To the surprise of absolutely no one, Hollywood apparently learned the wrong lesson from Barbie’s success (it only succeeded because there was an engaging imaginative vision behind it), and now we’re faced with an even deeper sea of brand-built junk. Next up: Cola Wars, from acclaimed producer Steven Spielberg and with comedy master Judd Apatow in the director’s chair.
To be fair, Deadline Report states that it will be a movie based on the true story of the Coca-Cola and Pepsi conflict, but who cares about that anyway?
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Spielberg will produce the project, which had been in development at Sony for some time through his Amblin Entertainment banner. It was bought “as a pitch” for more than $1 million earlier this year by the studio. Cola Wars (working title) is currently being written by Jason Shuman (Apple’s Acapulco) and Ben Queen (Netflix’s A Note of Explanation). Queen also worked on Cars 2 and 3 for Pixar.
According to Deadline, the film aims to tell “the true story of Pepsi’s attempt to challenge Coca-Cola’s century-long reign as the world’s best cola. It reinvents the mid-’80s “Cola Wars,” which included everything from Michael Jackson’s fiery crash to the New Coke disaster, as the ultimate outsider story about the most iconic No. 2 contender in history (Pepsi) vying for the No. 1 spot (Coca-Cola).” Sure, there’s a certain amount of potential in a talky, fast-paced “true story” movie with an all-star cast that takes on two iconic brands, but so many of them have failed to succeed in the past that I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just spend your money on literally anything else.
For Apatow, this could be a chance to get back on track after his last film, Bubbleturned out to be a dud. But his spark is alive and well in the world of sitcoms, so Hollywood hasn’t written him off yet. Deadline cites Ben Affleck’s film Air (“about Nike’s fight for a shoe deal with Michael Jordan for a sneaker line that transformed the company”) as the inspiration for Cola Wars, but Amazon lost a lot of money on this movieso it’s not a sure financial hit. What are we even doing here?
