Support NeoGAF

[Pie and Beans]

Hollywood is fucking insane. Someone probably wrote a fucking txt while smashed out of their mind and it consisted of

>WAT IF HERBIE WAS A MONSTER TRUCK. BUT HE'S NOT ACTUALLY THE CAR BUT A SHARKSQUID THAT CONTROLS CARS??

>Greenlit.

This is some 90's shit straight up and thats how they should market it after the 80's retro fetishism burn out if they had any sense.

 

[The Beard]

Over 200m on Ben Hur and this Monster Trucks lmao

Ben Turd was a monumental mistake.

Even shitty kids movies can be successful, but not when their budget is over $100mil. In the right hands, this concept could've done relatively well with a reasonable budget.

 

[ReaperXL7]

I never heard of this before, I thought it might be like some kind of super hero film with famous monster trucks being the heroes and villains.

I could easily see Big foot vs Grave Digger...then again I'm not sure if the old dogs are still running these days or if there are any similar more recent big names in monster trucks.

 

[adj_noun]

I honestly don't think My Pet Monster meets the Love Bug is all that bad an idea for a kid's movie...just don't spend, ah, quite this much on it.

 

[Ridley327]

"I have this pitch! It's a movie about monsters taking over trucks, turning them into literal monster trucks"
"Great! You get 100m!"

"Why is this movie gonna bomb?"
"Well because it's a movie about monsters taking over trucks, that turns them into literal monster trucks. Also it cost 100m".

At the same time, Del Toro couldn't get funding for At the mountains of madness because it would be too risky with an R-rating and Tom-fucking-Cruise.

To be fair, every horror film with a huge budget has been a complete disaster at the box office. I'm not at all shocked that execs balked at Del Toro's figures, even with Cruise on board.

 

[hbkdx12]

Got damm it holt, you deserve better

 

[Ridley327]

Also, why are they still trying to make Lucas Till happen? The dude is the Krystal burger version of Chris Hemsworth.

 

[kswiston]

To be fair, every horror film with a huge budget has been a complete disaster at the box office. I'm not at all shocked that execs balked at Del Toro's figures, even with Cruise on board.

Not counting the Exorcist from 40 years ago, the two Conjuring films are the highest grossing modern horror films at a little over $300M.

$300M would be about the breakeven point on a $100M film. So At the Mountains of Madness would have to be record breaking to have a chance at a good return.

 

[MC Safety]

This doesn't seem as if it's a real movie.

 

[Fudgepuppy]

To be fair, every horror film with a huge budget has been a complete disaster at the box office. I'm not at all shocked that execs balked at Del Toro's figures, even with Cruise on board.

I totally get that, as it would require a lot of good advertising and response to the movie for it to be worth the risk.

My point was however, more on the fact that they pay for these ridiculous movies that bomb because of what movie they are, while at the same time shying away from other risky projects, that to me seem safer just because you have passionate people behind them.

Maybe Monster-Trucks was just pitched better.

 

[Plum]

The concept isn't that out there when compared to other kids film concepts. However, much like a lot of films these days, the budget is fucking crazy. Paramount, Sony's Film Division, etc are all going to crash and burn because they keep pumping ungodly amounts of money into films only the execs think people want.

 

[Ginger Hail]

This is the movie where they had to redesign the monster due to kids freaking out during the test screening, right?

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

Paramount is the Randy Moss of catching Ls this year.

 

[Graphics Horse]

I saw a clip of this in pc world today, with an octopus car hybrid. thought I was looking at a new Asylum film or something.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Literally the first I've ever heard of this movie.

.

 

[Mael]

"I have this pitch! It's a movie about monsters taking over trucks, turning them into literal monster trucks"
"Great! You get 100m!"

"Why is this movie gonna bomb?"
"Well because it's a movie about monsters taking over trucks, that turns them into literal monster trucks. Also it cost 100m".

At the same time, Del Toro couldn't get funding for At the mountains of madness because it would be too risky with an R-rating and Tom-fucking-Cruise.

I hate Tom cruise but WTF I would have watched the movie in theatre and got the Bluray afterward!

 

[El Topo]

They probably hoped for another Transformers

How much cocaine do you have to snort to come to that conclusion? Like, were they even able to hold the pens at that point?

