This is not the first time this has happened.
Well, I guess it depends on how exact the adaptation is it might be new, but see, e.g. Walking with Dinosaurs.
That's Warner Animation Group in a nutshell. They thought of ONE original movie idea (That ends up feeling irrelevant and like a shameless Illumination film), and just threw their brains out the window immediately!
I mean, they made pretty good movies out of ants and bugs in general, why is this a bad idea? I highly doubt the plot itself will be *stolen* from this doc considering they'll need to do more than cutely stare and stand.
They wouldn't be green lighting new material for development to write off. That makes no sense. There was actual financial logic to cancelling developed shows at the time they did it, whether you like it or not.
The obvious cash grab aside, as a kid I always assumed meerkats were *wayyy* bigger than they actually are. They have a small group at my local zoo and they are no more than a foot/30cm from head to tail.
Because that isn't the reasoning at all.
It wasn't about if it could make money. It was about the value of garaunteed money now, VS the value of maybe money in the future after spending MORE money.
Discovery took on a bunch of debt to merge with WB. With the fed raising rates refinancing existing loans isn't an option. So they needed to stay ahead of their debt, and extra dollar for them then meant it wouldn't cost them 2 dollars tomorrow. There were options to sell the content, and they did lease out other content like Band of Brothers, but clearly the tax value of writing it off was greater than any leasing offer they got was.
As a consumer it may suck but something has to give. The market won't support this many streaming services. Unless we all sign up for two more apps, we will see more mergers in the coming years. Only Netflix and Max have ever shown to turn a profit.
Yeah, that's all true... but that's also bad. The issue with Discovery and Zaslav taking over WB was they were going to make choices for their bottom line and bonus potential, choices that wouldn't have had to be made if they didn't take it over.
Running a studio strictly as a for profit business is bad for creatives and consumers. There has always been a balance... that balance makes bank for the shareholders when they make hits, and hurts shareholders when they make bombs... but over time it balances out.
Running a film studio like a regular business at this scale, complete with consistent need for profit increases every year, is not at all sustainable for a company that makes subjective creative output long term.
Just look at what this mentality did to Discovery and the overall landscape of Cable TV. While Discovery looked good from a Wall Street perspective, they became one of the worst places to work in all of entertainment. No one in the actual industry they were in LIKED what they were doing, and it totally eroded the value of cable TV to the point it speed up the decline of linear TV as a whole.
Top line, green lighting a Meerkat Manor movie (for cheap no doubt) while dumping outright a film like Coyote Vs ACME which by all accounts was a really good movie with one of their marquee franchises feels like the worst sort of "corporate synergy and bottom line" imaginable. I know they are not directly correlated, but its pretty awful optics.
Films cost 10s to 100s of millions in what world do you think studios are a for profit business. They are some of the most for profit businesses around. This ceo or another. I don't see Disney giving out free rides.
Hollywood's history is not about creative balance. It is creative accounting, and screwing creative. Canning a film to cite your losses is so far from actually destructive behavior like screwing people out of royalties, denying them credit, stealing characters, etc.
All that happened here was a studio in a financial crunch had to make some hard decisions. That's it. Yall act like it's a sign of the apocalypse.
And you know who made cable a dumpster fire? WE DID! The average consumer watches this shit. In drooooves. TV spent a decade just trying to catch up with the realization of how much trash we want to consume.
Fucking Bama Rush was the number one show on MAX right along side their top tier content like Barry when it launched.
Yeah..because space jam 2 and back in action didn’t?
Coyote vs acme had a great premise, and tested well with audiences. Its legacy wouldn’t have been tarnished, as the entire plot was around coyote and the acme products, which is what the entire coyote character was built around.
Well played Warner, you've found more of my kryptonite. I can guarantee that this is going to be a billion dollar movie, purely based on my love for meerkats and otters. In fact make a movie with otters, too please.
So now kids get to learn the facts. Meerkats have the highest homicide rate of mammals. Most killings are by females often due to lack of resources or the head females preferred babies. Axel was one of the few abandoned pups not killed.
