Last week, we discussed the controversy of the latest Angel Studio’s film, Animal Farm which has been derided by Tim Pool, who, after having a screening of the movie, trashed it to his audience. Directed by Andy Serkis, the adaptation of the famous George Orwell novel stars Seth Rogen, Kieran Culkin, Steve Buscemi, Woody Harrelson, and Andy Serkis. Immediately, the prospect of Seth Rogen starring raised red flags.
As previously noted, the Angel Studios members greenlit Animal Farm. But that is all they greenlit. They did not greenlight Andy Serkis or Seth Rogen. And thus, the methodology of Angel Studios comes into question.
Art vs Artist
Angel Studios frames the debate as whether the art can be separated from the artist and they conclude that the answer is a resounding yes. And thus they take this to mean that the guild members are not entitled to know who the artists are in a project.
For new, inexperienced artists, audience blindness puts the merits of the premise front and center. But it also shuns experimental projects, due to a reliance on mass appeal. Animal Farm is not experimental and has mass appeal with a Republican heavy guild. But would such a guild greenlight a project with Seth Rogen as the star?
Perhaps, but the wider audience on social media immediately had misgivings. As another example, the Odyssey has mass appeal, but including Zendaya was a major red flag for the quality of Nolan’s upcoming film of the Greek epic.
Is it because art cannot be separated from the artists? Perhaps.
Race Swap Wokeness
Let’s say Clearance Thomas was cast as James Bond. The artist’s political views are irrelevant, but the entire project would be about raceswapping an iconic British character with a much older Black American lead.
Speaking of British, we are already seeing the Harry Potter television adaptation get lambasted for having a Black Professor Snape, arguably the most important non-titular character. In many cases, raceswapping or genderswapping is the entire point of the project, like with last year’s Captain America and the upcoming Supergirl movie.
Ghostbusters 2016 was the first Culture War movie where a woke adaptation of the deadpan comedy from the 80s was remade with incredibly loud female characters, to box office failure and canonical memory holing.
The political views of the artists are irrelevant, as the art was just a woke retelling of a cult classic. If Young Washington starred a Japanese man, the Angel Guild would have still approved it, to the movie’s ultimate failure, because a broader audience would be deliberately insulted and not see the movie.
Art vs Venture
There is art vs the artist, and then there’s a business venture, which is what movies, books, TV shows, and even podcasts are. Angel Studios needs to think of movies as projects designed to make money and use the guild members as a vetting process for proof of concept. But in treating the movie like a venture, this makes the personalities involved all the more important.
Americans are tired of raceswapped and genderswapped characters. And Americans are also tired of classic stories being deconstructed by Hollywood, except when it comes to Wicked. But a simple story with good casting can go a long way.
