# Hollywood has an amazing idea for moviemaking **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722 "2017-04-04T11:27:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/1 "2017-04-04T11:27:51Z")
[It’s the brainchild of John Malkovich and Robert Rodriguez](http://variety.com/2015/film/news/john-malkovich-robert-rodriguez-100-years-1201644846/) and the teaser video is indistinguishable from a cognac commercial (which I suspect is exactly what it is). The general idea though is to make a movie and then hold it for a century before releasing it. That means nobody will see it for 100 years! I think they’ve come up with something here. I can think of hundreds of movies over the last decades which would have been ideal for this, ie being released 100 years after they were made. Just imagine what we would have been spared from ever viewing. Superman IV, Batman & Robin, Battlefield Earth, actually pretty much any John Travolta movie since Pulp Fiction. I’m sure everyone can think of their own candidates for this revolutionary notion. My only qualm is the possible harm we may be doing to our descendants. How they will hate us when they see what we have left them! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/2 "2017-04-04T14:36:28Z")
That OK. Our descendants will be spared. In a century, the formats of the films will be obsolete and players won’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/3 "2017-04-04T14:53:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > That OK. Our descendants will be spared. In a century, the formats of the films will be obsolete and players won’t exist. You’d be surprised. You can still buy a stereoscope on [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Holmes-Stereoscope-Viewer-Stereocards-stereoviews/dp/B0035ZGMTU). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/4 "2017-04-04T16:52:55Z")
The awards ceremonies will be populated by zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/5 "2017-04-04T17:01:36Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You’d be surprised. You can still buy a stereoscope on [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Holmes-Stereoscope-Viewer-Stereocards-stereoviews/dp/B0035ZGMTU). Or read Gilgamesh, even though cuneiform, Akkadian and clay tablets have all been obsolete for more than 100 years. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/6 "2017-04-04T17:53:49Z")
But you’d need to do more than just lock the movie in a vault somewhere. Over the course of that century, someone would need to stay invested enough in the project that they’d convert it over to new formats as they came out. And whoever was doing the converting would also need to stay committed to the ideal of not releasing it early. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/7 "2017-04-04T18:48:07Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > That OK. Our descendants will be spared. In a century, the formats of the films will be obsolete and players won’t exist. We found this…_thing_…in a sealed box, and nobody know what the hell it is. My great Grandfather says he used to attach them to a “personal computer”, but he doesn’t remember why. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/8 "2017-04-04T18:53:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But you’d need to do more than just lock the movie in a vault somewhere. Over the course of that century, someone would need to stay invested enough in the project that they’d convert it over to new formats as they came out. And whoever was doing the converting would also need to stay committed to the ideal of not releasing it early. Or they could just store a movie projector (perhaps with several spare bulbs) along with the analog film (i.e., film reels). ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/9 "2017-04-04T18:58:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But you’d need to do more than just lock the movie in a vault somewhere. Over the course of that century, someone would need to stay invested enough in the project that they’d convert it over to new formats as they came out. And whoever was doing the converting would also need to stay committed to the ideal of not releasing it early. More basic than that, who would invest in a project that wouldn’t pay out until after they are dead? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/10 "2017-04-04T19:19:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Or they could just store a movie projector (perhaps with several spare bulbs) along with the analog film (i.e., film reels). Film in reels deteriorate. Celluloid is better than nitrate, but there’s a good chance they’d be unusable in a century. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/11 "2017-04-04T20:21:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **xizor** : > > More basic than that, who would invest in a project that wouldn’t pay out until after they are dead? You’re looking at it the wrong way. The payoff isn’t from the ticket sales etc. a century from now: The payoff is in the people who did this being considered Serious Artists, and getting news stories about the project, and so on, which will make people pay attention to the other projects that they’re releasing right now. It’s cheap publicity. Especially since you don’t actually have to even make a movie: Nobody’s going to know that the vault is empty for another century, after all. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-has-an-amazing-idea-for-moviemaking/783722/12 "2017-04-04T23:56:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nobody’s going to know that the vault is empty for another century, after all. Or that it is home movies from Disneyland.