It’s been a rough weekend for John Chu. After spending nearly a decade developing and making Jem and the Holograms, the film is tanking at the box office in its opening weekend. Even tanking would probably be putting it lightly at this point, as the movie is set to have the worst opening weekend for a wide release…ever. Not exactly the career boost the director of multiple Step Up films and GI Joe: Retaliation was hoping for.
On top of the insult of low box office receipts, Chu also has to deal with the weight brought by angry fans going all out to make sure he knows how disappointed they are with the film. As Chu told the Film Independent Forum during his Filmmaker Keynote this weekend according to THR:
“I get fans sending me hate mail, I get death threats, I get racist remarks — it’s a really fun business,” he said. “Reviewers have been harsh, to say it lightly.”
Not cool, fans. Even though the film version of the popular ’80’s cartoon may not be the best possible adaptation of the material, no one should receive death threats over a movie. After all, the crux of the original cartoon is that Jem and the rest of the group were good and fun, unlike rival band The Misfits. These fans are just real life versions of The Misfits, and no one should strive for that comparison.
Watch Chu’s complete keynote speech below and spare some sympathy for a director who tried his hardest to make a good movie even if it didn’t work out so well this time. Or, if you’re one of the angry fans, you can go watch the original cartoon and forget the movie even happened. Most of the country is apparently already unaware it exists.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
