Film forum off topic/random chat thread

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121562790#Comment_121562790

Aye, but the humans signed a contract and got paid handsomely. Poor old ratty had no say whatsoever.

TBH, I've seen worse animal cruelty. The director of exploitative trash 'Men Behind the Sun' decided to set hundreds of rats on fire for real and then film them running about in terror while they burnt to death. That has an 18 cert for the UK release.

Likewise, 'Cannibal Holocaust', notorious for its scenes of animal cruelty was given a pass, too, fairly recently because the animals had "quick deaths".

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mr Crispy

I once read that over 100 horses were killed during filming for the original Ben Hur. It's nearly a century old, but still, that's horrific!

In terms of modern films, Old Boy's octopus scene is one that sticks with me. Apparently Chan-Wook wasn't happy until the 7th take either...

I've never watched Cannibal Holocaust for the reason Tony mentions.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121563260#Comment_121563260

Strangely enough, 'Old Boy' passed uncut in the UK because the octopus was an invertebrate and wasn't covered by UK laws about animal cruelty on film.

'Cannibal Holocaust' is an interesting movie though. It's more a comment on the shameless levels mondo movie makers used to go to when making their own exploitation films, which they subsequently passed off as "documentaries". It's not really the film most people think it is. It's not an innocent movie by any means either, though, and the scenes of animal slaughter are gratuitous to say the least, even if the crew say that they ate the animals they slaughtered. It's a strange, disturbing, film. But not one that's entirely without some merit.

'Cannibal Ferox'...now that's just real trash.

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121563681#Comment_121563681

Yeah, I remember that point about invertebrates. There's a growing movement to get the laws changed as cephalopods in particular pass many of the tests that demonstrate higher levels of intelligence.

I might give HH a go at that rate.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121563761#Comment_121563761

Yeah, octopi apparently have very good short and long term memories and are quite intelligent. They'll use objects as weapons against attack and for camouflage for instance, and they can navigate complex mazes too. There was a program on a while ago about an octopus and her keeper and she "knew" who he was and was comfortable around him. But she would only touch him and not go near other people. It was remarkable. If she was distressed, she'd go over to him and hug onto his arm.

Agent Coulson

Still big money being made in cinemas

Global Box Office Reaches $33.9B In 2023, Up 31% On 2022 – Analysts

Global box office is estimated to have reached $33.9B for 2023, a 30.5% gain on 2022, according to Gower Street Analytics. While this represents continuing worldwide recovery, the figure remains 15% behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019). Gower Street also recently estimated that, due in part to this year’s strike-impacted release calendar, 2024 is projected to drop to $31.5 billion, which, given today’s revised estimate for last year, would come in at 7% below 2023. 

North America remained the top global market in 2023 with an estimated $9.07B, up 21% year-on-year, but still 21% behind the 2017-2019 average. It accounted for 26.8% of the worldwide result, down from 28.9% in 2022.......

https://deadline.com/2024/01/global-box-office-2023-total-barbie-super-mario-bros-oppenheimer-international-china-1235694955/

JP Liz V1

The Golden Globes host was terrible, I didn't know him but apparently he is a comedian from Chelsea Handler show

Bring back Ricky Gervais who I see won a GG

Agent Coulson

Got to keep those profits coming in especially after blowing billions on Prime video series & Films.

Amazon fired hundreds of staff across Prime video & MGM

Amazon is to axe hundreds of staff across its subsidiaries Twitch, Prime Video and MGM studios.

More than 500 Twitch employees - a third of the streamer's workforce - will be laid off, according to a note from chief executive Dan Clancy.

Amazon said several hundred employees at Prime Video and film studio MGM will also lose their jobs this week.

The tech giant laid off more than 27,000 staff members in 2023 despite bumper profits.

Twitch was initially set up for gamers to watch and share video gameplay online. It was bought by Amazon in 2014 for $970m (£585m at the time).

In an email to employees, Mr Clancy said he was taking the "painful step to reduce our headcount" to "build a more sustainable business".

He added that the company paid out $1bn to streamers in 2023, but had "conservative predictions of how we expect to grow in the future."

Amazon made $9.9bn profit in July to September, according to its most recent earnings report. That was up from $2.9bn in the same period in 2022.

In an email sent to staff at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, senior vice president of the department Mike Hopkins wrote: "We've identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investments and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact."

Mr Hopkins added that it was a "difficult decision to make".

The email indicated that job losses affect staff in the US and around the world.

Amazon bought the hundred-year-old MGM Studios for $8.45bn in 2021.

In December, it announced it would start putting adverts on Prime Video from 5 February 2024.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67939545

Mr Crispy

According to THR, a sequel (or maybe a series of sequels) to 28 Days/Weeks Later is in the works, and Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are on board.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/28-years-later-in-the-works-1235783306/

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121599990#Comment_121599990

The Years part I think is just speculation but you do wonder: these weren't traditional zombies 'cos the "simple" fix is to wait for the infected to starve to death; and the sheer pace of infection probably meant while all of Europa-Asia was infected, America was fine. Not like they can't just write something up - obviously if they have 3 films planned there's something afoot.

I have to say, the "fast zombie" is fairly common now but I'd argue they have never been scarier than in those 2 films; Boyle & Fresnadillo really nailed the frenetic, whirling terror of something simply pelting itself at you. Train to Busan kinda came close - but also lost points for going a bit OTT at times as well. Plus that film was really guilty of some rubber-banding with how close they got to the characters; the "28" films never cheated that way.

