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It seems like the current movie business is mostly just a parasite on the back of 50 year old content (Marvel Silver age, Star Wars universe, Disney catalogs, N

It seems like the current movie business is mostly just a parasite on the back of 50 year old content (Marvel Silver age, Star Wars universe, Disney catalogs, Netflix 3rd party licensed content, et al.) The long tail of good content is very long. I wouldn't be surprised if Casablanca still generates annual royalties in excess of it's entire original cost, 80 years later. A great movie is a piece of artwork and like the Mona Lisa centuries later, has a timeless aspect to it. I don't disagree with Diller per se. In fact, "They ain't movies. They are some weird algorithmic process that has created things that last 100 minutes or so." is one of the best descriptions of modern film I've ever seen. May it is just because of the limits of the article length, but I think it's far more about short form content and limits of human attention. I'd rather watch several 10-20 minute videos from niche Youtube creators in a week than one two hour movie most of the time, and I can't do both. In that sense, Katzenberg /Quibli were probably onto something. You have to remember Diller created the anonymous content conglomerate of IAC and is commenting on Quibli from that perspective. He admits himself, at the end, that he's working on backing Broadway productions so he's not satisfied with the content landscape, either. Maybe someone will figure out what it means to make something that squares good content with the time/format demands of a modern viewer. TL;DR: I'm sick of Fast & Furious and Marvel franchise spin offs. Feels like someone made the film analogue of discovering that kids like candy and will preferentially take it over healthier food when offered.

Apocryphon 5y ago
I believe that you ain't seen nothing yet. Superhero comic films are king but like, say, zombie media in the 2000s, it is a mammoth fad that will eventually be overthrown by another one. Once Hollywood finally figures out how to make a good video game movie adaptation, expect the true licensing deluge to begin. Marvel and DC are but two companies. Imagine the amount of IP adaptations that an entire industry will yield.
- throwaway5752 5y ago
  I watched Captain Lou Albano play Mario in the 80s. Resident Evil? Pokemon? Mortal Kombat? It's already here. I actually don't care, as long as they are good. Not all MCU is bad (and I might even say little/none of it is bad). Maybe a different comparison: a lot of movies now feel like processed food. Consistent and made-to-please, but limits to how great it can be. It is not ideal to live only on processed food.
  - smolder 5y ago
    I think video game adaptations are almost universally bad, when they don't always have to be. We used to get pretty bad superhero movies, too, from directors that didn't seem to understand or respect what they were adapting. Video games seem difficult to adapt generally --they often don't provide the building blocks for a good narrative. Potentially studios can do like what Detective Pikachu did, get a bit crazy, and still make something decent. Going in the other direction and making something which treats the source seriously hasn't generally worked well, even when it could have with better writing and direction. It seems to me like Hollywood looks down on video games as an inferior medium, so their hearts (and budgets) are never in it fully. An "Iron Man moment" is possible, I think, where they put out something high quality that's faithful to the source, and its success leads to other high quality adaptations.

Apocryphon 5y ago

I believe that you ain't seen nothing yet. Superhero comic films are king but like, say, zombie media in the 2000s, it is a mammoth fad that will eventually be overthrown by another one. Once Hollywood finally figures out how to make a good video game movie adaptation, expect the true licensing deluge to begin. Marvel and DC are but two companies. Imagine the amount of IP adaptations that an entire industry will yield.

throwaway5752 5y ago
I watched Captain Lou Albano play Mario in the 80s. Resident Evil? Pokemon? Mortal Kombat? It's already here. I actually don't care, as long as they are good. Not all MCU is bad (and I might even say little/none of it is bad). Maybe a different comparison: a lot of movies now feel like processed food. Consistent and made-to-please, but limits to how great it can be. It is not ideal to live only on processed food.
- smolder 5y ago
  I think video game adaptations are almost universally bad, when they don't always have to be. We used to get pretty bad superhero movies, too, from directors that didn't seem to understand or respect what they were adapting. Video games seem difficult to adapt generally --they often don't provide the building blocks for a good narrative. Potentially studios can do like what Detective Pikachu did, get a bit crazy, and still make something decent. Going in the other direction and making something which treats the source seriously hasn't generally worked well, even when it could have with better writing and direction. It seems to me like Hollywood looks down on video games as an inferior medium, so their hearts (and budgets) are never in it fully. An "Iron Man moment" is possible, I think, where they put out something high quality that's faithful to the source, and its success leads to other high quality adaptations.