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Will is surrounded by "yes" men


sonic1988

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In the special features for Pursuit (mainly "an italian take on an American dream") doesn't that really prove that Will is surrounded by "yes" men? It really does for me. It seems that Will said that he wanted to use this director and everyone agrees. I mean, can someone get the guts to say "no" to Will anymore? With people like this, its almost a miracle that L&F wasn't another B2R.

sorry, had to rant on this, but it is soooo obvious.

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I don't see the harm in this.By the way, Born 2 reign was probably not up to par with his other best works,

but almost all of his albums were one of the best. JJ/FP ones were off the hook, then his solo albums,Big willie style, willenium, L&F all were great albums and almost all done by will himself. He makes good choices.I even enjoyed B2R.

About his movies, what's there to critisize ? He is the most bankable actor in the world, meaning all of his movies do great at the box-office,

so why wouldn't he be able to let his opinion be heard ? If I was a movie company or whatever I'd let will make the final decision. Look at Pursuit,

300 worldwide, that's an amazing record for a drama movie, the movie was decent to good, will's performance was stunning.

Will doesn't make bad calls, that's all I'm saying. So what if the movie company said no to will, and they would have made their own choices,

is it a guarantee that their choices would be ideal ? Who is to say that it wouldn't be a failure ?

By the way, it's not like they say yes to anything.

Will smith earned that right IMO.

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All the movie people are definite yes men.. and Will's earnt so many billions of dollars for them he's earnt the right to tell them what he wants.. his inner circle are not yes men though..hammer JL, omar, bam, etc have been with Will since the jjfp days.. As far as directors I think the best movies have come from directors Will hasnt gotten along with.. michael bay (bad boys 1 and 2) andy tennant (hitch) they've had fights etc over the movie but they got great movies at the end of it.. when will does a movie with someone he gets along with sonenfield (mib 2, wild wild west) the movie inevitably ends up being crap.. thats why I think I am Legend will be disappointing.. Will has chosen francis lawrence because he wants him to do it..but Francis Lawrence is not a good director..and he will prob agree with Will since he got him the job.. he wont challenge Will like a tony scott(enemy of the state) so we end up with more hollywood rubbish

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I can't agree with this topic. When i watched all the bonus features (and the ones exclusive 2 Target), i never got that impression. Even if someone clashed with FP on something like hiring a director, they aren't gonna put footage on there saying "well, i thought someone else would be a better director but Will hired this guy anyway."

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All the movie people are definite yes men.. and Will's earnt so many billions of dollars for them he's earnt the right to tell them what he wants.. his inner circle are not yes men though..hammer JL, omar, bam, etc have been with Will since the jjfp days.. As far as directors I think the best movies have come from directors Will hasnt gotten along with.. michael bay (bad boys 1 and 2) andy tennant (hitch) they've had fights etc over the movie but they got great movies at the end of it.. when will does a movie with someone he gets along with sonenfield (mib 2, wild wild west) the movie inevitably ends up being crap.. thats why I think I am Legend will be disappointing.. Will has chosen francis lawrence because he wants him to do it..but Francis Lawrence is not a good director..and he will prob agree with Will since he got him the job.. he wont challenge Will like a tony scott(enemy of the state) so we end up with more hollywood rubbish

I don't necessarily agree. I think we have too small a sample size to make any definitive statement on the issue. Will got along quite well with Muccino and Pursuit of Happyness was an excellent film... One of Will's best in fact. I've also heard that Will and Andy Tennant got along well and agreed on most things Hitch... and that project came out well too. And there's Michael Mann... and will worked with Sonnefield for MIB and that came out pretty well... to the point where he wanted to work with him on a sequel...

Incidentally, the fact that Will and his directors don't agree on everything doesn't mean that they don't get along.

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All the movie people are definite yes men.. and Will's earnt so many billions of dollars for them he's earnt the right to tell them what he wants.. his inner circle are not yes men though..hammer JL, omar, bam, etc have been with Will since the jjfp days.. As far as directors I think the best movies have come from directors Will hasnt gotten along with.. michael bay (bad boys 1 and 2) andy tennant (hitch) they've had fights etc over the movie but they got great movies at the end of it.. when will does a movie with someone he gets along with sonenfield (mib 2, wild wild west) the movie inevitably ends up being crap.. thats why I think I am Legend will be disappointing.. Will has chosen francis lawrence because he wants him to do it..but Francis Lawrence is not a good director..and he will prob agree with Will since he got him the job.. he wont challenge Will like a tony scott(enemy of the state) so we end up with more hollywood rubbish

I don't necessarily agree. I think we have too small a sample size to make any definitive statement on the issue. Will got along quite well with Muccino and Pursuit of Happyness was an excellent film... One of Will's best in fact. I've also heard that Will and Andy Tennant got along well and agreed on most things Hitch... and that project came out well too. And there's Michael Mann... and will worked with Sonnefield for MIB and that came out pretty well... to the point where he wanted to work with him on a sequel...

