I’m glad Legendary Pictures honcho Thomas Tull received a nice puff piece in Variety this weekend. After all, the projects his company has been partnering up on have kept the money flowing.
But I was also struck by the fact that Marc Graser’s story rifled off adaptation after adaptation, across a number of platforms, be it “Godzilla,” “Akira,” “World of Warcraft” or the Superman reboot. While Christopher Nolan’s Legendary-backed “Inception” is wowing audiences in theaters with a wholly original concept derivative of nothing, Tull and Legendary are still sticking to built-in fanbases and titles that can provide ancillary dollars as a result of that audience.
It’s a necessary evil. We all get it. But shouldn’t a company like Legendary be in a position to support other filmmakers who might have earned the risk on their own original (high) concepts? Zack Snyder’s getting a Legendary boost for “Sucker Punch” (which will have a presence at Comic-Con), but that’s about it. When I reviewed “Inception,” I wrote that the film is “an entertainment with vivid, profound ideas, precisely the kind of daring that ought to be backed by big money.” When is “big money” going to step up once again?
With Cannes on the downswing, it becomes time to to start making preparations for the annual Toronto International Film Festival, for which screening announcements begin next month. I have been covering Toronto for more than 15 years and can safely say it is Christmas to a film critic.