Universal Boss slams own 'sh1tty' movies

[Captaindemotion]

http://www.chud.com/73193/pres-ron-...the-big-names-no-and-more-potter-theme-parks/

And

http://www.movieline.com/2011/11/un...cowboys-aliens-land-of-the-lost-wo.php?page=1

In a remarkably candid discussion at the Savannah Film Festival, Universal Studios President Ron Meyer has talked about some of the less-than-stellar output from that company over the last few years, as well as the cancellation of high-profile projects. The quotes I've included come from both links and I've tried to match them up as closely as possible.

(question, regarding the cancellation of Guillermo Del Toro's Mountains of the Moon, Gore Verbinski's Lone Ranger and Ron Howard's Dark Tower movies) do you feel like the ever-inflating blockbuster budget has finally reached a breaking point, or do you feel like the economy has finally caught up to the big guys?

Meyer: “I think it’s a combination… Two of those films were ours. Dark Tower was ours, and Mountains of Madness was ours. It’s not unusual, we’ve done it many times. The difference is in today’s blogging world, everyone seems to know what everyone’s doing. So when it comes to big movies, we’ve said “no” to a lot, and put a lot of films in turnaround– some were good decisions, some were bad decision. That’s the nature of the business…

…I think the only one that’s found a home so far is Lone Ranger. They’ve cut the budget and everything, that was never a surprise. Disney was going to make a film with Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski, and I don’t think there was ever any question that was going to get made, they just had to find a way to make it for a better price. We looked at the economics of those two films –our two films– and it just didn’t make sense for us, for what we would have to put out for what we could make back. It didn’t feel secure enough for us, and that’s the reason we didn’t do it. They’re both good projects, they were just more expensive than made sense for us to spend.
If I thought that we could get a better return and everybody was willing to cut their gross, I wasn’t afraid of the price, I was just afraid of the return. I didn’t want to invest, you know, $200 million to not make enough to show that that was worth investing that money. The profits come in too slow for us. I hope they get made, for those guys’ sakes.””

He also went on to say that if Dark Tower was made as a HBO series, as has been mooted, it would be a much cheaper production

"Wolfman and Babe 2 are two of the shittiest movies we put out, but by the same token we made movies we believe in. We did United 93, which is one of the movies I’m most proud of. It wasn’t a big moneymaker, but it’s a film I believe every American should see and it showed you what people can do in the worst of times and how great the human spirit is and all that, so there are moments that can make up for all the junk that you make.”

Moving on to specific films, Meyer was asked specifically about Land of the Lost (“just crap”), Cowboys & Aliens (“it was a mediocre movie, and we all did a mediocre job with it”), Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (“…kind of a good movie, but none of you guys went!”) and finally Wolfman (“..awful. The director was wrong. Benicio stunk. It all stunk.”)

Wolfman producer Stratton Leopold emerged from his family-run ice cream shop across the street to confab with Meyer about the film’s legendary failings.
Leopold, amiably introducing himself: “I’m Stratton Leopold…”
Meyer, good naturedly: “It’s one of those movies, the moment I saw it I thought, ‘What have we all done here?’ That movie was crappy.”
Leopold: “I said the same thing before the reshoot. I said, ‘Why are we spending all of this? Let’s shoot two scenes to create some sympathy for the [hero] and that’s it,’ but…”
Meyer: “We all went wrong. It was one of those things… like I said, we make a lot of bad movies. That’s one we should have smelled out a long time ago. It was wrong. The script never got right…”
Leopold: “The cast -”
Meyer: “—was awful. The director was wrong. Benicio [del Toro] stunk. It all stunk.”

“Cowboys & Aliens didn’t deserve better. Land of the Lost didn’t deserve better. Scott Pilgrim did deserve better, but it just didn’t capture enough of the imaginations of people, and it was one of those things where it didn’t cost a lot so it wasn’t a big loss. Cowboys & Aliens was a big loss, and Land of the Lost was a huge loss. We misfired. We were wrong. We did it badly, and I think we’re all guilty of it. I have to take first responsibility because I’m part of it, but we all did a mediocre job and we paid the price for it. It happens. They’re talented people. Certainly you couldn’t have more talented people involved in Cowboys & Aliens, but it took, you know, ten smart and talented people to come up with a mediocre movie. It just happens.”

Whenasked about the place of prestige films in the Universal model, Meyer was very candid about awards-bait not being a big part of the studio’s vision.

