Halo falls apart, a lesson for EG
Halo falls apart, a lesson for EG
If you check around the news today you'll see that the studio financial backing for Halo just fell apart.
Why?
because it's an unproven director whose budget was balooning to an outrageous 200 million.
200 million is a risk that is only taken with proven directors, proven genres and proven franchises. Halo was 0-3. The ONLY factors in its favor was game sales and Peter Jackson's producing involvement. Unfortunately it may have been Jackson's 'enthusiasm' that drove the budget from 100 to 200.
So how does Ender's Game stand? Well first of all, it's got a director who is proven with budgets of 200 (Poseidon pushed close to that number and that's why it's something of a disaster, but Troy was also a big budget film that did a phenomenal worldwide gross in comparison to it's domestic), and he's proven with Action, Epic and Genre films. Check.
As for proven genre, well Star Wars remains the only mega success in science fiction--and the Star Wars budgets were around 100-150 million. Unlike the Pirates Sequels, the Spiderman Sequels, the Shrek Sequels and the Harry Potter sequels, and Titanic, James Cameron is the only person to ever get a 200 million dollar budget for a science fiction film (his next film for 2008). Spielberg doesn't get that much, but he doesn't ask for it. The only reason War of the Worlds was 150 million was that it was a rush job that was basically worked on 24/7 for eight months to complete effects on time (overtime, double overtime, triple overtime basically).
What Ender's Game can expect in terms of budgeting is somewhere between what Fellowship of the Ring got and Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe got. Fellowship was made for about 60-80 million and Narnia was made for around 90. fwiw all the Harry Potter movies have been either very close to 200 or over 200. Serenity, on the other hand, was budgeted about about 30-40 million. EG could do very well with triple Serenity's budget. Paramount got into EXTREME trouble when they let Lemony Snicket go over 150 million, no one wants to repeat that experience.
In terms of franchising, Ender's Game does not have the cachet of the successful fantasy series, but studios are willing to risk the chance that a scifi series might enjoy the success and profitability that most of the fantasy series' have led to. But frankly fantasy is red hot. That's why His Dark Materials, and Dark is Rising will be filming very soon. Why Half Blood Prince will start filming in may (two months before OOTP comes out). Why we'll see at least three more Narnia films and why we have Eragon coming out in December. But we won't be seeing any more Lemony Snicket, at least not with "I destroy budgets and can't get a movie made anymore because I"m so arrogant and costly" Jim Carrey involved. But the continued success of these series at the box office is essential to seeing EG move forward with enthusiasm on the Studio's part. EG may be fasttracked if Eragon substantially beats expectations. However if it performs as expected or underperforms it won't negatively affect EG. It's different enough to be a good thing.
But the worst thing that could happen to EG would be to have someone big named come in and jack the budget way up, because the studios are hemoragging people and budgets lately. Part of this is that the studios lag several years behind the rest of the economy, for instance the great depression didn't really hit the movie industry until 1933, five years after it hit. Part of it is a****** super rich stock holders are ordering cutbacks that are destroying thousands of jobs so they get higher profit margins on their quarterly earnings (coughCarlIcahncough). But the biggest part of it is that the DVD market matured and plateaued about 18 months ago and the studios are not seeing their coffers flowing with money like they did during the DVD boom.
adam
Why?
because it's an unproven director whose budget was balooning to an outrageous 200 million.
200 million is a risk that is only taken with proven directors, proven genres and proven franchises. Halo was 0-3. The ONLY factors in its favor was game sales and Peter Jackson's producing involvement. Unfortunately it may have been Jackson's 'enthusiasm' that drove the budget from 100 to 200.
So how does Ender's Game stand? Well first of all, it's got a director who is proven with budgets of 200 (Poseidon pushed close to that number and that's why it's something of a disaster, but Troy was also a big budget film that did a phenomenal worldwide gross in comparison to it's domestic), and he's proven with Action, Epic and Genre films. Check.
As for proven genre, well Star Wars remains the only mega success in science fiction--and the Star Wars budgets were around 100-150 million. Unlike the Pirates Sequels, the Spiderman Sequels, the Shrek Sequels and the Harry Potter sequels, and Titanic, James Cameron is the only person to ever get a 200 million dollar budget for a science fiction film (his next film for 2008). Spielberg doesn't get that much, but he doesn't ask for it. The only reason War of the Worlds was 150 million was that it was a rush job that was basically worked on 24/7 for eight months to complete effects on time (overtime, double overtime, triple overtime basically).
