When The Writers Guild of America went on strike in 2007, television producers were left without writers. Producers came up with a work-around – churning out shows without writers. “Reality Television” was born.
20th Century Fox is now adapting the same idea to movie production. The studio announced that starting in 2015, they will be focusing exclusively on projects requiring little to no creativity whatsoever.
“It’s just going to be remakes and maybe one sequel a year – if we have the time to quickly assemble one,” announced Tom Rothman, CEO of 20th Century Fox. “We’ll be able to produce more pictures twice as fast. We had to figure a way to keep up with the incredible hunger for more and more movies. We’re living in an ‘on-demand’ world, so we’ve hired Quentin Tarantino as our new Director of Creative Redevelopment, and we’re just as excited as he is!”
Tarantino joined Rothman for the announcement at the studio’s Century City headquarters, and outlined his plan.
“The public wants new faces! That’s why I do ‘homages!’ That’s French for imitations!” Said Tarantino. “That’s what homages are! They’re scenes we’ve seen already, from films we’ve seen before! I honor those directors, sometimes shot-for-shot! But I cast new faces! I’m on board with this!!”
Not on board with the idea, though, is director Martin Scorsese, one of several directors idolized by Tarantino. “This may well be the end of 20th Century Fox,” said Scorsese, producer/director of such blockbusters as Goodfellas, The Last Temptation of Christ, and ironically, the 1991 remake of the 1962 film, Cape Fear. “I started out independent,” said Scorsese. “That’s what Fox should be doing instead of this ‘quantity over quality’ business. It sounds like a disaster of titanic proportions. Actually,” added Scorsese, “Titanic was a pretty good remake, … but you get my point.”
Currently, Scorsese is in pre-production for a biopic of the late great ‘saloon’ singer Frank Sinatra. Dylan Farrow, MSNBC daytime news host and son of actress Mia Farrow, reportedly was approached to portray Sinatra, affectionately known as “Old Blue Eyes.” Dylan Farrow is rumored to be the biological son of Sinatra, a subject Scorsese was not willing to comment upon.
“We haven’t started casting yet. There are millions of things to set up before we think about who we cast as ‘Young Blue Eyes,’” he said.
Tarantino detailed his upcoming plan of action:
“I’m looking forward to casting new faces in old movies, or old faces in new movies! Hey – maybe the old faces can homage themselves in the remakes if they’re still around!” Or maybe not! I haven’t decided yet!”
“As soon as we wrap up our current projects,” said Rothman, our new production system will go into effect. I literally cannot wait.”
20th Century Fox says that their plans for 2015 include production on remakes of Glitter and Big Mama’s House, as well as a sequel to the Tom Green film Freddy Got Fingered.