In the past year, I’ve seen one great war movie on DVD: Frank Miller’s THE 300. I had to go on hiatus on Netflix for several months because there was nothing coming out that I wanted to see. Comedy has become juvenile and vulgar. Drama for adults is virtually non-existent.
Award shows became so ubiquitous that I stopped watching. And I generally skip the previews on the DVDs I rent.
What a change! I spent my Junior year in High School playing hookey and going to the library in the morning and the movies in the afternoons. .
I worked in Hollywood writing, directing and producing on air promos for CBS and ABC TV movies but before going to Hollywood, via a lover in Mallorca, I learned of the climate of fear in Hollywood where you could so easily get blacklisted (for everything BUT communism) It happened to me later.
The reason movies are so bad is that “Produders” exercise their non-existent creativity by rewriting what they don’t have the talent to write in the first place. It happened to me. It happens to everyone.
When Mel Gibson couldn’t get his movie THE PASSION distributed, so he found alternative methods of distribution and made a fortune.
Tyler Perry, a black writer-producer did the same with his plays, showing them in movie houses and other venues. Now, he has a series on cable on his terms as well as several successful films.
Writers have never had power in Hollywood. They were seduced with swimming pools and lavish lifestyles but never given power. You hear Robert DeNiro (as Irving Thalberg) say it to Jack Nicholson in THE LAST TYCOON.
The studios always had power of distribution which gave them an iron grip. Now, you can make a film and sell it on Amazon.com. You don’t need to show it in movie houses to get it seen.
I sometimes watch a series called THE DIRECTORS and it seems to me that writer-directors whose work I admire can’t get jobs.
Well, be creative, guys. Do a single set film, pay everyone scale and points on the back end, and use the profits from that film to finance your next film.
Your audience awaits you.
