Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Disney Head Iced

This has to be the most Hollywood of Hollywood business stories ever: Disney Fires Film Production President - Los Angeles Times: "Jacobson, 40, one of Hollywood's most respected movie executives, was fired Monday morning by her boss, studio Chairman Dick Cook, when she called him from the hospital room where her partner was about to deliver their third child. Despite the record-breaking performance of Disney's current release, 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,' she was hearing rumors and wanted reassurance that her job was safe. It wasn't. Cook told Jacobson who had two years to go on her three-year contract that Oren Aviv, the studio's marketing chief, was replacing her as president of production."

4 comments:

Steve said...

Jacobson had some big negatives, which Pirates couldn't fix.

"The Wild" a major computer graphics animated flick flopped big time. A for girls drama "Stick It" also flopped at supersonic speed. (Note to Hollywood, as a father of a 10-year old girl, I am not taking her to any movie that has the words stick and it in the title--What were you thinking?).

I thnik that Jerry Bruckheimer not Jacobson was more the reason for Pirates II success. Then also consider that the "The Village" flopped too. Losing M. Night Shyamalan was probably not the final straw for Disney, but the fact that despite all the positive press about Jacobson Disney could have thrown darts at a list of movie proposals and done as well as Jacobson did.

Diligent Blogger said...

Picking hits in Hollywood has always been problematic. Executives seem to have winning and losing streaks. Disney made his money by making and distributing high quality cartoons with legs spanning generations, that helped him sell tickets to his amusement park. My question to Eisner is where's the Nemo submarine ride?
Disney also made a lot of fun and low budget kid fare movies, often featuring animals and with a cast of faded, but accomplished stars. The Flubber movies alone made millions on modest outlays.
Ms. Jacobson's biography on the Disney site, since pulled, states: "She has been with the studio since February of 1998, where she supervised production of THE SIXTH SENSE and REMEMBER THE TITANS, as well as PEARL HARBOR and THE PRINCESS DIARIES." Personally I liked "Hidlago" and "Hitchhiker's Guide," but found "Royal Tennebaums" a bit too quirky. I stayed away from "Life Aquatic" for that reason. As for Shyamalan, he essentially makes good "Outer Limits" or "X-File" episodes. The "Village," too long, and was not worth the $60 million production and $44 million publicity budgets, let alone a $9 movie ticket.

Steve said...

Actually the work on the Nemo submarine ride is in progress. See: http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al071106b.htm

Scroll down for photos.

Steve said...

Man was Jacobson right to walk away from M. Night Shyamalan.

Lady in the Water;
This week's take: $835,426
Grand total take: $40,839,528;
In its 4th Week

As the old saying goes this thing would still stink even if it was on ice.