Weinstein rolls with Fraggle Rock movie

[Drtooth]

I've heard a little chit-chat online about Henson dragging their feet and holding up the movie. Let me be clear: Henson is not holding up the movie. They are "all systems go." The holdup is financing and putting together studio partners in this economy.

Meanwhile, "Marmaduke: The Movie" is in production. Sigh.

I re-iterate... Bush-conomy!

He seems as frustrated that it's taking so long as we are. Really... can't Lionsgate and Weinstine call a bloody truce and just help this movie get together already. And I'm glad he brought up what unbelievable bulldroppings is getting green lit while they're struggling to find interest here.

 

[bazooka_beak]

Marmaduke: The Movie? That has to be some kind of joke... right?

 

[Davina]

there are worse things they are thinking/planning on bringing to the big screen... redoing he-man.. barbie gets a live action movie (uhm.. i have no idea what pretense of a plot they have in mind for that..) if you want to be utterly annoyed with hollywood i'd suggest reading io9.com.. let the "re-imagining" begin!

 

[frogboy4]

I'm still weirded by "View Master: The Movie" that's in development.

I think the Fraggle Movie is probably coming along. It would have been cool if they'd started shooting this summer, but I'd rather see a quality piece than something rushed. The Disney production of Letters to Santa demonstrates what happens when a good idea isn't given the appropriate time.

 

[Luke]

I think the promblem for them is Fraggle was owned by an independant and has a stigma attached to it. A lot of the rubbish that comes out is owned by the major companies so its easier for them to just bring out again at low cost. Fraggle hasn't really done anything at all for 20 years, there is no hard evidence it would catch on again ... i can imagine the meetings are full of people thinking its a cute idea and a great brand but it would be a bit of a financial risk, especially as a theatrical and with how much all the puppetry would cost.

Not that it wouldn't make a beautiful and very great movie.

 

[Super Scooter]

I'm still weirded by "View Master: The Movie" that's in development.

"View Master?" You mean like the toy? Like these Muppet reels? That View Master?

... How the heck do you make a movie outta that?

Not to dis the View Master or anything. The toy is awesome! One of my favorite things as a kid. But... a movie?

 

[Drtooth]

I think the promblem for them is Fraggle was owned by an independant and has a stigma attached to it. A lot of the rubbish that comes out is owned by the major companies so its easier for them to just bring out again at low cost. Fraggle hasn't really done anything at all for 20 years, there is no hard evidence it would catch on again ... i can imagine the meetings are full of people thinking its a cute idea and a great brand but it would be a bit of a financial risk, especially as a theatrical and with how much all the puppetry would cost.

I don't even think that's the point at all. I mean, what kid knows what or who Marmaduke is? At least Fraggle Rock has made a decent DVD comeback.

Really... a Marmaduke movie would basically just take the script from Beethoven, and just replace any instance of his name with Marmaduke. There are a lot of comic strip based movies out there... Dennis the Menace, Popeye, even those wretched Garfield movies. But here's the difference... people have actually HEARD of them. And yet, a 20 something year old show doesn't have a chance in the age on 80's nostalgia? That's total bull.

I'm still weirded by "View Master: The Movie" that's in development.

Yeah... yeah. Take a child's toy and slap it's name on a movie. Worked wonders for G.I. Joe and Transformers 2 this year. They weren't exactly flops, but they didn't do all that well themeselves either. And yet Fraggle Rock would alienate an audience? How the freakin heck do you make a Viewmaster movie? You might as well release 3-D Imax films about national parks and landmarks.

this is why everyone hates Hollywood now. We have a great movie that's so close to shooting, but it will never get there... and then someone pulls a random toy, cartoon, or book name out of a hat, make merchandise, a series of DTV sequels, make the posters and release it to theaters and then write it 3 years after it comes out. I can't wait to hear, "I'm sorry! We refuse to go into a partnership with a partnership for this movie when we got so many offers to make Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2: Rise of Some Talking Ferrit to be named Later or the Adventures of Easy Bake Oven 3." And then they wind up in the Wal Mart 5 dollar bin a year later, and the stockholders whine and moan about it...

and they STILL wouldn't make this movie.

I still don't understand why Lion'sgate can't partnership here...

 

[Luke]

I don't even think that's the point at all. I mean, what kid knows what or who Marmaduke is? At least Fraggle Rock has made a decent DVD comeback.

Really... a Marmaduke movie would basically just take the script from Beethoven, and just replace any instance of his name with Marmaduke. There are a lot of comic strip based movies out there... Dennis the Menace, Popeye, even those wretched Garfield movies. But here's the difference... people have actually HEARD of them. And yet, a 20 something year old show doesn't have a chance in the age on 80's nostalgia? That's total bull.

I think Marmaduke might be a fluke but i do imagine Fraggle has had the problems i said. They have missed the boat a bit on the 80's revival and i don't think its kids that have bought the dvd's. Generally they will look at how easy they can relaunch it into a current brand and what kinda budget its going to take. I don't think neccasarily Fraggle would be a failure as a current kids brand but i can see them needing a lot of budget to make it and promote it properly. So its probably a good thing they are trying to find the right partners to do that.

 

[Drtooth]

They have missed the boat a bit on the 80's revival

That's another huge problem. Had the movie gone as smooth as it should have it would have been scheduled for the release that all the companies thought it would be. I still think Hit and all these other partners felt the movie was going to be released by 2010. Now if it even gets to the shooting stage by then it'll be a miracle. Worst part is, I think Hit, had they at least patiently waited long enough could have helped prop this thing up a bit. But it's too late for that now. For it to have really hit the nostalgia factor it should have started shooting last year. Now if they can even find a partner (the worst part of it) there's no way it will begin shooting soon enough to really impact the potential box office positively.

Though I still wonder where the motive in a Marmaduke is. All i can see is yet another "Dog Poop" movie. Again, a clone of Beethoven... and even then, you might as well remake Beethoven. Viewmaster is downright moronic, idiotic, and insane to even consider. it's a movie that will just be a joke and get a good 1% of its budget back. It's not so much that the FR movie would be a box office success, it's that these other movies have no potential to be anything than useless summer filler that go directly to DVD and directly to bargain DVD status in a single year.

Really, this movie has been in development purgatory for 2 years before we had a writer, then both sides drug their feet on it, and just when they were about to make progress, Weinstine loses money and has to find a partner. If this film doesn't make it, it will be EXACTLY like the Palisades SS toy line fiasco. They kept delaying it, and when it finally was due to be released, they went bankrupt as soon as the first sample product came off the line. We can NOT bare that again.

 

[bazooka_beak]

I'm still weirded by "View Master: The Movie" that's in development.

And don't forget Monopoly and Candy Land, the movies :s Hollywood, you baffle me sometimes... all the time.