Hollywood has run out of ideas

I've been saying this for a long time because it has been a long time coming. Hollywood has run out of ideas. We are seeing constant rehashing of old ideas, old genres but the new versions are probably worse because they use an excessive amount of CGI (and AI?) very often and the product can look very plastic and lacking in gravitas and depth. It appears that the modern movies are made for youngsters who like froth and frivolous stuff. Not serious and well made films but just frothy cartoon stuff.

Hollywood has run out of ideas. Image: MikeB

Perhaps I've got that wrong but that's what it looks like to me. However, I am sure that I have got it right when I say that Hollywood has run out of ideas. That's because you might notice that you've seen things before. Or if not you will be seeing things again that you've seen before on the movies. That's because a quick glance at the list of forthcoming Hollywood films provokes a deep feeling of déjà vu.

You will be seeing Channing Tatum, 44, in a remake of Ghost. She plays the role originally played by the late Patrick Swayze in 1990.

And you may remember that great film Officer and a Gentleman in which Richard Gere starred. He is now 74 years of age. Paramount has lined up Miles Teller, 37, to take on the role again.

And you will see Glen Powell, 35, starring in Twisters. A sequel to the 1996 disaster film Twister.

Glen Powell is attached to remakes of The Running Man, originally featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987, as well as Heaven Can Wait, based on the 1978 fantasy starring Warren Beatty.

And The Times says that the list goes on. You will see Sydney Sweeney, 26, one of Hollywood's best-known young female actresses starring in a remake of Barbarella. This is a 1968 space fantasy film that featured Jane Fonda who is now 86 years of age.

And the list goes on! This month, The Times reports that it's emerged that A Fistful of Dollars, a 1964 Western that launched Clint Eastwood's career will also get an updated version.

Hollywood is stuck in an era of reboots, remakes and revivals at a time when it appears the industry is in peril. And my argument is and has been for a long time is that the Hollywood whizzkids and gurus have run out of ideas for movies.

And this thought of mine comes about because there is a limited number of ideas! That might seem implausible to some people but I think it's a reasonable suggestion. There are only so many ideas for films. There are only so many storylines.

It brings to mind the problem of music. Ed Sheeran who was sued for copyright breach said that "There is only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidences bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify".

He saying that there are only so many songs that can be created that are fresh and entirely new. Everything is ultimately rehashed in the music business. It's just repositioning each cord and each note so that the music sounds different.

And the same goes for the film industry. There are only so many ideas and Hollywood has run out of ideas which is why they are rehashing old movies. The other reason why they are rehashing movies is because the cost of production has become very high and they have become very risk averse. They know these movies were successful so they simply remake them in the expectation that they are almost certain to be successful.

Stephen Galloway, Dean of Chapman University's film school in California said that "In entertainment, an idea is worth it's weight in gold".

Ghost with a highly successful film starring Demi Moore. It became the highest grossing film of the year and an Oscar winner. It is considered to be "irresistible to studios" in terms of a remake.

It said that costs have gone through the roof in the film business and marketing is expensive which eats into profit margins. And then you've got streaming demands on Netflix and Amazon Prime et cetera which places greater demand on more and fresh film and series.

The public want fresh, new stuff all the time. But there's a limit to it. Ultimately they are rehashes. Even stuff which looks different is based upon an old idea and rehashed.

There is another threat to Hollywood which is AI. AI can make films or will be able to and it can write scripts and stories. This arguably will undermine the work of writers and animators leaving them jobless. The same fate will befall background actors. Hollywood has reverted to tried and tested film ideas but it seems to me it puts Hollywood in jeopardy of collapsing.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.