Understanding the film business / Awards

[jo]

The story of FOX Searchlight --

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-fox-searchlight-became-an-oscar-factory-1131098


Interesting that Tom Rothman mentions that it was Peter Chernin with his business acumen and decision-making that helped launch FOX's Oscar Factory.

Hmm... The Greatest Showman was lucky to have had him as one of the major producers! He even helped on the promotional side!


All of the above -- the FOX milestones and rich legacy as a studio was exchanged for what ??!


Hope DISNEY realizes that preserving the artistic legacy of FOX is what will make the acquisition business-sound!


Jo

[jo]

Revised/new Oscar telecast plans!

www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/academy-plans-three-hour-oscars-telecast-adds-popular-film-category-1133138

[jo]

The new Oscar award called OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN POPULAR FILM has drawn so many cynical and negative reactions.


Some have even attempted to pin down likely winners from the past had the award been already part of the Oscars then.

www.theringer.com/movies/2018/8/9/17670244/oscars-popular-category-ampas-change

I would say some were actually popular choices and well-received by critics...but the 2017 choice of this blogger is marked by much sarcasm when he picked the likely winner to be THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

2017: The Greatest Showman

Nayman: The second I read about AMPAS’ plans, red-tinged visions of Hugh Jackman bounding onstage to collect a statuette for his grotesque, toe-tapping P.T. Barnum hagiography came to me: a million nightmares keeping me awake. (The fact that I’m paraphrasing specific song lyrics here indicates that to some extent the music has gotten stuck in my head due to exposure; at this point, I’ll have to drill a hole in my skull to expunge “Rewrite the Stars.”) The rabid, undeniable audience appeal of a film as badly reviewed as The Greatest Showman—still the only movie that noted Oscar watcher Donald Trump has openly gushed about while in office, by the way—speaks to the precise divide that the Academy is trying to exploit by creating an artificial, intelligence-insulting dichotomy between artistry and success. That the film itself features a snooty critic who learns to lighten up and admire a freak-show magnate on the grounds that his menagerie constitutes a “celebration of humanity”—the most embarrassing fate for such a character since Bob Balaban got mauled by a scrunt in Lady in the Water—would make such a pandering prize seem all the more deserved.

Fennessey’s Alternative: Sure, that’s fine, but: Coco.

[mamaleh]

Well, the snippy Nayman is aptly named. Professional or self-appointed critics should tone down the sarcasm and stick to a cogent examination of the subject matter. We get it; he didn’t like TGS, much like the bulk of the earlier critics—until their epiphany later on when the movie became a worldwide phenomenon and many did a 180. Mr. Nay-sayer seems to love repeating his disdain. For that childish stance, he should simply be ignored.

Ellen

[jo]

Yes -- What a condescending piece of vile! The site is mostly sports-focused -- is there a rule that sportslovers must hate musicals or lose face


Jo

[jo]

www.joblo.com/movie-news/20th-century-fox-may-be-significantly-downsized-by-disney-after-the-merger-317

Excerpts --

...as the WSJ indicates that although the television wing of Fox will survive relatively unscathed, it's expected that Disney will significantly downsize Fox's feature-film division. The WSJ states that Disney will likely "scale back production of costly movies that don’t fit its family-friendly, franchise-focused formula," while taking over future installments of the AVATAR and X-MEN franchises.

From a business standpoint -- what did Disney buy? To deliberately throw away talent and expertise in various artistic genres, just so they can acquire rights to the franchises that Fox holds? But what value does XMen still hold with the original and maybe second major cast already gone? Have they not exhausted the Planet of the Apes storyline? Avatar has been touch and go for so long and James Cameron is not getting any younger? How long will they keep the raunchy Deadpool franchise, if they want to maintain their squeaky-clean reputation? I guess movie musicals may have a place so long as it is family-friendly?

I hope Mr. Murdoch does not regret exchanging the proud legacy of FOX Studios for $$$$ to sustain his media empire ( but can it compete with the other behemoths in the field who are beginning to acquire content-producing outfits -- which in turn he gave up).

Sigh!

