They went through two writers' rooms and I find it hard to believe nothing was written in all that time, so at a guess I'd say it suffered the same fate as all the failed Star Wars projects and it was the studio execs who did not like whatever was written
Execs who don't actually know what they want can be a fucking nightmare. They either give no notes or give conflicting notes or give notes that when met they're all "we don't like [bit we told you to put in]". It genuinely could have been that.
He might pay $50 million to Trump for “a movie or show” that “never gets made” and rinse and repeat and get concessions while “legally” transferring money to Trump
It's almost certainly a case of them interfering rather than her not writing. They bin stuff all the time. I know people who spent months creating entire seasons for them on full pay, only for them to panic and cancel it.
They buy a thing or a IP so no one else can be their competition it's like with the car industry Ford bought all the blueprints and patents for electric cars and on sat them for years.
I always get the idea that these super mega evil corps use the TV and Movie industry to lose money to pay less tax… I’m sure that’s not really the case as they just don’t pay tax anyway
Was initially confused because there's a Netflix series that seemed to do decently well, I didn't even know Amazon were (well, not, I guess) making a series
Ironically there’s a show on Apple TV called Prime Target which, ideally, would have been a modern heist classic about a brilliant writer finding myriad ways to keep getting paid to not write anything - a twist on The Producers, perhaps
I genuinely really rate PWB’s writing, she’s hugely funny and talented, so I can only imagine all the thrilling ways Amazon have managed to balls this up
This is, unironically, how I feel about this whole thing roughly 80% of the time. The other 20% is staring into space, rocking back and forth, making small noises and so on.
I'm sure I've read of a similar ecosystem of American TV people working in pilot season. A brand new show fronted, produced, directed and delivered every seasoj for years, with some directors never getting a single series pickup in that time while making millions in the process.
There were a good couple of decades in the british film industry where you could have a very respectable career: garlands, dinners, awards etc without ever troubling yourself with producing anything
I love PWB's work but I do think if stories like this got wider coverage and more traction the support for taxing the fuck out of millionaires would spike
How hard can it really be to write a tomb raider script? It doesn't even have to be particularly good for the film to work. Most people could knock up a passable outline in 10 mins.
Literally any semi-experienced TTRPG GM could think of something. Pick an exotic country, pick a mysterious thing from that country, hidden treasure, traps, jumping, beating the bad guys to the artifact, back to Croft manor.
A villain in a wide brimmed hat and leather gloves who wants to get hold of the sacred star fragment that can control the world. The butler provides a bit of comedic relief.
They could have a formula here, how about cage fighters in a room with booze and gak and tell them not to fight? A load of jazz musicians and they all have to agree on any given topic
1) Announce and start work on loads of exciting sounding stuff
2) Get investor money in boosting stock price etc.
3) Quietly end a proportion of them, that there isn't rhe greatest "buzz" about, as you have the investor money in now.
that only saves the tax rate applied to any profits those costs reduce (eg a £50m “write-off” reduces corp tax bill by 25% of £50m = £12.5m … so still a net cost of £37.5m)
Ah fair comment. Mad that a company like Amazon can blow so much money on failed ventures but can’t seem to bring themselves to organise their affairs to make a fair and just tax payment to the UK exchequer…
For Amazon? That might make sense for WBD, that's has lots of debt. I think that's more that Barbara Broccoli was right about Amazon executives(She called them idiots).
Comments
It was only Alan Ladd Jr that got Bladerunner made, every other executive wanted nothing to do with it.
He might pay $50 million to Trump for “a movie or show” that “never gets made” and rinse and repeat and get concessions while “legally” transferring money to Trump
BBC News - Amazon to release Melania Trump documentary
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg52j4lp57jo
*curb your enthusiasm music plays*
What a giveaway.
Sounds like Amazon did us a favour?
A day!
As a non-player of the game, I enjoyed Halo as entertainment and now that's dead too.
They can do good stuff but they seem not to want to.
Although Last One Laughing is phenomenal
1) Announce and start work on loads of exciting sounding stuff
2) Get investor money in boosting stock price etc.
3) Quietly end a proportion of them, that there isn't rhe greatest "buzz" about, as you have the investor money in now.
People sign up on the basis of all these exciting new shows, then don't bother cancelling when they quietly get canned
Also the lack of fibre from the caterers led to all the actors looking constipated.
I haven’t written any scripts.
(I accept cash, money orders and Venmo, no personal checks.)
Call it three million and I'll also not write a graphic novel tie-in.
Waller-Bridge
Garden Bridge
etc