Missing: Hollywood Writers

Are Hollywood movies really that great? Are the screenwriters really that creative? Are they original? The idea of “Hollywood” dates way back to the early 1900’s and the first studio to be built there was in 1909. This “Starstruck Town” saw D.W. Griffith create the first motion picture which only turned out to be seventeen minutes long titled In Old California. By the 1920’s “Tinseltown” had become world famous center of the U.S. film industry. Everyone wanted to work in Hollywood. So, what happened? Where did all those original writers go?

A trend that has occurred in Hollywood as of late has been ripping off novels and putting their own spin it. Sorry, but this is not considered “original.” Granted these movies are good and let’s face it most of us would rather watch a movie then read a book. However, when 18 out of the top 50 movies according to AFI are based on books it poses the question, “What is going on in Hollywood?” Now that list is only up to the 90s with the exception of one movie from 2001, but on Moviefone’s top 40 of the 2000’s so far, 18 out of the top 40 are based on books. In 2009 alone, 45 movies were based on books. WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Aside from books turned movies, there is still the problem of remakes, same action movies, and the romance movies that are told thousands of times. Whether its Miley Cyrus in The Last Song, or Robert Pattinson in Twilight, they are STILL the same. They meet, fall in love, *Insert tragic event here*, and then they live happily ever after. There is the odd exception including Titanic and Romeo & Juliet, but honestly how often does that happen? Nicholas Sparks is an amazing writer, no doubt there, but don’t all his books turned movies seem like the same thing OVER AND OVER? As for remakes, Hollywood sees that if a movie was successful once then it will be successful again. Just change it up. Throw some young, hot stars in there and make millions. A lot of the time this RUINS the movies. For example, Godzilla, Planet of the Apes, and Poseidon are some of the worst remakes Hollywood has created. People love watching movies. People spend a lot on movies. People don’t want to watch the same movie over and over but with a different title. Armageddon was a huge hit but then a similar movie called Deep Impact was released. How many movies do people need to see about a comet headed to Earth? Are they trying to scare us? Then there was Dante’s Peak and Volcano. Of course they both had amazing actors and they ad a few differences, but the storyline was the same. Volcano errupts, people die, hero saves the day. That can only be tolerated a few times by people before they turn it off.

Hollywood, this is for you: hire some new screenwriters. Write something original, not something everyone has seen already. They want new. They want fresh. After all, if people are spending billions of dollars a year on movies shouldn’t they at least be good?