhero films may be declining. Some are suggesting that the expanded universes are on their way out and that stand-alone superhero films are back in (see this article). Jamie White discusses this potential new trend for superheroes…
This summer has shown some signs of this. LOGAN is pretty much a stand-alone in its own right and has little connection to the rest of the X-MEN universe really. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 hasn’t shown much of a connection to the wider MCU (yet) either – and has a strong enough team not to need one.
Even looking at WONDER WOMAN, this was set way way out of the way from the already established DC universe. Maybe this was to distance it from the terrible DC films released recently to give DC the option to do stand-alone only films in the future.
Can standalone superhero films re-fill Hollywood’s empty summer theatres?
There have even been strong rumors that DC is considering a Joker origins story starring Leo DiCaprio and produced by Martin Scorsese – which I am not cool with. But, this does kinda indicate that Warners and Disney could be tempted into stand-alone films with no connection to their current universes.
Now, this does not mean they will stop milking their expanded universes, but this could present an opportunity to writers…
There could be the chance that more studios will be persuaded into producing superhero films that have no existing relation to Marvel or DC. We’ve all seen the praise for LOGAN for breaking the superhero mold, and there could be a chance that more of these types of films will be produced.
Let’s quickly look at the best stand-alone superhero film, or should we say films, arguably ever… THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy. This isn’t even thought of as a standalone trilogy, but there’s no connection to the expanded DC universe, and it would be almost criticizing the films to call them superhero films – they’re anything but really.
This trilogy takes Batman and the superhero genre to the most realistic and thematically mature place it’s ever been, and its success, both commercially and critically, speaks for itself. It’s realistic, it’s tragic, it’s pessimistic and noir-esque – it’s an all-round excellent subversion of the genre while still paying homage to it. With the mention of films that are sorta stand-alone (GUARDIANS, LOGAN, WONDER WOMAN) we forget that the stand-alone hero used to be the norm, and that pulling together all those worlds adds so many separate suspensions of belief that any failings of the movie are amplified. And let’s face it, two out three of those films above are in the top 10 best superhero films ever. It’s a little odd then how Hollywood is only just catching on to this again, especially with franchises like Bond and Indiana Jones not needing expanding universes to carry them.
So, THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy can be seen as the ultimate example of the promise of stand-alone superhero films, and if Hollywood can exploit this angle properly… it could be amazing.
We’ll likely just end up seeing the odd Joker origin film (sigh) but audiences are hungry for variation in their supers. Hell, who wouldn’t want to see more imaginative and original superhero stories?!
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by John | Sep 21, 2017 | Industry News, WriteMovies News
We have an exclusive Habib Zargarpour interview coming soon all about his work on BLADE RUNNER 2049. Habib also reveals how his teams achieved such awesome effects in A PERFECT STORM, TWISTER, STAR TREK: GENERATIONS and many other films!
Our Director of World Wide Development, Ian Kennedy, has been speaking with the VFX expert, Habib Zargarpour. Keep reading to learn about his experience on the BLADE RUNNER sequel, working on the same project as Ridley Scott, his previous work and becoming a writer-director on his next film THE SQUADRON.
Ian and Habib talk about everything BLADE RUNNER – the sequel, Ridley Scott vs Denis Villeneuve, whether this is the most anticipated sequel ever, if Deckard is a replicant, and the art of VFX… and how yogurt holds the key. Habib has also worked on movies for STAR TREK, STAR WARS, BOURNE, A PERFECT STORM, JUMANJI, THE MASK and so many more – you don’t wanna miss this!
We’ll be publishing the interview in stages over the coming days… watch our Twitter and Facebook feeds for the latest releases!
Check out Habib’s IMDb page and learn more about him HERE.
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by John | Sep 18, 2017 | Industry News
Once a month, Script Pipeline provides us with news on script sales, who’ll be working on what scripts and for who. For the script sales in August, we’ve noticed a certain trend.
First of all, interesting news on a political film script – Hyde Park Entertainment has picked up a script that focuses on the career and friendship of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The script apparently looks at the friendship of the two. Politically-centered films seem to be making a bit of a comeback with a documentary on Obama’s final 12 months in office also coming soon. But it’s interesting to see film studios going for political dramas when you’d assume lots of people are just so done with politics right now!
There’s various superhero script news confirmed – the writers of SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING are coming home for the sequel, while rumors still fly round for this Joker origin story… unfortunately.
