1994
1995
Mel Gibson's Braveheart, which is is the first high profile medieval times movie since 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It accentuates freedom, and a revenge story, perhaps as an enticement to American audiences. While a moderate box-office success, it goes on to win Best Picture, at the Academy Awards. While historical movies have won Oscars before, this is the furthest back in time the Academy has gone to award a movie since Ben Hur in 1960.
1996
Dragonheart is a European style fantasy film about a disgraced knight (Dennis Quaid), joining forces with a dragon to overthrow an evil prince. The movie is not a huge success, but is considered an impressive display of special effects. Dennis Quaid does not use an English accent.
1997
Buffy The Vampire Slayer hits the airwaves. The creation of Joss Whedon, who originally pitched it as a movie which would reverse the "damsel in distress" tropes found in horror movies. By this point, Scream had come out, and horror films would have a self-aware style for the next few years. It would also become popular to poach stars from teen shows on Fox and the WB for their horror pictures, including Buffy's star Sarah Michele Gellar. The shows soon moves away from horror specifically, and starts to gravitate towards Urban Fantasy. Vampires would run detective agencies and battle demonic law firms. Teenagers would learn magic, and use it to solve relationship problems. However, despite the very strong fanbase and acclaim Buffy the Vampire Slayer would receive, it would not be a sizable mainstream hit. As soon as youth-oriented slashers died out, teen movies would go through other trends, like Shakepeare updates, dance competitions, and even parodies of popular teen genres. However, teenagers fighting the forces of evil would not catch on for quite some time.
Titanic is released--the movie falls under many genre classifications--disaster, romance, historical epic. It's considered a big, effects-intensive movie, with historical weight behind it. Despite the not-so-modern subject matter, Leonardo DiCaprio becomes intensely popular with young women. DiCaprio had recently done an update on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the iconic story about star-crossed young lovers. English actress Kate Winslet, who first came to known through Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, fakes an American accent.
1998
Drew Barrymore stars in Ever After: A Cinderella Story. It's a live action, somewhat feminist, "realistic" take on Cinderella fairy tale. It's not the first live action adaptation of a fairy tale, nor the first to "demythify" folklore, (It's been done with King Arthur foreeeever) it's able to take subject matter out of the "kiddie" zone, and make it a viable trip to the theater for a generation of young women. Kate Winslet's Heavenly Creatures co-star Melanie Lynskey, has a small part. which shows how fickle career trajectories can be. Everyone adopts an English accent, to varying results.
2000
Gladiator is released. The movie is directed by Ridley Scott, and stars Russel Crowe, who was born in New Zealand, but got his start in the Australian film industry. Like Braveheart, it tries to relate to American audiences by giving the main character a revenge arc, and emphasizes the displacement of a tyrant. Like, Braveheart, it would also win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. However, Gladiator is a much bigger commercial success. Because the historical epic, especially the swords and sandals epic, was so popular in old school Hollywood, producers start looking to capitalize on Gladiator's success. It can makes them some bucks, and maybe even nab a little bit of prestige whole they're at it.
The Patriot is released. It's another revenge-themed, historical epic about revenge and freedom once again starring Mel Gibson. (And in tow, rising young Australian actor, Heath Ledger, who got attention for 10 Things I Hate About You, an update on William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew") However, this time, the action takes place in the post-gunpowder era, on the American continent. It manages to earn more than Braveheart, but much less than Gladiator, and receives much less awards attention than either.
New Line releases Dungeons and Dragons, which is both a huge critical and commercial failure. Of the core cast, only Jeremy Irons is a Brit. Everybody speaks with American accents, except for Irons, and, in a small role, former Doctor Who star Tom Baker.
2001
A Knight's Tale is released, starring Heath Ledger. It uses a medieval setting to put on a new spin on sports movie tropes. The movie opens decently, but never makes a permanent mark, despite a high concept young adult setting, and a star that would become iconic, and lots of swordfighting--lots of things would characterize the new millennium in film.
Shrek, opens. The movie operates as something like a counter to the typical Disney fairy tale. While not under the radar, it wasn't expected to dominate the summer box office like it did. Possessing an American cast, it's often not compared to other fantasy movies, but rather snarky CGI animations, it is worth noting it would cement the top three movies of 2001 at the U.S. box office having European fantasy literature as its subject.
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone comes out. It breaks box office records, and gets good reviews, although some complain the movie plays it safe as not to alienate the fans and family audience. Although directed by an American, author J.K. Rowling manages to veto the casting of any American actors. (The series soon becomes a who's who of Brits) It plays out at close to three hours--quite long for a children's film, but it doesn't seem to hurt the popularity of the film at all. The film takes place in contemporary times, (give or take a few years) but the director Chris Columbus gives it a softly retro, timeless feel.
A month later, that other highly anticipated adaptation of a fantasy series comes out, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. It is slightly less successful than Harry Potter, but more strongly received critically, and even earns an Oscar nomination for best picture. The movie takes place in a mythical realm called Middle Earth, (considered to be a pre-Europe) and is shot in New Zealand. The cast is largely international, although the amongst the bigger stars, it has a slight American plurality. Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler, and Sean Astin all portray English-sounding accents for their role. Wood was never a teen heartthrob, but he is very young. A lot kudos also goes to the WETA workshop, and its chief, Richard Taylor. The company produces makeup, weapons, costumes, and CGI, and completely revolutionizes the visual language of blockbusters, at least those taking place in a time long ago or far away.
