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The much-anticipated reboot of the popular “Terminator” franchise – “Terminator Genisys” — entered Zimbabwe last week with as much pomp and fanfare as one can expect.
Unfortunately, I could not attend the première though I did then get my hands on a DVD. But I am sad to say that I was rather disappointed.
Reason: For the umpteenth time this year, my thirst and anticipation has not been aptly quenched.
Also, I am disappointed because director Alan Taylor and his friends have taken a beloved franchise and totally flipped it on its head.
They took a simple premise and messed it up with unnecessarily complicated science. This is before I even mention that they corrupted and ruined a beloved character, John Connor. The movie trailer sums it all up.
Anyway, the movie itself is not necessarily the subject of this week’s instalment. Rather, the inspiration behind it is.
As I was expressing my displeasure over “Terminator Genisys” to a colleague, I was asked a question that I failed to answer: “Have we ever had any franchises, sequels or movie reboots in Zimbabwe?”
I am still stumped.
Do you know that Hollywood has made over US$3 billion from franchises, reboots and sequels in the first six months of this year alone?
Moreso, some of the highest-grossing movies have either spun from franchises, sequels and reboots and these include “Furious 7” (US$1,5 billion), “Jurassic World” (US$1,4 billion), “Avengers — Age of Ultron” (US$1,3 billion), “Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part 2” (US$1,3 billion) and the latest James Bond instalment, “Skyfall” (US$1,1 billion).
These movies have capitalised on the success of a movie before them. It could have been a different case if they came in completely as fresh concepts.
While doing my research, I found one disturbing fact: Zimbabwe has never had an era-defining cinema. Thus, it is always going to be difficult to even consider doing or talking about sequels.
Yes, we have had some good movies but we have never consistently made any.
Conversations and personal experiences with both seasoned and budding local film producers suggest that lack of funding is the chief reason why the local film industry currently finds itself in this unenviable state.
“We don’t have enough money for this and that, the business is not really profitable here, and the economy is not fully fired up . . . ” they seem to all sing the same hymn.
While this might be true to some extent, I, however, also think the problem lies in lack of creativity. I believe the producers need to break from their cocoons and think outside the box.
Off the top of my head, I think there are dozens of movies that deserve and are crying out for a revisit; namely “Neria”, “Flame”, “Everyone’s Child”, “Yellow Card”, “Lobola”, “More Time”, “Tanyaradzwa”, “Playing Warriors” and more recently “Sinners”.
The idea is not to simply recreate all these movies. But they can be revisited to come up with new concepts and/or angles.
My personal picks would be “Flame”, “Neria”, “More Time”, “Sinners”, “Tanyaradzwa” and “Everyone’s Child”.
With “More Time” and “Tanyaradzwa” the stars, Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana and Kudakwashe Maradzikwa, are still around and it will make the whole revisit interesting.
Thus, the two can be entry points to pitching the script either rehashing the script or simply making it into a sequel by showing what happens after the last movies.
With “Flame”, “Neria” and “Everyone’s Child”, there is a plethora of options. But one can simply choose to play on the emotions of these movies since they touched on sensitive subjects most of which remain relevant today.
I should, however, warn all scriptwriters (both budding and seasoned) that I am in no way promoting plagiarism.
All the aforementioned movies are protected properties and as such there are proper legal channels to follow when one wants to launch a franchise, reboot or promote a sequel.
Online Reporter