tcm alert thread (Jun '23 - tcm alert: dead)

What about Twentieth Century?

I close the iron door on you!

Mad Love? Also know as The Hands of Orlac, no?

yeah

Just finally watched. Really good.

Isn’t that the film that Malcolm Lowry disses in Under the Volcano? Not by name, but by description?

Probably. Unless it was the earlier silent version. Think it crops up in other novels as well.

It’s mentioned by name, Las manos de Orlac.

And he also mentions the silent version.

Really, huh! We need a conference of film ILE and book ILE to sort this out

It's not actually good, but its gothic overtones rule.

Wait, where are you seeing this (I’m posting on a time delay)

https://ew.com/movies/turner-classic-movies-hosts-allay-fears-for-tcm-future/

According to this article, David Zaslav is deeply fond of classic Hollywood and TCM--at least he said encouraging things to the on-air hosts. But I remember enough of the decline and fall of AMC to remain apprehensive.

Everything goes to shit, let’s face it

This will soon be the thread of missing the old weird TCM.

Forgot I had this terrible ebook of Under the Volcano where the guy overacts, overemotes and mispronounces pretty much every foreign word and occasionally English words as well. When he really gets going he sounds just like Beatle George taking the piss out of Victor Spinetti in A Hard Day's Night.

xxp That article is somewhat encouraging, hope what the hosts are saying is true.

It's not actually good, but its gothic overtones rule.

Heh, the Stephen Spender preface to my copy of Under the Volcano quotes would-be Lowry biographer Conrad Knickerbocker, for it is he again

Zaslav is a snake and he's doing temporary PR about loving movies because of stories like thisfrom last year.

David Zaslav, the head of the Warner Bros. Discovery media empire, tore into movie executives at Warner who green-lit a Clint Eastwood film even though they knew the movie would likely fail to turn a profit at the box office, according to a report.

Days after Warner Bros. and Discovery completed a merger in early April, Zaslav met with Warner Bros. Pictures studio heads and quizzed them about a string of flops, according to The Wall Street Journal.

One of the movies that grossed poorly at the box office last year was “Cry Macho,” a neo-Western produced and directed by the iconic “Dirty Harry” star.

“Cry Macho” grossed a little more than $15.5 million worldwide — despite a reported budget of $33 million — according to IMDB,

During the meeting, studio heads acknowledged that they doubted whether “Cry Macho” would be profitable.

The studio bosses are said to have replied to Zaslav that they felt indebted to Eastwood because of the string of hits that he had delivered over his 50-year career with the studio.

Eastwood, 91, also had a perfect record in getting films into the can on time and never going over budget, the studio honchos told their new boss.

But Zaslav was unimpressed, according to the Journal. He told his underlings that they didn’t owe favors to anyone.

Zaslav then reportedly quoted a famous line from the 1996 Tom Cruise hit film “Jerry Maguire.

“It’s not show friends, it’s show business,” Zaslav is reported to have told them.

Ugh

Did he happen to say anything about steak knives as well?

Wait, that’s good though. F Clint Eastwood…

Eastwood will make another box office hit, don't you worry.

xpost way to side with the bosses. I assure you he doesn't give a shit about artists whose politics you happen to agree with either.

Yeah I was gonna say, I don't like Eastwood as a director or as a person and I can still see how this is shitty and not good.

A succinct synopsis of another reason I loathe Zaslav:

So I used to work for Discovery and, shockingly, David Zaslav screwed over so many people over and over again during my 2ish years with the company. He also screwed over the whole city of Silver Spring, MD (where I currently live) and eliminated countless jobs here. 🧵

— Mary Beth McAndrews (@mbmcandrews) August 4, 2022

It has nothing to do with Eastwood’s politics! Every studio has a “boss,” I’m not gonna get pressed about that particular anecdote, sorry It makes you hot under the collar.

The anecdote shows how he doesn't understand the business he's purporting to run, but it's nice it made you happy.

Why would there be consequences to tossing off a beloved and loyal company talent who's been producing for decades??

