Films risk missing a moment

    Updated: 2013-03-31 08:21

    By Michael Cieply(The New York Times)

      Print Mail Large Medium  Small

     Films risk missing a moment

    Seven years in the making, Paramount Pictures' "World War Z" anticipated the rise of the zombie apocalypse genre. Jaap Buitendijk / Paramount Pictures

    Films risk missing a moment

    LOS ANGELES - It was the middle of 2006, and hardly anyone was worried about the zombie apocalypse. But Paramount Pictures saw it coming.

    In June of that year, Paramount joined Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment in acquiring film rights to the book "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War." Its author, Max Brooks, building on his own successful "Zombie Survival Guide" from three years earlier, had used fictitious interviews to create the story of a world overrun by zombies.

    Since then, it seems as if zombies actually have taken over - in smaller films like "Zombieland," books like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and, most notably, "The Walking Dead," a hit series broadcast on cable TV in the United States and on Fox International elsewhere.

    So when "World War Z" arrives in theaters worldwide beginning in June, it will be chasing a wave it anticipated almost a decade ago.

    But Paramount's is not the only studio picture that could miss out on a cultural moment.

    Hollywood's biggest movies are slowed by a filmmaking process that takes longer as financial stakes escalate and as the complexities of global production and elaborate visual effects stretch the span between creative impulse and premiere.

    In much of the rest of the entertainment industry, the metabolism has sped up as digital technology has led to new paths of content creation. Web-based television, YouTube, seed money from groups like Kickstarter - all have contributed to a more egalitarian process that favors a faster pace. Even Hollywood can occasionally move quickly when it needs to stay current with the world around it, as the producers of "Zero Dark Thirty" did after the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011.

    But this year, the release schedules feature at least eight high-budget films that were conceived 5 to 14 years ago. At Warner Brothers, "Man of Steel," a Superman makeover to be released in June, has been working its way through the system for at least seven years. "Ender's Game," produced by OddLot Entertainment and others for release on November 1, took root at Warner a decade ago. It is based on a science-fiction novel by Orson Scott Card that was first published in 1985.

    Still, it may not much matter if pictures generally geared to a diverse world audience become detached from the cultural moment in which they were conceived.

    "It can just start a new cycle," said James Thompson, who teaches a course on American cultural industries for North Carolina's Duke University.

    "World War Z" might just find the next swell. "When you're creating a film of this scale and you catch the wave," said Brad Grey, Paramount's chief executive, "the excitement surrounding it can spread exponentially."

    Before 2006, the phrase "zombie apocalypse" had appeared just twice in The New York Times, the first time in a 2003 article about the director Danny Boyle and his horror film "28 Days Later." But last year, it logged 20 appearances - in political columns, in television coverage and in an article about peanut butter-and-pickle sandwiches.

    The zombie-filled "Resident Evil" film series from Sony's Screen Gems unit stretched to five films by 2012.

    At the annual Comic-Con International fan convention in San Diego, Mr. Brooks and his zombie books, conceived just after the September 11 terrorist attacks, were a sensation. But they were eventually overshadowed by the rival inventions of the comic-book writer Robert Kirkman and his colleagues. Their Walking Dead comic, first published in 2003, made it to television as an AMC channel series in 2010, and is now among the most popular shows on television.

    "Brooks was all the rage at Comic-Con until 'The Walking Dead' started its first season," Mr. Thompson said. "Now, zombie fans have read his stuff, but Kirkman is the voice of the craze."

    Animation is slow-footed because of the attention that goes into the design of characters and immensely complicated scenes.

    Among live-action films, the first movie tends to move more slowly than sequels. That is because executives and filmmakers often struggle with decisions that will permanently define the series - a world that may prove as lucrative as that of "Avatar," which was 15 years in the making.

    "When you get it right, the upside can be enormous," Mr. Grey said. "When you get it wrong, the downside can be enormous."

    The New York Times

    (China Daily 03/31/2013 page12)

    久久久久亚洲精品无码蜜桃| 日韩少妇无码喷潮系列一二三 | 久久精品无码一区二区三区免费 | 99re热这里只有精品视频中文字幕| 自拍偷在线精品自拍偷无码专区 | 国产中文字幕视频| av无码国产在线看免费网站| 中文字幕丰满乱孑伦无码专区| 爆操夜夜操天天操中文| 久久久久亚洲?V成人无码| 亚洲欧洲日产国码无码网站| 五月婷婷在线中文字幕观看| 伊人久久无码中文字幕| 青春草无码精品视频在线观| 久久国产亚洲精品无码| 亚洲精品无码鲁网中文电影| 中文无码不卡的岛国片| 一本大道香蕉中文在线高清| 色噜噜亚洲精品中文字幕 | 中文字幕无码AV波多野吉衣| 精品无码久久久久久久久久| 狠狠噜天天噜日日噜无码| 无码人妻久久一区二区三区免费| 中文有码vs无码人妻| 无码人妻精品一区二区三区99性| 最近中文字幕精彩视频| 免费在线中文日本| 最新版天堂中文在线| 中文字幕av在线| 最近2019中文字幕电影1| 国产一区三区二区中文在线| 久久精品99无色码中文字幕| 中文字幕第3页| 亚洲欧美中文日韩V在线观看| 欧美亚洲精品中文字幕乱码免费高清 | 国99精品无码一区二区三区| 狠狠躁天天躁无码中文字幕| 久久精品无码一区二区三区| 黑人无码精品又粗又大又长 | 少妇无码AV无码一区| 日日摸夜夜爽无码毛片精选|