Sydney Pollack joins Ridley Scott in the Grumpy Directors Academy
The Academy currently has two members who are sick of the state of current movies.
Sydney Pollack has probably been spending too much time with Ridley Scott. Either that or he went to a screening of Shoot 'Em Up and he really didn't like what he saw! Here's some comments from Pollack which you will be able to find Helen De Winter's upcoming book Tootsie...
Beginnings and endings are not interesting, audiences want the high point, which means youve got to get to it and get to it now - get the gun out fast, the clothes off quick, Pollack says. What I really want to do is produce. There isnt much patience with a slow developing story line anymore.Again, just like some of the comments that Ridley Scott made a while back, you find it difficult to argue with what he is saying. When slow burning masterpieces like Zodiac don't make the money of things like Rush Hour 3 then we seriously have a problem. Brainless movies which run at 100mph with little originality, scope or imagination filling our movie screens aren't going to change overnight and if anything it's just going to get worse. With so many movies being greenlit and rushed into production before the strike next summer, what shape is the 2009/2010 movie industry going to be in? Most of these movies won't be ready. They will only be so far complete and probably without that extra couple of months/weeks to really perfect it the way they want it. Directors will be hired who were the 5th or 6th choice because others will be busy filling other commitments and the same can probably be said for the acting talent. 2009 and especially 2010 is going to be a worrying year for film from where I sit, especially with the trend of sequels and trends over original voices. source - page six, slash film