[jo]

An angry XMen fan bursts out in disgust --

replying to an article on Deadline.com

deadline.com/2018/08/the-meg-chomps-a-huge-4m-on-thursday-night-box-office-1202443644/

‘X-MEN’ (2000) – 10/10
‘X2 – X-MEN UNITED’ – 10/10
‘X3 – X-MEN THE LAST STAND’ – 10/10
‘X-MEN ORIGINS – WOLVERINE’ – 10/10
‘X-MEN – FIRST CLASS’ – 10/10
‘THE WOLVERINE’ – 10/10
‘X-MEN – DAYS OF FUTURE PAST’ – 10/10
‘DEADPOOL’ – 2/10
‘X-MEN – APOCALYPSE’ – 10/10
‘LOGAN’ – 10/10
‘DEADPOOL 2’ – 2/10
Don’t care for the ‘DEADPOOL’ movies. His character was better in ‘X-MEN ORIGINS – WOLVERINE’. ‘X3 – X-MEN THE LAST STAND’ started the whole after credits scene (and FOX did a mid credits scene for ‘FANTASTIC FOUR – RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER’), and ‘X-MEN’ (2000) started the Stan Lee cameo’s. ‘X-MEN’ (2000) started the whole comic book trend of movies (yeah ‘Blade’ was in 1998, but ‘X-MEN’ (2000) was a bigger hit, a success to a wide audience. ‘DEADPOOL’ proved rated R movies for comic book movies could do well, and so did ‘LOGAN’ and ‘DEADPOOL 2’, but still do not like the ‘DEADPOOL’ movies. I have invested in my time and money in the X-MEN movies since 2000, and to have all that tarnished and thrown away and start over by disney pisses me off and is a complete insult.

For almost 20 years, the X-MEN movies have been running uninterrupted, no remakes or do overs and disney is just going to shit all over that by making them comedies and incorporating them into the avengers, retarded and stupid. Pisses me off.
Go to hell disney.

GO TO HELL BOB IGER, GO TO HELL RUPERT MURDOCH AND GO TO HELL DISNEY.
GO TO HELLLLLLLL DISNEY!


• 3 hours ago
AGREED 100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply


• 41 mins ago
Give this man a medal, he speaks the truth. GO to hell disney indeed.

[jo]

Nothing can save the Oscars ( decline in viewership)


nypost.com/2018/08/11/nothing-the-academy-does-will-save-the-oscars/


Great photo of Wolverine, had he been given an Oscar!

[jo]

One-hundred-sixty replies to the Dark Horizon article on what to expect from the Disney takeover --

www.darkhorizons.com/foxs-post-disney-takeover-plans-revealed/


Here's one of those which looks back at the studio's once proud history :

•

Cushing • 16 hours ago

Away from the business and Marvel properties - from a purely film perspective I find it all a bit sad that 20th Century Fox is going to be history soon.

83 years of film production (104 if you include the productions by the company before they became 20th Century Fox).
Some of the absolute classics of cinema were made by the company and although they were not really a shadow of their former self with the company going it means that they won’t ever be able to pull that back in anyway.

So, as much as Marvel having X-Men and Fantastic Four back (added to an already enormous library of characters) - it is pretty sad from an artistic level that a major player will be absorbed by a company that has such a defined branding that the edgier more adult films they made throughout their history will maybe just vanish from public awareness. Disney aren’t going to have any real interest in streaming, rereleasing (whatever) films like M*A*S*H, The Omen, The Day the Earth Stood Still - and so many others because, as far as I understand they will own this library, and so many movies won’t fit into their branding.

The films may very well just become unavailable.

Time will tell but I think that this may be okay for future production but for the past? It’ll probably not be good.

[jo]

Rotten Tomatoes is planning to implement an expanded rating system to determine aggregate scores!

variety.com/2018/film/markets-festivals/rotten-tomatoes-1202918736/

Excerpts --

At a time when film criticism is being criticized for being dominated by white men, Rotten Tomatoes is trying to highlight more diverse voices.

The review aggregator, known for its “fresh” or “rotten” Tomatometer ranking system, said it is changing its criteria to include new media platforms, such as podcasts and streaming shows, as opposed to only boasting written notices. In addition, the site will include writers whose work may appear on personal blogs or other platforms instead of only focusing on the pieces they publish for specific print outlets. As part of the change, over 200 new Tomatometer-approved critics have been added to Rotten Tomatoes and the service expects to keep growing its ranks.

The new criteria comes after months of reaching out to critics to get their suggestions for ways to expand the pool of reviewers to include more women and people from under-represented communities...

