thrfeed.com— Syfy's original movies director Karen O'Hara Tweeted last week the network has greenlit a long-rumored "Sharktopus" movie -- and directed by B-movie king Roger Corman.
Feb 14, 2010View in Crawl 4
Syfy has made a handful of watchable movies, but none of them that good.They could achieve so much more even with a small budget. Look at Dog Soldiers as an example of a great low budget film.My only theory is Syfy's made-for-TV movies are supposed to lose money to help the parent company write off losses at tax time.
Exactly. I'm a HUGE Sci-fi fan, but it's things like this that have made me stop watching their network. As it stands the ONLY time I tune into Syfy channel anymore is to get my stargate fix. See, what Syfy SHOULD be doing, IMO, is using this money they blow on their s**ttastic movies to make new scifi shows, like BSG for example, and to buy up the shows other networks don't want and keep 'em going. (Terminator, Dollhouse, Firefly, etc.) Add that in, throw up some classic star trek, maybe some classic scifi B-movies, and they'll see their ratings go up.The problem is that Syfy is being run by people who don't understand what Sci-fi nerds want. They see low ratings and think "well, OBVIOUSLY our ratings are dipping 'cause our name is 'Sci-fi' -- we'll change it to 'Syfy' and that'll fix things! Say, how's the script for 'Mansquito 2' coming along?"*Sigh* I remember when Sci-fi, Comedy Central, and the History Channel were all I needed from cable TV. Sadly, those three networks have gone down the s**tter.
Hell, I think the History Channel has been doing better SciFi these days with "Life After People" and their Apocalypse obsession. I'm not sure if that says more about the state of SyFy or the "History" channel though...
BSG wasn't canceled. As marmot said, it wasn't a never ending series. They had a definite arc in mind and planned it to to be same number of seasons it ended up being.So with that in mind I'd change your comment to something like WTF is this really the same network that brought us BSG?! It got great ratings and critical acclaim, but for some reason they'd rather return to s**t "original" movies instead of taking a ran at another really well done series?!
Because no-one cares.With Avatar becoming the world's number one box office smash ever, few studios will try to approach James Cameron's attention to detail and length of time planning the movie. They want instant hits, instant revenue and would not have the patience to wait for 10 years or more before giving the go-ahead for quality.
As with many US productions, this will get the publicity that only Roger Corman could produce.I give it thumbs up for involving Corman, but thumbs down for not giving the film its proper genre; kaiju.The Japanese kick butt when it comes to this type of film. Though I will say that Cloverfield was the best kaiju film I have ever seen, with Godzilla 2001 (or whatever the title was) coming in a close second. The way that Gojiro dealt with the 1998 US clone (in 32 seconds no less) was "breathtaking" to say the least.Ol' green skin could kick this Sharkoctopus's but any day of the week and still have enegry left for Gidrah and Gamera. Big Man Japan would take on Sharkoctopus before breakfast and not even break a sweat.
bloodwineFeb 15, 2010
Syfy has made a handful of watchable movies, but none of them that good.They could achieve so much more even with a small budget. Look at Dog Soldiers as an example of a great low budget film.My only theory is Syfy's made-for-TV movies are supposed to lose money to help the parent company write off losses at tax time.
overridemymindFeb 15, 2010
Exactly. I'm a HUGE Sci-fi fan, but it's things like this that have made me stop watching their network. As it stands the ONLY time I tune into Syfy channel anymore is to get my stargate fix. See, what Syfy SHOULD be doing, IMO, is using this money they blow on their s**ttastic movies to make new scifi shows, like BSG for example, and to buy up the shows other networks don't want and keep 'em going. (Terminator, Dollhouse, Firefly, etc.) Add that in, throw up some classic star trek, maybe some classic scifi B-movies, and they'll see their ratings go up.The problem is that Syfy is being run by people who don't understand what Sci-fi nerds want. They see low ratings and think "well, OBVIOUSLY our ratings are dipping 'cause our name is 'Sci-fi' -- we'll change it to 'Syfy' and that'll fix things! Say, how's the script for 'Mansquito 2' coming along?"*Sigh* I remember when Sci-fi, Comedy Central, and the History Channel were all I needed from cable TV. Sadly, those three networks have gone down the s**tter.
charlotte_webFeb 15, 2010
They needed a name to match the quality of their programming.
klingon00Feb 15, 2010
Hell, I think the History Channel has been doing better SciFi these days with "Life After People" and their Apocalypse obsession. I'm not sure if that says more about the state of SyFy or the "History" channel though...
alienhairballFeb 15, 2010
BSG wasn't canceled. As marmot said, it wasn't a never ending series. They had a definite arc in mind and planned it to to be same number of seasons it ended up being.So with that in mind I'd change your comment to something like WTF is this really the same network that brought us BSG?! It got great ratings and critical acclaim, but for some reason they'd rather return to s**t "original" movies instead of taking a ran at another really well done series?!
rrwestFeb 15, 2010
Because no-one cares.With Avatar becoming the world's number one box office smash ever, few studios will try to approach James Cameron's attention to detail and length of time planning the movie. They want instant hits, instant revenue and would not have the patience to wait for 10 years or more before giving the go-ahead for quality.
rrwestFeb 15, 2010
As with many US productions, this will get the publicity that only Roger Corman could produce.I give it thumbs up for involving Corman, but thumbs down for not giving the film its proper genre; kaiju.The Japanese kick butt when it comes to this type of film. Though I will say that Cloverfield was the best kaiju film I have ever seen, with Godzilla 2001 (or whatever the title was) coming in a close second. The way that Gojiro dealt with the 1998 US clone (in 32 seconds no less) was "breathtaking" to say the least.Ol' green skin could kick this Sharkoctopus's but any day of the week and still have enegry left for Gidrah and Gamera. Big Man Japan would take on Sharkoctopus before breakfast and not even break a sweat.