Sometimes Things Just Go Wrong

I am a big fan of Seth Godin’s blogs. The man is smart and has the ability to articulate things very well in crisp, short sentences. Almost as if the guy was made for the Twitter age of 140 character messages! Some of his blogs are too marketing oriented for my liking, but mostly I like them.

In a recent blog, Godin wrote about the flop movie starring Johnny Depp, The Lone Ranger. I agree that the movie was horrible, though Johnny Depp was funny as usual. That said, Godin’s point below is only partially correct:

“thousands of people touched this project…Each of these people got handed a turkey, and some money, along with instructions on how to somehow improve it, promote it or otherwise dress it up. Alas, no one had the guts and the leverage to say, “stop.’”

I agree with Godin to the extent that none of those “thousands of people” increased Johnny Depp’s role in the movie. Then again, they were basing this on a book, so their hands were tied (beyond a point).

So why do still I feel Godin is only partially correct? Because some of those “thousands of people” did pick a guy who, as Brian Hiatt said, is paid:

“island-buying money, recording-studio-in-your-house money, your-kids-and-grandkids-never-have-to-worry money”!

To put that differently, they picked one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood. And they even tried to make his character as similar to that famous and awesome role of Captain Jack Sparrow as possible.

I think sometimes we forget that the movie business is touchy-feely and unpredictable, that it is an art, not science. And art, like beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder!