Well, not free free, but still: Hollywood superproducer Joel Silver is looking for a new studio home for his Silver Pictures operation, with which Warner Bros. will officially part ways at the end of 2012. The separation marks the close of a 25-year relationship that yielded blockbuster franchises from Lethal Weapon to The Matrix to Sherlock Holmes — and more than a few shouting matches, outstanding loans and other troubling legacies.
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As someone who sparked to Paul Feig's Bridesmaids back when it first played SXSW last year in no small part because it gave Kristen Wiig the showcase she deserved, it's hard to imagine a Bridesmaids sequel going forward without the SNL star. But with Wiig reportedly reluctant to reprise her role for another go-round with the Universal hit that seems a very good possibility, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And so I ask, fellow Bridesmaids fans: Who wants a Bridesmaids 2 without Wiig?
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It was a week for real talk 'round these parts at Movieline HQ, with everything from Halloween to Lindsay Lohan's latest legal woes bringing everyone to terms with the truth. Like the fact that no matter how many Halloweens you live through, you'll never match Heidi Klum's level of kookiness. Then the awful truth about the monster flop The Wolfman broke, and America's favorite sparkly vampire dropped some cineaste science all over the Twilight crowd. What's going on around here?
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I was traveling all day as Movieline's report from the Savannah Film Festival picked up steam around the blogosphere, but early on it was clear that two polar-opposite reactions were building in response to Universal Studios chief Ron Meyer's comments about his studio's well-publicized (at least, outside of the studio) recent flops. Either you love his blazing moment of candor -- because we've all thought the same about most, if not all, of the woeful Universal films mentioned -- or you despise what he stands for. But Meyer is a businessman, the President and COO of one of the largest movie studios and theme park conglomerates in the business. Should more filmmakers and studio heads follow suit?
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Of the major Universal Studios flops in recent memory, a handful stand out for their massive, and high profile, box office failings: 2009's Sid and Marty Krofft adaptation Land of the Lost, 2010's abysmal Wolfman and geek cult film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and this summer's megawatt disappointment Cowboys & Aliens. No one, it seems, is more painfully aware of Universal's missteps than longtime studio head Ron Meyer, who candidly addressed his recent Tower Heist VOD experiment, revisited his rise through the ranks to the top of the Universal chain, and admitted Wednesday in Savannah that some mediocre movies deserve their fate: "We make a lot of shitty movies. Every one of them breaks my heart."
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