Lady Sheridan wrote:I imagine all this anti-Da Vinci code stuff is making them think twice though--but people LOVE that book, anti-Church literature is as hot a ticket as Christian-themed films are.
I spent most of yesterday thinking along those lines.
Could, realistically, this trilogy be given justice in terms of budget (I'm thinking around LotR 300mil or so) and still make a profit, can it still be feasible for some studio or eccentric billionaire to produce this without altering the source material?
I say yes, but it would involve a radical way to think about movie distribution and marketing.
Instead of releasing the film in the U.S. first or the U.S. and the rest of the world simultaneously (like with M.I. III last weekend, and more and more films of late)...do not release it in the states for an extended period of time (couple of months, half a year). Just think, the global b.o. is not what it used to be; some films now make more globally than in the States. Simple fact.
We're going to have to assume we've made a great film here, we let the global word of mouth, the worldwide box office drum up anticipation...just think of all the free publicity...why wasn't this film released in our country? who's making sure we don't see it? is this what is has come down to, the rest of the world is so far ahead of us that they can deal with questions of religion, but backwater provincial America can't? Hell, I think this move would make Americans, so used to being the forefront of pop-culture, at the very least curious. Plus, since we don't read, it may drum up some more readership for the novels, which could translate to more b.o. (in theory).
Or do it on a smaller scale, just film the first one, with the same marketing plan. So we're looking at a roughly 100mil budget, another 50mil or so for marketing...can a film of this nature make the roughly 300mil or so worldwide to turn a profit
before it's even released in the states?
Is this feasible? Can it be done? 'Prolly not, but it sure would be fun to try.
Personally, I'm an atheist in the voting booth and a theist in the movie theatre. I separate the morality of religion with the spirituality and solace of it. There is something boring about atheism.