Postby Boothby » Thu Sep 27, 2012 3:49 pm
Remember in Frank Herbert's 27th book of the Dune trilogy? I think it was called "Dune: Pinky and the Brain take over Arrakis"
In that book, one of the characters (a "true fremen") made a comment that though all the fremen still wore stillsuits, those stillsuits were for "entertainment purposes only." They were for decoration.
I feel like one of those fremen. Recognizing that there is a certain, probably unhealthy, obsessiveness about it.
The conversations on this board (since it represents both P-Web and Ender's Ansible) are not really much about the book, or the film. They're about My Pretty Pony, and all the friendships that have blossomed between so many of us here--and that's great (well, not the My pretty Pony stuff. That's creepy).
But the whole "Ender's Game" aspect seems to have faded away. Maybe because we see the film effort collapsing under its own weight, and there's not a damned thing we can do about it. Maybe that's appropriate. Maybe that's the healthier attitude to take on. It happens to be MY major interest, but maybe that's just me.
It makes me wonder, though. If I were producing the movie--if I ran Galloping Horse, or Reliance--would I see "Ender's Game" as a plus on my tally sheet, or as a negative? Where's the rabid fan base that was promised? How are we going to make a film to rival the viewings and repeat viewings that those other guys got with "The Hunger Games," and "Twilight"? Where's the marketing opportunities? And, I hate to say it (because I still love his writing--I'm halfway through "Shadows in Flight," and I'm totally engrossed in it. It makes me want to sit out in my car and just listen to the Audio Book on CD), but OSC's harsh political views could conceivably bring a lot of negative publicity to the release. REAL negative publicity. NOT the type of negative publicity that falls under the heading of "all publicity is good publicity."
I'd be thinking, "How much have we (Galloping/Reliance) actually SPENT on this movie? What percentage of DD would you say it was? How much more will we have to spend to complete it, and promote it, and convert it to IMAX, and release it to theaters? What sort of tchotchkes can we make and sell, based on the story we've got? How will we make this into a film franchise so we can leverage the efforts put into it so far? How do we MASSIVELY expand the fan base?"
For one thing, if they're going to massively expand the fan base, I don't see it happening yet. That's got to happen soon, but it's got to be a part of a large, multi-pronged attack. Galloping/Reliance needs to think about how to absorb DD's assets, including its people, technical equipment, skill-sets, AND the E/G film "properties" (the hundreds or thousands of hard drives, etc., the remaining props, costumes, and physical sets if needed for re-shoots), and that's going to take a little while. It's one of the main reasons in my mind why we're NOT going to see a November 2013 release. But once they catch their breath, they need to start planning.
I'm hoping that they plan to continue with the movie, even if the Battle School is a big ol' ball of kuso. I'm thinking that if they DO continue, they're going to need us. They're going to need SOMEONE who can put boots on the ground, in order to get asses in the seats and eyes on the screens later. But the momentum is lagging. The iron is no longer hot. I hope they're listening.
--Boothby
"The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell