The mighty wind of evolution that has blown much of the creativity out of Hollywood in recent years has claimed another victim: the producer. We've heard a lot over the past few months about the demise of the studio "specialty labels" like New Line and Warner Independent Pictures; now it appears the US economic woes that have fuelled corporate belt tightening have struck at the once thriving community of individual filmmakers.
According to a report in Monday's issue of Variety, skittish studio production chiefs have allowed dozens of producer deals to lapse in the scramble to minimise costs. The report notes that the number of such deals has declined by roughly 40% over the last ten years, from 302 in 1998 to 180 today. It's slightly chilling to note that even the head of the Producers Guild of America, Marshall Herskovitz has been shown the door at Warner Bros. Herskovitz, you may know, produced Traffic, Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai with his Bedford Falls directing and producing partner Ed Zwick. These films were no slouches at the box office: collectively they grossed more than $800m (£417.3m) worldwide.
Of course, the mega-producers like Brian Grazer, Scott Rudin, Jim Bruckheimer, Barbara Broccoli, John Davis, Neal Moritz, Joel Silver, Tom Hanks and our very own Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title aren't going anywhere. No way Jose. Neither are Gore Verbinski, Ridley and Tony Scott, Nora Ephron, Brad Pitt... the list goes on. Good luck to them; they make the Hollywood chieftains piles of cash and they've earned the right to have a direct line to the studios' production heads. But the heart aches for the Herskovitzes of this world and the many, many more whose names we don't even recognise; talented filmmakers for whom life has suddenly got considerably more expensive.
A producer deal gives the Grazers and Bruckheimers of this world private offices on the lot as well as money to pay production company staff, develop story ideas and cover operational overheads. In the old days it wasn't uncommon for a producer to supplement his or her income with guarantees, which were effectively wages that served as advances against producing fees once a project was greenlit. Today it's more common simply to get the overhead payments and these can be worth multiple millions: just ask a former Olympic sofa jumper called Tom Cruise about his cushy arrangement at Paramount before Viacom chief Sumner Redstone booted him out. In return, the studios get either "first look" at all the producer's projects or exclusive rights to board the project to the exclusion of all other distributors.
The producer pogroms are the latest nail in the coffin of creativity in Hollywood. Without the resources to develop numerous projects at the same time and see which ones stick, producers – who only get paid once a film gets made – are being forced into a corner and must gamble on pursuing fewer ideas that may or may not work. "In the history of the business I don't think it's ever been tougher for producers," one producer and recent Oscar nominee told me on Monday, adding that the exorbitant cost of talent deals has also been a key factor in forcing the studios to make cuts.
Hollywood's obsession with bottom line has vapourised original artistic expression and created a scenario where the studios aren't interested in paying for the services of a wide range of producers. Michael Cerenzie, the producer of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead who has lined up a slew of major projects at Paramount under his deal with business partner Christine Peters, stresses that in the current climate of investor jitters in the US, now is the time for producers to change the way they operate. "The market is changing and studios are always looking for con-financing opportunities," Cerenzie told me. "The producers' skill set is going to have to include the ability to bring in financing from overseas sources like Dubai, China, India and other parts of Asia."
Until that happens the tried and tested rainmakers are staying in the studio fold and by and large their role will be to continue to collaborate with production executives on remakes, adaptations, sequels and bland franchise builders like Hancock. More adventurous films will still play an important part in the landscape, albeit a less frequent one, and the people who produce them will have to fight to get picked up by distributors, especially in the arthouse arena, who in turn will have a battle on their hands to get the films noticed in an increasingly overcrowded market place.
Seven of the top 10 films of the year so far in north America have been sequels or adaptations and the trend looks set to continue. In Sunday's New York Times Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said he wanted Warner Bros and his other entertainment companies to concentrate on content creation. This from the company that within the past several months shuttered Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse and emasculated New Line. Well gee, thanks Jeff; I suppose that means we can look forward to Batman, Harry Potter and Danny Ocean films for the rest of our lives.
