Expect my definitive list of the best movies of the year on Sunday. That's the deadline I've set myself but as news is pretty slim and as our minds are hungry for film discussions (but no more chocolates...please!) I thought I would write up the Top Ten news stories that truly made up the last year in film. What stories dominated what we talked about? What movements, what items of breaking news from the hundreds of subjects and thousands of posts that we talked about and will ultimately make this year memorable? Here's the things I remember and what I found the most important when thinking back on the last 12 months... 10. 80's REVIVAL CONTINUES
This year saw DIE HARD, ROCKY, TRANSFORMERS, HAIRSPRAY, THE HITCHER, TMNT and so much more of 80's popular culture return to our screens and movies like SUPERBAD, KNOCKED UP and STARDUST which breathed that period of film as the 1980's revival continues... and continues to be popular. Our obsession with looking back to our childhood will see VOLTRON, KNIGHTRIDER, GHOSTBUSTERS, RAMBO, THUNDERCATS, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, G.I. JOE, INDIANA JONES, TERMINATOR, THE A-TEAM, FRIGHT NIGHT, FRIDAY THE 13TH, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, DUNE, FLASH GORDON, CHILD'S PLAY and so much more return to our screens in various formats over the next 2 to 3 years because of decisions made by studio execs this year as big money is made in this nostalgia. The films of the 1980's along with comic book, novels and t.v. is the biggest platform for ideas in Hollywood and I think it looks like it will continue for some time yet. I've said it before but the state of this 80's revival says more about our current climate in the world than anything else going on in the movie industry.
9. MARTY FINALLY WINS HIS OSCAR
Finally, one of the greatest directors of all time won himself an Oscar after it looked for years that he might have joined the 'Alfred Hitchcock club' of never actually winning a Best Director Oscar despite making some of the best films of all time and being nominated on multiple occasions. GOODFELLAS, TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL were shamefully ignored over the years but finally he got his moment with THE DEPARTED. Yes not his best film, but I don't think anyone was begrudging the decision from the Academy back in February.
8. NO END IN SIGHT FOR THE HD-DVD and BLU RAY FORMAT WAR
The next step of home cinema entertainment has not taken off the way DVD did a decade ago and we really have to question whether either of these formats will truly be the future of our we enjoy our favourite movies. I don't think it will be. It seems pretty obvious to me that HD-downloading, On-demand movies, digital streaming or whatever is truly the future. That will be the way the next generation of movie fans watch film. It's easy and convenient and things like ITUNES shows that. The music industry did it the wrong way for so long. Instead of fighting the new technology, they should have embraced it from the beginning. Here was a chance for them to reach out to EVERYONE around the world with their music cheap and effectively, and when they finally pushed with ITUNES it worked. ITUNES and the like may have truly saved the music industry. The same could be done for movies. So many times I haven't been able to see a new release movie because it plays in a theatre miles away from my house, or because of the outrageous cost, or because i'm ill, too busy to go out... whatever. If the technology was in place for me to pay my £5 and download a movie in 50 minutes to watch in good quality at home... then smaller movies like CONTROL... I might have actually been able to watch and appreciate. What about releasing SWEENEY TODD so people like me in the U.K. can see it instead of having to wait weeks before it hits the theatre? ITUNES hasn't stopped artists performing live gigs. Just like television and dvd didn't stop the movie theatre experience or even the theatrical experience. The ability to download movies won't kill the industry. It will help it. Get the technology in place... actually wait it can be done right now... just not legally. Get it done for God's sake.
7. VIRAL MARKETING
Viral marketing has become a huge part of a movie's development, with THE DARK KNIGHT benefiting from some of the cleverest advertising the web has ever seen. Everything from the first image of the Joker, to scavenger hunts across America and the way WB manipulated all our discussions about their film has been simply genius. The Internet has gone crazy with every shred of detail on THE DARK KNIGHT and their isn't a movie more anticipated next year. That 'untitled' J.J. Abrams movie adopted a similar kind of strategy. Debuting a trailer in a movie theatre without anyone knowing what the fuck it was, not even giving it a god damn title or plot... fucking genius. The massive hype for such a small movie was insane. We haven't seen the like since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and a movie shot in the style of CLOVERFIELD... if successful next month... will open the doors to a whole new kind of film-making.
6. MIXING MUSIC AND MOVIES
A trend that might well have started with RAY, DREAMGIRLS and WALK THE LINE being recognised for Oscars, has seen some of the year's most critically acclaimed movies dealing heavily with music and winning great critical acclaim but only sometimes box office success. CONTROL, I'M NOT THERE, ONCE, HAIRSPRAY, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE generated much discussion on the web and are considered to be some of the best films of the year and in some cases the most creative. I think the fusion of musical biopics/film will continue in the future and will dominate the year's best films as it has this.
