Universal is being attacked by people on the internet for their recent tweet regarding John Carpenter’s The Thing.
The Thing is a 1982 science fiction horror film based on a novella, Who Goes There, by John W. Campbell Jr. The film follows a group of American researchers who are working from an isolated base in Antarctica. The group becomes paranoid when they come across an alien species that can imitate any other organism easily.
The Thing did not perform well at the box office and was heavily criticized particularly for practical effects created by Stan Winston and Rob Bottin. Though criticized initially, it was later praised, and The Thing is still considered to be one of John Carpenter’s best works.
Universal recently posted a clip from The Thing, with the caption “CGI could never” on their official Twitter account. Though the post seemed harmless, it enraged fans of the horror genre who immediately attacked Universal for its CGI criticisms. Check out Universal’s post here:
Many also pointed out that the studios had ruined the Thing prequel (2011) by forcing the implementation of CGI over the realistic effects created by Tom Woodruff Jr and Alec Gillis’ Amalgamated Dynamics. Check out some of the responses here:
In other words, fans are quite enraged because of Universal’s hypocrisy and the inhuman treatment meted out against the CGI artists for the last five years. Marvel Studios, for instance, has been one of the biggest offenders of the mistreatment of workers. Many anonymous sources have described poor working conditions, unfair treatment of workers, and frequent crunch hours.
Reports also suggest that Marvel Studios has been grossly underpaying its artists, with their salaries being almost 20% less than that of artists of other studios. Considering the budget of their projects and the amount of CGI required to pull them off, this is truly unacceptable and surprising.
Weta Workshop is another big offender of the mistreatment of workers. They’ve been called out several times by those who worked with them and also by director James Cameron during the Avatar franchise.
Artist Nick Sinnott has spoken about the harsh working conditions which they had to adjust to during the making of the first Avatar film. He even mentioned that he and his department were the only ones not “unionized”, leading to Cameron forcing “countless unpaid revisions” on them. Logan Preshaw, a well-known VFX artist also called out Weta Workshop ahead of, The Way of Water’s, release for their alarmingly low wages.
Even Universal has been called out in this aspect before, especially after they forcefully replaced all the realistic effects in the 2011 Thing prequel, ruining the director’s vision. Moreover, the hypocrisy of such studios where they overwork CGI artists for low wages, reap the fruits of their hard work and then not even acknowledge them is precisely what has enraged the audience.
Universal criticizing CGI seems absurd, considering many of their franchises, including the Despicable Me series and Jurassic World series are heavily dependent on this technology. Now that more artists are speaking out, let’s hope the studio will mend its ways and make amendments in the future.
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