does hollywood never change?

[acroyear]

The last few superhero movies have been full of directors, writers, producers, actors all constantly changing hands.  Singer left XMen for Superman, Burton was doing Superman, then wasn't, but Burton coming into it kicked Smith out as scriptwriter, Cage was going to be the man of steel (sorry, I *still* don't see it), then Burton left and things hiatusified for a while.  Spiderman went through a few "creative changes" along the way, as did FF, Hulk, and Batman Begins.

Well, the upheavals continued this week as Josh "Firefly" Whedon left the Wonder Woman project while the director of The Flash has left THAT project.  Makes me wonder what really goes on in Warner Brothers that they keep pissing off the "talent" all the time.

Granted, Kevin Smith was very open about what the studio wanted him to do with Superman, though thankfully those proposals never saw the light in Superman Returns.  But really, Hollywood can't be all THAT bad, now can it?

Comments

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Hollywood can't be all THAT bad, now can it?

Joke, right???

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

mostly.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

Just in the spirit of correctness, Smith was never set to direct Superman. He was asked to write a draft. It never got to the point of being serious.

I think with any big name adaptation, the studios want to cover all the bases, as far as story and price goes. FF got a rewrite because it was too expensive to make. Batman went through a few story ideas (Worlds Greatest with Wolfgang Peterson attached, Year One with Aronofsky) before getting to the current one. Watchmen almost got greenlit with Paul Greengrass directing, before Paramount went cost cutting.

Fact is, film deals change all the time. We just hear about it more because of the internet.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

actually, not just because of the internet, but because they're "superhero films" and thus, everybody recognizes them.

plus there's how high expectations have already been set by first Reeve Superman and first Burton Batman, and the really bad renditions that have been done (Captain America), that the studios feel too much pressure to "get it right", and can easily micro-manage a product into oblivion.

hell, it's their money. in many ways, its the 18th century musical patronage system all over again. the artists want to make their product, but they can only do so when sponsored by the people with the money, people who can be incredibly flaky and narrow-visioned. in the modern world, its even worse; a king didn't have to care whether or not anybody else liked it, but a studio man's opinion doesn't mean crap unless he can somehow prove its how the box office will see it.

i made a clarification to the post on Smith.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's only true of DC, because WB owns them. They can take as much time as they want to get it right. Course, that doesn't always work either. (See Superman Returns)

As far as Marvel goes, I don't think Avi Avid is picky enough. Fox treats the X-Men franchise as a red-headed stepchild. With the exception of Sam Raimi and Sony, Marvel's efforts of late have been less than spectacular.

BTW, you can add Iron Man to your list. Jon Favreau has left that project and it is currently without a director.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

See Superman Returns

I didn't think it was all THAT bad (Spacey rocked as Luthor, for example, taking it like a true role rather than a caricature of Hackman), though they *really* should have gone without the kid thing ("man of steel, woman of kleenax" and all that). it's been shown *repeatedly* on tv series to be a "jump the shark" moment, and hollywood should have learned by now.

now, the kid's always there, always a distraction, always a reason to have unnecessary moral fatherhood crap thrown in to any sequel that would better served by exploring characters from the comic canon in a new way. add to that the "genuine nice guy" that Lois's fiance is and you really have this mixed feeling, wanting the hero and heroine to get together but having this eternal tension. such are the things soaps are made of, and so any way out of this, either by killing off the fiance, making him suddenly become a jerk, or "I got that job deal in Californian and it's best you don't come with me", it'll be seen by the audience as a soap opera cop-out.