Rebel Moon: A fine line between homage and copycat

The first part of Zack Snyder’s space opera duology, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, hit Netflix in Dec 2023. What started off as a Star Wars spec script that Snyder pitched to Lucasfilm, eventually morphed into an “original” IP with ambitions of kicking off a multimedia franchise, including video games and graphic novels. Given its origins, it’s only to be expected that the script would have recognizable elements from the Star Wars universe, which in turn has inspired space operas for the past half century. But while watching the movie, it became clear that it’s not just Star Wars that Snyder has copied, or paid homage to. The entire film appears to be a pastiche of stereotypes, story beats, characters and imagery culled from a range of science fiction, fantasy and action films. Certainly, as a filmmaker, Zach Snyder has the right to bring to screen whatever he feels like, and if Netflix wants to spend $150 million financing it, that’s their prerogative too, but it really makes me wonder why such a gifted director and his screenwriters could not come up with one original idea in a two hour space opera with so much opportunity for world building. I’ve listed the more obvious “influences” below, and perhaps sharp-eyed movie buffs may have picked up other references.

Rebel Moon Storyline – Seven Samurai (1954): The overall storyline borrows heavily from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, in which a village of farmers hire a group of ronin to protect them from bandits who will come to the village after harvest to take their crops. In Rebel Moon, a farming community on an isolated moon seeks to recruit warriors to protect them from soldiers who threaten to take away their crop. They send one of their farmers, Gunnar (played by Michiel Huisman) along with Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious woman who joined the community the previous year.

Opening Exposition – all Star Wars films: No one would dare copy the on-screen scroll which has become a hallmark of the Star Wars franchise, and has become one of the most elegant devices to deliver exposition at the start of a movie. Instead, Rebel Moon delivers the audio equivalent via Anthony Hopkins’ instantly recognizable and clearly enunciated voice. He describes a galactic empire thrown into chaos due to regicide, an ambitious and ruthless senator who steps into the power vacuum, and rebellion emerging on the outer fringes of the Imperium…all familiar story beats for Star Wars fans.

Imperium Soldier’s uniforms – Nazi Wehrmacht: In Star Wars, the Empire’s ruthless troops were called Stormtroopers after the Nazi infantry soldiers of World War II, however their white armor and skull-like helmets were a wholly original design. In Rebel Moon, the troops of the Imperium are kitted out to look like Nazi stormtroopers, and Admiral Atticus Noble (played with fiendish delight by Ed Skrein) certainly looks the part of a Nazi Field Marshall, with his jackboots, trench coat, collar patches, metal gorget and rigid peaked cap.

Ed Skrein as Admiral Atticus Noble in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

Imperium Scribes – The Bene Gesserit from 2021’s Dune: The admiral and his troops are accompanied by tall, red-robed characters who look a bit like the black clad Bene Gesserit priestesses in Dune, with their shroud-like veils and high hats. The background notes for Rebel Moon state that the red-robes are Scribes, a religious order tasked with recording the achievements of the Imperium, who accompany armies and delegates to view events as they take place. Unlike the vocal and politically active Bene Gesserit, the Scribes appear to be passive observers, and in fact remain very much in the background in the film.

Jimmy, the mechanical knight – C3PO from the Star Wars films: For fans of C3PO, the humanoid robot famous for his dulcet tones voiced by British actor Anthony Daneils, Zack Snyder has created the character of Jimmy, a mechanical soldier, voiced by another British actor, Anthony Hopkins.

Kora’s combat experience – “No Man’s Land” battle scene from 2017’s Wonder Woman: As Kora recounts her upbringing as a soldier of the Imperium, the accompanying flashback features a combat sequence clearly inspired by the World War I scene in Wonder Woman (on which Zack Snyder was a producer). Although it lasts only a few seconds, the slow motion shots of soldiers charging across a desaturated battle-scarred landscape while tracer rounds streak past them, will be familiar to fans of the thrilling scene in which Diana charges across open land against a hail of German bullets.

Ecto-restraints used by bounty hunters – Boba Fett’s carbonite from 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back: Rebel Moon has bounty hunters called Hawkshaws, reminiscent of Mandalorian bounty hunters like Boba Fett in Star Wars. While Boba Fett famously used carbonite to incapacitate and transport Han Solo, the Hawkshaws have a visually similar, though far more sophisticated device called an eco-restraint. In this one aspect, I have to say that the Rebel Moon writers and production designers actually came up with something superior to the idea they copied.

Bar scene in the port city of Providence – Mos Eisley cantina scene from 1977’s Star Wars: In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi journey from Luke’s farm to the spaceport town of Mos Eisley, where they go into a tavern looking for transportation off the planet. There they encounter various scum and get into a bar fight, a scene surely inspired by similar set-ups in various Westerns of the 40s and 50s. In what is virtually a lift of that story beat, Kora and Gunnar arrive at the Port City of Providence, looking for information and transportation…and of course, they get into a bar fight.

Kai, the mercenary – Han Solo from the original Star Wars trilogy: Charlie Hunnam seems to be channeling Harrison Ford in every scene he’s in as Kai, a roguish and handsome mercenary who Kora and Gunnar meet in Providence.

Bennu – The hippogriff from 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The third instalment in the Harry Potter film series features an entertaining sequence in which Harry uses respect and empathy to befriend a dangerous mythical creature called a hippogriff (inspired by the gryphon from Greek mythology). Rebel Moon features an almost identical looking creature called a bennu, and here too, the untamable beast is won over by an ex-nobleman named Tarak through empathy rather than by force.

Harmada, the spider-creature – The scorpion monster from 2001’s The Mummy Returns: Jenna Malone plays a human-spider hybrid named Harmada in Rebel Moon. She bears an uncanny resemblance to the CGI human-scorpion monster in The Mummy Returns, which was the resurrected embodiment of Mathayus, the Scorpion King (and was Dwayne Johnson’s first ever big-screen role).

All of the above happens by the half-way point of the film, and these scenes and characters were so derivative, that I found it challenging to focus on the storyline. Fortunately, the second half of the film charts its own path and is capped off with an entertaining action sequence in the third act. This gives me reason to hope that the second part, due in April 2024, will feature similarly well executed scenes, which even if not original, put a fresh spin on tired tropes. All credit must go to Sofia Boutella, who effectively portrays the intensity and pain of her character Kora. She also shows off some amazing moves in the action scenes.

