Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Blog Editorial: Hollywood and the Remake Problem

There are too many Hollywood remakes.

According to this article, there are 30 remakes in the mix. And that's in addition to the films that have been remade already in the last few years.

Why?

But more than anything, economics is driving the trend, says Villanova University film Professor John O'Leary. "The powers that be in the film industry are feeling the heat from a bad economy and a changing distribution system," he points out via email, adding that studios are so afraid of failure that they don't dare venture into any uncharted waters. "They go to stories that have already been successful with the American public (even if they were in another medium or at another time) and make them again."

Read that again. The professor is saying that people are afraid to take chances and don't understand that's what made the originals successful. 

Our culture is afraid or intellectually unable to engage with its present. We've mastered the great ideas of the past, and miss the point that these great figures thought creatively and responded to their present. And what worked in the past may not work today.


Folks, this is a sign of a culture that's stuck. And you see this in finance, energy, politics, law and other walks of American life. 

It's the age of double down.


Can't wait to see what breaks this logjam.


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