It's now or never.... Right....?

POSTED BY: THESOMNAMBULIST
UPDATED: Monday, May 28, 2012 18:11
VIEWED: 12241
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BYTEMITE

Monday, May 7, 2012 11:17 PM

Or Cabin in the Woods came out BEFORE Joss became a household name.

But to be fair, it's kind of a niche film.

ZZETTA13

Monday, May 7, 2012 11:49 PM

There are roads filled with pot-holes, and I do think that it is flat, nearly impossible to miss every one of them. Sure Joss has had some clunkers, who hasn’t?

I think that most of us here were/are saddened by the lose of Firefly. Even though I didn’t catch the show when it originally aired, I do feel I would have found it at some point. The saddest part is that it wasn’t given a chance.

Maybe every whim of Mr. Whedon shouldn’t be funded with bucket loads of money. He’d likely say that himself. But Firefly was a “jewel”, and it’s still making tons of fans & tons of money, and that network would be lying if they said different.

I’d still like to see him do something with the materiel, a little stronger than a comic now & then!

Z

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 2:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by JARHEAD:
The only way it ever happens is if Joss makes enough money with his deal for the next Avengers movie to fund it himself like with Dr. Horrible.

F DR HORRIBLE!!!!!

It's just as bad as the title....

As much as my bro was right about Firefly, he was wrong about Dr. Horrible.....

Painful............

STORYMARK

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 3:21 AM

The success of Avengers will certainly give Joss more clout, and a bit more power to get projects made. But we have to be realistic.

A) As much as we'd like to chalk this success up to Joss entirely - let's face it - it was a movie with Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America teaming up - it was virtually garunteed to be fairly big no matter who made it. And the vast majority of people coming out of it are going to talking about the Hulk smashing stuff, not Joss.

B) While he has become something akin to the anti-cheerleader around here, Zeek has a point - Joss just had a movie underperform a month ago - so it's not like Joss Whedon as a brand name is a blank check.

C) It doesn't even seem like something Joss wants to persue right now. He's all about launching Bellwether and getting his micro-budget films and web-series going.

D) Meanwhile - the cast are fairly busy.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

THESOMNAMBULIST

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 7:51 AM

Originally posted by Zeek:

Quote:
Cabin in the Woods might be the poison pill in all this. Avengers showed that Joss can be a success with a blockbuster, but Cabin in the Woods showed that his personal quirky creations don't really do much at the box office. Who knows how studio execs think? If it were me that would tell me not to just fund any old thing Joss wants to do.

Well you are right Zeek and it's a good point, however Hollywood doesn't always work that way.Often a director can be allowed a personal venture after just one flick. Steven Spielberg for one. He was given Jaws, it made a shed load and then it allowed him to get Close Encounters of the Third Kind made. He had to go to Columbia pictures rather Universal but he was still able to get it made. So it could work for Joss that way around.

However it is slight no doubt, and as Storymark said Joss is more interest in other things right now. So...

LWAVES

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 1:37 PM

Cabin In The Woods was always going to be a hard sell and it's no surprise to me that it underperformed, even though I really enjoyed it. Basically it's a horror movie which plugs itself as being different from all the other horror movies. How many times have we heard that before from other horror movies and they've turned out to be the same old stuff. It sounds like marketing. In this case it just happens to have a ring of truth about it. The trailer didn't help as a portion of horror fans are going to think they can figure it all out from that. Especially as trailers have been known to give too much away. Plus Joss only co-wrote and produced it, not directed it. That makes a big difference IMO as a lot of people won't see this as a Joss movie. Bringing up Spielberg again, it's kind of like the fact that he produced the Transformers movies (or at least the first one) yet you'd never consider them Spielberg movies.

But the Avengers being so huge a success will give Joss a lot more clout. The impression I get is that he already had the respect but just needed to prove he could do it. Even if this did use an already existing audience with four major, establshed characters Joss still knocked it out of the park by making them work together. It could have been an almighty mess that even Michael Bay wouldn't wipe his arse with. Even so, it's still only one movie hit, he still needs to show that he can make more than one hit movie before any real power comes his way.

