So... Why is there no Big budget-Hollywood yaoi-movie?

[barbzilla]

Because outside of animated and drawn images it would be very difficult to use homosexual males to turn on women. The reason drawn characters can is because they can be given a whole different type of look/personality/sexuality than you would see in real life, as such it wouldn't translate well onto screen. The best you will ever get is homosexual male movies, and there are a few (though most are foreign, and very few "gay" flicks feature gay males when compared to the number of gay females).

On top of that, the director/writer would become an outcast in the big budget film industry if he blew massive amounts of dough on what would equate to another gay flick. There is a reason you don't see many big budget gay flicks in the movie industry, and it has to do with fear. Not homophobia, but fear of loss. They are afraid they would lose a huge chunk of money trying something new.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

*looks up what yaoi is* ...wow. That's a bit graphic so say the least.

So, I was thinking about Warm bodies and other recent movies that try to attract the Twilight-demographic, and wondering what would be next.

So, why not yaoi/shounen-ai/boys love movie? (I know yaoi is also used to refer to hardcore stuff, but I'm talking about something that has about as much sexual content as Twilight)

Now, this is not about whether they should make one, but rather why cynical Hollywood executives hadn't gone 'What do tween-girls like? There's a lot of yaoi on the Internet, I guess they like that. Let's make a movie with pretty boys falling in love'.

Why? Why would Hollywood ok a movie like that?

Or is there one? If there is, I haven't noticed it.

I highly doubt it, the idea of "is he a guy or isn't he" look combined with what appears to be hardcore gay sex isn't something that I imagine would appeal to anything more that a niche audience and Hollywood is all about making money.

Are they afraid of controversy? But wouldn't controversy and being all 'we stand for gay rights!' also be helpful?

How would that be helpful?

Are they afraid that a movie with a boy-couple would get rated so high they'd miss a lot of their target audience?

Or what?

If google images is anything to go by, the movie would be lucky if it got rated R but I wouldn't be surprised if it got NC-17.

 

[HardkorSB]

So, I was thinking about Warm bodies and other recent movies that try to attract the Twilight-demographic, and wondering what would be next.

So, why not yaoi/shounen-ai/boys love movie? (I know yaoi is also used to refer to hardcore stuff, but I'm talking about something that has about as much sexual content as Twilight)

Now, this is not about whether they should make one, but rather why cynical Hollywood executives hadn't gone 'What do tween-girls like? There's a lot of yaoi on the Internet, I guess they like that. Let's make a movie with pretty boys falling in love'.

Or is there one? If there is, I haven't noticed it.

Are they afraid of controversy? But wouldn't controversy and being all 'we stand for gay rights!' also be helpful?

Are they afraid that a movie with a boy-couple would get rated so high they'd miss a lot of their target audience?

Or what?

There's a lot of tentacle porn on the internet but you don't see movie studios doing big budget movies about that.

Also, making big budget movies is a business first. These movies HAVE to make money because that's what keeps studios from going bankrupt. That's why they're safe and marketable and yaoi is anything but safe and marketable.

The only way this would work is if they could somehow get people like Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner or Ryan Reynolds and Channing Tatum to play the gay couple, make out and have a sex scene on screen. Women would stampede those theaters.
The trailer for this should end with them about to kiss and cut to black just before their lips touch. Preferably with a sunset behind them

 

[Robot Number V]

I think you're seriously overestimating the widespread popularity of "yaoi". The only reason I even have the slightest idea of what it is is the context of your post.
It CERTAINLY doesn't have the same level of recognition as say, vampires or zombies.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Wait, you're telling me there was a big budget Hollywood Yuri movie???

 

[xPixelatedx]

As people have said, Hollywood always plays it safe, at least the mainstream side.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if an independent or indi movies gets made about two pretty boys falling in love within the next decade. Actually, I would be more surprised if one wasn't made in the next 10 years. After all, we are already grazing the borders of inter-species romance with things like Avatar. Gay doesn't look so odd by comparison.

 

[Darken12]

It's only a matter of time. Twilight and 50 Shades got their movie deals after their success, and yaoi is even more unsubtle in the rape/abuse fetishisation department. It's only a matter of time before someone with no clue whatsoever about heteronormativity, misogyny or the oppression of the LGBT community makes a movie about a hot, rich abuser/rapist and his walking Battered Person Syndrome boyfriend.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

I would pay money to see Donnie Darko and Spiderman kiss and get all shirtless and staring into each others eyes. Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal are pretty boys, right? Of course I am a guy with a pretty fucking hazy sexuality so I might not be the target audience... Still, though, get some Maguire on Gyllenhaal action...

Spoiler

Tobey coming out of the closet.

Spoiler

Him meeting Jake. (Replace the blond girl with Jake)

Spoiler

Loving words. (Replace Anne Hathaway with Tobey.)

Spoiler

Then this. (Once again, add in Tobey.)

Fuck, I have the best ideas! I should write this down!

 

[Jayemsal]

They already did that, it's called Twilight.

Fixed that for you.

OT: In short, because hollywood is unable to place the homosexuality outside of harmful stereotypes because they only care about getting asses in seats.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well there was Brokeback Mountain, as Daystar said, but it that doesn't count; then I would hazard a guess that it's because there isn't a large enough market for it.

 

[cerebreturns]

Wait, you're telling me there was a big budget Hollywood Yuri movie???

^^ far FAR larger demographic in america AND japan, much better question.

You miss understand teen girls and middle aged women in japan for having the same tastes as american women.

While it is indeed a targetable demographic in japan, a large one, it isn't nearly as big in most parts of the world.

