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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph The Movie Thread: "The Lorax" Revives Interest in an Animated "The Cat in the Hat"

Discussion in 'Archive: The Amphitheatre' started by Nevermind, Oct 15, 2011.

  1. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004
    Its already here. Go watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
     
  2. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    There will always be original scripts. There will always be new plays and novels to adapt. I hate to think that good original scripts don't get produced because they're being pushed aside by sequels and remakes. But the appetite of the movie industry may be so voracious that other art forms can't keep up with the demand.

    Hollywood has gone through almost all of classic western literature worth going through. When it got done with that it went through comic books and tv shows, video games and amusement park rides. It's been cannibalizing itself since the beginning of cinema. When talkies came out they remade many of the classic silents. Sequels and remakes go back all the way. Remaking films for new generations of moviegoers doesn't seem like a terrible thing, if it's on a generational timescale, and Footloose nearly qualifies for that.

    A movie like Fight Club comes out, an adaptation that far surpasses the original novel in artistic merit, and wading through all the other crap suddenly seems worthwhile. And I'm glad someone is trying to make a movie like The Tree of Life even if I'm not entirely convinced by it.

    Cinema has more life in it than opera, and contemporary orchestral music has become almost completely inaccessible to mainstream audiences. Is there anything revolutionary happening right now in jazz, rock or pop music?
     
  3. severian28

    severian28 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 1, 2004
    If its like Terrence McKenna claims and the universe is a novelty creating machine that we are all just a part of then i think like many ancient cultures who followed 360 day calendars have already thought and taught for the last two thousand years and that is to hold on to your seats for the next year and three months as it spirals to its novelty making conclusion, at which point all theses ancient cultures all say - in so many words and in some fashion - that access and creative control of time, space, and information will be possible. We might not think of ideas the same after that and we definitely won't need Hollywood.
     
  4. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    We'll know the end times are upon us when Hollywood starts making movie adaptions of 1980s music videos.

    The full length movie version of Thriller - who wouldn't pay to see that. Plus zombie Michael Jackson will be that much more poignant now.
     
  5. JohnWesleyDowney

    JohnWesleyDowney Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2004


    One day someone will make a movie based on an app. It's coming.
     
    severian28 likes this.
  6. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Well, if you count game apps, they've already announced an Angry Birds movie :p.
     
  7. JohnWesleyDowney

    JohnWesleyDowney Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2004
    See! [face_mischief]
     
  8. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    I agree with Jabba. I don't think it's possible to run out of original stories, and there are still plenty of quality films to be made as adaptations as well, I think the film and television industry has its problems, and part of that is an emphasis on big budget drivel because that's what brings people into the theaters/makes people tune in each week, but that's an economics issue more than anything. Quality writing is still done every day.
     
  9. severian28

    severian28 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 1, 2004
    There will always be quality creation just as there will always be crap-ola but whether any of its original or novel is a horse of a different color
     
  10. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    In a sense it's "original" to turn the musketeers and Milady into superhero ninja assassins, although arguably the Peter Hyams "Musketeer" already took us down that road.

    I always liked:

    "Your script is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."

    That sums up most movies I feel.
     
  11. severian28

    severian28 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 1, 2004
    Its a novel variation and maybe not even because hybrids are abound quite a bit and increasingly so since the late seventies with our Star Wars being the " novel " exemplar of such hybriding of primal and mythological themes and character types to touch the Zeitgeist . Even Dumas original work wasnt original in the sense that it embodied camaraderie and bravery but the novelty instead resided in Dumas writing that particular story as a way to textualize camaraderie and bravery. So in that sense i do agree with you. And for a guy like me if a hybrid ninja version of the story is well done then that in and of itself would be where a relative type of originality resided and i say relative because in the comicmanga world there is already a ton of quality stuff like that. I think comicmanga has been and will continue to be the cutting edge of mindful expression , not Hollywood or even virtual reality ( or at least not yet with the latter )
     
  12. Nevermind

    Nevermind Jedi Knight star 6

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    Oct 14, 2001
  13. Nevermind

    Nevermind Jedi Knight star 6

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    Oct 14, 2001
  14. duende

    duende Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 28, 2006
    i don't think easier access to visual beauty is a bad thing. ultimately it's what you do with it that counts, as the article points out (i think?).
     
  15. Vader_vs_Maul

    Vader_vs_Maul Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 4, 2003
    In the Games boards the question was asked whether people are tired of the saturation of zombies in video games lately. Then I thought about that there is a running tv-show on air these days about zombies. There is something of a zombie trend or fad or whatever you want to call it in popular culture these days. That got me thinking about similar trends we have had in the recent years with vampires, comic-book adaptations, super-hero fiction, the wave of wire-fu films that came after the success of The Matrix, etc. Obviously in the decade that passed we have also witnessed the surge of reality-tv shows.

    I figure that there has probably always been a certain propensity toward distinct trends, born out of producer's desire to play it safe. But it feels to me like it's much more noticeable in the recent years, it seems like it's so blatant. I grew up during the 90's and can't remember any such distinct trends in films and tv, but maybe I was just too young to notice. I recall there certainly were very distinct trends in videogames, as there still is. But this being the Amphitheatre, I won't get into that. Can you point to any trends or fads that were as distinctly obvious and pronounced during the 90's? Or the decades before? And if not, why is that, and is it a good or bad thing?
     
  16. The_Four_Dot_Elipsis

    The_Four_Dot_Elipsis Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2005
    Pretty?!

    Films are pretty much hideous these days.
     
  17. Nevermind

    Nevermind Jedi Knight star 6

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    Oct 14, 2001
  18. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    He claims the first Manic Pixie Dreamgirl was Helen of Troy? I cannot possibly take this argument seriously.
     
  19. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Yeah, he doesn't seem to quite get what the archetype is, or why there's a problem.
     
  20. Nevermind

    Nevermind Jedi Knight star 6

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    Oct 14, 2001
  21. Jabbadabbado

    Jabbadabbado Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 1999
    I was just thinking about this with the latest Jackson Hobbit production video. He's shooting in 3D with that $58,000 Red Epic-M camera capable of shooting at 48 fps at a higher resolution than 35 mm. It's a better system than Cameron had for Avatar. The technology can change very quickly.

    It really won't be long before filmmakers can shoot digital movies that far surpass the video acquisition capabilities of the human eye.

    In the meantime, The Hobbit is going to look great. It will likely be the best-looking 3D film ever made.
     
  22. The_Four_Dot_Elipsis

    The_Four_Dot_Elipsis Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2005
    48fps is just going to look desperately wrong. The great thing with digital is that they've been able to replicate the 24fps look of film properly.

    Then again, people think those 100HZ TVs actually look good, so I guess the classical look is truly heading for death.
     
  23. Nevermind

    Nevermind Jedi Knight star 6

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    Oct 14, 2001
  24. Nevermind

    Nevermind Jedi Knight star 6

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    Oct 14, 2001
  25. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    I'm a fundamentally lazy man, so here's my reply from the YJCC. :p