Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: Because some studio
executive is watching this right now saying we need to remake Memento, someone is doing right
now. There's a studio executive, I see you, I see you studio executive, whoever you are.
Film Courage: We had this question come in on our Youtube channel from
KP is the name “What can creatives do to help make the film industry better and more free
for artistic creation? How can we get back to making great movies again?”
Chris: KP, first of all, that is a great question, how can we get back to making movies that are
great? By great I'm going to guess that you mean just a broad appeal and a satisfying experience,
an experience where you walk out of the theater and wow, not only did you enjoy that experience
you want to you want to go back and see the movie several times I have not had that feeling
very often want to go back and see a movie again because I want to
just ride that ride it feels it's almost like a ride an exhilaration so
how do we get back to that I think that we have to do is really foster and mentor talent young talent
not simply fill a writer's room and there's seven different writers for a project and really really
mentor new and up-and-coming talent and foster that one number two and I know that Hollywood is
is averse to this but almost everything you see that's on a large scale in terms of a big budget
is based on pre-existing material a comic book that's been around a comic book property that's
been around for 80 years a stage play that is been on broadway for decades or a remake of a
cartoon and now this is the live-action version and whatnot so seeking out something original
something original that that it may have some source material but hasn't been made five six
seven eight times I know that's a risk I know that's a risk but I think it's important to
seek it out San Diego comic-con used to be which is something it's an event that I've attended
for longer than I care to remember but that used to be a place that development executives from
Hollywood would go down to San Diego from Los Angeles and they would seek out like
a small comic book that no one's ever heard of that has a an amazing hook an amazing story
it was a place to look for new material I feel like that has to come back and in addition
I think it's a more informed development community so that would be my my third thing is a
development community that really reads that isn't just aware of like oh yeah yeah I know Star Trek
but has seen all the episodes of every Star Trek series ever made right in including the
unaired pilot right like just has has seen it all so I think a just more informed
base of people working in Hollywood that that while they're burdened with the concerns of like
well how is this going to fit marketing stockholders this just be aware of the
other creative possibilities that are out there including
original intellectual property I even hate using that word ip on intellectual property but there
are very few creatives in Hollywood now that are even given the power to be able to exercise that
Christopher Nolan is is one of the people that's that's been able to do that but there are far few
so and then I think part of it is also developing talent so attending your major film festivals and
looking for movies made by small up-and-coming filmmakers I've seen it I've seen it in the room
where I've seen like a movie made for ten thousand dollars shot with just like almost not just like
these are the resources we had but you see the creativity through the adversity there's not a lot
of money there's not but you see like oh there's a vision there there's a vision there's a visionary
that's behind that so I think it's really seeking that out it's it's not much different than
someone going out and seeking talent for a football team or professional a professional
sports team right you got to seek out talent and that means you've got to look at people as they're
coming up through the ranks which is going to be your film festivals and everyone who's been in a
position that is now successful whether it's a James Gunn or whether it's a Christopher Nolan
whether it's a Taika Watiti all of them started in indie film they all started with small movies
Taika Watiti had a movie that was at Sundance Christopher Nolan had a movie at both slam dance
and then the following year Sundance with Memento his first movie following was at slam dance
James Gunn started with exploitation movies he worked for Lloyd Kaufman at Troma pictures so
these creatives really were able to cut their teeth when kind of it didn't matter the stakes
were low the budgets were low the stakes were low they could make mistakes it's fine it's okay
and then we're able to kind of like okay get bigger and big bigger budgets and prove
themselves certainly all of those filmmakers taika with td James Gunn Christopher Nolan all of them
started with smaller projects and built along the way and were able to make mistakes at a time when
it necessarily didn't matter but also they had that they were able to develop
that creative vision especially in particular if you look at the movie that James Gunn made
before he was hired by Marvel to do Guardians of the Galaxy he did a movie called
super starring Rainn Wilson and it's a superhero movie about a guy who's kind of fed up
with the world and just decides he's going to be a superhero and he's going to fight
crime it's also a comedy it's very much it's no different tone wise with a lot of James Gunn's
later work but you see it the seeds of it in super really whereas kind of all came together
and and from that he was able to then do a big budget Marvel superhero movie where he was given
pretty much creative rain he put together and James has talked about this in other interviews
you can look it up he put together like what they call a presentation some would call it a look book
it's this is what he wanted the world to be so he he really laid out like this is the tone of
guardians the galaxy this is the universe it's the cosmic Marvel universe which is different
than other types of Marvel movies it was the first to kind of delve in that arena and
when you track the careers of those creatives who did much smaller work and move up the
scale I think that needs to be developed more even if it's a matter of you find a filmmaker
at a from a film festival or a filmmaker that put out a movie on a small label like a Gravitas
Ventures or Wild Eye Releasing or October Coast these are the small indie film distributors
that or there's a company called Indie Rights these small look at these movies and you can see
there are filmmakers there are gems there are diamonds in the rough
that have put out films at all of those companies that are ready to maybe go to
maybe not necessarily a hundred million dollars but the next level up and then see what's possible
and I feel like that type of talent needs to be needs needs to be fostered mentored
grown would Memento be successful if it came out today if we'd never heard of Christopher Nolan
I actually think I actually think if Memento came out today it would be
successful it's such an original story it's so it's it's one of those things where it work
it's a movie Memento is on a short list of movies that I see require a second viewing to completely
grasp all of it then you notice that it's like oh it's story's converging right like it's
it's it's such a fascinating you know twist on a traditional narrative
right with familiar aspects things we we've seen before it's like okay it's kind of a noir
a mystery right but there's more to it so yeah I actually think that that would be successful but
I don't want to talk about this too much because some stereo executive is watching this right now
saying we need to remake Memento someone is doing right now there's a studio executive I see you
I see you studio executive whoever you are remake Memento yeah sure why not all right fine
go ahead but give the opportunity to a young up-and-coming filmmaker if you're going to do that
instead of post-its he'll use notes who knows yeah so notes on the phone right
you could you could update it but in a way that's a way that's clever and interesting
not that compromises the story I re yeah yeah yeah that's a whole other thing.