30 Rock & Yet Another Week of Win
Jenna: “You’ve got to lie to her. Coddle her. Protect her from the real world.”
Jack: “I get it. Treat her like The New York Times treats their readers!”
photo credit: (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / November 15, 2009)
Pre-Script: If the above photo of Rich Ross is not the quintessential combination of the words “Disney” and “Executive”, I don’t know what is.
So after studio head Dick Cook was suddenly fired a couple of months ago, I was was unclear about what was going to happen over at Walt Disney Pictures. The LATimes published a “first 50 days in office” sort of update the other day, and, to be totally honest, I’m almost less clear than before.
I want to like Rich Ross, Cook’s Disney replacement. As the article says,
Ross attacked the industry custom of spending $40 million on a TV advertising blitz two weeks before a film’s opening, rather than enlisting more targeted campaigns that harness social networks and the broader Web. And he’s raised again the touchy subject advanced by Iger that consumers are demanding that movies become available for home viewing sooner after release in theaters than has traditionally been the case.
As a consumer, content producer, and fan of The Walt Disney Company overall, that’s great. Home viewing earlier, blog sponsorships more frequent. He values brand. Disney always has, nothing to worry about. But then Joe Roth, former Disney head and producer on their upcoming ‘Alice in Wonderland’, brought up something worrisome:
“It’s brand over everything else,” said Roth, referring to movies that come with built-in, pre-sold concepts, such as sequels. It’s a strategy, he notes, that although designed to reduce risk is not without a downside. “What may get lost in the shuffle are non-branded original ideas that have no pre-awareness.”
Sorry, i’m goin to say that again.
“What may get lost in the shuffle are non-branded original ideas that have no pre-awareness.”
- the potential future of a company that has brought in over $680 million dollars and counting in the theatrical release of UP alone.
Look. Part of me has always wanted to work for Disney. Another part of me wants to create the next Disney. So I’m not sure what to think of the above, other than if Joe Roth (again, currently producing a non-original property) is right, moviegoing in terms of Disney is going to start sucking. And profits, Richie, will not suddenly start appearing.
Alas, there is some fresh air in the works. The Princess and the Frog is coming (based on a book but heavily changed), as is The Bear and the Bow, Newt, and more, and with them originality might be able to stay alive at Walt Disney for a little bit longer. I have high hopes that a successful venture into the digital world may open up an opportunity for the rebirth of labels like Miramax, but there may not be any reason to if rehashed properties start picking up.
Save us John Lasseter, you’re our only hope.
(article found via Tumblr’s ryking, quotes from an LA Times article by Claudia Eller and Dawn Chmielewski)
Louise Arbour: a colleague we have failed
On July 1, Arbour stepped down as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, an enormously prestigious and important international position.
The gratitude and praise which greeted her at the end of her term was shamefully muted. Arbour was a courageous champion of human rights, and a bold critic of the erosion of those basic tenets in our world.
She was never timid. She was never chained to a desk, was involved, hands on, outspoken, and challenging. She breathed life into the enormous portfolio that she was asked to take on.
Apparently she made mistakes. She warned Israel that it was not immune from human rights violations, and she criticized the U.S. bluntly and directly for its Guantanamo shame and detainee torture. She infuriated both nations, and was symbolically burned at the stake by critics who cruelly branded her anti-Semitic, and of course, anti-American.
The venomous attacks on her were over-the-top. They displayed an insecurity and cruelness by some unquestioning supporters of Israel and U.S. policy, who do not permit criticism.
