Britain, wheres it going ?

LloydTheGreat

LloydTheGreat

Hi.
I was just wondeing if anyone here had any idea whats happening to the BFI or even general film-making in the UK ?
Recently I heard something about Thunderbirds being much more than just a movie to the UK film industry, that it was some sort of tie breaker ... anyone else hear this ?
According to Empire (i think) this is the most expensive British movie ever made, and if it bombs then it will mean very bad things for British film-making.
As far as i can see the movie cant be 'that' bad, but up against summer competition like ''Spiderman 2'' and ''I, Robot'' I really cant see it making its money back (a reported £80,000,000 i believe, so the equivalent of a $100,000,000 american movie).

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this ?

or even any comments on what seems to be a general slow-down in brit movie-making ?
 
well, can't really comment on the Brit film industry... New Zealand's Film Commision was in a bit of a crisis several years ago, but that had a massive turn-around during LOTR and looks like it is around to stay now.

In theory, LOTR was supposed to have been the last "big budget" pseudo-foreign film to be funded by the NZFC... just takes a big hit to change minds.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing "Thunderbirds". A bit disappointed it seems so kid-oriented... but then again, I was a kid when Gerry Anderson was making his puppet magic happen. I suppose it really is a good thing that good kid-friendly action movies are getting made. I'll just regress a few years when I go see it in the theater. ;)

I don't see it topping Spiderman-2, moneywise... but I would be tickled pink if it beat "I, Robot". From what I can tell from the trailers, it's pretty much just borrowed the title of an Asimov classic, tossed in a few references to the Three Laws of Robotics, and went to town on CGI hoping that noone would notice the lack of actual relevance to Asimov's set of short stories.

Sorry wasn't anything about Brit filmmaking...

F.A.B.

smiley_badger.gif
 
Film Making in britain? Ha... it's going absolutely no where! :D Not really any truely british films left after the collapse of film four... we're a bit dead in the water. And as for a general slow-down... it's been slowing down since Rank and Hammer stopped making films...
Unless the government, or a government gets off their fat money ridden arses and puts some more cash into the film industry for the sake of it film in britain is little else other than an expensive hobby :(
 
This is such a complicated question and I don't ahve time to give the kind of answer I'd like to, so instead I'd like to suggest that if you really want to know what's going on in the industry, stop reading Empire and subscribe to Screen International instead. You'll get a lot clearer picture of what's actually going on by reading the trade papers, instead of the consumer journals.

Personally, I think British film making is just about to go through a radical revolution, but this is largely due to currently unknown independents who are doing some very interesting things at the moment.
 
I hate it that there are no real orriginal concepts left in the Professional Industry.

They have to rehash old classics in order to make a buck. Thunderbirds was a great Stop Motion/Puppetry show in the 1960s.

Then of course there is Superman, Spiderman, The Hulk so on with many of them bombing.

I heard that Johnny Depp wants to remake the classic Willy Wonka and the chocolate Factory. BAD IDEA.

Tom Cruise wants to star and direct "War of the worlds" but they want to make it set in the 1800s as the book orriginally had the story take place in.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is about to be remade. again another classic that might be wrecked by modernism.

I was sad when i saw what Malk Wahlburg did to Planet of the apes. I think it stunk to high hell.
 
Radical revolution.... hmmmm... sit and wait... tic... toc... tic... toc....
Click to expand...

You don't wait for someone else to revolutionise the industry ... you do it yourself.

I'm currently working with about fifteen different film makers, mainly British, but also others from around the world to develop new ways of approaching the industry. In particular, we've developed a new production philosophy that allows us to create innovative new drama profitably.

My company alone has eleven British feature scripts in development, we're helping another company develop thier first feature in Mexico, and have links into at least three other companies that are doing the same, with British feature projects.

We've invested seven years studying the film industry and also the new emergent technologies and as a result of this have an insight into the way the international industry is going, which, as it happens, is the ideal platform for an aggressive, talented and more importantly business savy British indie film company.

I can say, without doubt, that anyone who really understands film history and who looks carefully at the current state of the industry would quickly recognise that we are going through a major revolution, a revolution that favours independents in way that hasn't been possible at any point upto now.

However, if you wait for the industry press to pick up on this and for your invitation to the party, I can guarantee that you are going to miss the whole thing.
 
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