Offbeat Worlds by Stephanie Brown

For the last decade or so, we’ve all noticed a growing trend in Hollywood, a trend that seems to be getting worse as the years progress. That trend is the lack of original stories. Hollywood is stuck in a cycle of creating films that are remakes, reboots, and an unending line of sequels and prequels that squeeze every last drop of life out of a franchise. Even the amount of adaptions from books, graphic novels, and even toys is getting a out of hand. Many of you have voiced your opinions on it, on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, personal blogs, etc.

Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis

This is not to say that Hollywood doesn’t have reason to create these movies. They do, and I completely understand why. They come with a pre-made fan club.We all still pay movie to go see them. But that doesn’t mean that we aren’t starved for new stories that haven’t been told already. How many movies can you name that were 100% original that came out last year? Personally, I can think of only 2: Cabin in the Woods and Looper. Even the hugely successful Avengers movie was still an adaption. And we even had a reboot of the Spider-man franchise already, even though the last movie of Sam Raimi’s trilogy only came out in 2007 (six years ago!). Is Hollywood really so nervous about committing original stories?

The sad thing, in my opinion, is that even when Hollywood does produce original movies, they often don’t market them properly (usually because of not enough marketing budget) and so no one knows about these movies when they come out. Of course no one is going to see them! If you market them properly, people will actually know about them and go see them. Many original movies underperform at the box office not because they are bad movies (come on, Cabin in the Woods was AMAZING), it’s just no one knows the movies even exist. There aren’t enough tv spots playing often enough during popular tv shows. There aren’t enough posters in places like buses, subways, or anywhere else where big movie’s get posters. There aren’t enough ads on Youtube or other places on the internet. Only big movie nerds like myself know about these movies because we make it our business to know.

Obviously there are some exceptions. Looper did very well at the box office considering its $30 million budget. Inception, Christoper Nolan’s thought-provoking original story, did extremely well at the box office (although Nolan himself has a built-in fan-base, he can get away with making original movies).

Elysium by Neill Blomkamp

And it does seem like they are finally trying a little harder this year. Olympus Has Fallen, while very derivative, was an original screenplay. Oblivion comes out in a week, and while it is technically based off of an graphic novel, I still count it for two reasons: 1-the graphic novel was written by the director of the movie, and 2-the graphic novel is still unpublished. Neill Blomkamp’s new film Elysium comes out this summer; also an original. Now You See Me, a new thriller about magicians who rob banks, comes out in May. And finally Danny Boyle’s newest film, Trance, is also an original story. And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. There may be more. I hope these movies do well, it’d be nice to show Hollywood that originality draws crowds too.

But then we also have the sequel to Star Trek, Iron Man 3, Despicable Me 2, another Wolverine movie, the first Mortal Instruments movie based off of another teen book series, and more.

Now, here’s what really gets me about all of this: Hollywood is buying original screenplays all the time. They buy hundreds of movie scripts, but most of them never get greenlit. Why? There are various reasons. Sometimes they can’t get a big enough star* to commit to it. Sometimes they can’t get scheduling to work out. But mostly I think it’s just that they are nervous about pouring a bunch of money into a film that has virtually no fans (yet), and so they set these potentially awesome movies onto a shelf and never look at them again.

This is incredibly frustrating to me, as I am a screenwriter (albeit a noob screenwriter) trying to write original stories to sell to Hollywood. I want my movies to be produced so that thousands, if not millions, of audience members can enjoy them. I want them to see something new! And I’m not alone.

There are thousands of writers and artists who have stories to tell. You can find them all over the internet. Daniel Luvisi, an artist who got his start on DeviantART, has actually sold the film rights to his own original story (also known as an intellectual property or IP) Last Man Standing. Currently the only material we have on it was a book he created called Killbook of a Bounty Hunter, which is a compilation of every one of his characters along with bios and information about the world they live. BUT here’s the kicker: the rights to the film were bought BEFORE the book was published. And production studios were fighting over it before that. Except for Dan’s artwork posted online, there was no material publicly in existence when they bought the rights.

