I first saw this over three months ago, but it’s now on Youtube.
And for those interested in private space, this may be one of the first movies to be produced.
40 thoughts on “The Roll Out”
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I first saw this over three months ago, but it’s now on Youtube.
And for those interested in private space, this may be one of the first movies to be produced.
Comments are closed.
………………… uh huh.
So when are you starting your colony in the Jupiter system? A place where no one tips, and the movie theaters show John Wayne films and libertarian propaganda ’round the clock… Where American values are the only values, and the culture is tightly regimented to prevent things like weird music from popping up and corrupting the khaki-clad youth. You could set up some sort of space elevator to launch bleeding-hearts into the radioactive atmosphere of the gas giant, preserving your Ayn Randian utopia for The Ages.
If this is the ultimate plan, I’d like to make a donation.
No one’s stopping you, Ethan.
Oh, and grow up.
Oh, it was just a harmless laugh…albeit at your expense. Lighten up.
The idea of a commercial expedition to Jupiter is an interesting one. But what is the profit motive one wonders?
Oh, it was just a harmless laugh…albeit at your expense.
It was at your expense. You just don’t realize it.
Mark, I said private expedition, not commercial. No profit required.
So this is like the mother of all vacations? Or do they intend to colonize Europa?
> The idea of a commercial expedition to Jupiter is an interesting one. But what is the profit motive one wonders?
A plot element in Charles Stross’s (freely available) novel Accelerando was attaching electrodynamic tethers to a moon of Jupiter to harvest electricity from the planet’s magnetosphere (and the moon’s orbital energy). The power could then be beamed elsewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_(novel)
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=3493
As for Declaration, I’m dubious. The proof will be in the product. I’d hate to see mere mirror imagery of the recent run of leftoid propagandistic crap, such as Green Zone.
As a means of altering film culture, I can’t see how Declaration can make a practical difference, though perhaps that hook is the best means they have of selling the concept. I’m more hopeful about the opening into film production Declaration might provide to an Army of Davids.
I’m more worried about whether the concept will work financially than whether or not the product will be good.
I’m not worried. I’m excited. It’ll work, or not, depending on how many people get excited about it, I guess. I’ve been a little punchy this week, but that just strikes me as… fun!
If Declaration movies make big money, Hollywood will run over their own grandmothers to try and fund movies just like Declaration makes. If Declaration makes medium money, Hollywood will walk…
You get the picture. Hollywood isn’t funding movies Declaration likes because Hollywood doesn’t see those kind of movies as money-makers. Prove them wrong and their tune will change. After all, nobody made people pay good money to see Avatar.
If Declaration movies make big money, Hollywood will run over their own grandmothers to try and fund movies just like Declaration makes….Hollywood isn’t funding movies Declaration likes because Hollywood doesn’t see those kind of movies as money-makers.
Nope. If they don’t see those kinds of movies as money makers, they aren’t paying attention. Hollywood has other motivations than making money, and as the video points out, a lot of the money they make comes from overseas audiences. Otherwise they wouldn’t have kept making all those anti-American Iraq movies that bombed at the box office, but won lots of awards from themselves. And they’d make more movies like The Blind Side.
So will only members be able to obtain these movies or will anyone be able to buy them?
The industry’s domestic ticket sales were up 8% in 2009, and they were on track to break the $10 billion mark in gross US movie ticket sales for the same period. I suspect that Hollywood has a very good handle on what it takes to make money.
I don’t know the answer to that. I’m not sure they do, either. It probably depends on the degree to which they think that sales to the general public will cannibalize their subscription rates. But part of the goal is to get these things as widely viewed as possible, so I suspect the answer is that anyone will be able to buy them.
The industry’s domestic ticket sales were up 8% in 2009, and they were on track to break the $10 billion mark in gross US movie ticket sales for the same period.
How do you (and they) know they wouldn’t have been even higher if they made better movies? did you follow that other link, explaining that pro-American movies generally do better than anti-American ones, all else being equal? A lot of people watched Avatar for the effects, despite its loony politics, not because of them. An Avatar that didn’t seem anti-capitalist and greentopia might do even better.
Rand – for a free market kind of guy, you seem to have very little faith in what has to be the most free market in town. Nobody makes people pay money to see movies.
