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I'm still wondering what got Amazon hooked to a billion dollar disaster. After all initial (imo misplaced) optimism, analysts are finally coming out and saying the quiet part out loud: it is not the ground breaking masterpiece they need it to be. Even HoD is performing better and is better received. Both are prequels to very popular IPs, but Rings of Power should be pulling enormous numbers given how expensive it is, and how extensive its marketing was. Despite worsening performance with every episode, they just renewed it for season 2. This wasn't a small and calculated risk, they literally staked the future of their whole studio on this show. What made them think hiring subpar writers, rewriting lore, rewriting characters of one of the most popular fantasy IPs while simultaneously drafting off of the brand was a good idea? It feels like the motive isn't even to make money but solely to push an agenda, but who would do that? Given the sheer scale of the project, I just cannot believe any studio would be so careless as to commit such a serious misfire.
Because some of these things - especially hiring the lower-ranked writers - are just common in development now.
Star Wars -for example - handed its main franchise to people who really didn't have that much experience with such huge projects, comparatively. Marvel has done the same and - allegedly - frightened off a director by waving off their inexperience by saying they'll just handle the action scenes
You would think it would be given to known and proven shepherds like Ridley Scott but you often end up with people like Josh Trank and Colin Trevorrow and D&D and such; people who have one (or even less) exciting movie or project.
Directors like Scott have explicitly theorized that it's cause they'll be more malleable in the face of corporate control.
A mainline MCU movie has a budget north of $100,000,000. How much do they save by going economy-size on the writers and directors?
talking completely out of my ass here, but maybe its the revenue and not the production cost that the bean counters are worried about. Big name directors may want a point from the end rather than an additional zero on the check up front or something.
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They're closer to $200 million at this point.
There's two answers:
They short everyone they can. Entry-level actors don't get paid that much iirc. The idea is that they'll happily work for the experience so they can end up with a good, steady gig that raises their profile like Hemsworth. VFX companies are constantly complaining about the tight timelines and pay Disney can impose upon them, despite them being central to these movies' success. So the logic isn't limited to just directors.
IIRC the argument wasn't just about direct cost but control. These movies are pre-visualized long in advance so directors need to fit what has already been decided. Less experienced directors are presumably easier to control (using the same logic as stars in Point 1) and directors with enough cachet presumably won't sign on. As Patty Jenkins laid out when she explained why she left marvel
I can see the logic there; an established A-list director can always say "to hell with this" and walk off in the face of 'creative differences', and still be assured that their reputation isn't ruined and they are now unhireable. A starter or minor guy can't afford to piss off Marvel or Disney the same way.
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