It pains me greatly to put the poster to Twilight, or anything at all related to Twilight, on this blog. PAINS ME. However, it is relevant to this post and so it had to be done, begrudgingly. This week a rumor spread throughout the interwebs regarding the Twilight films. The rumor stated that Lionsgate, the studio who produced and released the Twilight films, is considering rebooting the series once the last film in the current series Breaking Dawn-Part 2 is released. Yes, you did read that sentence right.
The first film in the current series was released in November of 2008. So, let's say they spend a year on development. Then another four months on production and then six more on post. That means you could conceivably see a rebooted Twilight in 2014. You would have a "reimagined" Twilight just eight years after the original was released. That is just crazy to me.
With that said, it is plausible. As we all know studios only really care about making money. Once a property has run its course and has moved through major release and then home video/on demand, it is dead as far as the studio is concerned. They can no longer make any more money on that property. Unless there is a way to continue on with a revenue stream though the merchandising, ala Harry Potter. But not every property can be like Harry Potter and most simply run their course of profitability, then fade out of view in the studio's and sometimes the public's eyes.
But imagine a time when studios can simply reboot a property every 5-7 years with a new cast, crew, director, and sometimes radical new take on the material. In this imagined world, studios could continue to make money on the property perpetually, if done right. No longer would they lose the revenue stream from a property, like Twilight, once the whole saga has been told cinematically. They would simply "reimagine" the world of said property and advertise it as a "bold new take" or "untold story". That brings to me The Amazing Spiderman.
Sony Pictures' The Amazing Spiderman is going to be the litmus test for the industry to determine if rebooting a property can be financially successful. All of the major studios are going to be watching the opening weekend numbers on this film keenly. If the film is a success, then it will validate the reboot model and we will see the studios quickly begin development on reboots of their properties. If Amazing Spiderman is a failure, then it SHOULD kill any thoughts the studios had of using the reboot model.
I personally am hoping for the failure of Spiderman, mainly because I do not want the film industry to become a hit movie, sequel, sequel, reboot machine. We already have enough remakes and pointless sequels and now prequels being pushed out at us. I loath the idea of reboots being added. Plus where do you draw the line on what is held sacred and out of bounds in relation to reboots. Could we see Star Wars rebooted? Or E.T.? What about Jaws for that matter? You see how absurb this path can and would become. Studio suits care little about preserving film history and have proved it time and again. There would be no limit to the properties they would reboot.
One last thing, there are exceptions to the above. For instance, Warner Bros. has announced that they will be rebooting Batman once Christopher Nolan's series concludes with The Dark Knight Rises. In that case, rebooting the property makes total sense as WB has really no way to continue with films set in Nolan's Bat-verse. They have to reboot and should. My concern in this case has entirely to do with how they go about a reboot, from the writing, casting, director, and overall story, and not at all about them doing the reboot in the first place.
In the end the studios will follow the money, as they always do. So if you go to see Amazing Spiderman when it is released, just know that you may be validating a new business model for the industry. Am I advocating people avoid Amazing Spiderman? Not at all. Please feel free to see the film if you are interested. I just worry that if it has a huge opening weekend, based on people's curiosity alone, than we may be in for some changes to the industry that I, quite frankly, do not support.
There is no need to ever "revisit" the world of Twilight again in film. Once was quite enough.
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