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Hollywood counters reality with decade of escapism By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer Tuesday, December 8, 2009 (12-08) 09:35 PST LOS ANGELES, (AP) — Hollywood picked the right decade to go over the rainbow. In an era that brought harsh reality home with the war on terror and an economy gone bust, Hollywood became more of a dream factory than ever, embracing fantastic escapism at a time when audiences needed it most. Though key fantasy franchises such “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” were in the works in the late 1990s, the films began arriving just months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The respite they offered lasted just a few hours, but who wouldn’t want to take a detour to Middle-earth or Hogwarts and forget about the messy state of our own world for that brief time? Fantasy, science-fiction and superhero sagas have been around since the early years of film, with “Batman,””Superman” and “Flash Gordon” serials, and such classics as “The Wizard of Oz.” But esc
LOS ANGELES – Hollywood picked the right decade to go over the rainbow. In an era that brought harsh reality home with the war on terror and an economy gone bust, Hollywood became more of a dream factory than ever, embracing fantastic escapism at a time when audiences needed it most. Though key fantasy franchises such “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” were in the works in the late 1990s, the films began arriving just months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The respite they offered lasted just a few hours, but who wouldn’t want to take a detour to Middle-earth or Hogwarts and forget about the messy state of our own world for that brief time? Fantasy, science-fiction and superhero sagas have been around since the early years of film, with “Batman,” “Superman” and “Flash Gordon” serials, and such classics as “The Wizard of Oz.” But escapism during the Depression and World War II mostly came in the form of breezy comedies or glossy musical romances. The past decade sol