More …

[jo]

The decision on the new award category of Movie Favorite/Popular Award ( whatever it is called) is now being rethought by the AMPAS!

variety.com/2018/film/awards/academy-retreats-on-popular-oscar-category-for-now-1202930117/#article-comments

[jo]

Insights and a detailed discussion on what to expect when the Disney-Fox merger happens legally by early 2019.

How will other studios and streaming services be affected ?


deadline.com/2018/12/disney-fox-merger-2019-impact-on-box-office-theaters-major-hollywood-studios-1202525476/

[jo]

Interesting article on the changing landscape for film distribution, esp with the increasing presence of streaming services.


www.screendaily.com/features/efm-preview-netflix-and-pre-sales-put-pressure-on-sellers-and-buyers/5136467.article


One very interesting point from the article --

Netflix is supposed to have spent $ 25 million for its awards campaign for ROMA!

Netflix is trying to prove that it can deliver a total package, including a worthwhile awards campaign. That is why Disney paid so much for the FOX assets - so it can headstart its own streaming services with a large and worthy film library!


Btw, the new Zac Efron movie re Ted Bundy has just been bought by Netflix for distribution.


Jo

[jo]

On the other hand, this article debunks Netflix metrics in reporting viewership.


www.msn.com/en-ph/entertainment/news/fxs-john-landgraf-netflix-isnt-telling-you-the-whole-story/ar-BBTbq6Y?ocid=spartandhp

[jo]

Disney-Fox deal to close on March 20, 2019!

deadline.com/2019/03/disney-sets-march-20-closing-date-for-21st-century-fox-acquisition-1202574146/


Sad to see a studio with a proud artistic tradition lose its legacy this way!


Some executive departures have already been reported... to other studios.


Jo

[jo]

Vanity Fair reports on the realities of the Disney and Fox consolidtation -- SAD!

www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/03/inside-hollywoods-disney-fox-freakout

Vanity Fair

Letter from L.A.

Inside Hollywood’s Disney-Fox Freakout

With the biggest entertainment merger in a lifetime about to close, anxiety is running high on the Fox lot and beyond.
by Nicole Sperling
March 15, 2019 10:35 am


Rising from the ashes of the 1929 stock-market crash, Twentieth Century-Fox was forged in a master stroke by ruthless producer Darryl F. Zanuck, who merged Twentieth Century Pictures with William Fox’s ailing studio—and booted out Fox in the process—to create a formidable Hollywood player. It was the studio that turned Marilyn Monroe into a star, awarded Elizabeth Taylor her first $1 million payday (for the costly Cleopatra, which at $44 million nearly capsized the company), and helped solidify the modern-day blockbuster with George Lucas’s space fantasy, Star Wars. Along the way, Fox experienced all the highs and lows of the burgeoning Hollywood system, from breaking box- office records with the 1965 hit The Sound of Music to earning 14 Oscar nominations for All About Eve, to Zanuck’s 1970 installation of his son, Richard, as the president of production, only to fire him in a move that would lead to his own ousting by a seething board of directors. And this was all before Rupert Murdoch bought the studio in 1985, launched the Fox Broadcasting Network along with Barry Diller, and doubled down on the Jim Cameron business, green-lighting and supporting the mercurial director through all his production-budget overages on the way to a $2.2 billion worldwide gross for 1997’s Titanic and $2.8 billion for 2009’s Avatar.


Unfortunately, Cameron can’t save everybody. The business climate in Hollywood has shifted in recent years, and studios are competing not just with each other but with a handful of ruthless Silicon Valley interlopers. New alliances have been forged out of desperation, none of them bigger than the $71.3 billion acquisition, which was set to close last month, that saw the Walt Disney Company absorb the once indomitable Fox. The deal could eventually result in the loss of anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 jobs, depending on whom you ask.

The situation has had longtime employees on the Fox lot suffering a kind of prolonged trauma since the merger was announced, in December 2017. To hear them tell it, they are being issued mostly vague, Orwellian-lite guidance that outlines dress codes and explains key-card access, but they have been left wanting in terms of business directives. In the middle of February, Fox’s marketing and distribution departments gathered with the filmmakers of Dark Phoenix, the latest X-Men installment from producer-director Simon Kinberg, to lay out their plans for the film’s June release. It was a typical meeting. Ad buys were discussed, and the publicity tour for the film’s stars, including Sophie Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jessica Chastain, was laid out. But it was still disconcerting, both because of all the new faces in the room—a handful of high-end consultants have been hired temporarily to fill the jobs recently vacated by long-term employees—and because of the ad hoc approach the Fox marketing team was taking toward the film’s release, four months away.