The Dam Busters: The classic WW2 film that inspired the Death Star attack in Star Wars

Late British film director Michael Anderson (1920-2018) is not a household name among film-going audiences, but some of the films he directed certainly are. His 1956 release, Around the World in 80 Days won the Oscar for Best Picture. Earlier the same year, he had directed the first on-screen adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four. His 1960 film, All the Fine Young Cannibals was the first on-screen pairing of real-life Hollywood star couple Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood (the film’s title was also the inspiration for the British rock band Fine Young Cannibals). In 1976, he directed the influential sci-fi box office hit Logan’s Run, which led to a TV spin-off and even a short-lived Marvel comic series.  

But before all that, in 1955, Anderson directed The Dam Busters, the extraordinary true story of Operation Chastise, the daring 1943 RAF attack on three German dams feeding the Ruhr valley military factories, using the innovative “bouncing bomb”. I became aware of this film a few months ago, when a friend informed me that the concept of releasing a bomb at a specific point while flying at a specific speed, as depicted in The Dam Busters, formed the basis of the Death Star attack in Star Wars: A New Hope. Additionally, the cinematographer for Star Wars, Gilbert Taylor, was responsible for the special effects photography in The Dam Busters.

This filmmaking footnote was the primary motivation for me to watch this movie, but after finishing it yesterday, I felt that it should be celebrated in its own right as one of the great war movies (it does feature in BFI’s list of the 100 greatest British films of the 20^th century). What really appealed to me was its verisimilitude and lack of bombast, something that’s very rare in war/action films. There isn’t a single raised voice throughout the two-hour runtime, nor any jingoistic behaviour on display (and thank goodness, it was made before the days of slow-motion shots of pilots walking towards their machines). This typically British understated tone probably explains why it didn’t do well at the US box office, whereas it was the top performing film in the UK in 1955.

There are two protagonists in this story, scientist Barnes Wallis, who invented the bouncing bomb and Wing Cmdr. Guy Gibson, whose specially formed 617 “Dambusters” Squadron destroyed the dams. Barnes Wallis was played by veteran British stage actor Sir Michael Redgrave, the progenitor of the famed Redgrave acting dynasty, which includes his daughters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, and his granddaughters Joely Richardson and the late Natasha Richardson (who was married to Liam Neeson). Wing Cmdr. Gibson was played by Irish actor Richard Todd who projects tremendous gravitas and authority while playing a thoughtful, soft-spoken character.

Richard Todd as Wing Cmdr. Guy Gibson and Sir Michael Redgrave as inventor Barnes Wallis in The Dam Busters (1955), directed by Michael Anderson

I truly enjoyed the film’s focus on the research and testing of the bouncing bomb, as well as the assembly and training of Squadron 617. Barnes Wallis had to overcome various technical and engineering challenges through patient trial-and-error experimentation, starting with the creation of simple scale models in his backyard, and thereafter using larger models and dummy bombs before the “Upkeep” bouncing bomb was finally greenlit for production. Meanwhile, Wing Cmdr. Gibson’s team had to practice low-level night-flying and find a way to release the bomb at an altitude of just 60 feet and at a specific distance from the dam wall while flying at a specific speed, all while under ground fire. In fact, these aspects of the story form the bulk of the film’s runtime, with the actual bombing run taking up only about 15 minutes towards the end.

What broke my heart was the depiction of the bomber crews’ return to the airbase after the mission. There are no high-fives, no backslapping; the airmen exit their planes, take note of the flak damage on their machines and walk back to the building. Some of them go straight to their rooms and flop into bed exhausted, while others file into the canteen for coffee and an early breakfast…only the crews who go on a mission get bacon and egg on a given day; it’s bread, butter and jam for everyone else. Poignantly, we see the empty chairs and place settings for the crew members of the 8 Lancaster bombers that didn’t make it back. Barnes Wallis is distraught at the loss of life and tells Gibson that he would never have developed this idea, had he realized what the human cost would be. But Gibson assures him that the men would have gone on the mission even if they had known that they wouldn’t make it back. The film ends with Gibson walking towards his office, with the task of writing letters to the families of those 50 men. A sad footnote is that the real Guy Gibson died in action a year and a half later, at the age of 26. He was the most highly decorated British serviceman at the time, having been awarded the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), and having completed 170 missions.

Some years ago, legendary NZ filmmaker and war aficionado Peter Jackson, purchased the rights to remake the film. There hasn’t been much news on this project since his last update two years ago, so it’s unknown if this will still go ahead, given current restrictions on filming with large numbers of cast and crew. If it does, I certainly hope that Jackson will preserve the measured pace and understated tone of the original, while applying all the latest filmmaking and visual effects techniques that he has become so famous for. Meanwhile, I wholeheartedly recommend watching the original, available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video.

Movie stars ride a wave of nostalgia to resurrect iconic characters from the past

The No.1 movie at the box office last weekend was Bad Boys for Life, bringing the cop team-up of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back to the big screen 25 years after Bad Boys paved the way to stardom for both actors and their director Michael Bay. In June, with Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise returns to his star-making role from 1986. In August, Keanu Reeves returns for a 3^rd Bill and Ted film with co-star Alex Winter, after a gap of 29 years. And finally, in December we’ll get to see Eddie Murphy as King Akeem in Coming 2 America, 32 years after the original.

These are not isolated instances. In the past few years, several actors have returned to play characters that signposted the early stages of their careers. Studios and producers are leveraging the nostalgia factor, targeting the middle-aged movie-going generation that grew up in the 80s and 90s, and hopefully their kids who have heard of the original films or watched them on TV or DVD. For the actor, it’s not an easy decision to make and for those who have taken the plunge already, not all have been successful…

I first noticed this trend with two back-to-back releases at the end of 2015. In December of that year, we saw the long-awaited return of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford to their iconic Star Wars roles. These characters were back together for the first time since 1983. The movie had the perfect blend of nostalgia and freshness, and was a huge global box office hit, grossing in excess of $2 billion. Just a few weeks earlier, Sylvester Stallone played an ageing (and vulnerable) Rocky Balboa in Creed. This time the ex-champion was not fighting his battles in the ring, but in a health clinic, while also playing mentor to up-and-coming boxer Adonis Creed. In this case, Rocky was returning to the screen after a relatively short gap of 9 years, the previous installment being the well-received Rocky Balboa from 2006. In the hands of rising director Ryan Coogler, the film was technically dazzling as well as a fine character study. If there was a way to bring a beloved character back years later in an age-appropriate and graceful manner, this was how to do it.

