Path: ...!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 05 May 2024 15:07:31 +0000 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.past-films,alt.movies Subject: Re: Ben Stiller Says He Was "Blindsided" By "Zoolander 2" Flopping: 'Thought Everybody Wanted This' From: Ubiquitous X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.12N (x86 32bit) Date: Sun, 05 May 2024 11:05:46 -0400 References: Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: Lines: 67 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-kKxB/BRge3r/FMDnBzdjhuHgx3acqWl2AqhFtNJZBSeCK0fT+vsbKnyLVuWR8Ln62muo2bsptaY3Xis!fD+Vbmlqh8zRBlAqTmXF2IvOTGEoX+MbjKJj6HAeTM3U124t8bMwxw== X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 4513 In article , gmkeros@gmail.com wrote: >On 4/26/2024 3:05 AM, Ubiquitous wrote: >> Actor Ben Stiller expressed his shock at how badly “Zoolander 2” >> performed at the box office following its release in 2016 despite the >> original film’s success in 2001. >> >> The 58-year-old star discussed his thoughts during a recent episode of >> David Duchovny’s “Fail Better” podcast. “I thought everybody wanted >> this,” Stiller said of making the sequel. "And then it's like, ‘Wow, I >> must have really f***ed this up. Everybody didn’t go to it. And it’s >> gotten these horrible reviews.” >> >> "It really freaked me out because I was like, ‘I didn’t know, was that >> bad?’ What scared me the most on that one was I’m losing what I think >> what’s funny, the questioning yourself … on ‘Zoolander 2,’ it was >> definitely blindsiding to me. And it definitely affected me for a long >> time.” >> >> Stiller directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the sequel, just as >> he did with the original. The first “Zoolander” was a critical and >> commercial success. The movie satirized the fashion industry as it >> documented the life of a male model, Derek Zoolander (Stiller), and his >> rival Hansel (Owen Wilson). It earned $60.8 million against a >> production budget of $28 million. >> >> The sequel fared much worse. Set ten years after the original, >> “Zoolander 2” included many of the original cast members, including >> Stiller and Wilson, while Will Ferrell, Penelope Cruz, Kristen Wiig, >> Naomi Campbell, and Justin Bieber were also co-stars. Benedict >> Cumberbatch played a transgender model named AII. >> >> As The Guardian noted, “Zoolander 2” barely broke even on its $50 >> million production budget and received terrible reviews. >> >> Stiller told Duchovny that the failure became a learning experience for >> him. >> >> “The wonderful thing that came out of that for me was just having space >> where, if that had been a hit, and they said ‘Make Zoolander 3 right >> now,’ or offered some other movie, I would have just probably jumped in >> and done that,” the “Meet the Parents” star said. >> >> “But I had this space to kind of sit with myself and have to deal with >> it and other projects that I had been working on – not comedies, some >> of them – I have the time to actually just work on and develop. Even if >> somebody said, ‘Well, why don't you go do another comedy or do this? >> "I probably could have figured out something to do. But I just didn’t >> want to,” Stiller continued. > >The main problem was that this movie should have been made 8 years >prior. Zoolander was a genuinely good movie at the right time. It would >have been great if they could have caught that lightning in a bottle. >But they didn't. And it's the old problem of making sequels when the >hype already has passed. If you lose the connection to the zeitgeist >it's hard to make a good movie, unless you do something that makes up >for it. >Or in other words: it isn't so bad if you crank out sequels even if they >are bad, as long as they catch the audience. That's why The Fast and the >Furious still is going, that's why Police Academy managed to make it to >6 sequels. I honestly did not know there was a sequel. -- Let's go Brandon!