Oscar Moguls: Rich Ross (Disney)
Deadline is running an interesting series of interviews with the heads of production at major Hollywood Studios. The focus of the Q&A’s is on the current Oscars race, but I’ve drilled down into each conversation to highlight information relevant to screenwriters.
As I have said before, it’s important for writers to learn as much as possible about studio execs and producers — how their minds operate.
This interview is with Rich Ross who was named Chairman of Walt Disney Studios in October 2009. Their line-up of Oscar nominated movies in 2011:
12 Nominations: 5 Toy Story 3, 3 Alice In Wonderland, 1 The Tempest, 1 Tangled, 1 Day & Night
DEADLINE: Let’s talk about Toy Story 3. You and Jeffrey Katzenberg went for not just the animation nomination but also Best Picture. You got it, he didn’t. That must have felt good.
ROSS: The feeling that I had then and certainly the feeling I have now is people are judging movies as movies. We don’t have the greatest western or the greatest action movie. Animation is just a way the story telling is done, not anything different. If it’s not the year we win, at least it opens a conversation. Everywhere I go people say, ‘You know what? Toy Story 3 was my favorite movie.’ It’s been a certainly interesting journey for me to watch, I guess. You know The Social Network has gone up and down, and The King’s Speech has gone up and down. But I know people are saying, ‘Well, I’m not sure why any of these others are presumptive favorites.’
DEADLINE: Should major studios be in the business of making Oscar movies? Or do they owe it to their shareholders to make movies that make a lot of money? Are the two mutually exclusive.
ROSS:I think obviously the goal that we all have is to make high quality movies. I think the days when your commercial films were lower quality have gone because the consumer is aggressive with the choices they have. So that’s why I guess when I look at this year and I see big studio films are actually being recognized, then I do believe it’s part of our job is to win Oscars. I think consumers are voting that way, and I think the Academy hopefully will vote that way, too.
Key takeaway:
High quality movies: “I think obviously the goal that we all have is to make high quality movies. I think the days when your commercial films were lower quality have gone.” Actually I don’t know how to interpret this. Hollywood has almost always operated with a bifurcated approach to making movies: Produce genre / popcorn movies which may be good, but quality insofar as story is concerned is definitely not the first priority, and prestige / award type movies which do, in fact, aspire to be good, even great. I mean in 2009, Disney had Up, which was nominated for multiple Academy Awards and is one of the best Pixar movies ever, and they had Old Dogs which is what it is — an attempt at a popcorn film. For a studio head to come right out and say all their movies have to be “high quality” is rather stunning, isn’t it?
Does this mean Disney will be getting out of the genre movie market? I highly doubt it. Does it mean they will put the same amount of effort into story development for popcorn movies as they do for more prestigious films? Hard to imagine. Does it mean they will be even choosier in the projects they acquire in the first place, looking only to get in bed with high quality stories to begin with?
Inquiring minds want to know!
This is not the first time I’ve read something about Disney’s new found enthusiasm for quality movies. There was an item within the last two weeks about them embracing lower-budget high quality films (I can’t find the article) as part of their overall slate.
If this is an actual trend in the movie business, what does it mean for writers? If they truly do care about only making quality movies, that would suggest they may producer fewer movies as — logically speaking — there are less of those type of projects around.
Unless… you write them.
What do you think? Do you aspire to write high quality movies already? Or are you attempting to write and sell a genre piece? How do you interpret Ross’ words?
For more of the Deadline.com article, go here.
Tomorrow: Harvey Weinstein (Weinstein Company).