THOR official trailer

[AeonicSlumber]

Personally, it ranks as one of the best 10 films of the year, IMO.

It was my favorite of last year with The Social Network trailing behind.

Edgar Wright is a very solid director. It's a shame SP tanked and it really has me worried for his directing future.

 

[TheLongshot]

Edgar Wright is a very solid director. It's a shame SP tanked and it really has me worried for his directing future.

I'm not. Fact is, even tho SP tanked, it is still his highest grossing film. Also, SP was also very well reviewed. (81% on Rotten Tomatoes)

The only question is going to be is he going to get much of a budget to work with in his next film? Personally, I've liked everything I've seen of his. (from Shawn to Scott Pilgrim.)

 

[Diabolik]

I'm not. Fact is, even tho SP tanked, it is still his highest grossing film. Also, SP was also very well reviewed. (81% on Rotten Tomatoes)

The only question is going to be is he going to get much of a budget to work with in his next film? Personally, I've liked everything I've seen of his. (from Shawn to Scott Pilgrim.)

dont forget Spaced. A hilarious tv series from him.

I am sure he will get more big budget stuff. Studios realize he has a fan base so it isnt like he is going to be blacklisted. Even though it was his highest grossing film it was still a huge loss. I think this film didnt even make back its advertising budget when it hit theaters.

 

[TheLongshot]

dont forget Spaced. A hilarious tv series from him.

Which is why I specified the range that I've seen. I still haven't caught Spaced yet.

I am sure he will get more big budget stuff. Studios realize he has a fan base so it isnt like he is going to be blacklisted. Even though it was his highest grossing film it was still a huge loss. I think this film didnt even make back its advertising budget when it hit theaters.

Well, as I said, he's still attached to "Ant-Man", which is a big studio project with likely a small budget. I doubt he's going to be going the way of Terry Gilliam, for example.

 

[nomisofsiman]

Bob I agree. Miniseries is exactly what watchmen should have been.

 

[JenniferLynn]

Dark Knight? Batman Begins? Kick Ass? Scott Pilgrim? Sin City? Thought these were all fantastic comic book adaptations.

The Crow didn't suck either...

 

[AeonicSlumber]

even tho SP tanked, it is still his highest grossing film.

I don't see how that matters brah. More money was spent on promoting SP than his other films. The total cost of the film with the inclusion of the $20 m campaign was $80 m. With SP's box office numbers, it could very will be years before the studio sees any money from those sales. It's a crying shame that a movie that good tanked so horribly. In many cases, it's enough to put directors out of work. It took Arronofsky this long just to land another big budget film (he's supposed to be doing the new Wolverine movie) after The Fountain tanked hardcore (which was arguably my favorite film of his). And if The Wrestler didn't win the awards it did, I'm not sure if he would have even been able to do any big-budget movie.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Also inb4 directors don't need to do big budget movies. They see very little money from indie arthouse films. In order to keep their craft up, they need to do a big movie.

 

[nomisofsiman]

It took Arronofsky this long just to land another big budget film (he's supposed to be doing the new Wolverine movie)

Darren's trying to do a Christopher Nolan, eh? That should be interesting.

 

[TheLongshot]

I don't see how that matters brah. More money was spent on promoting SP than his other films. The total cost of the film with the inclusion of the $20 m campaign was $80 m. With SP's box office numbers, it could very will be years before the studio sees any money from those sales. It's a crying shame that a movie that good tanked so horribly. In many cases, it's enough to put directors out of work. It took Arronofsky this long just to land another big budget film (he's supposed to be doing the new Wolverine movie) after The Fountain tanked hardcore (which was arguably my favorite film of his). And if The Wrestler didn't win the awards it did, I'm not sure if he would have even been able to do any big-budget movie.

If Universal was happy with the film, so much so that they marketed the hell out of it, I can't say that they can point the finger at Wright. Someone in Universal decided at some point that spending a lot of money on Scott Pilgrim was a good idea. It ended up not being a very good business decision. But, I doubt it was Wright who set the budget.

The same goes with Aronofsky. Fact is, for his career it has all been small films until The Fountain, and some of the failure there wasn't on him either, with Blanchett's pregnancy and Brad Pitt dropping out. It was also the film that he turned down doing Watchmen to do when he had the second chance to do it. Course, after the success of The Wrestler and Black Swan, his career is on the upswing again.

Wright is also a director used to small budgets and probably will go back to doing that and be perfectly happy. Considering he has three very good films on his resume which have all been well received by critics, I doubt he will be hurting much. I mean, if Uwe Boll can somehow continue to make films despite the fact that they are awful and don't make money, I'm not too worried about Wright.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

If Universal was happy with the film, so much so that they marketed the hell out of it, I can't say that they can point the finger at Wright. Someone in Universal decided at some point that spending a lot of money on Scott Pilgrim was a good idea. It ended up not being a very good business decision. But, I doubt it was Wright who set the budget.

