Protection From Editors: Difference between revisions

== Comic Books ==

* Reginald Hudlin's current run on ''Black Panther'' has editors actively accommodating haphazard rewrites to make the character more "relevant" (Storm [[Strangled by the Red String|dropping out of the X-Men to marry him]] isn't even the worst of them).

* [[Rob Liefeld]] started off as a fairly average artist on ''Hawk & Dove''. Then he moved over to ''New Mutants'' and started getting popular; as his fame increased, his art became more and more stylized and less and less polished. Feet vanished, biceps bulged painfully as wrists and ankles shrank, and the entire work became more and more focused on guns, boobs, and muscles, to the detriment of everything else. Then other artists started ''[[Follow the Leader|copying]]'' him...

* [[Frank Miller]]'s ''[[All Star DC Comics|All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder]]''. A completely insane take on the character, which gave the world lines like "Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the goddamn Batman." Arguably, much of his more recent work falls under this; consider his upcoming ''Holy Terror, Batman!'', in which the Dark Knight fights Al-Qaeda. Really. Keep in mind that it was originally supposed to be a return to the Silver Age Batman, and that Miller was responsible for the acclaimed [[Batman: Year One]] and [[The Dark Knight Returns]]. On the other hand, there are arguments that it's intentionally [[So Bad It's Good]].

* [[Grant Morrison]] in general. Especially since Dan Didio publicly stated he didn't understand most of ''[[Final Crisis]]'' but trusted Morrison's word that was fantastic.

** Speaking of a major DC writer, Geoff Johns is also protected in such a way.

** This is again, not necessarily a bad thing. 52, regarded as one of the best comics in the last several years, was penned by both Morrison and Johns, plus two other well-known writers, Waid and Rucka. Between the four of them, they didn't need to bow to ''any'' editor. Although the end product was amazing, chief of DC, Dan Didio, was angry he got so little input on it, and made a new series that gave him total control. The result was [[So Bad It's Horrible|Countdown.]]

* A notable exception would by Gary Larson, of ''The Far Side'' fame. He's said more than once that the reason the comic kept going as long as it did was because of his editor rejecting especially tasteless cartoons.

** Similarly, Bill Watterson of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' commented in the introduction he wrote to the complete collection he was grateful to his editors. In his view, even when he thought a strip was funny, he would always read their criticisms of rejected material and learn from it.

* The entire ''company'' of Image Comics is perhaps one of the quintessential examples of why [[Executive Meddling]] is not always a bad thing. Image Comics was founded in 1992 by a coalition of former Marvel comic creators, mostly so they could have greater financial and creative control over their work (Marvel's policy at the time was to merchandise the crap out of their characters while only paying artists freelance rates and modest royalties). Now in fairness, the success of Image did lead to a lot of changes in the structure of the comic industry, many of them for the better, and Image itself has changed a lot over the years. On the other hand, the early history of Image Comics in many ways practically ''personifies'' all the things modern comic fans despise about the Dark Age of Comics. The company's success only exacerbated the growing popularity of infamous Dark Age comic tropes like [[Darker and Edgier]], the [[Dark Age of Supernames]], and the [[Nineties Anti-Hero]]. Many of the more reviled icons of the Dark Age originate from or were associated with Image Comics. And all because someone thought it was a good idea to found a company based entirely on Protection From Editors.

* [[Alan Moore]] as well. One past editor recalls that during one project in the 1980s, he decided to step back and involve himself as little as possible ("Who copy-edits Alan Moore, for God's sake?" according to [[That Other Wiki]]). Of course, that project was ''[[Watchmen]]'', so maybe the [[Tropes Are Not Bad|trope isn't ''always'' bad]].

== Film ==

* During the "[[New Hollywood]]" of 1970s cinema, the star power of directors like [[Francis Ford Coppola]] (who became a star with ''[[The Godfather]]'' and ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''), Michael Cimino (''[[The Deer Hunter]]''), [[Martin Scorsese]] (''Mean Streets'', ''[[Taxi Driver]]''), and [[Dennis Hopper]] (''[[Easy Rider]]'') all saw them [[Follow Up Failure|follow up with flops]], most being of the mega variety, due to studio execs leaving them alone in their creations—Coppola tanked with lavish romance-musical ''One From The Heart'', Cimino with the disastrous [[The Western|Western]] epic ''[[Heaven's Gate]]'', Scorsese with the dark musical ''New York, New York'', and Dennis Hopper with the widely-derided ''The Last Movie''. Some of these films were such grand disasters that they almost [[Creator Killer|destroyed the careers of their creators]] (and, in the case of ''Heaven's Gate'', bankrupted entire film studios), and led to a backlash that saw the executives [[Blockbuster Age of Hollywood|firmly back in control]] by [[The Eighties]].

* Roberto Benigni. After the success of ''Life is Beautiful'', he was given a massive budget to create his dream project: a version of ''[[Pinocchio]]'' [[What the Hell, Casting Agency?|starring the (lanky 50 year old) director as the eponymous puppet]]. It... didn't do so well.

* [[George Lucas]] directed his most acclaimed films (e.g., ''[[American Graffiti]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]]'') under the financial constraint typically [[Executive Meddling|imposed]] on B pictures to ensure profitability. Twenty-two years later, Lucas returned to direct without fear of meddling, and gave the world [[The Scrappy|Jar-Jar Binks]], [[Romantic Plot Tumor|lines about hating sand]], and one of the [[Narm|most hated]] [[Big No]]s in film history.

