Full Article Text
"For a f,lmmaker, it mems you
cm come along and approach it in your
om way," says Webber 'You're not
as hemed in when you do the origin
story. Maybe prequels give you more
freedom than sequels."
HIRE A GOOD DIRECIOR
That might seem obvious, but when
you're dealing with a massive fran-
chise with merchandising and tie-ins
and all sorts of massive expectations,
the last thing on anyone's list is creativ-
itSr or frlmmaking vision Often, HolJy-
wood thinks delivering expected results
is more important than the people who
make the movie Big mistake
"Hiring Christopher Nolil to do'Bat-
mm Begins' was inspired," says fllm
historian and critic Leonard Maltin.
Nolan, an Englishman who'd made
the critical fave "Memento" (2000),
"brougbt an adult sensibility to the
properry and a great eye for casting,"
says Maltin
Other examples include Alfonso
Cuar6n ("Y Tu Mama Tambien." the
new "Children of Men") taking on
the third Hogwarts adventure, 2004's
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azk-
aban"; Ridley Scott doing 2001's "Han-
nibal," and Len Wiseman ("Under-
world') rackling the upcoming "Live
Free or Die Hard-" Certainly Webber,
whose main credit is an art-house hit
about a 17th century painter, isn't the
obvious choice for "Hmnibal Rising "
"For a start, it's on a much bigger
scale, it's much more epic," says Web-
ber aboutwhy he agreed to do it "And
there's a great World Wil Il battle at the
beginning For me, it was a chmge of
pace - something quite different, and,
frankly, I wanted to flex my muscles and
show that I could do something else "
RKAST THE IEAD
This is inevitable for a series like the
Jmes Bond films, which bas been ac-
tive for decades "Obviously. they got
so much buzz about Daniel Craig,"
says Maltin lt's also worked tor Baf -
man reven before Christian Bale wore
the cowl in "Begins," the Dilk Knight
was played post-Michael Keaton by Val
Kilmer and George Clooney), as well as
coundess other franchises dating back
to the 1930s and '40s Some roles. of
course, ue wedded to a particular ac-tor But if there's money to be made md
enough tirne hm passed, those franchis-
es can be restarted Is "Die Hard" un-
thinkable without Bruce Willis? Today,
yes T yenty years from now? We'll see
GET SERIOUS
That's what they did with Batman,
thanks to Tim Burton's 1989 film that
washed away memories of the '60s -Iv
show (and Nolan's film. which buried
the kitsch of Joel Schumacher's two
Bat-flicks) And it was the tuel behind
"Supeman Retulns, ' which ignored
the broad, almost silly, final two movies
with Christopher Reeve (and the Harle-
quin romance feel of "Lois & Clark" md
teen angst of "Smallville," both on'lV).
Sylvester Stallone did the same with the
recent "Rocky Balboa," which returned
the Philly fighter to his gritty roots And
that's, of course, what they did with
Bond. which scored the trifecta of re-
casting the lead, telling the origin story
ond getting serieus
"They took a series that had turned
outlandish and made it solid and viable
again," savs Maltin of Bond.
THINI( (ROSSOVTRS AND SPINOFFS
These are sometimes the sisn of a
desperatefranchise "Alienvs Preda-
tor" and "Freddy vs Jason" are recent
exmples that made an impact, and
therr precursors are such 1940s flicks
as "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man"
md "Abbott & Costello Meet Franken-
stein " Then there are spinoffs like the
upcoming '\polverine," which makes
sense since "X-Men" has run its course
with the curent story line (md Hugh
Jackman was that series' breakout
star) And "Scary Movie" hro proven re-
markably durable by spinning off titles
Iike "Date Movie" and last weekend's
No. I fiim, "Epic Movie "
WAIT. JUSTWAIT.