The movies are very different in tone, but there are a few aesthetic similarities. Both have grey-bearded wizard mentors, (common throughout the genre), Gandalf and Dumbledore. Thier actors, Ian McKellen and Richard Harris, respectively, take shots at one another in the press. Both have show-stopping sequences in the middle where our heroes have to take on a giant, CGI-troll. Both have have black hooded, skulking antagonists. As a result, many parodies at the time conflate the two works. However, "Lord of the Rings" has the image of skewing older than Harry Potter.
2002
Harry Potter has its sequel, Chamber of Secrets, and Lord of the Rings has its sequel, The Two Towers. Both a very successful, and considered improvements on their predecessors. Both have CGI-generated characters who speak in weird vernacular and act as servants/nuisances to our heroes. (Dobby and Gollum, respectively) However, Chamber of Secrets makes less than Sorceror's Stone, while Two Towers made more than Fellowship. In fact, Two Towers made more than Attack of the Clones, the latest Star Wars movie. All three of the Lord of the Rings movies were shot simultaneously, while the Harry Potter crew shoots movie to movie. Because of intensity of the schedule, Columbus bows out of directing, and it's decided the movies will come out roughly every 18 months, as opposed to every year.
2003
Pirates of the Caribbean, based on the the Disney theme park ride, is released. People are surprised just how much they like it, owing much to the electric, eccentric performance of its star, Johnny Depp. Depp is American but much of the principal cast is English, including Keira Knightly, Geoffery Rush, and Orlando Bloom. Bloom first came to attention as Legolas in Lord of the Rings, and is something a teen heartthrob, an Errol Flynn for the millenial generation, and Pirates is his second mega-blockbuster in less than a year. The film even manages to make more than the highly anticpated sequel to the futuristic Matrix. Pirates, like Gladiator before it, becomes credited for reviving what was thought to be a dead, old-fashioned genre. Once again, While Depp earns an Oscar nomination for his performance (very rare for a fantasy film!), it doesn't get a best picture nominations, as the deck is stacked with these kinds of films.
Underworld comes out. Starring Kate Beckinsale, it features a female vampire and male werewolf as star-crossed lovers. While movies have featured both vampires or werewolves as (often-doomed) protagonists, this the first movie where all the main characters are. The movies take place in the present day, but have a gothic, old world aesthetic. It's believed the movie is a blatant rip-off of the role playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade, and the company sues. Underworld manages to spawn three sequels.
Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World the first of three historical epics is released. Starring Russel Crowe, and A Knight's Tale's Paul Bettany, is an adaptation of a series of novels about naval warfare during the time of Napoleon. It makes roughly half of what Gladiator did, but the reviews are enough to secure it a nomination for best picture.
The Last Samurai, where Tom Cruise finds himself in Japan as its moves away from Feudalism, is the most recent of all the year's epics, but manages to evoke a sense of an older time, with much of the sword-fighting and armor. The movie does alright at the box office, (and much better overseas) but gets the least Academy recognition.
Cold Mountain, is a Civil War epic, and its American subject matter makes its overseas box-office much softer. Its gets a few Academy Award nominations, but it fails to get Best Picture, despite being the horse of Oscar perennial Mirimax. In fact, this the first time Mirimax has failed to get a nomination for Best Picture since 1992.
Return of the King, is the final installment in the Lord of the Rings saga, however, does quite well at the Oscars, managing a sweep of eleven awards to eleven nominations. It also manages, after Titanic, to become the second movie, after Titanic, to make a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. While superheroes are a growing genre in the US, they do moderate business overseas compared to films that resemble Lord of the Rings. Already, there is talk of bringing The Hobbit to the screen, but studio New Line doesn't have the rights, MGM does.
2004
Anne Hathaway, who broke out due to 2001's Ella Enchanted, a film that's both a modern day take on fairy tales and yet...not. The best way to describe it is as sort of a live-action Shrek. The movie is released by Mirimax, leading some to ask if this is what Lord of the Rings would look like under their influence. Interestingly, it does take the Lord of the Rings/Dungeons and Dragons approach to non-human races, which used to be a lot more...disorganized. Whether it's a musical or not is debatable--it possesses a few musical numbers, but it seems after Shrek, fantasy and musicals had a bad break-up, and Ella Enchanted serves as one last roll in the hay before fantasy takes its things and goes. Anne Hathway is the only one who doesn't speak in an English accent.
HBO airs Deadwood. The show is an especially dark and gritty look at the old west. While Westerns are usually not considered part of the historical epic genre, this is something of a breakthrough for cable TV. Most of HBO's shows have been contemporary. Deadwood doesn't last long despite its acclaim, but the channel starts opening itself up to suggestions on how best to pervert the costume drama. Also, it raises the profile of Ian McShane, who possesses a lot of gravitas, but because Deadwood wasn't huge, isn't very expensive.
Mel Gibson gives the world his controversial Passion of the Christ. The movie is not picked up by any major studio, due to its being spoken in Aramaic, its onscreen brutality, and concerns of the movie's anti-Semitic bent. Despite the blood and controversy, or because of it, the movies becomes a huge smash. Christians book entire showings. Conservatives rally around Gibson in an election year. The film becomes the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever.
