What’s going on guys??? Zane here.
For my interview, I decided to interview my dad. My dad’s name is William Gray. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 17th, 1964. He grew up in the Atlanta area and has lived there ever since. Like me, and this is where I get a lot of my film love, my dad is a HUGE film junkie. It goes back to whenever he first remembers seeing Star Wars for the first time and it he surely made it his duty to be the biggest film enthusiast. The majority of movies he’s seen growing up to today have been at AMC Theaters.
Here’s the format of the interview:
- Q: What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater? A: Clearly, I’d go for something more mainstream like Star Wars, but the movie I remember the most was when my parents took me to see Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. It was the summer of ’71, and I must have been around the age of 7 and my parents surprised me by taking me and a group of my friends to see a movie.
It wasn’t too long after that where my parents took me to go see films like The Exorcist, Jaws and Young Frankenstein, and I started to appreciate film even movie.
2. Q: What was your favorite genre growing up? Has it changed and if so what made you change?
A: Zane, my favorite genre has always been Science-Fiction, but a close second would be the Fantasy genre. While I do love me some action movies, especially ones that star Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone, but there was something about the genre of Science-Fiction that I was always so enticed by.
3. Q: What were some of those Science-Fiction movies that you liked the most?
A: While some consider Star Wars Science-Fiction, I’ve never had that mindset as a kid and as the adult that I am today. The ones that stand out to me the most are ones that came out in the same exact month in June of 1982. Me and a group of my buddies went to go see Blade Runner, The Thing, and E.T. Those three movies have been the prime examples of three Science-Fiction films, but they still feel different as far as tone goes.
4. Q: One thing I’ve noticed is that comic-book/superhero movies are being released. Some people say they’re oversaturated or fatigued with all these comic-book movies and in the last 2-3 years, we’ve gotten around 16 comic-book movies. It’s ultimately become its own genre at this point. What do you think made them so popular? Which film do you think it was? And are you fatigued by it?
A: I remember being 14 years old and seeing Superman, starring the legendary Christopher Reeve, and looking back on it now I firmly believe that superhero movies exist because of what Superman did for the genre. If that movie fails, then you probably don’t get Batman (1989), Spider-Man (2002), or even something as obscure as Blade (1998). Are there a lot of superhero movies? Sure, but are people enjoying them? I mean look at the box-office. Look at all the Marvel movies that have come out. I mean you just recently had a 10-year culmination with Avengers: Infinity War and look how much money that made. Heck, even Black Panther, a character NO ONE knows about and it makes over $700 million domestically. So, as long as people are liking them and they’re good quality movies, then I don’t see the problem.
5: Q: My fifth and final question: there’s always been a concern with not enough original movies being released in Hollywood and there have been great ones that have been released but no one goes to see them. What’s your take on this?
A: There has never been any time in Hollywood where this many original movies being produced than today, however, the majority of movies that come out every month are reboots, remakes, sequels, or movies that are based on existing property. It always pains me when something like The Nice Guys, a movie that has two of Hollywood’s biggest stars with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, that’s based on nothing and no one goes to see it. You got a great movie on your hands and no one went to pay and see it. To be clear: I love me a good comic-book movie, a Star Wars movie or something along those lines, but I want to see original movies do better at the box office. That way we don’t see all these people complaining.
Zane's take at the Cinema's 