After the embarrassing
Sony hacking circus left town, Amy Pascal stepped down from her post as co-chairman
of Sony Pictures Entertainment. As is
often the case with studio heads, Pascal will launch a production company
associated with the studio, which will produce Paul Feig's Ghostbusters as well
as future Spider-Man films.
The search was on for
someone to replace Pascal as one of the studio heads. Former co-leader of 20th
Century Fox Tom Rothman, and Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad were both in the race to take over Pascal's duties, and the battle ended with Sony
Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Michael Lynton announcing Rothman as Pascal
successor.
For those of you that
don't know Rothman's name you should at least remember some of the gems helped
bring to the big screen while still at Fox. Daredevil, Elektra, and the two
Fantastic Four films are some of the projects he greenlit while at Fox. Word is
that his pressure to fast tracked X-Men: The Last Stand forced Bryan Singer to
leave the project, and that his micromanagement and hands-on approach of X-Men:
Origins - Wolverine is one of the main contributors to the film poor acceptance
and performance.
Those in the know
seem to believe that Rothman isn't particularly fond of the comic book genre,
and that he is one of the main reasons why there is such bad blood between Fox
and Marvel. So why did Sony decided to bring him in now that the studio and
Marvel have come to an agreement in regards to Spider-Man, which is one of the
biggest franchises the studio has is something that eludes me.
Of course I can't in all
good conscious say that he is the solely reason why those films failed. In fact
it was under his watch that the X-Men franchise begin in the first place, but noticeably
cutting down the budget of the first Wolverine standalone while having no qualms
in spending exorbitant amounts on equally risky projects like Avatar should be
a red flag. Not because comic book movies should have $200 million dollar
budgets, but because of his lack of vision, understanding, and development of
what would eventually become the biggest money making properties in the World.
Source - Deadline
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