Plus the fact 28 Day Later looks like it was filmed on someone Nokia, all 480p glory, only adds to the horror IMO. Bit like how stuff on a VHS just feels naturally more scary - as does low-fi Digital film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDbMqG0EObM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3d7y1YrPvg

silverharp

looks like some studious getting their bad news out early in the year , you would have to reckon that Pixar and Disney Animation studios will merge? its an obvious cost saving move

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1745595274251157657

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1745119641343607278

briany

Are dubs more popular in other countries than subtitles? Sometimes films will have an alternate audio track in Italian or Russian or Hindi or whatever, and the voices often just boom over everything including the sound effects and music, like "ДАВНЫМ ВРЕМЯ В ДАЛЕКОЙ-ДАЛЕКОЙ ГАЛАКТИКЕ..."

If I heard an English dub of a foreign film like that, it would take me completely out of it.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121610748#Comment_121610748

Yeah, I think dubs are definitely more common in some non-English markets - a big part of that being the sheer volume of big mass-market English language movies. Funnily enough, there were always voice actors in the likes of Germany and France who specialized in certain English language actors - like, someone would be the German Eddie Murphy for instance, doing the voices for all Eddie Murphy movies. Interesting niche career option! Increasingly I think the trend is shifting towards subtitles over dubs though.

Think there's a fair few unofficial audio tracks floating around for movies too, which are always a disaster.

Agent Coulson

Jonathan Majors has now been fired from the Dennis Rodman biopic movie 48 Hours In Vegas where he was due to play Dennis Rodman.

Bad boy film actor to much of a bad boy to play bad boy basketball player

CastorTroy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121610748#Comment_121610748

I do like the idea of being able to hear dialogue over loud music. Maybe they should try that with the original English language as well.

JP Liz V1

David O. Russell is to direct a Linda Ronstadt biopic starring Selena Gomez

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613204#Comment_121613204

For a long time I thought if they ever made a Linda Rondstadt biopic Gomez would be perfect to play her, looks wise. I think they missed the boat by a few years in that respect though. And also David O Russell is at best, a **** director, at worst, a **** human being. I feel like Ronstadt deserves better than whatever this will be.

pixelburp

I'm still a bit shocked O Russell still gets work because by all accounts he's supposed to a really horrible person to work with? Given that kinda behaviour is being slowly rooted out, it's weird top tier actors still work with him...

The Black Oil

Took me a while to remember which film this tune is linked to. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwzlHefcHDc

Agent Coulson

Wow

Alec Baldwin Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter Again In ‘Rust’ Fatal Shooting; “Look Forward To Our Day In Court,” Actor’s Lawyers Say

https://deadline.com/2024/01/alec-baldwin-charged-manslaughter-rust-1235798016/

Mr Crispy

More Jurassic japes on the way. Such a boring franchise, surely the only way is up (he says, in denial)?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/new-jurassic-world-movie-in-the-works-1235792506/

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121657072#Comment_121657072

I'm not even sure how you reboot this franchise without it just being a shallow clone (which would be apt) of the 1993 film - but presumably Koepp has some vaguely interesting idea 'cos can't imagine he'd be that interested in rewriting what was blockbuster perfection the first time around. Trying to think what societal or scientific changes we've seen since 1993 you could introduce to the premise.

Seems like a "fresh" idea would be to shift genre entirely - maybe go properly down the horror route, or indeed fully embrace the near-grindhouse insanity of Fallen Kingdom's dinosaurs-as-WMDs; but if it's just another tentpole, 4 Quadrant blockbuster that must make 1 billion global? Porridge awaits. And unfortunately, the latter seems more likely at this point.

At least the overall dreadful "World" films are being junked - sometimes the worst things make the most money.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121657852#Comment_121657852

The fact they're keeping the 'World' brand going for this one makes me think it's a shift in perspective rather than a reboot. There's definitely a lot of interesting things you can do with just accepting you live in a world full of dinosaurs, and seeing what that's like for a group of people who had nothing to do with any of it - don't worry about the causes or solutions of it, just look at from a family's experience of how their life has changed now that there's a rake of velociraptors and pterodactyls to worry about on the school run. Or a small isolated town dealing with a herd of something-or-other coming in, like Tremors. Go back to having a story about people, in which dinosaurs are thrown in as a complication.

Another version could be like Gareth Edwards Monsters, with a rescue mission in dinosaur country - but that's kind of already been done with Jurassic Park 3, so exploring the 'normal' world of it seems more interesting.

Tony EH

Jurassic whatever just needs to die. There was one great movie thirty years and they'll never top it.

CastorTroy

Maybe it was mentioned here before and I forgot but today I found out there's a live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon happening

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/how-to-train-your-dragon-live-action-new-cast-members-1235886910/

I guess the main question is Why?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Yeah, I knew that was happening but I think I blocked it out of my mind. HTTyD is honestly one of my favourite films. It's so good and definitely does not need a live action remake. I really wish studios would stop treating animation like it's something less than live action.

CastorTroy

Maybe I blocked it as well. It is a great movie.

I think Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians are the only live action remakes I've seen.

What other non Disney animated movies were remade in live action or will this be the first?

I know we have series like The Last Airbender but movie to movie seems more pointless.

dublinman1990

This video may warrant it's own thread after I make this post.

However the point of this video is meant to say that corporations or streamers who create art for the mass enjoyment of the world should not be able to take it away from us as they see fit. It is a thundering disgrace that streaming services are allowed to get away with not releasing lots of their own content to buy and own when the rest of us actually want to enjoy it in our own time without the whims of them saying no right in front of us.

https://youtu.be/H2hc1JfTUk8?si=LlUJKSV1XLnekAvM

If you want to buy a movie or a TV series. Get it on DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray.

Streaming Services can go kiss my a**. Rant over.

Tony EH

Put your pirate hat on and set sail.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121687068#Comment_121687068

Unless a film is less than 40 years old, or especially famous, there's almost zero chance of getting veritable classics on digital streaming. They simply don't exist unless you pay over the odds for physical. Or indeed, take to the seas.