What does the audience want?
This seems to be the question keeping Hollywood up at night. People aren’t showing up for superhero movies like they used to, and Star Wars has become two four-letter words. The Fall Guy was a flop, so maybe they actually don’t want more Ryan Gosling? We’ll see if the latest chapter of the Apes is the surprise hit of the summer, but from what I’m hearing even that may not mean much.
Audiences are simple. No need to overcomplicate things. We just want good stories.
A good story has consistent internal logic. It doesn’t talk down to its audience or tell them what to think. There must be characters we understand on a human level who grow and change with the story’s various events. This is Screenwriting 101 and apparently no longer a required course.
Jump to Screenwriting 401: Subverting Expectations to Push “The Message.”
Solving the story problem is pretty simple. But there’s a second issue that I find more interesting. How will they package these movies? Last night on Film Threat Versus host Chris Gore (yes, he’s back!) asked, “Why not new franchises?” Everything (even The Fall Guy) is tied to a preexisting property. Disney CEO Bob Iger just said he’s into “IP mining,” which sounds about as heartwarming as deforestation.
No, now is the time for fresh, standalone films that are so wonderful we’ll be left asking for more.
They need to get back to the showbiz adage: Always leave’em wanting more.
And then make no promises of giving us more, because creating the desire was always the only intention.
There’s also the matter of genre. We like science fiction, westerns, action movies, dramas, horror, and so forth. The comic book movie, Hollywood’s bread and butter since 2008, is gradually falling out of favor because it’s betrayed us too many times and we value our time and money. Now we’re seeing the industry searching for a new genre du jour in a way I haven’t seen in 30 years.
Remember the early 90s?
It was a great time. There was a resurgence of westerns, with Dances with Wolves, Tombstone, Unforgiven, Maverick and others on the big screen. On TV we had Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, Walker: Texas Ranger, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., and Harts of the West. But it was just a flash in the pan, and 1999’s Wild, Wild, West sent the cowboy movie back to Boot Hill.
It was also the time when they experimented with pulp heroes.
Dick Tracy and Tim Burton’s Batman were just the start. Other characters no one but our grandparents remembered got movie reboots, with The Phantom, The Shadow, and The Saint, and the new creation, The Rocketeer, fit right in beside them. Unfortunately, while they’ve become cult classics now, most of the movies weren’t well-received, and I don’t think TV even tried.
Now that the media landscape has drastically changed and there’s a new generation of viewers, could one of these genres get another chance?
Blaine over at Criticless Cast thinks so. On yesterday’s news video he reported on several westerns that are currently in production. Given the success of Yellowstone and all its spinoffs, maybe now’s the time. We’ll see. And as for the pulps, well, I’m hoping heroes of that type might take root in indie fiction. In any case, while everyone is looking for the Next Big Thing it’s pretty much guaranteed that we’ll get some very interesting hits and misses.
