If the way the entertainment industry works seems baffling to you (it often seems baffling to me, and I cover it), it's really worth reading a story that came out this week in the...
| |  | | | | Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics | | | | | | HDirector J.J. Abrams arrives at American Film Institute's 44th Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute to John Williams at Dolby Theatre last year in Hollywood. (Mike Windle/Getty Images for Turner) | If the way the entertainment industry works seems baffling to you (it often seems baffling to me, and I cover it), it’s really worth reading a story that came out this week in the Hollywood Reporter. The piece, by Kim Masters, looks at the business implications of J.J. Abrams’s decision to come on to write and direct “Star Wars: Episode IX,” after Colin Trevorrow was fired by Lucasfilm. The change in helmers was just one of several that the “Star Wars” universe has gone through this year, and it suggested that Lucasfilm was attempting to maintain fairly careful control of the franchise, and that Kathleen Kennedy had decided that she had less tolerance than she expected for the wunderkinds she had hired both for “Episode IX” and the stand-alone Han Solo movie. But it turns out that the move wasn’t revealing just for Lucasfilm. As Masters explains, it shows how much leverage Abrams has: He has a deal with Paramount, a rival studio, worth $10 million a year when all the expenses are factored in, and he put off making another move for Paramount to direct another “Star Wars” movie. I know that sounds like a lot of inside baseball. But the whole thing is a fascinating look at how risk-averse the entertainment industry is. “Star Wars” is such a big, valuable property that the people who steward it are uncomfortable taking any risks, even if that means the movies that result are a little bland. And hitmakers such as Abrams are so rare that Paramount is willing to let him blow them off for a couple of years, at a cost of $10 million a year, just to ensure that eventually he’ll come back and make another blockbuster for it. All of these are signs of an incredibly conservative business. Whenever you look at a frustrating development in the entertainment industry, whether it’s a smart, innovative director fired from a blockbuster, 10 action movies that look and feel exactly alike or stagnant numbers of women and people of color in the business, it’s worth remembering this fundamental timidity behind everything else. Hollywood makes big spectacles, but it’s preoccupied with numbers in a way that makes the industry itself feel crabbed rather than exuberant. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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