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Hollywood is on edge ahead of summer movie season

by JD Rucker | April 27, 2008 at 10:53 am

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This is a summer that will define the movie industry for a long time. If it's as big as anticipated with several super-blockbuster potentials, then business should go forward as planned. If it's a bust due to changes in the world, the economy, and the Internet, we could see a shift away from high-budget flicks with more Hollywood producers shooting for Juno and the rest of the cheap, low risk, high potential movies.

Hollywood is launching a 2008 salvo that includes "Speed Racer," "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," with Harrison Ford reprising his role as the daring adventurer, "Indy" Jones.

Yes, the pressure is on for a blockbuster summer season, which runs from May through August and can account for nearly 40 percent of the annual box office. But at least one man is reveling in all the hype: "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau.

"I think it's great. You know, my last movie got sucked into obscurity because there was so much else going around it," Favreau said, speaking of his 2005 special effects-filled "Zathura: A Space Adventure." The movie earned good reviews but failed to catch fire early in a crowded holiday movie season.

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insaniac

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:00 on April 27th, 2008

Studio films seem only to adapt to special-effects technology, whilst the indies develop via storytelling: such is the result of budget constraints. It's no surprise that hits like Juno were bought by larger entities, rather than produced by them.

It isn't that studios *can't* make good films; it's just that they most often choose not to: they still believe in the big-star/big-noise formula, which fails as often as it succeeds.