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CloseFriend
Aug 21, 2002

Un malheur ne vient jamais seul.
So I had this idea a few days ago that we at CineD, with our variegated and often outright weird opinions on films, should write a book. To that end, I want to collect essays from CineD regulars regarding films you love and, more to the point, why you love them.

Yes, I know, Goon Projects always fizzle. But I feel good about this. I have a core team assembled (myself and two others), and we have a pretty well fleshed-out plan.

The theme of this project: Hollywood's financial failures.

We'll accept the 20 best Goon-written, Goon-submitted essays on films that failed in Hollywood, which will comprise the book. At the moment, we plan to vanity-publish the book and sell it at $1 above cost, which we'll donate to a charity that I'll name later when I think of an appropriate one.* (Also accepting ideas for a charity to donate to!)

September 16 Edit: We are now past the pitch stage and on to the writing stage! Participants, you now have until November 8 to get your piece written! Remember, we want 800-3000 words.

Here's the list of entrants and the movies they committed to write about…

AccountSupervisor: Sucker Punch
axleblaze: Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Strange Days
CloseFriend: Southland Tales, The Quest
Criminal Minded: Killer Joe
Dark Weasel: Margaret
Davros1: Escape from LA
Dissapointed Owl: The Majestic
Egbert Souse: Hugo
Fat Lou: Soldier
Filthy Hans: The Color of Night
General Ironicus: Chaplin
Hewlett: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
HypnoCabbage: Howard the Duck
Jay Dub: The Hudsucker Proxy
Jefferoo: Punisher: War Zone
LtKenFrankenstein: Ravenous
Maarak: Johnny Mnemonic
Maxwell Lord: The Avengers (1998)
mugrim: Sunshine
pancaek: Death to Smoochy
PateraOctopus: Dragonslayer
penismightier: Dangerous Game/The Body Snatchers
Pick: Treasure Planet
Professor Clumsy: Hulk
RandallODim: Josie & the Pussycats
Random Stranger: Constantine
Sheldrake: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
spaceships: Big Trouble in Little China
StoneOfShame: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Tars Tarkas: Tank Girl
Tharizdun: Deep Rising
TrixRabbi: Battleship
Twin Cinema: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
TwistedLadder: Pacific Rim
Vargo: Prince of Persia, John Carter
Xenophon: The Big Year
Yoshifan823: Super Mario Bros.

For posterity, here's the information I had here before…

quote:

To have your essay considered, it should adhere to the following guidelines…
1. For the subject, you must choose a film whose budget exceeds the domestic total gross. (You can find the budget on Wikipedia and the domestic total gross on BoxOfficeMojo.) The film must have come premiered after 1980.
2. Write under either your real name or a sufficiently-convincing pseudonym.
3. Aim for 800-3000 words.
4. We won't accept shallow panegyrics. Explore the themes and overlooked elements of the film. Really dig in and convince us why we should pay to see a film that practically nobody else did. Rebut the opprobrium that others heaped on the films. Discuss vulgar auteurism, if you feel it applies. I'll welcome particularly novel, original, and most of all interesting analyses.
5. I strongly encourage—but won't require—screenshots. If you include screenshots, I'd appreciate captions to accompany them. Your review's text should not rely on the screenshots, since I may have to omit pictures for formatting reasons.
6. Personally, I'd love to see some essays regarding some of Hollywood's more notorious failures, like Waterworld, Ishtar, Boxing Helena, or Heaven's Gate. If you can justify Battlefield Earth or Zyzzyx Rd. (the lowest box office take in Hollywood history and, as I can attest, a loving awful film), I can practically guarantee you'll make the cut, because I—and probably the book's putative audience—have the utmost interest in seeing if anybody can pull that poo poo off.
7. We reserve the right to edit your piece for clarity and grammar. (The less of this I have to do, the better a chance your essay has of making the cut.)