The following year, in 2016, Jeff Goldblum came back to save the world again as MIT alumnus David Levinson, in Independence Day: Resurgence, 20 years after he used his brains to foil an extra-terrestrial invasion. The film was an unmitigated critical and commercial disaster. But Mr. Goldblum had another of his stock-in-trade quirky characters up his sleeve. In 2018, he brought back Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, to middling critical reaction, but gonzo box office receipts. So, the next movie in the franchise due out in 2021, will bring back the other 2 characters from the 1993 film – Sam Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant and Laura Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler.

Last year, Linda Hamilton came back to the big screen in yet another installment of the Terminator franchise, after a 28-year-long hiatus. Her kick-ass performance as Sarah Connor made her one of the few female action stars of the 80s. This character has been one of my biggest cinematic role models (male or female) over the years and not dissimilar in nature to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Aliens (both films directed by James Cameron). Sadly, in spite of Cameron’s involvement as producer and being touted as a direct sequel to T2, the film sank at the box office and it’s unlikely that Linda Hamilton will be back for an encore.

Meanwhile, on the YouTube Premium streaming service, the comedy-drama series Cobra Kai brought back the rivals from The Karate Kid movies, played by Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, to unexpectedly positive reviews and a renewal into a second season in 2019.

No doubt, money is always a factor and one can be sure there is a hefty paycheck involved in the decision to come back and revisit a beloved character from the past, particularly when the actor also gets a producer credit and gets to ‘manage’ the way the character is portrayed. For stars who have faded away, it must surely be tempting to experience the heady rush of super-stardom again – the press junkets, interviews and talk shows. And because of the nostalgia factor, especially if there’s a big gap between appearances, the anticipation and buzz is huge.

More money and a return to fame is unlikely to be the primary motivation for the 4 actors I talked about at the beginning of this post – Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Keanu Reeves and Eddie Murphy. Unlike Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Linda Hamilton or Ralph Macchio, these 4 have never really gone away from the limelight and have continued to appear in big budget blockbusters regularly – albeit, some of those being of questionable quality and commercial potential.

Tom Cruise has kept the Ethan Hunt character ‘alive’ in 6 installments of Mission: Impossible films from 1996 to 2017, with the last one, Fallout, being one of the best reviewed entries in the series and also the most commercially successful. He is filming the 7^th and 8^th entries in the series back-to-back for release in 2021 and 22. So, Top Gun: Maverick is certainly not a last-gasp attempt to get another moment in the spotlight; it is hopefully being made because there is a story worth telling.

Will Smith on the other hand has had his fair share of duds in recent years, so he must be mightily relieved at the success of Bad Boys for Life (anyone else noticed that the best reviewed of the three Bad Boys films is this one which isn’t directed by Michael Bay?). He missed a chance a few years ago to reprise the role of Capt. Steven Hiller in the sequel to Independence Day, which certainly was a loss for the filmmakers (no way of knowing whether his presence could have made the film better, but director Roland Emmerich has admitted recently that he should have cancelled the project when he failed to get Will Smith signed on). Anyway, it appears a Bad Boy 4 is on the way, so these characters no longer belong to the nostalgia category!

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Keanu Reeves certainly doesn’t need to revive old characters for the money, as his career is seemingly bulletproof. He is able to recover from mediocre or obscure films (and he’s had his share) and bounce back with a new blockbuster franchise every few years. His 3^rd John Wick movie in 2019 was the biggest and best in the series and he also had a memorable voice role as Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4. The scriptwriters for Bill and Ted Face the Music are the same guys who wrote the first two movies, so hopefully they will bring back the old magic and it won’t feel dates. Ted Logan won’t be Keanu Reeves’ only classic character revival though. In May 2021, audiences will be able to see him back as Neo in Matrix 4.

Eddie Murphy has spent about a decade in the wilderness without a hit. And then unexpectedly, he generated rave reviews for his acting in last year’s Netflix biopic of 70s blaxploitation filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite is My Name. Incidentally, this movie’s director Craig Brewer is directing the Coming to America sequel as well, with pretty much the entire cast of the original film returning. Here too, the original film’s writers are doing the screenplay for the sequel.

Two big stars who haven’t felt the need to take a walk down memory lane are Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks. That could be because although both have played several memorable characters, they are not disproportionately equated with any single one.

And let’s raise a toast to Liam Neeson, who doesn’t need to bring back any beloved character because he essentially plays the same character in all his action films! Mr. Neeson gave hope to all ageing actors by kick-starting an action career at the age of 56 with Taken (2008) and since then has appeared in 10 films which are all essentially the same type of movie.

So, here’s hoping that Top Gun: Maverick, Bill and Ted Face the Music and Coming 2 America all enjoy the same level of success as Bad Boys for Life has, in this year of the big screen revivals.

The Holiday watchlist, Part 1: The entertainers

It’s that wonderful time of the year when I put in a concerted effort to watch all the year-end blockbusters and award contenders and also catch up on any notable indie films I may have missed out on from earlier in the year. In the past month, I’ve managed to watch about a dozen movies. They seem to fall into about 4 categories – pure ‘popcorn’ entertainment, action movies with a ‘message’, movies about the human condition (guilt is a common theme this year) and one set which I classified as ‘educational’, because I learnt something about history or society through watching them (with varying degrees of entertainment value).

Today I will cover the 2 straight up entertainers I’ve seen in the past month.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – This movie has been subject of much more controversy than should be necessary for a piece of pure popcorn entertainment. When The Force Awakens came out 2 years ago, critics and audiences both enjoyed it, but they also noted that the film rehashes several story beats from the 1977 Star Wars; too safe, too much comfort food. Now with The Last Jedi, critics appreciate the creative risks taken by director Rian Johnson, but fans are incensed that he is messing with their beloved recipe. Which leads to the question: what is the vision for any beloved long-running series of books, TV shows or movies? Fans expect their beloved characters to stay consistent (or at the very least, evolve gradually over time), but want to see them in new settings, facing new challenges. Something about this basic equation has not worked with The Last Jedi. I did feel impatient with Rey chasing a whiny Luke around that island and felt the plot get very thin with the codebreaker on Canto Bight. That middle part of the narrative was choppy and uneven. But equally, there was plenty to enjoy – the opening bombing sequence featuring the heroic Paige Tico, Vice Admiral Holdo’s stunning act of bravery, the visually inventive battle on the planet Crait, the porgs, the beautiful crystal vulptices, the repeated humiliations of General Hux, the reunion of Luke and Leia, etc. Overall, I came out of the theatre happy, but now all the online criticism has amplified the faults of the film and seems to have spoilt my memory of the experience. I definitely need to watch it again to ‘reset’ how I feel. In the long run, I think audiences will forgive Disney for this film. After all, in six months’ time, we’ll have some light-hearted fun in the spin-off movie Solo: A Star Wars Story which has been put together by the ever-dependable Ron Howard. And I am pretty sure JJ Abrams will wrap up the final trilogy nicely with Episode IX in Dec 2019.

