• Re: Ben Stiller Says He Was "Blindsided" By "Zoolander 2" Flopping: 'Th

    From Your Name@21:1/5 to Kyonshi on Wed May 1 10:05:24 2024
    XPost: alt.movies

    On 2024-04-30 15:51:44 +0000, Kyonshi said:
    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.

    --
    Let's go Brandon!


    The main problem was that this movie
    <snip>

    A. Starred the hopeless cretin Ben Stiller.
    B. Was a sequel to an awful, completely unfunny, so-called "comedy"
    (even worse, it's an American "comedy").

    :-p

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to gmkeros@gmail.com on Sun May 5 11:05:46 2024
    XPost: alt.movies

    In article <v0r5ia$2i8p6$1@dont-email.me>, 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!

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