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.
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