Murder on the Orient Express – I enjoyed this movie sufficiently enough to watch it a second time with my kids a few weeks later. I haven’t read Agatha Christie’s book so cannot comment on how faithful an adaptation it is. I have seen the celebrated 1974 version which was very engaging, but I had actually forgotten the plot and the outcome, so I was fully engrossed while watching Kenneth Branagh’s version. I believe that the new version can be rated one notch better, mainly because of that element of twinkly-eyed mischief which seems to permeate the film and the character of Poirot himself. The production design and Haris Zambarloukos’ lush cinematography both do a superb job of evoking the romanticism of that era. And every single member of the ensemble cast is pitch perfect – from the big names like Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz and Dame Judi Dench to the dependable character actors like Willem Defoe, Derek Jacobi, Olivia Coleman and Josh Gad to relative unknowns like Tom Bateman (Bouc, the director of the train), Leslie Odom Jr. (Dr. Arbuthnot) and Marwan Kenzari (the conductor Michel). Of course, in this era of political correctness and fair representation, people may ask if there were no talented Belgian actors available to play Hercule Poirot, but Branagh inhabits the character with such flair, that it is difficult to imagine anyone else playing the role now. I am very much looking forward to having him return as director and star in A Death on the Nile. And hopefully with a star-studded supporting cast.

In my next post I will cover the two Netflix ‘movies with a message’, Okja and Bright.

Rogue One – not just ‘A Star Wars Story’ but a bona fide prequel to the original

Ridley Scott made headlines a few years ago by jumping back into the Alien franchise with Prometheus, giving franchise fans much hope after several misadventures by Fox studios in previous years. However in the months leading up to the release, Mr. Scott was reluctant to refer to the new film as a sequel or prequel. Instead, he stated that “while Alien was indeed the jumping-off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place.” This created an expectation that the movie would be unconnected with the titular aliens and would just take place “in the same universe”. Eventually, Prometheus was nothing more than a prequel and I wondered if all that dissembling was just a marketing gimmick, or if it was to manage the expectations of fanboys because the film did not feature any of the actual alien creatures which were a staple of all the previous films.

Likewise, when Disney purchased Lucasfilm, they announced a new trilogy of Star Wars films to be released every 2 years and in the intervening years there would be “anthology films set in the same universe, but not part of the storyline of the existing series”. The first of these ‘standalone films’ is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and my thoughts after watching it this evening mirrors my reaction to Prometheus. This is a straight up prequel to the 1977 movie, with the last scene of the film literally leading to the first scene of Star Wars. So I’m guessing the reason the film makers were so coy about referring to this film as a prequel was to manage expectations that there would be no Skywalkers nor our two favourite droids nor any lightsaber duels in this film.

This says a lot about the pressures of making sequels/ prequels in this era of intense social media scrutiny by fickle fanboys (and film critics!) and the need to manage expectations of what they will or will not get to see in the film. Giving the audience ‘comfort food’ and getting that early positive buzz without any whines of disappointment from the first few screenings is so critical to launch these expensive movies onto a positive box office trajectory.

Rogue One tells the story of how the Rebellion came to be in possession of the detailed schematics of the Empire’s Death Star and indeed how such a formidable superweapon the size of a small moon ended up being vulnerable to Luke Skywalker’s tiny X-Wing fighter in Star Wars.

The movie essentially plays out like a World War II ensemble action film – think The Guns of Navarone or The Sea Wolves. And as with those 60’s and 70’s war movies, the ensemble is filled out by a wealth of acting talent. But what’s even more notable is ethnic diversity in this film – more than in any Star Wars film or perhaps any major blockbuster so far!

The lead character Jyn Erso is played by British Oscar nominee Felicity Jones; her partners in this caper include Rebel intelligence officer Cassian Andor (played by popular Mexican actor Diego Luna), defecting Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook (Pakistani-origin British actor Riz Ahmed), blind warrior Chirrut Imwe (Hong Kong martial arts star Donnie Yen), his mercenary friend Baze Malbus (award winning Chinese actor/ director/ screewriter Jian Weng) and a re-programmed Imperial droid K-2SO with a wry sense of humour (voiced by beloved American character actor Alan Tudyk). Also featured in prominent roles are veteran African-American actor and Oscar winner Forest Whitaker as Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera (yes, the same character from the Star Wars Rebels animated series) and acclaimed Danish thesp Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn’s father Galen. Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn graduates from a lifetime of supporting roles in indie films and generates massive screen presence as Director Orson Krennic, the ambitious and ruthless head of the Empire’s Death Star project.

Yup, there’s a lot of new names, but as we have been assured, this is a standalone film and no need to worry about remembering them for future sequels!

Standalone or prequel, Rogue One is filled with familiar beats and echoes from the original trilogy – words and phrases, human, alien and droid characters, spaceships, weaponry and other easter eggs – they’re all there for the hardcore Star Wars fan to recognize and enjoy. While this is welcome, what I found disappointing was the use of so many standard storytelling tropes and cliches throughout the movie. Jettisoning some of these would have brought an element of unpredictability to the movie in the same way that Game of Thrones has done over the years. This could have taken Rogue One from good to great. 

Among the parts that worked for me is the third act featuring the raid on the high security Imperial databank on planet Scarif. It is intense and beautifully choreographed; the action plays out like a three-ringed circus – in orbit above the planet, within the databank building and out on the seafront outside the building.

Michael Giacchino, who is one of Disney’s favourite composers (he won an Oscar for Up and was nominated for Ratatouille) seems to now have moved to the world of big budget action films, having recently composed for Jurassic World, Star Trek Beyond and Doctor Strange. I really liked his work for this film, very sparingly adapting parts of John Williams’ iconic original soundtrack and instead creating a predominantly martial score befitting a war film, but also keying in the emotional moments at the beginning and end of the film.

What a great commercial triumph for 41-year-old British director Gareth Edwards. His first effort in 2010 was the critically acclaimed indie scifi film Monsters, with all the visual effects created by Edwards in his bedroom using off-the-shelf software! He then graduated to the big league, directing the reboot of Godzilla in 2014 which successfully launched a new franchise for production company Legendary Pictures. And now here he is with a USD 200 million budget, successfully delivering a new entry to one of the most beloved film series of all time.

I don’t agree with the initial gushing reaction of some critics that this is the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back. But replicating the same ‘comfort food’ approach of last year’s The Force Awakens, it certainly looks like Disney and producer Kathleen Kennedy have made sure that their goose will keep laying golden eggs for some time to come.

