I never had a problem with Tolkien, though to be fair I haven’t read LotR in at least 20 years.  (Re-read the Hobbit not too long ago, and that’s still a delight).  

Honestly, it wasn’t the jargon, it was the haphazard writing. It’s hard to follow a story when it randomly jumps weeks ahead from one paragraph to another without so much as a line break.

You’re also not doing it any favors with me by comparing it to Jane Austen.  I read voraciously in high school (and still do, to a…

Yeah, Cameron might be there. Of course, Spielberg also puts out 10 movies in the time it takes Cameron to make one, so I’m a little hesitant to put them on the same level, even if I do love Cameron’s work (give or take Avatar)

Crazy to think that Disney has to learn to focus on kids, but here we are.

I mean, who else IS in Spielberg’s league, though?

As a physical media acolyte, I desperately want that to be true, but I don’t think it is.  The vast majority of the public doesn’t care if something isn’t available on streaming, because there’s just SO MUCH ELSE to watch.

I think that model is going to come back, honestly.  Companies like Blumhouse already show that its still a perfectly reasonable business model.

I agree with you that Disney is probably a lot more worried than they’re publicly letting on, but I think they paused the SW films after Solo, not RoS.  It is telling that they haven’t greenlit anything since Solo came out, and their biggest idea since is another Rey trilogy.

Amen.  It’s an amazing piece of filmmaking, all the better because the source material is... not.  (Sorry to anyone who loves those books.  I tried the first one and could not remotely get into it).

A lot of it was development costs. When Mangold signed on, he only did so because he was allowed to delay production for an entire year. That kind of time costs a lot of money. Add in paychecks for people like Spielberg (even if he’s not directing), Kennedy, Ford, et al, it’s going to get expensive quick.

Nostalgia might have had some impact on TG:M, but I think it’s much simpler: the movie was just fun to watch, so it got good word of mouth.

The movie is uncomplicated and the fighter plane stuff is cool as hell, especially on a big screen.

Having perhaps the only bona fide movie star left in the world didn’t hurt…

Without a doubt. Andor might be the most praised- which is a hell of a low bar to clear, btw— but more has been written/blogged/YT videoed about the sequels (TLJ especially) than Andor could ever hope to see if it runs for the next ten years.

The biggest problem with Indy as a nostalgia factory is that they were late in trying it with Crystal Skull, and now they’re 15 years beyond that.

When they got rid of Lucas’ ideas for the SW sequels, we ended up with Rise of Skywalker.  I’ll take any of the prequels over that garbage.

Calling a McDonald’s milkshake “food” is stretching the definition to its utter breaking point.

Because it costs the union a certain amount of money to pay for the insurance, so they can’t necessarily drop the work requirements.  Especially in a union like SAG, where a tiny, tiny percentage of members to the vast majority of the work.  There are a lot of SAG members who have only had one SAG role in their lives.

Because you don’t generally warn people about nobodies.  Like, I’m sure you know a person or two in your life who you want people to avoid.  Have you taken time to call around every company in their industry to warn HR not to hire them?  And even if you did, how would that be perceived on the other end?

This seems like the most likely scenario, actually.

The least?  Quentin Tarantino, a man physically incapable of shutting up, actually retiring in any meaningful capacity.

No chance.  AI would’ve known that the “joke” about referring to actors as “name” talent wouldn’t work.

“First of all, someone with a name? So rude to Ms. Kelley.”

Tell me you don’t understand the industry you cover without telling me.