Troy is released. Based on the myth of the Trojan War, Troy scales back a lot of the mythical elements for a straight historical documentation on figures who may or may not have existed. Brad Pitt stars as Achilles, and does vaguely old-theatrical, if not British accent. The movie also stars Orlando Bloom as Paris, and Australian Eric Bana as Hector. (Also in a small role is Lord of the Rings star Sean Bean) One of the new stars is Australian Rose Byrne, who would go on o find her place in Hollywood in raunchy comedies, of all things. The movie opens very strong, but due to a crowded May, dissipates very quickly. It's no Gladiator, although, at 130 million dollars at home, and 400 million worldwide, it would be the most successful movie to try and follow in Gladiator's footsteps of the early 2000's.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the installment in the boy wizard's adventures. The series tries out the summer. A new director is brought on board, Mexican Alfonso Curaon. Many changes are made to the aesthetic. Instead of glossy style straight of of Dickens, the movie has a dark, expressionist pallor. The kids no longer wear semi-formal clothes fit for family dinners, but hoodies and jackets. The humor is generally more modern, and the music less whimsical. It gets some of the best reviews yet, but the movie still sees diminishing returns at the box office. Interestingly, it's also the third movie in less than a year to feature a werewolf as a central character.
Jerry Bruckheimer makes his summer play with King Arthur. Curiously, it takes the legend of King Arthur and put it around the time of the decline of the Roman Empire. Like Troy, it tries to take mythological figures and place them in a historical context. Like Gladiator and Braveheart, it tries present its objectives as intelligible with modern day democracy. None of its cast is American. Originally imagined as R-Rated, cuts are made to draw fans of last summer's Pirates of the Caribbean, which also presented Keira Knightley as a spunk heroine. However, all these attempts at splitting the difference seems to hurt the movie. Critics are not impressed, and the movie outright tanks, although it makes decent money overseas.
Alexander, Oliver Stone's long-boiling passion project of Alexander the Great, is released, boasting an all-star cast. However, of all the the historical epics released this year, Alexander is by far the worst commercial performer of all of Hollywood's trips through antiquity this year. The Greeks speak with an English accent, the Macedonians speak with an Irish accent, and foreigners like Angelina Jolie speak in Count Choculese.
2005
The summer of 2005 opens with King of Heaven, helmed by Gladiator director Ridley Scott. After playing second fiddle through most of the millennium's epics, Orlando Bloom is put front and center. The studio puts it in Gladiator's release date. However, rather than the usual narrative of "FREEDOM", the film looks at the Crusades, and compares it to the conflict in the Middle East, with a critical eye towards the west. Also, the film has been heavily cut to increase more theater showings, and critics are not impressed. (The longer cut on DVD is much better received) The movie fizzles, and manages to make less than indie movie, and eventual best picture winner, Crash. The rest of the summer now has to play catch-up at the box-office, and is plagued by talks of a "slump".
HBO tries it again with Rome, which is a BBC production, that combines historical class and modern epithets. It's a co-production with the BBC, but it still manages to be too expensive. Premium cable is definitely attracting an audience with their new spin on classic genres, but they have to work out the financial kinks.
The studio moves Harry Potter back to the Holiday season with Goblet of Fire, which finally manages to reverse the decline of the franchise, and it becomes the second highest grossing movie of the series so far. It's not quite as moody and eccentric as Prisoner of Azkaban, but not quite as family friendly as the first two movies, with its first PG-13 rating. In fact, teenage issues are now coming more into the forefront, with the characters experiencing romance and mortality. It also boasts an early appearance by Robert Pattinson. Also, manages to fit in a Doctor Who, David Tennant.
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe comes out. It's directed by Shrek's Andrew Adamson, and produced by Walden Media, although Disney distributes it. Like Potter, the main characters are all children, and thus, largely unknowns. The biggest names are Tida Swinton as the eponymous Witch, and Liam Neeson, as the voice of the eponymous Lion. (Neeson would play an angry father figure in every third movie of 2005, and would soon reinvent himself as Angry Dad) All the parties involved are hoping for a lucrative franchise, to fill the void left by Lord of the Rings, (Who's author. J.R.R. Tolkien, was friends with Narnia creator, C.S. Lewis) and the WETA worskshop works to bring Narnia to life as it did with Middle Earth. Although it skew younger than Rings, and even Potter's, the movie boasts large epic battles with mythical creatures. It also courts the Christian crowds which made The Passion such a hit. It pretty much works--although not quite as large as any Lord of the Rings movie, it's still the second highest grossing movie of the year--handily beating Jackson's own King Kong.
2006
Tristian and Isolde, a movie featuring more obscure characters from Athurian myth, is released. It's produced by Ridley Scott, who has been trying to make a movie based on the tale since the 70's. kind of hopes to be a bit of a Medieval Titanic, but the James Franco Sophia Myles movie never takes off. However, for such a cheap movie, it possesses the sumptuous Ridley Scott look, and also boasts future fixtures of the genre, Henry Cavill and Mark Strong.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is released, breaking box office records, and making more than first movie by a considerable amount. The CGI for Davey Jones is considered outstanding, but critics feel the movie felt rather overextended, considering the first movie was so popular because of its levity. The series starts to build more and more of a mythology, considering the first was more of a regular world strange things happened in. There would be two more Pirates movies, however Knightley and Bloom would only appear in the next, which was sot back-to-back with Dead Man's Chest.
Mel Gibson makes his follow-up to The Passion, the Mayan-set Apocalypto. Like The Passion, Apocalypto features a foreign language and a lot of blood, and it opens solidly, but nowhere near The Passion's level. This is perhaps due to it not attracting the Churchgoers, and Gibson's own bad publicity following a recent DUI arrest.
The Nativity is released during the Holiday season, hoping to be the beginning to Passion of the Christ's end. It's directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and presents a very young cast, including New Zealander Keisha Castle Hughes as Mary. The movie gets good reviews, and tries to attract the faith audiences, but it does not work as well as The Passion. The cast looks a lot different from many Nativity scenes, and it has neither Mel Gibson's name, nor the furor attached to bring it attention. Also, Hughes gets maybe too caught up in method acting, and has a child, which may have made Christian audiences nervous.
