Episode Details
Back to EpisodesIS ORIGINALITY OVERRATED? Why Hollywood Keeps Telling the Same Stories
Description
Hollywood has run out of ideas.
We’ve all heard it: sequels, remakes, reboots, franchises, adaptations, spin-offs and prequels. But what if we’re asking the wrong question?
In this episode of The Fixate & Binge Podcast, we tackle the increasingly common complaint that Hollywood has “run out of ideas” and ask whether originality itself may be overrated in cinema.
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: how many truly original stories are there? Shakespeare didn’t invent every story he told. George Lucas didn’t invent the Hero’s Journey. Quentin Tarantino has built an entire career by borrowing, remixing and reinterpreting the movies that came before him. Yet Shakespeare, Star Wars and Tarantino are hardly examples of uninspired filmmaking.
So what actually makes something original?
We explore the difference between novelty and originality, and why perspective, execution, combination and voice may matter far more than inventing a story nobody has ever told before.
From Star Wars and Quentin Tarantino to contemporary films including HEEL / THE GOOD BOY, FUZE, ONSLAUGHT, BUDDY, HOPE and THE GENTLEMEN, we ask a deceptively simple question:
Do filmmakers really need a new story—or do they need a new way of telling an old one?
Because maybe originality isn't about whether every ingredient is new.
Maybe it's about whether the recipe is.
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