Illustration of Gabriel, from Dan Luvisi’s LMS (art also by Dan)

How did Dan do it? He had a pre-made fan club: all of the other artists and fans of his art that he collected on deviantART. It’s not as big as many other franchises, but it was big enough to gain the attention of Hollywood. So even though no one really knew what Dan’s IP was about, except for the subtle hints in his artwork, he collected a fanbase, and that fanbase caught the attention of people in the movie-making business. (You can find out more information about LMS on Dan Luvisi’s DeviantART page or Facebook page)

So what does that mean for the rest of us? What can we learn from his example?

If we want to start seeing more originality in Hollywood, WE are the ones who need to find it and help it get into Hollywood. They are already shifting back, we just need to encourage them to continue. If you find an artist or writer who has an IP worth sharing, make your love for it known. Share it, send it to other people you know will appreciate it and ask them to share it too! If we want to see change, we have to make change. All Hollywood needs to know is that there are people out there who will pay money to see this movie, that film, and they will jump on it. So let them know.

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*Side note: the definition of a “star” in Hollywood is so screwy. To me, a star should be an actor of great talent who also has a large fan-base. To Hollywood, it seems to be anyone, doesn’t have to be a talented someone, who has a HUGE following, even if it’s not always a positive one *cough*Kristen Stewart*cough*. Which is why a lot of movies are cast with people with little to no acting skills, but damn to they draw attention. Another example of this is when famous musicians get cast in lead roles. They have a draw, but they don’t have the skill set. And then people with real acting talent get cast in smaller films or in small roles in bigger films. That’s so backwards. This isn’t always the case, but happens way more than it should.

Hi guys!

So about two years ago now, I actually got the opportunity to work as concept artist for a REAL movie! The movie is called Voice from the Stone, and I got to read the script for it (which was written by Andrew Shaw and based off a novel by Silvio Raffo), and create concept art for it. They mostly had me do quick sketches to capture the mood and lighting for specific scenes, but still.

Unfortunately the movie has been moving at a snail pace, I’m not even sure if they have started filming yet, but since they have posted the concept art I did for them on their Facebook page I figure I can post them here as well (it’s not like I signed any NDAs anyway).

Honestly, not my best work ever, but like I said they were really just looking for loose sketches (something I wasn’t very good at at the time).

These first three are the first ones I painted immediately after reading the script, when the imagery was still fresh in my mind, and before I was told they wanted loose sketches.

And then these ones were specifically requested by the director, Eric D. Howell.

Even if it’s not my best work ever, and the movie might never come out (I know, how pessimistic of me), it was still extremely exciting to be able to work with the director and create art for a real film.

Oh, and on a side-note, the two lead actors in this film are Maggie Gyllenhaal and Mads Mikkelsen. ^_^

So I’ve been reading this book lately called “Writing Movies for Fun and Profit” by Tom Lennon and Ben Garrant, and one of the things it has been saying repeatedly is that one of the best ways to make sure a studio will buy your movie is if you make it as easy as possible for them to picture it.

Which got me thinking…I have an illustration degree. I know which actors I want to play which characters. Wouldn’t it make it so much easier for me to sell these screenplays I’m writing if I made photorealistic character portraits of those actors as my characters, to make it that much easier to picture them in those roles?

So I have started a new series of illustrations, which I am painting in the style of character posters you see for movies all time, of my characters played by the actors I want to portray them.

I’m starting off with one of my favorite “grey-area” characters from my Orbs trilogy, Tanwil, who Cillian Murphy (Inception, 28 Days Later, Batman Begins) would be perfect for.

This is a Work-In-Progress shot of the painting. Obviously, I’m not super far yet, but I like where it is going.

Hey guys! I know I know, this is well over a month late, I’m sorry! But hey, better late than never right?