“We know when we are dropping a trailer, but we are nowhere near where we should be at this time,” said one marketing exec who was at the meeting. “It’s frightening. I would be mad if I were a filmmaker.”



“What’s not normal is the elephant in the room, which is that most people there are not going to be the people that are still in the job when the movie opens,” added another attendee.

“Nobody has come around and said, ‘This is what’s going on.’ Why can’t they just tell us that there is no place for us? Why can’t they let anyone know?” said the marketing exec. “We are not leaving because we didn’t make money for the company or we did a bad job. We are leaving because of pure capitalism.”



You know something’s screwy when the marketing department is crying capitalism. But such is life, not just on the Fox lot but all around Hollywood these days—or at least since Netflix dropped the entire first season of House of Cards on its unwitting customers six years ago. It took a while for Hollywood to figure it out, but when the biggest filmmakers in the world—Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuarón, and nearly everyone this side of Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan—started taking their expensive, theatrical films to the streamers, the town realized the business was in the throes of a disruption so large it would never be the same again. That position was cemented in stone on Oscar Sunday this year when Roma landed three Academy Awards—for best director, cinematography, and foreign-language film. All the hand-wringing for the past five years over the threat to the sacred theatrical business and the uproar over Netflix’s spending seemed to have found its culmination in the loss of Fox. The big six studios, which have histories that pre-date most mail-room intern’s grandparents, are now down to five—and the consolidation is likely not over yet.


“The new platforms are exploding every day, but the theatrical world is never going to see a new studio emerge,” said one veteran filmmaker with ties to both Disney and Fox. “It’s all going to be moving towards direct-to-consumer.”
Says another executive, “Silicon Valley has declared their hostility to the existing order and their desire to replace it. Their point of view is not co-existence. They think in terms of winner take all.”

Such sentiment isn’t exactly bleeding-edge media theory at this point, but the Fox acquisition is its greatest manifestation yet —even physically. Take the future of Fox’s lot, 53 acres of perfectly manicured prime Los Angeles real estate, once an even more sprawling 176 acres that included most of what is Century City today. The property still features a giant rendering of Julie Andrews from The Sound of Music alongside Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker dueling with light sabers. Recently, I spoke to film historian Leonard Maltin, who remembered the days he could take out-of-town friends onto the lot to see the remains of the fantastical elevated train station that served as a background element to Barbra Streisand’s big number “Before the Parade Passes By,” in Hello, Dolly! “You could take them over there, and drive them onto the property and see a bit of Hollywood magic,” he said wistfully. With the deal closed, the Fox lot will soon become a rental space for Disney’s new film labels and the headquarters for New Fox, which will now include Fox Broadcasting, Fox News, and its TV stations. Employees, some of whom have been there since the days of the Dolly set, are watching their beloved logos and ephemera disappear from sides of buildings all around the lot. “They are whitewashing the place of everything Fox,” said one rueful longtime executive.


Fox may have never been the largest studio, but it took some big swings on films that Disney would have been unlikely to back, even recently. There’s Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, Ridley Scott’s The Martian, and James Mangold’s Logan. The biggest source of Hollywood’s anxiety around the deal lies in that cold reality: the industry has just lost itself a big buyer of traditional content, and one that took chances on films to the left of center. Or at least occasionally in a very non-Disney marketing vector. Hugh Jackman as P. T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman comes to mind; so does the profane, and essentially anti-Disney, Deadpool franchise, which has now grossed $1.5 billion worldwide and was initially a huge risk anchored by Ryan Reynolds, a lead who had previously bombed with Green Lantern. Twentieth Century Fox once produced between 12 and 20 movies a year—2018 highlights included Bohemian Rhapsody and Deadpool 2. It will now be reduced to a label inside Disney, run by Fox Film’s vice-chairman, Emma Watts, and will make a fraction of that. Some predict as few as three to five Fox films will be released theatrically each year, a figure that has everyone around town reaching for the Xanax. Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger told audiences at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in October that he “likes taking big risks.” To date, his biggest risks easily tie into Disney’s theme parks and massive merchandising operations.


“That’s a scary thing for sellers,” said one top veteran agent. “You used to have two really significant buyers. But Disney just narrowed their lane [in regard to the type of content it produces]. Will Fox do that too? Everyone is asking if Disney would have made Deadpool 2. I want to know if they would still make Walk the Line or Romeo and Juliet. I don’t know.”


