I just saw a trailer today of an an upcoming Harrison Ford movie. Apparently there is a kidnapping and, when things go south, our hero (Ford) takes matters into his own hands. Haven’t I seen this movie before? Are there no more original ideas for movies left?
I didn’t click the link but if Anne Archer shows up as the long suffering wife…
…and then he and his dad the Famous Archeology Professor have to rescue Mel Gibson’s son because he fell into an alternate universe while playiing a mysterious board/video/computer game with Robin Williams and then there’s a dogfight with alien warships while the President, Bruce Willis (as John McClain) and Samuel L. Jackson (playing the role of sidekick because Joe Pesci is out of town) blow up the ship with the bad guys after a high speed chase in souped up Toyotas.
Movie audiences don’t want originality. If they’re going to fork over money, they immediately gravitate toward the familiar.
After all, when (like today) the average movie fan is a teenaged boy who doesn’t read critics and is only interested in action and doesn’t care about plot or characterization (calling that a “chick flick,” as though men can’t care about characters), Hollywood would be foolish to make original movies that they’ll never go to see.
All I know, is that someday, when I am a high-powered studio executive, and some putz walks in for a pitch, and said pitch starts out with, “Well, there is guy, and his family gets kidnapped …”, I swear to Og they will never find his body.