So let's break down how this will go down…

You have until Sunday, September 15, 2013 to write a pitch for your piece. Tell us which film you want to cover and, preferably, why. Please put a pitch in this thread even if you've mentioned wanting to write about a certain movie elsewhere.



In case you have trouble thinking of any subjects, I'll list some suggestions, in no particular order: Battleship, Dredd, The Lone Ranger, John Carter, The Phantom, The Wolfman, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Hudson Hawk, Jack the Giant Slayer, Sahara, Lost in Space, The Avengers (1998), Green Lantern, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Cutthroat Island, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Speed Racer, The Postman, Town & Country, Howard the Duck, Ali, Super Mario Bros., Rocky V, Only the Strong, Cool World, Mars Attacks!, Tank Girl, Pacific Rim, Barb Wire, or if you want a total layup, Hugo. (Make sure to check the figures if you pick one not on the list. You might find yourself surprised by what made money, like Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, The Grey, or Godzilla (1998).)

I plan to write about Southland Tales myself.

So, let's have some pitches and claimed movies! And… GO!!!

You have until Friday, November 8, 2013 to write your piece. You can submit it via PM to me or to "turbandecay" at "live.com." (I prefer PMs. If you e-mail me, make sure to put the word "Essay" somewhere in the title or I'll probably mistake your e-mail for spam and act accordingly.) At that point, the panel will convene and compile the best essays into a first draft, edit it for clarity and grammar, then give the resulting second draft to the writers to review and revise for themselves. After those revisions, the book will go to final draft.

We'll sell the resulting book in paperback and electronically at one dollar above cost and donate that dollar to charity.

This thread is now dedicated to talking about your ideas and the relevant films. Take this thread to run ideas for your review by fellow posters. See if other people see this film in a way that gives you some ideas.

* Don't expect to see any money from this. I thought about just putting the profits in our pockets, but way too much can go wrong with that.

EDIT: Deadline change.

CloseFriend fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Oct 29, 2013

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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
Will you e-pub it? Self e-pub, that is. There is literally no reason not to.

CloseFriend
Aug 21, 2002

Un malheur ne vient jamais seul.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

Will you e-pub it? Self e-pub, that is. There is literally no reason not to.
Sure will! At the moment, I feel most inclined to go with Lulu.

Fat Lou
Jan 21, 2008

Desert Heat? I thought it was Dessert Heat. No wonder it tastes so bad.

You MIGHT want to offer more time for writing the essays. I say this only because of my experience from running the Subtext Game.

Also, You can count me tentatively in. I should be all moved into Chicago by the 15th with a fair bit of free time.

Hewlett
Mar 4, 2005

"DANCE! DANCE! DANCE!"

Also, drink
and watch movies.
That's fun too.

My Pitch: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Production Budget: $137 million
Total Domestic Gross: $32 million (Worldwide $85 million)

If The Spirits Within didn't have Final Fantasy in front of its title, I fully believe it would have been more positively received than it was in its 2001 premiere (which bankrupted the studio that made it, being their debut film). A slightly-derivative but completely gorgeous space opera, the film features a wonderfully realized future setting, ahead-of-its-time production design, a dynamically Gothic score by Elliot Goldenthal, and so much more. The film's environmentalist message (with hints of Eastern philosophy) is unconventional for a film of this genre, and its solid cast does a surprising amount with their stock characters. (Not many adolescent sci-fi actioners feature an antagonist moments away from killing himself in disgrace.) All of this results in an interestingly flawed film that does just enough right and different to justify a second look.

TrixRabbi
Aug 20, 2010

Time for a little robot chauvinism!

Fat Lou posted:

You MIGHT want to offer more time for writing the essays. I say this only because of my experience from running the Subtext Game.

Also, You can count me tentatively in. I should be all moved into Chicago by the 15th with a fair bit of free time.

Yeah, school's just starting up again too which severely cuts into my time even if it is just 800-3000 words. I'm also in tentatively.

CloseFriend
Aug 21, 2002

Un malheur ne vient jamais seul.
gently caress it, I'll change the due date. How about October 19?