“It’s great when it happens. But we did A Beautiful Mind and I don’t know that we’d do A Beautiful Mind again. That’s the sad part. It’s great to win awards and make films that you’re proud of and make money, but your first obligation is to make money and then worry about being proud of what you do.”

Interesting that he should on the one hand (rightly) boast about United 93 but then move on to say that the studio isn't thinking about awards first and foremost. Well, it's show business, I guess.

Meyer dropped a completely detail-less hint about future Harry Potter parks outside of Florida by responding simply, “yes,” to a question about having any such plans.

Finally, Meyer stated:

“We make a lot of shitty movies. Every one of them breaks my heart.”

And on that note... So what do you think? Not often we hear such candour (or indeed accuracy!) from TPTB (or anyone) in Hollywood.

 

[Brikar99]

Everyone makes shitty movies, and everyone makes good movies. -shrug-

 

[FPAlpha]

Really surprised at the openness of the interview and especially the position of the guy giving the interview.

If a movie is ripped to shreds it's usually internet message boards (unimportant) or actors/directors with a bone to pick (mildly interesting and at times entertaining) but the higher ups usually have nothing but praise for their products even if it is the worst movie since Ed Wood was allowed near cameras. Reason for this would be by admitting to a films failing they'd admit they made a mistake and that can't happen.

So big points for this openness

 

[Saga]

i liked the Wolfman remake and Cowboys & Aliens was decent. now Land of the Lost, yeah that did suck.

 

[AFEK ESLCAFE W]

I am glad he fessed up to THE TRUTH.

It doesn't matter when you have world class actors like Anthony Hopkins and Benicio del Toro grace the screen in lame CGI wolf getup. A polished turd is still a turd!

 

[Maurice]

Everyone makes shitty movies, and everyone makes good movies. -shrug-

Some people only make shitty movies.

It's difficult to judge a work in progress, but the nature of the film business has gotten so that the stakes are so high that once you get the project moving it's often next to impossible to manage to make the thing turn, and it's harder to cancel something you've already sunk a ton of money into.

The fact that Land of the Lost even got made really puzzles me, though, as any basic marketing research ought to have shown that the people who'd shell out money to see a film based on the title wouldn't want to see it made stupid the way it was, and that the name wasn't going to attract non-fans. Maybe they thought Will Ferrell+Dinosaurs was all they needed. Wrong.

 

[Ethros]

Cowboys & Aliens was pretty lame I agree. It's like they cast Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, and then thought that alone was enough. "Well we can promote it as Indiana Jones vs James Bond and that will do." Not bothering to actually make an interesting movie in the process.
Such a forgettable film


Wolfman, yeah, I saw it but god I barely remember it at all. Loved Scott Pilgrim though

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Interesting PR strategy - they're getting a lot of attention for this "amazingly candid interview." At the same time, they'll keep making shitty movies because some shitty movies do very well at the box office and nobody ever knows which shitty movies are the good shitty movies until they are released. So Universal loses nothing through this statement, but it's meaningless.

 

[Ethros]

Well Cowboys & Aliens isn't out on DVD yet... this probably isn't the best advertisement for it for those who didn't catch it in cinemas.

I doubt they'll be using his quote on the box anyway

 

[23skidoo]

Interesting that he should on the one hand (rightly) boast about United 93 but then move on to say that the studio isn't thinking about awards first and foremost. Well, it's show business, I guess.

I don't think it's an unfair comment, though. If they don't make money, they can't make the movies. Which means they need to make movies like Wolfman in order to make United 93.

Thing is quality has never been a 100% accurate predictor of popularity anyway. We all know that - just look at the garbage TV shows that hit the top of the ratings, or stuff like Jackass hitting the high points of the box office, while superior TV shows like Better Off Ted (to reference a thread I just started) or any number of high-quality movies tank. Wolfman may have been a bad movie, but it could still have been the top movie of the year if the public had liked it. Cowboys & Aliens will probably make its profit on Blu-ray, too - the idea of the box office (and specifically the American box office) being the be all and end all for gauging a film's success became outdated the day VHS videotape releases of films became affordable enough for people to buy their own copies of films they like, and people started to view tapes in lieu of buying tickets.

Alex

 

[Pseudo]

Everyone makes shitty movies, and everyone makes good movies. -shrug-

I haven't.