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Frazzledsoul t1_ja8wdq3 wrote

There's been quite a few pieces about the behind the scenes troubles of this series. Business Insider claims the show may have spent nearly 300 million dollars for three hours of content. The Hollywood Reporter reported that several writers and producers quit because the Russos had two competing versions of the series and couldn't decide which one they preferred. It's a mess, and the final product likely is going to be...well, worthy of the kind of movies the Russo brothers make for Netflix.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-studios-russo-brothers-citadel-spy-drama-costliest-shows-ever-2023-2

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/russo-bros-amazon-series-citadel-1235210256/

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CitizenKeen t1_ja91oje wrote

> 3 million dollars for three hours of content

That sounds cheap?

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Frazzledsoul t1_ja91ts3 wrote

Typo. It's actually (allegedly) 300 million dollars.

That doesn't sound cheap to me.

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NeoNoireWerewolf t1_ja99udo wrote

That's James Cameron money, and I have this weird suspicion the Russos aren't going to give Amazon the bang for their buck that Cameron would.

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SinisterDexter83 t1_ja9lzf4 wrote

The Russos did a fantastic job on Infinity War and End Game, not trying to take anything away from them as I think those two films are an incredible achievement, but most of that money came from the franchise. They've got two of the highest grossing films ever, not because of their skill as directors, but because they filmed the MCU season finale.

Cameron will dream up his own 2 billion dollar movie for you from scratch. I didn't even think the new Avatar movie was all that good, it was okay, I had fun, nothing special. But I'll still go see the next one, because I'm guaranteed a proper cinema experience. Cameron guarantees that, and the audience know it.

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Frazzledsoul t1_jaa37sa wrote

IMO, they got lucky with Marvel.

Their subsequent projects have easily exposed their flaws.

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Mushroomer t1_jad5vrn wrote

I think "got lucky" is a bit unfair - they seem to be really talented at working with a producer like Feige who has a specific vision he already wants fulfilled. It's when they're given the reigns completely that things get a bit bland.

Throw them on another franchise with clear material to adapt, I'm sure they do something memorable again.

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Frazzledsoul t1_ja9n1re wrote

They won't and they aren't going to get that money back. Other than the reports on how much money this was costing, I have rarely seen this project even acknowledged since it was greenlit back in 2019. It has rarely been acknowledged as a project to look out for in 2023 or acknowledged by Amazon. I heard about The Rings of Power and Daisy Jones for months and months.

I find it hard to believe that Amazon considers this a crown jewel at this point and their most promising program. They seem to be starting the PR from scratch.

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Radulno t1_ja9xbkd wrote

Yeah lol it premiere in 2 months and we have seen basically nothing from it. They were promoting Rings of Power or even stuff like Jack Reacher or The Boys more and earlier than this show.

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bros402 t1_jab3ydw wrote

I took a survey about Citadel back in 2020 (The NDA was 2 years) holy shit I am surprised it is still in production, it was... uhhh... not the highest quality plot outline I read

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Frazzledsoul t1_jab60ge wrote

I heard a rumor quite a while ago that Madden wasn't actually the real lead (no idea about Priyanka) and there was some sort of major twist related to that. Can you enlighten us on that one?

I think they were in production for at least thirteen months (if not more) which sounds extremely excessive.

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bros402 t1_jab84mm wrote

Okay, so i'm not gonna type out a summary of the survey - but based on what I read + what it was asking me, it sounded a lot like it was going to be Male Spy is fish out of water and Female Spy does spy stuff.

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Frazzledsoul t1_jab96x6 wrote

Yeah, that's what the VF article seemed to indicate. The rumor I heard a long time ago was that Madden wasn't the real male lead and it was actually a German actor. I have no idea who the other person was supposed to be.

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bros402 t1_jab9uzt wrote

One of the side characters was listed as "a stanley tucci type"

but he sounded like he was going to stay a side character, but who knows

btw, if you want to get the chance to watch pilots and read plot outlines, I get around ~6 a year on a survey site I am on. I have a referral link to it if you want to join it - I get around $5-$15 when I do a TV show survey.

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limpoc t1_jac12ns wrote

I'm not the person you're replying to but I would definitely be interested in that survey site link.

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Logical-Balance9075 t1_jacleaj wrote

Interesting, could be the male spy has difficulty getting his memory back. But considering the behind the scenes drama with the producers and stuff, I wonder how much has changed since 2020.

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bros402 t1_jacqa44 wrote

I hope a lot has changed since 2020, since it sounded a lot like "male spy will be weak, woman spy will be strong independent woman" - not that that is bad, but it was written badly.

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Coz91 t1_jaalizv wrote

Well, The Grey Man was so generic and boring. Any hope of this being good is gone for me.

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DC4MVP t1_jabk4av wrote

And that's saying something beings coked out/psychopathic Chris Evans is anything but generic & boring.

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Halo909 t1_jabpecy wrote

A hundred million for 1 hour? WTF. Didn't the entire lord of the rings series with all the movies cost something like 250m - 300m? Or something close in that range.

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kappa23 t1_jabg3k4 wrote

This doesn't bode well for the Indian remake starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan I guess. Though the Russos are just producing it, the show runners are Raj & DK who are superb

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horseren0ir t1_jabl7tk wrote

That’s not a remake it’s a spin-off, those actors are in citadel

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kappa23 t1_jabllsh wrote

Oh okay, thanks for the correction

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Frazzledsoul t1_jad1s3i wrote

I think the spin-offs will be fine but I can't see them doing more than one season of the main show if it's going to cost that much money for that little content each time.

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strith t1_ja9r6z4 wrote

I bet this show is going to be fun regardless of it’s past issues.

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