EDIT: Many thanks for the sticky, penismightier!

CloseFriend fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Sep 2, 2013

Filthy Hans
Jun 27, 2008

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 10 years!)

I hope someone will write an essay on Color of Night, a movie that can accelerate puberty faster than Adderall and fast food hormone treatments combined. This movie grossed less than half of its estimated budget, which was presumably spent on an ensemble cast including Bruce Willis, Ruben Blades, Lesley Ann Warren, Scott Bacula, Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen, Kevin J. O'connor, and Eriq LaSalle. It is part psychological thriller and part fever dream, with gratuitous sex scenes and bizarre plot twists. The world of 1994 was simply not ready for this movie.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
Gonna claim The Avengers '98. Sixty million dollar budget, made about thirty in the states and precious little more worldwide. A sentimental favorite.

I will say I'm not entirely sure of the criteria- we may run up against My Year of Flops- but sounds like it could be a fun project. I just hope I make the cut.

penismightier
Dec 6, 2005

What the hell, I'll just eat some trash.

Filthy Hans posted:

I hope someone will write an essay on Color of Night, a movie that can accelerate puberty faster than Adderall and fast food hormone treatments combined. This movie grossed less than half of its estimated budget, which was presumably spent on an ensemble cast including Bruce Willis, Ruben Blades, Lesley Ann Warren, Scott Bacula, Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen, Kevin J. O'connor, and Eriq LaSalle. It is part psychological thriller and part fever dream, with gratuitous sex scenes and bizarre plot twists. The world of 1994 was simply not ready for this movie.

Sounds like you just wrote paragraph one, why not take it further?

Cinnamon Bastard
Dec 15, 2006

But that totally wasn't my fault. You shouldn't even be able to put the car in gear with the bar open.

penismightier posted:

Sounds like you just wrote paragraph one, why not take it further?

Agreed, I've never heard of this movie, but your description is making me want to look around for a copy.

Filthy Hans
Jun 27, 2008

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 10 years!)

penismightier posted:

Sounds like you just wrote paragraph one, why not take it further?

Maybe I will at that, I should at least give it a shot. When I read the OP I got hyped about writing up something about Lord of Illusions, but tragically it (barely) recouped its budget. Maybe I just love movies which feature both Scott Bakula and Kevin J. O'Connor.

dreadnought
Dec 28, 2006

:rolleyes:

Hewlett posted:

My Pitch: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Production Budget: $137 million
Total Domestic Gross: $32 million (Worldwide $85 million)

If The Spirits Within didn't have Final Fantasy in front of its title, I fully believe it would have been more positively received than it was in its 2001 premiere (which bankrupted the studio that made it, being their debut film). A slightly-derivative but completely gorgeous space opera, the film features a wonderfully realized future setting, ahead-of-its-time production design, a dynamically Gothic score by Elliot Goldenthal, and so much more. The film's environmentalist message (with hints of Eastern philosophy) is unconventional for a film of this genre, and its solid cast does a surprising amount with their stock characters. (Not many adolescent sci-fi actioners feature an antagonist moments away from killing himself in disgrace.) All of this results in an interestingly flawed film that does just enough right and different to justify a second look.

This blurb alone makes me want to check it out. I remember seeing it in theaters as a kid and really enjoying it, despite never playing a Final Fantasy game in my life.

I've been looking to dust off my writing skills as of late; I'll try to submit something to this project if I can find the time. Not making any commitments right now though.

