And since the "Mouse House" is notorious for suing everybody, I will be using "Allegedly" every so often. And because this is just my opinion...Allegedly.
Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...by now you know that the Star Wars franchise was sold to Disney. And we can expect new films in the coming years with much of the original cast returning to pass the torch to the next generation. Yay! How can you not be excited by that?
But...Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...when this story first broke last year, my reaction was "Ah HA!...Now I know why the Mouse House film "John Carter" was completely thrown away." Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...because they already knew that the purchase of Star Wars was going to go down...Allegedly.
Think about this. When the story about the Star Wars purchase broke we eventually found out that they had been in talks for OVER a year before the announcement. Lucas also let it slip that the major actors in the franchise were also in talks for over a year. So this would have all began sometime during production of John Carter...Allegedly.
The Mouse House had a contract/rights/obligation to do a John Carter film. Which is a huge franchise---9 books, the story is over 100 years old, continues to sell, and even George Lucas said parts of the John Carter stories were inspirations for Star Wars. And parts were ripped off for "Avatar" as well...Allegedly. Not to mention a successful comic book adaption was currently on the market. So an Audience was already there. It only needed the major publicity that any film gets to make it successful. They started production and filming of John Carter, and we're removing all the adult content (huge violence, nudity) from the original stories. Allegedly...because like most of the Mouse House films they wanted merchandise tie ins---action figures, tshirts, happy meals, etc Allegedly. That is the standard and would make a world of sense. But when release time came for the John Carter film---no merchandise. No publicity. No major press launch. Nothing. Why?
Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...because they were abandoning the John Carter franchise for the Star Wars deal which was not yet public knowledge...Allegedly.
And this would make sense. Stars Wars is a proven franchise. So...Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...since they were already halfway into filming John Carter and had a contract to complete the film...Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...they just gave zero fucks anymore about John Carter with the Star Wars universe around the corner.
Allegedly...they just rushed to complete John Carter, making sure they gave it no care or concern on being a good film...Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...because they wanted to be done with it...Allegedly...and maybe even wanted it to fail...Allegedly...so that they could have a legitimate excuse as to backing out of the option to do more films...Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly.
Allegedly...and that seems to be what they did...Allegedly. The movie got bad reviews. And the guy in charge of green lighting the film was "fired" BUT! We know from the press that it was one of those "you're fired, and here's several million dollars for you to keep as a part of your firing package." Allegedly...
Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...so this seemed to be making him a scape goat for their plan...Allegedly...and several months later, they announce the purchase of the Star Wars franchise. We also know from the press at the time that Lucas Films has appointed their own overseer to all things Star Wars and for any new films. So in other words this guy who was fired would have had to have been removed anyway for new films to begin since he would not be in charge of them...Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly...
Allegedly...so there you go.
It's a shame for the John Carter franchise that it was handled so poorly. And thrown away so hard and fast. When I'm sure originally they had many plans for it as a long term franchise. But it was abandoned and Allegedly...sabotaged...Allegedly. And because of that, it may never get a proper film version it deserves.
But I am still very excited for new Star Wars films...Allegedly...Allegedly...Allegedly. :)
4 comments:
Really doesn't make sense. Why would they NOT want to make extra money? There's no reason they couldn't have a JC franchise going in addition to SW. It would just mean more money and they LOVE more money. The only thing more important to them than money is pride, so if there was anything holding them back from making JC a hit, maybe they were trying to teach someone a lesson, in other words didn't get along with the director or someone else involved. The whole thing was definitely a waste.
I agree. It was a waste. And certainly doing 2 hit franchises would be possible. But maybe with all the characters in the Star Wars universe, they thought that was enough to keep them busy/make money from. They have said they do plan to release a new Star Wars movie each year, some with secondary characters getting their own films. So maybe they just wanted to focus. But I agree a waste for JC.
Ugh, I am so tired with the Star Wars crap. I liked the original movies but the newer ones bored me to tears. I've hated Disney for years and then hated them even more when I learned they bought Marvel (because I thought of all the horrible things they'd do to my beloved characters), but now they own Star Wars are are going to poop out a movie a year? I doubt they're going to be any good and it's obviously because they know it's a very lucrative property and feel they can make more money from it. It's just so sad though that they can't come up with any ORIGINAL ideas and let the good movies of the past stay where they belong, in the past and not ruin them over and over again.
Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the prequels either. I thought much like the Harry Potter books/movies that the prequels should have "grown up" with the fans. All the original fans were adults by that point and were looking for an adult plot. Instead it was little kid focused, when for years we were led to believe the clone wars were a bloody massacre on an epic scale. Lucas was in charge of that, he isn't this time though, he has appointed someone as overseer. So we can hope that person has better ideas and won't dumb it down for the kids. Sigh, we'll see :)
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