Monday, May 21, 2007

A dearth of imagination

Perhaps I shouldn't feel bad for my recent lack of inspiration. Here is a partial list of movies that have come out or are coming soon to a theater near you:

Spider-Man 3
Shrek 3
Rush Hour 3
Live Free or Die Hard (Diehard 4)
Fantastic Four 2
Pirates of the Carribean 3
Oceans 13
Evan Almighty (sequel to Bruce Almighty)
The Hills Have Eyes 2
28 Weeks Later
The Bourne Ultimatum
Resident Evil: Apocalypse

This is not even counting adaptations of television series or other non-novel adaptations: Get Smart, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Simpsons, Underdog, Hairspray (based on the musical which is based on a different film), Nancy Drew, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Across the Universe, which is a musical based on the Beatles' songs. I seem to recall that premise not working so well when it starred the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. Although I did kind of like Steve Martin's rendition of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

Neil Gaiman's Stardust is being released later this year. When asked for thoughts to aid in the marketing, he suggested the following tagline: "It's not a sequel to anything."

Good enough for me.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The original "Stardust" movie was a sequel to "That´ll Be The Day" - though I guess this is a different one. I liked "That´ll Be The Day" -Ringo Starr´s a better actor than drummer.

It is terryfing how Hollywood is so timid when it comes to movie making, so much needs to be middle of the road dross that makes money back on DVD.

There´s a lot of good stuff around though too, and by the very nature of quality anything, it can only ever be a minor percentage of a much larger output of space fillers.

CaliforniaKat said...

Hi there, I found you through Anatomy of Melancholy and glad I did.

I love the tagline, it reminds me of how unoriginal most people have become and how the masses have lowered their expectations (or lost them). As your list proves, everything is either a sequel to something already done, a reinterpretation or an adaptation of a book or a song. Ho hum!

Most originals stand the test of time. I can only think of a few cases when a remake was successful in reintroducing a new generation to a classic.

You'll see me drop by again!

Unknown said...

mmm must go and order those cheap cinema tickets...

Chris said...

There's going to be an Underdog movie?????

S. Kearney said...

I saw Irina Palmer last night, starring Marianne Faithful in a VERY DIFFERENT light! :) Worth checking out if it comes your way. I'm glad to see you have adopted one of my lions ... and glad to see he will have a monkey for company ... Bonto. :)

Liz Dwyer said...

Wow! That's a whole lotta sequels! Some of the new non-sequel movies are sure to get sequels. Everybody ready for Bugs II: The Reinfestation?

The Moon Topples said...

Mr. Z: Yeah, this is more or less a fairy tale, from the book by Neil Gaiman.

I agree about the majority of anything being crap, I was just taken aback by how many films slated for release are sequels this year.

CaliKat: Welcome! And, for the record, I think adaptations of books or plays are still a perfectly legitimate way to make a movie, because the mediums are different enough to still require a voice and a style to get the story told. I suppose I'm thinking more of Casablanca or The Godfather, rather than a Grisham.

Ver: They'll be cheap in more ways than one, it seems.

Chris: Yes. Jason Lee as the voice of Underdog.

Shameless: I'll check out Irina Palmer. And do my lion-y duty.

Liz: There's even talk of a sequel to The Departed. Which strikes me as odd. Glad you live in LA, where your Rebuggening pitch meeting is sure to go well. Tell 'em it's Arachnophobia meets Die Hard, with shades of The Matrix.