Walk onto any studio lot, stroll into any of the industry’s favorite restaurants, and you’ll find a strange pall has fallen over the executives and producers who congregate there and it’s more than just the summer doldrums.
The reason is simple: It’s the economy, stupid.
Most insiders thought studio spending would bounce right back when the threat of strikes dissipated, but it’s been just the opposite. While this year’s box-office pace is running about 10 percent ahead of 2000, the studios have been slashing expenses in an attempt to boost their stock prices in a downward-spiraling economy. Producer deals continue to be cut, and few new scripts have been commissioned.
Worse, executives are getting the ax as soon as their movies under-perform, striking terror into them and their underlings.
Once upon a time, high-level studio execs would be in place for years, if not decades. Now the average run is two to three years. And marketing folks who used to be immune are among the first casualties. Last week, MGM’s distribution and marketing toppers, Larry Gleason and Gerry Rich, abruptly departed, to be replaced by former Sony marketing chief Bob Levin saving MGM at least one high-six-figure salary. That news came after MGM admitted that some of its films this year had been disappointments.
But there’s another reason for the short executive lifespans: new accounting rules mean that studios have to report individual movie losses much earlier than before meaning instant accountability, and an instant need for heads to roll.
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“Forrest Gump II” has taken a step closer to the big screen. Seven years after Paramount Pictures started working on a sequel in conjunction with author Winston Groom, sources say that Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth has been scripting a new version of the project.
Roth, who also wrote “The Insider,” won his Academy Award for “Gump,” the blockbuster that earned $679.7 million worldwide of which $329.7 million came in North America alone.
While a follow-up would be a major coup for Paramount, it’s still a long way from becoming a reality: Tom Hanks has yet to commit to the project, and the double Oscar winner has never said yes to a sequel so far.
While Michael Eisner is struggling to decide who’s going to run Walt Disney Studios (following studio chairman Peter Schneider’s exit last month), his former colleague and rival Barry Diller has his own headache to deal with.
Diller is trying to find a replacement for USA Films president Russell Schwartz, who left the company recently to become New Line Cinema’s marketing chief.
Among the favorite contenders to succeed Schwartz are Chris Pula, one of the most flamboyant execs in Hollywood; and, yes, MGM’s very own newly exiled Gerry Rich.
Contributing columnist Stephen Galloway can be reached at [email protected].
