Is Hollywood Out of Ideas?

This week on the Shootout blog there's a discussion about how the Oscars have so drastically dropped in popularity, and how they can be saved. As I was considering this, I started to reflect on all the movies that were celebrated at the Oscars this year and all the movies we anticipate in the coming year: comic book adaptations, novel adaptations, sequels and threequels, remakes, sequels of remakes. I have to ask: Is Hollywood out of ideas?

Maybe the reason we don't watch the Oscars any more is because there's nothing new to see any more. And when we do get a breath of fresh air at the movies, it's certainly not coming out of Tinsel Town. Look at Juno, which won the Oscar for best original screenplay -- its author, Diablo Cody, had never written a screenplay before in her life. I think it's telling that Hollywood's best-paid writers who so sanctimoniously walked off the job earlier this year can't come up with anything nearly as inventive as someone sitting at home punching away on their laptop.

Maybe adapting a sequel of an adaptation and remaking it isn't the best way to capture the imaginations of your audience any more. Maybe worrying about the Oscars is concerning yourself with the symptom rather than the disease. Maybe it's time to evict all the writers and producers out of Hollywood and bring in some fresh blood.