At the same time, Del Toro couldn't get funding for At the mountains of madness because it would be too risky with an R-rating and Tom-fucking-Cruise.

I think there's not enough cocaine in the world to convince studio executives of handing all that money to Del Toro for that. Shame about that, surely would've been a great movie.

 

[Ridley327]

I totally get that, as it would require a lot of good advertising and response to the movie for it to be worth the risk.

My point was however, more on the fact that they pay for these ridiculous movies that bomb because of what movie they are, while at the same time shying away from other risky projects, that to me seem safer just because you have passionate people behind them.

Maybe Monster-Trucks was just pitched better.

For horror, I would speculate that for most studio execs, they don't see it as much more than a genre where you spend low, release in scheduling lulls in order and a short but saturated burst of advertising in to maximize the ROI. The idea of making one into a tent-pole picture runs counter to all of that, and I think that regardless of his undeniable passion, Del Toro is the kind of filmmaker that studios do not want in the pilot seat on a production that big that doesn't have that much mainstream potential to begin with.

Who knows, though. Considering how irresponsible Paramount has been, maybe Del Toro has a good shot selling it to them!

 

[Dishwalla]

Paramount is gonna get brought out by 2020

They are already owned by Viacom, which is a huge media conglomerate.

 

[Not]

That picture is horrifying

Effects make or break, y'all. Look at the latest TMNT movies

 

[ryseing]

yes

It'a also the new Macgyver.

 

[sangreal]

They are already owned by Viacom, which is a huge media conglomerate.

which just purged everyone who wanted to sell paramount

 

[jack_package_200]

You could make 23 $5,000,000 films with that much money.

 

[Ridley327]

which just purged everyone who wanted to sell paramount

The stupidity goes much higher than I thought.

 

[berzeli]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer company.

The stupidity goes much higher than I thought.

Nah. The people that got purged are the fuckwits that have run Paramount in to the ground. 'twas a good purge.
Not saying that what will come next is going to be better, but anything that gets Dauman the fuck away from Viacom is a good thing.

 

[kswiston]

You could make 23 $5,000,000 films with that much money.

Not really. The projected loss also includes marketing, which isn't free for low budget films.

They could release five to seven $5M films (plus the accompanying $10-20M marketing budget for a wide release) for that money.

 

[Lunar15]

I feel like there has to be some weird "The Producers" style tax evasion shit going on with some of these movies. Why the hell are these greenlit?

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Literally the first I've ever heard of this movie.

.

 

[berzeli]

Why the hell are these greenlit?

Because Paramount is Paramount. As per Deadline:

The live-action/computer-animated film with a $125 million price tag from Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies, had been a pet project of former Paramount Pictures President Adam Goodman

And Paramount is fucking inept.

 

[LumpOfCole]

Woah I saw this trailer and thought it was a low budget Nick movie or something. How did this consume $100 million?

 

[Boney]

Who the hell wrote that shit

And who approved it!!!

 

[SURGEdude]

Rob Lowe is all they should have needed to know.

 

[Smellycat]

who stumble upon some kind of alien creature with the ability to hide inside and control automobiles

and this was greenlit? WTF

 

[RobbieNick]

I couldn't believe this shit was greenlit when I saw the trailer a few months back.

Why are movie studious still trying to do the E.T. formula?! It only ever worked ONCE.

 

[explodet]

I saw this trailer before Kubo as well (great movie), and this trailer commits the cardinal sin of giving away every surprise in the trailer. I saw the whole damn movie in under 5 minutes.

And I'd still go see this before the Ben-Hur remake.

 

[Tangled Up in Blue]

Paramount greenlit a 125-million-dollar movie . . . that was originally the idea of the 4-year-old son of the studio president:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/paramou...n-for-movie-that-isnt-released-yet-1474577856

The write-down has put an unwelcome spotlight on the project, which was conceived in 2013 by Adam Goodman, then the president of Paramount’s film group, off an idea he had bandied about with his then-4-year-old son. “Monster Trucks,” which had a budget of about $125 million, was initially scheduled for release in summer 2015 but has been postponed three times.

I'd rather see a movie about the making of this movie rather than the actual movie itself.

 

[Nappuccino]

I . . . kinda want to see it.

 

[Nikodemos]

$125 million?!?!?!?

