Failure to Franchise

Your iconic turn as a superhero made you one of Hollywood's most beloved (and well paid) stars, jump-started a genre's total dominance of the cinematic landscape, and gave you a decade-plus of mega-successful sequels and spin-offs. But that gig has finally ended. What do you do? Well, if you're Robert Downey Jr., and you've recently wrapped your long tenure as Tony Stark/Iron Man with Avengers: En...

By the early '90s, the slasher subgenre that had dominated horror in the '80s was already seen as on life support. But that didn't stop an upstart comic book company, formed in 1986 and already quite successful in the publishing world, from seeing the genre as potentially their ticket to join the movie big leagues. And so, four years before Scream would re-invent and re-popularize the slasher, Dar...

They say there ain't no cure for the summertime blues, but we here at F2F disagree. So allow Trev & Chris to make a house-call, as we ring in a brand new series - "JUNE is What the Doctor Ordered," taking a look at three doctor-themed (sorta) movies. First up, the 1983 oddity Doctor Detroit , perhaps most remembered as SNL legend Dan Aykroyd's first (and last?) solo starring role in a movie. Aykro...

"No Fate But What We MAYke" concludes, with the TERMINATOR franchise under new ownership, and looking to forge a new path forward...by going all the way back to the beginning. That's right - perhaps appropriately for a series whose story has been built on a bootstrap paradox/causal loop time travel convention, TERMINATOR GENISYS looks to revisit and revisit and reinvent the events of the original...

Did the Terminator franchise really need to live on past James Cameron's excellent T2: Judgment Day ? Probably not! But Hollywood can't let a good (or moneymaking) franchise die. And so after the strong performance of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines , not even franchise star Arnold Schwarzenegger leaving movies for the world of politics could kill the series. But what is a franchise to do when...

"Misfired Cannons" comes to a conclusion as a post Golan & Globus era Cannon limps to its final days amidst new ownership but continued, and growing, financial woes. In a blatant attempt to try to recapture some of their past glory, Cannon looked to start a new franchise that might capture the same fans as those of one of its most popular previous successful series, American Ninja. So, recruiting...

It's the third installment of "Misfired Cannons," and time to look at what happens when Cannon Films decides to work with one of Hollywood's biggest megastars. Sylvester Stallone was riding high off the success of both the Rocky and Rambo franchises in the mid-80s, so deciding to launch a new action franchise with the notoriously frugal and not always successful Cannon might have seemed a strange,...

So you've developed a sequel to one of your recent "successes," but the legendary action star of the previous film has decided he doesn't want to do a follow-up. Are you supposed to scrap the whole thing? Not if you're Cannon Films, who knew better than to throw out all the work they had already done on a potential Invasion USA sequel, and instead decided to rework it into a new potential franchis...

For film fans of the '80s, one studio was synonymous with over-the-top action, wild premises, and low to mid-budget insanity. Cannon Films delivered a massive output of video store staples and cable classics, and today are looked back on nostalgically as an entertaining alternative to the "big" studio fare of the era. But Cannon certainly had at least one thing in common with the major studios - t...

"The Girl with the Failed February Franchises" concludes with our look at 2018's The Girl in the Spider's Web. Even though the previous film hadn't made as much as Sony had hoped for, it still earned Rooney Mara an Oscar nomination, received critical acclaim, and the entire creative team was down to return for more. So, of course the thing to do is...ignore all that and instead hire a new director...

In 2005 (and 2008 for the American translation), the posthumous release of Swedish author Stieg Larsson's " Millennium Trilogy " took the world by storm. A series of Swedish cinematic adaptations soon followed, making even bigger pop culture icons of the characters of Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist, and Lisbeth Salander, the punk computer hacker with a mysterious past. And then, Hollywoo...

"Thomas JANEuary" concludes with 2018's The Predator , an attempt to resurrect, revitalize, and "event-ize" the classic sci-fi action franchise. To do so, 20th Century Fox recruited famed Hollywood action screenwriter and the acclaimed director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys , and Iron Man 3 (and co-star of the original Predator movie), Shane Black, as well as his former Monster Squad colla...

We recently realized, though it was never our specific intention, that we covered Thomas Jane movies the last two January's of this podcast. So, what the heck...let's lean in! Welcome to "Thomas JANEuary," a two-episode tribute to the rugged, prickly, shoe-hating star of The Punisher, The Mist, Mutant Chronicles , HBO's Hung , and so much more. First up, we're looking at 2010's Give 'Em Hell, Malo...

