Following up on Cakeman's post earlier this week about a possible glimmer of hope in the spec market, I thought I'd share a link with you guys. Joe Mathlete runs a great blog called "Marmaduke Explained", where he posts the daily Marmaduke newspaper strip and then in very plain language explains the jokes in them. It's pretty hilarious, actually - two good examples of what he does are here and here.
Understandably, he's been getting a lot of questions about the recent Marmaduke film, which he finally answered in the form of a pretty damning article about the lack of originality in Hollywood releases for 29-95.
His article includes the below list of summer releases and their source material, which is, well, more than a little disparaging (if hilarious) when written out in one place like it is here:
Look what movies are coming out this summer: Sex and the City 2 (sequel to a movie based on a TV show based on a book based on newspaper articles), Iron Man 2 (sequel to a movie based on a 2nd-tier comic book), Jonah Hex (based on a 5th-tier comic book), The A-Team (based on a campy 80s TV action show), Macgruber (based on a series of TV comedy skits based on a campy 80s TV action show) Robin Hood (beyond being basically a Bible story in terms of freshness, it’s also for all intents and purposes a sequel to the film Gladiator), Step Up 3D (sequel to a sequel… in 3D!), Toy Story 3 (sequel to a sequel… in 3D!), Shrek Forever (sequel to the sequel to the sequel to a movie based on fairy tales and fart jokes), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (based on the sequel to a computer game), The Karate Kid (remake of an 80s movie that spawned several sequels, starring the sequel to Will Smith), Ramona and Beezuz (based on children’s books which have already inspired filmic adaptations), The Last Airbender (based on an animated TV series), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (based on a graphic novel), Nanny McPhee Returns (sequel to a movie based on a series of books), Piranha 3D (remake of a movie that was based on ripping off Jaws), Predators (you know, like the movie Predator, but plural!), Dinner for Schmucks (remake of a French film from a decade ago), Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (sequel to a movie called Cats and Dogs that I’d never heard of until I Googled it so I could write this). That’s not counting films whose plots are just lazy retreads of previous films. And that’s also not counting the Marmaduke movie.
The whole thing's a great read. You can check it out here. Before you fellow aspiring screenwriters reach for the cyanide tablets, I'd also urge you to check out Cakeman's more optimistic post about the spec market Cakeman's post earlier this week">here.
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