Thursday, October 24, 2013

Heard in Hollywood: New Movies From Legendary Pictures

FROM BATMAN TO DRACULA: MEET THE ALL-NEW
LEGENDARY PICTURES by Bennett Campbell Ferguson
Left: Christopher Nolan on the set of "The Dark Knight Rises," one of the final collaborations between Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures
Conventional wisdom holds that it doesn’t really matter who distributes a movie—that what really counts is the talent of the actors and filmmakers working on the project.  Nevertheless, Legendary Pictures may be an exception that only sometimes proves the rule.  In their partnership with Warner Bros., Legendary has produced some of the best movies of the new millennium, working on projects as diverse as “Inception,” the “Dark Knight” trilogy, and “The Hangover” (don’t pretend you’ve forgotten how great the original was).

            But now, that winning streak is over.  As announced months ago, Legendary’s executives have dissolved their partnership with Warner and instead joined forces with Universal Pictures.  It may seem like a strange move, considering that Universal is a much less successful studio, but that may be reason enough.  Warner executive Jeff Robinov was not known for collaborating peacefully with Legendary—in fact, it’s been rumored that he claimed an unfair share of profits from “The Dark Knight Rises.”  That fact that Universal is more financially desperate could mean they’ll be giving Legendary lots of leeway and wiggle room (and compensation) to create potentially profitable products.

            Still, don’t get your hopes up.  The movies that Legendary is making with Universal are far from promising.  They include a monster re-mash (“Dracula Untold”), a video game extravaganza (“Warcraft” which, to be fair does have the benefit of “Moon” and “Source Code” director Duncan Jones), and a movie very loosely based on a cool toy (“Hot Wheels”).  Maybe I’m wrong—perhaps these films will be fantastic.  But when you consider that Legendary was once home base for Christopher Nolan, their future looks comparatively bleak. 

No comments:

Post a Comment