Legendary film producer Jeremy Thomas- the creative mind behind such movies as The Last Emperor and The Dreamers, recently took a reflective retrospective on his career covering several decades. Addressing attendees at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Thomas said he felt the film industry was changing dramatically, and he bemoaned that there was once a time when the producers could get more control and could have access to large amounts of money as well.
He stated candidly, “I can not find somebody to give me 40 million anymore,” a statement that drives home the point made about massive financial changes reshaping the movie business.
Thomas came to fame in the dying days of the golden age of the cinema when the films paid at the box office before the revolution of the video on the home market. He fondly the day when a small crew of financiers trusted him enough to grant him the creative freedom to explore his one of a kind vision.
Shifting Industry Dynamics and Economic Realities
These changes, which Thomas is going through, have their basis on the basic changing industry dynamics. The movie production has evolved into a more cumbersome enterprise that involves complicated undertakings by a group of producers (committees). It’s gone, like in the old days when a big screen release could cover the cost of a movie, and subsidize the next, as the guy Thomas speaks of mentioned.
The creative power he formerly had to himself through exclusive use of public funds is now shattered in a multitude of associations by the use of a blend of public money, contracts with the streaming services, and a profusion of various layers of production associates. This is changing economic direction as the projects that are not sure of being a box office smash or streaming attractions are becoming hard to fund.
The End of a Filmmaking Freedom
Unfortunately, this new world and the new business model can only mean the death of a type of filmmaking freedom to someone like Thomas, who has made his career about making risky decisions and following through on hard to navigate, auteur driven cinema. According to him, he is happy when he pushes one over on everybody, when he makes a film and he did it, he got it, he owned it.
This emotion glorifies the past when the success of a project depended on the taste and the vision of a producer. The frustration that Thomas feels is neither complaint but merely a cold-eyed assessment of the new normal wherein he needs to cooperate with a lot of people and bring his madness into normalcy just to get movies done. This is a fact, and he has admitted that he will have to live with it in order to keep his career although he may be doing it at a smaller level as before.
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A recent media graduate, Bhumi Vashisht is currently making a significant contribution as a committed content writer. She brings new ideas to the media sector and is an expert at creating strategic content and captivating tales, having working in the field from past four months.
