Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Somebody Always Finds a Way

WAY TOO MUCH sunshine to waste. So today let me just share a thought.  When I saw "Unforgiven" I thought, "clearly nobody is ever going to be able to make a Western that's any good ever again."  And then Milch made Deadwood. And I thought, "Okay, now everything's gonna be a retread." And then Graham Yost channels Elmore Leonard and comes up with Justified.

Similarly, I thought when I saw "Shaun of the Dead" that that had to be the last zombie movie ever.  Cue  Zombieland.  And I hadn't even read World War Z yet.  Now AMC's got a new series coming up called Walking Dead from Frank Darabont (based on a graphic novel, I know.)

Vampires were utterly played out for me, especially the My-Little-Pony-Tweelight kind, and then I saw Let the Right One In.

Whether it's modern dress Shakespeare, or a teen romcom or a costume drama or vampires or a buddy picture, just because 90% of everything is derivative, and just because most of the time knockoffs suck, doesn't mean there's no way to do something with a fresh take. There's always a way.

So...are you going to find that way? Or settle for being a hack?

No comments: