Huh. That's a solid spin on the old saying. At the very least, some decent creative chops should be necessary. Robert Evans was never a massive star actor so far as I remember, but Paramount was at its creative peak under him. And UA managed to survive for a long time.
Budgets are going way up, but cinema visits are way down, do the maths studios! I remember seeing Avatar in a packed auditorium! I can’t remember, at least since COVID, being in a packed cinema!
Oddly enough, the only packed theaters I've been to have been for older movies. Chinatown had a decent crowd, while The Wizard of Oz had a few seats left open. The recent Spider-Man and LOTR showings were fully packed.
Tis is my fav Steely Song!! I was 13 in 1970. Music is my everything. This is phenominal. ❤ I approve using AI visually, but not audio. Creating AI of musicians voices, to me, is beyond wrong.
I'm just glad I found someone else that enjoys King of the World as much as I do. All Dan songs are great, but it's easily one of their best. I'd say it's a toss up between this one, Kings, and Do It Again for me. I think AI is a solid starting point and maybe for something like this for quick visuals, but on the whole, creating from scratch is a lot more fun.
@@ConcreteowlI actually really like his Dune. I think he got the idea right. I can see why some people would dislike it, but saying he didn't understand is something I disagree. I believe Lynch got the idea wrong in some things (by the way, he is my favourite director).
In defense of Babylon and Damien, his first two films were many years before COVID and streaming wasn't as relied on (especially pre COVID.) I don't know how .many comments on film trailers & film reviews are "I will wait till this is on streaming." And during & after COVID, films have very little time of theater release & the films premiere on streaming service(s). And I personally understand. I've seen 2 films since vaccinations, and it was The Little Mermaid and Barbie on all day matinee night at the theater. It really takes special films, either sentimental or the movie experience on the big screen. Like, I'm eager to go to see Inside Out 2 in the next week or two in theaters. I slept on the first one, and regret not seeing it in theaters. So I am not going to miss my chance with the sequel.but back to Babylon, I think it was amazing & the critics were mostly wrong in their negative reviews about the film. I hope it becomes like Singin' in the Rain, Vertigo, and Citizen Kane, where time and new generations are able to change its original release negatives impressions to positive ones that make it a classic.
I feel nothing but contempt for Warner's. They have and continue to utterly squander the DC legacy. The new and unqualified leadership seems capable only of cancelling projects. The studio is a mere shadow of its former self.
Whats bizzare is that Paramount owns both Saving Private Ryan & Shakespeare in Love. Anyway its quite telling that for all the bitching & hate Disney get these days for being "Evil", "Greedy", "Corporate" & "Woke"... nobody talks about the fact that Disney literally backed the Weinstein's for over a decade.
Whiplash is overrated. Lala land is a masterpiece. I’ve seen it 5x and it’s a miracle. I dont even like musicals. Babylon is a classic train wreck. It’s unwatchable. He should realize you can’t take that kind of risk w that big of a budget in that genre. If it’s sci-fi or fantasy, ok you need the money, but a historical epic about old Hollywood? It’s absurd. 4:42
The best evidence that the Civil War was not fault over slavery is the fact that most of the northern states still practice legalized slavery all the way up until the emancipation proclamation. There’s also the fact that Lincoln proclaimed in his inauguration speech. They had no intention of making slavery illegal, and didn’t think he had a right to do it. Slavery was the propaganda piece. There is no reason Northern states are going to go to war to end the practice of slavery when they themselves still used slaves. There were free states in the north, but most states still had legalized slavery. Slavery would’ve ended with or without the Civil War. It was a practice that was ending around the world at this time and even in the United States it was going to end. This Civil War was not about slavery alone. It was one of the many issues. Nobody was going to war over slavery though. Especially when they still practiced slavery. Cherry picking a few lines from his speech, doesn’t make it suddenly all about slavery. Like I said. Slavery was the propaganda of the time. It was the hot button issue. I’m not surprised. He covered it in his speech. Made it about northern control over southern states. Anyone who’s interested can actually go read the entire speech. He has on quite a few subjects. This is actually a very small portion of a very long speech.
