Here’s hoping it’s at least as big as “Aquaman.”
I have a serious question, and it’s larger than the notion of whether or not people want to see an “Entourage” movie. In general, when you are invested in a television show over a long period of time, is a theatrically-released movie the ultimate goal for you as a viewer? Is that somehow considered the payoff to a good run on TV? Or is the relationship with a TV show something very different than the relationship we have with movies?
And more importantly, is it a coincidence that the studio that is making “Entourage: The Movie” has the word “Bros” in its name?
Honestly, the thing that I’d be most worried about if I were the person pulling the trigger on this one is whether or not people are going to pony up the $15 to see a long inside joke that they’ve already seen seven full seasons of on HBO. “Entourage” was one of those shows that I watched while I had HBO, but as it wore on, it really started to feel like one note playing over and over again. It’s an easy show to beat up on because of the lifestyle it glamorizes, but there were moments where it did a nice job of laying bare the way ego drives the entertainment industry just as much as creativity. It also helped that Jeremy Piven dug into his ongoing role as Ari in a way that basically gave him the second half of his career.
Hollywood insider jokes are rarely big business, though. You either need to go way broad with them, like “Tropic Thunder,” or wrap them in something else that is the hook for the audience, like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” HBO, as a subscription driven service, doesn’t depend on ratings to keep a show alive in the same way that other networks do, and “Entourage” is, at best, a cult success that they’re going to need to open to a much larger audience if they plan to make this a hit. I guess they could keep things lean and mean for the movie, but part of the point of making a theatrical version of something is going bigger, and for them to really push this to a larger scale, they’re going to have to spend some money. It’s about time we actually see some of the big Hollywood movies that Vince supposedly stars in, and if we’re going to see clips from “Aquaman,” or whatever, they need to look as good as the real films we see in theaters.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s a huge audience out there begging for this one. Tell me… is this a movie that you’re looking forward to? And if so, what did the show fail to discuss or cover during the seven seasons it was on the air?