In the near term, Disney, already with 26 percent of the theatrical box office, will rely on Fox’s larger-budgeted projects to fill out its slate, movies like the follow-up to Murder on the Orient Express, which is set to start filming in the fall—and Cameron’s Avatar sequel, set to bow in December 2020. (Disney has the largest market share, but it doesn’t release as many films as, say, Warner Bros. or Universal.) Other, smaller films initially slated to be part of Fox’s theatrical-release calendar are likely to be shuttled to Disney’s new streaming service, which is set to launch in late 2019. One likely casualty, observers guess, will be Josh Boone’s Marvel spin-off, The New Mutants, starring Game of Thrones heroine Maisie Williams. Its moderate budget, younger cast, and smaller spectacle make it the perfect title to send directly to consumers. It’s a proposition filmmakers all over town need to start getting used to.
Said the filmmaker, “The notion of something being for the big screen versus a streaming platform, when you have something like Roma out there, it’s hard to be a filmmaker and to still believe that your nostalgia for a theatrical experience is somehow superior to the way people want to watch movies today.”


Disney’s quest to re-invent its streaming services means a handful of the specialty brands at Fox are receiving a much-coveted lifeline. Fox Searchlight, the makers of such Oscar fare as The Favourite and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, will be getting a seat at the Disney table, as will Fox 2000, the home of book-to-film adaptations such as Love, Simon and The Hate U Give, and cable channels like FX Networks (The Americans, Atlanta) and Nat Geo, which just landed a best-documentary Oscar for Free Solo. While those at Big Fox are crying in their cornflakes, wondering just how numbered their days are at the freewheeling studio, the execs at the chosen divisions are practically giddy with excitement for what’s to come. “Streaming services are growing, and if you are going to be a best-in-class company you have to address the realities of the market. I’m excited to be a part of that,” said FX C.E.O. John Landgraf, who’s a frequent critic of Netflix’s assault on his business and has been buoyed by Disney’s indication that his programming is to be a big part of the company’s Hulu strategy.


All of this, of course, only portends more change and further questions. Will the exhibition business do its own consolidating? Are there any plans to shutter some of the 41,000 screens that make up the nationwide theater business? Some around town are lamenting how much sway Disney will have over those exhibitors once it controls between 35 and 40 percent of the market share. The theater chains are already fighting with Netflix, which has zero interest in putting movies in theaters ahead of its platform. “Disney will control a massive amount of the films that go through the theaters and will be able to dictate terms to exhibitors,” said one content provider. “That’s probably bad for the exhibitors.”
John Fithian, the head of the National Association of Theater Owners, is much more bullish about his constituents’ future at the hands of Iger and Co., calling the studio “the most solid believer in the exclusivity of theatrical runs.”
“For that reason alone it couldn’t be a better company to grow,” he said. “That’s even more apparent when you contrast them with Netflix.”

With all this change, it’s no wonder anxiety is running high on the Fox lot. The disruption, as it were, has only just begun. And that’s sad both because of all the jobs that will go away and because of just how drastically the business of moviemaking has changed. But this wouldn’t be Hollywood without the opportunist angle. “If you want to stay relevant, you have to have product that people want to see that’s easily accessible when and where they want to see it,” said the agent. “This Disney deal is forcing Netflix to build up its own content. The same can be said for Amazon. So it’s good for the sellers in that respect. It’s good for the artists, too. It’s good for everybody except those that only want to make movies with the five studios. It’s just not going to be that way. If you are stuck in that mentality, it’s going to be very lonely.”

Jo

[jo]

*The irony is that some of the big risks taken by the once-proud FOX studio ( e.g., Logan, The Greatest Showman, etc) were projects once directly developed and supervised by Emma Watts, who will now be supervising the new Small Fox under the Disney banner. And the smaller outfit is not expected to take on similar risks in the future under the Disney aegis ( which seems to go only for mostly juvenile-themed movies. This makes it a little uneasy for me to have faith in the possibility of a film sequel for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. Not sure either if a stage adaptation of the movie is forthcoming. Maybe that is why Hugh decided to go on a worldwide music tour... and to return to Broadway in a different musical (The Music Man)


*Will we see Hugh Jackman still be making movies for new Small Fox? Maybe if it is mostly for indies distributed by the likes of Fox Searchlight or Fox 2000?


