Quote:
Originally Posted by funkychinaman
And yet they've pumped out two DTV sequels. The original was rated R with a B-movie cast with a B-movie script yet made with a blockbuster budget. Put a name in it, with a hot girl, pump it full of SFX, keep it PG-13, and you won't even need to write a good script. Hell, it worked for Transformers. (This is in no way an endorsement of Michael Bay or a suggestion that Michael Bay remake Starship Troopers.)
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Spawning low-budget sequels is not a good sign. "The Punisher", for instance, got a direct-to-DVD sequel even though it wasn't a huge box office success. Or, look at all of the "Universal Soldier" sequels that didn't get theatrical releases. Usually, if a big-budget movie has several lower-budgeted sequels, that's an indication that investors are only confident that the franchise has appeal to hardcore fans of the original and/or the source material, not mainstream audiences (where the big $$$$ are). That's the situation with "Starship Troopers" now - the novel may have fans, but for most people (even sci-fi lovers), it's a relic of the Cold War era. If I were a producer, I would be hard-pressed to convince my investors that such material has enough box-office appeal to be worth $150 million of their money.
Attaching some big Hollywood names (director, actors, F/X houses, etc.) might help, but it's still hit-or-miss when the material has such limited appeal to contemporary audiences. "Transformers" may have done well, but look at, say, last year's "Land of the Lost".