On the Continuing Path to Idiocracy

From Collider.com, an interview with writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci at the press day for the Star Trek and Transformers: ROTFL home video releases.

Question: Do you have an update on the View-Master film?

Kurtzman: We've read a lot of the wildly cynical response to that. What I'll say is that some toys should be movies and some toys should not be movies, and I'd like to believe we know the difference between those things. The movies that work, work when there's a story there that you could take the toy out of, but then, when you put the toy in, it becomes an even more amazing experience, for whatever reason. Brad Kane, who was a writer for us on Fringe [Kurtzman and Orci are co-creators and executive producers for that show], came to us with an amazing idea, that had absolutely nothing to do with View-Master. We loved it and thought it was fantastic.

Orci: But, we said, "It's missing one thing. I don't know what that thing could be."

Kurtzman: And, along came View-Master, and it sounded like the perfect marriage of ideas. But, it's because we started with a story that felt like it could be told, all on its own, before that came along. So, it's like, "Bring it on!" if you want to be cynical about View-Master, great 'cause we're so confidence [sic] in where it's going to end up going that we feel like there's nowhere to go, but up.

I give up. Somewhere between them being unable to explain why toys make movies better, noting that they could have made a movie out of an original concept but chose not to, and referring to a toy as a proper noun as though it were a person, I realized how completely fucked the whole situation is, and had to throw my arms up and laugh. Not necessarily in that order.