The Walt Disney Company has decided to end Roger Ebert's long-running movie reviews show in its present form and go in a "new direction."
Here's a link to Ebert's announcement: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080721/FEATURED/150028057
And here's a more "official" article which mentions Richard Roeper's departure as well: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/21/people.roeper.ap/index.html
For its flaws (more apparent after Ebert left the show due to health problems and Roeper--more a cold-blooded businessman/fake "personality" who saw film reviewing as a means to an end rather than either a vocation or avocation--became dominant), Ebert's show (which I first saw on PBS in 1978 with the late great Gene Siskel as the other critic) was a means of broadening the exposure to film criticism beyond just magazines and newspaper columns. Numerous "imitation" shows followed in its wake, with critic/reviewers varying in quality from intellectual Neal Gabler to blurbmeisters like Jeffrey Lyons.
Now, with the Hollywood mindset being "we can make a bad/poorly executed movie that grosses hundreds of millions just like HANCOCK", The Walt Disney Company may see a market for a show that offers clips plus soft press kit "profiles" without any actual reviewing.
So, prepare for something like AT THE MOVIES WITH KELLY RIPA AND MARK CONSUELOS.
Update (7/22/08): Thankfully, I was wrong with the above prediction. Instead, Disney will keep the same format but with younger and cheaper hosts--Ben Mankiewicz (of the famous Hollywood dynasty--screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz was his grandfather) and Ben Lyons (son of blurbmeister Jeffrey). Allegedly, Ben Lyons claims that I AM LEGEND was a "great" film--so it's safe to say that he's ready to give overpraise to just about every mainstream piece of merde like his father or late-career David Sheehan.
Here's a link to Nikki Finke's announcement of the AT THE MOVIES reboot on DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD DAILY: http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/contract-disputes-end-ebert-roeper-show/
No comments:
Post a Comment