Iger ushering in new Disney era of risk-taking
Reuters - By Anne Thompson
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - At the Walt Disney Studios, a fresh breeze -- one composed strictly of zeros and ones -- is wafting through the central corridors of the old Disney animation building on Dopey Drive, which are lined with blowups of cels from such Disney classics as "Pinocchio," "101 Dalmatians" and "The Little Mermaid."
Disney's architects designed the animation building so that all the rooms had windows open to sunlight. Tunnels from the basement allowed animators to carry precious cels to other buildings without facing the elements. Today, Walt Disney's corner office on the third floor sits empty, the studios' executives having all decamped to the grander Team Disney building designed by Michael Graves.
But ever since his death in 1966, Disney's presence has hung over the studio as both an inspiration and a curse. Longtime execs would ask, "But what would Walt do?" a refrain that was often as inhibiting as it was challenging.
In 1984, when Michael Eisner took over as Disney CEO, he clearly borrowed from the progressive Walt -- the man who confounded skeptics in the '30s by risking the company's future on the lavishly produced full-length animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and then in the '50s again challenged the conventional wisdom by embracing television, using it as a platform to promote Disney's films and its landmark theme park. Embracing home video in the '80s, Eisner opened the Disney vaults, triggering a resurgence at the studio, whose live-action films he dragged kicking and screaming into the late 20th century with raucous comedies like "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." But then, just as Disney, in his later years, presided over too many movies that relied on tired formulas, Eisner got stuck in his own modus operandi.
POWER STRUGGLE
For decades, Roy Disney ran the animation division from his uncle's former headquarters, but he left the Burbank lot in 2003 when he quit the Disney board -- and his office in the flashier new Animation Building built in 1995 -- so that he could wage war on Eisner for allowing his uncle Walt's studio to fall into decline. After two years, Roy Disney and others ousted Eisner, who officially stepped aside last month, having forced out many talented executives, as well as alienating Pixar chief Steve Jobs, the studio's supplier of a string of CG-animated blockbusters including "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo." Roy never went back to the Disney lot.
There's no need for sunny rooms and underground hallways now. Disney animation has finally moved on from 2-D line drawings to 3-D computer renderings. "Chicken Little," the first of the new generation of Disney CG features, opens wide November 4 on some 3,000 screens, 85 of which will show the movie in digital 3-D. The Disney boss now responsible for approving the extra costs of last-minute 3-D prints, lobbying for support from exhibitors and pushing for robust promotion of the 3-D release is the company's forward-thinking new-model chief executive, Robert Iger, the newest pretender to Walt's throne.
At Disney, Iger has tossed out Eisner's planning-by-committee and is once again fostering a rigorous climate of risk-taking and experimentation. So far he's the only studio chief to incite the ire of theater owners by declaring his interest in day-and-date theatrical and DVD releases. He's promoting a costly initiative to upgrade cinemas around the country with digital projectors. He's seeking distribution of Disney content on cell phones.
IN SYNC WITH IPOD
Iger even made a dramatic appearance onstage with Jobs in San Jose, Calif., last week as the Apple chairman unveiled the video iPod. After the other studios refused Jobs' pleas for content, Iger became the first to provide day-after downloads via iTunes of primetime programs such as ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." Just as Disney used "The Wonderful World of Disney" to attract TV viewers to his theme parks, Iger sees video-on-demand as a means of driving interest in all the properties in Disney's far-flung empire, which now ranges from ESPN to Hong Kong Disneyland.
Sure, Iger's motives for breaking the studio mold may be strictly opportunistic, as he tries to keep Pixar in the Disney fold. But as the new kid on the studio block, Iger is swiftly emerging as the Hollywood executive most likely to lead the charge into what former studio chief-turned-Internet entrepreneur Barry Diller calls "the radical revolution" that will continue to rock Hollywood over the next 10 years.
Yes, the iTunes video downloads will look lousy when jacked into a TV set -- for now, Jobs is keeping studio piracy fears at bay by not providing a higher-resolution image -- but the video iPod and iTunes are the first vital link in a new distribution paradigm that will lead to the inevitable next step: higher-quality movie downloads. In the not too distant future, after Jobs' experiment takes off, 16-year-old kids will be happily downloading from the iTunes portal not only music videos, animation shorts and 20-minute ad-free TV shows to watch on their computers, iPods and TVs, but also full-length features. What remains to be seen is who will provide them.
