Is Hollywood making enough fantasy content? Filmmaker Ron Newcomb doesn’t think so. “I grew up in the 80’s where we had a Renaissance of fantasy films.” And he’s right, there was Krull, Conan, Beastmaster, Willow, Dark Crystal, Excaliber and the list goes on and on. Newcomb also points out that fun films in the 80’s as well that seem to have been pushed aside. Films like Goonies or Karate Kid.
He seems to be right, so what happened? The studio film budgets have become so large that one minor slip up (i.e. John Carter), could almost wipe out even a studio. At least it sets them back and shrinks their risk threshold. However, the only films the studios are making significant money on are these $100 million plus films.
Studios are making less film and taking less risk. Think we’ll see another Marvel movie? I think it’s a pretty good bet. Though there were these fun films in the 80’s, not all of them made money, and there were several that came out that didn’t even get close. It wasn’t until “Lord of the Rings” that seem to put fantasy really back on the map. Again, several other fantasy films came out and the box office results plummeted for those films. Same thing has happened with television. “Game of Thrones” has a huge draw and every network seemed to come up with their fantasy version – again, the numbers did not reflect the need to order more shows. Even with big budgets, and big names attached.
Newcomb believes the studios will be making less fantasy films, and this gives an opportunity for indie filmmakers, like himself, to step up and make them. He is currently in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign, www.TheRangersFilm.com, about an elite group of fantasy Rangers uncovering a long forgotten darkness. You can see his production value is high and he can’t wait to bring the story to life. This comes off of the heels of his success, www.RiseoftheFellowship.com. A coming of age story about four geekie gamers that go on a journey that parallels Lord of the Rings. He was able to get distribution and you can find the many ways to see this film right off his web site.
So if you are one of the many that want to see more fantasy content, not less – it might be a good idea to help those indies trying to bring it to us, like showing your support for the “The Rangers”.
About Ron Newcomb:
“Ron has been a producer on eight short films along with two full-length feature films. He has been the director of two full-length feature films along with two short films. Ron has written a short film, wrote a full-length feature, and co-wrote OAP’s project, THE FELLOWS HIP. Along with being the AMTC’s 3rd overall best Actor in 1997
Ron has been a script and production consultant on several projects. He has been a training instructor in several areas of the filmmaking process. Ron maintains a highly active basis in the Washington DC Area filmmaking community. Ron is an alumnus of the distinguished Act One Writing Program in 2004, the Dov S-Siemens Film School in 2008 and is trained in Final Cut Pro.
His diversified experience and strong ethics stems from owning his own business, serving the community as a Police Officer, and helping launch a start-up company as an Operations Manager.”
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