Let 'em blow their money. It goes to hard-working capitalists who built their sets and edited their movie.
"the story of the Crusades from a point of view that favors the Muslim version instead of the Christian version."
GOOD GRIEF!
Did they really believe that people would flock to see this crap?
Political correctness has completely displaced intelligent film making. We're not likely ever to see the likes of "Lawrence of Arabia" again.
Does anyone besides me suspect that mainstream Hollywood is just a money laundry for the porn industry?
Movies promoting homosexuality, anti-Christian, pro-Communism views aren't selling? Okay! Okay! We'll make movies about how unhappy homosexuals are, how a Christian world-view promotes happiness, and how Communism has destroyed millions of lives. Maybe those movies will sell better. Let's wait and see...
But, of course, Hollywood is not an actual business enterprise, and so you won't see those movies get made. Hollywood is an agenda-driven propaganda machine. They won't change the kind of movies they make. But the movies will get smaller.
Hollywood is like the dumb blonde. "I, like, don't get it."
When they lose enough money they may figure it out. Or the new producers and studios that replace them will.
Ask me that same question when I'm waiting in line to see Revenge of the Sith.
Gotta give Mel a lot of credit for putting his own money and reputation on the line, and yes, a lot of people were offended, calling him anti-Semitic and much worse. Ridley Scott on the other hand has made a film which tries not to offend anyone and as a result is a bomb (no, I have not seen it. I think he did an excellent job with Black Hawk Down.)
"The people who like violent war movies are not the same people who like p.c. trash."
I like that observation. It never really occurred to me, but it IS true. I like war movies and hate P.C. crap.
Maybe that statement should be engraved in tne for high letters on the cliff under the tacky "Hollywood" sign in Hollyweird.
Or, maybe Hollyweird is just another suburb of Never-Neverland a la Michael Jackson.
Actually, Hollywood does get it. They just prefer to ignore the many studies/polls that show most folks really don't want what they're selling. At this point they can afford to be arrogant. When the money runs out then perhaps they'll listen. Then again maybe not. I'm not sure anyone really cares too much either.
And quit injecting romance into a good war flick. Where did Hollywood ever get the idea that war movies would make good date movies? Here's a clue, Hollywood morons--war epics and chick flicks dont' mix. That's like pouring chocolate syrup over a porterhouse steak.
Since the Hollyweirds live in an alien country peopled by a lot of red state folks, I'm surprised that at least one of them hasn't decided to hire some red state housewife for $ 25,000/yr. to read movie scripts (or to consult with them on the synopsis of an idea.) They wouldn't have to listen and probably would not, but since it's all "funny money" to them and not money they worked for, ($ 25,000 would be the caterer's bill at a small dinner party,) it could make them the most prominent filmmaker in Hollyweird, at least moneywise.
Hollywood long ago rejected the idea of objective moral law, and severed its own artistic nerve when it did so.
The corpse twitched awhile and so moguls thought it lived.
"The task gets tougher when real historical events are being envisioned, and revisioned. Once upon a time, Hollywood could blithely make cowboys-and-Indians movies in which white people massacred red people, as audiences - white ones, at least - cheered."
All my heroes have killed cowboys. Actually, these are movies we're talking about, so I watch them for entertainment only.
I am waiting for a movie that shows 9-11, and the events that led to it. The ACLU suing the airlines so they won't deny tickets to Middle Eastern men, paying for tickets with cash, carrying no luggage aboard planes. People jumping out of windows to avoid burning to death, the mothers/daughters/sons sobbing as they find that daddy is not coming home. Righteous anger to kill all Muslims that murdered so many innocents here and abroad. The slitting of throats with dull knives, the kidnapping of innocents, the suicide by bomb on the streets of Israel. Make that movie and you are guaranteed a few hundred million in box office. Make that movie, and Bush is strengthened to clean the world of this evil, the Denorats are silenced, and America is a safer and better place....... I am still waiting.
It might also be that enough people have access to broadband that they can get their movies for free.
We may be witnessing the beginning of Hollywood being hit by the same phenomenon that the recording industry has been seeing for the past ten years.