OPEN TO ALTERNATIVES
Five of the studios have been dragging their heels with the miserably marketed and supplied MovieLink download service. The independent CinemaNow also lacks a range of new movies. While all the studio IT departments boast plenty of smart executives with clever ideas about how to respond to consumer demand for new ways of experiencing entertainment, old fears of piracy and loss of DVD revenues (which are already beginning what could be a steady decline) have prevented studios like Warner Bros. Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios from taking risks in this arena. By contrast, Iger's television background seems to make it easier for him to walk away from Hollywood's arcane windows business model. He seems willing to anger exhibitors and TV affiliates alike as he experiments with alternative distribution.
But while Iger appears to be embracing the new, just as, at certain points in their careers, both Disney and Eisner did, post-Disney, Eisner seems more inclined to replay his greatest hits from the past. "I'm of the old world," the mogul in transition admitted last Friday to Interactive Corp.'s Barry Diller, his former ABC and Paramount boss, on Charlie Rose's late-night talk show, when Eisner was subbing for the host.
As the studio titan moves on, his feet are still firmly planted in his old world: entertainment storytelling. But before Eisner, who may find it hard to be without green-light authority, considers setting up shop with his son Breck (who has moved from directing "Sahara" to the upcoming remake "Creature From the Black Lagoon"), the liberated studio suit would do well to remember the fate of another once-mighty movie mogul, Universal's Sid Sheinberg. Sheinberg also couldn't shake the movie jones, setting up a family production outfit, the Bubble. The results -- a forgettable list of movies that included "Slappy and the Stinkers," "For Richer or Poorer," "A Simple Wish," "McHale's Navy" and "The Pest" -- persuaded Universal to quietly shut the company down.
If there's a lesson Eisner should be taking from the ongoing Disney saga, it's that survival means constantly adapting to the new rather than enshrining the past. And if the iPod is the prevailing metaphor of the moment, it doesn't hurt to shuffle your playlists, either.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Reuters - By Anne Thompson
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - At the Walt Disney Studios, a fresh breeze -- one composed strictly of zeros and ones -- is wafting through the central corridors of the old Disney animation building on Dopey Drive, which are lined with blowups of cels from such Disney classics as "Pinocchio," "101 Dalmatians" and "The Little Mermaid."
Disney's architects designed the animation building so that all the rooms had windows open to sunlight. Tunnels from the basement allowed animators to carry precious cels to other buildings without facing the elements. Today, Walt Disney's corner office on the third floor sits empty, the studios' executives having all decamped to the grander Team Disney building designed by Michael Graves.
But ever since his death in 1966, Disney's presence has hung over the studio as both an inspiration and a curse. Longtime execs would ask, "But what would Walt do?" a refrain that was often as inhibiting as it was challenging.
In 1984, when Michael Eisner took over as Disney CEO, he clearly borrowed from the progressive Walt -- the man who confounded skeptics in the '30s by risking the company's future on the lavishly produced full-length animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and then in the '50s again challenged the conventional wisdom by embracing television, using it as a platform to promote Disney's films and its landmark theme park. Embracing home video in the '80s, Eisner opened the Disney vaults, triggering a resurgence at the studio, whose live-action films he dragged kicking and screaming into the late 20th century with raucous comedies like "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." But then, just as Disney, in his later years, presided over too many movies that relied on tired formulas, Eisner got stuck in his own modus operandi.
POWER STRUGGLE
For decades, Roy Disney ran the animation division from his uncle's former headquarters, but he left the Burbank lot in 2003 when he quit the Disney board -- and his office in the flashier new Animation Building built in 1995 -- so that he could wage war on Eisner for allowing his uncle Walt's studio to fall into decline. After two years, Roy Disney and others ousted Eisner, who officially stepped aside last month, having forced out many talented executives, as well as alienating Pixar chief Steve Jobs, the studio's supplier of a string of CG-animated blockbusters including "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo." Roy never went back to the Disney lot.
