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March 3, 2006It's Friday… it's raining… and I don't quite know what to tell you.
This entire week, like the weeks before, has been dominated in our the sweet little burg of Spending Your Career Waiting To Get Fucked by utter chaos and ongoing paranoia, even at the relatively stable studios.
Even the Oscars Of Sedation are turning up last minute mood de-elevators with the Crash lawsuit, the Crash song smear, and The Israel Project attacking the nomination of Paradise Now after polls closed, apparently more interested in getting attention for itself than actually having an influence on the Oscars. All of it is nasty afterbirth with no real life in it… but enough to put some clouds in the sky.
Meanwhile, things move apace at Fox, even if Anne Thompson is quoting Tom Rothman as suggesting he is insane for re-signing for his job for five more years. (Ever notice how resign and re-sign are opposites?) Jeff Godsick moves up, as he has been trying to for a year or so… they hire Breena Camden from within… Fox Searchlight has more movies to release than ever before in their history, yet they seem in no great rush to replace both Breena and Megan Colligan, who is half out the door to Paramount Classics, where no one in town seems to want the head marketing job.
Paramount continues to be a mess. There is talk now of one group of former employees suing the studio over how their exits were orchestrated while top brass was selling another story altogether in the media. There are six people in LA County who actually believe that Stacey Snider is going to oversee a half-dozen movies at DreamWorks. (Please note this, among many inconsistencies: If Ms. Snider arrives at DreamWorks at the end of this year, she will have five years left on her contract… Spielberg, Geffen, and Katzenberg will have two left.) Even though the heat has died down, every day another story seems to arrive with a passing reference to someone new having a big problem with Gail Berman. Meanwhile, stylists for execs and the new corporate dining room plan offer a smack in the face of many. Another hundred or two hundred Paramount employees will be headed for the door before summer is over and while DreamWorks personnel is doing their best to calm the waters - as is their way - Paranoiamount lives.
The pressure on Amy Pascal at Sony has been backburnered, though the pressure of the summer of The DaVinci Code, Click, and Talladega Nights is coming and delivery is a must.
Warner Bros has what may be the first $300 million movie coming in June, though they have thrown off half the cost. And they may have the spoiler of May in Poseidon, though the month may be too crowded for the first big disaster movie in a while to fully stretch its muscles. There is already talk of a Supergirl with Mischa Barton… maybe they could call it the O.No. They survived Carl Icahn, though the specific future of WIP is still at issue and with The WB going away, there will be some added pressure on Warner TV to compete in the market without a network on which to fall back.
Changes at Disney remain a constant rumored drumbeat. Nina Jacobson has been leaving that job, if you listen to the mongers, for three years now. Her latest new home… Universal. She would be one of the few outside candidates that would make sense for Ron Meyer to consider. But Oren Aviv's role as Chief Creative Officer is still defining itself, Steve Jobs' stamp hasn't been felt yet (outside of dismantling some small departments), and the TV side is more involved with the changes in delivery - not so much the iPod thing as ESPN taking on Monday Night Football, ABC getting out of that business, etc. - and has the one brand (Disney for kids) that commands an audience of a size that makes experimentation somewhat safe.
Meanwhile, back at The Big U, the question of Marc Shmuger is the big one. Does he have the right skills to take over? If he is passed by and wants to leave, is there anywhere for him to go? The man has some big Chairman britches and Aviv, Blake, Taubin and Harper don't seem to be going anywhere. Paramount just said goodbye to Rob Friedman and it is not likely that Brad Grey will embrace both Snider and Shmuger crowding him from below.
La dee da dee da… enough already… it's like counting your chips at the table… over and over and over and over again… every f-ing day… ad nauseum… post nauseum…
Thank God for the nice quiet weekend to come…
January 5, 2006 - The Business Of 2005, Pt 1
January 9, 2006 - The Business Of 2005, Pt 2
January 11 - Munich In Sequence | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3
January 12 - V For Vendetta
