Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this weekly column, two old friends get together occasionally and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business.
FLEMING: It seems like every month now, a Game Of Thrones episode breaks out at some Hollywood studio, with new kings crowned and old ones toppled. Most recently, that was Legendary, with Thomas Tull ousted and a report Jim Gianopulos might replace him. One recent evening, we ran two fire drills on hotly rumored stories, neither of which we could confirm to publish. At Sony, Michael Lynton was rumored out, went one rumor, and Tom Rothman and Jeff Robinov were rumored to be on the move. All flatly denied. Days later, Lynton left to run Snapchat. That seemed mostly his decision. It took many by surprise even though they felt Lynton never really recovered from the devastating Sony hack. Same night came the rumor about a fused AT&T-Time Warner with Peter Chernin and Gianopulos in the mix. More flat denials. Then came the rumor Gianopulos might build Legendary into a full-fledged studio. Gianopulos has a performance record to rival anyone, but at this point in his life, would he really want to start from zero, backed by Chinese money and all the complications that brings in a Donald Trump world? Especially when the Game Of Thrones mentality might open up a major studio job he really wants sooner or later?
Some signs of stability in the chaos: After going through its own GoT episode last year with Stacey Snider crowned by the Murdoch boys (which prompted the Jim G exit), Fox seems to be stabilizing under its film division chiefs. The big question was whether Snider and Fox production chief Emma Watts could co-exist. I keep hearing a re-up is in the works, one that will possibly give Watts oversight on international and animation production. No one is confirming, but they would be crazy to let her get away. I’ve heard Netflix is just one company coveting her services. At Fox she’s doing repeat business with strong filmmakers and the franchises she has built are thriving. The final Wolverine installment Logan looks good and there is strong buzz on the next Planet Of The Apes directed by Matt Reeves; Matthew Vaughn has another Kingsman slated for this fall; the Deadpool sequel is moving along, and that character and his irreverence seem likely to become a cornerstone for future X-Men. All this to go with James Cameron’s Avatar sequels. Fox 2000’s Elizabeth Gabler has the Best Picture nominee and sleeper hit Hidden Figures, and Searchlight’s Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley came out of Sundance with two of the most coveted titles: Patti Cake$ and Step. Who’d want to dismantle that team?
Associated Press
BART: Your analysis of executive turmoil reminds me of the time when an unofficial Tokofsky Award was voted each year by studio insiders. The inspiration was a man named Jerry Tokofsky, a charming but over-ambitious studio executive who managed to get firm offers (well publicized) from three studios simultaneously to become production chief. He got his balls caught in the wringer and ended up with none of the three gigs. Years later, Michael Ovitz was enveloped in a similar situation when the CAA chief negotiated simultaneously with Universal and Disney — Ovitz once arrogantly boasted he effectively ran every studio anyway. Ovitz ended up a short-term boss at Disney. Jim Gianopulos is far too savvy a guy ever to get caught in this kind of a muddle. He’s also a Renaissance man who has abundant interests to keep him busy outside of show biz. I will say this about the new Chinese bosses: they may be even tougher to work for than the studio tyrants of old like Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn. Tull’s Legendary tenure was short-lived; Robinov boasted about his $250 million-plus in financing but his China-funded company has gotten only one movie off the ground in two years when he’d forecast over 20 in five years. China-backed STX has released nine films with mixed results. All of which reminds me of the admonition given to Peter Guber when he took over Sony – make only hits, not flops, his Japanese bosses instructed.
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FLEMING: You have to be more precise here. The Japanese are different from the Chinese. It’s hard to know what the Japanese are thinking with today’s $912 million write-down explanation. Sony seemed to endorse the global strategy and fiscal management that has been a cornerstone of Rothman’s regime, but he wasn’t named in today’s note from Kazuo Hirai and Lynton. Is that a veiled vote of confidence while all hope the 2017 slate works? Elsewhere, several power brokers told me Brad Grey bought himself time to bolster Paramount’s fortunes with the massive slate co-financing commitment he secured from Chinese companies Shanghai Film Group and Huahua Media. You knock STX; they proved how a part of their cost-conscious model could succeed by hitting a seam with Bad Moms, and they are into big films like Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and distributing Luc Besson’s Valerian. Finally, you mention Robinov; he doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who’d spend several years building a new company from scratch, only to bail for a studio job because it’s taking longer than expected. But anything is possible in what seems to be a year of studio upheaval — we haven’t even addressed scenarios involving Lionsgate and MGM — especially if Apple gets into the content game as is expected. All the studios seem to be trying to replicate Disney, which owns the prime slots on the distribution calendar now, all through the year. What kind of fresh ambition and alternative thinking might a progressive Silicon Valley company bring to the traditional creaking Hollywood movie machine?
