Don't worry, all spoilers are under the cut. The rumour may turn out to be bogus, but I can understand why you'd want to be careful. I wish I didn't know this, but I stumbled across it and cursed the sky. Now I might as well muse on it.
Analysis is perhaps premature, but there's a ring of truth to this that warrants discussion. Regardless, the instinctive reaction to this rumour from Trek fans and observers is telling in the assumptions it provokes.
So don't click through if you want to remain unspoiled for now.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Revolution: the next intriguing genre show to quite possibly disappoint you
That's the kind of cynical, kneejerk comment that gets Hollywood types mad at fickle fan commentators, I know. To unequivocally assume that a forthcoming show will suck would be grossly unfair, I know, but so many genre shows have promised the world and delivered sheer monotony over the last few years. Caution is not only warranted, it's mandatory. Yet being a genre TV buff, I can't help but be intrigued by each SF-ish new pilot that gets greenlit to series. What if it sneaks up on us just as Lost and Battlestar Galactica did?
The first to raise that question this year is Revolution, created by Supernatural's Eric Kripke and produced by serial show developer JJ Abrams with a pilot directed by Iron Man's Jon Favreau. It's the first NBC drama to earn a series order, and the premise is timely and has potential: it's set in a post-apocalyptic America where all energy has ceased to exist, which means no cars or any other form of technology. I assume that 'energy' is a lazy shorthand for a more specific phenomenon, because all energy disappearing would presumably cause the universe to end rather than just force middle-class people to wash their clothes by hand.
The first to raise that question this year is Revolution, created by Supernatural's Eric Kripke and produced by serial show developer JJ Abrams with a pilot directed by Iron Man's Jon Favreau. It's the first NBC drama to earn a series order, and the premise is timely and has potential: it's set in a post-apocalyptic America where all energy has ceased to exist, which means no cars or any other form of technology. I assume that 'energy' is a lazy shorthand for a more specific phenomenon, because all energy disappearing would presumably cause the universe to end rather than just force middle-class people to wash their clothes by hand.
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Hollywood to Joss Whedon: "Shut up and take my money!"
At least, that's what he can likely expect to hear over the next week from powerful studio types. The Avengers has exceeded all expectations and looks set to beat Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 all-time US opening weekend record of $169 million. And not by just a few million. The current estimate is $185 million, and it was $175 earlier today, so Deadline reports that even $200 million is possible. The Avengers being the first to reach that milestone is fitting after Spider-Man was the first to crack $100 million ten years ago this weekend.
Disney's marketing juggernaut and the groundwork laid by the previous Marvel Studios films naturally played a huge part in the initial success of The Avengers, but Whedon deserves a lot of the credit too. By delivering a smart, crowd-pleasing, immensely satisfying film, he garnered near unanimous critical praise. Strong word-of-mouth could also circle the globe due to the early release of the film in nearly every international territory, so American fans were no doubt ready to gnaw their own arm off to get to the movie. If The Avengers was awful, it would still have made a bucket, but not this much.
And if The Avengers doesn't experience a significant drop in its second weekend, that in particular will be down to Whedon. Consequently, he will have executives beating down his door with an offer for every major project they have in development or a chance to make one of his own. He delivered a film that people are telling their friends they loved and that also warrants re-watchability, and that's an asset to any major movie campaign. Tempting as it is to say that Hollywood doesn't care if a movie's good, a good movie combined with savvy marketing is more fruitful than just savvy marketing.
If The Avengers breaks a second record and becomes the first film to score over $100 million in its second weekend--which, if it does pass $200 million this weekend, will only require it to drop less than 50%, which is entirely feasible--then Whedon will be the hottest of properties.
And that's just the domestic box office. The total international take so far is $575 million, only around $40 million shy of what Iron Man 2--the top Marvel Studios grosser to date--earned internationally in its entire run. Any concern that audiences might be tiring of superhero films or the Marvel Studios characters has been soundly trounced.
I'm eager to see it a second time myself, not because the plot was hard to follow or the film is rich with hidden meaning, but because it's packed with so much detail and so many witty lines that I couldn't possibly pick everything up the first time. And The Avengers is the rare film that works better with a crowd. When I saw it, Whedon had the audience in the palm of his hand. It was thrilling to be a part of and I'd like to do that again.
