According to LA Weekly's Nikki Finke, Warner Bros. studios will no longer be producing movies with female leads. apparently due to the underperformance of The Brave One and Invasion.
Now, I haven't seen either of those movies. I avoided Invasion because of the behind-the scenes, multiple-director brouhaha: I figured the best it could be with that many cooks peeing in the broth* was a wait-for DVD screening. As for The Brave One? That's just fallen victim to me not seeing as many movies as I'd like to see anymore. It and 3:10 to Yuma are high on my list, honest, but I don't know if I'll get to them while they're still in theaters.
But all that's beside the point, innit? What it really comes down to is that this is an extremely, almost comically shortsighted decision by WB head Jeffrey Robinov, that will earn WB studios a lot of ill will and make them exactly zero dollars. I am possibly the outsideiest of Hollywood Outsiders, but even I can tell you how this will play out:
- A lot of blog posts and opinion columns get written, talking about what a stupid decision this is. Some of them call for a boycott.
- A WB movie underperforms. Speculators wonder if the boycott is having any effect. (It won't have a noticeable one, but that won't stop people from wondering.) No big deal. Robinov keeps his job.
- WB continues to make movies, passing up scripts with female leads.
- One of those films passed up under the Robinov directive goes on to make crazy bank for another studio.
- Robinov rescinds the directive, but the damage to his career, and WB's reputation, is done. He leaves with scads of money...but he leaves.
- The next guy (and yeah, it'll still likely be a guy) picks up the pieces.
I could be completely off base here. But boycott or no boycott, I think what'll bring Robinov down is success of a property that he could've had, if only he weren't a sexist moron.
Here's hoping it comes soon.
Rob
*Am I mixing metaphors? So be it.