Jefferoo
Jun 24, 2008

by Lowtax
My Pitch: Punisher: War Zone
Production Budget: $35 million
Worldwide Gross: $10,100,036

The problem with live action comic book films is the inherent power fantasy of costumed superheroes in the first place - they are hilariously violent characters in an absurdly violent real world, amped up to 11, yet we hardly ever really see that violence - or at least the consequence of it. They are children's toys brought to life, and the reason nerds adore them and dress up as them is their inherit worthlessness to the outside world, with all their consumerism and possession of absolutely worthless knowledge like how Superman shaves his beard brought to you by Gillette - and how they compensate by pretending to be fictional characters that have an infinite number of reasons of why they're simply better than everyone around them. They want inherit superiority to the world around them, the "dumb" "idiot" "jock" masses that beat them up in school and ripped up their Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Of course, this is impossible and rather unhealthy, so they wrap it up in hyperconsumerism of fictional characters in spandex, who commit horrendous acts of violence, yet in films like the blockbuster The Avengers, you never see the reality of this, wrapped up in CGI and clever camera work.

Punisher: War Zone is the first comic book hero film to really, utterly admit the sheer horrific destruction of a costumed superhero existing in real life. From the opening scene of Frank Castle simply appearing at a family dinner, cutting the power, leaving a single flare burning the room red with blood as he decapitates, stabs, and shoots his way through a dozen or so goons. It's a raw, unfiltered, vulgar display of power, the same one the comic book nerds who get all wrapped up in their fandom and cosplay desire so much. To execute so many, effortlessly - this is treated like it's a horror film more than an action blockbuster. What Punisher: War Zone contains is more than simply murder porn - it touches on the realities of a single individual given a license to murder, endlessly, without consequence, as well as the reality of Army recruiting commercials, and confronting the problem of what if the character of The Punisher ever killed an innocent.

Also, I am a graphic designer by trade and have a shitton of work within print and the like - so I'd like to contribute what I can do the cover and what not if it's needed. My portfolio is here, including examples of my work with Nokia, Skype, and the Blue Man Group: http://cargocollective.com/jkunzler

Jefferoo fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Sep 2, 2013

Uncle Boogeyman
Jul 22, 2007

Hm, it looks like Ravenous qualifies under those box office terms and I've been meaning to rewatch that one lately. Lest I have to fight Vargo on writing up John Carter (unless, Vargo, you wanna do an Ebert and Ebert thing).

Yoshifan823
Feb 19, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
Pitch: Super Mario Bros.
Budget: $48 million
Gross: A hair under $21 million

What does it mean to be an adaptation of something? The obvious answer is that the movie in question draws inspiration from a work, whether it be book, play, musical, or another movie. But what happens when a movie takes liberties with the work that it's adapted from? And more importantly, just how recognizable does a movie have to be in order to be called a "good" adaptation? Super Mario Bros. is an interesting case in the grand world of Hollywood, because it is, to date, the only movie based on what is perhaps the most recognizable video game character of all time, and somehow it managed to take all of that good will and turn it into something that hardly resembles the work upon which it is based. But on the other hand, maybe it's one of the best adaptations of all time...

Dissapointed Owl
Jan 30, 2008

You wrote me a letter,
and this is how it went:
The Majestic made 37 million on a 72 million dollar budget.

I might just talk about The Majestic, guys.

Now, to find a hook... I really want to take on The Majestic's idealization of small town community life from a non-American point of view. Because it's borderline ridiculous but also an incredibly pleasant fantasy.

Also, I want to talk about the fact that Jim Carrey's bold stand against McCarthy era witch hunts is basically identical to this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmZHSpxrR2E

LtKenFrankenstein posted:

Hm, it looks like Ravenous qualifies under those box office terms and I've been meaning to rewatch that one lately. Lest I have to fight Vargo on writing up John Carter (unless, Vargo, you wanna do an Ebert and Ebert thing).

I will come after you if you mess it up (or just pout), because that movie is absolutely ripe for this.

CloseFriend
Aug 21, 2002

Un malheur ne vient jamais seul.
Incidentally, feel free to volunteer for more than one movie, guys. I'm considering several others myself.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
Formally pitching:

The Avengers (1998)

Budget: $60,000,000
U.S. Gross: $23,000,000

Warner Bros. bought the rights to make a film version of a cult classic 1960s TV series expecting an action movie and got something closer to a surrealistic fever dream. In this the makers of The Avengers cannot be faulted for straying from the source material- of the many swinging 60s takes on the spy genre, the original TV series probably went the farthest into pure psychedelic weirdness. Certain elements could not be replicated- the flawless chemistry of Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, mainly- but despite UK critics' particularly loud howls of Americanization and betrayal, it's hard to say the show's picture-postcard Britishness and whimsical absurdity isn't on full display here.

