Legendary Pictures, Universal’s Savior???

Currently Universal Studios is a company that has undergone many different phases of management and ownership. In 2004 being bought out by General Electric and merged with parent company NBC, forming NBC Universal. Then in 2011 sold 51% of shares to Comcast; and in March of this year Comcast bought the remaining 49% for $16.7 Billion. Whew…apparently Universal is being tossed around like a hot potato for the last decade. Now the name of the company is NBC Universal. Universal still do release movies solely under their Universal Studios moniker.

Although they do release films, Universal is a company that has struggled on their entertainment side as of late. They just don’t have enough big budget; tent pole films release to sustain individual production. The only two franchises that Universal has that are highly popular are Despicable Me and Fast and Furious. Those two films alone can’t keep Universal afloat by themselves. For the last couple years Universal has done a lot of co-financing of their films with outside production companies with very few done in house. Universal had a multi-year financing deal with Elliot Management that expired in March 2013. In July it was announced that Universal will be entering in to a partner ship with Legendary Pictures.

                                   

Legendary Pictures is a production company owned by Thomas Tull, who used money from Wall Street to finance his films. They have had a deal with Warner Bros for co-financing since 2004. Out of that arrangement came some of the biggest movies of the last 10 years, including the Batman Trilogy, The Hangover Trilogy, and recently the Man of Steel. By partnering with Legendary Pictures, Universal has put itself in a great position to gain back a lot of their market share lost to its competitors. It will allow them to release films that generate tons of revenue and bring them back to the glory they once had. One of the first films slated to come out of the Universal/Legendary deal is Gareth Edward’s Godzilla. This film has a lot of potential to really help Universal solve a couple of their problems. 

                                     

Universal Studios theme parks, specifically the one here in Florida is currently hemorrhaging money due to the recent acquisition of Marvel properties by Disney. Currently the Islands of Adventure theme park has an entire section of Marvel characters, essentially meaning that a percentage of every ticket sold is kicked back to Disney and its competing theme park also in Florida Walt Disney World. Godzilla could give Universal the leverage it needs to be able to kill their dependence of Marvel for its parks and introduce a new big boy on the block that could make King Kong cringe. I believe this partnership is one that can push Universal to the top of the entertainment industry and reign supreme. The added bonus of that…who wouldn’t want to see a 50 story Godzilla ride at Universal Theme Parks, I know I would!!

Neil Blomkamp.....The next Christoper Nolan??

Neil Blomkamp born September 17, 1979 in Johannesburg, South Africa, is probably the best director you’ve never heard of before. He had been trusted to take the reigns for creating a marketing spectacle for one of the world’s biggest video game franchises, Halo. In 2007 created a set of short films entitled “Landfall” which centered on the Halo Universe. Within these short films he brought to life the best representation of Halo mythology even showcasing some cool futuristic tech such as the Warthog driving vehicle featured in the game to the screen. From that he was set to direct his first feature film, which would’ve been a full-length Halo movie, produced by Peter Jackson. The project collapsed after it couldn’t find funding for itself. http://goo.gl/eF65BO

The failed film left Blomkamp with a big hole to fill for himself, so he decided to make the film District 9. Set in his home country of South Africa, more specifically in the Johannesburg Township area, it featured aliens living among humans and being mistreated as if to parallels how blacks were treated during apartheid. This gained Neill huge recognition in the film industry and gained him 4 Academy Award Nominations including Best Picture. His new film Elysium is set to open to good box office numbers and is already at $30.4 million for the weekend.

Neill Blomkamp is a visionary director and is a real force to be reckoned with. He is also very outspoken with his stance on not wanting to direct DC and Marvel superhero characters along with Star Trek or Star Wars franchises. It seems that he doesn’t want to get trapped in to reigning in his artistic vision in order to fulfill the marketing and merchandising needs for a big studio. http://goo.gl/BbLWb7

He says that he is an artist and wants to be left alone. He is on track to becoming very much like another outstanding director namely Chris Nolan of Batman fame. Who also started out small and built his way up the ladder by creating stories that fascinated him and were visually captivating as well. Being able to work on a budget and still crank out a very good film that can make back its budget and more is a trait Hollywood studios look for in a director nowadays. Neill is one of those directors who can make just as big a splash creating his own stories just as if he were directing someone elses vision and that is very rare. They say lightning never strikes the same place twice but I think we are witnessing it now in  the movie theater.