As for Firefly/Serenity?
I too hope that something will turn up but I'm also realistic. Too much time has gone by, the cast have grown older, moved on and whilst, like us, they look back very fondly on that time it won't be the same as it was then. Even if they got everybody back together it still wouldn't be the same show. It would be extremely hard, near impossible to recreate the magic that was there at the time. And the last thing any of us would want is a sub-par offering that tarnished the memories we have.

ZEEK

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 2:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by lwaves:
Cabin In The Woods was always going to be a hard sell and it's no surprise to me that it underperformed, even though I really enjoyed it. Basically it's a horror movie which plugs itself as being different from all the other horror movies. How many times have we heard that before from other horror movies and they've turned out to be the same old stuff. It sounds like marketing. In this case it just happens to have a ring of truth about it. The trailer didn't help as a portion of horror fans are going to think they can figure it all out from that. Especially as trailers have been known to give too much away. Plus Joss only co-wrote and produced it, not directed it. That makes a big difference IMO as a lot of people won't see this as a Joss movie. Bringing up Spielberg again, it's kind of like the fact that he produced the Transformers movies (or at least the first one) yet you'd never consider them Spielberg movies.

I think this describes Serenity fairly closely. It's a niche movie that is difficult to market. Unless "from the maker of the Avengers" brings in about double the business that it would normally get then I don't see anything changing.

That being said I think reasonable budgets and reasonable expectations are where Joss is going. He said in one of the interviews posted here that Dr. Horrible made the biggest return percentagewise of anything he's done. If he can do a better job of keeping his quirky films down to quirky film budgets then he can do his own thing a lot more.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 4:02 PM

Well if you're going to be like THAT, then every genre is technically a niche market. Space western like Serenity, superhero movie like The Avengers.

What I meant with Cabin in the Woods is that it's a indy quirky horror/comedy deconstruction. And while the other aspects might not make it quite niche, I wouldn't call Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland niche for example, the indy part of it kinda does.

Serenity's not niche because the genre is pretty common and because it was distributed by a mainstream studio. Clearly it has lasting appeal because we're still here TALKING about it and because it's still bringing in new fans, so I don't think you can argue that the problem is that Firefly/Serenity wouldn't/doesn't appeal to a broad audience. The movie did not do well at the box office among mainstream audiences because of the then relatively unknown quality of Joss and the actors, meaning a lack of brand familiarity, not a lack of appeal.

SUASOR

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 4:44 PM

After Avengers, Joss will be listened to much more intently, and a lot more thought and consideration will go into how any new Firefly projects are turned down.

Then again, Firefly TNG is a possibility, leaving open the chance of guest shots by some of the original cast.

STORYMARK

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 4:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Well if you're going to be like THAT, then every genre is technically a niche market. Space western like Serenity, superhero movie like The Avengers.

What I meant with Cabin in the Woods is that it's a indy quirky horror/comedy deconstruction. And while the other aspects might not make it quite niche, I wouldn't call Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland niche for example, the indy part of it kinda does.

Serenity's not niche because the genre is pretty common and because it was distributed by a mainstream studio. Clearly it has lasting appeal because we're still here TALKING about it and because it's still bringing in new fans, so I don't think you can argue that the problem is that Firefly/Serenity wouldn't/doesn't appeal to a broad audience. The movie did not do well at the box office among mainstream audiences because of the then relatively unknown quality of Joss and the actors, meaning a lack of brand familiarity, not a lack of appeal.

Well, when it comes down to it - genre films are niche - as very few appeal to ALL people (4 quadrant films - referring to men/women, young/old - being the industry term.

That in mind, Serenity is niche of niche - which is pretty much borne out by its performance. It developed a feircely loyal cult following - and is widely ignored by the rest of the world. Thats about as niche as you get.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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