Studios race to build cinematic universes

We’re all familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe which so far has given rise to several highly successful and mostly well-regarded movies, not just from Marvel’s parent company Disney but also from other studios like Fox and Sony which own the franchise rights for the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man respectively.

The interconnectedness of their titles allows Marvel to launch movies based on new and sometimes little-known characters with the knowledge that they can reduce the financial risk by introducing the character in a related (and already successful) movie series. Some members of the Avengers like Hawkeye and Black Widow were introduced in the Iron Man films and Black Panther was recently introduced in Captain America: Civil War.

Rival comic book powerhouse DC Comics (which is owned by Warner Bros.), actually has the more iconic superheroes by far and has successfully brought both Superman and Batman to the big screen, but had previously been unable to use either film series to launch other characters from their staple. They finally put a roadmap together a few years ago to build a series of films around the Justice League (DC’s version of the Avengers). This started off with Man of Steel in 2013 and followed up with this year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, both directed by Zack Snyder and both somewhat disappointing. In the past few months, a senior task force has been assembled to sort out scripting and creative issues. Today’s release of the first trailers for Wonder Woman and Justice League (both due in 2017) indicate that they may have got their act together. As a bonus, Suicide Squad, an R-rated anti-hero movie which was once considered a ‘side-show’ in the DC Cinematic Universe is now among the most anticipated releases of the year and may fuel public interest in the movies to come, possibly even forcing Warner Bros. to include Suicide Squad characters in the other films.

So it’s clear that studios are now looking not just to create franchises but cinematic universes. As per the Marvel formula, a universe can be created by starting with a series featuring one character (e.g. Iron Man) and then by launching new series featuring other lead characters, who were introduced in the original series. Another way to milk an established franchise is by creating spin-off films starring supporting characters or by going backwards or forwards in time within the franchise timeline to tell the story of an earlier or later generation of characters.

The latter approach is exactly what Warner Bros. is trying with the forthcoming release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This is the first in a new trilogy set nearly a hundred years before the events of the Harry Potter films. It narrates the adventures of ‘magizoologist’ Newt Scamander whose book on magical beasts was one of the required school textbooks at Hogwarts. Talk about inventive thinking! I’m sure the folks at Warner Bros. must be looking through all the Harry Potter stories to figure out how many other characters or references can be spun off to further expand the Potter Cinematic Universe.

Disney is employing a combination of both strategies to rejuvenate and extend the 40-year-old Star Wars franchise. Faced with the reality that the original cast are ageing, they introduced a new generation of  characters in last December’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens to whom the torch is passed to continue the good fight against the evil empire. But that’s not all. Disney is also doing a ‘Newt Scamander’ by creating a series of spin-off ‘anthology’ films, which expand on characters and situations from the original trilogy. The first of these is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story releasing at the end of this year. This will be followed two years later by an origin story for Han Solo.

A new universe in the making that I am very excited about is the one coming from Universal Studios. This one will bring together the classic horror monsters which brought the studio great success from the 1930s to the early ’50s. If all goes according to plan, we will get to see Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s creature, The Mummy, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, The Gill-man (from 1954’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon) and Dr. Jekyll all occupy the same cinematic space over the next few years. The first movie in the series was a bit of a misfire – Dracula Untold from 2014. Presumably the studio already knew they had a dud on their hands and therefore refrained from publicly marketing this film as part of a future franchise. Instead, they will launch the franchise with a far surer bet – a new remake of The Mummy set in modern times, starring Tom Cruise scheduled for release in 2017. Russell Crowe will appear in the movie as Dr. Jekyll, perhaps testing waters for a stand-alone Jekyll & Hyde feature. Earlier this year, it was announced that Johnny Depp would star in The Invisible Man for a 2018 release.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. with production partner Legendary Pictures is attempting to create a universe which brings together King Kong and Godzilla. The 2014 remake of Godzilla is being treated as the first film in the ‘giant super-species cinematic universe’ to be followed by Kong: Skull Island in 2017 and Godzilla 2 in 2018.The first trailer for the former was released yesterday and showcases the powerhouse cast of Tom Hiddleston, this year’s Oscar winner Brie Larson and veteran actors Samuel L. Jackson and John Goodman. As can be expected, the trailer gives only brief and incomplete glimpses of King Kong. The Godzilla reboot cast the giant reptile as mankind’s savior against two other monsters. Fanboys refer to these monsters by their Japanese appellation kaiju, but in the film they are referred to as MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). Obviously, we will see more MUTOs in Godzilla 2 in 2019, possibly from original rights holder Toho’s collection of baddies such as King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan. And so, when Godzilla and Kong meet on-screen in 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong, one can expect city-levelling mayhem that would put even Zack Snyder’s DC films to shame. An intriguing possibility is that Legendary Pictures may find a way to fuse this universe with Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim series which it also produces. This seems highly unlikely though it would be the ultimate kaiju wet dream!

For fans of epic/ big effects films, the next few years promises to be very exciting with superheroes, monsters, aliens and giant creatures invading our theaters. Just make sure you can keep track of how they are all related to each other!

And the alternative awards go to…

Since it’s awards season, I thought I would come up with a few of my own.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts Award

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

A familiar script and conventional special effects would not be a recipe for success these days, but combined with some earnest acting we had the most satisfying movie of the year. Full credit to director JJ Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy for figuring out the pulse of the audience.

Best opening scene

Bridge of Spies

The wordless opening sequence shows Russian spy Rudolf Abel start the day by putting the finishing touches on a self-portrait in his cramped apartment, then step out and walk through the streets of 1950s Brooklyn on his way to a rendezvous. The lighting and composition in those few minutes in the apartment can be a visual textbook for any student of filmmaking. And you already see why actor Mark Rylance deserves that Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Best ending scene

Youth 

Retired composer Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) conducts a performance of his Simple Songs, sung by Korean soprano Sumi Jo.

Phoenix

Nelly (Nina Hoss) sings Speak Low and her husband slowly realizes who she is; the phoenix has risen from its ashes.

Danny Collins

Danny Collins (Al Pacino) and his son (Bobby Cannavale) wait for the doctor’s verdict.

Infinitely Polar Bear

Cam Stuart’s (Mark Ruffalo) playful emotional blackmail almost works as his two daughters choose a play date over his offer to go boating on a beautiful day

Most disturbing/ unresolved ending

Z for Zachariah

John (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Ann (Margot Robbie) lose their innocence in the garden of Eden

Best post-credits scene

Dope

Shameik Moore shows us his moves to The Humpty Dance by the Digital Underground. Pharrel Williams and Sean Combs were executive producers for this delightful coming-of-age dramedy.