Eragon, based on the popular novels by Chris P comes out, once again, hoping for that Lord of the Rings audience. Its cast is mostly young, except for Gladiator's Djmoun Honsou and Jeremy Irons, but the movie itself is not received well. Fans of the book complain there are too many changes, and non-fans criticize it as a Star Wars rip-off, which is doubly damning as Star Wars is basically a futuristic version of heroic epics anyways.
2007
300 comes out. Directed by Zach Snyder and based on the comic by Frank Miller, 300 is a highly stylized take on the historical battle of Thermoplia. The movie is much less ambitious than a lot of recent movies of its pedigree, at least when it comes to going for prestige. The production is much cheaper, and the cast much less star-studded. (Although it included future names like Michael Fassbender and Lena Headley) Its main ambition is using CGI to depict a "backlot" feeling, as Sin City and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow did. It also goes back to the narrative of tyranny vs freedom. The film draws a lot of parallels to the war on terror, but parallels that are lot more flattering to the west than Kingdom of Heaven. Most of the cast speaks with an English accent, though Gerard Butler lets his Scottish brogue slip in. Xerxes sounds like a cross between Spanish and robot. The movie is huge smash, making more than even Gladiator, although it would not be an awards contender at all. However, its influence was very influential, as many historical programs would ape its style.
Walden released Bridge to Terebethia, a well-loved young adult novel. Trailers make it seem like another Narnia, but that is a simply a bait-and-switch, it is really quite faithful to its down-to-earth novel. It's one of Walden's more successful releases, and stars newcomer Josh Hutcherson. (Who would star in Walden's second biggest franchise, Journey to (Jules Verne wrote about it).
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix moves back to summer, but this time it isn't hurt. Many fans consider it the one Potter movie that's an improvement on the book, and it doesn't hurt that attention for the series is at an all-time high due to the final book being released. The film improves on Goblet of Fire's take.
An adaptation of Stardust is Neil Gaiman's Stardust hits theaters. It stars Claire Danes, newcomer Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfieffer, and a way-against type Robert DeNiro. It's a story of witches and pirates and true love, and the makers are hoping it can be The Princess Bride for a new generation. However, they forgot The Princess Bride wasn't a big hit when it came out.
Weinstein takes a stab at historical epics with The Last Legion, another movie that ties the the fall of the Roman Empire with Arthurian myth. It has Ben Kingsley as Merlin and quickly fades away.
New Line, the studio that made Lord of the Rings, tries its own hand at giving us a Lord of the Rings successor, with The Golden Compass, the first in a planned His Dark Materials trilogy. New Line's head of production is in a very public battle with Peter Jackson over Lord of the Rings finances, so he's hoping The Golden Compass will be big. It is not big. The series is something of an anti-Narnia, as the book's author, Phillip Pullman, is an avowed atheist, and the enemy of the series is an ersatz Catholic Church. It's not going to attract the family crowds. The movie is a big underperformer stateside, and what's worse, New Line played softball with overseas distributor. As a result, the studio sees little of the 300 million that was made overseas (The most for a film that failed to gross 100 million) and as a result, parent studio Warner Bros absorbs New Line, which ceases to exist as an independent distributor.
2008
The follow up to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is released. This Chapter in the Narnia Saga is Prince Caspian, and it is a much softer performer in the US, making half of Wardrobe did. It's considered quite perplexing, and many wonder how such a drop occurred. Several reasons are presented; The move to summer, the lack of appealing the faith crowd, the competition, or simply that people were more aware of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as a standalone book as opposed to Narnia as a series. Disney opts out of distributing the Narnia films.
HBO airs True Blood, based on a series of novels called The Southern Vampire Mysteries, by Chairlene Harris. It Stars Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress with the ability to read minds. She soons falls in love with a vampire, Bill Compton, played by Stephe Moyer. (The two become a real life couple) It eventually throws a love triangle in...well, a love polygon of some sort, as it seems every supernatural being wants to bite of Sookie. The most popular paramour though, is Eric Northman, played by Alexander Skaarsgard. Eric possesses many of the qualities of a breakout anti-hero--fair, slick, snarky and brooding. Most of the cast is international, but speaks with a very hammy Southern accent. The series is HBO's biggest hit.
Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert create another syndicated show, Legend of the Seeker, based on Terry Goodkind's (Don't call them) fantasy novels, Sword of Truth. It's a natural fit, as Lord of the Rings, was shot in New Zealand like Raimi and Tapert's old shows were. The show is successful, especially worldwide, but the television mode has changed and you can't be a free agent, you need a patron.
Delays keep the next Harry Potter movie from coming out in time for November, and an independent studio sees their chance. Summit greenlights a movie based on a series of popular novels, called Twilight. Directed by Nativity's Catherine Hardwicke, and starring Kristen Stewart and Harry Potter alum Robert Pattinson, the story is a romance novel with vampires, but a strangely bloodless one. Critics find it rote, feminists find it problematic, and horror fans find its bastardized, however teen girls eat it up, making it one of the biggest movies of the year, and stars out of its media-shy cast. Strangely, it's not subject to a lot of the religious controversies many supernatural franchisetargeting youths get, as Stephanie Meyer is a devout Mormon, and the series itself is almost a treatise on abstinence.