Hugh seems to be developing links with some of the remaining major studios. Warner Bros is the worldwide distributor of REMINISCENCE and Hugh had movies produced and/or distributed by WB in the past ( such as Prisoners, Pan, The Prestige, The Fountain). Sony recently released The Front Runner. His last Universal movie was Les Miserables.


Of course, being a performing actor/artist from the much desired creative group, Hugh is likely going to explore opportunities, even with the major Disney/small Fox group --

“If you want to stay relevant, you have to have product that people want to see that’s easily accessible when and where they want to see it,” said the agent. “This Disney deal is forcing Netflix to build up its own content. The same can be said for Amazon. So it’s good for the sellers in that respect. It’s good for the artists, too. It’s good for everybody except those that only want to make movies with the five studios. It’s just not going to be that way. If you are stuck in that mentality, it’s going to be very lonely.”

Jo

[mamaleh]

Streaming has certainly shaken things up in the movie biz. But so did the advent of sound in films, color, competition from TV in the ‘50s, CinemaScope as the movies’ response to that competition, IMAX, etc. There have always been seismic shakeups. Still, it must be disheartening for Fox officials to see their landscape disintegrating. It will be interesting to see what Disney does with its legendary acquisition.

Ellen

[jo]

S-I-G-H

But for some people, the wonders of a huge screen showing your favorite spectacle of an action movie or animation... or film musical... or even drama is still a much preferred choice! Can you imagine seeing LOGAN, LES MISERABLES, THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, THE FOUNTAIN, THE PRESTIGE, even PRISONERS for the very first time in a small screen ( no matter how huge a TV set you have put in your home entertainment center). Even the most lavish home entertainment rooms in luxury mansions cannot match the splendor of huge, huge screens ( especially IMAX). It cannot deliver the awesome sight of an action/tentpole … the wonderful sound of music and attention-getting dance... and even the tension of a dramatic scene in the atmosphere of a home TV! To some, seeing a movie in a grand cinema is an event! And the company of like-minded audiences enhances the experience, including the welcome thrill of a whole audience giving its ovation after a superb movie ends! The same emotional impact is translated when I saw LOGAN on an IMAX screen and the entire audience sat stunned and not even moving, following the fade-out of that scene of the cross being changed to an X!

EDDIE THE EAGLE was never released here on the big screen -- while I eventually saw it via a BluRay, I still wonder how that amazing scene on the ski-jump would have made me gasp even more ( being a sports lover myself)! I also had to contend with the same BluRay alternative to see THE FRONT RUNNER, which drama I would have liked to have seen playing in a cinema!


It is really just trading convenience ( and maybe a bit of coin) for the option of seeing a film in a cinema. Unlike innovations which were meant to enhance film appreciation ( color/cinemascope/surround sounds, etc)! But then again, film even delivered via streaming services will have to compete for the attention of kids who may prefer playing a video game instead!


But paraphrasing Norma Desmond, resident of SUNSET BOULEVARD : " I am BIG! It's the pictures that got small!"


Jo

[jo]

And maybe the reduction of movie-viewing to small screen-watching... would be... what would save LIVE theatre in the long run!

Jo

[jo]

Poignant day - as the Disney acquisition has been completed of FOX Studios and other creative assets.

Tom Rothman voiced the regrets that came with that transition and end of an era.

Tom Rothman
Co-chair, Fox Filmed Entertainment, 2000-12

“It’s very sad. I think it’s bad for consumers and anti-competitive — deeply anti-competitive. And consumers will ultimately suffer. What I think the loss to consumers is, is a tremendous loss of originality. That’s the greatest threat the movie business faces.

“I do not share his politics at all, but you cannot underestimate Rupert Murdoch’s effectiveness and his stewardship. He created an entrepreneurial culture. There was no way there would be the level of investment on ‘Titanic’ or ‘Avatar’ without Rupert being able and willing to take big creative risks. I always found him to be a manager of executives, and he understood that ours was a business of risk. A lot of corporate overseers try to believe they can take the risk out of a creative business. Rupert understood that you cannot, and that’s why the company made the vast array of films that it made.”

So very well-said!


