Solo Does it Good

By Wilson

Hollywood politics.  They are the forces that can make or break a show or a movie. What’s funny is how most company heads don’t listen to the consumer to about what they want on.  Shows popular with the audience get cut for the next season, stories that should be told aren’t, ones that shouldn’t be told are green-lit. We know they are working for the all mighty dollar,  but we all work for the dollar. We are the ones who decide when to spend it.

Hollywood has their own system for figuring out if a series or movie is successful, which is more than just the number of viewers but how much money it makes.  The amount of money is just good business, but here is where it gets tricky, they don’t just want just their money plus some back. They are all gambling that the shows or movies will make a lot of money or get awards they can show financial backers in hopes to get more money to finance their next venture.  

Then there are also the ego maniac’s that feel it it’s not done their way, then it shouldn’t be done. With the case of Solo, A  Star Wars Story, in a story by Borys Kit:

“Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the style and vision of Lord and Miller clashed with that of Lawrence Kasdan, the legendary screenwriter behind the classics Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, who also wrote, with his son Jon Kasdan, the script for the Han Solo stand-alone set (for now) to be released in 2018.‬

Lord and Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) have a comedic sensibility and improvisational style while Kasdan favors a strict adherence to the written word what is on the page is what must be shot.”

This is what bothers me is that Lord and Miller called it creative differences.  They were arguing about the story they were filming with the person that wrote the script! They took the job to direct Kasdan’s story not their own story about Han Solo. If they didn’t want to film the story that Kasdan wrote, they shouldn’t have taken the job.  I can’t help but think they thought if they got the job, they could do it their way and everyone would hail actuates down on them. Now the movie is over budget and if it doesn’t make the money the backers gambled it would, there may not be more stand-alone Star Wars movies made.

Firefly, which has had one of the biggest fans outcries when it was canceled and the characters are still cos-played at conventions around the world, was canceled for low ratings.  I found it hard to believe at the time because everyone I knew watched it. Since then I’ve found out also the heads of Fox didn’t like the “tone” of the show. They thought the main character was too Mal was too “sarcastic” and should be “jolly” and the cast was always thrown into plots that the policy’s made by decision makers of the Firefly world gave the cast trouble.  In other words, it bothered the studio executes (decision makers of Fox) egos.

I read an article about eleven of the best box office failure movies of all times.  Of the eleven, there was only three that I hadn’t seen and loved. Some of them I would put on a list of movies to take with to a deserted island.  One of the biggest holiday favorites, It’s A Wonderful Life mainly became such a favorite because it was a box office failure. When it did so bad at the box office RKO didn’t renew its copyright.  It became public domain and everybody could show it and not pay royalties. I can remember a day in my childhood of turning the T.V. channel and it showed on 3 out of 5 channels. Karolyn Grimes who played the little girl Zuzu still gets paid to autograph photos of from the movie. If it had really been a bad movie, even with the amount it was played, it never would have become such a popular movie.  At times, business execs are dumb asses putting too many similar movies out at the same time, not looking at the other things that affect the country and therefore the box office, or just think that because their finger is in the pie the movie will do well do to their magic touch

The story of Han Solo directed by Ron Howard was inspired. It had the spirit of the original movies with the modern technological developments that the today’s moviegoer expects.  He made wise decisions when it came to the shorter time he was given to make this movie. I hope the money makers of Hollywood keeps this in mind when they look to back the next Star Wars film and look to hire a director.  Opie has done well.