Well, now the Academy-Award-winning S.O.B. (really, mad love...) is doing it again. It was announced today that the king of B's is re-teaming with the bard of Sharktopus, one Michael MacLean, plus Jim Wynorski, the director of Chopping Mall, Munchie and Ghoulies IV, to produce a film called - I shit you not - Piranhaconda.
This is obviously meant to capitalize upon the exposure of The Asylum's two SyFy original contributions to date, last year's wildly-successful Mega Piranha and the upcoming Sharktopus-record-shattering instant classic Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. I mean, there's no real grounds to get upset here, the man's done nothing wrong, certainly nothing he hasn't been doing since the first days of his career, and certainly nothing The Asylum itself doesn't do on a regular basis - that is, drafting off others' concepts - but really, bro - Piranhaconda? The official description of this one is a creature with "razor sharp teeth and 100 feet of constricting power." I'll admit to being intrigued by the visual possibilities, but every time I try to imagine it, all I see is a big fucking eel. Big fucking deal.
What's more, this same trio is also responsible for a yet-to-be-released-on-DVD gem entitled Dinocroc vs Supergator. What happened to honor among thieves?
The only casting we have as of yet is a certain Diana Terranova, whose last appearance was in a certain company's horror movie about a certain clown-faced serial killer's ghost. There's no release date for this one as yet, but shooting begins next month in Hawaii, and given Corman's penchant for quick productions, it wouldn't surprise me if this hits DVD by the end of summer. After that, expect Jessica Simpson and Avril Lavigne starring in Princess vs Pony. I'll let you assign which pop star to which role.
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ReplyDeleteYou're right. It's not like Roger Corman produced any mutant piranha movies as far back as, say 1977, right? Oh yeah, he did.
ReplyDeleteWell, he didn't make Dinocroc a full year before any of the Asylum's giant reptile films... oh wait, yeah. He did that, too.
Well, certainly, Supergator couldn't have pre-dated any of the Asylum's lizard flicks... oh, wait.
While no one will ever accuse the legendary producer of being original, I doubt that he's copying our friends at The Asylum so much as responding to what the SyFy folks say they're willing to buy....
nice points (twice). while i'm not attempting to impugn mr. corman's prior contributions to the field - which are immeasurable and invaluable, the guy's truly a cinema icon - i am calling him out on a certain recent predilection for targeting a certain company's certain breakthrough films, which have arguably helped define and guide what syfy is willing to buy these days. when it's your genre, never imitate; innovate. and supergator came out 2007, same year as supercroc, so he wasn't too ahead of the game. sayles at least, beat us both by 25 years.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the double-post; I got an error message after the first, and assumed that it hadn't gone through.
ReplyDeleteLook, I like the Asylum, have defended them to many of my movie pals, and have positively reviewed a number of their titles on my website.
But I would - "argue" is too strong a word, maybe "suggest?" - that SyFy's programmers - and thus, producers like The Asylum and Corman - were reacting to the inexplicable success of stuff like "Frankenfish" and the endless stream of DTV giant snake flix that followed in the wake of 1997's "Anaconda," which, upon airing on SyFy, seemed to determine the channel's tastes in future programming - tastes that both The Asylum and Corman (and other producers) have been trying aggressively to satisfy ever since.
BTW - I love this blog.
very valid point. almost seems moot to have an "argument" about the marketing skills of two companies whose whole filmographies are made up of films similar to other films. one thing's for sure, though: without corman, there's no asylum. and perhaps now, if there wasn't an asylum, there wouldn't be certain corman films. i checked out your site, pretty awesome stuff there. thanks for reading!
ReplyDeletep.s. i freakin' loooove frankenfish. nice shout out.
As much as I love Asylum, Roger Corman has done it all first, long before they came along, and he always has my loyalty. With that said, Dinoshark was nothing special at all. Nothing more then any other regular SyFy Chanel monster movie. Haven't yet seen Sharktopus but I've heard great things. I have seen however, Dinocroc and Supergator, both of which were highly entertaining. Waiting for the DVD release though before I watch their vs team up movie.
ReplyDeleteI just hope to see him one day do a Carnosaur 4, though very unlikely since all the props and robots have been destroyed, hence why the unofficial Carnosaur 4, titled simply Raptor (due to Title rights issues), was made using nothing but stock footage from Carnosaur 1-3 for every dinosaur scene (some scenes integrated quite well while others integrated very very horribly).
And let us not forget that SyFy long ago, made Python, Python 2, Boa, and Boa vs Python, as well as Curse of the Komodo and Komodo vs Cobra.
ReplyDeleteNOT to mention (Sorry for not including this in my other ones but I just thought of it), Asylum makes their living on cashing in on the success of other movies, so I really don't understand how you can fault someone for doing the same to them, if that's even what they're doing.
ReplyDeleteto the last post, that's what i was alluding to when i said:
ReplyDelete"almost seems moot to have an 'argument' about the marketing skills of two companies whose whole filmographies are made up of films similar to other films."
but again, as i'm the one who started the "argument" with this post, it's only fair i catch some flack. all the above points are valid and of course i recognize that it's corman's world, the asylum just makes movies in it, sincerely, however i stand by my words - the guy shouldn't be content merely appeasing the marketplace; i just don't want great minds to ever stop, is all - and sharktopus still isn't half the film of either mega shark masterpiece! (really, i didn't enjoy it at all, it was all FX, not even a modicum of a half-hearted storyline. and that's me the shark movie guy, not me the crazed asylum aficionado.)
i am grateful, though, that the disagreements my words sparked have at last generated some actual conversations on my comment boards. i live for this stuff, i really do, i love talking flicks with people as fervent as i am, like mr. mills and mr. long clearly are. extra bonus points when, in both their cases, the people really know their shit.
so thanks, and bring it on.
Plus, any excuses to have more killer animal movies (Regular, Mega, Combined, Vs, or Genetically-altered) is aces by me.
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