Stars and Filmmakers Tell Us: What Hollywood Needs to Change in 2011

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/02/04/hollywood-2011-what-needs-to-change/

By Erik Davis (Subscribe to Erik Davis's posts)
Posted Feb 4th 2011 5:00PM

During our time at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, we crossed paths with many different filmmakers, actors and actresses whose films were playing the festival. We thought it would be fun to ask everyone the same question at the end of each interview to see how the answers varied depending on the role they play in and out of the Hollywood system.

Check out the answers below from folks like Morgan Spurlock, Eva Green, Emma Roberts, Miranda July, Drake Doremus, Joshua Leonard, Jess Weixler, Lake Bell, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau.

And now for the question: What would you change about Hollywood in 2011?

"One completely original screenplay for every comic book movie or remake they make. One for one. They can still keep making them, but they have to balance it out with original work." -- Joshua Leonard, 'The Lie'

"I would have more studios financing documentary films. That's what I would change. It would be a great thing. Because we just sold this to Sony, which is great. Big Sony. And you know Paramount put out 'Waiting for Superman.' I think it would be great to have more of these places start making docs. I think they have the ability to popularize docs even more, to help push them into theaters. That would be great." -- Morgan Spurlock, 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold'

"My goodness. [laughs] They need to be more brave, I think. I mean, the studios, they're doing a lot of action movies [that are] very visual and they should be brave, and, you know, I don't know. I mean, this festival is fantastic. It celebrates independent cinema, and I think if they could have more balls, that would be great. In Hollywood, yeah." -- Eva Green, 'Perfect Sense'

"I think it's changing right now - just look at the amount of Sundance films that are selling this year. I think the studios and buyers are getting the message -- new, young, awesome fresh voices can make money, are exciting, and can cut through. Look at the films that are nominated for Academy Awards this year -- it's just great to see that there are still so many independent voices out there. If an independent film is good, it deserves to be seen by tons and tons of people, so hopefully that's a trend that's coming." -- Drake Doremus, 'Like Crazy'

"More originality, yeah. They have to stop making the same movies over and over, and even like right next to each other. They're about to have two romantic comedies right next to each other that have the same exact plot line!" -- Jess Weixler, 'The Lie'

"I hope that there's a lot more moves like I've seen this year, like 'Black Swan,' 'The Fighter,' 'The King's Speech.' I hope there's more movies like that that really have a lot of heart in them. Even 'Black Swan,' which was like, you know, kind of scary and messed up, it did have heart and that was nice, because I think the year before last, it was just a bajillion romantic comedies -- which is good, but I wanted to see more -- just more, you know? 'The King's Speech,' I think is my favorite this year. Geoffrey Rush, I fell in love with him after that movie. I'm like, "You are the cutest man I've ever seen in my life." -- Emma Roberts, 'Homework'

"That it's all fixed. [laughs] There's more real movies, you know, yeah, that aren't movies based on products or franchises... It's hard to relate in any way to the industry, you know, and I end up sort of barely even calling myself a filmmaker when I think about that, that that is actually the industry I'm in." -- Miranda July, 'The Future'

"For us it was great working with this French company who were really bold, risk takers, and very decisive. They didn't spend a lot of time in committees trying to decide things -- like how to make our movie -- and they really supported us as artists. So I would say that if there's anything, it's that -- be bold, support the artists and make great movies." -- Laura Lau, 'Silent House'

"Hollywood has become very much focused on tentpole pictures and certain genre pictures, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for dramas or even any kind of other film. And often executives will read a script and love it, but it's a risk. They don't want to take that risk; they want to hedge their bets and play it safe because there's a lot of money at stake. There are too many chefs in the kitchen, and in order to make something unique we need to focus more on the singular vision." -- Chris Kentis, 'Silent House'

"Obviously a very complicated question ... I don't think there's anything to change necessarily, I think it's more of an evolution. I want the evolution and support of on-the-ground gorilla filmmaking to continue. I get a little cringy -- and I think the public does too -- when they see a movie that was made for $150 million because it's got name, name, name, name, and it just isn't good. I hope that sloppiness, and that carelessness, eventually evolves into the right trend of just saying you don't have to cast the entire thing with stars. I feel like we all feel that way -- even people within the studio system feel that way. But at the end of the day there's some weird business demon that comes, but I'm in support of ... performing an exorcism, yes! [laughs]" -- Lake Bell, 'Worst Enemy'