If Declaration’s product is entertaining, it will sell, and Hollywood will notice.
You don’t seem to understand. Hollywood can make money by making anti-American films, because much of the market is overseas. That doesn’t mean that they’re adequately satisfying American audiences. If Declaration is successful, it will mean that they are filling a previously unmet desire.
How do you (and they) know they wouldn’t have been even higher if they made better movies? – I don’t. That’s not my argument. My argument is that if Declaration rolls out a movie that makes a tenth of Avatar’s gross, Hollywood will be trying to clone those movies in a New York minute.
If Declaration rolls out movies that just cover costs, Hollywood will yawn. Hollywood will yawn because they just don’t give a damn about politics. They care about money, like every other business. Show them the money (which I think is a Hollywood line) and they’ll be all over Declaration.
If Declaration is successful, it will mean that they are filling a previously unmet desire. Then we are in agreement.
My argument is that if Declaration rolls out a movie that makes a tenth of Avatar’s gross, Hollywood will be trying to clone those movies in a New York minute.
That has not been their behavior in the past with successful conservative movies.
Hollywood will yawn because they just don’t give a damn about politics.
You betray a profound ignorance of Hollywood. Are you unaware of the new blacklist?
Then we are in agreement.
The second part of my statement is that if that niche has been unmet, it is because Hollywood is in fact very interested in politics, to the point that many there would rather make a politically correct box-office loser than a successful movie that reflects middle-America’s values. As long as they can find a sucker to pay for it, of course…
Here’s the answer to your question, Cecil. If they plan to get them into theaters, presumably they’ll be selling DVDs as well. The membership benefit is that you probably get a DVD before it even hits the theaters, or the DVDs go on sale.
That plot synopsis is horrible. I could be convinced otherwise, but I’d watch that film with a cringe.
I know, Rand, that you have been pushing the concept for the last couple of days, but this is the first I got to actually see it. I like the idea, and wish it well. However, I have to admit the concept for Aurora sounds almost as bad as The Mars Run. The concept could be so much better by just bringing to scope closer to near term reality.
How about this synapsis: NASA has returned to the moon, but on it’s third mission, the orbital CM module becomes inoperable, stranding the crew on the lunar surface. A rescue plan calls for a recently launched Bigelow module to be sling shot to the moon (like AsiaSat3) to be a lifeboat. NASA’s low flight rate, means a return capsule is still months away from being prepared to launch. However, a Dragon capsule, prepared to carry tourists to the Bigelow module, is available. Can NASA and SpaceX modify a Falcon to put a Dragon in lunar orbit in time?
You betray a profound ignorance of Hollywood. Are you unaware of the new blacklist? I suspect I’m unaware of the blacklist because it doesn’t exist.
I am continually amazed that you advocate for a free market, but when that free market doesn’t do what you want to do, you complain about it and invent conspiracy theories.
I suspect I’m unaware of the blacklist because it doesn’t exist.
Go tell the people in Hollywood who have lost jobs, or not gotten them, because they were conservatives or Republicans.
I suspect I’m unaware of the blacklist because it doesn’t exist.
Head in sand. Fingers in ear. lalalalala
Of course, there is absolutely nothing anti-free market about private companies and individuals blacklisting people. Maybe we need to extend the Civil Rights Act to Hollywood?
Of course, there is absolutely nothing anti-free market about private companies and individuals blacklisting people.
Of course there’s not. Who said there was? Who are you arguing with? First you say they aren’t blacklisting people, now you say it’s OK because it’s free market. All I’m doing is pointing out the fact that it’s happening, and that your denials that it is, or that Hollywood makes their decisions purely on monetary considerations, with no ideological ones, is absurd.
Maybe we need to extend the Civil Rights Act to Hollywood?
Yes, right.
[rolling eyes]
I didn’t say that we have to get the government involved — that’s the last thing we need. But that’s exactly the solution a statist like you would come up with.
Hollywood got too expensive, most movies are now made elsewhere. That might change when/if the Californian economy is reformed.
