Fox Searchlight have announced that they are making a new sci-fi thriller picture starring Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan. It’s called “Never Let Me Go”, and it’s to be directed by Mark Romanek. Mark did a really interesting picture with Robin Williams a short while back called “One Hour Photo”. “Never Let Me Go” is about a trio who grew up in a boarding school with no contact or knowledge of the outside world until they discover they are clones grown for the sole purpose of organ donation.
Right. Searchlight, hot off of “Slumdog Millionaire”, have decided to do bit of a remake of “The Island”. Which, by the way, was a bit of a remake of “Logan’s Run”. These kind of films do really well overseas. “The Island”, for example, cost $126M to produce, and made $127M overseas. But it only made $36M in the US, and we’re pretty sure that the US market was the intended audience.
Now, because Searchlight is hot right now (hey, they got “Millionaire” for a song, and it’s made a $100M domestic profit!) we’re paying attention. Why would ANY studio make a science fiction picture in this economic climate? Then we looked at the reaction coming out of Korea to the footage shown of “Star Trek”. And then we looked at those “Island” numbers again.
Hm.
Is the United States a secondary market for science fiction? Do studios even care what American audiences think about science fiction? Are we wasting our time hoping against hope that Sci-Fi Channel will stop making “Attack of the Fountain Pens” starring Chase Masterson and Steven Baldwin? Are we all better off focusing our attention on markets where Takashi Miike can do live action anime, and nobody blinks? Is there a place in the world where there’s a “Tyler Perry of Science Fiction”? I mean, here we are holding our breath about “Watchmen”, when “Madea Goes To Jail” has just made $64M in 2 weeks. And while Watchmen is excellent source material, it’s a movie based on a poular graphic novel. Not the same as making “Lilith’s Brood”, “Wild Seed”, or “Ender’s Game”. If we’re going to grow sci-fi movies into a serious medium (translation: better stories, less women in tight leather), perhaps we need to hit the farm system for a while. Or, dare I say it, the sci-fi chitlin’ circuit. there are so many stories that could be told, and ideas that need to be sorted out before the genre gets stuck (again) in a loop of competing budgets and opening weekends.
All indicators point to 2009 being be a big year for science fiction, but are we ready for that to be a big year outside of the United States? What kind of challenge will American filmmakers see? What would our response be?
Just sayin’.
