I’m not fully understanding what you’re saying.

“This upset some lifelong fans and encouraged others, but it also pointed to a revealing new trend in film marketing: side-stepping the content custodians entirely by sharing praise directly from the creator.”

What’s the great surprise? That’s called “marketing.” We live in a day and age where almost every single re-make, re-imagining, re-booting is terrible and lambasted IMMEDIATELY upon first mention online.

Look at the upcoming Ghostbusters. I eagerly await it and think it’s going to be fantastic but the SECOND the news was released boards filled up with some pretty hateful comments from superfans who consider the first film a religion.

So why WOULDN’T studios generate positive quotes from the originators of the material?

“side-stepping the content custodians”? I think you’re wrong here. The viewing audience members are not the content custodians. They’re people who paid $4 back in the day to see the original movie and probably spent some more money to buy the VHS and DVD versions. But they’re not “custodians.” They’re fans.

If it’s announced that the Mona Lisa is going to be replicated and you have da Vinci willing to say publicly: “I’ve seen the finished piece and it’s great. I’m exceptionally fond of the original for obvious reasons but when I saw the new Mona I was both impressed and really swept away by the new approach to it by a new voice” that calms all of the “da Vinci FOREVER!” people who often post their displeasure non-stop with a lot of ugly vehemence.

And incidentally, Ackroyd’s quote was anything but: “half-hearted” and Spielberg’s too.

It feels a bit more like the author has his own feelings about the issue mixed in with this piece.

It’s just marketing.