I had to write a sequel to my last post, because so many current events keep proving my point. What is my point? The more fans drag a movie’s private creative process into the public eye, the more they hurt the film and ultimately, their own enjoyment of it.
I talked about the fan fight over Fanboys in my last post. Now I have two new case studies:
CASE 1: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This is easily the most anticipated movie of the year for geeks like me, but once again the over-eager fans are in danger of ruining the beautiful surprise that awaits on May 22. Lucas already says he feels beaten down by fan expectations he cannot begin to meet. “The fans think it’s gonna be the Second Coming. And it’s not the Second Coming,” he says in a recent interview. “They’ve already written the story in their heads, and lemme tell ya, it’s not that story. We’re gonna have a bunch of people saying, ‘You never should have done this, you’ve ruined my life forever. I loved Indiana Jones and now it’s ruined.’ Stuff like that.”
This guy just wants to show you a good time at the movies, but he already feels this kind of heat over a movie he’s not even done making yet.
Spielberg and his crew had to go to ridiculous lengths to keep fans — FANS of the movie — from ruining the shooting. Someone stole a laptop from the production office. A movie extra blabbed story details to a local paper. Spoilers of plot points have been leaking on sites for months. Nine-foot fences had to be constructed to keep scenes from being shot by camcorders and cel phone cameras, which were being posted on YouTube.
Spielberg recently quipped, “People were seeing shots from my movie on computer screens all over the world before I got to see the shots on a film-lab screen. Global dissemination at light speed — at warp speed.”
There’s another name for that kind of behavior… “rude.”
What if Picasso’s fans broke into his studio to swipe his latest work when it was half finished? They could probably have painted in the rest themselves and posted it at the nearest gallery. Or how about we steal raw tracks from U2’s next album and mix them ourselves? Bono’s vocal isn’t done? Heck, lay the rest of those vocals down yourself and post it tonight! Go, go, go!
Or… settle down and let the artist bring you the art when it is DONE. When it is ART.
Our over-eager, spoiler-happy fan culture is like a kid who loves a hamster so much that he squeezes it to death. Stop squeezing the hamsters, guys. You’re KILLING them. If you love movies, honor them enough to let them be made without this scrutiny.
Case 2: The Incredible Hulk
There has been a disagreement over the final cut of the film between two camps: On one side is Marvel Studios, who wants a shorter, more commercial cut. On the other side is the director Louis Leterrier and his star, Ed Norton, who want a longer, more detailed cut (Uhhh, isn’t that why the LAST Hulk movie tanked, guys? But that’s another debate…). As Entertainment Weekly put it, “These creative arguments happen in Hollywood a lot, but usually remain a secret. This time, they didn’t.”
Ed Norton passionately argued for a longer version, and at one point, heated words were exchanged. It was your basic creative argument. A clash between filmmakers, star and studio is typical, and is usually resolved. But then this clash became public, thanks to an industry blogger, Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily. Way to go, Nikki. Do you know what you did? Reports of a “huge feud” spread like wildfire on fan sites and comment boards. Overblown reports of a feud on the Hulk movie suddenly MADE it a feud. Let me say that again: reporting a feud created a feud where there was none.
This has shut down communication between the studio and fans altogether, and between Norton and the studio. Norton is refusing to speak to press about the film. Now there is bad buzz over this 150 million dollar film just because of gossip… bad buzz that has nothing to do with the movie. That makes me sad.
Creative friction is bound to happen on movies, but the airing of this dirty laundry does no one any good. Ed Norton finally released a statement, saying, “Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a “dispute”… and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself.”
Bottom line? Keep the bloggers (and audience members) out of the filmmaking process. If you are not a part of the creative team making a movie, you cannot understand the context of the decisions that are being made. When the public spies on this kind of process, they can leap to conclusions that sabotage the movie… a movie that was just supposed to entertain them in the first place.
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Fan involvement is helpful, but not when it intrudes on the skills of the storyteller. I had a nice email exchange with a fan recently, over this subject of studio-vs.-filmmaker. This person is rooting for fans to get involved in such squabbles, and ended his letter by saying, “Perhaps, as more of the public learns about fights like this, they will band together and fight for ALL creative types over the big studios.”
You see folks, that’s the thing you are not grasping. You can’t look at these as FIGHTS. This is the way you have to get films made. You HAVE to find someone to pay for them and then you HAVE to include them in the process. Now you can be a totally independent filmmaker and do exactly what you want on a “$100,000 movie and make sure no one tells you what to do. But if you want to make big budget films, you have to maintain that relationship with the studio.
I speak now as a director. YES, sometimes the studio suits will make stupid suggestions and force me to include them. But that’s when I as a filmmaker have to learn how to gain a studio’s confidence and campaign for my creative choices to win out.
Trust me, I am in the middle of this every day. As a matter of fact, I had a serious meeting over a current script issue with Harvey Weinstein himself two weeks ago. I flew to New York, and was primed for a very tense debate. But we worked it out, and found a way for BOTH of our needs to be met on the script.
This doesn’t always happen, but it is a far more complex process than “fighting the man” to get your art made. Fans have a hard time understanding that, because they are not in those rooms and in those discussions. That’s the point I was trying to make in my last post.
Don’t get me wrong, anyone in entertainment is aware that they must listen to fans to survive. Fans are passionate, fans are articulate and intelligent, and fans know what they want.
But fans are not filmmakers.
If fans care about their movies, then they need to give them some breathing room. Otherwise, we’ve just got another dead hamster on our hands.