Jo

[jo]

Here's the formal report to shareholders and regulatory authorities of the completion of the Fox-Disney deal.


www.21cf.com/news/21st-century-fox/2019/21st-century-fox-announces-completion-of-distribution-in-connection-with-disney-acquisition/

[jo]

Sad fact of mergers and acquistions -- layoffs and downsizing!


www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/layoffs-begin-at-20th-century-fox-disney-deal-closes-1195834

Apart from losing the legacy of a film studio that gave the public excellent content over its proud history --

Top Fox execs were immediately laid off following closing of the Disney-Fox deal. Among them is Chris Aronson who headed the worldwide film distribution unit. Do you remember him singing and dancing with the group that presented the first promo for The Greatest Showman at the CinemaCon in LA, which was also presented by Hugh?

Btw, the Chairman/CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, Stacey Snider, was immediately told way ahead that there will be no room for her. But her Vice-Chairman Emma Watts ( who oversaw Logan and TGS, among others) was retained, as well as heads of the other units producing film content ( Fox Searchlight/Fox2000). EDIT: It turned out that Fox 2000 also suffered the off-with-their heads treatment!

The good ones will likely get immediate offers from other film units. What about those nearing retirement age - hopefully, there will be a special early retirement program that will cover them?


What did you do, Rupert Murdoch

Is it all for the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


Jo

[jo]

And this report from Deadline is even more heartbreaking in a sense

deadline.com/2019/03/fox-film-disney-paul-feig-universal-fox-layoffs-1202579443/

Fox Film Team Faces Rocky Disney Future; Paul Feig Moves Label To Universal

by Mike Fleming Jr

March 21, 2019 3:43pm


EXCLUSIVE: The beleaguered film staff of the various divisions of Fox had to know they would be in for a hellish Thursday when they walked through the gold doors of Building 88 to their offices and noticed something different. The 20th Century Fox logo stenciled on the doors was gone. It was replaced by the blue Fox logo that signifies the part of the company that was kept by Rupert Murdoch and led by his son Lachlan. Talk about an omen.

Related
Disney-Fox Deal Primer: The Ins And Outs Of Hollywood's Mega Merger


Now, the Murdochs own the lot and they control the space even if they did lease office space to Disney because the Mouse House isn’t big enough to absorb those film and TV staffers who will be left after the bloodletting that began today. And Fox execs couldn’t help but notice that lady who came to those offices awhile ago with a tape measure, sizing up the place. I’m told that Lachlan and James Murdoch feel sentimental toward Building 88 because that was where they played when their father Rupert had offices there when he was in town.



But for movie purists, Building 88 also has some serious film roots that go all the way back to Daryl Zanuck and David O. Selznick. Like with everything else today, it was hard to get definitive answers on anything, but many felt that Fox film execs might well be shunted elsewhere on the lot.

The day would only get worse, especially when Fox 2000 surprisingly was shuttered, this after Disney previously affirmed that Elizabeth Gabler was going to continue to run her tastemaker label, whose output ranged from The Devil Wears Prada to The Fault In Our Stars and Hidden Figures. Throw in the layoffs of well-respected distribution head Chris Aronson, consumer products head Jim Fielding and several others, and this was on course to become an exceptionally shitty day at the studio.

There has to be some solace, that the bad news started to be delivered so soon after this week’s lot visits by Disney’s Alan Horn and Alan Bergman. But it has been awful for those who run or are part of the film staffs of the 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000, Fox Family, Blue Sky and Fox Searchlight labels. Everyone knows that by the time the bloodletting is over, upwards of 5000 might be gone as Disney tries to meets its stated goal to pare $2 billion in consolidation costs. The question is how that will impact the executives and producers who’ve been putting together movie slates under the Fox label for years.

Particularly since the output of films is expected to be low. For instance 20th, which has been making a full-size slate of pictures since The Depression, might only be able to make four theatrical films and four streaming films per year, if the rumors I am hearing are true.



The Fox 2000 shocker was a torpedo blow and it’s inevitable that the cultures of those Fox divisions built by Emma Watts (Logan and Planet of the Apes), Steve Gilula/Nancy Utley (The Shape of Water), Vanessa Morrison (Bob’s Burgers) and Blue Sky’s Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird (Ice Age) will be challenged if not destroyed. Disney doesn’t make a lot of first-look deals but Fox certainly did. It’s an open question how many of those will be needed, or even how many production executives will be necessary once Disney is done cherry picking assets to supplement its already booming theatrical slates and to feed its streaming services Hulu and Disney+. Disney-based producers already had a hard time in securing the few slots that aren’t devoted to Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and family-friendly live-action remakes of animated classics. Imagine trying to crack the slate if you are an outsider. Some execs left Fox over the past few months while others hung in hoping they can continue their careers or else receive generous settlements that will give them time to find new jobs.