Finally, the suresl way to reenergEe
a movie series is simply to let it rest for
a while Stallone found that time made
people forget 1 990's "Rockj/ ' and re-
member the chtracter they loved Anq
it's been so long since a successful live-
action Tazan movie has been made that
rumors of director Guillermo del Toro
("Pan's lab)nnth') tackling the senes
cm get fatr excited all over again As
Maltin says, "I would love to see that " ahen "Hannibal Rising" opens Friday, it will be
the fifth film in a franchise that has already
grossed more than $800 million worldwide at
the box office. And it'll be yet another example
of Hollywood's ongoing Iove for a successful
movle senes.
This year will see second sequels to
srrch titles as "Shrek," "Spider-Man,"
"Pirates of the Cilibbean" and "Rush
Hour." There'll be a second "Fantastic
Foun" And there'11 be the latest install-
ment of the Harry Potter films, the third
entry in the "Ocean's Eleven" racket
and a fourth "Saw" slasher flick (lhis
comes off last fall's megasuccessful
iames Bond reboot. "Casino Roy'ale."
and Iast summer's semi-successful "Su-
peman Returns ")
Trying to reenergbe an old senes
will be a new "Die Hard" actioner and
a revamped "Halloween " And trying to
launch a new frmchise will be the live-
actiory'CGI "Transfomers"; "Nmcy
Drew.' the original girl delecrive; and
"The Golden Compass," the first mov-
ie from the best-selling book series "His
Dark Materials " And 2008 could bring
the exDected return of both IndimaJones and "Beverly Hitls Cop "
In other words, frmchises are big
business, and keeping them going
is Hollyvood's most important task
Here's how they do it.
SIART TRO1'| IHE BEGINNING
One key way to reenergize a fran-
chise is to retum to its roots and tell the
"oiigin" story Even if it's been told be- .
fore, that's a sure way to get fans inter-
ested again It worked for 2005's "Bat-
man Begins" and the 2006 model Jmes
Bond Clearly, the folks behind the Han-
nibal Lecter films hope it works for
them, too
For "Flamiba.l" director Peter Web-
ber ("Girl Wlth a Pearl Earring"), the
chmce to tell the origins of everyone's
favorite camibal-esthete was irresist-
ible And, he admits, in some ways, cre-
atively easiero
z,
I
zoE
-E
o{
o3
F
zEUI
C
to
o
Noo
cm come along and approach it in your
om way," says Webber 'You're not
as hemed in when you do the origin
story. Maybe prequels give you more
freedom than sequels."
HIRE A GOOD DIRECIOR
That might seem obvious, but when
you're dealing with a massive fran-
chise with merchandising and tie-ins
and all sorts of massive expectations,
the last thing on anyone's list is creativ-
itSr or frlmmaking vision Often, HolJy-
wood thinks delivering expected results
is more important than the people who
make the movie Big mistake
"Hiring Christopher Nolil to do'Bat-
mm Begins' was inspired," says fllm
historian and critic Leonard Maltin.
Nolan, an Englishman who'd made
the critical fave "Memento" (2000),
"brougbt an adult sensibility to the
properry and a great eye for casting,"
says Maltin
Other examples include Alfonso
Cuar6n ("Y Tu Mama Tambien." the
new "Children of Men") taking on
the third Hogwarts adventure, 2004's
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azk-
aban"; Ridley Scott doing 2001's "Han-
nibal," and Len Wiseman ("Under-
world') rackling the upcoming "Live
Free or Die Hard-" Certainly Webber,
whose main credit is an art-house hit
about a 17th century painter, isn't the
obvious choice for "Hmnibal Rising "
"For a start, it's on a much bigger
scale, it's much more epic," says Web-
ber aboutwhy he agreed to do it "And
there's a great World Wil Il battle at the
beginning For me, it was a chmge of
pace - something quite different, and,
frankly, I wanted to flex my muscles and
show that I could do something else "
RKAST THE IEAD
This is inevitable for a series like the
Jmes Bond films, which bas been ac-
tive for decades "Obviously. they got
so much buzz about Daniel Craig,"
says Maltin lt's also worked tor Baf -
man reven before Christian Bale wore
the cowl in "Begins," the Dilk Knight
was played post-Michael Keaton by Val
Kilmer and George Clooney), as well as
coundess other franchises dating back
to the 1930s and '40s Some roles. of
course, ue wedded to a particular ac-tor But if there's money to be made md
enough tirne hm passed, those franchis-
es can be restarted Is "Die Hard" un-
thinkable without Bruce Willis? Today,
yes T yenty years from now? We'll see
GET SERIOUS
That's what they did with Batman,
thanks to Tim Burton's 1989 film that
washed away memories of the '60s -Iv
show (and Nolan's film. which buried
the kitsch of Joel Schumacher's two
Bat-flicks) And it was the tuel behind
"Supeman Retulns, ' which ignored
the broad, almost silly, final two movies
with Christopher Reeve (and the Harle-
quin romance feel of "Lois & Clark" md
teen angst of "Smallville," both on'lV).