2009
The CW, which is successor network to the WB channel, airs The Vampire Diaries, based on the series of popular books. Like Twilight, and True Blood, it features a mortal woman in love with a vampire, and also has the requisite love triangles. It soon becomes CW's most popular show, and eventually a spin-off is commissioned.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince enters theaters, to some of the most universally positive reviews, but also fan complaints. Nontheless, the series makes it past the 300 million mark again for the first time since the inaugural entry in 2001. Once again taking the fall spot, the sequel to Twilight, New Moon absolutely explodes, making almost as much as Half Blood Prince--quite a feat considering one is amongst the highest profile franchises and the other is a one-quadrant movie, and an independent production with a much smaller budget. "Team Jacob" vs "Team Edward" become part of the cultural lexicon. In fact, "Team ___" in general spreads out. Taylor Lautner becomes the requisite Twilight cast member who's happy to be there. By now, Harry Potter is no longer being compared to Lord of the Rings, but ~. The protagonists are now roughly the same age, and Potter is less about whimsy and discovery, and more about secrets and subterfuge and love triangles. It's moved away from "Children's Fantasy" into what is now widely "Young Adult", even though, as Harry Potter, it's its own entity.
After more than two decades, Disney tries their hand again at Fairy Tales, as well as revving old-school cel animation, with The Princess and the Frog. Altough based on one of Grimm's classics, the movie takes place in Louisiana, and much is made the main character of Tiana being Disney's first black princess. The movie manages to pass the 100 million mark, but it was not the renaissance they were hoping for. The studio will make sure their next fairy tale adaptations are CGI, and possessed of gender-neuteral adjectives.
2010
Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert once again return to TV (and New Zealand) with the series Spartacus, based on the historical figure, who became the subject the 1960 movie, which is considered a classic of the sword-and-sandals drama. It airs on Starz! and its more in the vein of blood and nudity watchers of cable have come to expect, and the influence of 300 is unmistakeable. Xena herself, Lucy Lawless, is part of the cast. The show is a success, considering Starz! is just starting out with original programming, but star Andy Whitfield is disagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and while the production delays to accommodate his treatment, he eventually succumbs. Liam McIntyre replaces the titular role, and it lasts for two more seasons.
Percy Jackson and the Lighning Thief comes out. It's directed by Christopher Columbus, who was at the helm for the first Harry Potter. In fact, Percy Jackson is largely being pitched as "Harry Potter, but with Greek Gods". It's also here that the tropes of Young Adult fiction as films begins to crystallize for moviegoing audiences. The franchise-specific buzzwords, the refuges, that sort of thing. Percy Jackson may in fact be the first "Young Adult" movie that isn't considered as such retroactively.
Disney brings Johnny Depp and Tim Burton back together for Alice in Wonderland. This will officially be the first blockbuster to be based on popular fairy tales--usually one associated with Disney. (Though Alice's categorization of "fairy tale" is kind of nominal) It even has some Lord of the Rings style battles, even though the original Alice in Wonderland was more about math. It's a huge hit, and convinces studios they can get more money with 3D.
WB releases the remake of Clash of the Titans. Once again, another Aussie is brought in to sport some swords and sandals. The movie is a decent-sized hit, perhaps most helped by Liam Neeson, recently minted as an action star, playing Zeus and uttering the very-hard-to-apply-to-everyday-situations "Release the Kracken". It's also Gemma Arterton's first role as a lead, who studios are hoping is the new Keira Knightley (Now that Knightley has largely sworn off action movies) The movie seems to have been heavily edited, and critics complain the CGI post added to the movie is superfluous and actively hurts the viewing experience.
Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott reteam for Robin Hood, a character that has a great deal of cinematic popularity. The film co-stars Cate Blanchett and Mark Strong, who's become a popular villain in period pieces. Despite the potential for breakout as Robin Hood is known for fighting taxes, and 2010 is the year of the Tea Party, Ridley Scott uses it to take shots at the war on terror, and a lot of references to the Magna Carta. A great deal of audiences also feel like they've been bamboozled into watching a prequel. Nontheless, it's both Crowe's and Scott's biggest earner in a long time.
The newest Twilight adaptation, Eclipse, comes out, and manages to pass the 300 million mark. Because of the low budget, the Twilight movies are able to cranked out at a much faster pace than the Harry Potter movies. A lot of the attention also centers on the half-hidden romance between its two stars, Stewart and Pattinson.
The last adaptation of the Harry Potter series hits the screens, however the book, Deathly Hallows, is split in two, with the first part receiving some of the weakest reviews of the series, (but not still not too bad) as removing most of the climactic battles makes the viewing experience feel like a lot of wheel-spinning. In box office, it dips below Half Blood Prince, and is the first time a Harry Potter movie makes less than a Twilight movie in a head-to-head contest.
The first Narnia movie released under Fox comes out, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Released in the more familiar ground of December, and playing more on the Christian allegory, it doesn't hemorrhage its audience nearly as much as Prince Caspian, but is still only moderately a blockbuster. The series is now officially at the point where the next chapter, The Silver Chair, would not feature any human characters seen in Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Fox later announces it will make The Magician's Nephew, which features Tilda Swinton's character from the first movie, but as of this writing, no new developments are in place.
2011
From Focus, comes the Eagle. It's the second movie in a year to be about the Ninth Legion, and the fourth movie in the past ten years to be about Rome's relationship with the British Isles. It's another UK film, although it cast American Channing Tatum as the lead Roman soldier. In fact, it seems to generally cast Americans as Romans, and Brits as natives.
Warner Bros released Red Riding Hood, which is the second of the fairy movies (and more squarely in the "fairy tale" categorization than Alice in Wonderland). It's directed by Twilight's Catherine Hardwicke, and is played less as a fantasy film for the family, than a sexy horror film with teen angst and love triangles. The wolf from the story is re-imagined as a werewolf, which would not be the first or last time in regards to the Red Riding Hood story. The cast is a mix of American and British, and they do whatever accents they feel like.
