What Does Gail Berman Really Represent?
Seems to me that everyone is getting the Gail Berman to Paramount story all wrong when they worry that Donald De Line is the target. I would suggest that it should make Rob Friedman a lot more nervous than De Line.
Tom Freston is no idiot and he knows that Gail Berman is not a film production executive. But the evolution of The New Paramount is one of integration… as all the Split Viacom stories have pointed out, Freston and the feature side is keeping the key cable nets. This is to make the machine run an a truly synergistic machine. And as most people who have worked in the Paramount/MTV/Nickelodeon nexus will tell you, the leaders of the TV nets are angry and hurt and ready to get payback as their power increases. Who will put a stop to that?
Gail Berman.
In his first few months, Freston has shown, by both action and inaction (aka not firing everyone), that he is interested in letting people who can do their jobs do their jobs without micromanaging. He has also shown that he is very interested in macromanaging.
Someone has to be the point person in the integration of all the divisions. Brad Grey will be busy, he hopes, making movies. Dealing with the personalities of all the nets is a full time job… too much for one leader, especially as the effort is to break new ground.
Who is the odd man out? It’s not De Line, though that may happen in the future. It’s Rob Friedman, whose job responsibilities have grown wide and far and is, you might notice, never mentioned by anyone regarding Paramount these days. With Grey and Berman, there is not an “appropriate” level for Friedman to land. And there is a real chance that his exit has already been determined, preceding the determination that they needed to go find someone of Berman’s level to lieutenant Grey.
Could Friedman be on his way to Disney as the hands on chief of the New Miramax? The deafening silence around that job lately… a job that Disney has to be itching to move forward with… suggests that someone might already be on tap. Rob Friedman would not be the expected choice, but as I have written before, the Mouse House seems to be looking to make New Miramax into a New Line/Searchlight combo, ultimately supplanting the slowed down Touchstone label, and not into an arthouse division.
And just worth noting, there seem to be three high end exec jobs hiring inside at least two studios as we speak. One is definitely at one of the studios in this story. Another is a bit more of a mystery. But Paramount, Fox and New Miramax are all in play in a lot of roles in town…
I personally believe that the Paramount team in place has the summer to prove themselves. But the Gail Berman move suggests that someone jumped or was pushed before that period came up. And the only job out there that high on the food chain, although many feel it is a fool’s errand, is the New Miramax role, which would be an interesting choice for a studio guy who has not had the chance to really lead the creative side. As for the rest of Paramount, $175 million for The Longest Yard and $8 million for Mad Hot Ballroom are targets that could change a lot of lives, whether met or not. (Clarification: These are rough domestic box office targets that represent job-saving success in each case, not the cost of each film.)
But hey… I’m just a guy blogging in Bermuda… what do I know?
David is wrong the longest yard cost 85 million not 175 million, the War of the worlds cost 200
Hey
You don’t know
1- Mark Gill left Warner INdependent
2- Deluca met with Cook and Nina about New Miramax and was offered green light ability
3- Deline was fired today
hey dooley we all missed ya. did the psych center let out early today?
gross targets, not costs
If that’s true, Spam, I guess you were wrong about the De Luca thing when I wrote it the last time… or is it this time… or is it…
He’ll never admit he was wrong about that.
They offered Mike Miramax but reporting to Nina.
He said no.
Then they offered it again with greenlight.
He met with them out of courtesy.
He is still gonna stay at Sony.
So I guess I wasn’t wrong.
Sorry, David, that you have to join the tards like Bob- just because you don’t have the information doesn’t make you MUCH less of a man.
dooley is the janitor in delucas building. he goes thru the garbage
I see Spammer with his ear stuck to door. Kinda like Leno when he went after the Tonight Show. You can come out of the closet now, Spammer.
S.D. – You have it wrong. But thanks for the muscularity.
I have WHAT wrong?
They did offer it to Mike
With Greenlight
and he met
and declined
so what do I have wrong exactly?
Ahhh the arrogance of ignorance.
u use the name spam dooley and u talk about ignorance and arrogance? u say u have inside info and u know. then say who u are. u don’t see dave running and hiding.
A loser called “bicycle bob” has told me (in very bad writing) to use my real name.
Uh huh.
I am whoever you say I am
If I wasn’t, then why would I say I am?
It is not arrogance to accept the fact that I know more than you.
this is my real name and i don’t profess to have inside sources and knowledge of the comings and goings of exec’s. u think ur better than dave. then start a website. lets go “spam”. maybe u should learn grammar first, big guy.
Wait a minute: You mean to say you have an American Express card that has “Bicycle Bob” listed as name of customer?
Why you so bitter at David Poland? You have to try and correct his every item, Mr Spam.
yea its on my drivers license and military id too
The Spammer must be Jeffrey Wells. He’s in constant competition with Dave.
I’m trying to imagine Bob in his combat fatigues, with a nametag badge that reads: “Bicycle Bob.” I’ll bet THAT would inspire shock and awe.
I am not Jeff Wells, although he is a great man.
I do not correct Dave always, only when he is wrong.
I think Dave rocks, actually.
Bicycle Bob- you HAVE a military id and yet you are here when there are still babies to kill in Asian countries? I do not understand?
I have no problem being corrected. But I also have it on excellent authority that M.D. was never offered the green light…
And for the record, I don’t really think that Jeff & I are working the same room anymore… not for a while. I don’t mean that as a judgment, but as a functional fact. I wish him well in all of his future endeavors.
Dave
I am trying to help you….
MD passed
They said why
He said no green light
They offered it
He said no any ways
This happened, whether Klady told you it did or not
I am an idiot..
Yep.
😉
Do you really think Klady tells me anything?