Sylvester Stallone did the same with the
recent "Rocky Balboa," which returned
the Philly fighter to his gritty roots And
that's, of course, what they did with
Bond. which scored the trifecta of re-
casting the lead, telling the origin story
ond getting serieus
"They took a series that had turned
outlandish and made it solid and viable
again," savs Maltin of Bond.
THINI( (ROSSOVTRS AND SPINOFFS
These are sometimes the sisn of a
desperatefranchise "Alienvs Preda-
tor" and "Freddy vs Jason" are recent
exmples that made an impact, and
therr precursors are such 1940s flicks
as "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man"
md "Abbott & Costello Meet Franken-
stein " Then there are spinoffs like the
upcoming '\polverine," which makes
sense since "X-Men" has run its course
with the curent story line (md Hugh
Jackman was that series' breakout
star) And "Scary Movie" hro proven re-
markably durable by spinning off titles
Iike "Date Movie" and last weekend's
No. I fiim, "Epic Movie "
WAIT. JUSTWAIT.
Finally, the suresl way to reenergEe
a movie series is simply to let it rest for
a while Stallone found that time made
people forget 1 990's "Rockj/ ' and re-
member the chtracter they loved Anq
it's been so long since a successful live-
action Tazan movie has been made that
rumors of director Guillermo del Toro
("Pan's lab)nnth') tackling the senes
cm get fatr excited all over again As
Maltin says, "I would love to see that " ahen "Hannibal Rising" opens Friday, it will be
the fifth film in a franchise that has already
grossed more than $800 million worldwide at
the box office. And it'll be yet another example
of Hollywood's ongoing Iove for a successful
movle senes.
This year will see second sequels to
srrch titles as "Shrek," "Spider-Man,"
"Pirates of the Cilibbean" and "Rush
Hour." There'll be a second "Fantastic
Foun" And there'11 be the latest install-
ment of the Harry Potter films, the third
entry in the "Ocean's Eleven" racket
and a fourth "Saw" slasher flick (lhis
comes off last fall's megasuccessful
iames Bond reboot. "Casino Roy'ale."
and Iast summer's semi-successful "Su-
peman Returns ")
Trying to reenergbe an old senes
will be a new "Die Hard" actioner and
a revamped "Halloween " And trying to
launch a new frmchise will be the live-
actiory'CGI "Transfomers"; "Nmcy
Drew.' the original girl delecrive; and
"The Golden Compass," the first mov-
ie from the best-selling book series "His
Dark Materials " And 2008 could bring
the exDected return of both IndimaJones and "Beverly Hitls Cop "
In other words, frmchises are big
business, and keeping them going
is Hollyvood's most important task
Here's how they do it.
SIART TRO1'| IHE BEGINNING
One key way to reenergize a fran-
chise is to retum to its roots and tell the
"oiigin" story Even if it's been told be- .
fore, that's a sure way to get fans inter-
ested again It worked for 2005's "Bat-
man Begins" and the 2006 model Jmes
Bond Clearly, the folks behind the Han-
nibal Lecter films hope it works for
them, too
For "Flamiba.l" director Peter Web-
ber ("Girl Wlth a Pearl Earring"), the
chmce to tell the origins of everyone's
favorite camibal-esthete was irresist-
ible And, he admits, in some ways, cre-
atively easiero
z,
I
zoE
-E
o{
o3
F
zEUI
C
to
o
Noo