It never had a chance. A disastrous test screening prompted the studio to delay its opening from June to August and in the meantime trim approximately half an hour of footage from the picture, footage which has yet to resurface in full. Major plot points go by so quickly you can miss them easily as a result, and a lot of people declared the finished product incomprehensible. Not helping matters, the studio opted not to screen the film for critics beforehand, giving it a toxic reputation before people laid eyes on a frame of it.

And yet there's something magical here. The film offers a number of gorgeous visuals and imaginative concepts, and there's a strange kind of poetry that makes it seem like a living, breathing world that happens to operate on the rule "anything can happen at any time." Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman are not their predecessors but their more reserved take on the protagonists generates a certain tender chemistry, and a load of leaden Bondian puns can't disguise either performer's charm. The story is your standard "stop the diabolical mastermind" adventure, but seems to get to one of the key "lessons" behind the trope, the folly of seeking to dominate something rather than be prepared for and adjust to it.

It's cute, it's fun, it looks and sounds great, and the blistering reception it was accorded has always made me feel rather protective of it. I've written up reviews of the picture three times so far and it's sort of an evolving text. It's unlike any other action or spy movie I've ever seen. There is something special here.

Criminal Minded
Jan 4, 2005

Spring break forever
Pitch: Killer Joe (2012)
Budget: $10 million
US gross: $1,987,762

After refusing to make cuts that could've secured his film an R-rating as opposed to an NC-17 - often a kiss of death for any film's revenue potential, due to its pornographic stigma and the refusal of many theaters to screen NC-17 material - William Friedkin released Killer Joe in July 2012. It opened in only 75 theaters and was gone from theaters entirely by the middle of October, despite favorable reviews and a revelatory performance from Matthew McConaughey. However, despite its rather nasty attitude and shocking ending, the film is short on bloodshed or gore compared to many of its R-rated brethren; instead, one suspects the NC-17 rating stems largely from its multiple scenes of full-frontal female nudity and frank, often perverse, sexuality. I'd like to use the film as a conduit to explore the contrasting attitudes of Americans towards sex and violence, and the unfortunate stigma that befalls films that are released with an NC-17.

epic weed mom
Sep 1, 2006

As an opening caveat, I'm not a CineD regular, as far as posting is concerned, and I hardly post much of substance on SA in general. That said, I still check this forum just about every day. This might make me sound kind of crudely opportunist, but then again, no one's making any money from this, right? Here's my hat in the ring.

I propose an essay on Margaret, directed by Kenneth Lonergan, starring Anna Paquin, Allison Janney, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, and Matthew Broderick, among others. A Fox Searchlight release, its production budget was $14 million dollars—fairly modest, especially considering the cast. Anyway, its domestic total gross was $46,495.

Forty-six thousand, four hundred ninety-five dollars. Released to only fourteen theaters, Margaret was in and out of its American release in less than a single month. And it gets worse! Shot in New York City from September to November 2005, Margaret didn't see release, in any form, until September of 2011.

If this delay were wholly a case of studio or executive interference, that would make a grim amount of sense—sometimes movies get shelved. But that wasn't the case with this one. Lonergan and his producers started out on reasonably good terms, with him being promised full creative control of his project, save for one caveat: the film, unequivocally, had to clock in at under 150 minutes. Lonergan's first edit ran three hours. Excising that unacceptable 30-minute surplus took five years, three lawsuits, as well as personal favors of time, effort, and hundreds of thousands of dollars from Lonergan's cast and professional allies. A whole murderers' row of Hollywood professionals stepped up to the plate to help finish the picture, including the likes of Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese, who took a crack at the editing bay, working for free on attempted edits. Eventually—miraculously—the film got done.

