Instead the key post went to rising star Brian Robbins, 57, a former child actor who at one time also directed films like “Norbit” and “Varsity Blues.” Currently, he’s chief of ViacomCBS’s valued children’s brand Nickelodeon and he was credited with pushing forward the animated “PAW Patrol: The Movie,” Paramount’s recent surprise hit ($82.5 million worldwide).
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Clearly, Old Hollywood is on the ropes. Ex-Paramount chairman Barry Diller recently complained that “Hollywood does not exist anymore” and he’s not wrong. Horrormeister Jason Blum fretted about losing the big-screen experience. Usually close-mouthed uber-agents Bryan Lourd and Patrick Whitesell went on record as well, fighting for their respective clients Scarlett Johansson and Emma Stone’s hard-won back-end participation. Christopher Nolan was one among many angry A-listers dissing studio Warner Bros. for going day-and-date with its 2021 slate — although the studio did support him with a 105-day theatrical-exclusive run for “Tenet” during the pandemic. Nolan now seeks a theatrically friendly new home for a somber, costly post-World War II drama about Robert Oppenheimer and the invention of the atom bomb. Is 90-plus days in theaters available to any filmmaker, for any movie, at any studio? ©Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection Today, a story about the father of the atomic bomb is just the sort of serious drama that is automatically funneled to televisions. Maybe deep-pocketed Netflix will chase the filmmaker, but that would certainly come with some deep compromises for the theater-driven Nolan. “If and when he comes up with his new movie,” film content chief Scott Stuber told Variety, “it’s about can we be a home for it and what would we need to do to make that happen. He’s an incredible filmmaker. I’m going to do everything I can.” The streamer fed many of its higher-quality movies to theaters during the pandemic, if only for a short time, and continues to do so with films like Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “Hand of God.” As the beleaguered studios continue to compete with Netflix, catering to short-term Wall Street bottom-line projections, they may come to regret losing legacy executives like Gianopulos as they throw the box-office baby out with the bathwater. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
