Conan Scriptwriter Ruminates On Failure

[Hungry Donner]

The alarm bells should have gone off at "3rd Screenwriter", if a movie is being made by multiple people all of whoch work on it at differet times or simply quit stay the hell away from that movie. This kind of cobbled together design process leads to half-finished scrips by shooting time and abject msyery in the story department.

The best films have a core team in palce from pre-production all the way to the DVD extras and beyond in some cases. Films should not pass though multiple writers hands after they drop out of the project.

Offhand the only exception I can think of is Toy Story, which I believe was scrapped and re-written twice. It also had quite a number of writers (at least three). Then again the Pixar team may have been more cohesive - as you've already pointed out having several writers isn't a problem if they're working as a team, it's when people are dropped and new people are brought in to revise their work that the problems start to crop up.

Maybe there's a better exception out there of someone who truly came in and managed to pull off a screenplay that had gone through several writers already.

 

[MajorDolphin]

Ditch 3D you fools. Ease up on the special effects. These not-so-special effects do not stand the test of time.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

A lot of movies are ruined by executive meddling. It might be naive, but I choose to chalk the failures of this movie to the higher ups.

 

[fozzy360]

I saw the movie I wanted to see

a less-than-spectacular medieval/fantasy action movie

not Lord of the Citizen Kane Ring

How dare we expect something decent from our films. How dare we expect anything more than sub-par. How dare we expect to be walk away from the theater pleased because we saw a film made by people that actually tried. /sarcasm

God, how I hate this argument.

 

[teh_Canape]

I saw the movie I wanted to see

a less-than-spectacular medieval/fantasy action movie

not Lord of the Citizen Kane Ring

How dare we expect something decent from our films. How dare we expect anything more than sub-par. How dare we expect to be walk away from the theater pleased because we saw a film made by people that actually tried. /sarcasm

God, how I hate this argument.

I'm not saying you can't have expectations

I just said I didn't put mine too high

 

[teh_Canape]

double post

 

[duchaked]

third rewrite?? man...my sympathies. must be tough to try to improve on something at that point. i mean who knows what level crap came before even

 

[teh_Canape]

Well, it's true you'll never be disappointed if your expectations are in the gutter, but I can't envy the way it smells down there.

if you say so, bro

ain't gonna argue, I do choose to have low expectations sometimes

but then again, watching bad movies is a guilty pleasure of mine, especially with friends

 

[Baresark]

Interesting.... You can't say you didn't put your best into it and blame everyone else. It could have been a great movie. I don't buy that the overall content only has limited appeal. The movie could have been written well, it could have had multidimensional characters, it could have had a great setting and a central conflict that would appeal to a great many people. It could have selectively come from the actual Works of Robert E Howard, but it didn't do any of these things. And the director could have helped a lot, but he did a rather unspectacular job. In all honesty, when the actor played Khal Drogo, he was a much deeper character and did a fantastic job. But the director and writers were on the ball for that, this guy was not. Just admit you didn't do as well as you could and try harder next time.

 

[Nurb]

It had out of place metal music in the trailer.

I didn't need reviews telling me it was going to suck.

 

[Redd the Sock]

They spent 90 million on that? Where the hell'd the money go?

While technical problems with Conan abound, even at the popcorn film level I found it boring. What's it say when you're watching the hero fight a horde of sand warriors, and your reaction is to yawn? I honestly got more out of the mini conan at the start. Popcorn movies need to have those popcorn moments where as cheesey as it is, you're still on the edge of your seat paying rapt attention. If your friend went to the bathroom, you'd want to give a blow by blow description and could, not left at "conon fought and killed a giant squid" because the scene was too shakey or unremarkable to make note of.

 

[guise709]

Consider a good film to a well oiled machine. All the cogs of varying sizes run fluidly and if one shows signs of breaking apart you either repair it or replace it.

In a bad film the same can be said but the machine isn't taken care of and while some parts run better then others some don't bother to fix or take care of it.

I worked on films as crew before and I have worked on a shitty film once and you can see who is doing their work like professionals and running fine and those who are craping all over the place. In order for the film to be good everyone involved needs to be doing their job and doing it well.

This screenwriter may have reasons for not sounding the alarm when he got on board. I can name many reasons why he didn't protest that the script was crap but trying to justify his involvement is pathetic. He is in a position of influence (how much is questionable) and he could have voiced his opinions strongly and make change happen or face the consequences. It is the hard thing to do but the right one. One that people who are trying to save their own necks often don't do.

I saw the Conan movie and was disapointed at how loosely/badly it followed the source material and have the same complaint as the majority although I will say the editing was pretty bad but the set design was good and it looked like Hyboria.

 

[Gyrefalcon]

I think too much emphasis is placed on a film's opening weekend. If it is going up against stiff competition or lands on a bad date it could have a slow start. Likewise, an awful movie might have been hyped up and people see it the first weekend and then word gets out and its sales drop like a stone. Given the options available these days, a lot of people I know plan only a few trips to the theater and wait to pick up other movies that might be good but aren't their absolute favorites on dvd, cable, or Netflicks.

 

[tzimize]

Fankly I could not imagine any possible way to write a good script for a conan remake.

Conan in itself was a crappy movie that just made for a good time because it portrayed vicious fights of Schwarzenegger with the english language.

You can't recreate that.

Well...define a good script then. I honestly dont get why people bash the new Conan movie. I loved it.

Is the story original? No. Is it oscar worthy? No. Are the characters pretty one dimensional? Yes. But so fucking what? Its Conan! What is it supposed to be about? Women, swords, and monsters.

I went into the cinema not expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. I had a bunch of fun, and Jasons Conan was very likable and spot on imo. None of the actors were amazing, but they got the job done (the exception being the villains daughter...she was simply not very good). None of the characters had a lot of depth, but when have they ever in Conan?

Its a popcorn movie, its just supposed to entertain, and I was entertained throughout. I might be used to a bit more cheese than your average guy, I watch anime and listen to Manowar. Both pretty heavy on the cheese...but still. Conan hasnt exactly been cheese-free...

Complainers might as well have sat down with Gears of War and expected Planescape Torment.

I had this exact reaction to Transformers (the first one). It really really wasn't that bad, but people act as though micheal bay just threw up on a projector and called it film.

Heh. I loved the first Transformers movie. One of the best cinema experiences of my life. The second one...was ok if they'd cut the homiebots...the third one...is the first movie I've seen where I just wanted to leave the cinema. Awful.

 

[camazotz]

I didn't think it was that bad. I mean, I like Howard's stories, but they're not great literature. It's a shame this didn't deliver better, but it was passable sword and sandal fantasy at worst.

Yeah, I thought so too....it was actually more fun (for me, anyway) than Thor or a few other movies I've seen this summer. A perfectly fun and gory action B movie experience.....not a great film by any stretch, but it really didn't deserve the abominable ratings its been getting, either.