The divisive result? Upon the release of its 150-minute theatrical version, some critics reported back saying they'd witnessed a sloppy, aimless mess. Others saw brilliance. The home video release the following year of a 186-minute "extended cut" complicated discussions of the film's artistic merit; neither version is necessarily definitive, and Lonergan seems to stand by both. It makes the movie something of a hard nut to crack, critically.

Speaking for myself, I saw this movie on TV for the first time this year by chance, knowing none of this, and walked away feeling certain I'd just seen an underappreciated, overlooked masterpiece. I haven't watched it again since then, but for months, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, either. Its originality, its depth, its richness—I can't honestly think of another film I could accurately compare it to. So what I'm pitching is a short essay, highlighting both versions of the film, with a truncated version of its prolonged production as preface. I don't intend to spend too much time on the movie's making, except for context—I'd rather focus on its many, many merits. There have been bigger bombs than Margaret, critically, commercially. But there might not be a flop on Earth that's as close to being fundamentally perfect as this one.

Anyway. I don't have PMs, but I'm guessing you'll post accepted pitches ITT?

axelblaze
Oct 18, 2006

Congratulations The One Concern!!!

You're addicted to Ivory!!

and...oh my...could you please...
oh my...

Grimey Drawer
Damnit, I find the budget thing annoyingly limiting because most found footage movies are so low budget they can bomb and still make money and if they don't they're so obscure they're not even worth writing about. I'll find something though. At the very least it looks like Gremlins 2 (barely) didn't make back it's budget.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer

axleblaze posted:

Damnit, I find the budget thing annoyingly limiting because most found footage movies are so low budget they can bomb and still make money and if they don't they're so obscure they're not even worth writing about. I'll find something though. At the very least it looks like Gremlins 2 (barely) didn't make back it's budget.

Yeah, I was pondering Exorcist II as a backup since I can write up a lot on that too, but that actually made a profit thanks to a low budget and good opening weekend.

axelblaze
Oct 18, 2006

Congratulations The One Concern!!!

You're addicted to Ivory!!

and...oh my...could you please...
oh my...

Grimey Drawer
I found some good ones. I'll do proper pitches later but I'm either gonna do Strange Days, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, or The Relic.

Edit: gently caress it, unless I hate it upon rewatching it, I'm gonna do Strange Days.

Maxwell Lord posted:

Yeah, I was pondering Exorcist II as a backup since I can write up a lot on that too, but that actually made a profit thanks to a low budget and good opening weekend.

Yeah, I wanted to do The Devil inside, a movie that everyone seems to hate alot, but it had a strong opening weekend before word about the ending got out, and that one weekend made it so it was in fact really profitable.

axelblaze fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Sep 2, 2013

StoneOfShame
Jul 28, 2013

This is the best kitchen ever.
I would like to put my name in for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, with a total budget of $46.63 million and box office takings of $8,083,123.

I'm a big Gilliam fan and this a Brazil are my favourite films of his (I dont want to do Brazil because there has already been a whole book written about that). This is the final part of Gilliam's 'Imagination Trilogy' and looks at how in old age how our life stories can become our tall tales and whether these versions are in not some way true. Its also a really interesting film visually with Gilliam's trademark wide lenses and imaginative designs.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
I'm struggling with The Happening or The Wicker Man (2006).

axelblaze
Oct 18, 2006

Congratulations The One Concern!!!

You're addicted to Ivory!!

and...oh my...could you please...
oh my...

Grimey Drawer

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

I'm struggling with The Happening or The Wicker Man (2006).

The Happening made a ton of money some how, so you have no choice but to go with The Wicker Man.

penismightier
Dec 6, 2005

What the hell, I'll just eat some trash.

