Warner Bros. Kibosh On Women Lead Actors In Films

[villager]

By Mary McSweeney Oct 9, 2007, 0:15 GMT

Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily reports from three credible sources that Warner Bros. Pictures president president Jeff Robinov has declared that the studio is "no longer doing movies with women in the lead".

Box Office "tale of the tape" is the reason behind the studio's new outlook.

Warners biggest hits this year have been male-leads, ("300," "Ocean's 13") but the films with women, especially the Jodie Foster starring "The Brave One", plus "In the Land of Women," "License to Wed," "Lucky You," "Music and Lyrics," "Nancy Drew," and "No Reservations," have all bombed on some level.

The biggest female lead disappointment was the expensive Nicole Kidman thriller "The Invasion."

Legal fem-eagle Gloria Allred responded with the following very true reasoning: "If that's what he said, when movies with men as the lead fail, no one says we'll stop making movies with men in the lead."

Robinov is feeling the heat from many people, and examples of female-lead action films such as, "Charlie's Angels," "Underworld," "Tomb Raider," and "Resident Evil" were made mention.

http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1363573.php/Warner_Bros._Kibosh_On_Women_Lead_Actors_In_Films

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Guess that puts the kibosh on "Thelma and Louise Return -- And They're Pissed".

[ananda]

2. crap is crap

Almost all their movies are pure crap anyway.

[Bucky]

3. The Brave One stunk. It's not a female lead thing. It's a dumbfuck writer thing.

And pardon me saying this, but Nicole Kidman isn't a very good draw. When was the last blockbuster she made?

[Warpy]

8. Exactly, they haven't wanted to pay decent writers for decades

and have completely neglected dialog in favor of action.

Let these jerks do nothing but car chases, shoot em ups and bombings. Indie films are still out there and they're the ones doing the stuff that is really worth watching, movies with plot and character development and dialog.

It doesn't matter if a male or a female name is first in the credits. Good stories will sell. Blow em up flicks will only sell to adolescent males.

[depakid]

4. The Descent grossed $57 million worldwide

and that was an R rated genre film with almost ALL women actors.

[porphyrian]

5. And it was one of the best horror movies in years.

The Ring and The Others were both really good as well, and had woman leads.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Our descent to fascism continues

this is another marker on that road to that long, dark night.

[villager]

7. we can certainly expect more guns and bullets masquerading as "story," now...

n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Same studio that fired Bette Davis, right?

[iverglas]

11. seems that was Universal, but Warner wasn't much better

We owe a lot to Bette when it comes to women on screen. And we could learn a lot from her career.

http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/davis.html

... She was first under contract with Universal, but was fired after making the unsuccessful Bad Sister and she moved to Warner Brothers. In 1934, she received major acclaim for the movie Of Human Bondage. After this sucess, she started her long struggle with the studio to obtain stronger parts in future movies. ...

... In 1936 she was suspended without pay for turning down a role. She then sailed to England to make movies there, but Warner Bros. tried to stop her from working anywhere, since she was still under contract to them. She sued to terminate the contract and lost, but the studio paid her legal expenses and began treating her more seriously after that.

... Although a major box office attraction throughout World War II, the less favorable attitudes toward women prevalent after the war caused the decline of her career.

Plus ça change ...

[villager]

10. So Warners will nix any eventual "Wonder Woman" film?

Will they let someone else have that DC Comics property, then?