The folks at Midnight's Edge and Midnight's Edge After Dark had a pair of good podcasts about the entertainment business (in the United States, of course) this week. Before I forget I'll embed them both immediately below. Slot them into your Watch Later queue and give them both your full attention. The former focuses upon the ongoing trainwreck that is Star Trek: Discovery, and the latter focuses upon the "Dark Universe" of the classic Universal monster movies (which The Mummy, the Tom Cruise film, was meant to launch). We'll come back to that below.
What isn't really addressed here is that DC's attempted at a cinematic universe is also feeling the strain, and I think that Marvel's go at it is about to come to its collapse point now that the decade-long Infinity Gauntlet arc is coming to a close with the final Avengers films.
If it were just DC and Marvel, you could write this off as Superhero Movie Fatigue. It's not. All of them are failing, to varying degrees- even the two that pioneered it (Star Wars and Star Trek) are suffering the fallout. What it really comes down to is that more and more people in and out of the business are recognizing what I said previously: Transmedia Doesn't Work.
What we're finding out now with podcasts like these is that it's not just the audience that isn't buying into the transmedia thing, but also a lot of people on the inside- and by that I mean the key talent cohorts, along with some front office and moneybags people. Filmmakers don't like being constrained by outside parties, including other films that they didn't make; we see that with both the PR spewed by folks like Gareth Edwards as well as the behind-the-scenes stuff revealed in podcasts like this, and they get their way by default- only a Kathy Kennedy can check them. More and more of the two latter cohorts will join the talent cohorts as the failures become too obvious to ignore and they find that turning their coats will keep them in the business as the wreckage clears.
In short, we're watching the decline and fall of the Cinematic Universe as a viable business model. Once the final Avengers film is done, count on Marvel's universe collapsing as the initial fans take their payoff and (emotionally) cash out of the franchise- much as Warcraft 3 fans did with the end of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft. It may go on for a while thereafter, but in permanent decline; the tell will be when the SJW bullshit ramps up hardcore, because (once again) all of the smart money had already left.
"It may go on for a while thereafter, but in permanent decline; the tell will be when the SJW bullshit ramps up hardcore, because (once again) all of the smart money had already left."
ReplyDelete"Star Trek: Diversity" is without doubt one of the first of these canaries. The desperation for its success is palpable, from CBS and the SJW cohorts in the audience, but they've recruited the old guard Hollyweird showrunners and writers and producers -- doing the same thing, over and over, hoping for a new and different result.
ST:D is so mockably bad, so ridiculous, that CBS would die of shame if they were not so Converged. It will be both joyous and embarrassing to watch their disintegration.
Bradford,
ReplyDeleteCould you defibe transmedia? Do you mean movie/comic book/novelization/toys tie ins or something else?
xavier
"Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies, not to be confused with traditional cross-platform media franchises, sequels, or adaptations." - Wikipedia article
DeleteBradford
DeleteThanks. So from Apple to Android to Tv to streaming?
xavier
More like from TV to feature film to novel to comic book to videogame.
DeleteAt this point, can we just admit that what Marvel did isn't replicable? We have exactly ONE successful shared universe...and how many failed attempts?
ReplyDeleteI dunno...
ReplyDeleteBeen listening to SFDebris' talk about the making of star wars and there's one thing he points out: Star Wars survived the period between RotJ and Episode 1 by transmedia. Books, comics, video games - all of it helped keep Star Wars in the popular culture.
Still thinking on it, but ironically I think Disney's move to reboot everything killed their transmedia potential. Obviously they didn't have quite the ability to just directly translate things to the screen (save maybe "Legacy"). Yet one thing that kept fans coming back to the books is that it was THE story continued. Sure they might not always have airtight continuity but there was an effort that what happened in one book affected later ones (not sure how much the comics & novels crossed over - I was very casual).
However when Disney comes along and reboots it all, there's now a thought stuck in the back of every fan's head: "This could be rebooted too." So why consume it all if it's not going to matter later?
Was there a possible answer? Showing a lot more respect to what's gone before would probably help. Like when they brought Thrawn to Rebels. Maybe if they closed out the old EU by giving a grand final tale of a future Jedi in a situation so horrible, he has to use the Force to go back in time and try to change things - thus the new world we have.
Of course, now that I'm thinking out loud, another possibility comes to me. I used to play a ccg called Legend of the Five Rings. It was a card game with a bit of transmedia to it like an RPG, stories, and some other stuff. (for historical purposes: keep an eye on Magic: The Gathering which is going transmedia now - yes a movie is in the works). Of course one factor of L5R kind of working is that I think they kept their expectations for transmedia realistic.
Anyway, the game died for about two years and is now being brought back as an LCG by fantasy flight. Several others and myself all celebrated its launch today - about half the group were returning old players. Why? Well not only is it cheaper in the long run as an LCG, but the game is actually FUN still and arguably improved with the changes they've made while keeping a lot of the essentials intact.
What is the point? Well Star Trek and Star Wars are in a unique position where their transmedia is competing with itself. Say whatever you will, but I've not heard (though I haven't searched yet) about these new Wars & Trek extras actually being as good or better than the old. Just compare the movie of Rogue One to the Dark Horse comic about Biggs Darklighter, and tell me which one is better. Is the Force Awakens an improvement over the original Zahn trilogy?
There's some irony that these franchises are going to kill themselves by cannibalism.