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Star Trek writer: View-Master film is like E.T.
If you're wondering how a View-Master toy lends itself to a feature film, the producers of such a movie want to assure you that the device is irrelevant. They are producing a film based on the 3-D slide viewing device, but they say it's a script that works on its own.
"The movies that work, work when there's a story there that you could take the toy out of, but then when you put the toy in, it becomes an even more amazing experience, for whatever reason," producer Alex Kurtzman said in a press conference on Oct. 8 in Santa Monica, Calif. where he was promoting Star Trek on DVD. "Brad Kane, who was a writer for us on Fringe, came to us with an amazing idea that had absolutely nothing to do with View-Master. We loved it and thought it was fantastic."
Uh, so then why not just make that script? Kurtzman's partner Roberto Orci explained, "We said, 'It's missing one thing. I don't know what that thing could be.'"
The Fisher-Price toy provided the producers the perfect notes to give their writer. "Along came View-Master, and it sounded like the perfect marriage of ideas," Kurtzman said. "But it's because we started with a story that felt like it could be told, all on its own, before that came along."
There's good precedent for starting scripts without the "device." Orci reminded sci-fi fans about a story from his Transformers producer Steven Spielberg. "Spielberg actually told us once that his first draft story of E.T. didn't have an alien in it," Orci said. "It was a family drama about a kid missing his father, and E.T. was born from that. That's always stuck in our minds. You've got to be able to take out the thing."
So if you're still skeptical about a View-Master movie, bring it on. The producers, who wrote the successful Transformers movies, are ready for you. "We've read a lot of the wildly cynical response to that," Kurtzman said. "What I'll say is that some toys should be movies and some toys should not be movies, and I'd like to believe we know the difference between those things. So it's like, 'Bring it on.' If you want to be cynical about View-Master, great, 'cause we're so confident in where it's going to end up going that we feel like there's nowhere to go but up."
By Trigeia Twins at 4:03 PM ON 10/09/09
ET was written originally with out ET. It's so amazing how ideas transform themselves to become something even greater. when you let go of the idea the idea will take on a life of its own.
By Tempus13 at 4:56 PM ON 10/09/09
Simple. It's a 'magical' View-master. If they can make a movie about a magical game board (Jumanji) why not a magical View- Master?
By Allison&Jack at 5:08 PM ON 10/09/09
Well sure you could use the view master to transport the core characters to magical lands full of adventure and fun, a cross between Jumanji and Goonies. But just the fact that they are promoting it as a view master movie, and not a movie with a magical view master in it is just...Wow.
By nilus at 5:47 PM ON 10/09/09
"So if you're still skeptical about a View-Master movie, bring it on. The producers, who wrote the successful Transformers movies, are ready for you."
LOL, was that suppose to be sarcastic?
Anyone taking bets on if the View Master has giant balls
By thunderstud at 7:44 PM ON 10/09/09
@nilus...
LOL about that last line! You made my day! :)
By Spaceman Spiff at 9:11 PM ON 10/09/09
Just remember this, these are two of the three guys who ruined Star Trek. This sounds completely rediculous.
By MCP-001 at 9:40 PM ON 10/09/09
A movie based upon "View Master?!?!
You have got to be kidding me?
Who is the low-grade moron that gives away millions of dollars on such a pathetic pitch such as this?
By Iced at 11:26 PM ON 10/09/09
As long as its not like Zathura
By skullsplitter at 2:12 AM ON 10/10/09
here is just another reason why i have given up on hollywood
By insomnia at 8:32 AM ON 10/10/09
I can see it now they will rip off national treasure kinda, the pic that you look at with the view master will have hidden clues, they will travel to the places the pics were taken in search of something lost or hidden. save me the hour and a half of life that will be wasted on this crap and find another movie to make
By Son of a Maui Portagee at 2:26 PM ON 10/10/09
I don't know....if a DeLorean can house a time machine I suppose a ViewMaster can house some sort of inter-dimensional device?
Where I see trouble for this is BTF's marketing had the good sense not to lead with the brand. Can you imagine it doing as well if it was titled DELOREAN: BACK TO THE ACCELERATOR?
