I saw a poster for Looper at the movie theater, and it has Justin Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis on it. The first 'o' in Looper is a clock, and the tagline is "Hunted by your future. Haunted by your past."
The composition of the poster is a bit strange. Bruce Willis is upside down, sort of like a reflection, but not really. A cloud of ashy speckles is behind the title for some reason. The tagline is split between the top and bottom corners. But it's a movie with Justin Gordon-Levitt and possibly about time travel, so I'm excited. I came home and checked IMDB for more info.
The description of the movie sounds like it was inspired by La jetée, which is a French short film from 1962. I won't spoil the story for you because it's neat (both interesting and tidy), but I will say that La jetée is famous for being almost completely made from black and white still photos, strung together into a story with a voice-over narrative. It's so famous that if you've had any photography or film classes, you probably watched it. You might have heard of it in any college humanities class.*
Hollywood recycles ideas all the time.** It's fine that Looper might be inspired by La jetée. That doesn't bother me. But I wish when Hollywood reused ideas, it would look for something interesting but not well-known. I'm sure there are plenty of less popular short stories, novels, plays, legends—you name it—that have potential to be great films. Those would be great sources of inspiration.
But instead, Hollywood uses well-known ideas and my excitement for a new film sparks and immediately fades. Because I know the source material, I likely know the gist of the movie before it has a trailer. There's no fun in that.
* In college, I watched La jetée three times: First Year Seminar, Black and White Photography, and Introduction to Film Studies.
** La jetée has inspired an American film before, actually. Twelve Monkeys (1995) uses a lot of the same ideas. Bruce Willis starred in that movie. I'm sensing a pattern here.
I've been looking forward to this movie for a while and as far as I'm concerned, it's an original script. Hell, people go for original, even if it might be a retread of something that's either been done before or something that's inspired by another work that few people have heard of, but I'm still looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to keep my first impression of the movie intact to write this post, so I just watched the trailer a few minutes ago. Looper does look good.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean that it won't be good simply because it's based off of something else. I was a little disappointed that it seemed like something new but then I could name similar stories off the top of my head.
It's not based off anything else. The writer/director Rian Johnaon started writing it in 2003 when he was reading a lot of Phillip K. Dick at the time.
ReplyDeleteI guarantee none of Looper was based off this short film.
Just someone making a connection where they want to see one.
Dear Anon,
DeleteThank you for your comment, but for clarification: I said Looper "might" have been inspired by La jetée. Not that it definitely was.