The Five Stages of Processing a New Star Wars Announcement | The Backdrop
Added 2024-11-26 16:04:08 +0000 UTCThis week's episode of The Backdrop is now available!
Comments
A big corporate studio would be able to make lots of money with its big tentpoles and then go "patron of the arts", "patron of diversity", or "going nuts with experimental business decisions". Disney theoretically has so many tentpoles that it could go any of those routes, and there appear to be times when they are open to experimentation in IP like Star Wars or Marvel. Rogue One being as successful as it was probably self-sabotaged the IP since it created expectations that the "experimental or weird" sidestory movies would always be heavy hitters, as well. Ah, then again, Rogue One already turned from director-driven gamble to four-quadrant-adventure before its release, so maybe the entire concept of non-ultracommercial Star Wars was never really there. It's obvious that film studios do follow the economic theory of short-term maximization of profits, with IP offering long-term revenue to no fault of the studio itself - long-term existence of a brand is simply luck. But there could be a model in which experiments with "content" for more diverse audiences, or quality output that the studio would build a lasting reputation on, or a kind of incubator for weird movie/show ideas wouldn't need to be judged by mass appeal or masses of money. Because you would possibly build a broader base in your audience and inspire better talent. While still having your heavy hitter tentpoles regularly.
Grey1
2024-11-28 14:13:39 +0000 UTCIt's been said for a while that Disney's bloated c-suite has been very likely a major source of problems with Star Wars and elsewhere, the movies reek of having a bunch of out of touch weirdo suits descending on them demanding to make their 'contribution' and resulting in an incoherent mess. And a pattern with the spinoffs that the best ones tend to be the ones that clearly flew under corporate radar, and then end up with the c-suite, no longer distracted by the movies, descending on the successful ones to grind them into bloated incoherence too.
Swift Justice
2024-11-28 09:36:36 +0000 UTCA lot of this can also be applied to video games as well too
Lil' Cass
2024-11-26 18:30:54 +0000 UTCMy method is a three step process. 1. Ignore it 2. Forget about it. 3. Eventually remember when video essays about why the latest Disney Wars attempt was an utter dumpster fire appear.
TwoHeavens. Esq
2024-11-26 18:07:47 +0000 UTCI think by definition a big corporate studio has to run like an agricultural industry -- there needs to be a grain crop every year even if the yield is not great. Studios like A24 are better conceptualized as hothouses nurturing unusual and interesting flowers that are sometimes stunningly beautiful. You can't eat hothouse flowers, though.
Maytree
2024-11-26 17:58:51 +0000 UTCOh, there's one interesting bit, though - Andor Season 2 bringing back the "A Star Wars Story" label, and Skeleton Crew going for the "A Star Wars Adventure" label. Late acknowledgement that most if not all of the shows would have carried such a disclaimer that they're "not on par" with and more free-wheeling than the saga films. Like Rogue One, Solo and Fett/Kenobi had been envisioned. So maybe they're trying to make the distinction between "safe" and "experimental" content again?
Grey1
2024-11-26 17:52:17 +0000 UTCTo keep the metaphor, you can run the IP as agricultural industry, or as a garden in which you grow the most special roses. Or something inbetween. Right now there's always a push and pull between creativity and the realities of industrial entertainment. Choosing Kinberg suggests that there's a stronger push towards reliable mass production right now, and towards checklists of classic "Star Wars fans' demands" that have clashed strongly with The Acolyte - and that I've already seen preemptively clash with Skeleton Crew, which again is an attempt at a different flavour of Star Wars. The interesting question for me is if SW will be able to come back from "the safe approach" this time, like when Disney+ allowed for at least a bit of "experimental" variety after Episode 9; or if the need to return to the bigger market will now mean the safest approach possible for quite some time.
Grey1
2024-11-26 17:44:19 +0000 UTCIt's interesting that both shows and films go through the same phases. They choose the "creative talent" either because of "artistic" success with critics, because of financial success, or because they need somebody to save them when the first two didn't work out. After Solo and Rise, I think a lot of the directors/creators were still meant to be either artistically or financially "interesting". Kinberg almost feels like a novelty in the roster because he's neither an "artist" nor a "prestige mainstream" creator. He didn't make waves with something akin to Logan or Wonder Woman. He's not beloved for an indie gem or a hot Netflix show. And unlike Filoni and Favreau (as well as Abrams for Ep9/Gilroy for Andor), he's not made a name for himself with his SW (Rebels) contributions. I wonder if Kinberg means "the brand" is essentially where it was in 2018, when safe hands Howard and Abrams were substituting for "interesting choices" who didn't produce the results the brand wanted, and when Filoni brought The Clone Wars back. And basically, I wonder if there's some similarities in backlash towards The Last Jedi and The Acolyte that resulted in a move towards less freedom of creativity and a more conservative approach.
Grey1
2024-11-26 17:11:03 +0000 UTCI'm not really on board with the idea that the "sun is setting" on Star Wars as an IP. It has achieved the same kind of permanent presence in the human psyche -- at least in the West -- as IPs like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond have. (For similar Eastern properties, I would point to Journey to the West. How many versions of Sun Wukong have we seen?) In each of these cases, the IP has iterations that are high quality, and those that are not. When the IP is being poorly handled, it usually goes into dormancy for a while until some new creators take an interest in it. For example, the extremely "meh" Bond film, Die Another Day, spurred the shift to Daniel Craig's introduction as "James Blond" in Casino Royale four years later, which took the franchise in a new and very successful direction. Once an IP achieves this sort of iconic status, I don't think it dies easily. Even in the current Star Wars era, we still got Andor, and Andor is amazing. Perhaps it's just that an IP that is struggling needs to lie fallow for a while, like an over-farmed field, until the soil recovers and becomes productive again.
Maytree
2024-11-26 16:58:14 +0000 UTCLove your essays Darren. However, I do feel like this could have just been a link to "Too Many Cooks..."
W. Fry
2024-11-26 16:32:43 +0000 UTC