Most horrifying scene

Agu’s (Abraham Attah) first kill (Beasts of No Nation)

Most emotional moment

Rocky confronts his own mortality in Creed

Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldanha break down as they try to figure out their lives towards the end of Infinitely Polar Bear

Best dance sequence

Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno boogie to Get Down Saturday Night in Ex Machina.

Best action sequence

Everything in Mad Max: Fury Road

Everything in Sicario

Everything in The Revenant

Best single shot

Adonis Creed and his team enter the ring for his title fight against Ricky Conlan; the camera follows them from the back room through the corridor into the packed stadium. Goosebumps.

Most disappointing character

Captain Phasma from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best (wordless) introduction to a character

Rey (Daisy Ridley) in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in Bridge of Spies

Most over-the-top characters

Daisy Domergue played by Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Coma-Doof Warrior played by Australian musician iOTA (Mad Max: Fury Road); check out the montage of scenes below

Best dialogue

Far From the Madding Crowd

“I shouldn’t mind being a bride at a wedding if I could be one without getting a husband!”

“It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.”

Best songs

Straight Outta Compton (songs by NWA)

Best color palette

The Danish Girl 

DP Danny Cohen captures the beauty of the Dutch skies and architecture while set decorator Michael Standish, production designer Eve Stewart and costume designer Paco Delgado skillfully coordinate the interior look (all 3 have been Oscar-nominated)

The Man from UNCLE

Costume designer Joanne Johnston and set decorator Elli Griff bring to life a glorious Italian summer by clothing their glamorous stars in 60s’ high fashion

Youth

DP Luca Bigazzi juxtaposes the cool beauty of the Swiss Alps and the opulence of a luxury resort against the barren lives of its residents

Most ubiquitous male actor

32-year-old Irish actor Domnhall Gleeson seemed to be everywhere this year. He played the naïve programmer who stumbles onto a dark secret in Ex Machina, the evil but needy General Hux in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the well-meaning commander of an ill-fated hunting party in The Revenant and the attractive Rugby player who steals Saoirse Ronan’s heart in Brooklyn. He is the son of veteran character actor Brendan Gleeson. Harry Potter fans may remember him as the oldest Weasley son Bill from the last 2 films.

Most ubiquitous female actress

27-year-old Swedish actress Alicia Vikander is one of the most talented young actresses around today. She was an eerily sentient robot in Ex Machina, portrayed British pacifist Vera Brittan in Testament of Youth and played sassy East German auto mechanic turned spy Gaby Teller in the big-budget revival of The Man from UNCLE. She ended the year with an Oscar-nominated performance in The Danish Girl as Gerda Wegener, the Dutch painter who stood by her husband during his tragic transgender journey. She also had a supporting role in the little seen Bradley Cooper flop Burnt.

Important films

Irrespective of the level of critical acclaim, entertainment value or filmmaking quality (all of which are very good), I consider these 3 films to be essential viewing for their subject matter

Spotlight 

The story of how the Boston Globe uncovered widespread cases of child abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston area and the efforts by the Church to protect the offenders. This documentary-style, no frills movie features pitch-perfect acting. The lack of melodrama makes the story even more hard-hitting.

Beasts of No Nation

Set in a West African country torn by civil war, this is a fictitious account of a how a young boy is separated from his family and forced to become a child soldier. Loss of innocence on every level. This movie features mainly non-actors (plus a brilliant Idris Elba) and at times is unwatchable for the real-life horror it puts on screen.

Suffragette

Set in the middle years of the suffragette movement, this is the story of a laundry shop worker (Carey Mulligan) who is drawn to the cause by sheer chance. As her involvement grows, her husband throws her out and she undergoes many physical and mental trials; all of which further strengthen her resolve. Although a work of fiction, it showcases the ridiculous attitudes that existed towards women’s rights in the early 1900s.

When beloved characters return to the screen after decades

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Creed opening within weeks of each other, we are getting a chance to see our beloved characters return to screen nearly 40 years after we first got to know them. Rocky came to theatres in December 1976 and Star Wars followed 6 months later.

Harrison Ford was last seen playing Han Solo in Return of the Jedi in 1983. Although I have seen the actor in countless movies over the years, it was still a shock for me to see an old Han Solo (and Leia Organa) on screen 30 years later. They never got their happily-ever-after. Although Mr. Ford the actor, looks incredibly spry and youthful for a 73-year-old, Han Solo the character carries emotional wear and tear beneath his usual cocky façade. Likewise, the feisty, glowing Princess Leia has been replaced by a world-weary, hard-faced General Organa.

We all love fairy tales and the closing line ‘they all lived happily ever after’; it’s the only way to escape the realities of time that we are all subject to. The original trilogy played out like a fairy tale but because this latest episode has been shot 32 years later and uses the same actors, we are harshly reminded what real life is like. I respect the filmmakers for going there, but feel sorry for myself; it felt like a loss of innocence, like the time a child first understands the concepts of ageing and death.

Unlike the big 30 year gap for Han Solo and Leia Organa, boxer Rocky Balboa has made more frequent visits to the big-screen, with the last one – Rocky Balboa – released in 2006. For me personally though, the last film I watched was Rocky IV from 1985. So it was the same shocking experience of seeing a once-unbeatable man reduced to a shuffling shadow of his former self (well-played by 69-year-old Stallone who in real life is in great shape!). Creed is an excellent film; mature and measured, it packs an emotional punch. It is the coming-of-age story of Apollo Creed’s son, but equally compelling is the story of Rocky. His team is no more – his wife, his brother-in-law, his trainer, his rivals are all gone. He lives by himself, with only his memories. Yes, the unexpected appearance of the son of his late rival-turned-friend gives Rocky something to work towards. Even so, both his spirit and his flesh seem to have trouble rising up to the challenge. At the end of the movie, Creed Jr. helps Rocky climb those famous steps up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the ones that he ran up so easily as a young man. It’s a poignant ending, both hopeful and uncertain.

With both these films, I experienced the ageing of these characters in two snapshots separated by 25-30 years and it seemed to amplify my own personal experiences and fears related to growing older. I know there are plenty of US TV shows which have run continuously for decades, with the same actors ageing side-by-side with the viewers. I haven’t watched these shows and even if I did, I doubt the impact would be as strong, simply because we are seeing them continuously over a period of time.