But what Script Pipeline left to the end was the plentiful news on female led scripts getting picked up. Which is just great, but what’s interesting is these are all female led films of adaptations that have male leads. THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, THE LORD OF FLIES, and LICENSE TO DRIVE are the three adaptations in question.
What’s not clear is whether these new adaptations will have the female leads as the traditionally male characters, or whether these adaptations will be led by a female character from the story.
It would be very interesting to see a female version of a character like Dorian Gray, but it would be just as easy to have a female character be the lead instead of Gray. But in a world where there’s talk of a female Bond, and where we now have a female Doctor (Who) it would be intriguing at least to see a female version of famous characters.
Female led films in general are becoming more and more powerful, and with stars like Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone leading the way it looks that (hopefully) female led films will continue to provide quality content.
We strongly recommend you checking out Script Pipeline’s script sales posts to keep up to date with what studio companies are looking for right now. https://scriptpipeline.com/august-2017-script-sales
And, hey, if anything you see there gives you inspiration to write or finish a script, it’s so worth entering the Summer contest during this Final Extension Window.
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by John | Sep 8, 2017 | Industry News, WriteMovies News, Writing Insights
With the success of MOONLIGHT, GET OUT and many more, just why exactly are black leads in films and script in right now?
We’ve been noticing a trend recently among the leads and protagonists for films – more and more successful flicks have leading black characters. It seems like maybe the current state of the States is why these films are growing so well.
As well as Oscar winner MOONLIGHT, this year has seen the likes of GET OUT, which became the highest-grossing debut film of all time. Directed by Jordan Peele, and starring Daniel Kaluuya. A black director and black lead – this film shows the appetite for movies that tackle the issues of black identity in America in new and distinctive ways.
Halle Berry and Sam Jackson have both been driving forces this summer, but they’re already well-established black actors. The big one, for me, is Idris Elba in THE DARK TOWER. Originally in Stephen King’s books, Elba’s character, the Gunslinger, was white. Now people may complain about this being PC, but this shows the pull and power of black actors such as Elba that a studio is willing to alter a character’s race to positively benefit the film.
The new black led superhero film, BLACK PANTHER, is also coming soon and this represents how strong commercially black actors and black led scripts and films are becoming. Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington have all been big names for years now. You can even go back to the 70s when Pam Grier was a mainstay in Blaxploitation cinema – this was hugely popular back in the day. But now more than ever, black actors are headlining huge Hollywood films.
Read more on black actors heating up the Summer scene here: http://www.eurweb.com/2017/08/stay-cool-this-summer-as-these-black-actors-heat-up-the-scene/
Based on the quality of the scripts and their commercial potential, our last two Grand Prize winners have coincidentally been black-led scripts – but then, maybe the extra edge of having a black lead helped dynamize these scripts in our eyes. For example, let’s look at our Spring 2017 and Winter 2016 Contest Grand Prize winners, RINGMASTER by Tory Williams and BLACKOUT.COM by Ruben Bush III.
Here’s their loglines…
RINGMASTER: “An African-American student enters an underground MMA tournament to pay his way through college.”
https://writemovies.com/meet-our-summer-2016-screenwriting-contest-winner-ringmaster-by-tory-williams/
BLACKOUT.COM: “Two young African-American men find a unique and dangerous way to handle white supremacists and help their community.”
https://writemovies.com/meet-winter-2016-screenwriting-contest-grand-prize-winner-blackout-com-ruben-bush-iii/
We believe these are particularly prescient scripts and concepts. And as our Elite Script Mentors Bobby Lee Darby and Nathan Brookes say “scripts with black leads are big right now”. Considering the current social, cultural, and political climate, we’d like to think that with the right script development support paying off, these scripts are right on the money.
If you have a black protagonist in your script – now is the time to get it out there – and with just over a week to go in our Summer Contest you can trust that we’d give it the attention it deserves.
https://writemovies.com/summer-2017-screenwriting-competition/
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© WriteMovies 2017
In recent years the Middle-Earth and STAR WARS franchises have been reinvented and relocated release dates to December – which proved financially successful for them – and now the superhero films are following suit. The 2017 Spring and Summer saw the fringe films, the riskier films – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2. SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING, WONDER WOMAN, but come November, the big boys are coming back. THOR: RAGNAROK and THE JUSTICE LEAGUE both have November release dates – close enough to December to rake in the money, but far enough away from STAR WARS EP: VIII that they won’t have to fight off the Jedi fans.