Incidentally, the fact that Will and his directors don't agree on everything doesn't mean that they don't get along.

I arent saying they dont get along at the end of the day.. Pursuit was a decent movie with a great performance by Will.. same with Ali they wernt great movies.. Andy tennant and Will had huge fights.. I think if you just let Will have his way.. like firing all the fpoba writers at the end of season 3..season 4 was then poor.. its not the best idea.. you need directors who have their own vision and challenge Will

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I'm with Tim on this, If someone says "yes" to you all the time its bad. What I'm saying is, have someone who will say "Look, your idea is good, but let's chage a few things to make it even better" Just not an automatic yes. I'm not saying that Will's ideas are bad, Pursuit was great, but Will needs someone who will lead him to work with better people at certain times so that he can win that Oscar and all. I mean if Will said "I want to do a film with Scorsese" That would be great and I would applaud him for that. But it seems that he doesn't want to do that, but he really should. Even if the company makes him work with Scorsese.

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I'm with Tim on this, If someone says "yes" to you all the time its bad. What I'm saying is, have someone who will say "Look, your idea is good, but let's chage a few things to make it even better" Just not an automatic yes. I'm not saying that Will's ideas are bad, Pursuit was great, but Will needs someone who will lead him to work with better people at certain times so that he can win that Oscar and all. I mean if Will said "I want to do a film with Scorsese" That would be great and I would applaud him for that. But it seems that he doesn't want to do that, but he really should. Even if the company makes him work with Scorsese.

I still don't get how we've come to the conclusion that he's surrounded by yes men. Tim himself has said that Will hasn't fully agreed on everything with every director he's worked on. If he were surrounded by yes men, why does he continually end up working with these directors, especially now that he has a larger say in who the director is, heading up Overbrook and all.

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I think gabrielle muccino and then Francis Lawrence has set a disturbing trend.. Will should be working with the very best now he's the no. 1 man in hollywood.. why not spielberg, scorcese etc ?

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I think gabrielle muccino and then Francis Lawrence has set a disturbing trend.. Will should be working with the very best now he's the no. 1 man in hollywood.. why not spielberg, scorcese etc ?

I don't necessarily agree with that, sure he's the biggest Hollywood star at this moment, but that doesn't mean that the best directors in the world will always do the best job on a WS movie. I think it's great that he's using lesser known directors at this point, because it gives them a chance to get established, and it hasnt damaged Wills cred at all, in fact after using Muccino, its enhanced it. The Spielbergs and Scorcese are not always gonna be here, so its good to get the lesser directors coming through. To me thats like saying, Will is too big to be working with the smaller directors, if you have that mentality, you have an ego, and you think you're too good to work under a director whose not well know. Thats not the mentality to have. You pick who you feel is best for the movie, Scorcese and Spielberg aren't always gonna be the best choice. With that said though, I would like to see Scorcese direct a WS movie, something along the lines of the Departed, because that was great. I'd also like to see him work with Quentin Tarantino as well. But at the end of the day, what I want isn't whats gonna happen.

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I think it has more to do with Will's salary being so high 30 million plus profits from the movie they don't even have the money to get the best directors or great actors to co-star with Will.. When Will was with Gene Hackman in enemy of the state that was awesome.. and donald sutherland, ian mckellen and stockhard channing in 6 degrees wow.. but I, Robot..Hitch..pursuit of happyness..I, am legend and then tonight, he comes.. have got no1 but Will.. how good would it have been to have jonny depp and will in I, Am legend.. the movie would have been huge.. if Will was gonna use lesser known directors he could get the most talented ones..

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I think its the same principle with actors as well though. The best will not always do the best job. Kevin James was amazing in Hitch, and IMO stole the show, Eva and Will had a great chemistry as well. In I, Robot the casting was perfect, obviously they weren't well known, but they worked well together. Jaden in Pursuit stole the show as well, Thandie wasn't all that great I agree, the chemistry wasn't there, but she didn't feature all that much in the contrast of the movie. Ali is a prime example of when having great directors and great actors doesnt always work. Michael Mann is an amazing director, but there was flaws in Ali, the on screen chemistry between the actors wasn't there. Then you take Jamie Foxx, who at the time was an upcoming actor that Will fought for to get in the movie, and he does a great job, alongside Will, and they had the two stand out performances in the movie. With I Am Legend it would have been very cool seeing Johnny Depp, but its about the last man on earth, not the last two men on earth. As far as Tonight goes, the cast isnt fully set yet so theres no point commenting yet, Time Share follows that with Nicholas Cage, who is a great bankable actor himself. It all boils down to what and how things are intended to be portrayed in the movie, as to who the actors and crew are.

Edited by Big Willie
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