The only other lead character I am aware of who has been played by the same actor over an extended period is François Truffaut’s on-screen alter ego Antoine Doinel. First seen in the iconic The 400 Blows (1959), actor Jean-Pierre Léaud returns in 3 more feature films spread over 20 years. I have seen the first and the last movies. The first had a poignant ending, with the famous freeze-frame of the 12-year-old Doinel facing an uncertain future after running away from a reform school. It kept me awake for many nights, wondering how this child could possibly survive on his own in a cruel uncaring world. Twenty years later, against all odds, Doinel is living a normal life, dealing mostly with challenges in his love life. Although I should have been happy for him, given how the ending of the first film had affected me, I actually felt a bit let down that the intensity had not been maintained in the sequel! So, this was the reverse of the Star Wars and Rocky experience – first because the character has only aged from 12 to 32 and second because he seems to be in a better place in his adulthood than he was in his youth.

It is worth referring to Granada TV’s well known socio-cinematic experiment, the Up documentary series. Starting with Seven Up! in 1964, this series of documentaries chronicles the lives of 14 individuals, starting when they were 7 years old and revisited every 7 years since. The latest instalment in the series is 56 Up released in 2012. All except the first one have been directed by British director Michael Apted (himself now 74 years old). I haven’t watched any of them, but I imagine that anyone who has watched some or all of them in real time over the years would have experienced the same emotional effect that I did with Han Solo and Rocky Balboa. Richard Linklater did something similar with Boyhood, although he shot the scenes over several years and cut it all into one film. So it’s not the same experience for the viewers. Of course, it also depends on the film; Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return as Terminator after a 12 year gap in Terminator Genisys this year didn’t get anyone emotional.

Knowing how Hollywood works, studios must be wondering which hit movies from the 1980s would be worth creating a sequel for, provided the original actors are still alive and willing to return. For example, could we get to see 50 year old Marty McFly in Back to the Future IV? Or a 53 year old Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Son’s Day Off? It would be interesting to see what Michael Dorsey aka Tootsie is doing at the age of 78. Did he and Julie stay together and get their happily ever after?

I think some stories are indeed better left in the realm of fairy tales.

The Force is indeed strong with this one (SPOILER FREE)

Yes, I’ve already seen two other websites use this headline for their Star Wars story today, but I think it’s appropriate enough that a few more will be repeating it through this weekend.

After the first full trailer earlier this year, I avoided watching any of subsequent trailers or visiting message boards about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The only exception was that I knew in advance where Daniel Craig’s invisible cameo would happen. You will neither see his face, nor recognize his voice; but it’s an entertaining and important moment from a narrative point of view and he will be forever grateful to JJ Abrams for this gift!

I didn’t catch the first 2 films on the big screen and although I saw Return of the Jedi in the theatre in Bangalore in 1985, I just can’t remember the moment when the crawl came up on screen along with John Williams’ iconic theme (for the academically minded, I highly recommend this excellent article published yesterday by Billboard on why this score is so powerful). When I went back to the theatre in 1999 for the re-release of the original film, I felt the full force of emotions during those first few seconds. I had a similar (even stronger) experience during the opening exposition of The Lord of the Rings in December 2001. Well, it was the same feeling last night as three years of hope and prayers were finally fulfilled; in fact a cheer went up in the audience already when the Lucasfilm logo came up!

The opening scene which introduces a couple of the new characters and later, the extended introduction to the central character Rey (Daisy Ridley, pictured below with John Boyega and BB-8) are pitch perfect. I had mentioned in my series of posts about next gen British actresses that this film could be a springboard to a successful career for Ms. Ridley. Based on what I’ve seen, I believe we have just been introduced to a major new acting talent. Rey is the heart of this film; it’s her coming-of-age story just as the original trilogy was Luke Skywalker’s. Every scene she’s in carries weight because she is able to project a mélange of emotions – hope, despair, resilience, fear, determination, pride, love – giving us a sense of her character’s backstory. I can’t remember the last time I have felt this strongly about a major big-screen debut and I sincerely hope that she will be able to realize her tremendous potential.

The new villain Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver, pictured below with General Hux and Captain Phasma) will be Rey’s nemesis through this trilogy. This is a more nuanced villain than Darth Vader, but equally hateful…perhaps even more so because of what happens in this film.

In fact, full marks to the filmmakers for all the casting. Just as it was with the original trilogy, the fresh young faces (Daisy Ridley and John Boyega) and the rising young actors (Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac) are excellent in their roles. The non-human characters like Maz Kanata (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), Unkar Plutt (voiced by Simon Pegg, sounding uncannily like the butler from Downton Abbey, I thought) and Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis doing his usual evil thing) are brought to life either through prosthetics or mo-cap CGI. No worries about a bumbling Jar-Jar Binks or a whiny Annakin Skywalker or an emotionally repressed Padmé Amidala here. And of course, the new generation BB-8 astromech droid steals the show, expressing a much wider range of emotions and solving all the mobility issues that George Lucas faced with R2-D2. This droid is truly an engineering marvel and I imagine that for those who don’t mind spending USD 150 on a ‘toy’, this will be a must-have purchase for the family.

The plot is easy to follow unlike that of the prequels. As with any JJ Abrams film, pace, editing and action are all top notch. It’s only towards the end of Maz Kanata’s castle sequence when several of the characters were at a loose end about what to do next, that I felt it was the scriptwriters who were unsure about what to do with the dialogue! There are of course, copycat situations from the beloved original trilogy and I think this was necessary to give hard core fans a ‘soft landing’ into the new trilogy. I suspect that the next two films will dispense with these and will take on a style and tone of their own. The original trilogy achieved this variety simply because The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were directed by different directors with their own filmmaking style. Likewise, Episode VIII will be directed by Rian Johnson and Episode XI by Colin Trevorrow. Johnson has directed 3 very different films – a noir thriller, a caper comedy and a time-travel scifi thriller (Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper). It’s notable that he has written the scripts for all of these and will have a writing credit for both the upcoming Star Wars sequels. Colin Trevorrow directed an indie scifi film called Safety Not Guaranteed and then hit the big time with Jurassic World this year.

A few words about the visual effects. I respect JJ Abrams’ approach of moving back to more practical effects and doing away with the overly digitized look of the prequels; this once again looks like a lived-in world rather than a video game. However, the fact is that while the first Star Wars invented a new category of special effects 40 years ago, the new film does not create a breakthrough of the same magnitude. In the past 30 years, we have had the water pseudopod in The Abyss, the liquid metal man in Terminator 2, the CGI dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, the bullet-time action sequences in The Matrix and a fully expressive CGI character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. In terms of movie formats, it was Avatar that ushered in the new 3D era in 2009 and filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Michael Bay who have leveraged the IMAX format impressively with The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar and the Transformer sequels. Even in 2015, the most unique visual experience I had would probably be Mad Max: Fury Road. So, there is no single unique or memorable visual effect in The Force Awakens, but safe to say the movie is not poorer for it; I think it was a choice to focus on the story/ characters and not create any visual gimmicks.