WHAT THE FUCK.

As an anime fan, this pains me greatly.

This sort of money could collectively pay for another season of Ben-To, another season of Sabagebu!, another season of The Hero and Demon Lord, another season of Spice and Wolf

Spoiler

and a Berserk season with non-shitty CGI.

 

[illmatic22]

How the fuck does this happen?

 

[MrCunningham]

The movie doesn’t even hit theaters until January 13, 2017 and the studio is already expecting it to hit the box office below initial expectations.

 

[Soltype]

Should have called it Grave Digger instead.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

This is the movie where they had to redesign the monster due to kids freaking out during the test screening, right?

That's what I heard in one of the other threads. I would pay to see the original version.

 

[JesseEwiak]

Yeah. I get how most bombs get made. But, this movie has no star power, no license, no visionary. Like, if this somehow started The Rock or Mark Wahlberg or some other big star who could've spear headed it, OK. If it was a big time TV show I never heard of because I'm not a child, OK. If it was the weird idea of a director with lots of big hits, OK.

This has nothing. None of that.

$125 million?!?!?!?

WHAT THE FUCK.

As an anime fan, this pains me greatly.

This sort of money could collectively pay for another season of Ben-To, another season of Sabagebu!, another season of The Hero and Demon Lord, another season of Spice and Wolf

Spoiler

and a Berserk season with non-shitty CGI.

Quit trying to make me think of this as a positive thing.

 

[Dalek]

Paramount greenlit a 125-million-dollar movie . . . that was originally the idea of the 4-year-old son of the studio president:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/paramou...n-for-movie-that-isnt-released-yet-1474577856



I'd rather see a movie about the making of this movie rather than the actual movie itself.

Oh my God. What an insane screwup.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I knew they were just trying to bury it with all the release date shifting and January release date. What I didn't know it that is cost over $100 million. Jeez.

Jane Levy will weather this, it'll be a blip on the radar for her. Lucas Till on the other hand needs to find a winning project soon. The underperforming X-Men Apocalypse, The Disappointments Room, the CBS MacGyver remake, and Monster Trucks all in a couple months...that isn't a good look. Like it wouldn't be so bad if all those happened spaced out, but within a year without any other projects to wash the stink off? Ouch.

 

[DeathyBoy]

"I have this pitch! It's a movie about monsters taking over trucks, turning them into literal monster trucks"
"Great! You get 100m!"

"Why is this movie gonna bomb?"
"Well because it's a movie about monsters taking over trucks, that turns them into literal monster trucks. Also it cost 100m".

At the same time, Del Toro couldn't get funding for At the mountains of madness because it would be too risky with an R-rating and Tom-fucking-Cruise.

Del Toro can't get funding because dudes biggest box office success is Pacifuc Rim, a gun but genetic monster film which made less than you'd expect given he toned down his every quirk and went straight for the mainstream. The fact not even Cruise can get him the aforementioned film says it all.

Also this is gonna make bank. Calling it.

 

[WordAssassin]

It got a gaf thread!. Edit: TWO threads



This is what is so damn mindblowing. HOW was the pricetag that high?

They had to completely scrap all the VFX shots and redesign the monster because it literally sent kids screaming and crying from the test screening. So that could be a factor.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

Del Toro can't get funding because dudes biggest box office success is Pacifuc Rim, a gun but genetic monster film which made less than you'd expect given he toned down his every quirk and went straight for the mainstream. The fact not even Cruise can get him the aforementioned film says it all.

Also this is gonna make bank. Calling it.

It was probably for the best since Universal backed out because they wanted it to be PG13. Once 2030 rolls around and James Cameron's name is hot again after Avatar 2 makes crazy bank they might give it another try to get the film made. He should be able to make it happen at Fox.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Exec's can be duped just as badly as silicon valley venture capitalists and kickstarter.

All it takes a sleazy salesman, exploit that SEO.

 

[SJRB]

Paramount greenlit a 125-million-dollar movie . . . that was originally the idea of the 4-year-old son of the studio president:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/paramou...n-for-movie-that-isnt-released-yet-1474577856



I'd rather see a movie about the making of this movie rather than the actual movie itself.

Well there you go. At least this explains how this trainwreck got greenlit in the first place.