Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: I actually think that
part of the reason that Peter Jackson's original three Lord of the Rings trilogy turned out so well
was because he made it in New Zealand far away from the distractions of…
Film Courage: Why do popular franchises fail?
Chris: I feel that popular franchises tend to fail because corporations are incapable of making them
under the current factory filmmaking conditions. 1) Popular franchises are created generally by a
singular person who was not paid by a company to think that up that it was an idea that came
not necessarily fully formed but percolated for years from that person's experiences whether it's
a Gene Roddenberry with Star Trek, whether it's a George Lucas with Star Wars, whether it's a
JRR Tolkien with The Lord of the Rings series a franchise comes birthed
from a person not because a company hired them to think up a new franchise, it came out of someone
because it was a creative thing that they needed to express and big companies which are required
to fully fund a huge property or franchise. The conditions under which
content is made at those corporations is not conducive to a singular creative voice,
it's art by committee. There are other concerns, budget is a concern.
Is it going have a happy meal? I mean Tim Burton famously got in trouble
after the sequel to his 1989 Batman film starring Michael Keaton the second movie Batman returns was
much darker in tone and more to Tim Burton's creative liking and it infuriated McDonald's
because here was a movie that was kind of frightening to young children
they even McDonald's even issued an apology there are videos on youtube you can look up about this
McDonald's actually issued an apology when they released a series of Penguin Catwoman and Batman
toys because the movie didn't really fit the young demographic that would have bought say
a happy meal so you've got your your your budget concerns your are we going to be able to make toys
are we going to be able to you know put the cast in that we want like
in addition to concerns about well this movie costs a lot is it going to play in other countries
is it going to play to a worldwide audience because we're spending 400 million dollars
on this thing once you have all of these concerns on the shoulders of a creator it's very difficult
it's very difficult to come out the other end with something that still has that vibrancy of a single
creative vision now some filmmakers have learned to work within that system very well I would say
that Christopher Nolan is one of the filmmakers that has had more success than failure in in that
working within that system although they've been you know I don't know if there was a
happy meal necessarily for the dark knight Batman movie I don't remember actually
I should know that but his other films as well in addition someone like a Denis Villeneuve with Dune
he was able to balance the studio concerns and have a vision that was his vision of the novel
Frank Herbert's original novel for Dune so it can be done but I do think that it requires
a singular creative visionary that has the full support of the studio
when they say look when Chris Nolan says we're not going to do inception toys
maybe listen to Chris Nolan that like hey this movie I don't think the toys are necessarily
going to work with this right so but when I think once you have
you know signed over the rights to whatever it is Star Trek Star Wars a lord of the rings and handed
it over to a group of people who never created it to begin with then what you've got is you've got
that new creative team now saying i'm going to do my version of this when it's something that maybe
George Lucas would never have allowed to have happened or a Gene Roddenberry would have said
that doesn't fit the universe where Tolkien would have said no this is not what would have happened
in this universe they're not there to be the checks and balances so when you've lost that
primary creative voice and it just becomes a piece of ip you know when it's looked on as intellectual
property and then you've even got in that mix the concerns of stockholders now for the company like
well you know we're just going to do this because it will appease the stockholders you have so many
concerns it's a miracle that almost anything worth watching comes out of a studio these days
so I think that's where they go wrong is you've lost the original person who is the shepherd for
the franchise whether they're actually directly doing the writing or not right so you've when
you've lost that shepherd and it goes to a corporation I don't think a corporation is
the best fit for the most positive result it can happen and it does happen there are glimpses but
for the most part I think the era that era is gone I don't think we'll ever see like a
George Lucas or Gene Roddenberry or or someone like that ever again the hoops that you have
to jump through the concerns that you have to balance stockholders toys budget this you know
it's it's amazing I think that's a skill unto itself now I would love to hear and i've had
very frank and honest discussions with friends of mine in the indie film world who all say
you know it's almost like a lot of these movies the story behind the scenes of making the movie
turns out better that's a more interesting story than the movie because the fact that okay we got
the financing but the girlfriend of the main investor who's putting in 10 million dollars
she needs to be the lead and she's not that great and so you're juggling I can even I can almost
tell when I see a small indie mover i'm like oh these are the compromises that person had to make
because these are the weakest parts of the movie and the filmmaker is just fingers crossed hoping
you don't notice so it's almost as if I i think a lot of filmmakers would benefit from you know
taking some courses in therapy in diplomacy and in finance in addition to being decent at making
films in order to be able to set those concerns aside and and make something creatively fulfilling
and worthwhile with that singular vision but I see franchises you know going off the rails and i'm
like it's just too many cooks it's it's corporate content too many cooks made by you know committee
you you can just see it you know this recent teaser for the lord of the rings
the rings of power just came out and there's a 56 second trailer for it and i'm looking at it
and to me it looks like a powerpoint presentation that was shown to amazon to sell the series
I don't know what connection it has to lord of the rings to me it looks like dollar store game of
thrones I it doesn't have the feeling of the lord of the rings it's a miracle that Peter Jackson
was able to make lord of the rings with with his own creative vision but being incredibly
respectful of the source material and that's a thing that I think is not spoken about enough
the respect for the source material and I know that Peter Jackson he's even spoken about this
you can look up interviews with Peter Jackson he said you know I have my own personal ideas but
these aren't my ideas this is Tolkien's story i'm going to tell his story and this will be you know
his own vision of that and I think that I actually think that part of the reason that Peter Jackson's
original three lord of the rings trilogy turned out so well was because he made it in New Zealand
far away from the distractions of that could have consumed him from
you know the the corporate overlords in Hollywood so so being off making those movies
away from that distraction in in New Zealand I think actually helped quite a bit.