Has 'Coyote vs. Acme' Sowed Distrust Between Warner Bros and Creatives?
Has 'Coyote vs. Acme' Sowed Distrust Between Warner Bros and Creatives? | Analysis https://t.co/yyl2OPHDCB
- TheWrap (@TheWrap) November 20, 2023
Some Quotes:
- “I don’t know a single director who isn’t worried about the concept of working for Warner Bros. right now,” said one director who has worked for a big studio. “Why would you compete with other directors for a job when you know they may just shelve the final version? How are you supposed to get invested in the work?”
- But so far there hasn’t been an exodus of creative talent, according to a studio insider. “There’s a pretty substantial list of [creatives] wanting to make movies here,” said the insider, noting that next year directors like Maggie Gyllenhaal and Alexander Payne will be making movies for the studio.
- Those who spoke to TheWrap all said that WBD’s attempts to improve its bottom line are showing in the work. “When you read a Warner Bros. script there’s always unnecessary references to their own IP,” one filmmaker said. “They are so desperate to mine the past they are actively harming it.”
- One producer echoed these sentiments, saying, “WB [is] the last place I’d want to make a movie personally, which is not a statement you’d have heard up until recently.”
- One leading distribution insider argued that the studio “realized they may be cutting their nose to spite their face.” He further noted that “if WB can recoup its costs with a sale rather than a write-off, well, either one accomplishes the same goal.”
- And for one director, “Coyote. vs. Acme” was the final straw for wanting to work with the studio. “Honestly, after ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ and ‘Tom & Jerry,’ I would feel gross working for them. But after ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ I would never.”
- “There’s definitely more of a distrust with the studios,” one top talent manager said. “Shelving completed projects … doesn’t make studios seem [like] reliable partners.”
SOURCE : TheWrap / Twitter / Non-Paywall Yahoo