Much as I'd love to see Seagal hit form again, and appreciate the sentiments of the terms of the boycott, it's not very realistic. Seagal is the only one who can make a difference. He doesn't seem to want to. He's seemed disinterested for years now. The thing is, look at his work. Seagal has a lot of control over his pictures. Now it's certainly true that largely, the producers will have the final word on everything. If they want to slice a budget in half if needs be or sacrifice the art and integrity of a film for financial reasons, they will. But Seagal has been a producer and/or writer on most of his features in the last 10 years. He's also been a key "creative" influence on TJ. Now to be honest I think TJ is completely and utterly mediocre.
Now anyone hoping for a theatrical comeback will be disappointed. Despite the Expendables, there's really no demand on the big screen for many of these stars any more. All together in the one film? Yes, because it has an angle, it's a gimmick. It's sellable. Seagal won't appear in Exp 3 though. His ego won't allow him. He won't play second fiddle to those other guys.
DTV doesn't have to mean terrible. The thing is, there's less demand for these films now than there was. That's part of the reason that Seagal doesn't make 2-3 DTV films a year any more. Generally now, the DTV studios can't afford to pay Seagal, Van Damme, whoever, 4-5 million to headline a film. What studios do now is bring together 2-3 name actors in a film together, and pay for two stars what they'd have paid for one 5 years ago. The idea being that you have two fan bases who'll buy the film or it just looks more appealing to discerning buyers/renters. Dolph's team with a whole host of stars in his DTV films recently. In part because he can still be in films with the same budgets (or no less) and because he's been far more interested in pushing himself as an actor, taking on more colourful, antagonist roles. On his own, as a leading man, the offers probably aren't great, and budgets would be lower than what he's used to. Same goes for Seagal, JC, all of them. A picture sold with their name alone won't have the production value it did 5 years ago (which even then wasn't great). The economic climate is a factor, as are tastes. People have had one too many awful films. That's especially why the interest in Seagal has waned. His films have been horrific and he's showed no effort. At least with Van Damme and Lundgren, you know, mostly, that they're trying.
Seagal has to want to change. He has to want to put the effort in. He seems to enjoy voltage pictures because of it's ease. He's working with the same people all the time who don't mind that he'll turn up for half a shoot and still be the "lead" of the picture. More and more DTV studios are basically selling movies as "star" vehicles, and then said lead will appear intermittently. I mean I loved Unisol 4. Really well made, really daring direction to take a franchise like that. What I didn't like was the cynical, dishonest marketing though. Every DVD cover sells it as a Van Damme and Lundgren starrer, but they're very brief supporting players in it. It's becoming common though. Even films where theres only one star, like Van Damme in 6 Bullets. He disappears for large chunks of the film. It was still a fairly decent DTV though. In actuality, Seagal's been doing this since the turn of the millenium on the whole. Very rarely in his DTV films do you see him throughout the whole movie. Often he disappears for 10 minutes before re-appearing. Then add on top the doubling and voice doubling too. You could say he pioneered the way DTV films are now being made and marketed.
He just doesn't have the desire. If he did, it be easier to just blame the producers if a film turns out shite. But when Seagal looks so bored, it falls on him. There's no crafting of a character, he doesn't deliver with the action or even record all his own dialogue often. He basically appearing for the money. There's no love there. People have finally gotten wise to it. One thing I always felt about this message board, even as recent as a couple of years ago, was despite how awful most of his films were, his fans were sticking rigidly to Seagal. So many defending him to the end. I see Oranguatang here, kind of in the corner by herself defending Seagal to the last, which I completely admire by the way. Good on her. Because where as the likes of Oranguatang would have been in the majority here a couple of years back, she's in the minority now. So please don't get at her, it's her right to defend Seagal. I for one thoroughly commend that loyalty. If only Seagal himself had the same pride in his work.
What Seagal needs to be worried about though, but probably won't be, is that fans like her are slipping away with every passing film.
Here is an interesting interview with director Jessie Johnson. He's done some very solid DTV work, including The Package with Austin and Lundgren. It's by no means a classic but it's a solid action flick and so much better than Max Conviction. But he gives great insight into working in these DTV films. It shows just how hard it is to work artistically when the people producing and financing the films are business men first and foremost.
http://moviemorlocks.com/2013/03/26/dtv-action-item-an-interview-with-director-jesse-v-johnson/
Sadly I don't see anything changes. Nothing we do on the net will force his hand. But it's down to Seagal. He does it for the money and whilst people are still willing to pay him, so be it. It's probably what funds his music and his lifestyle. I've no doubts that if Seagal concentrated purely on his music he'd be losing money.
