Originality in the Age of Reboots
Don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t mean they aren’t good, but I feel the huge influx of reboots we’re experiencing right now means death for new screenwriters. It’s hard enough to get produced as a budding screenwriter, but I would argue it is doubly hard to do so today than it was even ten years ago.
Maybe I’m being melodramatic, but as a screenwriter now entering the film industry, it does give me a bit of anxiety with a side helping of sadness to see how many blockbusters are reboots–and how many are scheduled for future slots already. As I spend hours learning the craft of screenwriting and creating my own original script, I can’t help but wonder if I will never see mine make it to the silver screen. After all, how can my original superhero story compare to the third reboot of Spider-Man? Or any of the Marvel movies, for that matter? As much as I love Disney classics, Marvel comics, and all the other well-known characters that are being revamped, to me it will always feel like a cash grab… and it will always feel like they’re replacing the voices of writers who could be heard instead.
The fact of the matter is that executives in Hollywood are hesitant to take a financial risk on a new screenwriter with an original script. After all, it is a financial risk, whereas putting Beauty and the Beast into live action is not. Even if the live action remake was bad, Disney would have still made a killing. This is not so for an original script. “Welcome to Hollywood, ladies and gentlemen. The land of uninspired imaginism that relies on rebooting and remaking everyone’s favorite franchises in order to make a quick buck from beguiled parents whose children are pulling at their leg” says Andrew DeRosa of The Fairfield Mirror. I couldn’t have said it better.
This isn’t to say that there are no more original films. There definitely are–but I have noticed that original films haven’t been getting the normal blockbuster slots, and I’m not the only one. Michael Rothman of ABC News shares my frustration. “The big summer blockbusters are going to be one of two things — a vehicle for an actor or director, or they are based off intellectual property… While that’s longtime been the case, it hasn’t always been the way. The idea is that Steven Spielberg, when he was still somewhat of a nobody, could make ‘Jaws’ and own the summer blockbuster, that’s a thing of the past. Think about a big breakout hit like this year’s “Get Out,” which was directed by Jordan Peele and came out in February for a reason. The winner for best picture at the 2017 Oscars, “Moonlight,” came out in November, away from the summer rush, and it still banked only $27 million domestically. What do truly original projects with no famous ties do?”
What are we unknowns to do? How can the next Steven Spielberg break out if his or her slot is already taken five years in advance by Disney’s cramped reboot production schedule? Steven Spielberg films are seen as classics, but at this rate, we won’t have any new classics because big-time Hollywood execs won’t take the financial risks to make them.
The epidemic, unsurprisingly, is not limited to movies. In television, the reboots are also on the rise–even amongst some stellar original material. I would still argue this comes from a cash grab, but some also argue it’s laziness. As many original shows flop after their first season, it’s not surprising to me that the TV industry, like the film industry, is turning to reboots as a form of security… but they do so at the sake of losing quality, originality, and art.
