More documents are coming to light in the wake of Sony’s massive data breach, including everything from James Franco and Seth Rogen’s salaries for The Interview ($6.5 million and $8.4 million, respectively) to Kevin Federline’s cameo fee ($5,000). And now Gawker has gotten their hot little hands on what they say appears to be a “raw dump of negative employee feedback,” and a large proportion of that dump seems to have been taken on Adam Sandler.
Here’s Gawker‘s excerpt, with their emphasis added:
Need to improve the creative staff in Motion Pictures. Seems like we just reboot old product instead of coming up with new ideas like the Hunger Games. We need new fresh ideas that can drive franchise product. Go out and hire the best.
Be more focussed and ruthless in directing our resources to businesses that will sustain the long term health of SPE – networks, broadcast TV shows, new movie franchises, digital distibution By the same token, stop or reduce support for areas that have no more value (Sandler movies, DVD)
There is a general “blah-ness” to the films we produce. Althought we manage to produce an innovative film once in awhile, Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films. Let’s raise the bar a little on the films we produce, and inspire employees that they are working on the next Social Network. That said, there’s a strange dichotomy of encouraging us to be fiscally responsible, but then upper management allows certain talent and filmmakers to bleed us dry with their outlandish requests for private jets, wardrobe and grooming stylists – and are surprised when they are asked to work more than 5 hours to promote their film.
In TV and Theatrical, I hope management looks closely at the money spent on development and term deals to ensure efficiency. There are a lot of term deal personnel as well as creative personnel, yet we only release a dozen or so Columbia Pictures a year, for example. And will we still be paying for Adam Sandler? Why?
It is commenable that SPE understands/supports the importance of risk-taking, particularly in how the we pick films to greenlight. However, the studio needs to change deal structure that has been in place with Happy Madison, as this arrangement has disproportionately benefitted Adam Sandler and his team, relative to SPE.
Perhaps it’s a generational thing, but I’ve been disappointed with the content of some of the films we’ve been producing lately. I don’t think people who know me would consider me a prude, but the boorish, least common demomonator slate strikes me as a waste of resource and reputation. “I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it`s reflecting life — toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging, all those things — and not tilted down to the gutter part of the time, into the troubled vistas of conflict.” Greer Garson 1990 I think that quote could be adapted to apply to the base elements of some of the films we produce.
In order to be the top studio, Sony needs to not release dark movies (i.e. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) around the holiday season. No one wants to see a film like Girl (which is a great film by the way) around the holiday season.
Are you aware that Men In Black 3 may gross $600M at the box office, and yet will lose money for SPE? Shouldn’t we question that strategy? Why are some studios making Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Twilight – and we are considering movies like Moneyball, Steve Jobs story, Captain Phillips Story, Evel Knievel story, etc. Are you aware that SPE only has 1 franchise – Spiderman. Yet, it took 5 years to generate a sequel? Spidey 3 was released in summer 2007, #4 in 2012. Don’t harry potters come out over 2-3 years? Are you aware that SPE has only 1 franchise – Spidey? Yet we waited 5 years after Spidey 3 (2007) to release #4? Have you read the SEC annual report? Disney will make $300M on Spidey merchandise this year alone. We won’t!
We do not seem to be doing new or original ideas anymore unless they come from term deal players. Remakes, sequels, and movies which are better off being E True Hollywood stories, should be left by the side of the road. Our development execs should focus on new fresh material, and not be permitted to simply remake another money.
Moving a major work force to foreign countries is taking job opportunities away from lots of employees at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Families are separated, people are forced to leave the country, and workers don’t have any hopes in their future with the company any more. It is sad to see that the company doesn’t care about us at all.
Stop making the same, safe, soul-less movies and TV shows. Enough with the re-makes and reboots. Breaking Bad and Community are just about the most artful and innovative gems we currently have
Meanwhile, Sony is working to find the culprits for the leak, which is said to be looking more and more like an inside job. If the offending employees were those that like Breaking Bad and hate reboots and Adam Sandler movies, that would really narrow it down to, uh… everyone on the internet. People were embarrassed about a movie where Drew Barrymore pukes onion soup in the trailer? My, what a revelation.
Seeing a complaint about being “saddled” with Sandler in the same paragraph as reference to “certain talent and filmmakers” bleeding Sony with “outlandish requests for private jets, wardrobe and grooming stylists,” you have to wonder if that was also about Sandler. Considering Sandler wears a baseball cap and sweatpants to go on TV, I can’t imagine any of the grooming money was spent on him. But I do like to imagine him flying around on a Happy Madison jet with all his high school and college buddies, Peter Dante railing coke off a tanning bed while Allen Covert gets paddled by a prostitute. If it turned out Sandler’s movies were actually just a way to scam elaborate perks out of gullible corporation, that would almost redeem them.