My opinion is that too much in H'wood happens for relationship reasons, and it is not a tragedy to see that questioned, especially (IMO) when it comes to a figure like Eastwood. This Zaslav guy is hardly the first bean-counter to take over a studio and ask questions like this; often they end up changing their tune. Maybe he will run WB poorly, and that sucks if so, but it's hard to imagine much worse happening to the studio than what has already happened under AT&T.

On the other hand, $33mm (for Cry Macho) is not a huge budget, and I'm sure there have been bigger and worse decisions there lately.

right but as viewers and archivers who want access to the history of things, its good to have other people that love the medium and are also interested in preserving legacy and stuff. this guy doesnt so its a bad and sucky thing.

The TCM hosts in that EW article seem to think he does? Maybe they're just blowing smoke, I dunno (the writer's observation that "He's currently renovating legendary Paramount leader Robert Evans' former home with the aim of moving in" is, admittedly, a dubious attempt at reassurance).

i mean, it's not like they have a metaphorical gun pointed to their head...

IF HE LOVES CLASSIC CINEMA SO MUCH THEN WHERE ARE THE LOONEY TUNES HUH?!

Like cinephiles were outraged when Ted Turner was colorizing old movies in the '80s – apparently the Nat'l Film Registry was created (in part) as a response – but he eventually launched TCM and that was cool. I don't know what you can do but hope for the best, when it comes to corporate inheritors of classic films preserving their legacy.

...as somewhat of a tangent, I've been surprised to see how few of these film noir–type movies (which I've been looking back into lately) are streaming anywhere. I would have thought they'd be licensed out to whoever cared to have them – an easy way to fill the bucket – but apparently not. And with physical media falling more & more out of favor, the outlook isn't good for folks to watch them unless they really do legwork.

^^That's always been problem in the streaming era with most old movies that aren't big ticket classics, stuff on the Criterion Channel, or public domain titles anybody can carry.

at this point if you care at all about cinema before 1990 you need to get into physical media, pirating, or both. streaming era is a joke.

morrisp the thing about the Eastwood story is it's part of a larger pattern of behaviour of contempt towards artists that goes beyond the usual executive fuckery: the Batgirl situation, the animated shows he had removed, etc. I think ppl are very right in this thread to be skeptical of statements coming from a bunch of his employees who, very reasonably, want to keep their jobs.

Yeah, I guess my feeling is that it is at least marginally encouraging that the company bothered at all with a PR push (via the EW puff piece); they at least seem to want ppl to think they’re committed to TCM. Either it makes money, or the prestige factor is something they value (for now…).

RIP TCM Underground, I'm sure the $500 a week they saved from running a couple of bad movies will fix all of the problems

^^^ they save from not running a couple of bad movies

Today I learned you can't tweet about hoping David Zaslav falls out a high window without twitter zapping your account inside of 15 seconds. I've never seen it happen that fast!

Anyway, fuck that motherfucker to the center of the earth.

JFC
https://www.thewrap.com/tcm-executives-out-warner-bros-television-layoffs/

More top brass from Turner Classic Movies are on their way out as Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs are underway across the conglomerate’s TV networks division, TheWrap has learned.

Individuals at the network with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that TCM’s senior vice president of programming and content strategy Charles Tabesh, vice president of studio production Anne Wilson, vice president of marketing and creative Dexter Fedor and TCM Enterprises vice president Genevieve McGillicuddy will all exit the company.

The latest departures follow news on Tuesday that TCM general manager Pola Chagnon is leaving the company after more than 25 years.

Ugh

Previously I've not gotten fussed over TCM being pulled into corporate cross-promotion. But apparently Ben M. just included a reference to The Flash in a recent interstitial.

In the wake of the last round of articles about changes at TCM, D3nn1s D0r0s of M1l3st0n3 claimed that TCM employees were telling him off the record that everything was fine. But as I said upthread, I remember enough of the decline and fall of AMC.

I barely remember when AMC was good, seems many decades ago.

I don't care how Morbs this makes me, but I still blame the audiences who opt for Real Housewives for TCM's inevitable demise

I'm guessing an underrated stupid factor here, if I know this type of guy at all, is that Zaslav is rankled that TCM is named after a different billionaire.

Also guessing what will happen is that they'll be ordered to show a mix of only the most well-known classic films plus Batman stuff and change the channel name to Fylm or Dreamz or something.