A new year is almost upon us, but you know what they say: the holiday season isn't officially over until you've listened to part two of "Failure to Franchise presents Trev & Chris-tmas." This time, Trev gifts Chris the long-in-the-works passion project of legendary filmmaker James Cameron, the cyberpunk manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel . But, wait...if this was Cameron's passion project, why t...

It's that most wonderful time of the year, and "Failure to Franchise Presents Trev and Chris-tmas" kicks off with a timely look at a sci-fi action take on one of the most important, iconic, and revered properties of all time. And to be sure, 2014's I, Frankenstein pays homage to Mary Shelley's beloved creation by including all the most cherished elements of her classic novel...the heroic gargoyles...

It's a very special F2F Holiday Special! Before we exchange our gifts for our next annual "Failure to Franchise presents Trev & Chris-tmas," we're taking a brief, merry break to visit one of the most beloved Christmas movies of all time, and arguably the last movie to date to enter the "Classic Christmas Movie" canon, 2003's Elf . Directed by a pre- Iron Man and Star Wars Jon Favreau, and starring...

"CROWvember" concludes! Not with another Russell Crowe movie, but with the actual bird! Sorta? I dunno, just roll with us here, as we look at 2024's The Crow , a long-gestating comic book movie franchise reboot that went through a lot of permutations, with multiple directors and leading men attached, before finally arriving (with Rupert Sanders at the helm and Bill Skarsgard in the lead role), and...

New month, new theme. We're kicking off "CROWvember" with yet another failed franchise starter from the surprisingly-regularly-featured-on-F2F Russell Crowe. But this time, it's a classy, prestige play Oscar contender from acclaimed filmmaker Peter Weir that was, nevertheless, meant to hopefully kick off a cinematic series. Adapted from the long-running "Aubrey/Maturin" period war-drama novel seri...

Our special  "Trick 'r(esident) Tre(vil)" month concludes, with the 2021 cinematic reboot of the Resident Evil series. We've lost Milla Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson (except for an in-name-only producer credit), but hey, we've got a crap-ton of 1998 references to make up for it! That's because Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City promised to be a more faithful adaptation of the original video...

For a special Halloween edition of our "Success to Series" spin-off show, we're taking a break from our usual failures and instead beginning our "Trick 'r(esident) Tre(vil)" theme month, with a loving look at a series we unironically adore - Paul W.S. Anderson's six-film Resident Evil saga (2002-2016), starring Milla Jovovich. We explain why we genuinely enjoy this oft critically-panned series, on...

"Double-Shafted September" concludes with our look at Shaft , the second reboot of Shaft , following Shaft . Yeah, ok, this is pretty confusing without the years, isn't it? Just to be clear, this is the 2019 version, another attempt to kick-start a version of the franchise with Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft, Jr. But this time, he's not alone, as the actual, ostensible main character is actually...

Are you ready to be shafted? No? Well, how about...double-shafted?? Cause we're kicking off "Double-Shafted September," a two-episode series dedicated to both attempts to relaunch the iconic Blaxploitation franchise that started with 1971's Shaft . First up, we're looking at 2000's Shaft (yep, same name), directed by John Singleton, and starring Hollywood's biggest badass M'Fer, Samuel L. Jackson....

Here it is! It's all been building to this! The epic conclusion of "Summer Surprise," and one of our most anticipated....err, or should we say dreaded episodes yet! That's right, it's 1987's  The Garbage Pail Kids,  based on the controversial, extremely popular, '80s Topps trading card set parodying the mega-successful Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. How does one make a movie out of a non-narrative trad...

"Summer Surprise" continues with...what's this?  Another  witch movie?? That's right, but this one has a hell of a pedigree. A family dark-fantasy romp from Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett, and directed by...Eli Roth?? Huh. So how did the infamous filmmaker behind such extreme horror hits as  Cabin Fever, Hostel,  and  Thanksgiving  handle the opport...

The "Summer Surprise" randomizer brings us yet another classic TV show turned big-budget movie, this time with a look at 2002's  I Spy, a groundbreaking dramatic spy series from the '60s starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, now re-imagined as an action-comedy big-screen adventure starring Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy. The cinematic  I Spy  clearly failed to make the impact the filmmakers hoped for...