It put a few actors in the hospital as well- George asked an awful lot of ppl- usually in very rude ways. The entire Tatooine sequence was shot in a real desert in insane heat, dealing with sand constantly- for months and months. And many of the actors were in crazy costumes inside of which the heat was unbearable.
you missed the more epic director firing of them all: THE FIRING OF RICHARD STANLEY FROM THE SET OF "THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU. There is a whole documentary about that firing
I think saying she, 'squandered' her career, etc., are rather harsh words. Here was someone who obviously grew up in a very turbulent, dysfunctional family, abandonded by her mother and she spent her short life trying to fill the hole in her heart. There was an ever present sadness in her eyes that reflected how much she needed to be loved and never found anyone who could fill that void. People don't choose to have addictions, they start as a salve and they slowly take over. I think we need to be more empathetic towards people like this vs. judging them.
When we talk about crazy directors, there is Copolla, Friedkin, Kubrick and there is Herzog. His whole persona is just amazing and my god, his voice and accent. You have to be a crazy director, when you work 5x times with Klaus Kinski, voluntarily. Pure madness.
The Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks duo concert in Chicago on 6/21/2024 had crazy expensive tickets. Two nosebleed section tickets with limited view, without the fees, was $310. Some front row tickets were multiple hundreds of dollars.
I think studios have sometimes hired talented, but young and less experienced directors to control and intimidate into submission, if need be. Then they occasionally come across a Kubrick (Spartacus) or a Fincher (Alien 3) and wonder why these “littler brats” don’t just do what they’re told (probably ‘cause they’re too frickin’ talented to shoot stupid ideas without a fight).
it's so funny how business executives and their "for western audiences" mentality are so misguided and patronizing. "Redraw that NES Mega Man cover art, put in Scarlett Johansson, put in a giant gorilla with Godzilla, or the brainless western audiences will be confused because they've never seen anything different ever and have no ability to appreciate anything outside of their narrow and vapid excuse for taste."
Woof, I forgot Robards’ Oscar came for Julia. What a nightmare that film turned out to be. Long story short, the author stole the life story of a woman who aided the Resistance against the Nazis, and passed it off as her own. It wasn’t until after the movie was made, released, and had been a huge hit, that the public realized what a liar Lillian Hellman was. I highly recommend Be Kind Rewind’s RU-vid doc about the making of 1977’s Julia.
you have to be a complete moron to believe they used any real dead bodies in this movie because they would be completely covered and teeming with flies in that environment
Titanic: did an irate crewmate feed the entire crew crystal meth? I remember as a kid hearing that they all got the flu. Years later, I heard the real story, and that cameron worked through the high
Lol you're not far off - it was PCP, and they laced the clam chowder when filming in Nova Scotia for the modern day scenes. They all went to the hospital and I think Cameron said that the cinematographer at the time, Caleb Deschanel (who was later replaced) tried to attack him. I think Cameron said that Bill Paxton was the most relaxed through it all.
Babylon was an undeserved failure. It was a really great movie that was just misunderstood when it was released. I do think it is on its way to earn a reputation as a cult classic.
It also faced steep competition: Avatar: The Way of Water. Both were 3+ hours, so I think part of it is that theaters just needed more space for Avatar. If Babylon was released a month earlier or later, it could've done better.
Yup. It's notable that most of them are, in some way, epics as well. Jaws might be the iffiest to call an "epic", but it owes a lot to Moby Dick - which is most certainly an epic.
I’ve watched both The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate. They’re both significantly dull. The cinematography on both is gorgeous. But the films themselves are incredibly boring and slow. If I was a producer I might, at a stretch, have green lit another Cimino film with a mid budget after the success of TDH but I for sure would never have given him a blank cheque. He was an accomplished indie director (at best), he was never ever going to be an epic film director. It would be like giving Judd Apatow or Kevin Smith $300m to film whatever their version of ‘manifest destiny’ was
Part of it was that the late 60s through the 70s were a different time, and studios were willing to take a bit more creative risk. But to your point re: green lightning a mid budget Cimino film - I think that's exactly what they should've done. The studios issue - and the directors as well - was that they overextended the budgets way past what was necessary. If a $10 million dollar film is pretty much done and needs another $2 million to finish with effects, that's fine. But if a $11 million film goes past $22 million, then $33 million? Well, then you've got an issue on your hands. I'm sure studios already build in some slack (i.e. movie gets a production budget of $50 million but internally, they're okay with it going to $60 million or something), but they need to hold the line on that: this much and no more. With Cimino, it seemed like artistic intent fueled by ego. No theater would carry a five-and-a-half hour film, and he should've known that. If he had stuck to his contract, he might've had a brighter future.
