>”It was gargantuan. It was a company-ender. It would have ended a whole studio that would have never made its money back. So, I literally decided it was going to be the most expensive movie I ever directed, and I wasn’t ready to take that on.”
>”My company, DreamWorks, financed all these films, and I did not want to bring Robo’ into my own company, because it would have just been too expensive for us to produce. And then I took it out to other companies. I didn’t want to pay for it, but other companies were interested in paying for it, as long as I was the director.”
ArchDucky on
Yeah… I really don’t believe this.
The_Breastfed_CEO on
Bummer. I remember reading the book many years ago and enjoying it.
Loretta_Fabulous on
Scenes like this remind you that tension doesn’t need action, just good writing and timing.
dangerousbob on
So like, why would it be too expensive. Isn’t that what Spielberg does. Make big expensive movies.
wheresmyspacebar2 on
I love this book but i really dont understand why this would be a company-ender lol.
For the most part, the story is told from the perspective of like 3 people. Smaller groups you follow around that most of the time, rarely even run into the killer robots in the books.
You have the Native American Tribe story which is more about the struggles of humanity surviving with each other in the wake of the apocalypse.
You have the husband and wife in one of the big cities (cant remember the city) that basically just create a no-go zone for robots.
Then you have the girl that is being turned into a cyborg that manages to escape whilst having machine powers.
Most of your expensive set pieces come in the final like 2 chapters of the book where the like 2000 people “army” get destroyed in seconds.
Unless he was drastically changing the storyline, like in Ready Player One, and deciding to do some all out war film, i dont understand what he was even thinking about that would make this the most expensive movie he ever directed.
But then, i guess the horribly waste of $200M on Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull shows that Spielberg sometimes needs reigning in.
He could very easily make a film similar to War of the Worlds around this.
Artredbird on
He’s a cheapskate.
ContinuumGuy on
It’s a damn shame there is still a stigma against adult animation, because then the budget issues wouldn’t exist or would be at least much less pressing.
xotorames on
If he really wanted to make this movie, he could actually pay for it single-handedly and it wouldn’t impact his fortune.
I’m not saying he should do it, but it’s in moments like these that I respect Francis Ford Coppola, even if the result was terrible, for paying for his dream project out of his own pocket. I don’t respect him as a person, but as an artist, I do.
TableMindless3575 on
big bummer, that had potential to be really cool. guess hollywood’s still all about those safe bets.
10 Comments
Spielberg:
>”It was gargantuan. It was a company-ender. It would have ended a whole studio that would have never made its money back. So, I literally decided it was going to be the most expensive movie I ever directed, and I wasn’t ready to take that on.”
>”My company, DreamWorks, financed all these films, and I did not want to bring Robo’ into my own company, because it would have just been too expensive for us to produce. And then I took it out to other companies. I didn’t want to pay for it, but other companies were interested in paying for it, as long as I was the director.”
Yeah… I really don’t believe this.
Bummer. I remember reading the book many years ago and enjoying it.
Scenes like this remind you that tension doesn’t need action, just good writing and timing.
So like, why would it be too expensive. Isn’t that what Spielberg does. Make big expensive movies.
I love this book but i really dont understand why this would be a company-ender lol.
For the most part, the story is told from the perspective of like 3 people. Smaller groups you follow around that most of the time, rarely even run into the killer robots in the books.
You have the Native American Tribe story which is more about the struggles of humanity surviving with each other in the wake of the apocalypse.
You have the husband and wife in one of the big cities (cant remember the city) that basically just create a no-go zone for robots.
Then you have the girl that is being turned into a cyborg that manages to escape whilst having machine powers.
Most of your expensive set pieces come in the final like 2 chapters of the book where the like 2000 people “army” get destroyed in seconds.
Unless he was drastically changing the storyline, like in Ready Player One, and deciding to do some all out war film, i dont understand what he was even thinking about that would make this the most expensive movie he ever directed.
But then, i guess the horribly waste of $200M on Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull shows that Spielberg sometimes needs reigning in.
He could very easily make a film similar to War of the Worlds around this.
He’s a cheapskate.
It’s a damn shame there is still a stigma against adult animation, because then the budget issues wouldn’t exist or would be at least much less pressing.
If he really wanted to make this movie, he could actually pay for it single-handedly and it wouldn’t impact his fortune.
I’m not saying he should do it, but it’s in moments like these that I respect Francis Ford Coppola, even if the result was terrible, for paying for his dream project out of his own pocket. I don’t respect him as a person, but as an artist, I do.
big bummer, that had potential to be really cool. guess hollywood’s still all about those safe bets.