Geek is the New Cool

Although we at Anchorage Entertainment are gearing up to creating a number of very different series and films, one of our key focuses is geek culture.

Look at the numbers worldwide and it's easy to see: geek culture is on the rise. While the word ‘geek’ still has a negative connotation, it has been cool for guys to wear thick-framed glasses since Harry Potter. Hollywood's writers' strike, higher budgets, streaming and better special effects have meant that even the slightly more obscure heroes of Marvel and DC are no longer known only to rabidly loyal comic fans.

Concentrations around tabletop games, sf, fantasy and horror like Gen Con in Indianapolis, Dragonmeet in London, F.A.C.T.S. in Ghent, Elftopia in Deinze and Essen Spieltagen attract more people every year. In fact, with some 200,000 visitors, Spiel is one of the most successful fairs in the world. The openness of being able to say you belong to the LGBTQIA+ community – as diverse as it is – has made young and old alike more eager to express themselves in cosplay.

The acclaimed Syncanite Foundation is just one of the board games we are looking to develop into a series.

Crowdfunding projects around tabletop games within platforms such as Kickstarter, Gamefound and Indiegogo often rake in many millions.

The successful adaptations of sf and fantasy stories, comics or games such as The Boys, Dune, Fallout, Game of Thrones, Good Omens, The Witcher and House of the Dragon have brought top authors such as George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Brandon Sanderson even more fame and glory than they already had.

Famous actors and other media figures like Henry Cavil, The Rock, Stephen Colbert, Joe Manganielo, Felicia Day and Deborah Ann Woll are very vocal about their love for tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and ‘miniature wargames’ like Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. The cast of Stranger Things draws millions of viewers when they play those games on Youtube. There's a reason why The Big Bang Theory did so well: the ‘inside jokes’ were understood by more people than ever before.

 Yet we in the Benelux are not along for the ride. Many (often older) filmmakers do not know the difference between needs and ‘geek culture,’ and still most of them casually pass by the Warhammer store, even though there is one in almost every Belgian city ... and this while filmmakers such as Jan Verheyen and Jan Doense have no hesitation in calling themselves geeks.

It is no different in the music world: especially within folk, progressive rock, AOR and metal, people like to talk about all kinds of fantastic themes, not to mention classical music, instrumental ensembles and soundtracks.

We've already talked about prog rock, metal, and soundtrack music, but there's also that one other music genre that captivates so many – mostly younger – geeks: K-pop, which is also heavily promoted in Belgium by the Korean Cultural Center in Brussels.

Not convinced? Then you've probably never been to a comic or cosplay convention.

At an event like Heroes Comic Con in Brussels, literally hundreds of girls dance all day to K-pop music and songs from their favorite anime series, taking turns with each other nonstop. The dances are well-known, the moves are tightly choreographed, and there are even several dance schools that almost entirely focus on it.

From John Williams and Wagner through Iron Maiden and Avantasia to Junkook and V from BTS: it's almost a mystery why this – yet very extensive –subculture has remained so underexposed in Belgian and Dutch productions, while someone like Henry Cavill posts videos about how he paints figurines for ‘miniature battle games’ and Jon Bernthal sits down with Deborah Ann Woll ol to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons. Not only does one of our series in pre-production, CON, want to capitalize on the fact that geek is the ‘new cool’ for many, the series highlights a lot of other socio-cultural aspects.