This week, it seems that to get back against the voters, James Gunn and Peter Safran were removed as heads of DC Studios. And their replacement is a person who wants to make movies that his pastor and grandmother would want to see.
And there’s the problem. Everyone has different likes and tastes. It doesn’t help that Jeffrey Latcham is from Tulsa and it seems he’s trying to piggyback off the success of Angel Studios. However I don’t think people want their superheroes and their Christianity merged. If they think teenagers are wanting to see more Christian aith based superhero movies, they’re poorly mistaken.
People don’t go to see Christian faith based movies to enjoy them; they go to see Christian faith based movies because they can brag about seeing them on social media. The first Left Behind released in 2000 is so cheap looking and lackluster the writers of the books sued the filmmakers for breach of contract. And they were justified. Lifetime TV movies are better made.
Tyler Perry has built his whole career on shaming black people into supporting black filmmakers no matter what. It’s easy to write so many TV and movie scripts when you keep recycling the same Christian based misogynistic material. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just uses AI system to churn them out.
Yes, it’s easy to find parallels with Christianity using superheroes. It’s easy to find parallels with Christianity using a No. 2 pencil if you can write it well. But I don’t think he was chosen by David Ellison, CEO of Skydance Media, because he can make movies more appealing to audiences. He was chosen to make more movies to appeal more to the teenage male demographic. Latcham has history working with Marvel as a producer but nowadays, anyone can call themselves producers as long as they help with financing or investments.
There’s an old joke being an “associate producer” credit is nothing. It’s what movie stars give their parents, friends or spouses/partner. It’s like a fake toy police badge.
But people have different tastes in movies. And a lot of men had no desire to see Supergirl. Also, many of them are still pissed Henry Cavill isn’t Superman anymore. Fandom has its own vicious circles. Just look at Star Wars.
Not everyone eats the same toppings on their pizza. One thing I learned as a news editor is every story is written different. And not everyone will read every news story and article. My company had a consultant who wanted us to write more indepth news stories. But not every story needs 10 sources and takes 15 minutes for the average person to read. You have to chalk it up that all the time and effort you put in writing something may not be seen by many people.
It happens.
But the Marvel movies have become so generic and basic now that Ellison just wants someone who can deliver simple movies with no political overtones. Yet I anticipate that this is just a losing battle for Warner Bros. and DC, both owned by Skydance now. Gunn has his fanbase as well as Zack Snyder does. Some people have just ignored the recent DC movies just because they felt Snyder was wronged. And I know the same pattern will happen here with Latcham.
Yes, voters said no to the political right and their support for more corporations and business people. But less box office returns have been a snowball that started long ago and just become a bigger problem. Most movie theaters in small towns or even smaller cities don’t exist anymore. Either the big corporations bought them out or the private owners got out of the business.
Moviegoers have to sit through up to a half-hour of previews and even commercials to see a flick. Ticket prices have increased while at the same time all tickets are purchased online or at computer kiosks. (And they’re not checking the tickets so how many of you are getting those senior discounts? I’m guilty too.)
So most people have to drive an hour or more to the nearest movie theater in a more populated city. Taking a family of four isn’t as feasible as it once was. And most movies are usually out in DVD or digital three months adter they’re released. o you purchase a movie on Fandango or Amazon Prime that you can watch at your leisure from the comfort of your own home. You also don’t have to deal with screaming kids or disruptive people in the theater. You can even pause the movie to go to the bathroom.
Why go out unless it’s a date or special occasion? I used to go see a movie every weekend because I knew I’d have to wait at least six months to hope it’s on the shelves at Blockbuster when I stopped by. I just watched Super Troopers 3 yesterday about three months after it was released. And it’s included in my Disney/Hulu subscription.
I try to keep my streaming services as low as possible. But I can a months-worth of movies, TV series, programs specials for the same price of an average movie ticket now.
So, it doesn’t matter if it’s intended to appeal to everyone because I know I can just stop watching and find something else in the matter of time it would take me to get up and walk out of a theater. I’ve never done that before even though I’ve seen some bad movies. I just look at it as wasting money.
The bigger issue isn’t that Gunn allowed writers, producers and directors to make more R-rated mature movies. It’s that he didn’t follow the same formula as Marvel which was actually rocky for a few years at the beginning and has gone through rough patches since. The issue is Ellison doesn’t believe in making movies that don’t have huge returns. He’s more worried about his investment. He wants blockbusters that brings in at least a billion.
I didn’t think much of Backrooms or Obsession but their status as the little movies that could have shown we’re all tired of the same cookie-cutter format. Established actors are being overlooked by currently hot celebs who don’t exactly fit into their roles. After Tom Skeritt passed last month, a few people online commented how he and the rest of the cast of Alien looked like they were blue-collar space truckers. Nowadays, if it was made it would have a younger cast.
Also too many actors are overstaying their prime in roles they don’t need to be in. Just because Tom Cruise at 60 can base jump off a skyscraper doesn’t mean all action heroes must also be eligible for the Early Bird Special at Country Kitchen Buffet.
Gunn and Safran didn’t want to copy the MCU format and that cost them their jobs. But people had been getting tired of it a long time ago. Also people got hip to the way some entries like the Ant-Man movies and Moon Knight were just filler material. Maybe Gunn and Safran are leaving at the right time as people grow tired.
I just hope it encourages more filmmakers to take bigger chances on smaller-budgeted movies and we see a new Renaissance of more independent movies. And I’m not talking about A24 which has taken over Miramax as the next Oscar Bait studio.
What do you think? Please comment.
