Not Football

Shores

Oof! To be honest, I'm not bad mouthing the Swedes. I'm just talking about the Swedes that are bad mouthing the Swedes.

For my money, the Swedes produced Inger Stevens so they get a pass on most things.

Arnold

It's fascinating to watch how movies and TV get made. From the money side, I mean. Hollywood studios are focused on big comic book action movies because they get great box office domestically from the real movie goers. The 14 to 18 year old boys. But just as importantly because comic book action, special effects movies do great business in foreign markets. It's easier to sell an action movie to a country that speaks a different language than a thoughtful, character and dialogue driven piece.

The Japanese have decided to eschew the foreign markets. The movie studios were all bought by TV stations, so they produce movies based on their successful TV shows. It all but guarantees a successful domestic run. And they are cheaper to make because they already have the cast under contract and most of the sets built.

And it's fascinating to listen to the Swedish producers talk about what they have to go through to get something on the screen. They just don't have a big enough Swedish speaking population to make their films or TV shows profitable. So, as with "Wallender" they went in search of partners. They said they had an American company interested, but then Kenneth Branagh and the BBC came in waving money, so they made a deal with them... which gave them enough money to go on making the Swedish version.

In order to make "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" profitable they had to do a six part TV miniseries of the books, which they then cut into three movies, and released them to theaters. Then, when that was successful, they sold the rights to an American company to do the U.S. version. (The Danes did the same thing with "A Killing"... but the Swedes make better TV.)

The world of putting different deals together to raise the money to make a movie in the first place is fascinating.

Last Edited By: Kevin 03/13/13 03:30 PM. Edited 1 times.