I'd say it has much more to do with the audience. You can't blame Hollywood when people are foaming at the mouth for more sequels and remakes and stay away from original films in droves. If people want franchises, that's what they get. You could blame Hollywood marketing for taking the easy road. How hard is it really to sell Harry Potter 9? Then again, I blame people for being such pawns to the marketing machine.

Wow. Even more upsetting to me is the genre distribution. Every one of the 2011 movies are essentially action-adventure. But 1981 had period pieces, drama, comedy, to go along with the action films.

I think it's also important to distinguish a sequel to an old movie like Twins and even Dumb and Dumber and let's say Harry Potter which for one is a series or Fast and Furious which is a more recent film (though granted not extremely). I think there's more to be excited about even an "unoriginal" remake or sequel of a Ghostbusters film for example than something absolutely brand new. I think the negativity for some of these things is unjustified, there's more to an enjoyable movie then its originality and either way how original is anything really.

[...] Hollywood’s Waning Creativity (gointothestory.blcklst.com) [...]

What about Pixar, Scott? 3 words: Toy Story 3. To be honest, I don't think there's anything wrong with a sequel if the characters are strong and compelling, and it's possible to tell a good story around them. What we call franchises have been around as long as movies have been made: the Thin Man series and the Bond films comes to mind... I'd even consider the Marx Brothers movies as a kind of franchise.

Great article, Scott. It's plagued me for the last ten years. I think my biggest ache is for one of my many original screenplays/teleplays to make some kind of light of day, which is why I filmed the last one myself. But if it's not a proven franchise, you're stuck fighting against the already entrenched network of established writers hopping on smaller projects. Nothing felt left to me but making my own film and hopefully striking a little bubbly. I don't see what an unknown writer can do but buy a camera and some editing software. It's not enough to know one craft anymore.

The problem is not that Hollywood is out of original ideas...the problem is that they have no balls. Grow a pair and take a chance on something other than a sequel or a remake. Bunch of pussies scared to lose a few bucks. Plain old fucking pussies.