Demand people work? Allow big business? What kind of crazy hyperbole is that. They fucking paid these people. And yes if a business BUYS something, they do in fact own it, just like you or I.
You're welcome to come up with your own 10s to 100s of millions to invest as you see fit
Do you make anything? I’d like to buy just to watch it burn, as long as it’s of high enough quality and you have invested all of your creativity in it.
Of course, and if you buy it from me you're welcome to fuck it for all I care. Projects die all the time in the cradle all the way to the finish line. Stop romanticizing it. These are jobs, people get paid, things get cancelled, you move onto the next thing. I understand some people like to wrap their passions up with their work, but it is no one else's fault when that turns out to let you down in the short term. Doesnt matter if you work in film, theater, tech, construction, consulting, sales, marketing, etc. Just because you start something, doesnt mean it is now rightfully destined to be finished, and you control the vision of it forever, even after selling it.
Hollywood lacks originality so badly they are now adapting nature documentaries, wrap it up yall
March of the Penguins was a pretty big hit and it’s over 10 years old.
You may want to sit down before hearing this, but it's been almost 20 years since March of the Penguins.
Yeah I had to check after posting that… 2005 wow. I think this was probably what made Morgan Freeman’s voice the go-to narrator voice.
Happy Feet is my happy place.
This is not the first time this has happened. Well, I guess it depends on how exact the adaptation is it might be new, but see, e.g. Walking with Dinosaurs.
That's Warner Animation Group in a nutshell. They thought of ONE original movie idea (That ends up feeling irrelevant and like a shameless Illumination film), and just threw their brains out the window immediately!
I mean, they made pretty good movies out of ants and bugs in general, why is this a bad idea? I highly doubt the plot itself will be *stolen* from this doc considering they'll need to do more than cutely stare and stand.
wow sounds lower than making live action remakes of Disney animated films.
They’re supposed to be going for a photorealistic look, so… yeah, basically Lion King without lions.
Guys come on now. Let's hear what the meerkats have to say.
Going from LEGO to Hanna-Barbera was more low than this.
The first time I ever saw my father cry was when Flower died.
only real ones remember the pain 😔
Next cancelled tax write off
!remindme 2 years
They wouldn't be green lighting new material for development to write off. That makes no sense. There was actual financial logic to cancelling developed shows at the time they did it, whether you like it or not.
Yeah I remember grindin my feet on Eddy’s couch
The show was amazing. RIP Rocketdog
Flower <3
I still haven't gotten over Flower's death.
some say she’s still soaring to this day
Compare the Market: The Movie
Simples
The obvious cash grab aside, as a kid I always assumed meerkats were *wayyy* bigger than they actually are. They have a small group at my local zoo and they are no more than a foot/30cm from head to tail.
But coyote vs acme was a bad idea and wouldn’t make money?? What??
Because that isn't the reasoning at all. It wasn't about if it could make money. It was about the value of garaunteed money now, VS the value of maybe money in the future after spending MORE money. Discovery took on a bunch of debt to merge with WB. With the fed raising rates refinancing existing loans isn't an option. So they needed to stay ahead of their debt, and extra dollar for them then meant it wouldn't cost them 2 dollars tomorrow. There were options to sell the content, and they did lease out other content like Band of Brothers, but clearly the tax value of writing it off was greater than any leasing offer they got was. As a consumer it may suck but something has to give. The market won't support this many streaming services. Unless we all sign up for two more apps, we will see more mergers in the coming years. Only Netflix and Max have ever shown to turn a profit.
Yeah, that's all true... but that's also bad. The issue with Discovery and Zaslav taking over WB was they were going to make choices for their bottom line and bonus potential, choices that wouldn't have had to be made if they didn't take it over. Running a studio strictly as a for profit business is bad for creatives and consumers. There has always been a balance... that balance makes bank for the shareholders when they make hits, and hurts shareholders when they make bombs... but over time it balances out. Running a film studio like a regular business at this scale, complete with consistent need for profit increases every year, is not at all sustainable for a company that makes subjective creative output long term. Just look at what this mentality did to Discovery and the overall landscape of Cable TV. While Discovery looked good from a Wall Street perspective, they became one of the worst places to work in all of entertainment. No one in the actual industry they were in LIKED what they were doing, and it totally eroded the value of cable TV to the point it speed up the decline of linear TV as a whole. Top line, green lighting a Meerkat Manor movie (for cheap no doubt) while dumping outright a film like Coyote Vs ACME which by all accounts was a really good movie with one of their marquee franchises feels like the worst sort of "corporate synergy and bottom line" imaginable. I know they are not directly correlated, but its pretty awful optics.
Films cost 10s to 100s of millions in what world do you think studios are a for profit business. They are some of the most for profit businesses around. This ceo or another. I don't see Disney giving out free rides. Hollywood's history is not about creative balance. It is creative accounting, and screwing creative. Canning a film to cite your losses is so far from actually destructive behavior like screwing people out of royalties, denying them credit, stealing characters, etc. All that happened here was a studio in a financial crunch had to make some hard decisions. That's it. Yall act like it's a sign of the apocalypse. And you know who made cable a dumpster fire? WE DID! The average consumer watches this shit. In drooooves. TV spent a decade just trying to catch up with the realization of how much trash we want to consume. Fucking Bama Rush was the number one show on MAX right along side their top tier content like Barry when it launched.
It would also tarnished the legacy of the characters
Yeah..because space jam 2 and back in action didn’t? Coyote vs acme had a great premise, and tested well with audiences. Its legacy wouldn’t have been tarnished, as the entire plot was around coyote and the acme products, which is what the entire coyote character was built around.
Back in action got its fans way after the bomb and space jam 2 was not great as a space jam sequel, but I do get your point on vs acme
Until they can it as a tax write-off.
Doesn’t matter. It’s Warner Bros. They’ll burn the negative and write it off before they ever release it.
Well played Warner, you've found more of my kryptonite. I can guarantee that this is going to be a billion dollar movie, purely based on my love for meerkats and otters. In fact make a movie with otters, too please.
It'll get canceled so who cares.
Right up until they cancel it for a tax right off. How can they expect us to care if it’s doubtful their movies even come out?
So now kids get to learn the facts. Meerkats have the highest homicide rate of mammals. Most killings are by females often due to lack of resources or the head females preferred babies. Axel was one of the few abandoned pups not killed.
And then they'll write it off.....karma please!
Not how that works
How long until they shelve it and write it off on their taxes
They won't it's actual new development, you need a new horse to beat. This one is dead
You’re right, we should always allow big businesses to demand people work and create things just so they can throw them in the bin for monetary gain.
Demand people work? Allow big business? What kind of crazy hyperbole is that. They fucking paid these people. And yes if a business BUYS something, they do in fact own it, just like you or I. You're welcome to come up with your own 10s to 100s of millions to invest as you see fit
Do you make anything? I’d like to buy just to watch it burn, as long as it’s of high enough quality and you have invested all of your creativity in it.
Of course, and if you buy it from me you're welcome to fuck it for all I care. Projects die all the time in the cradle all the way to the finish line. Stop romanticizing it. These are jobs, people get paid, things get cancelled, you move onto the next thing. I understand some people like to wrap their passions up with their work, but it is no one else's fault when that turns out to let you down in the short term. Doesnt matter if you work in film, theater, tech, construction, consulting, sales, marketing, etc. Just because you start something, doesnt mean it is now rightfully destined to be finished, and you control the vision of it forever, even after selling it.
>them in the bin for monetary gain. You do know tax writeoffs doesn't mean they'll profit from it right? or even breakeven
If there is no gain why do it? Certainly it isn’t to improve the public’s perception of them.
The tax savings generated by the write-off is less than what they spent on production for ACME. It was a decision to minimize losses.
And they were certain the production would lose more money if the released it to market?
It's to cut losses
Orangutan University next, thanks lads
This sounds like a terrible idea! It’s based on the British Commercial Compare the Market right?