Movie Industry News: It Takes a Village

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/23658/rich-ross-out-at-walt-disney-studios

Chairman Rich Ross has been given the axe after the big scale failures of late at Disney. It seems the large losses incurred by Mars Needs Moms and John Carter have seen the cuts be made but there is some negativity about Ross's reign too. Though he handled Disney Channel well it seems he cut a lot of the key heads of departments and has no big hits under his run which are attributed to himself, instead he's accused of over limiting Disney's output leading to little on the schedules. The biggest thing to happen during his time at the top was probably the acquisition of Marvel which begins its real effect with the release of Avengers.

Tipped at the moment to replace him are either Stacey Snider, John Lasseter or Kevin Feige.

[Neon Ignition]

There wasn't a suitable thread and a search pulled up this one that I have no recollection of but it seems to fit todays surprise news:


Bob Iger Reinstated As Disney CEO - Dark Horizons
Bob Chapek has been fired as Disney CEO effective immediately and previous CEO Bob Iger has been brought back into the company

Chapek has been in charge for two and a half years with Iger out of involvement for one year but a serious of company issues took place over that time and now Iger is back in post for a minimum of two years. It remains unknown what exactly triggered the rapid action however.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I didn't see this thread. I went and dumped it in the USA thread.

Yeah very surprising, it feels like something has gone on that might come out in the wash later.

[Neon Ignition]

Returning Bob Iger Sets Disney Restructure - Dark Horizons
Iger has announced he is to restructure Disney in a manner that gives creatives more decision making ability and reorganises the costs, perhaps a nod against his predecessors fondness for slashing budgets in every area. Disney shares have already risen 8%

[Neon Ignition]

Disney's Iger Wasn't Happy With Chapek's Tenure - Dark Horizons
Reportedly Iger's decision to return could be tied to his frustration with the decision making of Chapek. Iger apparently felt that the prices for Disney Parks are too expensive, too much focus went on Disney+,

[Asura]

Iger apparently felt that the prices for Disney Parks are too expensive,

This scans, certainly.

Chapek was seen as the boogeyman by park-goers. There was this (somewhat tinfoil-hat) theory among fans that he wanted to double the cost of everything, because half as many people would attend, but that would actually mean revenue would stay the same while costs would be lower. Disneyworld in particular is faaaar more expensive than it was only ~5 years ago (remember that Chapek was already in a senior exec role before becoming CEO).

From an observer's perspective this is difficult to parse, because Disney already had (and will still have) hotel rooms where a 2-week holiday will cost you as much as a reasonable chunk of a house, and these aren't just a few top-tier rooms but entire hotels like The Contemporary, so it's not like it was ever cheap.

Still, this will please the park fans who aren't super-rich.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, it always sounded like when it came to the parks Chapek wasn't able to understand their value outside of their specific operating costs. They're instrumental in supporting the wider brand and potentially even worth running at a manageable loss because a child who goes there and has an amazing experience could easily become a consumer of Disney products for life.

[Neon Ignition]

https://deadline.com/2022/12/warner-bros-discovery-content-write-downs-1235199446/

Warners is now set to write down a $1bn more than they announced plans to in content, culling content and making cancellations on an even bigger scale

[Neon Ignition]

Starting to turn out to be quite handy this thread:

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/ana-de-armas-yesterday-false-advertising-1235467419/

A US Judge has ruled that movie companies can be done for false advertising if a trailer is deemed not to be accurate in reflecting the final film

[Neon Ignition]

Warner Bros launches the recognition of its own 100 years anniversary

[Neon Ignition]

Romeo and Juliet actors sue studio over teenage nude scene in 1968 film (msn.com)
Paramount is sued by the leads of the 1968 Romeo and Juliet film for underaged nudity in the film, a lawsuit pushing for $500m from the company.

I can easily imagine such a thing happening. I can't easily imagine a scenario where they get a dime.

[Lebowski]

This thread confused the **** out of me Mars Needs Moms and John Carter WTF

[QualityChimp]

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/ana-de-armas-yesterday-false-advertising-1235467419/

A US Judge has ruled that movie companies can be done for false advertising if a trailer is deemed not to be accurate in reflecting the final film

I keep thinking about this and it really grinds my gears.

Don't get me wrong, we've all been oversold a movie by the trailer, but I can't abide the idea that the trailer must be 100% representative of the final product, which sometimes isn't even complete.

I think of all those teaser trailers that use footage not even in the final film (like Arnie on the production line of T2) or even better, those trailers that lead you to guessing incorrectly what the story will be about (From Dusk Til Dawn, Hereditary).

They put all the best bits of action and funniest jokes in the trailer, so there's rarely any surprises by the time you get to the cinema.

I think forcing companies to be more literal with the final content is a mistake and all because two simps for Ana de Armas paid $3.99 to rent “Yesterday” and her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor (because test audiences didn't like Himesh Patel’s character cheating), so they're suing for $5m each.

[Neon Ignition]

It's all under the same issue as most things

[Asura]

I keep thinking about this and it really grinds my gears.

Yeah, it's a difficult precedent. I get that some weirdness has gone on in recent times; I'm sure we all remember movies where there were things in the trailer which weren't in the final movies (I remember Rogue One being like this).

But deciding what is just filmmakers doing their best while standing on shifting sands, and what's deliberately deceptive; that's difficult.

On the other hand, something I love about Steam and hate about the AppStore on Android/iOS is that on Steam, developers are required that every screenshot is a genuine screenshot. It has to be an actual picture of the game without extensive rework. Developers do often tweak stuff like contrast etc. but generally they're true to life, and as a user, you can actually report false shots to Steam.

But phone games...



... most of their "screenshots" are just advertising images with some aspect of a screenshot as part of their design. Personally I think this is bull**** and it's shameful Apple/Google have allowed this to proliferate; it makes the screenshots section pointless - many games just show concept art or complete fiction.