I find it really funny — and telling — how the success of The Blind Side is still making people in Hollywood scratch their heads. This past weekend the LA Times took a long look at the making of the film.
First, it seems that Julia Roberts was the only woman considered for the part. When she passed the geniuses at Fox (where the film was at the time and now I’m sure are feeling pretty stupid) told John Lee Hancock (the writer and director) that he should rewrite the script and make it into a father-son story.
Why not change the leading part from a pistol-packing Southern supermom to a man and redraft the film as a father-son story?…If Roberts didn’t want to do the movie, they would only make it with a male lead.
Didn’t matter one bit that it was based on a true story. At least they are not only asking women to rewrite female leading roles. Guys can’t write women leads either. Even funnier now is that due to the success of The Blind Side for Sandra Bullock and the failure of Duplicity with Julia Roberts that conversation about Julia Roberts would probably not happen today. Now all that could change again this summer once Eat Pray Love comes out.
John Lee Hancock thought that the film would be a success precisely because it appealed to a wide range of people, yet that is exactly what made the studio nervous.
“The Blind Side” was “a feathered fish” that didn’t fit their marketing pigeonholes. “It’s not really a sports movie, although it’s got sports in it. It’s also not a chick flick,” though it was written for a female star. “My take on it was . . . there was something for everybody.
Interesting confirmation that any film that stars a woman is a chick flick. But, I’m really impressed that Hancock (now on the top of the world with a huge success) was this honest about the bullshit that goes on in Hollywood when deciding what movies to make:
Hancock, 52, thinks there is a lesson here for a film industry fixated on “event” movies and multi-film “franchises.”
“To the studios, it’s an anathema. It can’t be a real movie unless it cost hundreds of millions of dollars and has to have all the effects, and 16-year-old boys need to want to see it to be successful. That simply isn’t true.”
Amen.
Turns out that Sandra Bullock will get an even bigger pay day for this film because when the script passed to Alcon they had to keep the budget low (cause you know, it stars a woman) so she took less up front ($5 million versus her usual $10 million) for a bigger back end deal. She might make upwards of $25 million on the film which just got her a Golden Globe and will get her an Oscar nomination.
And, while the film has had incredible broad appeal with a wide diversity of audiences including Evangelical Christians and African Americans it was women — especially those over 35– who got the film off to a strong start on the same weekend that New Moon dominated the box office.
But there is still a lack of confidence about women showing up at the box office and it’s going to take more time and more hits to get over it.
Here’s a kicker quote from Stacy Snider who run Dreamworks:
But “The Blind Side” is a “good reminder,” she says, “that if you find something that moves you deeply on a personal level and offers something novel, despite the fact that it is a genre that is not popular — drama — driven by a demographic you mistrust — adult women — you should cast those concerns aside.”
The Blind Side is a good lesson to Hollywood and to all of us that sometimes you need to think outside the box. It always astounds me that trusting women means thinking outside the box.
The Making of Blind Side A Real-Life Drama (LA Times)
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This is precisely the problem with films starring women. Women can’t ever step out of the “chick flick” box because these stupid studios feel like women won’t come see anything that isn’t some fluffy romantic comedy and men won’t come see a more broad film if it stars a woman. CLEARLY IF YOU DO IT RIGHT, THEY WILL. Stop pigeonholing women’s films and you’ll actually make it easier for yourselves and for women.
Unfortunately, it is often true that female audiences don’t entirely support female-driven films that aren’t in the ‘romantic comedy’ mold. The relative under-performances of Whip It, Jennifer’s Body, and The Princess and the Frog seem to bear that out. What’s doubly-unfortunate is that each female-driven film is used as a test case for every other one in development. Sadly, The Blind Side and New Moon will only mean more female-driven films until the next high-profile one flops.
“Sadly, The Blind Side and New Moon will only mean more female-driven films until the next high-profile one flops.”
Ugh, unfortunately you’re probably right.
Just another reminder of how the studios don’t know shit about anything. Time and again women prove they are a viable ticket for Hollywood but when it happens it’s always a fluke. When it fails it’s just another reminder of how women don’t go to the movies.
“despite the fact that it is a genre that is not popular — drama — driven by a demographic you mistrust — adult women”
I’ve been watching a lot of older movies from the library lately. Just saw “They Shoot Horses Don’t They” starring Jane Fonda. The female roles were much more complex and it seems that the films were aimed at both men and women. I know a lot of couples that don’t go to the movies anymore, because he likes “boy” films and she likes “girl” films. So they stay home. Hollywood used to make movies for boys AND girls…What happened?
It’s shocking that a female executive would refer to women as a demographic she mistrusts, but it also explains why many of the movies made for women are so bad.
Linda you can go back further even to romantic comedies of years past. Those films with Grant and Hepburn(Bringing up Baby), William Powell and Myrna Loy in the The Thin Man movies, Spencer Tracy and Hepburn and all the romantic comedies they made together. Those movies appealed to both men and women.
I’m just wondering when the change was. I remember as a teenager and younger women going to see films like The Deer Hunter, All the Presidents Men, Ordinary People, Raiders, and lots of younger people both men and women would see these films. Could a beautiful sad film like The Deer Hunter get made today? Maybe but not the way it was made back then.
It seemed these movies had more main stream appeal. Or has the viewing taste of the audience changed so much that this is just how it is today.
Maybe the change happened in the mid 80′s, just as women started entering the workforce en masse. The first really insulting movies I remember were Fatal Attraction, 9 1/2 weeks.
I love a good female lead & a family story. But I cannot stomach ANOTHER white savior tale
I tend to think the trends parallel television. You now have more programming developed for niche demographics, a lot having to do with the evolution of cable, where you have specialized programming. How many shows left have mainstream appeal? Even shows that may have more mainstream appeal like an ER used to, over time, was not drawing more that 12 or 13 million viewers a week. Compare that to the last episode of MASH back in 1982 which drew I think over 100 million viewers.
This is what makes The Blind Side such a wonderful story. To me it shows that you can still make films that have mass appeal. The Blind Side succeeded not becuase of Sandra Bullock. Yeah her star power helped, but it’s succeeded because it’s a compellng, inspirational story – and a story that had mass appeal. I personally am glad Julia Roberts was not cast in it. If it succeeded with her it definitely would have been labeled a “women’s” film.
^
Katie
Meryl Streep once said that when the effects of feminism started taking place in society (women moving up the work ladder, better positions etc)there was an eventual backlash and that filtered into the movies. Look at WORKING GIRL for example where the Sigourney Weaver character would once have been played by Katherine Hepburn and would have been the hero decades before.
Basically ‘strong’ women were no longer the fantasy that they’d been during the halycon Golden Age years and thanks to real life figures(Margaret Thatcher) the image, indeed the idea, of a powerful woman became villainous and disdainful leading to everything from FATAL ATTRACTION to tv’s Dynasty (the Alexis character).
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