Here are some films that didn't make their money back:

The People vs. Larry Flynt
Man on the Moon
The Frighteners
The Mosquito Coast
Centurion
Gods and Generals
The Four Feathers
Wyatt Earp
3000 Miles to Graceland
Enemy Mine
Explorers
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Holy Man
Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil
Ghosts of Mars
The Ward
Escape from L.A.
Gattaca
Hearts in Atlantis
Freejack



As for me, I'm proposing a double feature.

Dangerous Game and The Body Snatchers

In 1993, Abel Ferrara was supposed to blow up. After the critically beloved, high-buzz King of New York and Bad Lieutenant, he was a hot item. He directed two movies that year: Dangerous Game, an erotic thriller starring Madonna and Harvey Keitel, and The Body Snatchers, the high budget second remake of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

They're worth looking at together. Dangerous Game is about a film director making an intense two-hander about a dissolving marriage, only to find that the anger and frustration of the story is seeping into his life and the lives of his cast. Body Snatchers is about a teenage girl who slowly learns that her family and the world at large are being replaced by alien duplicates. Each features unique and experimental camerawork - deep pools of shadow, limited color palettes, and a fluidity of film stock. They pushed the bounds of acceptable nudity and sex in American cinema, and feature moments of rattling violence, religious impotence, and sexual anger. They are among the most courageous films of their era, two deeply paranoid and heartbroken essays on the horror you experience when someone you've known for years suddenly ceases to be recognizable.

The yield? Less than a million dollars combined.

Dangerous Game
Budget: $2,000,000 (estimated)
Gross: $23,671

Body Snatchers
Budget: $13,000,000 (estimated)
Gross: $428,868

An under-confident Warner Bros sabotaged Body Snatchers, limiting its release and shuffling it to the January garbage dump. An underconfident Madonna, embarrassed by the cold reception to her similarly themed Body of Evidence, publicly trashed Dangerous Game, blowing its buzz before it ever developed. They were both wrong, and together they sank one of the most artistically productive years any film director ever had.

If it helps, LOOK AT THIS loving LIGHTING:

penismightier fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Sep 2, 2013

Uncle Boogeyman
Jul 22, 2007

The world really does need more written about Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
Who's got balls to take on Holy Man?

Jay Dub
Jul 27, 2009

I'm not listening
to youuuuu...
Pitch: The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Production Budget: $40 million
Total Domestic: $2,816,518

Critical darlings since the mid-80s, Joel & Ethan Coen had every right to expect The Hudsucker Proxy to finally break them into the Hollywood mainstream. Everything was in place: A script they had been workshopping with their buddy Sam Raimi for nearly a decade; a producer, Joel Silver, willing to put serious money behind the project; and a cast featuring Paul Newman and rising stars Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh. When the film finally arrived, it landed with a resounding flop. It's not difficult to see why, either. When offered the chance to finally direct a big studio picture, the Coens opted instead to make one of the most esoteric, oddball homages to Hollywood's golden age that moviegoers at the time had ever seen.

The film is predominantly a love letter to the films of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges, turning Capra's idealism on its ear to present a world that is darkly cynical toward big business. The film features characters who do nothing but talk circles around one another, waxing philosophic about business and how to measure a man's worth, all the while the film's lead bumbles through every scene, barely able to get a word in edgewise. This is a manic, aggressive film, one that takes immense glee in its sheer spectacle, and seems only too eager to please an audience that simply wasn't interested.

It also serves as a warning from the Coens to themselves. As much as this film depicts the business world as a big, goofy machine, it also serves as a fairly apt metaphor for the film industry. Young, fresh-faced filmmakers leave home for the Big City hoping to change the world with their ideas, and wind up going stark raving mad after losing it all. When given the chance to work with a studio-sized budget, the Coens seemed to intentionally shoot themselves in the foot by making a film as out-of-step with the times as humanly possible. This is the angle I'd like to explore, actually. As big and bloated as this film is, it's too precise in its execution to simply be a misfire. I'd like to examine The Hudsucker Proxy and its place in the Coens' oeuvre. Was this simply a case of the Coens branching out too far too quickly, or was this a flop by design?

