I think it's an enormous roll of the dice for AOL Time Warner. The two movies were developed independently. The 'Lord of the Rings' was in development for some time. As that was happening, Warner Brothers won the Harry Potter movie, and because that was such a hot property they wanted to move ahead as quickly as possible. |
so I don't know what he'd say about someone else doing it. But the thing is, it is kind of neat. 'King Kong' is actually one of the few movies that can be remade without detracting from the original. I think after people see Peter Jackson's work, they'll actually focus once more on the original movie. |
The industry discovered the old-fashioned nature film, which had been a mainstay of Disney in the 1950s, and turned it into a current theatrical experience again. I think we're going to see more. |
The readers of these books spent a lot of time with books, they know them inside and out, ... They have very strong opinions how they should look on the screen. If you don't execute a movie they approve of, they can turn on you very quickly. |
Universal had all its heavy hitters lined up for summer months. Warner Brothers didn't have anything in the summer that was a guaranteed hit, ... It's as if they saved all their heavy hitters for the top of seventh, or later. |
You'll never find anyone at AOL Time Warner to admit it, but in the best of all possible worlds, having had one out this summer and one this winter would be preferable to both coming out at year's end, |