He's already alluded in new interviews to what he might do next, and he's staying decidedly low-key. His personally-financed, out-of-the-blue contemporary production of Much Ado About Nothing, starring numerous Whedon alumni, is in post-production. A Dr Horrible sequel is in the planning stages. A long-gestating web series with Warren Ellis called Wastelanders--reportedly a darker and more intense project than is typical of Whedon--is back in his sights now that Avengers is done. He has avoided mentioning bringing any passion projects to fruition with his new cachet, except to say that he would rather pursue his own characters after working for two years in Marvel's sandbox.
No problem though - he could still snag a huge budget if he wants to. He could take the Christopher Nolan route and make a non-franchise pet project in between superhero installments (Whedon will surely be asked back for an Avengers sequel, but then Marvel can be unpredictable in retaining their talent). Nolan's Dark Knight success got Inception made, so how might Whedon capitalise? The notion of him focusing solely on small web projects seems far-fetched, but then I'd applaud an unconventional response to immense financial success.
Whichever medium he chooses for his next major project, the key factor is that Whedon is in a far more privileged position than he was following the underperformance of Serenity and the cancellation of Dollhouse. He can lay the foundation here for the rest of his career, and he's not going to let that opportunity slip by. Watching how one of pop culture's most distinctive talents chooses to take advantage of it will be fascinating.
Oh, and pity Tim Burton's Dark Shadows next weekend. Especially if it subverts all expectations and is actually decent. And suddenly The Dark Knight Rises is looking a teensy bit like an underdog, shockingly enough...
Disney's marketing juggernaut and the groundwork laid by the previous Marvel Studios films naturally played a huge part in the initial success of The Avengers, but Whedon deserves a lot of the credit too. By delivering a smart, crowd-pleasing, immensely satisfying film, he garnered near unanimous critical praise. Strong word-of-mouth could also circle the globe due to the early release of the film in nearly every international territory, so American fans were no doubt ready to gnaw their own arm off to get to the movie. If The Avengers was awful, it would still have made a bucket, but not this much.
And if The Avengers doesn't experience a significant drop in its second weekend, that in particular will be down to Whedon. Consequently, he will have executives beating down his door with an offer for every major project they have in development or a chance to make one of his own. He delivered a film that people are telling their friends they loved and that also warrants re-watchability, and that's an asset to any major movie campaign. Tempting as it is to say that Hollywood doesn't care if a movie's good, a good movie combined with savvy marketing is more fruitful than just savvy marketing.
If The Avengers breaks a second record and becomes the first film to score over $100 million in its second weekend--which, if it does pass $200 million this weekend, will only require it to drop less than 50%, which is entirely feasible--then Whedon will be the hottest of properties.
And that's just the domestic box office. The total international take so far is $575 million, only around $40 million shy of what Iron Man 2--the top Marvel Studios grosser to date--earned internationally in its entire run. Any concern that audiences might be tiring of superhero films or the Marvel Studios characters has been soundly trounced.
I'm eager to see it a second time myself, not because the plot was hard to follow or the film is rich with hidden meaning, but because it's packed with so much detail and so many witty lines that I couldn't possibly pick everything up the first time. And The Avengers is the rare film that works better with a crowd. When I saw it, Whedon had the audience in the palm of his hand. It was thrilling to be a part of and I'd like to do that again.
He's already alluded in new interviews to what he might do next, and he's staying decidedly low-key. His personally-financed, out-of-the-blue contemporary production of Much Ado About Nothing, starring numerous Whedon alumni, is in post-production. A Dr Horrible sequel is in the planning stages. A long-gestating web series with Warren Ellis called Wastelanders--reportedly a darker and more intense project than is typical of Whedon--is back in his sights now that Avengers is done. He has avoided mentioning bringing any passion projects to fruition with his new cachet, except to say that he would rather pursue his own characters after working for two years in Marvel's sandbox.
No problem though - he could still snag a huge budget if he wants to. He could take the Christopher Nolan route and make a non-franchise pet project in between superhero installments (Whedon will surely be asked back for an Avengers sequel, but then Marvel can be unpredictable in retaining their talent). Nolan's Dark Knight success got Inception made, so how might Whedon capitalise? The notion of him focusing solely on small web projects seems far-fetched, but then I'd applaud an unconventional response to immense financial success.
Whichever medium he chooses for his next major project, the key factor is that Whedon is in a far more privileged position than he was following the underperformance of Serenity and the cancellation of Dollhouse. He can lay the foundation here for the rest of his career, and he's not going to let that opportunity slip by. Watching how one of pop culture's most distinctive talents chooses to take advantage of it will be fascinating.
