Pacific Rim: Uprising | March 23, 2018 | Steven S. DeKnight (Starz' Spartacus, Marvel's Daredevil) directing | John Boyega. Scott Eastwood joins as co-lead | Tag All Spoilers!

[Plain Old Tele]

2 hours ago, Bishop54 said:

The guy has be infamous for funding passion projects...good ridance.

 

Good riddance because he funded movies he was passionate about?  

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, Telemachos said:

 

Good riddance because he funded movies he was passionate about?  

Well, when those movies are Warcraft and The Great Wall, is that any great loss?

[Plain Old Tele]

2 hours ago, filmlover said:

Well, when those movies are Warcraft and The Great Wall, is that any great loss?

 

Yes. The industry needs more execs who're passionate about movies, not less.

[That One Girl]

I'd much rather have a million passion projects than flop than a million soulless studio movies that do well.

[NoobSaibot]

This is partly why I was iffy about the Dalian Wanda acquisition.

 

Now some films in the planning stages could be in danger. Wanda just has to whisper in someone's ear to get rid of something they don't want.

[Cookson]

I hope Godzilla 2 and Godzilla vs Kong still happen...

[Bishop54]

8 hours ago, Telemachos said:

 

Good riddance because he funded movies he was passionate about?  

No it's different Tele, he's a fanboy who was running a studio, he was funding films HE was interested in and attaching large budgets to them. Risky projects that had an uphill climb box-office wise, just because he was interested in them.

[Bishop54]

6 hours ago, That One Guy said:

I'd much rather have a million passion projects than flop than a million soulless studio movies that do well.

But that's how studios get in trouble. You have to make what people will see. 

[Plain Old Tele]

4 hours ago, Bishop54 said:

No it's different Tele, he's a fanboy who was running a studio, he was funding films HE was interested in and attaching large budgets to them. Risky projects that had an uphill climb box-office wise, just because he was interested in them.

 

This is what the Weinsteins do. This is what Megan Ellison does. This is what every film-loving exec does. It's a good thing, not bad.

[The Futurist]

5 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

 

This is what the Weinsteins do. This is what Megan Ellison does. This is what every film-loving exec does. It's a good thing, not bad.

 

Star Wars Force Awakens was my favourite passion project of 2015.

 

So much passionate passion.

 

 

[Arlborn]

14 hours ago, Cookson said:

I hope Godzilla 2 and Godzilla vs Kong still happen...

Yeah, I'm worried about them now.

 

 

[Arlborn]

Holy crap, the comment section in that article. 2017 ain't getting better.

[dudalb]

18 hours ago, Telemachos said:

 

Good riddance because he funded movies he was passionate about?  

Nah, because he funded movies that weren't very good.

 

17 hours ago, filmlover said:

Well, when those movies are Warcraft and The Great Wall, is that any great loss?

THIS. If he had done a David Puttnam as funded interesting projects that failed,it would be one thing. But funding ill conceived geeky CGI epics is another matter.

Edited January 18, 2017 by dudalb

[dudalb]

15 hours ago, Telemachos said:

 

Yes. The industry needs more execs who're passionate about movies, not less.

It all depends on what you are passionate about, Tele.

[dudalb]

19 hours ago, Macleod said:

 

The Hollywood Reporter apparently had the first exclusive on this.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/thomas-tull-exit-legendary-entertainment-965108

 

This is interesting news.  It's both good and bad, and Tull deserves a bit of respect here...just a bit.  Though Tull was rumored to be "difficult" all the way back to his days working with Warner Bros., for you Nolan fanboys, I'm not sure that Nolan and Warner Bros. would have had all the resources and budgets as easily available without Legendary's investment -- this company routinely put up around 50% on The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception, 300, Man of Steel...and many other titles.  Though Tull's rep for producing many ill-advised and unsuccessful films lingers, one must also realize how canny and problematic this move is for Wanda, who can now essentially call Legendary Pictures a Chinese production company working in Hollywood.  

 

Are you folks ready to roll over and let Chinese billionaire investors dictate to you what kind of "cultural" content they wish you to see?  Because Hollywood themselves have been pretty good at rolling over for the money so far...

You were making good points until that paranoid comment about "Chinese Billionaires".

 

[The Futurist]

This movie will have the same VFX path than the first two JJ Abrams' Star Trek.

 

Main house for these two was ILM.

 

Then Star Trek Beyond main house was Double Negative which used the ILM assets developed on the first two films, owned by Paramount.

 

Pacific Rim Uprising is going to Double Negative too using ILM s assets developed on the first film, which was one of the biggest undertaking in ILM s history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2017 by The Futurist

[dudalb]

The word passion is being used quite a bit. There is a word for passion when unrestrained by intelligence and judgement. The word is Stupidity.

[Plain Old Tele]

17 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Nah, because he funded movies that weren't very good.

 

THIS. If he had done a David Puttnam as funded interesting projects that failed,it would be one thing. But funding ill conceived geeky CGI epics is another matter.

 

Who gets to define what projects are "interesting"? The industry as a whole is hurt when passionate people get pushed out.

 

1 minute ago, dudalb said:

The word passion is being used quite a bit. There is a word for passion when unrestrained by intelligence and judgement. The word is Stupidity.

 

I don't agree with this at all. 

 

The grand result of all this means a steady push towards corporatization and conglomeration of product, none of which are really good for movie fans no matter what movies you like.

[AniNate]

Sometimes stupidity ends up becoming a $200 million blockbuster and/or leading Oscar contender.

[Macleod]

On 1/18/2017 at 2:49 PM, dudalb said:

You were making good points until that paranoid comment about "Chinese Billionaires".

 

 

Please look up how much Chinese state/industry investment is going on in Hollywood over the past decade.  It's not just Wanda, the same company that owns AMC Cinemas, Carmike Cinemas, Dick Clark Productions, now Legendary.  STX, DMG, and Alibaba are just three other production companies that are primarily dictated by Chinese investment.  Please also consider what has happened to characters/plots/creative direction of numerous Marvel Studios films, Transformers films, and casting (X-Men: DOFP) over the past few years.  And of course...Zhang Yimou and Legendary's "controversial" film 'The Great Wall.'

 

Not that we don't want diversity of representation, of course...but all of these moves are arguably driven by much more strategic business motivations...and it all affects content, whether you realize it or not. 

 

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/wanda-lawmakers-raise-questions-about-chinese-investment-in-hollywood-1201868250/

 

And look at what Paramount announced just today:

http://deadline.com/2017/01/paramount-pictures-china-shanghai-film-group-huahua-media-one-billion-dollar-slate-financing-1201889562/

 

 

Edited January 19, 2017 by Macleod