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Fox Boss Forgets Own 'Sci-fi Isn't Funny' Rule in Greenlighting 'Meet Dave'
Posted by Defamer Hollywood at 7:30 AM on July 16, 2008
Patrick Goldstein is getting kind of good at this blogging thing! After a busy week tipping the world off to the wit and wisdom of censor nonpareil Joan Graves and catching Alan Horn sharpening his ax for Where the Wild Things Are, he spent Monday afternoon taking on the Eddie Murphy Problem. "Murphy has pulled off an almost unprecedented achievement with Meet Dave," Goldstein notes. "He's delivered a movie that even 20th Century Fox couldn't market."
We've already elaborated on why we think this is, but Fox chieftain/upwardly mobile TV host Tom Rothman unwittingly proffered his own opinion on the matter last year in a chat with Goldstein:
Fox's reluctance to promote the film's sci-fi nature is actually in keeping with studio Co-Chairman Tom Rothman's long-held belief that sci-fi films and films set in the future are box-office poison. In 2006, the studio had Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey and filmmaker Jay Roach all signed up to do a big comedy called Used Guys, but got cold feet, killing the project.Why? Rothman thought it was too expensive. But more important, the studio chief was worried about the subject matter—it was a sci-fi comedy about men living in a women-ruled world. Not long after the project was axed, when I was having lunch with Rothman, I asked him why he was so adamant about dumping the film. He threw a question right back at me. "Can you name one sci-fi comedy that's ever made any money?" When I couldn't come up with an answer, he said, triumphantly: "See!" (I was halfway home before I thought of the perfect comeback: Men in Black.)
First of all: Tom. Seriously. When are you going to invite us to lunch? We know you probably didn't see the whole "Goldstein blogs" thing coming either, but still. What's your Friday look like? Second: Actually, we have no second. Have we mentioned that nobody cares about Eddie Murphy? Sucks for Paramount, as Goldstein mentions, which has two Murphy vehicles (A Thousand Words and NowhereLand) on the way this fall. Alas, we don't make the rules. But we can make the reservations — call us, Tom!
- No one wanted to 'Meet Dave' [The Big Picture]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
fornetti
Posted September 1, 2008 8:56 PM
I do not believe this
Shumina
Posted 8:21 AM 16/7/08
@Assistant/Atlas: Idiocracy is genius. I couldn't add it to the list because of the "made money" stipulation, but it really is up there in terms of quality.
Shumina
gwendolyn
Posted 8:20 AM 16/7/08
@Shumina: Next to 'Detour' with Tom Neal and Ann Savage (which lives on because of its absolutely z-grade nihilism and Ann Savages' Ann Savageness) , 'Rocky Horror' was one of the luckiest little movies ever. I am old enough to remember seeing print ads for it when it was first released (but not seeing the movie). Flash forward a couple of years and it's a big cult thing which went on to make back its budget and a huge chunk more...
gwendolyn
gwendolyn
Posted 8:13 AM 16/7/08
@NoWireHangers: "Hollywood Royalty, eh, LB?"
gwendolyn
TurdBlossom
Posted 8:02 AM 16/7/08
@NoWireHangers: Anyone who's hired Justin Timberlake to be in a film would disagree with your assessment.
TurdBlossom
Assistant/Atlas
Posted 8:00 AM 16/7/08
"He's delivered a movie that even 20th Century Fox couldn't market."
I've got one word for ya, pal: Idiocracy.
Assistant/Atlas
NoWireHangers
Posted 7:56 AM 16/7/08
You can't write off an entire genre to justify the failure of a terrible movie. Besides, there's only one kind of box office poison, and that's Joan Crawford.
NoWireHangers
WGARefugee
Posted 7:56 AM 16/7/08
Tom Rothman inviting Defamer to lunch would be like one of those old-school detective movies where the overconfident murderer invites the detective to a party. Name one of those where it ended well for the host.
WGARefugee
Shumina
Posted 7:51 AM 16/7/08
Ghostbusters.
Galaxy Quest.
Star Wars: The Phantom Cash-in (it's hilariously bad).
Men In Black (as you mentioned).
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (it's comedy).
That's all I can think of this moment and I'm positive I'm missing a lot of others. Basically, you can take any premise and find an audience for it. If Mr. Rothman doesn't see an avenue for revenue, he's just being lazy. I don't know if he was traumatized by E.T. or something, but seriously funny stuff can come from the future. It doesn't always have to be us vs. robots.
Shumina
denominator
Posted 8:50 AM 16/7/08
Does "Back To The Future" count?
denominator
Breadbowl
Posted 8:39 AM 16/7/08
1 Men in Black
2 Men in Black II
3 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
4 The Nutty Professor (1996)
5 The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
*
*
875. Meet Dave
Breadbowl
clarknhilldale
Posted 9:05 AM 16/7/08
@denominator: 3 times!
clarknhilldale
nick_r
Posted 9:35 AM 16/7/08
My reply would be "Not offhand, but I'd have the same answer if you asked me to name a Fox movie that's made money."
nick_r
Losin_it
Posted 10:26 AM 16/7/08
If I had a project with Jay Roach, Ben Stiller, and Jim Carrey attached to it...I'd make bullshit excuses why it shouldn't be made, too.
Losin_it
uncle_wiggly
Posted 10:29 AM 16/7/08
Tom Rothman forgot the first rule of hollywood comedies - that SNL alumni are no funnier than the average person on the street. There should be an emergency moratorium enacted on all SNL alumni vehicles.
uncle_wiggly
WGARefugee
Posted 12:21 PM 16/7/08
@uncle_wiggly: Unless they are in the early stages of a serious coke addiction. This is why they say timing is everything in comedy.
WGARefugee
Sasquatch
Posted 3:40 AM 17/7/08
@Assistant/Atlas: No, I think they actively chose not to market "Idiocracy."
Sasquatch
Passwordforgetter
Posted 11:21 AM 17/7/08
Which, BTW, was one of the greatest movies ever.
Passwordforgetter