Hollywood studio Paramount axes top executives
Bluuuue Rajah
Hollywood studio Paramount axes top executives
St. Louis 2 hrs 7 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090620/en_nm/us_paramount_3
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) � Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures, which
suffered the first big bomb of the summer last weekend with an Eddie
Murphy comedy, has fired its top production executive after barely 18
months in the job.
The Viacom Inc-owned studio said on Friday it would replace Paramount
Film Group president John Lesher with former DreamWorks production chief
Adam Goodman. Also out is production president Brad Weston.
Paramount, which is struggling to regain its momentum after a lengthy
reliance on co-productions led to a major shakeup four years ago, did
not cite a reason for the latest personnel shift in its statement.
The studio has the top film of the year so far in North America with
"Star Trek," but its slate has otherwise been boosted by films from
partners such as DreamWorks Animation ("Monsters vs. Aliens"). The
unrelated DreamWorks Pictures has also been a major supplier, but it
quit Paramount last year, leaving Goodman behind at Paramount.
Murphy's "Imagine That," which Paramount said cost $55 million to make,
has earned $9.2 million after eight days.
Paramount will likely top the worldwide box office next weekend with
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," although the sequel is a legacy
of its DreamWorks partnership.
Goodman becomes the third executive to oversee all of Paramount's film
production since studio chairman and CEO Brad Grey arrived at the studio
in January 2005 with a mandate to produce more films in-house. Lesher,
who had been closely involved with such Oscar-winning arthouse fare as
"Babel" and "There Will Be Blood," took over as head of the film group
in early 2008.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Jackie Frank)
The Starmaker
John Lesher drew notice for looking "whacked out and shit-faced and
falling down drunk" during the studio's big Benjamin Buttons and Sweeney
Todd screening parties. He's been known to nod off in front of directors
during their discussions. He's been seen dozing on his office couch in
the afternoons. That may be because he's been up at 3 AM often making
"incoherent and rambling and emotional" communications with his
Paramount colleagues. For instance, Lesher's bizarre wee-hour emails to
Adam Goodman are now the stuff of legend. Even more famous is Lesher's
sobbing "I'm sorry" phone call to Nick Meyer back in December after
Lesher pushed him out of Paramount Vantage. (As Lesher explained to pals
later, "I was very upset for my friend. He has family. I put him in that
job. I take things personally.")
gerry
When Paramount took over Dreamworks, it was a good deal because
Paramount had 12 movies tops in the pipeline ready or near ready for
release, while Dreamworks had about 8 movies in production that
Paramount could include in its slate of yearly releases (my number may
be off by one or two). You cannot be a Hollywood major motion picture
studio if you only produce 12 movies a year as studio releases.
Getting the U.S. distribution rights to a box office blockbuster like
"Taken" is an infrequent occurrence.
Paramount now has a lot riding on Transformers II, maybe too much.
Depending on Eddie Murphy now for a hit was the act of a gambler,
Eddie Murphy movies usually bomb, sometime very badly as in the case
of the near unreleasable Pluto Nash. Paramount CEO Grey reports to a
Board of Directors that must be ready to bounce Grey, all he is good
at is firing studio executives after blaming them for flops. Grey is
running out of executives to fire. If Transformers II under performs,
expect Grey to leave with a studio production deal to cushion the
shock.
Bluuuue Rajah
news:b8ef2561-6bc6-4d57...@q14g2000vbn.googlegroups.com:
I've heard that so many imes that I get the impression that every big
studio always has a lot riding on every hopeful big summer blockbuster.
If they get lucky and make strike it rich, as with Spidey or Iron Man,
they make enough to last a couple of extra yeasrs. But soon that money
runs out, and they're teetering on the brink again.
Steven
"Bluuuue Rajah" <Bluuuuue@Rajah.> wrote in message
news:Xns9C30B6FFC25EFlk...@207.115.33.102...
>
> Hollywood studio Paramount axes top executives
>
> St. Louis 2 hrs 7 mins ago
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090620/en_nm/us_paramount_3
>
> suffered the first big bomb of the summer last weekend with an Eddie
> Murphy comedy, has fired its top production executive after barely 18
> months in the job.
> Murphy's "Imagine That," which Paramount said cost $55 million to make,
> has earned $9.2 million after eight days.
Eddie just can't seem to make a movie anymore. What was his last good film
other than voicing animateds? Beverly Hills Cop?
Bluuuue Rajah
news:h1ko6s$gpq$1...@news.datemas.de:
Pretty much. He made three or four in the eighties, but nothing
important since then. I liked the one with Steve Martin and Heather
Graham. The critics ignored it, but it was a really funny movie.
The Starmaker
Well, he's under contract to make movies, they don't have to be good movies...
Hollywood is not in business to make good movies..
If they can make a movie with the production cost of only twenty nine dollars,
they will make it, it won't matter to anyone if it will be good or not. They would
even put it on DVD and put it on TV for the next hundred years.
If you want good movies, you have to kill everybody and start all over again.
The Starmaker
Here's how you do it:
First you kill all the Paramount top production executives. Then kill all the people
they hired under them...friends, relatives, their kids..everyone. Then you do that will all
the other studios..
Then you hire only Irish people to run Hollywood.