English Entertainment
Disney nixes anti-Bush documentary
MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company has shown the red card to director Michael Moore’s controversial documentary that criticises US president George Bush. The company has asked its Miramax Films unit not to release the documentary on the 11 September attacks, titled Fahrenheit 9/11.
The film focuses on how the White House responded to the hijacking attacks and on ties between the Bush family and prominent Saudis.
A Disney spokeswoman called the timing of Moore’s statement a publicity stunt ahead of the film’s debut at the Cannes film festival in France later this month. According to Disney, Moore’s agent had been conveyed this decision a year ago. At the same time, Moore claimed that he was told of the decision only a day ago.”Yesterday, I was told that Disney, the studio that owns Miramax, has officially decided to prohibit our producer, Miramax, from distributing my new film,” Moore said in a letter posted on his Web site.
The new developments have once again underlined the stormy relationship between Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner and Miramax head Harvey Weinstein. Over the years, Weinstein and Eisner have clashed on various topics dealing with Miramax and its movies and Miramax releases like “Dogma” have generated controversy before, says reports.
Moore’s Los Angeles-based agent, Ari Emanuel, told the New York Times Eisner had asked him not to sell the film to Miramax because it might jeopardize tax incentives Disney receives for its Walt Disney World theme park in Florida. The state’s governor, Jeb Bush, is the president’s brother.
But Eisner has categorically denied such allegations, calling them “ridiculous”.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
