If you watch enough movies and TV (and I watch way, way, way too much), over time you start to notice certain names. Sometimes it’s a writer, sometimes an actor or actress, sometimes a director, even a cinematographer or composer that always seems stuck to something you enjoy. Drew Goddard is one of my favorite names to see pop up on a project. Pretty much everything Goddard is attached to is stellar from his TV work as a writer/producer on Buffy, Angel, Alias, Lost and The Good Place to his film work on the Cloverfield series, The Martian, and his last directorial turn in 2012’s The Cabin in the Woods. Chris Hemsworth’s best non-MCU film is probably still Cabin and he could badly use a non-MCU hit at this stage in his career. Goddard has an intriguing premise and a really strong ensemble for Bad Times at the El Royale, and his past successes are more than enough to get me to give it a shot when it opens on October 12, 2018 (even though it’s likely to get squashed by First Man).
This is not the kind of film that rakes in the dough. Iif a minor masterpiece like Cabin could not hit the mark, I am skeptical that any other thing this man ever directs will ever find an audience. But I’m rooting for it.
By the way, what kind of twisted genius minds came up with Cabin? Perhaps it offended fans of the genre, and the non-fans stayed away. But God bless everyone involved for trying to do something.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Whedon and Goddard. Film sat on the shelf for 2 years before it was released.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are times when, as boneheaded and infuriating as the suits are, I can actually kid of see their point of view. For example, Brazil is probably one of my top five movies of all time, and if the studio had messed with it like they wanted, and turned it into a “happy” film, it would have been a travesty beyond all reckoning. Also, it might have been commercially successful on first release. It would have at least had a shot.
Cabin in the Woods must have confused the hell out of the suits. They must have looked at it and wondered who the audience was. I think they probably don’t fully understand the audience for horror…there are a lot of cynical, self-aware fans out there. But it does not matter whether a film like Cabin succeeded or failed in the end. I get the trepidation on the part of the suits. The mistake was greenlighting it in the first place. If you are not going to see things through, then what exactly do you think you’re doing? Does no one read scripts? (I know, I know, people leave positions of power, and points of view change on various projects. I still say it’s chaos in La La Land.)
LikeLike
That was one futher-mucker of a brilliantly edited trailer! I’m in! D
LikeLiked by 1 person