March 2011 – OnMedea

March 31, 2011October 13, 2011

Mob Wives – The Future Of Media Is Here!

UPDATE: Lynda Milito, the widow of murdered Gambino capo Louie Milito and author of the Cosa Nostra tell-all “Mafia Wife: My Story of Love, Murder and Madness,” has hit producers of the all-in-the-crime-family reality series with a cease-and-desist letter.

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Finally, thanks to Ben Silverman and Harvey Weinstein, the future of media is clear.

I believe “Mob Wives” has proven to be their finest hour and is, most likely, their legacy. Congratulations guys.

(UPDATE SIDE NOTE: Don’t worry about that little ‘cease-and-desist’ thing – I think there are quite a few people on “Mob Wives” that can take care of that problem… if you know what I mean.)

I certainly hope as the show goes on you guys will order a step up in the violence. We all want more real life Mafia Hits and a lot of gratuitous violence (to accompany all that built in product placement that Electus will bring to the project).

I think I know why Ben was brought in by Harvey to help produce. If, for whatever crazy reason, this show gets canceled, I can imagine how the conversation between Harvey and Ben will go:

Harvey (on the phone): Hey Ben!

Ben (Eurotrash music thumps in the background): Huh?!

Harvey: I got a call from VH1, “Mob Wives” is canceled – I would like you to tell the “Mob Wives” in person.

Ben: We can’t cancel “Mob Wives” – their husbands are violent criminals, they’ll come after us. They need that $20,000 a week we pay them for money laundering.

Harvey: It’s over, Ben. This was your dumb idea. You tell them.

Ben: It wasn’t my–

Harvey: Shut up, Ben. Do it! And give me Barry Diller’s number, I need to pay the light bill.

Five minutes later, Ben makes a call:

Ricky Van Veen: Hee hee heeee!! Ah-oo-gah! You’ve got Rickaaaiiiee–!!

Ben: Cut the shit, Ricky. I need you to do me a favor. You know that show “Mob Wives” – it’s canceled. There’s a meat locker downtown where we have our production meetings, go down and tell them the show is toast.

Ricky Van Veen: No problema, hip master B!
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At least, I THINK that’s how it would go.

I look forward to a further expansion of the “Mob Wives” brand and would love to see more wives of violent people. It’s just great television.

Maybe “Serial Killer Wives”, “Terrorist Wives”, “Dentist Wives” – it’s just an endless brand and really plays into Ben Silverman’s vision of the future of media.

Ben, dude, you are hitting on all cylinders.

Jill Kennedy – OnMedea

March 31, 2011April 11, 2011

DreamWorks Animation – What’s The Point?

I certainly hope Jeffrey Katzenberg is actively trying to sell the company. I mean, for a guy like him, I just don’t get why he does it.

For most people, it would be a great gig: Produce two high quality (some at Pixar would say average quality) animated movies a year for ever and ever and ever. But Jeffrey Katzenberg isn’t ‘most people’. He’s a guy that wanted to build an empire and has apparently stopped trying to do that. I can’t imagine he’s suddenly content with what he has.

When DreamWorks was formed in 1994, I was all for it. To build a media empire from scratch is the kind of ambition that Hollywood hadn’t seen in decades (and probably won’t be seen again). But if anyone could do it, it would be Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen – SKG. But they couldn’t stomach the hard times.

They didn’t have the guts of a Khan Manka or a Walt Disney who were willing to mortgage everything to keep their dreams afloat. SKG used mostly other people’s money – not their houses or art collections – and the other people started getting nervous. SKG decided to remain rich and refined the art of risk management.

And I’m sure they’ve all had very happy lives even without a media empire.

But I think it’s time for DreamWorks to finally exit the stage. It’s going to happen sooner or later. Just do it now. Why go through the aggravation of further stockholder meetings and quarterly reports to Wall Street.

Right, Mr. Katzenberg?

Just sell (probably for a few billion), if you can, at a decent return to shareholders, set up an office on one of the studio lots and reminisce about the old days and how things might have turned out different if you’d been a little crazier.

Nearly all the movies DreamWorks Animation has produced and will produce have been and will most likely be solid hits worldwide that any film studio would love to add to their library/event film slate. It’s a pretty simple formula – write average script, hire stars as voices, animate, market, distribute and make about $500 million worldwide (with only the occasional disappointment of something like “Flushed Away”). Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

A big studio purchase of DWA fits perfectly into Hollywood’s current mindset of accurately predicting financial results and avoiding any kind of risk.

Lucky are we to get to pay for and sit through the movies that reflect this strategy.

Jill Kennedy – OnMedea

March 29, 2011

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March 5, 2011April 6, 2011

CBS Films – R.I.P. – Beastly Update

UPDATE: The original CBS Films R.I.P. post below was written on January 25, 2010, right after “Extraordinary Measures” starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser flopped.

The latest CBS Films release to flop is “Beastly” starring actors who didn’t get cast in “Twilight”. This modern take on “Beauty and the Beast” (one of an endless stream of upcoming Fairy Tale Movies) had an opening weekend of about $10 million. While this one is not a complete disaster like the previous releases, and may only lose a couple of million, it won’t, by any means, be able to save the life of the division.

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CBS Films – R.I.P. (January 25, 2010)

I’m actually surprised there isn’t more inside media coverage of the disastrous debut of CBS Films’ first release – “Extraordinary Measures” starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser ($6.0 million opening weekend from over 2,500 theaters – finishing 8th behind “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” in its 5th week).

I realize the Jay/Dave/Conan/Jeff Zucker drama is a much sexier story but CBS Films’ failure is another example of the cocksure executive that believes he can do no wrong.

Les Moonves, former bit player on “The Six Million Dollar Man” turned powerful CBS media mogul, is the exec on the hot seat this time. (Personally, I can imagine Jeff Zucker pushing this story just to get his name out of the press.)

Four years ago, when Sumner Redstone was completing the disastrous Viacom / CBS split, Mr. Moonves wanted Paramount Pictures so badly that when he didn’t get it, he decided he could create a new Paramount Pictures from scratch – CBS Films.

It’s a cold Monday morning at Black Rock today.

I’m assuming there will be two maybe three more failed releases in 2010 and then a decision to “refocus CBS’ energies on our booming cable network distribution platforms and new media” (translation: the coming end of CBS Films – probably at the end of 2011).

The R.I.P. tombstone above is generous in giving CBS Films a four year lifespan (2007-2011) considering the first release wasn’t until this past weekend – but I think three years of staffing up and development does count at being in business.

Another possibility for CBS would be to acquire Summit Entertainment. At least then they would have two guaranteed hits in the pipeline – the final two “Twilight” movies.

Or… my personal dream plan, somehow have CBS either acquire or wrest away Paramount from Viacom. News Corporation then buys Viacom’s cable channels (assets they sorely need). And Viacom shuts down thus getting us one step closer to saying bye-bye to Sumner Redstone forever.

Regardless of what happens, CBS’ old media experiment is not going to make it.

Jill Kennedy – OnMedea