So, a huge round of applause to JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy for delivering on this movie. Disney had a USD 4 billion investment in Lucasfilm at stake. Long term fans had been burned by the prequels (which have not improved in perception with time). But now, everything is well set up for 4 more years of Star Wars films – the sequels in 2017 and 2019, a standalone film titled A Star Wars Story: Rogue One next December (featuring Felicity Jones) and a Han Solo adventure film (wonder who they will cast as a young Solo) in 2018.

PS: Here’s a wonderful picture of the cast at a table reading at the start of the project.

Why some film makers ‘lose it’ – Hubris or Exhaustion?

This weekend I read a couple of articles related to M. Night Shyamalan and Cameron Crowe, two of my favourite film makers from the late 1990s/ early 2000s. Shyamalan has finally found some mild success with his new TV show Wayward Pines after several years in the Hollywood wilderness with a string of critical and commercial flops. Cameron Crowe I think is still in the wilderness with his latest film Aloha opening this weekend to scathing reviews and tepid box office numbers.

Shyamalan released The Sixth Sense when he was 29 and was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay Oscar. He had also written the screenplay for much beloved Stuart Little the same year. He then released the widely praised superhero origin movie Unbreakable before hitting even bigger box office heights with the alien invasion thriller Signs. Around this time, Newsweek ran a cover story referred to him as ‘the next Spielberg’. Indeed, like Spielberg and a few other celebrity directors, studios could market a film on his name alone, as they did with subsequent releases like The Village and Lady in the Water. Things went steadily downhill and for his last film After Earth in 2013, the studio famously left Shyamalan’s name off the marketing material.

At the tender age of 22, Cameron Crowe made his mark in Hollywood when his book Fast Times at Ridgemont High was adapted into a sleeper hit film that kick-started the careers of actors like Nic Cage, Sean Penn and Forest Whitaker. Ten years later, he directed his first film, the rom-com Say Anything followed by another rom com Singles, set during the Seattle grunge scene. Both were very well received and were relatively profitable given their low budgets. Crowe then hit the big time with two back-to-back studio films, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. The latter was based on his own experiences as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine in the 70s…can you imagine in today’s world a 16-year-old being officially commissioned by a respected industry magazine to go on the road with a mega rock band like Allman Brothers, surrounded by road crew, groupies and who knows what else? He was nominated for Best Screenplay for both these films and won for Almost Famous. Then what? Vanilla Sky, an adaptation of the Spanish thriller Abre los Ojos came across as nothing more than an emotion-less vehicle for Tom Cruise, probably known more for its elaborate shot featuring Cruise running through a deserted Times Square. Subsequent films Elizabethtown, We Bought a Zoo and now Aloha have brought in steadily diminishing returns.

Both these film makers are great writers and storytellers, established their credentials with original material (something that critics are constantly crying out for in Hollywood) and yet, just when they seemed to be reaching their peak, something happens and now they can do nothing right. Is it hubris? Quite likely that was the case with Shyamalan when he thought he could do no wrong after the Newsweek article and the global success of Signs. Is it creative exhaustion? Could be the case with Crowe; by the time he finished making Vanilla Sky, he had been writing, traveling and making films for 30 years and with an Oscar under his belt, he may have just run out of juice.

There are two similar cases from an earlier era – William Friedkin and George Lucas. Like Shyamalan, Friedkin was the director who could do no wrong, winning the Best Director Oscar for the French Connection and being nominated again or The Exorcist 2 years later. He then let it all go to his head and made the movie that ruined him – Sorcerer, an adaptation of the classic French thriller The Wages of Fear. His obsessiveness sent the film over budget and lost a lot of money for the studios. He became box office poison after that and was ‘reduced’ to becoming a director-for-hire, mainly for TV material. Ironically, the box office failure of Sorcerer was attributed to the unexpected success of another film released a few weeks earlier – Star Wars. We all know how George Lucas emerged as a hero of the 1970’s indie film scene, a true American auteur with two films THX 1138 and American Graffiti before changing the commercial landscape of Hollywood with Star Wars. He was double-nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Director Oscars for both American Graffiti and Star Wars. His creative streak continued with the rest of the Star Wars trilogy and the birth of Indiana Jones, but when he came back in his mid-50s to direct the new trilogy, it was clear that the creative force was spent. Who could blame him, considering the creative empire he had built in the past 30+ years.

For me, these stories highlight the two enemies of creativity – arrogance and exhaustion – and how it is so difficult to escape from both when working in the Hollywood studio system. I think about two other young film makers of today who appear to be in danger of falling into one or the other of these pits – Neill Blomkamp and Josh Trank. Blomkamp released the highly acclaimed short film Alive in Joburg at 27, which he then made into full length feature District 9 three years later for which he received an Oscar nom for Best Screenplay. His two subsequent films Elysium and Chappie have disappointed and we now wait with bated breath for his new take on the Alien franchise to see if he’s still got it. Josh Trank burst onto the scene at the age of 28 with the found footage superhero film Chronicle, but there are already disturbing rumours swirling around his upcoming 2^nd film Fantastic Four and he’s been thrown out of the director’s chair of an upcoming Star Wars Anthology film. Hollywood will forgive you for making movies that no one wants to see or movies that are bad (there’s a difference between the two) but not for being a difficult person to work with; I think that’s pretty much the case in any industry, right?

It’s when reflecting on cases like these that one develops such overwhelming respect for the long-lived success stories, the ones who are able to maintain the steady level of commercially successful, critically acclaimed output year after year AND are considered desirable to work with by the movie making community. I’m talking about the likes of Steven Spielberg (first hit Jaws – 1975, latest hit Lincoln – 2012), Ron Howard (first hit Splash – 1984, latest hit Angels & Demons – 2009), Robert Zemeckis (first hit Romancing the Stone – 1984, latest hit Flight – 2012), Peter Jackson (first hit Heavenly Creatures – 1994, latest hit The Hobbit: BOTFA – 2014), Bryan Singer (first hit The Usual Suspects – 1995, latest hit X-Men: DOFP – 2014) and of course, my man James Cameron (first hit The Terminator – 1984, latest hit Avatar – 2009). All of them have survived ups and downs and continue to work on great new projects into their 3rd, 4th or even 5th decade in the business.