 

[Bealzibob]

Anyone claiming they don't have the demographic is wrong but more to the point it's a problem of logistics and timing. I'm no yaoi aficionado but from what I understand the majority of it first requires two heart-throbs (Of which have to be willing to do the role) and then you come across I think the biggest problem... as far as I know yaoi doesn't have a very classical story structure, either being fanfic or slice of life/supernatural (your standard anime cookie-cutters), since it's always to some degree erotica.

I'm likely wrong since I've read very little of it but it seems like yaoi is to reliant on the structure of either manga or slashfic to translate to a blockbuster format.

 

[GoAwayVifs]

as far as I know yaoi doesn't have a very classical story structure

The classic BL story structure is is rape, so that indeed wouldn't really lend itself to blockbuster type movies. And incidentally a large proportion of it is not explicit.

 

[Darken12]

The classic BL story structure is is rape, so that indeed wouldn't really lend itself to blockbuster type movies. And incidentally a large proportion of it is not explicit.

Oh, honey.

Wait until the 50 Shades movie.

 

[GoAwayVifs]

Oh, honey.

Wait until the 50 Shades movie.

I thought 50 shades was weird BDSM bullshit and not actual rape?

 

[Darken12]

I thought 50 shades was weird BDSM bullshit and not actual rape?

No. The BDSM element is terribly misunderstood (to the point where practically all of the BDSM community are publicly condemning the book). It's portrayed as the consequence of a fucked up background and something to be "cured" by true love, but at the same time a super naughty thing tee hee hee.

The book is mostly about abuse, but there is also rape. As in, "repeatedly says no and gets fucked anyway, ends up liking it so that makes it okay" type. You know. Just like yaoi. There's also domestic violence disguised as BDSM (he beats her with a belt, she does not find it arousing at all and cries, then he says he thought they were doing BDSM so she forgives him because he's "fifty shades of fucked up" but she ends up thinking BDSM is about being restrained or beaten up while not enjoying it in the slightest) and constant (and clear) displays of abusive behaviour (at one point, he gets angry that she goes topless at a topless beach in Europe, so he makes sure to bruise most of her body during sex so that she won't be exposing her body anymore), and all the things we've accepted as "romantic" from Twilight (stalking, making decisions for her, controlling her life, having her entire life revolve around him) and even one-ups it by having her constantly afraid that she will upset him somehow and he will turn violent. But she excuses this because of his fucked up background.

I could go on forever. Jenny Trout [jennytrout.blogspot.com] has been doing excellent snark-recaps of the entire trilogy (currently beginning book three) and really makes sure to point out every time the writer engages in abuse/rape fetishisation. Most of the recaps are linked here [http://jennytrout.blogspot.com/p/jen-reads-50-shades-of-grey.html], but a lot of the links got broken in the blog transition. She's fixing them lately, but if you can't get to one of them, just copypaste the title of the post on google and you should find it.

 

[AlexanderPeregrine]

Hollywood (or, more specifically, the big six studios [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studio#Today.27s_Big_Six] that can put a film in more than a couple hundred theaters) would not make a "yaoi movie" without the gayness being the only thing it's about because for all the talk of "liberal Hollywood", the vast majority of those with power are very prejudiced, intolerant, and cynical. If you watch more than one or two films a year, you'll notice very quickly they're attached to the idea of the white American heterosexual cisgender male as the default viewpoint for everything and refuse to normalize[footnote]When I say normalize, I mean presenting a situation as an accepted fact rather than a plot point. An example would be how Alien normalized the idea of a woman as a warrant officer and respected member of a ship crew by showing her as that without anyone commenting on her gender.[/footnote] much of anything else. To them, homosexuality is a joke, a threat to a straight protagonist, or a "serious issue" that brings good publicity every couple of years.

Also, as seen in the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, the MPAA ratings board is notoriously homophobic and slaps higher ratings for merely involving homosexual characters. (There is some grey area there because they were also shown to give independent films higher ratings as what amounts to an anti-competitive form of censorship.) The empty-nest parents making up the board would fight the idea of a movie about gay men targeted to t(w)een girls no matter how tame its content is.

 

[GoAwayVifs]

*words about 50 Shades*

Okay, 50 Shades is way more horrible than I was led to believe. I hate the world now, knowing that not only is the book a best seller but is being made into a movie.

I retract the studios being rape adverse statement. Really the only thing holding back a BL film is studios being risk-adverse as fuck. Also if you want to get technical movie making is still kind of a boys club, so it probably wouldn't actually be BL because male directors/producers etc.

Also seconded the sentiment that if anyone hasn't seen 'This Film is not Yet Rated' they really need to go do so.

 

[emeraldrafael]

probably cause the homosexual element doesnt sell well, and I dont think they want the LGBT to get up in arms about it if its portrayed poorly.

the idea of twilight is that any socially awkward girl can find the perfect guy and as long as you love him no matter what distances you you can always bridge the gap. theres just not really the market for a man finding man movie there for big hollywood to make, as brokeback mountain showed.

 

[Darken12]

Okay, 50 Shades is way more horrible than I was led to believe. I hate the world now, knowing that not only is the book a best seller but is being made into a movie.

I retract the studios being rape adverse statement. Really the only thing holding back a BL film is studios being risk-adverse as fuck. Also if you want to get technical movie making is still kind of a boys club, so it probably wouldn't actually be BL because male directors/producers etc.

Welcome to the Fifty Shades Is Domestic Abuse [http://50shadesisdomesticabuse.webs.com/] club (also on Twitter [https://twitter.com/50shadesabuse]!). Raising awareness is crucial, though the author herself has stated that "to say that her books contain abuse is doing a disservice to real life victims of abuse" and then proceeded to block anyone who raised the subject on Twitter.

That might be what would slow down a yaoi movie the most, but with the critical acclaim of Brokeback Mountain and the money raked by Twilight and 50 Shades, it's really only a matter of time.