With the death of Nelson Mandela last week and the death of Paul Walker a week earlier I was wondering about movies. In case of Paul Walker starring him and in case of Mandela about him. Walker’s VOD movie Hours will be released at the end of the week and the movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom starring Idris Elba is also starting to play in cinemas. The fact these movies are playing so shortly after their deaths gives me a double feeling. Of course they might be worthwhile movies, but their timing also gives me a feeling of trying to cash in on the actual news about them. So this week’s question:
What do you think about the timing of movies released shortly released after someone’s death?
I think studios are in a bit of a bind with this issue – on the one hand, they could delay the release of said film, or they could just chalk it up to coincidence and put the product out regardless. Either way, some folks will no doubt claim it’s all a bit heartless, but you know what? I don’t think the artists themselves would complain.
I think the best example was Warner’s handling of Heath Ledger’s death impacting The Dark Knight. If all studios followed that example, I don’t think there’d be any room for complaint!
Yeah, the studio handled the Ledger situation very well.
Maybe I’m a heartless soul, but… to me, life and movies are different and I separate them out in my mind. Yes, this is a biopic of a great man who died. But it’s not as if this was planned this way. It just happened.
Film makers who create biopics of anyone, living or dead, are cashing in on their lives. In my cynical view. The time between death is just happenstance.
That is also a way to look at it. People would not make a movie about someone if they would think it was not economically viable.
It depends on if those were the original release dates. If so, then I do not have a problem with it. Even if they weren’t I probably wouldn’t have a problem with it because movies where already in production.
I would have a bigger issue if it was a film rushed into production to take advantage of the publicity from the death. If Mandela died and then they made a quick movie to immediately release for example.
Alright, so in general you really do not mind much. Thanks.
Well in case of Mandela movie they did that one before he got sick so I had no problem with that. That said, I remember thinking that WTC Nicolas Cage movie was being released waaaay too soon.
I agree w/ Sati. The Mandela film has been in the works for quite some time so I don’t think they’re capitalizing on Mandela’s death at all. It is eerie that the news came right as the premiere went on, attended by some of his family members!
Yeah, that is very eerie…
Never saw the WTC movie with Cage…the controversy about that I had not heard about.
I know the Mandela movie was going to be released soon so I guess that’s somewhat excusable. Still, I kind of feel that studios are profiting off the news.
Yeah, have kind of mixed feelings about it too…