22-09-2005 20:37									#1
	Stupid "big" US TV movies Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Nah, it is not neccessarily US bashing It's just that the special kind of movies I mean here is usually US made (I remember some exceptions, though).

I mean those which usually run in two parts a 90 minutes, and are (at least here - no idea how do you call them correctly) advertized as big "event" movies, often with "big" historical or fantasy/mythological stories. To give some examples I have seen in recent years such things like "Merlin", similar movies about Oddyseus, about Joan d'Arc, Caesar and Cleopatra, even Moses etc.

Are you calling these "mini series" in the US (I always thought a mini series is something like "Band of Brothers" which was btw great, but I guess that's nothing new to most)?

While these movies usually sound interesting first they also are disappointing often, and sometimes plain stupid IMO, despite having at least good fx and often even well-known stars as actors. But those who produce those movies usually manage to make them look boring or stupid at some point. They are often also much more different from movies made for cinema, even if about the same topics (BoB is IMO an example which was great also because it could have worked very well in the cinema.) Why is that? Is it a question of money, are TV productions always cheaper? Or what's the reason?

Today they have the first 90 minutes of such a thing about "Hercules", but I don't hold my breath......

	22-09-2005 20:48									#2
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Wait, in Band of Brothers Americans kick German ass and you, a German, liked it?

Where's your pride man!!!

	22-09-2005 20:55									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

(1) Between the fact that the creative heads of studios now come from the legal department and (2) studios are lousy with nepotism, it's surprising that Hollywood can turn out any decent movies whatsoever.

	22-09-2005 22:47									#4
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

quote: Are you calling these "mini series" in the US

Yes, these are called mini series. While movie studios own most of the TV networks, mini series have their own production pipeline. Much more similar to a TV drama series with one-hour episodes every week.

For the most part, the top of the food chain is movie production for the theaters and sometimes half-hour comedies (like Seinfeld and Friends). Mini series are not often near the top of the food chain, so don't get the most resources and best people working on them. Sometimes you have people who work on several areas. For instance, Michael Crichton writes books, writes screenplays for movies and writes screenplays for hour-long episode dramas like ER.