There's no need for sunny rooms and underground hallways now. Disney animation has finally moved on from 2-D line drawings to 3-D computer renderings. "Chicken Little," the first of the new generation of Disney CG features, opens wide November 4 on some 3,000 screens, 85 of which will show the movie in digital 3-D. The Disney boss now responsible for approving the extra costs of last-minute 3-D prints, lobbying for support from exhibitors and pushing for robust promotion of the 3-D release is the company's forward-thinking new-model chief executive, Robert Iger, the newest pretender to Walt's throne.
At Disney, Iger has tossed out Eisner's planning-by-committee and is once again fostering a rigorous climate of risk-taking and experimentation. So far he's the only studio chief to incite the ire of theater owners by declaring his interest in day-and-date theatrical and DVD releases. He's promoting a costly initiative to upgrade cinemas around the country with digital projectors. He's seeking distribution of Disney content on cell phones.
IN SYNC WITH IPOD
Iger even made a dramatic appearance onstage with Jobs in San Jose, Calif., last week as the Apple chairman unveiled the video iPod. After the other studios refused Jobs' pleas for content, Iger became the first to provide day-after downloads via iTunes of primetime programs such as ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." Just as Disney used "The Wonderful World of Disney" to attract TV viewers to his theme parks, Iger sees video-on-demand as a means of driving interest in all the properties in Disney's far-flung empire, which now ranges from ESPN to Hong Kong Disneyland.
Sure, Iger's motives for breaking the studio mold may be strictly opportunistic, as he tries to keep Pixar in the Disney fold. But as the new kid on the studio block, Iger is swiftly emerging as the Hollywood executive most likely to lead the charge into what former studio chief-turned-Internet entrepreneur Barry Diller calls "the radical revolution" that will continue to rock Hollywood over the next 10 years.
Yes, the iTunes video downloads will look lousy when jacked into a TV set -- for now, Jobs is keeping studio piracy fears at bay by not providing a higher-resolution image -- but the video iPod and iTunes are the first vital link in a new distribution paradigm that will lead to the inevitable next step: higher-quality movie downloads. In the not too distant future, after Jobs' experiment takes off, 16-year-old kids will be happily downloading from the iTunes portal not only music videos, animation shorts and 20-minute ad-free TV shows to watch on their computers, iPods and TVs, but also full-length features. What remains to be seen is who will provide them.
OPEN TO ALTERNATIVES
Five of the studios have been dragging their heels with the miserably marketed and supplied MovieLink download service. The independent CinemaNow also lacks a range of new movies. While all the studio IT departments boast plenty of smart executives with clever ideas about how to respond to consumer demand for new ways of experiencing entertainment, old fears of piracy and loss of DVD revenues (which are already beginning what could be a steady decline) have prevented studios like Warner Bros. Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios from taking risks in this arena. By contrast, Iger's television background seems to make it easier for him to walk away from Hollywood's arcane windows business model. He seems willing to anger exhibitors and TV affiliates alike as he experiments with alternative distribution.
But while Iger appears to be embracing the new, just as, at certain points in their careers, both Disney and Eisner did, post-Disney, Eisner seems more inclined to replay his greatest hits from the past. "I'm of the old world," the mogul in transition admitted last Friday to Interactive Corp.'s Barry Diller, his former ABC and Paramount boss, on Charlie Rose's late-night talk show, when Eisner was subbing for the host.
As the studio titan moves on, his feet are still firmly planted in his old world: entertainment storytelling. But before Eisner, who may find it hard to be without green-light authority, considers setting up shop with his son Breck (who has moved from directing "Sahara" to the upcoming remake "Creature From the Black Lagoon"), the liberated studio suit would do well to remember the fate of another once-mighty movie mogul, Universal's Sid Sheinberg. Sheinberg also couldn't shake the movie jones, setting up a family production outfit, the Bubble. The results -- a forgettable list of movies that included "Slappy and the Stinkers," "For Richer or Poorer," "A Simple Wish," "McHale's Navy" and "The Pest" -- persuaded Universal to quietly shut the company down.
If there's a lesson Eisner should be taking from the ongoing Disney saga, it's that survival means constantly adapting to the new rather than enshrining the past. And if the iPod is the prevailing metaphor of the moment, it doesn't hurt to shuffle your playlists, either.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
