Mission Impossible: Creative Risk

I liked this long Twitter thread by Arash Amel, who I’m pretty sure is a striking movie writer with time to think the big thoughts at the moment.

With MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING (Part 1) looking very shaky at the B.O. this week, it looks like we are seeing a disastrous summer Box Office. Where did it go wrong? The answer is pretty simple. (A THREAD on creative risk.)

Risk aversion to original ideas or IP, rampant corporatization of movie studios as off-shoots of media monoliths, the reduction of the role of the creative movie executive to corporate brand manager, and the need to go bigger to please Wall Street. Because you see...

... tired sequels of sequels of sequels with aging stars, and tired formats is a result of a constant chase for growth and size; it's how we ended up with $300m budgets and stale IP. No other business survives this level of negligence in R&D, Hollywood is no exception.

With the need to grow, comes big budgets and fear of the new. We have no younger generation of bankable movie stars because we haven't invested in the type of theatrical movies that typically built them; because studios abandoned lower budget original (or fresh IP) genre movies.

The refrain that people won't go to smaller movies because of streaming is a cop-out, a lie, and pure fear because it would involve a level of risk and creativity at studios that has long been wrung out of its ranks by Wall Street and upper management.

I've seen great -- incredible -- creative execs struggle, I've seen some of the best laid off, and the best of those who remain handcuffed to the same overblown, overpriced, and tired formats.

Everywhere, the larder of creative properties have been exhausted. With that comes Indy 5, Fast 10, MI 7 etc parts 1 2 3 and onwards. Yet once upon a time there was a Mission 1, Fast 1, Raiders etc -- all made for budgets well below $100mil starring young movie stars.

And that truly is the underlying malaise, part of the new phenomenon of America's leaders aging out. Hollywood is no exception. We are in a death spiral. We have to win young audiences back. The only way out is to go back to the creativity and first principles.

We need to get back into the kitchen, and kickstart our R&D again. Drop budgets, take risks on new stars, build new directors, original projects, make 6 at $50mil, or 3 at $100mil if you must, instead of 1 at $300mil.

It won't support Wall Street, but it will support a new cycle of growth, and maybe you end up becoming competitive again and getting that 16-34 crowd back in the theaters. And if anyone says it can't be done, it's simply because they're afraid of doing the creative work.

Money won't fix this problem. An MBA won't fix it either. Only creative risk will. But who's to blame? The same people who got us into the mess of a double actors and writers strike are the same ones responsible for the dire state of Hollywood movie -- Wall Street.