Even as the William Goldman “nobody knows anything”-quote about Hollywood slips further into cliche status with the passing years, we get reminded of how true it remains. Just think about this: the biggest selling novel of our time may turn out to be a book by a first time writer based on an erotic fan fiction of a popular Young Adult series. It’s weird, but this week will see the release of the much-anticipated film version of Fifty Shades Of Grey. Who could have guessed that a novel most critics labeled “poorly written”, “laughable”, and “a sad joke” would be so wildly successful?
Even the film is successful, although it has yet to be released. Fandango has listed it as it's fourth largest ticket pre sale and it’s on-track to become the biggest R-rated film in the site’s history. Two sequels are already on their way to the big screen (with the third likely to be split into two films, if Hollywood keeps up it’s trend of squeezing every bit of life out of a franchise). And E.L. James has promised another novel. We don’t have to wait until tomorrow’s release, Fifty Shades the movie is already a winner.
But how did Hollywood get around that pesky problem of not knowing anything? Well, they did their homework and they planned ahead. After setting a record for the fastest selling novel of all time, Fifty Shades Of Grey got a movie release date set in November of 2013. That means fifteen months in advance, Universal Pictures made a play to own the 2015 Valentine’s Day weekend box-office. They left nothing to chance. They knew people wanted it and they planned to give it to them.
Jodie Foster explained recently at the Athena Film Festival that she's decided to work in TV lately because “That’s where story is now.” She said that the Hollywood studios directive now was to "create franchise content...So because there is very little support in the lower ranges, it means that story is going to cable and to TV and I think eventually that’s where it will be.”
Certainly, movies are franchised. Fifty Shades is just one of many examples where that’s true. But let’s not kid ourselves, TV is franchised as well. From it’s Marvel and DC Comic shows to the countless number of adapted British series. TV is creating new series around popular movies (12 Monkeys, About A Boy, Fargo), books (Man Seeking Woman), plays (The Odd Couple), telenovelas (Jane The Virgin), and even old TV series (Hawaii Five-0).
Maybe Foster was talking specifically about the TV projects she’s recently worked on, House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black- the former based on a British show and the latter based on a popular memoir. Both shows were also well established programs by the time she came to them. Most would argue, those are franchises.
To the other part of Foster's statement regarding the story being in TV and cable now- maybe the longer story. The only difference between the stories in movies and the stories in TV shows is the length. TV can tell longer stories. They can make an audience invest more time and emotion into a single character. So when a character is killed off, the emotional impact feels greater, just like in a book series. A good example of this can be seen in the hugely popular franchise/TV show Game Of Thrones. TV is thriving on long-form stories in a way that soap operas have for years. Drawing stories out with cliff hangers and teases and surprise twists. But making stories longer isn't necessarily making them better and the idea that TV has taken the story from films is ridiculous. Don't forget that Hollywood's two biggest films this year, Avengers Age of Ultron and Star Wars Epsiode 7, are being helmed by seasoned TV writers.
At the aTV Fest in Atlanta this past weekend, I wanted to figure out why TV shows are so popular right now. John Ridley observed perhaps TV's greatest development. Promoting his new show American Crime, the show runner spoke about how TV isn't so much diverse now as it is reflective. He was pointing to networks producing content with more minorities, created by more minorities. Obviously, he’s right: Fresh Off The Boat, Black-ish, How To Get Away With Murder, Empire are all just some of the shows getting high praise and ratings.
But while TV is diverse culturally, it’s no more diverse in content than it’s ever been. There are more shows, but they’re just more of the same we’ve seen before. This is strange because usually more competition creates an environment of greater risk taking. But although competition is high right now with cable networks like HBO, FX, AMC, and the CW growing in strides, not to mention Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix producing original programs, TV isn’t really taking chances on new subject matters or storylines. The risks they are taking are completely based on ethnicity.
What networks today are doing is really not much different from what they did back in the 60s. They are creating shows that shadow other show on competing networks. Like how Bewitched shadowed I Dream Of Jeannie, The Mindy Project is basically a shadow of The New Girl. The shows could switch writers and most viewers wouldn't really notice. The glowing difference in these shows isn't the story or comedy, it's the race of the lead characters- Zooey Deschanel is the quirky American girl next door, Mindy Kaling is the quirky Indian-American girl next door.
If you need further proof that TV stories are more of the same, just look at how they still rehash popular shows that have recently left the air. You can watch Backstroke if you’re missing House. And if you're missing Breaking Bad, well, now you can watch Better Call Saul.
And how did the networks bring back the episodic narrative show? They listened to what people said they wanted and they gave it to them. A boring answer, but it was the viewer that told them they valued more culturally diverse content. Viewers don’t really care about new stories. Maybe they say they do. But it turns out they’re happy with dressed up versions of old shows or some popular franchise that is already familiar.
TV and films are the same in this respect. Neither of them is in the story business per se, but rather in the give-the-people-what-they-want business. It was the culture that asked Hollywood for a Fifty Shades movie. So Hollywood is giving it to them. Not because they think it’s an original story, they know it’s a poorly written fan fiction. And it’s not because they believe in the writer. I mean, her original pen name was Snowqueen’s Icedragon, for God’s sake. Do you realize how fucking ridiculous that is?
The studios are making the Fifty Shades Of Grey movie because there is zero risk involved. It is already a success. Even though early critic reviews of the film are not good and it’s Rotten Tomatoes rating is 44 percent, 87 percent still say they're going to see it. And you can bet that TV is ready to follow in Hollywood’s footsteps. They’re probably looking for a Fifty Shades show runner at this moment. And viewers will likely tune in. Because it’s not just TV networks and Hollywood studios who don’t know anything, audiences can be pretty clueless as well.
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