[Movie/Comic Nerds] The dismal future of R-rated fantasy sci/fi

Same here. My biggest gripe with fantasy/sci-fi is Hollywood's complete unwillingness to take either genre seriously.

 

No Bioshock for us.
http://screenrant.com/bioshock-movie-budget-rob-101274/

Last summer, Gore Verbinski updated us on the status of the BioShock film adaptation. At the time, they were trying to figure out a way to cut down costs of production, but still allow for the film to carry the aesthetic and scope of the popular video game it is based on.

The trouble, as we all know, is that the goal is to make the BioShock film with a well-deserved R-Rating which restricts the size of the theater-going audience and therefore, the willingness to invest from the studio side of the equation. As fans of the game know however, no film should be made based on the game unless it does have that R-Rating.

Back in July of 2010, here’s what Verbinski had to say on the matter:

“We’re working trying to make it. The problem with BioShock was: R-rated movie, underwater, horror. It’s a really expensive R-rated movie… So we’re trying to figure out a way working with [director] Juan Carlos [Fresnadillo] to get the budget down and still keep so it’s true to the core audience, you know? The thing is it has to be R, a hard R.”​

Fast forward over half a year and the BioShock film still isn’t going anywhere. Verbinski is dedicated to the story of the game and will only make it the right way. Unfortunately for budgetary purposes, that involves the adult rating and no studio is willing to put that much faith in the project.

Coming Soon had the opportunity to speak with Verbinski about his upcoming projects and had him open up on why the BioShock movie isn’t moving forward. As it turns out, it’s not happening because they cannot acquiring the studio support to make the movie the right way.

“I couldn’t really get past anybody that would spend the money that it would take to do it and keep an R rating. Alternately, I wasn’t really interested in pursuing a PG-13 version. Because the R rating is inherent. Little Sisters and injections and the whole thing. I just wanted to really, really make it a movie where, four days later, you’re still shivering and going, “Jesus Christ!”… It’s a movie that has to be really, really scary, but you also have to create a whole underwater world, so the pricetag is high. We just didn’t have any takers on an R-rated movie with that pricetag.”

If they can’t make the movie right, don’t make the movie at all. We’ve seen far too many video game franchises get awful film adaptations (Max Payne, Doom) which tarnish the brand. Over the last year or so however, some game publishers and studios have realized the negative impact of this and we’ve seen projects come to a stand still, and even some developers not letting their properties get adapted (see: Metal Gear Solid or anything developed by Valve).

Maybe if Gore would just make the movie worse, screw up the characters and story a little bit, making it family-friendly, then he’ll get all the money he needs to make a Prince of Persia 2 BioShock movie.

Do you think an R-Rated BioShock movie warrants a blockbuster budget? One way to offer a higher return on investment is to make the movie in 3D, something Verbinski thinks would work well for BioShock.

For fans of the franchise, you can still look forward to BioShock: Infinite, the upcoming game which takes players out of the water and into the flying city of Columbia.

 

Capitalism at its best

 

With the increasing power and decreasing cost of processors I think that independent studios could start producing decent sci-fi, even the racy kind, without requiring gigantic budgets. Consider a movie like Moon that was done on a relatively modest budget or shows like BSG and Stargate that have decent special effects with far smaller budgets than Hollywood movies. It seems to me that with a SyFy channel effects budget, a great story and acting a very good superhero / fantasy / sci-fy movie could be made.

DD posted this a few months ago but this is short movie about Aragorn's family made on a shoe string but still is very good.

http://www.bornofhope.com/

 

Imagine if they made the Matrix PG-13 and cast Will Smith as originally planned. AND let Will crack jokes like he wanted to.

 

R-rated does not make a movie good or how it is to watch. I like both Casablanca and Stand by Me; 60 years apart but the character development, sceneary, imagery, plot and dialougue are killer in these two movies.

Personally, I'm going to blame the Sci-Fi channel for ruining today's science fiction series and movies. That channel ought to be cast into the deepest valleys of hell. Wrestling, are you kidding me? Low-budget, crappy CGI giant killer-dog movies? Ghost Hunters? Stargate SG-1? If you were a major motion picture studio executive looking at the programs Sci-Fi is airing you would come see that it's aimed toward 5 year olds, deadbeats and the remaining ilk.

Why then make a giant budget sci-fi movie with lots of violence, vulgarities and vaginas? We have to blame ourselves first off. We have to cease and desist from attending these horrid, unoriginal regurgitated crap. We then have to hope that the big picture studioes do not ruin Dune the way they ruined Transformers: a movie based on a CGI effect. We have to blame ourselves for going to see these movies (Transformers, Dark Knight and Indian Jones: the skull crystal whatever); even if we did cry and walk out with 30 minutes left because they had killed one of the greatest cartoon shows from your childhood, that does not make you wrong. Pray that they don't try to make an Exo-Squad movie. Pray.

 

never heard that...here's whats on wiki...

"Actor Will Smith turned down the role of Neo to make Wild Wild West, due to skepticism over the film's ambitious bullet time special effects.[4] He later stated that he was "not mature enough as an actor" at that time,[4] and that if given the role, he "would have messed it up".[5][6] Nicolas Cage also turned down the role because of "family obligations".[7] Prior to the casting of Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock turned down the role of Trinity because she didn't see herself working with the actor then being considered to play Neo.[8] Sean Connery also respectfully declined the role of Morpheus"

weird to think about some of those actors in the flick.

It's also interesting to think who Sandra didnt want to work with...will smith? nic cage?

 

Barbarella wasn't made because Hackdiguez wanted to cast his mistress Fish Lips McGowen as the lead and the studio thought she wasn't a big enough star to carry a the $80 million budget.

 

There have been two movie versions of Dune made.

 

Moon was a very good low-budget sci-fi movie, but how much of it was special effects? I thought that all scenes in the control room were shot on a set, and the scenes outside on the moon were shot with models. Am I wrong? Was I missing something?

 

Yeah, hard to imagine the Matrix with anyone else now. But Cage is really puzzling.

Here's more to the story:

http://www.toptenz.net/10-actors-who-passed-on-movie-roles.php

IIRC, he wanted to keep his family friendly, summer-time blockbuster, comedic image going. He wanted to make Neo more of a wise-cracking character like his other blockbuster roles, and that's a major reason why it didn't work out.

I think Smith could have pulled it off if he stuck with the plan, which he admits later on.

 

Will Smith in Seven Pounds was pretty stoic and brooding throughout the movie. THAT Will Smith might have pulled off Neo but not the one from Wild Wild West, MIB and Independence Day.

 

If I recall, Jet Li turned down a part in the sequels and Michelle Yeoh was originally taped for Niobe.

 

They wouldn't pay Jet Li enough money for part 2 and 3

 

How much money did it make in the Theaters?

Hell . . how many Rated R movies are there a year Period?
Since they made NC 17 . . how many movies have gotten the rating?

Rocket River

 

I think you are right about how the effects were done but that is my point that you can still make a very good sci-fi movie without a big budget. As with Moon if you have a great story and great acting the effects aren't going to be as important as opposed to if you have the story to Avatar (dances with wolves with blue tree people) and a effects budget of Moon you are likely going to have a very crappy movie.