Oh, and pity Tim Burton's Dark Shadows next weekend. Especially if it subverts all expectations and is actually decent. And suddenly The Dark Knight Rises is looking a teensy bit like an underdog, shockingly enough...
Friday, May 04, 2012
Reviewing Kids on the Slope and discovering anime on Crunchyroll
My last venture into streaming anime didn't go so well, when the underwhelming Un-Go left me questioning how much anime was out there for someone like me. By that I mean: a picky anime fan who needs a certain degree of ambition or poignancy for a show to hook me. Several I've seen over the last year or two have had the right ingredients but never cohered. They felt lazy. While I was initially thrilled by the numerous legal streaming options available locally through Madman and Siren, the reality was that very little of it appealed to me.
But watching the first episode of Kids on the Slope on Crunchyroll has invigorated my optimism about the medium, particularly because I had no idea that the site could make so many major shows available outside of the US. It's quite the goldmine.
But watching the first episode of Kids on the Slope on Crunchyroll has invigorated my optimism about the medium, particularly because I had no idea that the site could make so many major shows available outside of the US. It's quite the goldmine.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Can (and should) Netflix save dead TV shows?
Ever since Netflix won the bidding war for new episodes of Arrested Development, the online streaming giant has become a beacon of hope for TV fans left mourning cherished shows. This was compounded when Netflix was widely reported to be considering whether to pick up Fox's family dinosaur drama Terra Nova and ABC's found-footage mystery The River following their likely cancellation earlier this year. Even though those deals didn't eventuate, they suggest that Arrested wasn't a one-off. Perhaps Netflix may change the game by continuing to rescue shows that broadcast networks no longer deemed profitable, even years after they ended.
The excitement is understandable, because when American shows get cancelled, they invariably stay that way. British channels will happily bring back shows years or decades after canning them, but in the US, dead means dead unless you're an animated sitcom. Networks are generally too prideful to reverse their decisions or to eat the scraps of their rivals unless they happen to be owned by the same company that produces the show (hence the rescue of Scrubs and Medium).
But Netflix apparently has no such reservations. They're even willing to take meetings about picking up poorly reviewed shows that hardly have a groundswell of viewer support. There was no palpable desire to bring back Terra Nova or The River, yet Netflix still considered doing so. If even they were candidates, what else might be?
Because their entire TV catalogue comprises old material from broadcast and cable networks, there's no sense in Netflix being precious about picking up where networks left off. While they are also producing original shows (House of Cards, Lilyhammer, Hemlock Grove) that invite comparisons with those on pay cable, Netflix could find a valuable niche in rescuing shows whose existing episodes have done well for them. They could circumvent the perception that they are buying reheated leftovers because they are merely buying more of an acquired product that has proven to be a worthwhile investment.
The excitement is understandable, because when American shows get cancelled, they invariably stay that way. British channels will happily bring back shows years or decades after canning them, but in the US, dead means dead unless you're an animated sitcom. Networks are generally too prideful to reverse their decisions or to eat the scraps of their rivals unless they happen to be owned by the same company that produces the show (hence the rescue of Scrubs and Medium).
But Netflix apparently has no such reservations. They're even willing to take meetings about picking up poorly reviewed shows that hardly have a groundswell of viewer support. There was no palpable desire to bring back Terra Nova or The River, yet Netflix still considered doing so. If even they were candidates, what else might be?
Because their entire TV catalogue comprises old material from broadcast and cable networks, there's no sense in Netflix being precious about picking up where networks left off. While they are also producing original shows (House of Cards, Lilyhammer, Hemlock Grove) that invite comparisons with those on pay cable, Netflix could find a valuable niche in rescuing shows whose existing episodes have done well for them. They could circumvent the perception that they are buying reheated leftovers because they are merely buying more of an acquired product that has proven to be a worthwhile investment.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Trailer Watch: The Dark Knight Rises, Tron Uprising
A viral campaign that sent fans into the streets tracking down clues has led to the early unveiling of the third and final trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, and it's pretty glorious.
That Nolan can credibly offer such a grand, spine-tingling trailer for a superhero flick is a testament to how The Dark Knight changed our perception of what the genre was capable of. Some may watch this and find it pretentious and high-falutin', and I can't entirely dispute that, especially with a final gag that significantly undermines the mythic tone. But whatever your stance on superhero films, you must admit it's refreshing that big-budget blockbusters that are intelligent, operatic, and stirring can still squeeze through the Hollywood sausage factory on occasion. This is a beautiful and evocative trailer.
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