What Ender's Game can expect in terms of budgeting is somewhere between what Fellowship of the Ring got and Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe got. Fellowship was made for about 60-80 million and Narnia was made for around 90. fwiw all the Harry Potter movies have been either very close to 200 or over 200. Serenity, on the other hand, was budgeted about about 30-40 million. EG could do very well with triple Serenity's budget. Paramount got into EXTREME trouble when they let Lemony Snicket go over 150 million, no one wants to repeat that experience.
In terms of franchising, Ender's Game does not have the cachet of the successful fantasy series, but studios are willing to risk the chance that a scifi series might enjoy the success and profitability that most of the fantasy series' have led to. But frankly fantasy is red hot. That's why His Dark Materials, and Dark is Rising will be filming very soon. Why Half Blood Prince will start filming in may (two months before OOTP comes out). Why we'll see at least three more Narnia films and why we have Eragon coming out in December. But we won't be seeing any more Lemony Snicket, at least not with "I destroy budgets and can't get a movie made anymore because I"m so arrogant and costly" Jim Carrey involved. But the continued success of these series at the box office is essential to seeing EG move forward with enthusiasm on the Studio's part. EG may be fasttracked if Eragon substantially beats expectations. However if it performs as expected or underperforms it won't negatively affect EG. It's different enough to be a good thing.
But the worst thing that could happen to EG would be to have someone big named come in and jack the budget way up, because the studios are hemoragging people and budgets lately. Part of this is that the studios lag several years behind the rest of the economy, for instance the great depression didn't really hit the movie industry until 1933, five years after it hit. Part of it is a****** super rich stock holders are ordering cutbacks that are destroying thousands of jobs so they get higher profit margins on their quarterly earnings (coughCarlIcahncough). But the biggest part of it is that the DVD market matured and plateaued about 18 months ago and the studios are not seeing their coffers flowing with money like they did during the DVD boom.
adam
So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
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Regardless, I had this exact same discussion with a bunch of my friends the other day. The ones that weren't aware Ender's Game was being made into a movie. It basically went like this:
"Hey, Halo just got pretty much cancelled, I guess."
"Really? I suppose Ender's Game stands a chance."
"Huh?"
You can imagine the rest.
"Hey, Halo just got pretty much cancelled, I guess."
"Really? I suppose Ender's Game stands a chance."
"Huh?"
You can imagine the rest.
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Having just reread your post locke, the only problem I have with everything you said is Wolfgang Peterson himself... The man hasn't made a good movie in a long time. I want someone who comes in and WANTS to make the movie, someone who's dreamed about it, someone who will do what it takes.
Peter Jackson may be expensive but he's a visionary, not to mention passionate about his projects. He's the only reason The Lord of the Rings were made and why the Hobbit hasn't been made. If the movie doesn't get made because of someone doing what it'll take to make it great, then I'm ok with that. But Peterson certaintly doesn't strike me as that type.
I mean come on, Poseidon? The best part about that thing was that it marked the return of Kurt Russell. Troy? Quite possibly the weakest of the recent "epics".
I'd feel more comfortable with someone like Darren Aronofsky attached.
Or of course, me...
Salaam
Peter Jackson may be expensive but he's a visionary, not to mention passionate about his projects. He's the only reason The Lord of the Rings were made and why the Hobbit hasn't been made. If the movie doesn't get made because of someone doing what it'll take to make it great, then I'm ok with that. But Peterson certaintly doesn't strike me as that type.
I mean come on, Poseidon? The best part about that thing was that it marked the return of Kurt Russell. Troy? Quite possibly the weakest of the recent "epics".
I'd feel more comfortable with someone like Darren Aronofsky attached.
Or of course, me...
Salaam
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It seems the problem from the start for Halo was that they had two studios producing the film, and both were fighting each other for creative control, and stake in the profits. Video game movies have never done too well, and so it's not surprising that they needed two studios to finance it, and they each want as much out of it as they can get. With the numbers that Halo 3 put out, being the fastest selling piece of media in history, I believe, I don't doubt they'll be able to find a single studio willing to invest in the movie. It's a guaranteed seller, and everyone involved will make a truckload of money.
For EG, though, it might be nice to have OSC put out a new book (When exactly is Shadows in Flight coming out?) that will sell well enough to reinforce people's confidence in the potential of a movie.
For EG, though, it might be nice to have OSC put out a new book (When exactly is Shadows in Flight coming out?) that will sell well enough to reinforce people's confidence in the potential of a movie.
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For the record, the studios made a stupid mistake in not having confidence in the director chosen for the Halo movie (in my opinion anyways.) His short film released to advertise Halo 3 was excellent.
As far as the Ender's Game movie is concerned, I just hope that OSC is involved with production as much as possible.
As far as the Ender's Game movie is concerned, I just hope that OSC is involved with production as much as possible.
Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.
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