Whether it’s a trend in movies, a trend with movie critics, or perhaps both, there is something in the air just now about “hopeful movies.” It all started on December 4th in the LA Times with this article called “Its’ nervous-making time at Sundance” which include some choice quotes from the festival’s programming director John Cooper:

Cooper says the slate of 16 dramatic competition films in the festival’s 2009 lineup is not as esoteric and challenging as in recent years, when Sundance subject matter included drug addiction, mental illness and sexual degradation — and those were the comedies.

Rather than craft depressing movies about such gloomy times, Cooper says, Sundance’s writers and directors are turning toward more uplifting narratives.

“They looked at the world and said, ‘We can’t make dark movies. We need something hopeful.’ There’s a lot of romance — people dealing with love and life and relationships. What they are really concentrating on is a better sense of story — and ones that have real emotional impact,” Cooper says.

Then on December 15th another LA Times article titled “Holiday films get serious” with these money quotes:

But what is often a hollow excuse has become an increasingly reasonable justification for how poorly movies about difficult subject matter have been faring. In the middle of anxious and unsure political and economic times, film fans have been hesitant to head to the multiplex to witness even more heartache.

Some filmmakers are looking for any opportunity to make their films feel more upbeat. In his cattle-drive epic, ” Australia,” writer-director Baz Luhrmann changed the period film’s original ending, making it less tragic, he says, “in response to the world we are in now.”

When screenwriter Simon Beaufoy sat down to adapt the novel “Q & A” to the screenplay for ” Slumdog Millionaire,” there was no love story between the game show’s contestant, Jamal, and his long-lost childhood crush, Latika. But Beaufoy couldn’t get excited about a story in which a cash prize was the protagonist’s reward.

“I just didn’t think money was a great motivator,” Beaufoy says. “You don’t leave a theater singing about someone who gets a Rolex watch. But Jamal is not on the show to win 20 million rupees. He’s there to find the woman he loves.”

In inventing the film’s central romantic relationship — and thus making Jamal’s quest emotional, rather than fiscal — Beaufoy may have tapped into a feeling that’s more pervasive in uncertain economic times: that money doesn’t last but love might.

Finally the NY Times weighed in on Dec. 16th with this article called “Filmgoers Seek Cheer; Studios Toil to Deliver It:

In these troubled times, America’s film studios are hard at work on planned pictures about a battered boxer; the post-apocalyptic wasteland; a bad human-resources executive whose job is to fire people.

Where is Busby Berkeley when you need him?

If moviegoers have delivered a message in the last few months, it is that they want their films, for the moment, at least, to be a lot more fun than their lives.

I’ve always heard this to be true — so I’ve chosen to believe it! — that the only people to make money during the Depression were lawyers and movie studios; the latter because even in tough times, people need some form of entertainment. But now with cable TV, social networks, text messaging, online, gaming, and all the rest of what comprises the new ‘entertainment’ universe, how much of people’s dollars will go to movies?

I’ll do a year-end analysis of all the spec script and pitch sales during 2008, and will pay special attention to any increase in comedy project sales during this last quarter of the year.

How about you? Do you want to see dark, downer movies in our current cultural environment or are you more excited about “hopeful movies?”

UPDATE: A lot of good points raised in comments. Trevor’s main point about writing a good story being the best approach to market vagaries is good advice. That said, tracking the buying marketplace is potentially a valuable practice because it doesn’t take that much time to work up a pitch or even a spec script based upon a current area of need / interest.

Re movies that are both dramatic / depressing and hopeful: It’s interesting to think about that as a trend, especially in the specialty area. Sideways: The Protagonist (Miles) is an self-absorbed, alcoholic, almost pathetic character who, along with his friend (Jack), go through all sorts of crap on their ill-fated wine tour — and at the same time, it’s a funny movie. Little Miss Sunshine: Dysfunctional family including one member who is fresh off a suicide attempt (Frank Ginsberg), another member who has taken a vow of silence (Dwayne), another who overdoses on heroin (Grandpa), even Olive’s dream of winning a little girl beauty competition, which feels (again) rather pathetic) — and yet (also again), a funny movie. Juno: The Protagonist (Juno) is a pregnant teenager who experiences a gut-wrenching reality slap when her idolized vision of the perfect father/lover (Mark Loring) turns out to be a selfish, boorishYuppie-scum — and yes, also funny. Rachel Getting Married: The most dramatic of this group of movies about a Protagonist (Kym) a recovering addict with a dark not-so secret past thrown into the midst of another dysfunctional family in a pressurized wedding weekend. Dark, yet hopeful.

Even in mainstream movies — Wall*E with its post-apocalyptic setting, The Dark Knight which oozes with a dark, unsettled tone (who’s evil / who’s good), Iron Man with its Protagonist’s (Tony) journey from cynical businessman to something more hopeful — there is this combination of dark and light. On top of that, add all the upcoming graphic novel movies (most notably The Watchmen) and clearly audiences nowadays not only are capable of balancing this type of oppositional tension, but perhaps even seeking these type of, shall we say, nuanced story worlds.