[desertisland]

A little off-topic, just a point:

I believe the problem with mainstream movies is, they are made to feature a specific cast. Producers are not looking for actors to play in a specific script. Rather, they build entire script around a particular star, because that's what sells movies. People didn't went to see MI2, they went to see Tom Cruise.

Good movies don't sell. Movies with good selling points sell. The box office wars is lost or won on 2 factors:

1. What can you present on the movie poster. Cast, scene shots, big names, awards. These decide for the moviegoers if they will reach for their wallet.

2. What can you present in the trailer. A good movie may not sell well. A movie that sells must have scenes which will look good in the trailer.

The second factor has become so important that I believe producers "backward produce" movies from trailer ideas: They first decide how the trailer will look like -- explosions, sex, violence -- and what interesting plots to have -- funny, witty, scary, cool punch lines -- and produce a movie from the trailer; rather than summarizing a movie into trailers.

This is evident in movies with plots that don't work or punchlines that may be cool but sounds awkward in the context they are delivered. They are not an organic part of the movie, they are there so that the trailer will look good.