Over on FilmStew, Richard Horgan has a fairly polite take-down of the forthcoming Anaconda 3 (which has apparently already debuted on Sci-Fi Channel, and hits DVD in October) and, more generally, the pipeline-product mindset that in particular Sony has employed in mining “franchise opportunities” (see Starship Troopers 3, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, a couple Wild Things sequels, etcetera). As outside venture capital dries up and film companies seek to further mitigate risk, look for this trend to spread. There will be a day, in the not-too-distant future, when two-thirds to three-quarters of all studio films will spawn these sorts of spin-offs, and the hushed, shameful release campaigns that accompany them.