8:30AM Defamer Hollywood | Having signalled the beginning of a difficult revitalisation process through the
ceremonial sacrifice of their longtime marketing chief to the Hollywood gods earlier this week (in fairness,
you try and sell something called
The Last Mimzy), embattled New Line executives Bob Shaye and Tobey Emmerich sat down with the
LAT’s Patrick Goldstein to discuss What Went Wrong during their recent, flop-riddled run –
Hairspray notwithstanding – and to share their vision for the studio’s future. In a refreshing change of course, Emmerich reveals that they’re ready to recognise that a screenplay is only as good as the one-sheet that condenses its ideas into a single, multiplex-lobby-friendly image and the test marketing audience that will recognise its third act problems at a fraction of the cost of a roomful of clueless development execs.
Reports Goldstein:
“We’d always been a very script-driven company,” Emmerich says. “But now, with so much competitive pressure in the marketplace, we have to focus as much on marketing as on the script. If we’d had a vision of the one-sheet when we were hearing a pitch, not just after we’ve made the movie, maybe we wouldn’t have suffered through so many of our mistakes.”
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