On Franchises & Reboots

I've been struggling with writing words for a while. However, this week my consultant reduced one of my medications, which seems to have helped. It may be too early too really tell, but I'm sleeping better, and my head is starting to have thoughts again.

Anyway, my blog is a place where I can write about what I write, acting both as a diary and a place to work out ideas. And I have had some ideas about the propensity for Hollywood to reboot popular franchises, and by extension retell the same stories.

My friends on Facebook often ask the question why-oh-why can't Hollywood do new stories, instead of rebooting "old" stories?

Having just finished watching Star Wars Rebels season four I can think of several good reasons for why reboots are so common. The first is simply, money.

Or the cost versus benefits relating to loss.

It's certainly the answer that most people I talk to roll out as an explanation. It makes sense. Risk aversion is part of the human condition and it drives/hinders taking action, which leads to prevarication.

However, if one studies stories, taking time to examine the structure of stories, then it soon becomes apparent that there are a number of forms or plots. Plots have themes, and stories are driven by conflict or opposition.

A long while back I wrote about reading Booker's The Seven Basic Plots. A book that should be titled seven traditional plots and the two or three new ones. OK, I'll admit that's not a snappy title, but then again The Seven Basic Plots is not a snappy book.

There are of course other opinions.

Writers have been writing about writing stories for a very long time. But if I boil the essence of what has been said, it comes down to this. The more you look at stories throughout the ages the more you realise that there are no new plots, only new treatments.

So, from this perspective reboots are more of a feature of story telling, rather than a bug. The big problem of this process is that reboots often fail to provide a fresh treatment, and I would argue that this is what drives peoples dissatisfaction with reboots.

Returning to Star Wars Rebels, and arguably the other animated series in the franchise, what they have managed to do is to bring a fresh treatment of the basic story to viewers. The big failing of The Last Jedi can be reframed as stemming from a failure to make the story feel fresh.

I've been a fan of Star Wars and take an interest in the buzz that surrounds the films. In my opinion, the problems of the prequels and the latest sequel arise from the fear of failure. Lucas and those who follow him are caught by the burden of expectations, which causes them to doubt themselves and lose their trust in the story-telling process.

Stories have structure that readers come to expect. I wrote about this  when I read John Yorke's Into the Woods. That and having quotable dialogue. OK, that's enough for now as we have to go shopping to get some food for tonight's meal.

On that note, let me finish by wishing all my American readers a happy Thanksgiving.