Fanboys getting retooled again?

[lazypadawan]

Generally it is not a good sign if a movie has to be reshot and rewritten over and over, delaying time and again its release. TFN posted an item about the oft-delayed Fanboys, which is being re-edited to take out a key plot point of the film.



The film revolves around a group of fans desperate to get their hands on a copy of TPM because one of their circle of friends is terminally ill and won't live long enough to see the film's official release. The re-edit is supposed to remove the terminal illness angle, making it a film about a bunch of selfish geeks instead of a group of friends who had to experience something together one last time. As the TFN post said, the characters are no longer sympathetic. The whole thing reeks of studio meddling and it's rare such a thing is for the better. TFN says both the original cut and re-edit are going to be shown to a test audience soon, but the whole thing doesn't leave me reassured.

Comments

[miana-dude.livejournal.com]

Well Shawn and them are seeing it next week, so they'll let us know.

[nic]

:( I had such hopes for this movie but now it seems like it will be nothing BUT making fun of fans.

[hvaharu.livejournal.com]

Doesn't sound good. :(

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

It may well be that I was thinking about this movie (if at all) with little more than the worry that it would end with the cruel punch line of "the 'fanboys' all have the stereotypical 'hostile reaction.'" Now, of course, it might wrap up not with "I'm supposed to die happy?" but with "the 'selfish geeks' get exactly the reward they deserve..."

I admit, mind you, that while I made a strong effort to avoid spoilers myself, I did try and tap in to a sort of "inside source" in the months before TPM's release. (I've been worried in the past that this somehow amounts to boasting, but now I guess I just want to try and lighten the mood a little...) One of my roommates at university, just about one of the smartest people at the whole place, got a job at ILM after graduation, and then returned for a group visit early in 1999. I did ask him if he'd seen any footage himself (adding that he of course couldn't give any specifics), and he gave his nonspecific yes in a positive way.