I never said it was Wright who set the budget. It was obviously the studio that did. However that doesn't really make a difference. This was such a massive flop that cost the studio so much money, that it could be very difficult for any studio to justify that kind of budget for an Edgar Wright movie again. It's happened many times before. Why attach someone like Wright to the film when they could attach someone whose films have grossed more. That's how Hollywood is. It's all about name-recognition via these sorts of attachments.

The same goes with Aronofsky. Fact is, for his career it has all been small films until The Fountain, and some of the failure there wasn't on him either, with Blanchett's pregnancy and Brad Pitt dropping out. It was also the film that he turned down doing Watchmen to do when he had the second chance to do it. Course, after the success of The Wrestler and Black Swan, his career is on the upswing again.

No, but again, the fact that The Fountain bombed so badly hurt his reputation with studios. Why risk a multi-million dollar investment on Arronofsky when they could attach Michael Bay or Chris Nolan's name to it. It would be much less of a risk. This hurts directors like Arronofsky from getting work.

Wright is also a director used to small budgets and probably will go back to doing that and be perfectly happy. Considering he has three very good films on his resume which have all been well received by critics, I doubt he will be hurting much. I mean, if Uwe Boll can somehow continue to make films despite the fact that they are awful and don't make money, I'm not too worried about Wright.

Uwe Boll makes movies via grants from the German government if I'm not mistaken. Hollywood does not give him money to make movies. Thus, it's a different situation.

Also the whole point of garnering critical acclaim is to sell the movie. If critical acclaim doesn't yield $ for the studio, all the acclaim in the world means nothing. It's just like in the gaming industry where a highly rated game such as Bayonetta would never sell nearly as much as a shovelware Wii game that would score a 3.0 in the press. Bayonetta's sales were perhaps *just* good enough to justify Sega to continue a publishing deal with the company that developed it, but those crappy shovelware games sell in the millions, so studios can justify "shoveling" them out (hence the name).

Do I think Wright's going to lose his career of SP? No. But do I think it's going to be a while before we see him making movies again (3-5 years whereas if SP was successful it would've been much sooner), yes. I could be wrong. I could be overly pessimistic about the whole thing. Who knows?

 

[AeonicSlumber]

BTW sorry if the above post is poorly written. It is ridiculous-o'clock right now hahaha.

 

[TheLongshot]

I never said it was Wright who set the budget. It was obviously the studio that did. However that doesn't really make a difference. This was such a massive flop that cost the studio so much money, that it could be very difficult for any studio to justify that kind of budget for an Edgar Wright movie again. It's happened many times before. Why attach someone like Wright to the film when they could attach someone whose films have grossed more. That's how Hollywood is. It's all about name-recognition via these sorts of attachments.

But, how does that prevent Wright from making films? He wasn't making big budget films before, and was only making this one because he happened to be something he loved the source material. It is probably no big deal for him to be going back to small movies.

No, but again, the fact that The Fountain bombed so badly hurt his reputation with studios. Why risk a multi-million dollar investment on Arronofsky when they could attach Michael Bay or Chris Nolan's name to it. It would be much less of a risk. This hurts directors like Arronofsky from getting work.

You know that Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" and "Black Swan" were made under a different division of Fox (The studio which bankrolled "The Fountain"), right? Now he's making Wolverine under the same studio. It doesn't seem like his name was hurt all that much.

Also the whole point of garnering critical acclaim is to sell the movie. If critical acclaim doesn't yield $ for the studio, all the acclaim in the world means nothing.

True, but both "The Wrestler" and "Black Swan" were very profitable, which Fox would have lost out on if they kicked him to the curb for one failure for a very personal project. One medium money failure doesn't make a director box office poison.

Do I think Wright's going to lose his career of SP? No. But do I think it's going to be a while before we see him making movies again (3-5 years whereas if SP was successful it would've been much sooner), yes. I could be wrong. I could be overly pessimistic about the whole thing. Who knows?

Currently, he's attached to two film projects: an adaptation of Jon Ronson's ("The Men Who Stare At Goats" fame) book "Them" and Marvel's "Ant-Man". No real news on the former, but the latter is still in script stage. He could also film the third film in his "Blood and Ice Cream" trilogy. (The name which Shawn and Hot Fuzz are collected under. There is apparently a third film planned.) Somewhere in there, he will find a project to work on.

BTW, lets talk about the director of the movie that this thread is about. Who the hell would have thought that Kenneth Branagh would be directing such a high-profile project? To be honest, he's never directed a film with this kind of budget, and he hasn't been thought of much as a director since he did Hamlet 15 years ago. His last film, the remake of Sleuth, was considered somewhat lackluster.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

I'm not expecting much from this movie at all. Like all the MAJOR "summer blockbusters," this will probably just be a massive CGI fest with no soul.