Hollywood's Originality Machine broke and it cost too much to fix it.
The Myth, The Legend, The Inspiration: The Meaning of the Quote, by A Bleeding Corpse.
Before 1996, Hollywood had pride in itself for finding and producing original material. Writers, Directors and Studios with visions of bringing people something they haven't seen before. Of course, a small mix of films were produced that copied formula's for sucess (mosly horror films). However, this formula worked 50% of the time and very few had sequals that people can honestly say they know of. Though this doesn't mean Hollywood was fully original, as many of the inspirations came from material that were once books but the idea of bringing people something they haven't "SEEN" was still stronge.
Horror films for the most part crew from writers imaginations of the unknown and unseen. However, in 1996, a film called Scream hit theaters and killed the notion of scary films. Very original, clever and smart, Scream single handedly stopped the original horror film in it's tracks. A film that not only brought out the reality of such films, but forced audiences to accept that it truely is just a movie. Scream was the film that every horror writer and director had dreamed of and knew of for many years before it was even made, but knew in it's mind that if made it would change the way we see movies.
Since then, Hollywood has reverted back to it's earlies days of film making. Making films over and over, trying to capture an emotion from many angles. Sometimes it works, most of the time it falls flat and you are left searching through the muck looking for something that stands out. Knowing what worked once, Hollywood has constantly tried to make lighting strike twice or 4 times in a row. You get many films that look the same, feel the same and the hope is that one or two of them will have an impact. Unfortanitly, one usually only takes and the rest are left as disappointments. What's left is to bring back familer characters who were once on top of the world and so begings the remake era all over again.
Instead of spending a lot of money on unsure, unknown and original material, Studios decide to put their eggs in a basket that once had success and hope that success will hatch those eggs. Of course, it works because we are attached to such movies and characters that they hold a special place in our minds that wants us to see more of it. Like Jason and Michael Myers, I will always want to see more.
The problem right now is though we have this type of film making going on, Hollywood is unsure of making something different for the sake of keeping things fresh and new. We aren't getting a new Iconic figure to find. Films aren't standing out. Remakes are kept strong souly based on the notion that we want to see this character, regardless of the story or how well it is made.
In the past 6 years though, international studios have started to understand this and are leading in originality. Though failing to capture iconic status, France and Spain are pumping out fresh horror that is unknown to America. Though of course, even Hollywood sees these things and decides if it's worked once, it can work again and a remake is born once more.
Instead of spending money on new writers and directors with interesting new visions, Hollywood has put too much money in franchises for remakes and copy cats for the soul sake of making a dollar to repeat the process. The originality machine went unused for too long and eventrually has become worn out. Like that rusted lawn mower you found in a shed, or that classic Chevy you found in a junk yard, it takes a lot of time and money to restore such a machine to the point of working like new. But it's very expensive to do so, and will put you in debt for many years until it is able to restore itself and make a profit.
This is where the quote comes from. This is what I meant. Hollywood is not willing to loose money or invest in new ideas in order to make something profitible in the very long run. The machine is indeed broke, it cost too much to fix it. But just think, if they spent a lot of money to restore it, they could remake their money with it, but it won't be instant and it won't be fast. It'll take trial and error to get it up to speed, but the pay off would be amazing.
