Hollywood's creativity problem and a (ranty) stroll through endless remakes...

[bloodtide]

I think the problem goes deeper then everything is little more then a copy of a copy of another copy.

It starts to get deep when any content creator or producer can't not but think of popular things that came before as soon as they hear of something. You even think of a sci fi space movie, people think of Star Wars, for example.

Now this is not all bad on the surface, and making a nod or homage or tribute to something. The problem starts when the past content is so overwhelming that they can't even dream not redoing the old content. But it gets worse when they can't even see that it is happening.

And this effects everyone the content must go through, not just the writer. Anyone in the whole system might have the power to change something or force something. This might be the worst, as no matter what is created, by the time they get to the end product someone has forced the change back to the past content.

Bob writes some space adventure content, thinks of Star Wars of course, but then says does not want to do the "like WW2 in space". It hardly matters as producer Dan is 100% fixed on "woo hoo it will be just like Star Wars, pew pew!", and as he controls the money, he gets the final say. That writer could have made the most unique content ever....but it will never be seen.

And this keeps happening over and over and over again.

 

[Umbran]

It's one of the movies that solidified my hate of remakes, of my childhood favourites.

I had only ever seen a couple of episodes, so that while I was aware of the general form and themes, but I couldn't call it a favorite.

I now recognize some of the show's issues, but they aren't, "They made a bad version of my favorite" kind of things.

 

[MGibster]

It starts to get deep when any content creator or producer can't not but think of popular things that came before as soon as they hear of something. You even think of a sci fi space movie, people think of Star Wars, for example.

I still remember John Travolta describing his upcoming Battlefield Earth movie as, "Like Star Wars, but cooler." D&D is kind of like that too. I hear the Palladium system started out as a house ruled version of AD&D, and pretty much every RPG is compared to D&D in some way.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I still remember John Travolta describing his upcoming Battlefield Earth movie as, "Like Star Wars, but cooler." D&D is kind of like that too. I hear the Palladium system started out as a house ruled version of AD&D, and pretty much every RPG is compared to D&D in some way.

in D&d fairness, it was the first so comparing everything is compared.

 

[MGibster]

in D&d fairness, it was the first so comparing everything is compared.

That's not why we compare RPGs to D&D. As with science fiction and Star Wars, we compare other games to D&D because it's a common frame of reference as almost every player is familiar with it. Outside of gamers, D&D is often the only game they've even heard of. It's not like Star Wars was the first science fiction movie, but Buck Rogers is a bit out of date for most people not having anything close to a major production since the early 1980s.

 

[Mind of tempest]

That's not why we compare RPGs to D&D. As with science fiction and Star Wars, we compare other games to D&D because it's a common frame of reference as almost every player is familiar with it. Outside of gamers, D&D is often the only game they've even heard of. It's not like Star Wars was the first science fiction movie, but Buck Rogers is a bit out of date for most people not having anything close to a major production since the early 1980s.

true but it is also the starting point from the base idea so it is like discussing modern fantasy and Tolkien kind of hard not to.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Every once in a while something comes out of Hollywood or is recent that I quite love. Everything Everywhere All at Once was amazing, and I went in with somewhat lower expectations, because it seemed so heavy on the CGI in the previews (honestly some of the best use of CGI I have seen in years). Occasionally I come across something like this. But I also realized a few years ago that they kinds of movies being made were just not in my wheel house (lots of comic book inspired stuff for example), and being in my late forties, my tastes are old. So I mostly watch older films and older shows, with something new capturing my attention every so often (I like Cobra Kai for example, but that is clearly in part targeted at an audience my age----I saw Karate Kid in the theater when I must have been 8 or 9).

One of the great things about the availability of stuff on prime is if you aren't into what is coming out right now, you can watch classic movies that still hold up.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I still remember John Travolta describing his upcoming Battlefield Earth movie as, "Like Star Wars, but cooler."

I remember being trapped in the theater with that movie. Very few films are so bad they are painful to watch but that is up there with Dracula: Dead and Loving It (though I love Mel Brooks that one was pretty unwatchable).

 

[bloodtide]

Now see there is nothing wrong with a "Frame of Reference" if some one needs that : the problem is people getting stuck there. But it seems people don't have the ability to let go.

Star Wars was a great movie...but everyone does not need to copy off it forever. Tolkien wrote a good couple of books, but we don't need to copy them forever.

All Fantasy has to be Tolkien, all Space Adventure must be Star Wars, all heist stories must be "oceans" and so on.

That's the problem: Someone writes a cop plot, and without a thought just adds the same things over and over as they are stuck in there head. Plus everyone above that says "oh you have to add a new rookie cop and a old cop and" so on that is in EVERY other cop content.

It's a big Rut.

 

[Bedrockgames]

That's the problem: Someone writes a cop plot, and without a thought just adds the same things over and over as they are stuck in there head. Plus everyone above that says "oh you have to add a new rookie cop and a old cop and" so on that is in EVERY other cop content.

It's a big Rut.

Genres tend to get stale over time and need to be revitalized or shelved for a bit before someone has a new approach. I think the best ones build on what came before while having a kind of conversation with the prior material. An example that always leaps to mind for me is Dirty Harry (which didn't exist in a vacuum and was breaking new ground when it came out) and Lethal Weapon (which owes a tremendous amount to Dirty Harry, even has a scene that is clearly an homage to it, but also added to the conversation within the genre).