By Psycho_Dayv at 2:30 PM ON 10/10/09
If you think that it's a stupid idea for a movie then don't waste your time by going to see it. It's as simple as that. Stop your complaining, and go watch something you do like.
By Crusade2267 at 4:29 PM ON 10/10/09
So the Magical view-master suddenly blasts the charicters from whatever reel you put into it out into the real world, leading to The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny...
By BlueMein at 6:08 PM ON 10/10/09
I still play with this toy when I am driving; not so sure that it would make for some good movie making; who knows, may be it will open up a portal back to fantasy island or Coney island:P
I got the boyardee coolin' on the pot
By John Duncan Yoyo at 9:01 PM ON 10/10/09
Is this going to be a 3D movie? Sure should be. I love all things Viewmaster so there could be some real fun here.
By macmikey at 1:02 AM ON 10/11/09
@MCP-001,
"A movie based upon "View Master?!?!
[snip]
Who is the low-grade moron that gives away millions of dollars on such a pathetic pitch such as this?"
And people keep complaining and wondering why Hollywood is in "remake" mode. All the new ideas are written off as stupid before anyone knows anything substantive about them.
Spaceman Spiff, do you really look for as many places as possible to dump your anti-JJ-Trek garbage? I hope you don't have any delusions of grandeur that your rantings affect ANYONE who liked or made the movie. Unless your goal is to be a persistent pain in the rear. If so, mission accomplished. Sheesh, get a life.
By Son of a Maui Portagee at 10:15 AM ON 10/11/09
Accord ing to an October 6, article in this month's LA Times entitled,
"Hollywood studios in midst of their own horror show
The recent firings and hirings of studio executives at Disney, Universal and elsewhere point to a widespread corporate panic amid sharp declines in DVD sales."
By John Horn, Ben Fritz and Rachel Abramowitz
latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-moviebiz6-2009oct06,0,702751.story
''..
As studio executives and their boardroom bosses labor to eliminate risk from what is inherently a risky business, they are steering their production funds into movies they believe have built-in sales hooks -- a fruitful strategy with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Transformers" global blockbusters.
In addition to the "Battleship" and "View-Master" films, that familiarity-doesn't-breed-contempt slate includes movies based on Lego, the video game Asteroids and the toy Stretch Armstrong. Film lovers may not rejoice, but it might buy the studio chiefs some job security -- at least for a couple of months.''
By Son of a Maui Portagee at 12:01 PM ON 10/11/09
@macmikey`
I dunno, anyone that can coin a word that encapsulates both the absurd and the despair of wearing a doomed Star Trek accoutrement. can't be all bad.
By MCP-001 at 1:17 PM ON 10/11/09
@ macmikey,
You're correct about Hollywood's penchant for "remakes". In all honesty, I've commented about it several times here myself.
But I've also commented on the need for "new and original" ideas.
When studios glob onto items from years ago (i.e. View Master, Asteroids) and then comments that it gives them a blank slate to work with, This begs the obvious question: Why go with that property to begin with?
Am I going to read about a studio greenlighting a movie based on the Magnavox Odyssey? Silly putty? Yo-yo's?
How about a plain and simple original idea, without attaching it to anything?
Case in point: When Jumanji came our several years ago along with Zathura, they didn't base those properties on real items, they were both based on childrens book w/ the same author.
Is that such a difficult concept in 2009?
By Sheep Farm at 2:15 AM ON 10/12/09
@ Sheep Farm
Why am I here? I have nothing to say to something so unheard of.
By John Turner at 1:27 AM ON 10/14/09
Seems perfectly logical. After all, McDonalds actually commissioned a science-fiction movie about the Big Mac.
See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095560/ for a brief rundown on 1988's Mac And Me, a feelgood family film about a young boy who discovers its takes more than love to send a stranded alien family home; it takes Big Macs too.
McDonalds actually fronted the money for this film, insisting in return that Big Macs would be instrumental to the plot. Sure enough, the aliens can only use their advanced telekinetic abilities if they eat enough Big Macs to choke Morgan Spurlock a dozen times over. This was released sixteen years before Supersize Me of course. Odd how people remember one and not the other....
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John Turner:
Seems perfectly logical. After all, McDonalds actually commissioned a science-fiction movie about the Big Mac. See...More »