Waiting for the phoenix

I was over at The Beat, which pointed me to this article [URL no longer valid-BD] in the LA Times about a faltering Hollywood. Check it out.

Now the easy thing to ask Hollywood is to stop making crappy movies. But as the article suggests, All movies are not necessarily crappy, just some may not live up to a theater going experience. I'm a film buff, and I'll shell out for non-blockbusters, 'cause I just plain like going to the movies. But the crux of the LA Times article is that Hollywood is headed for a crumble and the studio-film industry may be ready to implode.

This would be fucking fantastic.

Why? It has nothing to do with any selfish pleasure derived from a bloated business getting its due. Well, maybe a little. But the real reason I would love to see this happen is in the hopes of film history repeating itself. The last time Hollywood collapsed under its own weight, the late 50's thru the 60's, Studios became desperate. They started handing out film production to unknowns because they worked cheaper and weren't entrenched in the Hollywood quagmire. In alot of cases, new, young directors were given previously unheard of opportunities to do their own films after meeting their initial studio obligations...

Lucas. Dykstra. Tippet. Speilberg. Coppola. Scorcese. Cameron. Carpenter. A lot of wild stuff was borne out of 70's film, and as these creators matured the 80's saw some of our favorite movies of all time.

Media today is a whole 'nother beast, and I'm not even mentioning the boom of digital delivery or on-demand services. I love going to the theater and seeing a great movie, hopefully there is still room for that in our near-future culture. I'm sure there is a new generation of great filmmakers paying some indy dues at the moment; If the studious become desperate enough for new business they will have to eschew their robotic ways and dip into the creative pool because it's all they have left to do. And maybe, just maybe, we will start to see some really good stuff getting us all back into those theater seats.