** It's worth noting that Lucas' biggest successes tend to involve co-writers, screenwriters who completely rewrite his draft script, directors who deliberately depart from the script in ways that makes scenes more meaningful - and which were written at a time when he was regularly bouncing ideas off his personal friends (who happened to include some guy whose last name was Coppola, and another guy named Spielberg). The movies generally seen as his worst creative disasters are the ones where he retained full written and directorial control, didn't discuss the scripts with anyone before filming them, and which were apparently written at a time in his life when he spent ''far'' more time worrying about how the special effects would work than things like, oh, quality dialogue, characterization, or meaningful themes.

** An oddity that some fans believe harmed the prequels is that Lucas gives the impression of trying to answer David Brin's infamous anti-Star Wars screed in the course of the production. Thus we have Amidala as an ''elected'' Queen in her teens, and other stupidities. (If the plot called for a pretty teenaged ruling queen, the rational option would have been to make Naboo a hereditary monarchy in the first place.)

** Indeed, the Star Wars film widely regarded as the best (Empire Strikes Back) was the only Star Wars film that Lucas didn't have direct control over (Lucas was in California while it was being shot in England). He wanted Empire to be made in the same style as the first movie, with a focus on action over character. Irvin Kershner went the opposite route and focused on character and minimized the action. When Lucas complained to Gary Kurtz, the producer, he was told to fuck off, basically. When Return of the Jedi rolled around Lucas sacked both Kershner and Kurtz and hired a director and producer who were more obedient and more in-line with his style, resulting in a movie that's considered by many the worst of the originals. However, it's worth noting that Lucas wasn't in the wrong when he fired Kurtz. Kurtz let things get way out of hand and over budget and if the film was a flop Lucas would be millions of dollars in debt, financially crippling him for the rest of his life and ruining his future plans for the franchise.

** To be fair, ''Return of the Jedi'' is two movies in one, the Vader/Papatine/Luke interaction and the final duel on Death Star II are ''excellent'', subtle, scary, and complex, while the groundside scenes with the Ewoks are...well, enough about that.

* Few examples are more blatant than the ''[[Matrix]]'' trilogy. The first film was well-crafted, fitting a ton of movie into two hours, and it became a runaway hit. Thus, when the Wachowskis returned to do the sequels, Warner wasn't about to tell them their business. ''Reloaded'' and ''Revolutions'' were still good but nowhere near as critically acclaimed as the first film, and one of the biggest reasons was that they screamed out for an editor.

** The Wachowskis also had enough clout to make it [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3050545.stm a part of their contract] that they did not have to do any promotional interviews to market the ''Matrix'' sequels and ''[[Speed Racer (film)|Speed Racer]]''.

* ''[[Magical Mystery Tour]]'' was created entirely by [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] themselves, and was widely regarded to be their worst film (particularly at the time of its initial broadcast). At least the soundtrack album fared better.

* Richard Kelly is an interesting example. ''[[Donnie Darko]]'' opened to mass critical acclaim and a cult following. His director's cut was remarkably LESS well received, many critics arguing the [[Executive Meddling]] in the first cut was essential to the quality. Then came ''[[Southland Tales]]'', made with virtually no [[Executive Meddling]] whatsoever, which was quite polarizing but largely seen as an incomprehensible mess. His latest film ''The Box'' got mixed reviews and was also his most commercial film yet, so it's not clear what the future holds.

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]. In so many ways. His early works, especially his 'juveniles', were constrained by the mores of the time and the rules of the publishers, and RAH ''benefited'' from this immensely, it forced him to restrain some of his personal [[Author Appeal]] elements and write better stories. In later years, freed from editorial and cultural restraint, his books became both longer and longer, and more and more repetitive, circular musings on a few favorite fixations.

* [[Hunter S. Thompson]] was known for making a science out of turning in his articles behind deadline. They invariably came in soon enough to go to print, but far too late to be edited, meaning they had no choice but to either print them as written or find something else to fill that space with.

** The character of Spider Jerusalem from ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' often submits his columns in a similar manner.

== Video Games ==

* [http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/ This] is apparently the reason why [[Duke Nukem Forever]] failed. A combination of extreme ego, overly high standards and protection from publishers meant the creators were free to extend development of the game time and time again, to the point it's been in [[Development Hell]] for well over a decade, until 3D Realms lost all the money it made with [[Duke Nukem 3D]] and died.

** To expand, George Broussard kept seeing all the new games coming out and wanted to incorporate every new graphical advance; requiring years of work to be scrapped and starting over, ''repeatedly''. (one can only imagine his reaction when ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'' came out) Eventually, most of the team up and quit, and after twelve years they had to ask Take Two for money; and the suits ''finally'' said "No."

*** The irony is that this is a subversion: the creator was not trying to sell an [[Obvious Beta|unpolished product]] or refusing to see the faults of his creation: it was the nearly pathological perfectionism of Broussard who doomed the project.

* [[Daikatana]] is probably the ultimate video game example. John Romero left Id Software with a brilliant reputation as the co-creator of Quake, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc., and his new company, Ion Storm, was given a pass to do whatever it wanted. Whatever it wanted included renting the entire top story of a Dallas skyscraper, letting John have his girlfriend (not a designer) be co-level designer, and drag out the production of the game for 3 1/2 years while constantly bragging about how it would be the most awesome thing ever released. Daikatana ended up...subpar, Ion closed down, and John Romero is now developing games for mobile phones.

* This is common enough in software development that it has its own term: "the second-system effect". Basically, a sophomore project has a good chance of ending up in [[Development Hell]] since the developers don't have anyone looking over them; unnecessary features and mid-stream [[Re Tools]] get thrown in, and eventually it's up to someone with a better sense of organization to clean up the mess. This was first noticed way back in the mid-1960s, during the development of OS/360 at IBM. It's also one of the things that nearly killed Apple in the mid-1990s.