Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

[TordelBack]

I applaud your eloquent manifesto Radiator, but I cant subscribe to yiur newsletter. I too yearn for novelty in SW movies, and think Young Han Solo is an appalling choice of subject, but the most recent two flicks have been way better than I feared - I enjoyed them despite their flaws.

[dweezil2]

I want a Jabba The Hutt weight-loss DVD.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

The familiar tends to sell better than the ambiguous, so Disney doesn't want to stretch the envelope with anything that the dumbest Five-year-old can't contemplate. Believable plot, morally challenged characters that are driven by understandable goals well that can all get lost in the CGI explosions far as they're concerned.

[JLC]

The familiar tends to sell better than the ambiguous, so Disney doesn't want to stretch the envelope with anything that the dumbest Five-year-old can't contemplate. Believable plot, morally challenged characters that are driven by understandable goals well that can all get lost in the CGI explosions far as they're concerned.

Cool. Bring it on.

[radiator]

I understand why the main franchise movies like The Last Jedi need to be huge spectacle movies (and as such need to play it relatively safe), but it's a shame that Disney apparently feel the need to make every one of these spin off films a $200m blockbuster too. If they set the budget for them much lower, they could be much more free to experiment, and they'd still be guaranteed to turn a profit. You could do a great Han Solo or Boba Fett spin off if you kept it self-contained and really simple - make it a space Western type movie confined to a handful of locations. With a good script you wouldn't need to rely on excessive cgi spectacle.

Even better, use the spin-offs to establish brand new characters (crazy idea I know).

[TordelBack]

I understand why the main franchise movies like The Last Jedi need to be huge spectacle movies (and as such need to play it relatively safe), but it's a shame that Disney apparently feel the need to make every one of these spin off films a $200m blockbuster too. If they set the budget for them much lower, they could be much more free to experiment, and they'd still be guaranteed to turn a profit. You could do a great Han Solo or Boba Fett spin off if you kept it self-contained and really simple - make it a space Western type movie confined to a handful of locations. With a good script you wouldn't need to rely on excessive cgi spectacle.

Even better, use the spin-offs to establish brand new characters (crazy idea I know).

I confess that those angles were my hope for the 'off year' movies, and if the creative histories of R1 and Untitled Han Solo Project are anything to go by that may well have been the original plan.  It's clear that R1 was headed in a different direction early on, and Lord and Miller seem to have headed off on an unexpected tangent too.

The urge to shove as much of your extremely costly IP up on the screen is an understandable one, but maybe, just maybe, once these first 5 are done we'll get something more original. 

[JamesC]

I was always frustrated that the 'mini-rigs' Star Wars toys weren't actually vehicles from the films. I think they should make a film with them all in.

[Jim_Campbell]

If they set the budget for them much lower, they could be much more free to experiment

There's no money in mid-budget movies. I can't be arsed googling up articles, but it's been a noticeable much-commented-on trend that, in the last decade, no-budget (<$1M) films which enjoy moderate success will provide a return on investment, and big budget (>$100M) can provide a decent ROI, but the mid-range (~$50M) films almost never make money. See: Dredd.

[Steve Green]

It would really screw with audience expectation to have a mid-budget Star Wars film.

I'm surprised how expensive Logan was (relatively) though.

I don't mean it felt cheap, but it feels more like a film that would have cost $50m rather than twice that - a smaller scale Dredd type film.

[JLC]

It would really screw with audience expectation to have a mid-budget Star Wars film.

I'm surprised how expensive Logan was (relatively) though.

I don't mean it felt cheap, but it feels more like a film that would have cost $50m rather than twice that - a smaller scale Dredd type film.

Maybe the Obi Wan movie will be lower budget? To be honest I can't see how it would work having an Obi Wan movie between ROTS & ANH as he was supopsed to be in hiding. But something along the lines of Yojimbo would suit the character.

[dweezil2]

If they set the budget for them much lower, they could be much more free to experiment

There's no money in mid-budget movies. I can't be arsed googling up articles, but it's been a noticeable much-commented-on trend that, in the last decade, no-budget (<$1M) films which enjoy moderate success will provide a return on investment, and big budget (>$100M) can provide a decent ROI, but the mid-range (~$50M) films almost never make money. See: Dredd.

Deadpool, American Sniper and IT prove otherwise (that's just off the top of my head) but it just goes to show how unpredictable audience engagement and box office is.

[Jim_Campbell]

Deadpool, American Sniper and IT prove otherwise (that's just off the top of my head) but it just goes to show how unpredictable audience engagement and box office is.

The noteworthy point is that these are exceptions. Once upon a time, studios' business lived in the mid-budget, with the low-budget surprise hit and mega-budget blockbuster both being the outliers but now the reverse is true.

[JOE SOAP]

Deadpool, American Sniper and IT prove otherwise

The noteworthy point is that these are exceptions.

The most noteworthy point is this is Star Wars – the most exceptional brand of all – but in this case it's more about the scale of profit rather than no profit.

I've little doubt a smaller scaled $50 million Star Wars film would make money but at this point Lucasfilm would rather spend 3-5 times that amount on one, more spectacle driven film with the chance to reach a billion+, than several smaller films that would take longer to make and release, then wouldn't amount to as much success when combined.

They're better-off sending their smaller scale stories to VOD where the marketing/distribution spend is lower.

[radiator]

It would really screw with audience expectation to have a mid-budget Star Wars film.

Thing is, the average punter doesn't have a clue about movie budgets - it's not as if you'd have to market it as such, and there's no need for a low or midrange budget movie to look cheap in this day and age - I'm just saying that maybe not every single blockbuster needs to end with a 45 minute cacophony of cgi excess?

My point is that (in my opinion) Disney didn't seem to have a lot of confidence in Rogue One, and that's why they threw a huge amount of money at it, adding the huge space battle, the weird cgi cameos and the Darth Vader stuff at the end that clearly cost a fortune, yet added nothing to the story the film was telling.

I'm surprised how expensive Logan was (relatively) though.

I don't mean it felt cheap, but it feels more like a film that would have cost $50m rather than twice that - a smaller scale Dredd type film.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I thought Logan could have lost a lost of the expensive looking vfx-heavy stuff ([spoiler]the de-aged Logan villain, the big mutant battle at the end[/spoiler]) and it wouldn't have suffered one bit, either quality or box office-wise - In actual fact I think it would have improved the film, which started to feel quite bloated to me at the end, again, perhaps because Fox didn't quite have the confidence to end an X Men film without an [spoiler] extended mutant powers smackdown extravaganza[/spoiler].

I confess that those angles were my hope for the 'off year' movies, and if the creative histories of R1 and Untitled Han Solo Project are anything to go by that may well have been the original plan.  It's clear that R1 was headed in a different direction early on, and Lord and Miller seem to have headed off on an unexpected tangent too.

Yeah, it seems like Disney have really got cold feet on the whole 'hiring young up and coming directors and experimenting with genres' thing.

[Steve Green]

Not sure about that, I certainly remember some comments on Dredd and budget.