In Avatar’s defense, the local CEO was portrayed sympathetically, with a devotion to peaceful negotiation, but with his hand reluctantly forced by total negotiation failure and the shareholder’s overwhelming profit motive over which he had no control. Inference being that those ultimately responsible were the mom and pop investors in the corporation who simply wanted a good return on their investment on their retirement savings. I thought this a nice twist in an otherwise clichéd plot (which judging by the movie’s financial success is what the customer’s wanted). The big corporation was not itself portrayed as evil, the theme was more one of the unintended consequences of investor ignorance.
Rand – I haven’t seen any evidence that “Hollywood” is blacklisting anybody, or advancing any agenda more complicated then trying to make money.
But the idea that a group of multi-billion dollar corporations would blacklist and make decisions on ideological grounds suggests that the free market is not rational. It was just as irrational to prevent blacks from eating at lunch counters, and the only thing that fixed that problem was government action.
In short, it’s hard to argue that the free market is an unmitigated good and that the major players in the free market are using market power to discriminate against people and ideas.
It’s also amusing as hell to watch you get gored by your own ox.
I haven’t seen any evidence that “Hollywood” is blacklisting anybody, or advancing any agenda more complicated then trying to make money.
There is abundant evidence. Your ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
But the idea that a group of multi-billion dollar corporations would blacklist and make decisions on ideological grounds suggests that the free market is not rational.
No corporation makes such decision. There is no literal blacklist. It’s a culture. People who don’t hew to the “progressive” agenda don’t get work, unless they’re already well-established stars. Its the same phenomenon as in academia, in which conservatives have to keep their heads down.
As for making money, it’s not necessarily irrational. As has been pointed out (did the video roll too fast for you?), a lot of the money that funds Hollywood product these days is foreign money, that has no interest in promoting American values, and anti-American stuff can sell well overseas, even if not in America.
In short, it’s hard to argue that the free market is an unmitigated good and that the major players in the free market are using market power to discriminate against people and ideas.
Yet another straw man. No one claims that the free market is an “unmitigated good.” The claim is that it remains generally preferable to government intervention.
It’s also amusing as hell to watch you get gored by your own ox.
In what way am I being “gored” by anything? You have made no arguments at all, either effective, or on topic.
Rand – assertions are not fact. You keep asserting a blacklist without providing any factual support for it.
The ox you are being gored by is the free market, which is using its market power to keep the movies you like from being made.
It’s hard to argue for free trade and suggest that British Petroleum is being picked on while also being upset that foreigners fund movies that you don’t like.
You keep asserting a blacklist without providing any factual support for it.
I am not “asserting a blacklist” in the literal sense. Didn’t you read my last comment?
The ox you are being gored by is the free market, which is using its market power to keep the movies you like from being made.
No, it’s not.
It’s hard to argue for free trade and suggest that British Petroleum is being picked on while also being upset that foreigners fund movies that you don’t like.
Why?
Why do you continue stupidly insist that I am complaining about the free market, when I am not?
You’re complaining about the results of the free market – the market not funding or producing the movies you want. You’re asserting a culture of discrimination that has the same effect as and results from the same individual, free market actions as the literal blacklist of the 1950s.
I have one movie for you to consider: An American Carol. Here’s a $20 million conservative movie, funded by Hollywood.
It flopped, taking in just under $8 million, despite a release on 1,600 screens. Perhaps flops like that left a bad taste in Hollywood’s mouth for too-political movies.
You’re complaining about the results of the free market – the market not funding or producing the movies you want.
Yes. But unlike you, I don’t demand a government solution. Instead, I post about some people who are working a free market one, despite your pathetic attempts to change the subject.
I have one movie for you to considerI have one movie for you to consider
In other words, you have a cherry-picked anecdote, to desperately attempt to deflect actual data (e.g., the string of leftist-Iraq-war flops).
Please go away, and come back when you have actual arguments against things that we actually write.
In Avatar’s defense, the local CEO was portrayed sympathetically, with a devotion to peaceful negotiation, but with his hand reluctantly forced by total negotiation failure and the shareholder’s overwhelming profit motive over which he had no control.
Really? The theatrical release must be different than the DVD.
*SPOILER – slight, but a spoiler nonetheless*
In the DVD, the local CEO was under pressure to find more Unobtanium to justify the expense of the base. The richest deposit was under the site revered by the natives, so he wanted them to be pressured to consent to it being developed.