Enjoy!

Presented without comment.

So I went and saw the Avengers on opening weekend and holy s#@%!! It was amazing! One of the best movies to come out this year! It completely earned all the money it made opening weekend, shattering box office records by bringing in a haul over over $200 million in just the first three days.

I wish I had been able to long into my website right after seeing it so I could have written up a review right then, but I have been having some website issues and couldn’t log in. And since most people have seen it already, allow me to simply highlight some of the best parts.

1) Each character got about the same amount of screen time, and I loved every single one of them. Joss Whedon created yet another kick-ass female character in Black Widow, and he gave her the most human moment in the entire film. With an entire cast of male heroes, her character stood out from the crowd and I loved her character. She’s my new favorite superhero. =D

2) The story, while simple, never got dull or boring. There were only two main battles but they were intense and full of twists and adrenaline that left me sitting on my seat wondering what was going to happen.

3) There was a casualty in the movie that I did not see coming, and it made me very sad, but at the same time I am glad they did it, because with the amount of destruction and damage in this film it would have been entirely unrealistic if everyone had made it out alive. And surprisingly it wasn’t Joss Whedon’s idea to kill the character! *cough* Wash *cough*

Those are really the main highlights of the movie, at least that I can think of right now. But I think one of the best things about this movie is what happened during opening weekend. Joss Whedon, who is always so humble even in the midst of huge success, came out on his website Whedonesque and thanked all of his fans for making the Avengers such a huge success. What an awesome guy, right? *tear*

Thank you, Joss Whedon, for being amazing, and for creating what will probably be the biggest hit film of 2012!

Recently in an interview Joss Whedon was asked who would win a fight between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Avenger’s Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff). Since he knows both characters extremely well, having created and written for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television show and writing and directing the upcoming Avenger’s movie, he answered with this:

Buffy would go easy at first, but as soon as Natasha popped her with a Widow Sting, she’d start bringing some slayer brawn to the fray. Natasha’s fast, but a couple of good connects and she’s wobbling, possibly something broken — she whips out her glock and now Buffy’s dodging — right where Natasha wants her. Natasha shoots the cable holding the steel barrels and they tumble onto Buffy, nearly burying her — Buffy just arcs out of the way, grabbing the splintered cable and swinging directly onto Natasha, a bullet grazing her cheek as her feet land hard on the Russian’s shoulders, sending her back flat – crack! – on the floor, Buffy wrenching the gun away and tossing it, fist ready for the final strike. Natasha, struggling to stay conscious, says the fight’s over. Buffy agrees, but Natasha explains: She poisoned Buffy hours ago. That waitress that brought her salad …? Natasha smiles. The poison is dormant — ’til it’s activated by adrenaline. Buffy’s eyes narrow. “Too bad I didn’t use any.” Wham! Natasha’s out for the count, and Buffy’s heading — slowly — to Willow for a mystical cleanse.

That’d be my first guess.

The man is amazing. And that is why I shall forever be a fan of his.

There seems to be a new trend out lately as people get more and more into watching movie trailers online. Companies are now releasing teasers of a trailer to draw in more interest before releasing the full length trailer for a movie.

They did it with the new Total Recall, and now they are doing it with Looper, a new scifi flick starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis.

Looper has a very interesting concept behind the movie: what would happen if you had to travel into the future to kill your future self.

Check out the teaser below:

The full-length trailer comes out in three days, so keep any eye out.

I think this is perhaps the coolest way to reimagine Pac-Man and bring him to life.

The newest trailer for Prometheus came out today and it is so epic and inspiring!

After the first trailer for this film came out, there was a lot of speculation that it was a prequel to the Alien Saga, especially since the project is helmed by Ridley Scott himself, the man who directed the original Alien movie. With this new trailer, I think it’s pretty obvious that it is, but it also looks like it is so much more than that.

Check it out below!

Prometheus comes out in theaters June 8th.