5. AUDIENCES AVOIDING WAR PROPAGANDA
The political movies dealing with the 'war on terror message' didn't make the expected impact on either the box office or the critics this past year. Whilst it still dominates our news channels day in, day out... movie-goers are avoiding the subject with their paying dollar and choosing to be entertained at the theatre rather than lectured, or even educated. Despite some of the biggest stars on the planet, THE KINDGOM, LIONS FOR LAMBS, RENDITION, A MIGHTY HEART, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH and more failed to light the audiences fire and all disappeared with a whimper and not the loud voice that we expected them too. None of them are likely to be in with a shout come awards time, with only the odd performance likely to be nominated or recognised for something. Character studies, thrillers and even comedies prospered higher. Where UNITED 93 was culturally significant last year, we were provided with nothing memorable like that this year.
4. BLOCKBUSTERS PLAYING IT SAFE.
RUSH HOUR 3 LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD THE SIMPSONS MOVIE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3 TRANSFORMERS SPIDER-MAN 3 FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER EVAN ALMIGHTY SHREK THE THIRD Little effort. Resting on past laurels and 'built in' franchises. Big rewards and takings for all the above movies but the DVD sales and just the general 'lack of discussion' post-release on the movies will eventually catch up the makers of these films. We deserve better.
3. GRINDHOUSE FLOPS, THE INTERNET IS STILL A PIMPLE ON HOLLYWOOD'S ASS.
Remember these words from Joe Carnahan... "Its just dead wrong kidsand we ALL pay the price when those dont work".
It delayed (at best) the much anticipated sequel to SIN CITY but there are bigger ramifications for the failure of GRINDHOUSE. What could have been a new precedent in the industry for the showcasing of movies that bring the 'fun factor' back to the theatre was snatched away from us when lazy Americans who bitch all day about the regurgitated studio crap that turns up in our local cinema, didn't even both to get off their fat asses to go and see the new Tarantino/Rodriguez double feature. Sounds familiar? Well it happened with SNAKES ON A PLANE too. Double bills, audience participation flicks, fake trailers, atmospheric screenings of things (imagine a retro showing of movies from the 70's with trailers/adverts and stuff from that era?) and just plain fun movies to replace things like EPIC MOVIE, NORBIT and BALLS OF FURY could have been on the horizon. Instead, we will continue to receive crap... because it's easier to moan than do something about it. ZODIAC was just the same.
2. WARNER BROTHERS TAKING THE EARLY NEXT STEP IN THE COMIC BOOK MOVIE INDUSTRY WITH THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA MOVIE.
The WGA strike is clearly more important than this story, but not one movie... not even TRANSFORMERS generated more discussion than Warner Brothers decision earlier this year to officially greenlight a JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA movie, despite having only recently rebooted both the Batman and Superman franchises. I've never quite seen as much fanboy discussion ever generated for one single tentpole release than this one. It was madness and it just seemed to continually get closer and closer to a boiling point when it became obvious that Christian Bale/Brandon Routh wouldn't be involved and then when the names of casting auditions leaked... the Internet went fucking crazy. The strike may have been more important, but no story was getting more coverage than this. The names of Megan Gale, Armie Hammer, Common, Adam Brody, Teresa Palmer and more were hardly superhero material this time a year ago... but those are the people who look likely to be part of one of the biggest movies of all time. Batman and Superman on screen together for the first time. But not the way we all wanted it to be. And boy did we voice our disgust.
1. THE WGA STRIKE EFFECTS EVERY ASPECT OF ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
Not really possible to talk about Film in 2007 without mentioning the still ongoing writer's strike in Hollywood and indeed beyond. Not for years has a single news story effected every single aspect of the Entertainment industry... costing people their jobs (not just writers but actors, directors, camera men etc), EVERY single film currently in ANY stage of development, the television we watch (or don't as the case may be), the movie awards ceremony and ultimately the careers of actors. Not just stars like Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise and more who have either seen long-gestured projects slip through their fingers because they couldn't go ahead with movies, but the young actors who have maybe found the job of a lifetime because most actors are locked for pre-strike movies. It's been chaotic over the last couple of months and there seems to be no end in sight. Not one movie will be remembered more in 2007 than this writers strike and the longer it goes on, the more of a problem it will prove to be. NEARLY EVERY SINGLE post in the last couple of months about a movie in development has mentioned the WGA strike to some degree. Let's hope it ends soon, for all our sakes.