Ali Brown Belt
Posts : 2894 Join date : 2013-01-04
| Subject: Steven Spielberg predicts a meltdown on the horizon for Hollywood Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:45 pm | |
| - http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=37811 wrote:
- Last night Empire's focus switched from high-octane Forza Motorsport 5 news at the E3 gaming to a high-profile Q&A down the road involving two of cinema's elder statesmen. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, helping to open the University of Southern California’s new Interactive Media Building, offered a rather bleak prognosis of the future of cinema. Revealing that Lincoln was "this close" to appearing on HBO, Spielberg predicted that a few high-profile blockbuster flops will spark a radical overhaul of the Hollywood business model.
"The big danger is that there’s eventually going to be a big meltdown", Spielberg said, "where three or four, maybe even a half a dozen of these mega-budgeted movies are going to go crashing into the ground. That’s going to change the paradigm again."
"You're at the point right now where a studio would rather invest $250 million in one film for a real shot at the brass ring", he added, "than make a whole bunch of really interesting, deeply personal projects that may get lost in the shuffle."
The pair's big worries - of fragmenting distribution channels, the vast choice open to audiences and a breakdown of the narrative form – add up to a world in which their own passion projects, Lincoln and Red Tails, struggled for distribution.
Citing the popularity of premium cable networks such as HBO, the rise of on-demand streaming services and consumers with increasingly large screens in their homes, Lucas believes that the multiplex will gradually become a luxury product - with prices to reflect. "You’re going to end up with fewer but bigger theaters [and] going to the movies is gonna cost you $50, $100, maybe even $150." That, even for the most hardcore of blockbuster fans, isn't pretty.
Adds Spielberg: "You’re going to have to pay $25 to see the next Iron Man and you’re probably only going to have to pay seven dollars to see Lincoln."
These two grandees of cinema - the fathers of the modern blockbuster, lest we forget - echoed some of the concerns raised recently by Steven Soderbergh (see Empire's July issue). Like Soderbergh, they pointed to the emergence of television as a threat to moviemaking, as well as an opportunity for up-and-coming talent. "The Lincolns are going to be on television," predicted Lucas, to which Spielberg added, "Mine almost was: ask HBO. This close."
Not all filmmakers share their apocalyptic vision. Duncan Jones tweeted that the pair were "out of touch" with emerging moviemaking ideas. | |
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josh200612 Silver Belt
Favorite Fighter(s) : Rashad Evans #1!,Rampage,GSP,Couture,Chael Sonnen,BJ Penn,Robbie Lawler,King MO,Frank Mir Posts : 8931 Join date : 2009-07-16 Age : 39 Location : Charlotte , North Carolina
| Subject: Re: Steven Spielberg predicts a meltdown on the horizon for Hollywood Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:20 pm | |
| I don't see that happening. | |
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