Movies You're Not Looking Forward To

[Mysterious F.]

I have found a whole new series of movies that I won't be looking forward to, but you never know.

First, ones involving Steven Spielberg:

• The Adventures of Tintin series
  
• Lincoln
  
• Old boy
  
• Ghost in the Shell
  
• Chocky
  
• A Martin Luther king biopic
  
• A remake of James Stewart classic Harvey
  
• Transformers 3
  
  Ones not involving Steven Spielberg:
  
• 2012
  
• New Moon
  
• Hoodwinked 2
  
• Friday the 13th Part 2
  
• Tales from Earthsea (even if it IS from Studio Ghibli)

[darkphantomime]

OK, now you're just trolling. I understand the ones not involving steven spielberg, but a lot of his work can be great.  Please watch Ghost in the Shell anime movie before dissing it already. Otherwise you still don't know what you're talking about and just assessing internet rumor.

The reason I'm supporting Spielberg towards this project is because Ghost in the Shell is in need of publicity. Even if the live action movie sucks, it'll still bring a lot of publicity to the series as a whole.

[Uximadesk]

JQ, I believe it's a very well stablished fact that the US tends to ruin everything that is originally made outside it's borders (well, pizza is good), I'm confident that Spielberg will ruin GitS.

[darkphantomime]

Well, at least it's not Dicaprio. And Spielberg has gone with some of the themes played through in Ghost in the Shell (like with Minority Report). Saying that every future movie from Spielberg will suck though? That's taking it a bit far.

Keep in mind, this project has been around for a LOOONG time, like 5-6 years. They've been trying to find someone to do a Live action ghost in the shell for quite a long time. While I'm ambiguous on this concept, at least it won't be by the Wachowski Brothers. There are plenty of worse picks than Spielberg that could've been made, like Michael Bay (LOL). Some directors may have had some interest though, like on the lower tier. But think of it along the marketing point of view.

Look at the bright side, at least Tom Cruise won't be in it.

[Mysterious F.]

Well, at least it's not Dicaprio. And Spielberg has gone with some of the themes played through in Ghost in the Shell (like with Minority Report). Saying that every future movie from Spielberg will suck though? That's taking it a bit far.

Keep in mind, this project has been around for a LOOONG time, like 5-6 years. They've been trying to find someone to do a Live action ghost in the shell for quite a long time. While I'm ambiguous on this concept, at least it won't be by the Wachowski Brothers. There are plenty of worse picks than Spielberg that could've been made, like Michael Bay (LOL). Some directors may have had some interest though, like on the lower tier. But think of it along the marketing point of view.

Look at the bright side, at least Tom Cruise won't be in it.

But the thing is, there are far greater directors in the world than Spielberg to handle Ghost in the Shell. (Wong Kar-Wai is a great director, and David Cronenberg could do a good job of it.) So what if the source material is serious and intelligent? So were Empire of the Sun and The War of the Worlds, but Spielberg ruined them by turning the books into movies, and The Color Purple and Schindler's List also had some very questionable liberties taken with the books. Plus, I bet that half the people who go to watch it won't even know that it's based off a manga.

And just so you know, I thought Cruise was good in Minority Report.

[darkphantomime]

Cruise was terrible with War of the Worlds though, which is why that particular adaptation was such a critical failure.

Take a look between Dark City and The Matrix and think about how that fits into this continuum for a minute.

We get it, you hate spielberg, but that's still no reason to flatly decry all future projects by him as 'crap'. We don't really know any extensive details about this particular adaptation, this is why I'm staying largely neutral until the movie comes out. It could work, given the proper direction.

It's mainly a thing about picking actors that don't have egos.

Wonder how it'd work if JJ Abrams worked on it?

[Mysterious F.]

Well, I thought War of the Worlds was bad because Spielberg completely abandoned all of the satire of Western society that Wells had created, and replaced it with very unbelievable "reflections" on how people act in times of war. Cruise wasn't great, for sure, but he was far from terrible, though. I think most of the reason we think he is terrible because of the media frenzy surrounding him just before it came out.

When did I say they would be crap? I only said I'm not looking forward to them. Even if I don't really like Spielberg, he does have talent when it comes to technical aspects of moviemaking. (He's also good at audience manipulation, more often than not a bad thing.) Still, he isn't capable of moral complexities on his own, so that will probably show up. Sure, The Color Purple, Schindler's List, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence have their deep moments, especially A.I., but this is due a lot more to the source materials for each of them. Everything else he's done doesn't delve too deeper than the skin. (Keep in mind I still haven't seen Munich, though.)

