Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: Please, if you are a studio executive and
you’re watching this, do not ruin Back To The Future.
Do not ruin Back To The Future by making a female Back To The Future.
It would be terrible.
Think about it deeply.
This is not a good idea.
Seek out original ideas from original creators who have original stories to tell…please…please.
Film Courage: Chris we asked you previously why 99% of today’s movies are garbage.
That was a few months ago where I asked you that question.
The video has got well over 5,000 comments, a lot of people have opinions about it.
Upon reflection is there anything you’d like to add or clarify that you didn’t with
that video?
Chris: Well…I mean…that could be an ongoing podcast why 99% of movies are garbage.
It’s really documenting all of the mistakes filmmakers make.
I think one that I’ve seen as a trend that I think I failed to mention in previous video
was the gender swapping of characters.
I think that…I mean I’ve seen how people think that that’s…well we will just do
a female Terminator.
Or we will just do a female version of x.
I always think it’s better to start with an original character and approach a film
that way.
I find it kind of pandering on Hollywood’s part to be like where are just going to do
this franchise which we already know is proven success and we are going to gender-swap the
lead, I think that’s lazy, I think it’s pandering to a certain audience.
The audience may not even really be there and I think that fans of those franchises
completely see through that.
I mean the latest that Mad Max movie that they did recently Fury Road he is really kind
of the side character but what Charlize Theron did she created this amazing new character
that was kind of the right way of doing that.
The wrong way might have been the Terminator film Dark Fate which I’m not sure who loved
that movie.
I know it did not do too well at the box office Sarah Connor is already an amazing character.
I don’t know why you need to flip things and gender swap.
Again I think audiences see through that.
And example (we talked about this earlier) is one that thankfully they will hopefully
never do which is Back To The Future.
There have been rumblings of bringing the Back To The Future franchise and doing a reboot
of Back To The Future.
There was a rumor a couple of years ago (and I pay very little attention to rumors) because
most of them we all know are bull but there was a strong rumor that Justin Bieber was
going to be in a reboot of the Back To The Future series but that franchise I don’t
think you could ever gender swap the lead and call that lead Mandy McFly and having
some sort of weird relationship with a younger version of her father would be very awkward.
That just doesn’t work.
And then there are cases where gender swapping is irrelevant.
For example the upcoming Dune movie with Timothée Chalamet, there is a character called Dr.
Liet-Kynes which I’ve read the novel and obviously seen the 1984 David Lynch film.
The gender of that character is absolutely irrelevant, not relevant to the character
whatsoever in that case.
Maybe in some ways can kind of add to something.
When you are doing it just to pander it to an audience, audiences can see through it.
I really feel that when you are pandering whether it’s queer baiting or gender swapping
characters or race swapping, it’s lazy, it’s lazy.
I’d rather see more original characters that are maybe by female creators, black creators.
Where are their voices?
If you are simply taking creators who have done things and just changing the gender or
race I find is lazy and I think that audiences they are not really in favor of that.
It seems to not be working and I think if Hollywood just leaned a little bit into originality,
a little bit more into originality and took some risks with new creators.
See that’s the thing that I think people don’t understand is that the original creators
of those characters, they get money and so I don’t understand why there is not more
of an effort to find people who have created original characters that are all across the
spectrum of ethnicity or gender and make movies with this characters.
I mean the original creators of those properties would profit so I think pandering is probably
a huge mistake and under estimating in understanding how savvy audiences are that they see through
it.
Film Courage: So if I come in and say I want to do a male version of Heathers or Jennifer’s
Body or Mean Girls…there is male bullying, there’s all sorts of stuff.
So it’s John’s Body, that’s not going to work?
Chris: Sure.
Film Courage: Or it’s so blatant that I’m flipping it.
Chris: Here’s the thing, I’ve seen that story.
I’ve seen those stories.
Changing the gender is not going to…make me care about the character because the point
is is this, I identify with so many characters that aren’t me and I think you have to create
something that comes from the essence of what that character is.
Ripley is a character I loved as a kid, Ellen Ripley [Alien] played beautifully by Sigourney
Weaver in two and a half good movies but I think that just the the sort of I think it's
just lazy to do that but it's an opportunity for an audience to identify with someone that
isn't them and I feel like you have to as an audience member be capable of seeing the
world through someone else's eyes.
I've said this before I don't know if I've said it in another video but you have to as
an audience member have the ability to identify with someone who's not you.
That's how you know even the storytelling is great if you can take just sort of a regular
dude like me and I can identify with a woman who's maybe not a woman who's white, so maybe
not a woman from the United States, who's maybe a woman that's going…that to me is
great storytelling.
I would say another film that I thoroughly loved Amélie, French film Amélie right.
Okay not a woman I don't speak French you know a lot of her experience is very different
from mine but I identified with her.
I was on her journey and so that to me is storytelling is great when you know vastly
different people can identify with someone that is not themselves.
I don't need to see me reflected in a film in fact I prefer not to.
I want to see someone new and interesting and different and I think that what's lacking
in the storytelling is making these stories universal so the gender and ethnicity is irrelevant.
It should be irrelevant.
Film Courage: You had said earlier about the Marty McFly character turning into Mandy Mcfly
and you're right, it wouldn't work for the especially for the one fact of flipping it
with the dad now to have a Biff character that's female that's bullying her that actually
would be interesting and then her sort of going on this journey and playing in a band.
Chris: See now you're being like a studio executive and you're you're pitching the female
Back to the Future.
Please, please, please…I will say this to camera which I know my eye line is you but
I'm going to say to camera, please if you're a studio executive you are watching this,
do not ruin Back to the Future.
Do not ruin Back to the Future by making a female Back to the Future.
It would be terrible.
Think about it deeply.
This is not a good idea.
Seek out original ideas from original creators who have original stories to tell…please…please…so
I don't have to do a third version of this video… please.
Question for the Viewers: Anything you disagree with?