ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

11 years, 4 months ago - Brian O'Sullivan

I'm usually not one to jump into this sort of conversation but on this occasion I'm in a particular mood so will bite....

A general understanding of film-making has the wonderful ideal that the film rests on the shoulders of the director who has all the responsibilities to carry it all on his shoulders through a long labor of hard work, pain, anger, bitterness and hopefully some joy, until its finally born and sent out into the world to hopefully find a place in it. (nice sentiment right!)

The reality on a studio film like this and this film has all the signs of it is that the director was carrying someone else's bastard child so don't for one second think that the blame should be completely with the director. This was a heavily backed studio production with 6 seasoned producers (check their imdb credits!) onboard including the legend Erik McLeod.

It also had a studio who were hedging their bets on this film being another winner to add to their biggest winner for 2012 in the form of Fast & Furious 6 (which helped to pull the studio out of a poor turnout for the previous year).

The film is based on a script that was penned by the same guy who wrote several of the Fast & Furious films so what did you expect....Citizen Kane!

It was in development madness for several years and the pre-production alone would have cost a hell of a lot. Plus a cg heavy film like this would have been pre-viz'd and storyboarded to hell in the development stage and all of this was probably done even before a 'new' director like Carl was brought onboard. As is most likely the way the studio felt comfortable allowing him to steer the ship with their nicely planned route already mapped out and that way it couldn't possibly get so fucked up right!

Also any critique of the camera work or cinematography is also mute because it most likely got greenlit at a stage before the likes of John Mathieson the cinematographer was brought onboard and he probably had a hell of a time trying to fight the good fight on that one also.

Carl worked himself into a place of envy amongst us hoi pollai after 10 years of hard graft on CG heavy commercials and shorts. Yes he was taken under the wing of Ridley and probably worked with him on several features (without a credit) prior to helming this steaming turd as he was very close with the Scott family at one time so would have worked with their production companies.

As it was his first feature and he's not officially credited as having worked on anything else, then he would most likely have a bunch of meddling twits demanding that they hold his hand and this may have even been written into his contract as part of allowing him to shoot his first feature.

What you saw on screen was probably not his work, his edit or even his vision after the studio had shredded and re-edited it when they realised everything they had pre-planned that he had shot exactly as they had wanted wasn't going to work.

Also from what was reported Ridley was ear marked for the directors seat at an earlier stage so what would be wrong with getting one of his protege's to do the work for less money.

I know we all get a bit of the green eyed monster when we see these guys seemingly come out of nowhere to direct a big feature but the old days of being the head of the studios son blah blah are a rarity in this day and age unless that person is footing the bill themselves and are deluded or brave enough to helm it (brass balls is all I say to egotists like that if they can pull something like that off!). However don't for a second think that this guy was going it alone and what you saw is completely his vision.

When you've worked with a big studio with an army of accountants and executives who think they are also directors breathing down your neck on a daily basis then sometimes when your hands are tied all you can do is bang your head against the brick wall and hope for the best!

This film isn't even out on DVD yet but has almost broken even from the nice creative accounting figures I've seen so as much of a steaming pile of crap it may be it will break even and if thats the best they can scrape from it then Carl will most likely get another shot at directing again.

Here is his biog: http://www.mjz.com/directors/carl-erik-rinsch/biography/

More samples of his work: http://www.tesauro.com/en/realizador/carl-erik-rinsch

Anyway, by the time the trailer was released this film had all the signs of pre-packaged corporate madness ticking blockbuster audience boxes. Any freedom on the part of Carl to create a strong distinctive vision for the project would have been pretty much ruled out from the get go.

On a final note, what would you do if a studio offered you the chance to helm such a feature? Wouldn't you take a shot at it at least to test whether you could make it work despite the office politics. Ok so for Carl it looks like it was the wrong project to get lumped with to try to launch yourself but hey there are worse films out there by better directors....and at least it paid the rent!!

11 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

I'll guess it's the usual mess of background deals, promises and regrets. Perhaps he bought the option originally then got reeves attention back when he was still hot, and he brought these plus Scott's name to a family friend at the studio on the right day... Then the budget just started bloating as every creative under the sun added their 2p plus reshoots.

Also, that's unlikely to be the actual production budget, probably includes the value of the back end deals, wheel greasing, promotional costs etc. Still leaves a metric crapload of cash though, and it sounds like a very poor result for it. I mean I can buy you a nuclear submarine for that kind of money.

11 years, 4 months ago - Ned Hussain

I was wondering the same bloody thing. I read somewhere he is Ridley Scott's protege.

But it goes to show that you shouldn't give a noob $175 mil because he didnt know how to handle the battle scenes nor did he give the main character enough time in screen to tell his story. Then that led to reshoots and his ass (Carl) got fired and re-edited which bumped the budget to $225 mil. Shame on the punters (studio) and shame on Carl to even take on such a huge budgeted film, he should know his own strenghts and weaknesses. After all the Director takes all responsibilities.

11 years, 4 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Thanks Marcos, but I'm really more interested in the director's path on this thing. I just can't believe a good pitch with storyboards got this guy a 175 mil. I truly believe it's in a first time director's best interest to keep the budget as low as possible when dealing with a studio. Anything over 30 million, and they will start screwing with you, and surely Ridley Scott told him that. Despite the terrible script, it's pretty obvious that Rinsch doesn't know how to work with actors, or where to put the camera--especially on action sequences. Despite the Variety article, this kind of budget with a first timer is incredibly rare, and I'm wondering how he pulled it off.

11 years, 4 months ago - Stuart Wright

1) the hossein amini screenwriting credit and fast and furious ... Hossein was brought in on Drive after numerous attempts to try and make it the new F&F franchise. He helped make drive the euro film in LA it became. Whereas you don't get a sense of him here.
2) the studio have been the ones taking a beating for the film in the media. Until this thread I'd not heard a peep abt who directed it. So maybe he will live to fight another day. ;)

11 years, 4 months ago - Marcos Villasenor

Here's a Variety article on what happened. http://variety.com/2013/film/news/47-ronin-box-office-bomb-1201012170/