Next topic. While in Sundance, I watched with dismay as a TMZ report with footage of a drowning dog spurred instant reaction and virtual condemnation of the DreamWorks film A Dog’s Purpose at a time the movie was tracking strongly. The film’s producer Gavin Polone and director Lasse Hallstrom quickly issued online statements of extreme concern as PETA called for protests. Irresistible story; lovable dog exploited! But Polone, a passionate animal activist, just about rolled his own movie under the bus until he and the film’s writer finally got to the bottom and saw the actual footage; it appeared the dog merely was uncomfortable with having his entry point into turbulent water moved from where the dog rehearsed the scene. It wasn’t near as bad as the possibly doctored footage made it seem. All this took long enough that the spin likely harmed the movie.
Amazon
This instant rush to judgment and immediate need for absolution in the digital age is troubling. I saw media rush to publish a Constance Wu tweet after Casey Affleck’s Oscar nomination. Wu, who also made headlines speaking out against Matt Damon’s casting in The Great Wall, stars in the TV show Fresh Off The Boat. Why has this TV actress become a newsworthy voice in film when I’ve never seen her in one? She added no evidence, just proclaimed Affleck unfit because of a sexual harassment accusation that was filed in civil court and settled. We laid off that story: our line is criminal and not civil proceedings; in the latter, inflammatory he-said-she-said is hard to verify with certainty. I didn’t regret showing caution when the trades blared headlines each time former child actor Michael Egan held a press conference to accuse prominent Hollywood men of molesting him. He eventually recanted. We’ve made an exception with allegations against Roger Ailes and Bill Cosby; enough women came forward for a clear pattern to emerge. Affleck might have behaved like a drunken jerk on a film, but no pattern emerged. I don’t think it should have any bearing on the Oscar race, which is supposed to be about onscreen work. Are we getting to a place where the start of each Oscar season must include a criminal and civil background check of all contenders?
BART: Isn’t all this a reflection of society’s inability to deal with the echo chamber of the Internet? Every innuendo and instant apology is magnified and recycled until total trivia becomes deafening. Here’s one hopeful possibility: Given the fact that Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are so nakedly exploiting this phenomenon, a reaction may set in in other sectors of society. In short, if the federal government goes crazy, the rest of us may decide to focus on the serious issues and banish other static.
Sundance Film Festival
FLEMING: I read an LA Times opinion piece comparing Nate Parker to Affleck, the writer implying Affleck was treated as a non-story because he came from money and privilege and Parker did not. We covered the Parker story; it was a criminal case we felt it was going to be an issue for the then-Best Picture front-runner. Our readers who vote deserved to know the facts bared in criminal trial transcripts. Classifying Parker as underprivileged might be more stereotype than fact. When Fox Searchlight paid $17.5M at Sundance, I’d heard Parker held a heavy equity stake in a film whose cost was pegged around $6M, if I recall correctly. He might have become a millionaire that day in Park City. I believe we covered his story fairly, but it still troubles me that Parker was acquitted by a jury of his peers in a criminal trial and decades later could be treated like a movie business pariah. Mel Gibson lost 10 years of his directing career for basically saying stupid things while drunk. Only now is he back in the fold, CAA-repped, Oscar nominated for Hacksaw Ridge and being offered studio films again, like the Daddy’s Home sequel at Paramount. Parker clearly didn’t handle the media glare well, and his defiance on 60 Minutes helped bury his worthy film. I hope that someone has the courage to give him another chance. Maybe it will be Gibson, who years ago hired a…