An film adapts the young adult novel Beastly, which is the story of Beauty and the Beast set in the modern day. The book was optioned to be a novel in record time, but the movie was delayed as other studios were thinking what they were thinking, and the studio wanted to give it berth. Even though it combines two things that would be very popular film trends--young adult romance in a supernatural setting, and an update on fairy tales, neither element helped it become a hit.
HBO airs Game of Thrones. Based on the popular fantasy series, "A Song of Ice and Fire". It contains the grandeur and imagination (and fanbase intensity!) of Lord of the Rings, with the lurid darkness found in the burgeoning genre of historical shows found on premium cable. The series is so expensive to produce, only ten episodes are made per season. The show stars Rings alum Sean Bean, who's character dies at the end of the first season, creating a maelstrom of water cooler talk. Soon, the show (like the books), becomes an addiction and social media sensation to see who's next to become the victim of the cruel climate of Westeros. Peter Dinklage is singled out as the standout of the show, and receives quite a few acting awards. Thrones eventually becomes one of HBO's most watched shows, and while the channel sin't able to charge for ad space, the cultural cachet it has certainly helps it attract subscribers.
Thor is released. It's based specifically on the Marvel comic, which draws a lot from Norse mythology, however it interprets Asgard and its inhabitants as aliens with sufficiently advanced technology, in attempt to better fit the series in with its Avengers franchise. It's directed by Kenneh Branaugh, as his numerous adaptations of Shakespeare are said to make him a good fit for the property. The cast is of multiple nationalities, (including Australian, Chris Hemworth, as the title character), but the Asgardians speak with an English accent. Tom Hiddleston, playing Loki, develops an online fanbase similar to Alan Rickman's Snape from Harry Potter. In fact, Thor and Loki are probably subject to the most fanfiction seen for a Marvel comics adaptation.
The Harry Potter series concludes with the second part of Deathly Hallows. It's well-received, and considered a fitting send-off to the series. It manages a series high of 381 million, in the neighborhood of other saga conclusions like Return of the King and Revenge of the Sith.
ABC airs Once Upon a Time, which is about classic fairy tale characters trapped in the Modern World. The set-up is much like ABC's own Lost, where they juxtapose a character's current struggles, with their fairy tale background, which is usually somewhat darker than the stories tell. As it's a Disney production, the characters usually use the names (and sometimes personas) of how they were under Disney interpretations. The characters dress like Lord of the Rings in the streets, and like Rogers and Hammerstein in the sheets. That is, they're made to look quite badass when fighting, but quite frilly when romancing. The show is very popular, and produces a short-lived spinoff.
Tarsem Singh's Immortals is released. It features a lot of the stylistic choices of 300. This explicitly features characters from Greek mythology, although as something of a mishmash, as it ties the myth of the Minotaur, with an apocalyptic schemes to release the Titans, something which becomes a fixture in many Greek mythology films. It co-stars Freido Pinto, the first non-white actress to be a lead in pretty much any of these movies listed. I'm unsure of the accents half the cast is going for.
Once again, the concluding chapter of a book series split in two, with Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I. Once again, it seems chopping a story up and leaving on a cliffhanger cuts into business, as this is the first Twilight movie to see a decrease.
2012
The first of the year's two Snow White movies come out. Mirror Mirror is directed by Tarsem Singh, who made the Immortals, and although it's also a visually distinct movie, its tone is much lighter, and plays as a comedy. Despite this, it also follows the formula, more or less, of the newcomer playing the princess, and an established movie star playing the antagonist or mentor.
The follow-up to Clash of the Titans, Wrath of Titans, is released. Of the previous cast, only Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, and Ralph Fiennes return. It's yet another movie about releasing Titans laying waste to the Earth. (Which, to be fair, makes it the first movie in the franchise ato ctually justify the name) 3D premiums are down, and the reviews trash it, Wrath makes roughly half of what Clash did.
Thor and Loki and major part of 2012's biggest movie, The Avengers. Directed by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Avengers seems to now be part of the Tumblr fold, where many other Marvel comics adaptations were not.
The second Snow White movie comes out, Snow White and the Huntsmen. This interpretation is a lot darker, and a lot more serious. While Charlize Theron as the evil queen is very established, Kristen Stewart is coming off the Twilight franchise, and gets top billing. Thor himself Chris Hemsworth is the Huntsman. The Dwarves in the movie are regular-sized actors shrunk down using movie magic. The movie features a love triangle, but kind of a back burner one. Once again, it's about overthrowing a tyrant, and the movie is capped off with a big battle sequence of swords and armor. The movie is reasonably successful, but not so much of a hit that a sequel is a no-brainer. Stewart is caught in salacious photos with the movie's married director, creating a bit of a public backlash. The studio considers simply teaming up Hemsworth's Huntsman with other fairy tale characters, but no second installment, starring Stewart or otherwise, has solidified so far.
The very last installment of Twilight, Breaking Dawn Part 2 comes out. It's another huge success, and improves upon Breaking Dawn Part 1, but it doesn't seem to come close to the other epic wrap-ups like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It may be that the franchise finally has backlash setting in, especially with people now comparing it unfavorably The Hunger Games. It may be the fallout from Stewart's scandal earlier that summer. However, the five year cultural phenomenon is over, with its legacy being codification of the "young adult" movie trend, which is still going. Its young cast moves on to other, wildly different directions. Stewart and Pattinson go back to indies, where hopefully people will concentrate on their acting, not their personal lives. Taylor Lautner and Kellan Lutz hope to become big action stars. Perhaps the most successful is Anna Kendrick, who already has an Oscar nomination, and is a go-to choice for musicals.
