Simon Pegg asks if Science Fiction is Dumbing Down Cinema

Dave

Dave

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Firstly, I haven't read the interview - it is in Radio Times, but he is also talking about it everywhere, on every talk show, and it is trending on Twitter in a big way.

Secondly, he isn't actually saying this, but rather throwing the question out there. So, he isn't a hypocrite for making all those films then saying this, but you might have thought he would have thought about it before now. He's been making SciFi TV and film for at least 20 years. Also, you do have to wonder about his motives. Is he selling a book? Oh, yes, he is!

Thirdly, this is a perennial question at SFFChrons and the answer is no. Science Fiction can be literary too, and Science Fiction films can be thought-provoking and very reflective of real-world issues. He seems to be speaking about comic-book adaptations (not my favourite genre either) and the kind of science-fiction comedies that he makes (which are fun because comedies are meant to be.) Also, if we want to talk childish then look to films such as The Hangover series, Scary Movie series, American Pie series.

I really wish Hollywood would make more thought-provoking science fiction and fantasy films. There are plenty of books not filmed yet. Instead it goes for comic-books and remakes because they are popular and make more money. It doesn't stop other films being made too. It isn't killing off Art House or Thrillers or Biographies or Rom Coms. Why doesn't Simon Pegg step up to the mark and make something more literary for a change?
 
It's the other way round. Cinema is getting dumber anyway and degrading written fiction. Too many books are written as if novelizations of weak Cinema SF & F.
Cinema is relying too much on effects and spectacle rather than plot, character, dialogue and decent photographic composition.
 
When a director, producer and writer tell the average movie executive that they want to produce a literate anything , the executive suddenly gets afflicted with visions of box office failure and a movie studio executive career cut short .:)
 
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I still haven't read the interview and I'm not planning on it, but the headline is that he had to rewrite Star Trek 3 because it was too "Star Treky." I'm sorry, but what they have done to something I loved is criminal. I was also wrong. He is doing the rounds, not for his book, but because he is in some new film called Man Up which is apparently not science fiction at all. So, he probably thinks it is in his interest to say these things to gather a new audience who has never heard of him before, or knows that he was once almost a zombie. He is like a porn star who wants to be suddenly thought of as a serious actress because in her latest film she doesn't take her clothes off.
 
I definitely think that cinema is dumbing down SF... If SF, which should among the most intelligent of literature, is "Dumbing down" anything, then we should just blow up the damn planet for the sake of the universe, because humanity must be a dead end.
 
I don't think cinema has a responsibility to any kind of integrity. That's why we love our SF books.

I don't think a hard sff and a dumbed down one are mutually exclusive. And there's plenty of excellent indie sf eg Primer, Monsters, Absentia and Upstream Colour.

pH
I agree with Brian on Simon Pegg, but also with Stephen Palmer about Nick Frost :)
 
Pegg is clearing looking to become a 'serious' actor a la Tom Hanks. While I agree there are too many comic book films now and that science fiction is being seen in this light by the general populous, there will always be room for more serious science fiction films. It's just that the studios aren't willing to risk a sure thing. Once profits in these films fall, the studios might be more inclined to shoot serious science fiction again.

Also serious science fiction needs to be cast and filmed better. I'm looking at you Ender's Game.
 
Hanks wouldn't be one of the highest earning actors if Ron Howard hadn't cast him in Splash. Does Tom Hanks regret that? Is it his albatross?

Some actors are good and some are bad. Some actors wait for good parts to be given to them and go hungry. Others, like Michael Cain, just take any job that comes along. Those are two entirely separate things. Michael Cain has been in some dreadful dross, but does anyone remember those films, or do they just remember the best roles when he showed himself to be a good actor?

The difference is that Pegg is often writing his own material. Paul was about as bad as it could get.
 
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