Sheldrake
Jul 19, 2006

~pettin in the park~

Jay Dub posted:

turning Capra's idealism on its ear to present a world that is darkly cynical toward big business.

... have you ever watched a Frank Capra movie? I love Hudsucker Proxy, but it fits right in the Capra Mr. Deeds mold without any necessary ear turning.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
Yeah, the mix of darkness and light is pretty close to Capra.

TrixRabbi
Aug 20, 2010

Time for a little robot chauvinism!

It's also worth mentioning that it was their follow-up to the Palme d'or winning Barton Fink, another film about a character who feels he can change the world with his art but finds that the industry will only strangle him.

Uncle Boogeyman
Jul 22, 2007

Alright, here's my hastily written formal pitch for Ravenous

The Unpalatable Nature of Ravenous; or, why some films are just impossible to market.

Budget: $12 Million (estimated)
Box Office: $2,062,405

Ravenous is a Civil War Era black-comedy-slash-horror film featuring a bunch of grime-covered character actors in a plot centering around that most taboo of activities, cannibalism. That it would not be a blockbuster commercial success was pretty much preordained, but that it should make back less than one-fifth of its budget is a rather stunning failure. Even in the internet era, and with the built-in cult home video market of the horror genre, it has remained willfully obscure to all but a certain subset of the most ardently nerdy cinephiles. For one of the most bizarrely idiosyncratic horror movies of the past twenty-odd years (certainly one of the best horror movies of the '90s, a decade not kind to horror), this is an unfair fate.

Not, as I said, that it was an unpredictable one. Having cycled through three directors after filming had already started, being dumped in the wastelands of March releases, and suffering from a limp marketing campaign completely at a loss as to how to pitch this movie to a post-Scream audience did nothing to help this movie find its feet. And on top of all that, the tone of this movie is very audience-unfriendly, featuring a mumbling weakling of a protagonist, some hearty criticism of the American pioneer image, and violence that is grisly and outre without being at all 'cool.' But in spite of its tortured production and poor reception by critics and audiences alike, Ravenous is the most wonderful kind of cult film, dangerous and bleakly humorous, and above all totally one-of-a-kind. Herein, I'll seek to examine how the film that could've made Antonia Bird the next Danny Boyle instead left her a footnote in the annals of cinema.

General Ironicus
Aug 21, 2008

Something about this feels kinda hinky
There are so many good movies that made no money. It's really hard to come up with an angle for why people should see Chaplin that isn't "well duh" over and over again.

Since some of its biggest fans have already picked non-Scott Pilgrim movies I've been thinking of doing something about it as a tribute to/extension of a long legacy of hyper-stylized and kinetic films. That's really obvious too, but at least there's some direction there.

E: Both Dredd and Judge Dredd were at a loss, a comparison essay and/or a piece on legacies in adaptation would be really interesting.

General Ironicus fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Sep 2, 2013

Sheldrake
Jul 19, 2006

~pettin in the park~
Here's another a good list if you're still looking for ideas.

I'm going to call dibs on The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. I'll write a proposal for it later.

Corek
May 11, 2013

by R. Guyovich

Sheldrake posted:

Here's another a good list if you're still looking for ideas.

I'm going to call dibs on The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. I'll write a proposal for it later.

Whoa, that's quite the loss on Lolita '97. 1 million gross on a 62 million budget.

axelblaze
Oct 18, 2006

Congratulations The One Concern!!!

You're addicted to Ivory!!

and...oh my...could you please...
oh my...

Grimey Drawer

Sheldrake posted:

Here's another a good list if you're still looking for ideas.

I'm going to call dibs on The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. I'll write a proposal for it later.

While this list isn't as up to date, it contains quite a few more entries:
http://www.imdb.com/list/ycf_KGcR3IU/

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penismightier
Dec 6, 2005

What the hell, I'll just eat some trash.

I hope someone does Soldier. I love Soldier.

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