The magic continues in rainy LA today, where last night’s small dinner gathering has suddenly translated into today’s positive Covid test. Here’s hoping Santa still sneaks into the scary attic where you’ve been banished for a 10-day isolation. Stay safe everyone!
Anyway, we’re back again, this time with the third batch of showbiz savants giving their absolutely confidential, entre nous assessments of where Hollywood stands as we stumble out of the wreckage of 2021 (not to be confused with the feels-like-coming wreckage of 2022).
Today we have a cluster of writers chiming in on the tumultuous days.
They don’t all agree with me, or with each other (see below on Chapellequiddick), but they all had provocative and interesting perspectives on the state of things that I wanted to take this holiday moment to share in full with The Ankler community.
Without further adieu, curl up with your box of Kleenex and enjoy Batch 3!
Writer 1: TV/Film Writer/Producer
How did 2021 go for Hollywood?
It seems obvious to say it was a bizarre transitional year. It’s definitely one of the first times in my career that I really started to wonder where the business actually was going. It definitely felt to me like, are people going to get their shit together or are they going to let the theatrical experience in the U.S. just fall apart? So that was pretty unsettling. And I think the HBO Max move — I found that extremely unsettling. The idea of releasing Dune and The Matrix on streaming, seemed to me: well then what’s the point of making movies?
Will movies come back?
Here’s what’s so confusing, There were a number of successful movies this year in spite of everything, and then you look at Spider-Man and you say, this is too good a business. Someone’s got to keep this going. I tend to agree that a lot of these companies are driven by stock price so their moves don’t make sense to us because they don’t follow anything other than stock price. But in terms of a viable business? My kids want to go see Spider-Man. They say, ‘all my friends are talking about it.’ So I think that shows there’s clearly an enormous business and Disney dominates it. It seems crazy that people would just let a business that’s that potentially profitable die away.
Between the disruption and the flood of cash streaming has brought, is this the best of times or worst of times?
I definitely don’t think its the best of times because even the places that had a reputation for just giving people money to do whatever they want don’t do that anymore. It seems pretty clear that Netflix is no longer saying, ‘here we’ll give you the money to do anything’. They’re canceling stuff quickly and so the idea that this is the ultimate creative environment doesn’t seem accurate. But then again, there’s a lot of money flying around. There’s a lot more writers working so it may not be as good for every writer, but it’s very good for up-and-coming writers.
When companies are driven by stock price, and stock price is driven by streaming statistics which have very little to do with success, that’s not a good formula. And its not just because it doesn’t lead to good creative work. There’ve been plenty of people, maybe from much pretty far back, looking to churn out a sure thing and not be so concerned about art. That’s the nature of the film and television business because it’s collaborative and it’s expensive. But it’s certainly something else entirely when you have whole studios sacrificing their whole slate of movies for an ephemeral streaming stock bump. It’s hard to look at that and feel good about it.
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