Plus, if Spielberg is making it, than it is likely that he would turn to big-name stars, ones that probably have egos. He's done that a lot, lately. Still, look on the bright side, Tom Hanks isn't involved. Now, THAT would be crap.

[darkphantomime]

Think of it here: The lead is a female, Motoko Kusanagi. And then we have Tagusa, Batou, and Aramaki, along with the side support that are less known. Who would he pick for Motoko? Or the Puppet-master?

Have you even read the manga?

Sometimes it has to be done in part from a marketing perspective. This is not a perfect world and I wouldn't go with this route. But I guess they consider Spielberg a 'safe' bet when it comes to drawing an audience, though I can only hope that they don't take it to the vast extremes.

[Hi no Seijin]

• 2012
  

I think it might make for a good action movie, but I have no doubt that all the idiots in the world will think it's a real warning for an event that most likely isn't going to come to pass.  This just might be an instance where breaking the suspension of disbelief would be a good thing.

[Mysterious F.]

Think of it here: The lead is a female, Motoko Kusanagi. And then we have Tagusa, Batou, and Aramaki, along with the side support that are less known. Who would he pick for Motoko? Or the Puppet-master?

Have you even read the manga?

Sometimes it has to be done in part from a marketing perspective. This is not a perfect world and I wouldn't go with this route. But I guess they consider Spielberg a 'safe' bet when it comes to drawing an audience, though I can only hope that they don't take it to the vast extremes.

JQ, I really can't help but feel that the movie, even if it is good, won't help with the reception of the manga at all. Do you realize how many people don't even know that Schindler's List is from a book? Or that Amadeus is from a play? Or that The Departed is from an Asian movie? Very few people do, actually. The movie won't make people care about the manga or bring in a significant new fanbase, all it would do is bring in more money for both the studios and Spielberg. In short, it's more like they're raping the series; using it for what they want, and then throwing it away like trash.

[darkphantomime]

I do believe they're doing it with the original Japanese' blessing. It's been 14 years since the original anime movie. You're only assuming given prior experience. Assumptions sometimes go too far and it is a bit of a problem to make a point that all things will be crap.

You want Rape? Look at Uwe Bowl and Michael Bay. I wouldn't say it's fair to cast doubt on it this early in phase, considering its not even going to be released for another 2 years at least. Granted, there are various ways in which this can be mucked up, but there are also various ways that could work in great things. You just can't let biases get in the way before the detail is even laid out.

[Mysterious F.]

Spielberg has been working in the movie business for decades, and I've seen the majority of his work. I'd say I have reasons to make assumptions.

[darkphantomime]

On closer inspection of the Spielberg list I see... Transformers 3? Wait what? Does that mean Michael Bay is off for that one?

Keep in mind too, that Spielberg has also served as Executive Producer on a lot of projects, and I'm guessing you also count those among his filmography. However the term 'executive producer' is extremely broad. It can either mean a lot of involvement, or very little involvement, attached only for the sake of name recognition.

[MagmarFire]

This just might be an instance where breaking the suspension of disbelief would be a good thing.

That kind of situation's more common than you might think; for example, people may consider it Rule of Cool and just simply not care because the willing suspension of disbelief is broken in that way.

[Mysterious F.]

On closer inspection of the Spielberg list I see... Transformers 3? Wait what? Does that mean Michael Bay is off for that one?

Keep in mind too, that Spielberg has also served as Executive Producer on a lot of projects, and I'm guessing you also count those among his filmography. However the term 'executive producer' is extremely broad. It can either mean a lot of involvement, or very little involvement, attached only for the sake of name recognition.

The list only said that they would involve him, and, being executive producer, he is involved.

JQ, based off of your previous comments, it seems that you're not aware of the auteur theory. According to the auteur theory, a movie is merely the form of expression of the director (referred to as the auteur, French for author), and that directors will consistently contain the same expressions through their career, only they will learn to tell it differently. Ever since it was developed in the 50's by critic/director Francois Truffaut, the auteur theory practically revolutionized the film world. While screenwriters are sometimes also considered auteurs, the term traditionally is used to refer to directors, especially directors who have a large amount of creative control. Spielberg does have significant creative control of his movies, and based off of previous efforts of his, I can't help but feel that this is a movie people, especially Ghost in the Shell fans, should be wary of.