My roomie just flipped on Ghost Story, and while idly catching glimpses of scenes, I realized that a horror film where most of the protagonists are 70-80 year old men probably wouldn’t get made by a major studio today in their quest for the younger demographic.
What other films, perhaps even classics, just simply wouldn’t have the right collection of stars and/or modern tropes to make it appealing to today’s audience, and, by extension, to the current big name studios?
Ben-Hur
The Ten Commandments
The Birth of a Nation
Seriously? In the aftermath of The Passion of the Christ? Not only would both of those movies be made, they’d probably be huge hits.
Blazing Saddles
I’ll bet Forbidden Planet wouldn’t be. When CBS showed it on its Late Night Movie (just before they started running Letterman) they seemed kinda embarrassed by it. Talky, intellectual drama with not enough glitz or action I’m amazed it got greenlighted in the fifties.
I doubt it. Gibson had to finance his movie mostly by himself. The major studios aren’t going to put up the mega-millions necessary to do Ben-Hur, even with CGI.
Any romantic comedy where the male suitor persists to the point of obsession in trying to win the heart of a woman who has no interest in him or actively hates him. Double points if he uses mild force such as holding or kissing her against her will.
Laura. In an era of “10 words or less” high-concept pitches, how on earth would you sell that at a pitch meeting? About the best you could do would be to say, “It’s based on this book, we were lucky to grab the option on it”.
The Birth of a Nation Actually, it was pretty controversial when it first came out, but any film that glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and shows Blacks as bestial is not going to be made (and that’s a good thing).
Any silent film, for that matter.
You can’t really believe that. In the past few years we’ve had versions of the Phantom of the Opera and The Four Feathers, to name just two. Your statement would only be true if you stipulated that the new versions would have to be silent, as well.
Why? I saw the movie when I was 10 or 11 and sat in the Cornell Theater in Burbank, Ca. with a hundred other kids watching in fascination, and, probably not understanding everything going on but, still enough effects to hold our interest.
I’m not sure there was a film made before the 70’s that equaled the worn-out, every two minutes cgi action to grab the audiences attention and who needs to talk and think to possibly form a believable solid character because people nowadays aren’t capable of sitting for more than 2 minutes without that kind of action formula. At least none that I know of.
So, I agree. That film wouldn’t work now, but it was sure fun watching when I was young.
Also saw 12 Angry Men and The Haunting at the Cornell. Couldn’t beat the price.
50 cents and you got two movies, a Disney nature short and 2 or 3 cartoons.
Singin’ in the Rain, and other musicals, with the only exceptions being ones based on long-running stage musicals like Chicago or The Producers.
For that matter, elegant dance numbers are gone. No more Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire, now it’s all “you been SERVED!” and such.
I think it’d be really interesting for someone to release a new original musical. High School Musical was crazy popular. We’ve had Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Hairspray and Mamma Mia! in the past few years and they all seem to have been really big.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is the number one TV download on iTunes. Once More With Feeling is often cited as on of the five best Buffy episodes. The musical episode of Scrubs was a huge hit.
I have no idea how anyone can say that musicals can’t be made nowadays.
It would be very difficult to greenlight a new Charlie Chan film for todays audience.
I’d have to wonder whether something like Batteries Not Included could be made. Though obviously if someone like Steven Spielberg decides it should be made, that’s all there is to it, regardless of the times.
Call of Cthulhu, 2005.
Any of the great late-60s or 70s dramas - Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter, Midnight Cowboy - just to name a few - with a completely different standard of pacing and editing than what we have today. Modern audiences wouldn’t have the patience for movies like this in theaters today.
That’s the point. He financed himself and made an incredible amount of money as a result. The studios that turned him down and said it woudn’t make money looked like idiots.
That’s what I said: any silent film would be turned down.