20th Century Fox’s recent adaption of the Japanese anime, Dragonball titled Dragonball Evolution is an insult to the creators and fans of the Japanese franchise. The adaptation rewrites the Dragonball legacy, leaving only a few elements from the original storyline intact; the studio executives just needed to find a writer to who could transform the abundance of Dragonball material into a script; if the studio executives had done that, they could have created a franchise that would rival Warner Brother’s Harry Potter franchise. The general rule of thumb is to stay loyal to the source material, whether it is a book, past movie or animation since there is already a devotee group of fans that want to see their materials adapted, not rebooted.
Adaptations should never reboot a franchise unless it is a dying franchise that needs to be revitalized, like the Star Trek franchise. The previous Star Trek movies have been unsuccessful so it stands to reason that the new Star Trek movie is a reboot, only when all options of faithful adaptations are explored should a producer even consider creating a different storyline because they run risk of alienating the existing fan base and destroying the franchise.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Mark Kwan: Founder of NYCMovieScreenings, NYCStreetTeam & NYCMovieParties
At an advanced screening for The Soloist, Mark Kwan of NYCMovieScreenings received a phone call from Michelle who works for Studio Gems. She needed Kwan to organize a promotional event at 6 a.m. The next morning during the Today Show for the upcoming movie, Obsessed.“They changed the event to tomorrow, it was suppose to be on Friday,” said Kwan as he and two of his interns began messaging invitations to their friends. It was almost 8 p.m., yet they did not have enough people for the event.
The next morning at the Today Show, Kwan recruited the general audience to be his promoters, “you can have these Obsessed t-shirts and posters but you have to wear them in front of the camera,” he said to the crowd. There were New Yorkers in the crowd but it was predominately tourists spanning from Maine to Wyoming. The people gladly accepted the items and flaunted them in front of the cameras. The event was a success. “Media-hackery” is what Jon Stewart would say, manipulating the audience and media to promote a new movie.
Kwan is the founder and owner of NYCMovieScreeings; the company has been organizing free advanced movie screenings each week in New York City for the public since 2006. Since then the company has branched out to Long Island, Albany and New Jersey. This is quite an astounding feat considering Kwan was an intern at the company several years earlier; at the time the company was called RSVPNYCity and they focused on organizing parties that promoted upcoming movies. However, the owners, Jeff and Mitch did not find the company profitable so they gave it away to their only employee, Kwan. He eventually rebranded the website to NYCMovieParties and then expanded the company to NYCMovieScreenings and NYCStreetTeam with the connections he gained from the previous owners and the help of his photographer, Sherwin Dyer.
Kwan would have never dreamed he would have his own company and office in Manhattan when he was flipping burgers a Wendy’s for minimum wage or when he graduated CUNY Queens College with a degree in Computer Science. “I wanted to be a token Clerk for the MTA,” he said. Kwan had quit his lucrative job doing data entry at law office and turned down an internship at JP Morgan to find something he enjoyed doing; he began taking on various side projects, producing comedy shows and he eventually found his way to RSVPNYCity. At the time his parents thought he was foolish for not choosing a steady job or choosing a job related to his degree, but today they take pride in saying, "my son can give your son a job.”
Kwan says that this summer his company will be announcing two projects that they have kept secret. He said their company would offer a rewards program in the future through a Facebook application. Members would be able to earn points when they use the application and will be able to redeem the points for prizes like movie memorabilia, guaranteed seating to advance screenings and gift cards. The application has yet to go into development but Kwan expects the rewards program to launch sometime in 2009.
“You are fired”, is what Kwan will be saying a lot of during the summer because he has decided to host a competitive internship that will be made into a web-series, not unlike Donald Trump’s The Apprentice. Interns will be vying for a cash prize and six-month job as Kwan’s personal assistant. Interns have to accomplish their given task with their allotted budget each week or else they will be kicked off the show.
Despite his success Kwan is a humble guy, last year his NYCStreetTeam partnered with New York Cares to repaint the outside of a school. This year Kwan hopes to be working more closely with other non-profits organizations and possibly organizing canned food drives at their screenings. When asked about the deal he made with the previous owners, Kwan simply said, “We never signed a contract, and the company that was given was not really a company. It was more of a login and password to a website. It was [not] profitable back then, so it was not something of value. I saw it's potential, and I think I was the only one with the dedication and the drive to make something of it.”
Kwan would have never dreamed he would have his own company and office in Manhattan when he was flipping burgers a Wendy’s for minimum wage or when he graduated CUNY Queens College with a degree in Computer Science. “I wanted to be a token Clerk for the MTA,” he said. Kwan had quit his lucrative job doing data entry at law office and turned down an internship at JP Morgan to find something he enjoyed doing; he began taking on various side projects, producing comedy shows and he eventually found his way to RSVPNYCity. At the time his parents thought he was foolish for not choosing a steady job or choosing a job related to his degree, but today they take pride in saying, "my son can give your son a job.”
Kwan says that this summer his company will be announcing two projects that they have kept secret. He said their company would offer a rewards program in the future through a Facebook application. Members would be able to earn points when they use the application and will be able to redeem the points for prizes like movie memorabilia, guaranteed seating to advance screenings and gift cards. The application has yet to go into development but Kwan expects the rewards program to launch sometime in 2009.
“You are fired”, is what Kwan will be saying a lot of during the summer because he has decided to host a competitive internship that will be made into a web-series, not unlike Donald Trump’s The Apprentice. Interns will be vying for a cash prize and six-month job as Kwan’s personal assistant. Interns have to accomplish their given task with their allotted budget each week or else they will be kicked off the show.
Despite his success Kwan is a humble guy, last year his NYCStreetTeam partnered with New York Cares to repaint the outside of a school. This year Kwan hopes to be working more closely with other non-profits organizations and possibly organizing canned food drives at their screenings. When asked about the deal he made with the previous owners, Kwan simply said, “We never signed a contract, and the company that was given was not really a company. It was more of a login and password to a website. It was [not] profitable back then, so it was not something of value. I saw it's potential, and I think I was the only one with the dedication and the drive to make something of it.”Friday, May 1, 2009
Chuck Versus The Office
I really enjoy watching Chuck; it’s a relatively simple show to follow, the story line is consistent and the character development is great. The characters are constantly being developed unlike The Office where after five seasons Michael Scott is still the same guy as he was in season one. In the latest episode Casual Friday, Michael Scott plays the same joke on the staff as he does in the beginning of the series where he pretends to fire someone and then later plays it off as a joke.
In addition his constant need to satisfy his employees continues to hinder his judgment; at first Michael was very adamant about Pam and Ryan keeping the clients they had stolen but he eventually gave in when Phyllis said “we were suppose to be family.” Time after time Michael has demonstrated he can be an ingenious character but his constant need for approval prevents him from growing; he out-smarted David Wallance during the negotiations in the last episode and then we see Michael whimpering when his employees are mad at him.
While the premise for Chuck is unrealistic, the character development and character philosophies are more genuine than The Office. The majority of the characters in The Office are static characters compared to the variable characters in Chuck. Both shows are meant to be light comedies and have an underlying plot but The Office fails drastically when paired with Chuck. The storyline in Chuck is much more progressive and for the most part, all the characters are development in a certain. After five seasons, the writers have barely developed Creed’s character or Oscar’s character. Last Monday the second season of Chuck ended so if you haven't checked out the series yet, it's a good time to start.
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