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I just got back from the international Licensing Show in NY. This is where all the people hoping to license out their various properties get together and hype their stuff. All the biggies are there. Disney/Pixar ($21 Billion in retail sales in 2006), Warner Bros ($6.5B), Marvel (4.5B), MGM, New Line, DreamWorks, Mattel($2.5B), Hasbro and many, many more smaller guys.
It was pretty cool to get a bit of a sneak peek to some of the new movies coming out next year. (Sorry I can't give out too many details; if someone found out it was me I could theoretically loose my job).
Speed Racer : Done by the Matrix guys, a movie their kids can watch. Staring Mathew Fox. Actually looks pretty cool. Imagine a lot of the interstate chase scene from Matrix 2
Batman, Dark Knight : All the same people as Begins except Tom's wife. Heath Ledger as The Joker looks very scary. Supposed to be darker than the first. If you like B.B. you'll like this one. Baman's New Ride
Iron Man : Staring Robert Downing Jr. The flight scenes should be very cool. It's the same basic story as Batman. Rich industrialist with no superpowers, builds suit to fight crime.
Incredible Hulk : Looks like they are doing this one right, The Hulk is more human, only 9ft tall, He's the good guy saves people, ect. "The Abomination" (played by Tim Roth) will be bad guy. Good guy vs. Bad guy, big fight at end. No dark introspective, inner demons fight this time. Dr. Banner is played by Ed Norton, Brilliant casting although Norton may be getting typed cast as the split personality actor (Primal Fear, Fight Club, Hulk).
Indiana Jones IV : Jones as a 60 year old, with young side kick, the kid from Transformers. Not much else to tell yet, they haven't gotten very far.
Star Wars: Clone Wars CGI animated TV Show. Looks pretty cool. I got to see a trailer, and was impressed.
Ninja Panda : Didn't meet with these guys, but it is DreamWorks new one. ???
There were a couple others but these are the big ones. So go ahead and plan out your movie going summer 2008. Some of you will think this is early, but it is actually late. Most of the major retailers will have already planned what items they will have in the store next spring.
Now for the sell your souls part . After spending two days listening to people pitch their movies & TV shows I realized how painfully obvious it was none of the big movie companies are making movies because they feel it is a good story which must be told. Instead they are making one big commercial for; DVD's, Toys and clothes. So how do we think the art of movie making will survive in the future if a truly great movie will never be made unless it can sell skateboards? We have seen the results in TV shows that cater to the lowest common denominator, reality TV among other thing. Will movies continue to matter? Will good story telling be left to the independates movie companies and books, or will some people be able to sneak a few good movies through the majors?
I'm just a part time lurker here, but I'll be around this weekend and would like to hear your feed back.
quote:Originally posted by SC Carver: Batman, Dark Knight: All the same people as Begins except Tom's wife. Heath Ledger as The Joker looks very scary. Supposed to be darker than the first. If you like B.B. you'll like this one. Baman's New Ride
This one's been filming in my office building the last few weeks. My lobby is the kitchen at Wayne Manor, a private library and the hallway to Bruce's bedroom. Unfortunately, it's a heavily guarded closed set and I haven't had a chance to run into anyone.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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EDIT: The first big movie that comes out that isn't merely a weak reincarnation of some previous movie or story franchise will get my business. Until then, I'm going to drop money on the Toronto International Film Festival instead where ideas still live.
EDIT 2: And they wonder why no one goes to see their movies anymore and just downloads them for free to watch in the background.
I'll probably see the Batman at one point because the first one was pretty good, the others... probably not, even for free.
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i think movies are still made for great movies. there are a lot of movies that people regard as really great that actually did poorly at the box office, but later became incredibly popular after it came out on dvd. Examples: Shawshank Redemption and Super Troopers. While different genres, neither one really sold any merchandise that kids can put on their lunchbox, shirts, skateboards.
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I forgot Pixar's Summer Block Buster, Wall-E a movie about a robot that looks like "Johnny 5" from "Short Circuit". This may be a great movie, I don't know but it continues the trend of Pixar doing things a little bit different. The basic storyline is about a robot in the future looking for a home. Apparently there are no words for a 30 minute stretch of the movie.
I actually love cooking and the food channel so " Ratatouille " looks good to me. Not sure about Wall-E, but neither looks like they will sell a ton of kid's products. Maybe the Pixar guys who are now running the Disney movies haven't licensed out their souls. They also recently killed almost all the direct to TV DVD's, which Disney has been using for years to make more money off a successful movie by cheaply repeating it.
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Yes, Disney was talking about Prince Caspin, but since it doesn't really apply to our business they didn't show us anything about it.
It’s funny that Narnia and Harry Potter don't really translate very well into licensing. HP sells books and DVD's like no other, but can't move lunch boxes or anything else very well. Narnia may move some toys, but it doesn't translate well into sporting goods.
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