The Hobbit: An Unpexcted Journey is released. This is the "prequel" to the Lord of the Rings series, at least cinematically. (In fact, the Hobbit was published first) Peter Jackson makes the controversial decision to split the movie into two, and then into three. Only four character from the Rings trilogy appear in the Hobbit--Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, Elrond, and Gollum. Three of those actors reprise their roles, while Bilbo, who is much younger in the novel, is played by Martin Freeman. Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee are given small roles in An Unexpected Journey. The original book is much more of a whimsical children's story, however An Unexpected Journey is made more into an outright action movie. The excesses are widely criticized, and the movie recieves mixed reviews. It still passes 300 million, but less than any Rings movie in the U.S., however still passing a billion worldwide.
2013
Paramount releases Hansel and Gretel, Witch Hunters. Unlike much of the other fairy tale movies, this one is much more violent, and is comparable to movies like Blade and Underworld, but still taking place in a medieval-ish setting. The character use guns, which is not too preposterous since guns were not unheard of in the Middle Ages. (in fact, their absence in many fairy tale movies is somewhat anachronistic) The cast largely uses American accents, including Gemma Arterton, who's English. The movie boasts an emphasis on practical effects, though it's still CG-heavy. The movie does moderately at the box office, but much more overseas. A sequel is considered, if the reluctant cast can sort their schedules out.
Beautiful Creatures is released. It's yet another forbidden romance around the supernatural, but this time, the girl is the supernatural, and the guy is the mere mortal. Like many modern fantasy stories, it operates using a lot of jargon and rules--in fact, because the central theme is spellcasting, it's almost something like a procedural. Once again, the reviews aren't very strong, but it gets a relative amount of support--perhaps due the chemistry of the leads, the Southern Gothic bringing something new to the atmosphere, and the impressive pedigree of the supporting cast which includes Emma Thompson, Viola Davis, and the zero for three Jeremy Irons. Audiences don't turn up, perhaps because the weird, almost campy take on the genre makes it less relateable.
Warner Bros puts out Jack the Giant Slayer. This is the probably the most male-occupied of the fairy tale franchise, with only one prominent female. It likewise throws in elements like knights and princesses, despite no such things being in the original story. It also plays the concept relatively straight--nothing like maybe the giants being evil or the hero not getting the girl. It simply takes the Jack and the Beanstalk story and plays it like a large scale action movie. It's probably the biggest money loser of the genre. It opens soft, and matters aren't helped with another fairy tale movie coming out soon.
Disney releases Oz the Great and Powerful, which is considered another fairy tale movie, despite the modernity of the book. Its cast is largely paradoxically one of the youngest but also most celebrated, as James Franco and Michelle Williams are recent Oscar nominees, Rachel Weisz is an Oscar winner, and even Mila Kunis got a lot of notice for Black Swan. Like Oz, it's an explictly male title, although Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West are prominent characters. The movie does strong business, but not quite what they were hoping for, and its foreign gross is not much higher than the domestic--perhaps owing to its American subject matter.
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is released, and while not an outright bomb, it fails to match the already modest take of Lightning Thief. The movie ends on a cliffhanger, though it's rather unlikely a follow-up will appear.
Sony, which has actually been rather quiet on the front, be it fantasy adaptations of young adult movies, hopes to start a franchise with The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, starring Lily Collins from Mirror Mirror. The movie is based on Cassandra Claire's novels, which themselves were spun out of fanfiction based on Harry Potter, but seem to resemble in tone, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It possesses all the hallmarks of young adult urban fantasy stories and the fanfiction they inspire--an unassuming young girl meant for greater things, and a callow, brooding love interest, a lot of secret subcultures, and of course, the love triangles. It receives scathing reviews as a hodgepodge of the genre's greatest hits. It's even called a Twilight ripoff, which must be a special indignity, as while Instruments doesn't quite predate Twilight, the window is close enough that it's likely the only franchise that didn't "inspire" Claire.
Thor: The Dark World is released. It features much of the original cast, and the addition of former Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleson. Interestingly, much of the action takes place in England. While very successful, critics feel the movie is plot is rudimentary and the villain is not given much depth. It goes on the be the lowest grosser of Marvel's "Phase 2" films.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It's Jennifer Lawrence's first major movie since winning an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook. Its is widely considered an improvement on the first Hunger Games, and makes a smidge more at the box office, making it the first time a sequel to a 400 million movie has made more. It's also the first time a movie with a woman receiving top billing has become the highest grossing movie of the year in over forty years.
Frozen, Disney's newest "princess" movie comes out, and is one of the biggest hits of all time, with the song "Let It Go" being a phenomenon unto itself. The movie is very, very loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen". ABC's Once Upon a Time is set to feature characters from Frozen, which means the show about classic fairy tales will now feature characters largely created by Disney itself.
The second chapter in the Hobbit trilogy comes out, The Desolation of Smaug. Fans and critics consider it an improvement, but still rife with Peter Jackson's excesses. Like An Unexpected Journey, the film inserts fan favorites from the Lord of the Rings trilogy who were not in The Hobbit, this time Legolas, a returning Orlando Bloom. (Who to be fair, does come from Mirkwood) The film introduces several major characters who are not Tolkien creations, most notably a female elf, Tauriel. Much of the added runtime is given to Tauriel's personal arc, and a love triangle between one of the dwarves and Legolas. So the padded time means we have three movies with one or two female characters, instead of one movie with none. The movie makes 258 million, by far the least of any Middle Earth movie, and in the neighborhood of Harry Potter at its weakest.
