Quote from: Noah on May 27, 2017, 01:56:33 AM
Quote from: Protozoid on May 26, 2017, 05:01:14 PM
Between The Counselor, Steve Jobs, Assassin's Creed, and now Covenant, Fassbender has a pretty poor track record, box office wise, as a lead actor.
Well,The Counselor is an ensamble film and was sold as an ensamble film with bigger names than Fassbender. And nobody could have improved AC numbers. It's a VG film that appeals to a very niche audience and it didn't justify a high budget in the first place.
Re A:C: Prometheus didn't have "big names" either,and actually it's difficult for every actor to carry non-franchise movies by themselves,including RDJ,Chris Pratt,Evans, and all those who star in those Marvel monster hits. I think the days of the all star leading man doing are over. Actors don't draw much audiences these days. And,save for XMen,someone like Fassbender is mainly an arthouse kind of film actor.
Anyway,it doesn't make any sense to blame actors when a film like this underperforms. I'd say that Waterston was the face of the marketing campaign among the actors,but it was evident how the big pull for this franchise - the xenomorphs - was put front and center. This wasn't marketed as a film with this or that actor.
The Counselor was an ensemble, but Fassbender played the title character and is in nearly every scene. The other characters have significantly less screen time.
A big star like Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt definitely means something at the box office. They guarantee a certain amount of interest.
I read a box office analyst say that there are some sort of indicators like audiences are turned off by Fassbender. If you look at his recent movies, it's overwhelmingly clear that he is not a box office draw like DiCaprio or Pitt.
But my post was more about how Fassbender could be the reason that David stole the spotlight in Covenant. He probably wasn't interested in versions where Shaw was too smart to reattach his head, for example. Who would want to play a decapitated head for an entire movie? In the end, they got a movie where Fassbender plays two roles, has all the best scenes and lines, the new female lead is someone he liked working with before, and he creates the xeno and the movie ends with him gloating over his victory. C'mon. It's almost like the script was written just for him, don't you think? It certainly wasn't exactly what Ridley or Rapace wanted. It's either Fox or Fassbender, but I don't think Fox would have bothered sending Fassbender a script they didn't intend to green light... unless they needed Fassbender to be onboard. Either way, I think I have pretty good cause to single out Fassbender as the person with ultimate veto power over the script. If Scott liked it, he'd show it to Fox, and if they liked it, he'd show it to Fassy and see if he was available.
To summarize, I'd say Fassbender did hurt the movie's box office by being unhappy with earlier versions of the script, causing delays and questionable changes to the story. Combined with the possibility that Fassbender is a turnoff to mainstream audiences, I think there is a good chance he did hurt this movie.
Quote from: PierreVW on May 26, 2017, 05:16:55 PM
Quote from: Protozoid on May 26, 2017, 05:01:14 PM
Between The Counselor, Steve Jobs, Assassin's Creed, and now Covenant, Fassbender has a pretty poor track record, box office wise, as a lead actor. He also played games with his availability, making sure he was busy on another movie if he didn't like the current draft of Prometheus 2. When you read about the delays, Scott always wanted to go next wit his draft, and Noomi seems out of the loop, but Fassbinder kept saying "it's about finding the right story" and was constantly busy until the direction changed to being an Alien movie where Dave is the lead and creates the xenos. I know I'm reading between the lines, here, but I think Fassbinder deserves some blame, maybe a lot of the blame. He allegedly didn't get along with Rapace, and surprise she was replaced by an actress Fassbinder enjoyed working with on Steve Jobs. I think Fassbinder played games trying to make Covenant into what he wanted.
My friend, that's your theory.
Sir Ridley wanted bigger stars for PROMETHEUS.
For example: Leonardo DiCaprio was the first choice for David. Michael Fassbender was his second choice.
Didn't Brad Pitt briefly want to play David, as well? I imagine he was the first or second choice before Fassbender, but no matter.
Regardless of how responsible Fassbender ultimately was, I think there is plenty of evidence to support the conclusion that Fassbender, not Scott or Fox or Rapace, is the person who rejected the first several drafts of the script.
