At least they're being honest...

[brotherlouie]

Is anyone else a little creeped out by the promotional material for Battleship:

From Hasbro the company that brought you Transformers.

We know it's crap and aimed at kids, but is there a slippery slope being climbed on? Or am I just a paranoid pseudo-Marxist?

[Tactful Cactus]

Sorry i dont follow, are Hasbro a toy company who you think have no business making films?

[brotherlouie]

Sorry i dont follow, are Hasbro a toy company who you think have no business making films?

No, it's just that the toy company are effectively the makers of the film. There's no pretense that there's any motivation aside from cash. And something about how a toy company adds some kind of guarantee to the whole process. It's a bit muddled in my head, but it seems weird. End of days stuff.

[the masked man]

Here's the background to the movie:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/apr/07/battleship-hasbro-adaptation-rihanna

It really doesn't sound promising. And yes, I'd rather have studios with a sense of film history making films, as opposed to a toy company merely looking for a merchandising opportunity.

[Remember (Quaco)]

It's also odd that the tagline reverses the order of things. It's like saying "The new Monopoly movie, from the creators of Trivial Pursuit." Battleship is one of the most recognized games of its era. So, I can only guess that the tagline is aimed at kids, who naturally wouldn't know that.

[Poppypoobah]

Here's the background to the movie:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/apr/07/battleship-hasbro-adaptation-rihanna

It really doesn't sound promising. And yes, I'd rather have studios with a sense of film history making films, as opposed to a toy company merely looking for a merchandising opportunity.

Lego certainly is ahead of the pack in thier products with kits tied to movies like Star Wars and Harry Potter and then there are it's line of computer and console games.

[The G Experience!]

Here's the background to the movie:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/apr/07/battleship-hasbro-adaptation-rihanna

It really doesn't sound promising. And yes, I'd rather have studios with a sense of film history making films, as opposed to a toy company merely looking for a merchandising opportunity.

To be honest though, these days major studies are part of huge media conglomerates and make movies for the commercial synergy. They don't see them as films but commercial brands to be sold across a range of media. In that sense you might as well have toy companies making films.

[Goat Boy]

"from the director of Hancock"

[brotherlouie]

In that sense you might as well have toy companies making films.

No. Resist. Resist. Don't stand for it.

I feel like I'm trying to hold back the river.

[meetthesonics]

I'm waiting for Slinky the movie.

[the masked man]

I like to cling to what slivers of hope I can find. I was delighted to see that Inception was one of the highest grossing movies last year. It had little prospect of being a merchandising success (no cute animals or cool robots were present...), and it had no link to any best-selling books or much-loved television series, being an entirely original script. The film was admittedly flawed, but it still felt like real, undiluted cinema.

I realise that few directors are in Chris Nolan's position, getting in excess of $200m to make an art movie, but it gives me hope that the bean counters with their dispiriting talk of 'synergies' and 'marketing strategies', haven't totally won.