2014
Lionsgate/Summit promotes Twilight's Kellan Lutz with Legend of Hercules. It boosts its sword and sword cred with Spartacus alum, Liam McIntyre. The Marketing accentuates the CGI and slow-mo, but much of the movie is pretty low tech. Once again, the plotline is overthrowing a tyrant, Hercule's stepfather Amphiptryion, who is usually presented as rather sympathetic in most adaptations of Hercules. Audiences save their wallets for the the Hercules movie that will be released later that year.
The Weistein Company releases Vampire Academy, which is kind of what it says on the tin, combining the vampire and fantastic school elements so prevalent in the young adult genre. Even though the Weisnteins have been at the forefront of many teen phenomenons, and even though the movie boasts behind the scenes talent that has brought smart, savvy high school movies like Mean Girls and Heathers, it seems teen vampires, audiences seem officially exhausted of teen vampire properties.
300: Rise of an Empire comes out. It makes roughly half of what the first 300 made in 2007, but this is actually considered a minor success, considering gap between the two movies, and that 300 wasn't a very open-ended story, and could not feature much of the original cast. Playing the two main characters are twice-surnamed Aussie Sullivan Stapleton, and Eva Green, who's considered a highlight of the movie.
The newest young adult adaptation comes out, Divergent. Rising young star Shailene Woodley is the main character, and Kate Winslet is brought in as the villain to give it cred. It's another futuristic, as opposed to urban fantasy setting, and it's actually labeled as an outright cross between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. It receives mixed reviews, calling out the familiar, and to some, preposterous elements, but find Woodley compelling as a lead. The movie makes 150 million, not even half as much as The Hunger Games, but it establishes a solid base in a genre full of outliers. A sequel is quickly put into production. (A few months later, Woodley would star in The Fault In Our Stars, which was another very successful young adult adaptation, but I'm largely covering only YA stories with fantastic elements)
Around this time, another wave of Christian-themed movie start making some headway at the box-office. One is Son of God, which makes a decent amount of money considering it's actually theatrically released splicing of footage from History Channel's The Biblle. Also doing well is God's Not Dead, a contemporary movie starring former Hecules Kevin Sorbo, who's becoming something of a mouthpiece of the religious right.
Paramount hopes that this faith crowd will come out to see Noah, an adaptation of the famous Biblical flood story starring Russell Crowe as the title character, and a supporting cast that includes Percy Jackson himself, Logan Lerman, and Emma Watson, in her first post-Harry Potter big studio role. The movie takes a lot of liberties with the biblical tale--some even suggest it doesn't take place in a historical time period, but rather the future. The subject matter is dark, and it constantly raises the possibility Noah is insane. The studio and director are said to have fights over which cut to use, as the studio wants something that will get the faith crowd to keep going and organize screenings. When it turns out conservative Christians don't particularly like either version, they let Aronofsky have his way, and his cut is released to theaters. Critics enjoy the bizarre, ambiguous take, but Middle America is sort of turned off by it. Nonthless, it's another 100 million grosser by Russell Crowe in his wheelhouse, and a strong performer overseas.
Disney releases Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie. Once again, it delves into the formula of fairy tale featuring a young ingenue in the princess role, anchored by an Oscar-calibur actor hamming it up. However, the movie is named after the villain, and moreso, uses a name that is pretty much only used by the Disney interpretation of the Sleeping Beauty story. It's pretty much a remake of the 1950's animated film, but with the twist of Maleficent being a wronged anti-hero. Jolie's credited with giving a perfect star turn, but the film itself is considered weak. However, audiences like the movie (Or at least Jolie) enough for it to play throughout the summer. The movie becomes one of the biggest hits of the summer, earning more than some of the higher profile releases.
The second Hercules movie of the year is released, this time starring Dwayne Johnson. The starpower helps, as it opens to three times what Legend of Hercules did, but it's still not enough to top the charts, as Scarlett Johansson's Lucy handily beats it. The reviews don't consider it especially bad, but the marketing seems to be caught between what the movie is, and what the movie's trying to sell.
The Giver is released by Weinstein Studios. A passion project for Jeff Bridges, this is a young adult novel from 1993, that contains many of the dystopic elements that would we would see in The Hunger Games and Divergent, although the Giver was written much earlier than those books. Unfortunately, sometimes an influential work will be beaten to the punch by its descendents, making the original seem trite. (Let's call that "John Carter Syndrome") It didn't help that WC is largely not good at selling movies without Oscar buzz. The upside is, that movie possessed surprisingly good legs, and is close to doubling its production budget.
And so, here we are. We're now at a point where the most popular YA novels are sci-fi, (Though with Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay, we might be going to straight-up tearjerkers) the most popular historical movies are Biblical, and the most popular fantasy movies are based on fairy tales. This weekend we have The Maze Runner, a more male-oriented take on the Young Adult movement. In November, there will be another installment of The Hunger Games, which once again, splits up the final book. The Hobbit series will finally conclude in December, and Ridley Scott will take us through the story of Moses again in Exodus: Gods and Kings. On the horizon, is an update of Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branaugh, and once again has the ingenue's story anchored by an Oscar winner as the antagonist. (This time, Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother) Guy Ritchie will direct a new King Arthur movie, with Charlie Hunnam (Who may look it, but is not Australian), and Idris Elba. No word on if they're going to tie it to ancient Rome.
