You don't need a crystal ball to see that Hollywood is headed for the dustbin of history. At the very least, the way that it's operated for generations is seeing its last days.
The reasons are many, and mostly self-inflicted. Self-important actors who charge too much for their talent, studios who can't seem to budget wisely, over-production that relies on ludicrous deadlines given to underprepared and undertalented DEI hires, and a lack of imagination due to an overabundance of ideological rigidity.
Hollywood still gets its wins from time to time, but they're increasingly having to share the podium with people outside the gilded cage. Recently, three YouTubers arrived on the scene to show the old guard how it's done, and I'm not yet sure if the message sank in. Time will tell, but even if they did learn anything, it might be too late anyway.
The times, they are a changin', and we currently live in the time of the internet and artificial intelligence learning to run when, just yesterday, it was crawling. Soon, what took entire crews, miles of red tape, and millions of dollars to make can be made by a gas station attendant on his laptop when there aren't any customers to bother him.
Hollywood is increasingly looking like so many actors that passed through it. An aging actor that was once the toast of the town that is now past its prime, and is finding it harder and harder to compete with the newcomers.
And I think Hollywood is bitter about it.
The Hollywood Reporter recently quoted actor Andrew Garfield about his upcoming Robin Hood film "The Uprising," and he said something monumentally ridiculous:
Warning: profanity
During a recent Q&A, alongside director Paul Greengrass, Garfield explained why he hopes the film serves as a warning to the world’s richest. The Uprising, based on the uprising that inspired the legend of Robin Hood, sees Garfield’s character Ploughman form an army against the tyranny of King Richard II in a fight for justice.
“First, I hope they come and see it, for first thing,” the Artificial actor said when asked what he hopes audiences take away from the movie. “But secondly, I hope it’s galvanizing. I hope there’s some awakening that people feel, that they feel that their own, that we all feel like our own struggles are being reflected in the struggles of these characters from a distant time and place, and that it could be directive. And I hope that if any billionaires watch it, they’re scared sh*tless.”
I don't think I need to point out why this is so stupid.
Billionaires are the ones behind movie studios, creating pictures that make people like Garfield millionaires — Garfield himself is worth $16 million — and put them into a bracket that is far above the vast majority of the world. I've always thought it was hilarious that if the moment where "eating the rich" became a reality, these champagne socialists or eat-the-rich virtue signaling millionaires think they wouldn't be the next consumed.
In any case, as I was reading his comments, I noticed another report from THR on the side bracket. It was an article that trumpeted the fact that Hollywood was attacking tech moguls in some upcoming films:
In Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, Jeremy Strong plays Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a sequel (or “companion piece,” as Sony insists on calling it) to The Social Network. The project opens wide Oct. 9.
In Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, Andrew Garfield portrays OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during a five-day company leadership crisis when Altman was fired and then reinstated as CEO. The Neon film premieres at the New York Film Festival Oct. 5 (and gets a limited release on Dec. 25).
Then there are two epic-length documentaries.
Alex Gibney‘s takedown of Tesla and SpaceX mogul Elon Musk, titled Musk, runs nearly four hours and is released in select theaters from Bleecker Street on Oct. 16 after premiering Tuesday at Venice.
And Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything, the surprise A24 project that dropped at Telluride, follows Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in the days before she began her stint in federal prison and beyond. The three-hour film also opens in theaters in October.
There’s an obvious running thread here: Silicon Valley executives as flawed egoists who speak in grandiose terms, claiming they’re helping humanity, yet seemingly value their ambition and power over ethics and safety — with potentially catastrophic outcomes.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Hollywood is clearly going to war with Silicon Valley, but what's hysterical is that I think it isn't about morality. The fact is, Silicon Valley is putting Hollywood out of business, and Hollywood knows it as much as you and I do. Altman, Musk, and Zuckerberg, as much as you might detest and/or mistrust these men, are handing the power to create to the masses, and allowing them to make the stories that wow and inspire, effectively robbing the decades-long gatekeeper that is Hollywood of its job.
But that said, I think calling Hollywood's upcoming flix about these moguls a "war" is a bit generous. It's more like watching an emaciated, blue-haired liberal arts student beat upon the chest of a man who spends his days ranching. They think the attack is compelling and damaging, but in truth, it's hardly being noticed.
It's my theory that Hollywood thinks it can do some serious damage to the reputations of these men and thus, hurt their bottom line at the very least. Perhaps the blows to the moguls will sink stock prices, maybe investors will pull out, and maybe Hollywood can get at least some of its reputation back as a truth teller.
I regret to inform them that the ship has sailed on that last point. On the second, they need not worry too much about the tech industry. The people in charge over there are generally pretty good at ruining their own reputations, but their reputation is hardly a concern for them anyway. People like Sam Altman know they don't belong in the good guy column, but they're not out to be good or liked, they're out to dominate, and they're good at it.
It's a skill Hollywood lost a long time ago.
