This speaks to how money has killed creativity in mass culture to us, though. Crichton's pitch to Knopf in the mid-80s was basically "dinosaur theme park that goes wrong." It could've been terrible. But he was given the money and time to develop the idea even though he'd not had a hit in years. -OS
Now the returns have to be immediate even if the idea is only half baked. So nothing new gets the green light. Because new requires time. If you're selling half-baked, it already has to have an established brand. Hence Jurassic Park VII. -OS
Nothing new is given time to develop, not through major publishers or movie studios at least. Didn't Amazon just half-ass an adaptation of Robert Jordan's fantasy novels and then pull the plug on it after they'd told less than a third of a story because it wasn't profitable enough? -OS
Bitch. The story isn't even in the second act yet, settle the fuck down. Give it time. -OS
Though Jordan did pad a lot of his books--I had started reading them but gave up after he kept producing 700 page books that only moved the needle a little bit--dude, Tolstoy could do War and Peace in 1300 pages and Tolkien in 1250--surely you can get to the point...
Although it does remind me that HBO took Crichton's original concept of "Westworld" 1973, which wasn't that good, and made a goddamn masterpiece of a series in 2016. 40+ years later! I mean, at least the first season was a masterpiece. It kinda meandered afterwards, but the first season? DAMN.