EXECUTIVE INDECISION

How Movie Studios and Networks Get It So Wrong…

So last night I went to see Knight and Day, the Tom Cruise / Cameron Diaz movie that’s been endlessly publicized on TV over the last few weeks in ever more bizarre ways.

Unfortunately it’s really not a great movie. It should be a fun filled romp but the characterizations are zero, the action scenes are deadening and the plot is wafer thin. It’s basically just Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise playing themselves – i.e. movie stars. But above all else it felt very, very old fashioned. This movie could have been made in 2000 or 1990 (in fact it kind of was actually – remember the Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson movie Bird On A Wire).

Now in case you haven’t been keeping score, this summer is rapidly turning into a washout for the movie studios. There are still hits. Toy Story 3 is making tones of cash. The Karate Kid remake is the summer’s big sleeper. Iron Man 3 and Shrek 2 have done well. And Adam Sandler’s latest fart gag epic, Grown Ups is on its way to an easy $100 million.

But this year the string of box office blowouts is longer than ever. Sure every summer has a couple of high profile flops – but this year the list is stunning…. Killers, Get Him To The Greek, Sex and the City 2, The A Team, Prince of Persia – none will reach the magical $100 million mark. Robin Hood did – just – but cost $200 million to make (even with good overseas grosses – well you do the math!) Splice and Jonah Hex are major disasters – with the latter struggling to reach even $15 million. And Knight and Day will likely end up in just the $80 million range. Not good.

It’s been reported that movie studios are in a state of panic – not knowing what to do next and unable to understand why the tactics of old are no longer working! It used to be the case that if you threw money at a movie, cast a big old movie star and promoted like crazy you were guaranteed a smash. But not anymore.

In many ways the fate of the big movie studios reminds me of the big TV networks – ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC and The CW. They too are making the same classic mistakes – and watching their market share go elsewhere. In the case of the TV industry the audiences are going to cable. Look at this summer for example. The Gates, Scoundrels Happy Town and Persons Unknown – all pricey dramas – are struggling. Meanwhile Hot In Cleveland, True Blood, Deadliest Catch and Pawnstars are getting better ratings – on cable – and at a fraction of the cost! Once again – what used to work in the past is no longer working. The industry has changed. But the mindset of the people making the decisions hasn’t…

So here’s my suggestion. Why don’t all the movie studio execs get together with all the network TV execs, gather in a room, and contemplate the following tidbits of advice from yours truly… I’ll take my 10% down the line…

• STOP RELYING ON STARS. Simply put, when it comes to the movies there are hardly any bankable stars left. It’s Angelina Jolie, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler, Sandra Bullock and Johnny Depp. That’s pretty much it – and all of the above have genre limitations.

Yet studios still believe we’re living in the ‘star’ era – throwing $7.5 million to Taylor Lautner for a movie when the kid hasn’t opened anything beyond Twilight movies (check out the grosses for Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison’s non-vampire movies for proof). Or thinking Cameron Diaz or Megan Fox can open movies. They can’t.

It’s the same thing on TV. Christian Slater can’t launch a TV show as The Forgotten and My Own Worst Enemy have proven (I like Slater – but his TV roles to date are just not worthy of his talent). LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell didn’t make NCIS: LA a hit – the franchise sold itself (not to diminish LL – who is one of the nicest people in Hollywood I’ve met!). Geena Davis couldn’t get Commander In Chief to a second season. And just recently Matthew Broderick saw his comedy pilot Beach Lane cancelled. The reality – names mean little on the small screen and increasingly less on the big screen because…

• IT’S ALL ABOUT THE IDEA. You think Lost was a hit because of Matthew Fox? Of course not – it was the freshness of the show that made everyone’s favorite island mystery such a smash. Ditto 24. And Desperate Housewives. And True Blood. And Mad Men. And Dexter… all fresh concepts, well made with strong writing, directing and producing.

It’s the same at the movies. Audiences can smell a tired old star concept like Knight and Day a mile off. Ditto a lumbering action movie like The Prince of Persia. Or an unnecessary sequel like Shrek 3. They want something new and fresh… they want to be surprised. And very few of this summer’s movies feel surprising.

The one that is? Inception. Yep the Leonardo DiCaprio movie has the best buzz of the summer and looks set to be an absolute smash. It has a star sure, and a quality director. But most of all it looks good. It looks different. And we don’t know very much about it… how refreshing.

• QUALITY SELLS. Well duh! Here’s an out of the box idea – how about making stuff that’s actually kind of good – on both the big and small screens. The reason audiences are flocking to Toy Story 3? It’s got 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and is universally beloved. Ditto the surprisingly solid reviews for The Karate Kid. But movies like Killers and Jonah Hex scream ‘let’s wait for the DVD’. If that.

It’s the same on the small screen – Mad Men and True Blood do so well because both are terrific series – well written, well acted, smart and entertaining. Sure there’s always exceptions to the rules – small gems that get lost in the shuffle. I wish more people had watched Damages so we could get a fourth season of Glenn Close as Patty Hewes. But I’ll settle for cult-hit status.

The problem is that most Hollywood and network execs don’t know how to make great TV. They don’t come from a producing or program making background and as I constantly argue on Remote Patrolled – if you’ve not been in the field, getting your hands dirty, you really don’t know what you’re talking about (and I don’t just mean turning up on set for an hour, watching a monitor, playing with your blackberry and surfing craft services) Ever wondered how The A Team movie ended up with 11 screenwriters… here’s how!

• RETHINK THE REMAKES. My biggest cinematic disappointment of the year so far? The recent ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ remake which completely missed the point of what made Freddy so good in the first place and just felt like an R-rated version of Supernatural or Ghost Whisperer – pretty people wandering down dark corridors and screaming a lot.

There’s no point doing a remake if you don’t intrinsically understand what made the original great in the first. The A Team failed because kids just didn’t care about it (remember it was the kids who made the original a smash in the first place). Whereas The Karate Kid took the original movie and spun it in a new way – African American star + China + Jackie Chan + good movie = hit.

It’s the same on TV. NBC spent a fortune remaking Knight Rider, Bionic Woman and Gladiators. But let’s be honest – none of these shows were all that great in the first place – and the remakes didn’t make them any better. Ditto The CW’s Melrose Place which forgot the outrageousness for which the show was famous – and instead opted for the Season 1 dullness that almost killed the series first time around. Even the new V and 90210 are only now finding their feet. A name alone doesn’t sell a series – or a movie! You have to take it to another level…

• STOP RUSHING. And finally – spend less time hurrying to get your movies and TV shows out there – and more time getting them right! Every week we hear about a new movie that’s been green-lit and has an announced release date – even before the movie is really ready to roll. It’s insanity. Then studios end up rushing to meet an arbitrary release date when all the crucial key elements – script, script and script – just aren’t ready!

It’s the same in the TV world – with networks desperate to get their shows on air for the crucial fall scene – and then watching as the final product flat-lines with critics and audiences alike. The aforementioned ‘V’ could and should be a top 10 show – but a messy start, a 3-month hiatus and changing show-runners proved the show wasn’t ready to launch in the first place. Why on earth did ABC rush it – instead of getting the show in order and getting it ready for a spring launch? They had an okay first episode and nothing else…

So those are just a few of my thoughts. But what do you think? Have you been going to the movies much this summer? Are the movies good enough? And how would you change both the film and TV industries – I’d love to hear your thoughts…