20th alone has six production executives and a slew of producer deals that include Chernin Entertainment, Scott Free, Ben Affleck & Matt Damon’s Pearl Street, Noah Hawley, DeVon Franklin, Boom! Studios, Hutch Parker, 21 Laps, Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner’s The Donners Company, and James Mangold. Given that Fox itself is expected to be truncated to as little as four theatrical and that many streaming titles, how many execs and producers will be needed to manage that output? And will the talent in films designed to be theatrical releases with back-end potential be satisfied with being relegated to Hulu, where the upside on such films won’t be nearly as attractive?

One tenured Fox filmmaker who is moving on is Paul Feig, who years ago signed a deal to develop R-rated comedies for Fox — those won’t fly at family friendly Disney — and where he made comedy blockbusters The Heat and Spy. I’ve confirmed that Feig’s deal has lapsed and he is in the process of moving his FeigCo label from Fox to Universal. The move isn’t a shock, as Feig just wrapped a film for Uni, the Emma Thompson- and Byrony Kimmings-scripted Last Christmas with Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding. He’s also developing a few other projects at the studio including one with Eva Longoria called 24-7, a workplace comedy he’s producing with Kerry Washington and Ben Spector, and the comedy False Alarm, which he’s producing with Dylan Clark and Sam Esmail.


Fox’s loss is Universal’s gain. Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer confirmed the deal: “Paul is one of the most distinctive and versatile filmmakers working today, and we are thrilled to welcome him, Jessie Henderson, and the FeigCo team back to Universal. We know they will add to their impressive track record of creating successful films for global audiences that are full of Paul’s signature joy, wit, and heart, starting with Last Christmas in November.”
While uncertainty abounds, other producers seem a firmer fit into Disney. Chernin seems secure; 21 Laps makes Disney-esque movies like Free Guy, the Ryan Reynolds-starrer that is expected to be a Disney tentpole for 2021. Ridley Scott’s Scott Free seems also a good bet to stay: beyond the next Aliens installment that he’s working on, Scott is expected to next direct Merlin, a live-action movie on the formative years of the wizard, for Disney.

Whether it is the current acrimony between the Writers Guild and the agencies, or how the future of Disney has been calculated, Hollywood is ruled by television. For a film guy like myself, it has been cruel, watching Fox’s TV heads be an inclusive part of the discussions of the future, while the feature folks who used to puff out their chests on the lot have essentially been forced into the position of being told their fate.

We’ve known for some time that film chief Stacey Snider won’t be part of the Disney future, even though she has been in her office this week. Watts has long been known as a very strong executive, and several have said she is about the only one there who has been clued in on the Disney plans. Does she have the clout to prevent Fox film properties from being repurposed as TV projects or as streaming projects on Hulu and Disney+ with low budgets and no back-ends? Sources said that in the recent past she fended off an attempt by Hawley and FX to take the Aliens franchise and turn it into a miniseries, and when Searchlight once wanted to do something with The Omen, she held fast because who wants to give up your franchises? She did that before the Disney deal, when it was a whole different ballgame.

What will happen to inventive projects like the three-picture reinvention of Alien Nation with director Jeff Nichols, or the drama that Affleck was going to direct and Damon to star in, based on the true story of the ex-cop who rigged the McDonald’s Monopoly game and allegedly stole $24 million, with a script by Deadpool‘s Rheese & Wernick? The decision on all of these will come down to Disney’s Horn, who will hold the greenlight power going forward.

While he was well within his right to cash in on his FOX investments, Murdoch and his team could have negotiated with Disney on the fate of his creatives and employees - maybe even if it meant an adjustment downwards in the deal prize. Very sad how he opted for the $$$ side and not likely cared for the human side.


Jo

[jo]

Unless a new Disney movie has Hugh Jackman in the film ( such as a potential sequel to The Greatest Showman, which Hugh says seems in limbo) -- I think I am not keen at all to patronize any new Disney movie … Not difficult as I have never been in favor of the disneyfication of Hollywood!

I have had personal experience with mergers and acquisitions/downsizing and it is hard for anyone to feel completely how it can be such a tragic road, human resources-wise, unless it happens to you, your family, or someone you know or even someone you work with. Hope Disney eventually rethinks their $ 2 Billion down-sizing target...and recognize that human resources are inevitably what will produce the excellent results ( especially the creativity side) for an organization!

Jo