The Rising Cost of Fantasy

Distant worlds with exotic creatures, epic battles, larger-than-life villains - all that comes to mind, when we think about fantasy movies. Fantasy - like Science Fiction - opens up a world of dreams, like a keyhole into everything imaginable.

I wondered, why are there so few fantasy movies? I took a look at the box office statistics of the last years to find a reason, and I think, I found one. The following graph shows the Median Budget of General Fiction Movies for this year (Blue) and the Median Budget for Fantasy Movies (Orange) in millions.

 

What can we see? 

The average budget of general fiction movies roughly stays the same over the last 17 years with numbers between 60 and 80 Million Dollars. But the orange line slowly rises, as we can see, from 30 Million to 120 Million. The budget of fantasy movies has quadrupled in the same period of time. 

What does that mean?

Fantasy is expensive. For the cost of one fantasy movie the studio could make two non-fantasy movies - that would mean two streams of revenue for the studio. Remember, big budget movies are not a guarantee to earn back the cash (as Disney learned once again with The Lone Ranger, after their failure with John Carter). So it's a rough game to play for every studio.

But why are studios willing to produce big budget movies?

Foremost studios want to earn money. So if they invest a lot of money, they must hope to earn a lot of money. 

In the second graph, the orange line still shows the rise of the average budget of fantasy movies. The blue line shows the share of fantasy movies in the annual box-office (in percent, see left).

What can we see?

It is eye-catching, that both lines rise in near perfect harmony. Starting with only 1 - 10 % of the box-office share, the line slowly rises until it crosses the 20% mark. In effect, the share of revenue has more than doubled in 17 years. 

That's why studios are willing to pay huge amounts of money: the market hungers for fantasy and they want their piece of the box-office pie.

Summary:

In the last decade the demand for fantasy movies slowly rose and created a new, big market for Hollywood. Consequently, studios greenlight high budgets in the hope to create a huge hit.

But studios can not produce dozens of high budget movies every year, they concentrate on a few, select tent-poles.

(all data comes from the-numbers.com, visualized by me)

Book to Movie: The Lies of Locke Lamora

Book to Movie:

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

(4,24 Stars of 5 with 31,201 Ratings - Goodreads.com)

Summary:
Elite con artists "Gentlemen Bastards" rob the rich of Camorr city, based on late medieval Venice. Two stories interweave. In the present, the Gentlemen fight a mysterious Grey King taking over the criminal underworld. Alternate chapters describe history and mythology of Camorr, the Gentlemen Bastards, and especially the protagonist Locke Lamora.(Source: Wiki)

Born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora dodges both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains, neither blind nor a priest. A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected family of orphans “Gentlemen Bastards.”

Locke grows to lead, delightedly pulling off one outrageous trick after another, infamous as the Thorn of Camorr — no wealthy noble is safe from his sting. But the Gray King is slowly killing Capa Barsavi’s most trusted men and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr’s underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the magically protected Gray King at his own brutal game — or die trying (Source: Goodreads)

WILL IT BE A GOOD MOVIE?

by Milena Aijala (a.k.a. qwertyprophecy)

The ingredients are there:

Oceans 13 Jr. meets Pirates of the Carribean

- an engaging plot, full of twists and turns

- interesting characters

- a fantasy world with a mythical history

All the movie needs is a creative, fearless cook, or in other words, a capable director. This is a rather broad statement, I know, every movie needs a good director. The one needed for Locke Lamora, has to be incredibly visual. The world of Camorr - based on Renaissance Venice - is stunningly wonderful and rich.

The challenge would be to reduce the dense plot to movie-length without losing the charm and wit of the book.

FILM ADAPTATION:

Warner Brothers bought the film rights soon after the book's release. The brothers Kevin and Dan Hageman (both having written the upcoming Lego and the sequel Hotel Transylvania 2) were to write the screenplay. Michael De Luca (Moneyball, The Social Network) and Julie Yorn (Red Riding Hood, We bought a Zoo) are set to produce. Both don't have much experience with fantasy works, which could prove difficult. 

Despite additional television rumors, as of 2013, no casting or other announcements have been released. (Source: Wiki)

Film or TV?

Definitely the first! I suggest a movie adaptation, because the single thread of storytelling revolving around Locke Lamora probably couldn't sustain multiple episodes. But with 6 (SIX!) planned sequels (plus two upcoming novellas) "The Lies of Locke Lamora" could prove to be the opening to a stellar franchise. 

Casting Possibilities:

Max Irons - Locke Lamora

He proved to be a big hit with the girls in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight and The Host, which could attract more viewers. Irons has the right mix of cunning and charm to portrait the leader of the "Gentleman Bastards".

Jack Reynor - Jean Tannen

The muscle to Locke's Brain, Jean is intimidating and strong. The upcoming star had a few indie hits and now moved on to star in the 4th Transformer movie.

Jeremy Irons - The Grey King

He is the main adversary; the brains behind the dangerous plots Locke finds himself tangled in. Fuelled my motives he is initially unwilling to reveal, the Grey King is ruthless but aristocratic in his mannerisms. (Source: camorr.com) Incidentally he is the father of actor Max Irons, which adds a great dynamic to the movies. Jeremy has a great, commanding presence with the right gravitas to the play the Grey King. 

Christian Bale - The Falconer

Perhaps the most formidable adversary in LoLL. The Falconer is a bondsmage from Karthain with otherworldly magical power, able to inflict extraordinary pain with just a few words and gestures. He is an arrogant, forbidding individual who takes obvious pleasure in the torture of others and works for the Grey King. He also has a bird companion, Vestral, whose violent nature and venom-filled claws augment the Falconer’s formidable presence. (Source: camorr.com) Bale has strong ties with Warner Bros (The Dark Knight Trilogy, etc) and is a great property to attract viewers. Bale has the right ambiguity and "evil-ness" to play this great role.

Francis Lawrence - Director

Lawrence proved over and over, that he is a great storyteller with a keen eye for heavy visuals with his movies Constantine or I am Legend. This was the reason he was chosen to adapt the second and third book in the Hunger Games Saga, Catching Fire and Mockingjay.