Saturday, September 19, 2009

Friends With The Cook...


There's a lot of reaction from people in Hollywood about Dick Cook suddenly stepping down from heading the Mouse's film division...

Key among these is Johnny Depp, who has developed a bond over the last half decade. It's not surprising, Cook's developed that kind of trust from many people in the industry. In front or behind the camera, Walt Disney Studios chairman was liked by all and many are still shocked as to what happened. Depp did a phone interview with the Los Angeles Times Friday about the events and his relationship with Cook:
"shocked and very sad, it seems like the whole town is shocked, I didn't see this coming. There was no reason to see this coming."

"the sweetest man on the planet and such a gent."

"He is the utmost gentleman, so he made the call himself. He said, 'I'd like you to hear it from me before you hear it from someone else or read it,' He said today was my last day. He didn't give me a reason."

"He's instantly trustworthy. And you generally don't meet people at the studios you trust, he's a rare beast."
And his comment about his feelings for a new "Pirates of the Caribbean" film shows he's temporarily a little less enthused:
"There's a fissure, a crack in my enthusiasm at the moment, it was all born in that office."
And he still believes that he'll work with/for Cook again, just not at Disney:
"He will be somewhere and I will always look forward to working with him. I consider Dick a friend inside an insane system. He's someone I understand and I think he understands me."
And he's not the only one, big producer Scott Rudin, whose production company has a first-look deal with Disney Studios:
"I'm completely shocked - as is literally everybody I've spoken to,"
According to Nikki Finke of Dateline Hollywood, Spielberg is supposedly devastated that Dick Cook's gone. Cook was a major reason why Spielberg and Stacey Snider decided to go with Disney on DreamWorks new distribution deal. "Steven worships Dick Cook," a DreamWorks insider told Finke.

He was instrumental in working out this new deal with Guillermo del Toro and his new label at Disney. He seems to know what the company is lacking and has tried to attract talent that seems to have their finger on the pulse of what audiences like.

Cook also is supposedly on very friendly terms with Lasseter ever since the Pixar deal went through, I wonder what John thinks of all this? Having Cook by his side was a very reassuring thing for Lasseter and Ed Catmull. How will the new leader deal with Lasseter? Granted, John Lasseter is a big fish, and he pretty much gets his way, but it helps having those around you that you know you can trust. Cook was one of those guys, but we don't know if the next guy/gal will be.

You can see these people have a great deal of loyalty to Dick Cook, as do so many countless others. Relationships in Hollywood, true relationships, not the plastic kind, are hard to come by. Walt Disney Studios had something going for it with a leader that was so trusted. It'll be a very difficult challenge for Iger to find someone with the cache of credibility Cook had.

Here's crossing our fingers and wishing for the best for both Disney and Cook...

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Honor Hunter is the Shawn Hannity of Disney.

Honor Hunter said...

That's Sean Hannity of Disney...

We report, you decide. ;P

Anonymous said...

Hey The Walt Disney Family Museum opens on October 1st, 2009.
http://secure3.gatewayticketing.com/WaltDisneyFamilyMuseum/shop/Calendar.aspx?SalesChannelDetailID=16&Merchant=WDFM&CategoryGroupExternalID=WDFMWS&CategoryExternalID=TKTS

Anonymous said...

Well so much for all the great talents Disney has acquired this year. They'll all be leaving by the end of the year! Bye bye Tim Burton, Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, Guillermo del Toro and Johnny Depp, even Steven Spielberg. So much for the reason all of these directors and actor have come aboard is because of Cook. Very stupid Mr. Iger very stupid. Sounds like the CEO was threatened by Cook. Sounds like Iger is a big baby, and behaving like Eisner!!!

Anonymous said...

You are so wrong, Anonymous #2!

Shut up and quit it with the freakin' doom-and-gloom predictions!!!

People like you really know how to p*ss others off...

Woodrow said...

Wounds can be healed. Which I pray is the case at least for the next take to the sea on stranger tides.

My only question is: Why did this have to wait until Narnia was lost to Fox? I'm still disappointed, but I wish Mr. Cook well in his new adventures.

Johnny C of da Marz said...

People are shocked for now. That won't last.

I'd like to suggest to Disney that they should scale down production on their movies. Concentrate on two-three in-house productions at a time. Only one or two with studios they are partnered with (bruckheimer\dreamworks).
Ideas should be developed internally as in Tron Legacy and John Carter. Not as many from the outside and brought in.

Aslan said...

Narnia sucked balls.

Anonymous said...

Well so much for all the great talents Disney has acquired this year. They'll all be leaving by the end of the year!

I doubt it. Just write them a slightly larger check, and they'll be happily back at work.

From what I understand, the plan is to develop fewer movies internally, and have the divisions they own (ie. Marvel, Dreamworks, Bruckheimer, Pixar, Disney Animation) make up the bulk of their film schedule. Considering the quality of Disney's own live action films over the last few decades, I can't blame them.

Bob and Rob Professional American Writers said...

From personal experience, one of the nicest guy in the industry. I saw him in the parking structure last week driving by in his SUV...I'm not sure if he registered that we'd met a few times, or not, but that wouldn't matter to him, as he offered-up a big Dick Cook grin, because that's the kind of guys he is. Pretty stunned, Bob

Anonymous said...

book book play

Anonymous said...

The picture above the post could be captioned Captain Cook, but that would be silly.
Seriously though, this is a bit of a surprise, but not too shocking considering the performance of their recent movies.

Doopey said...

Narnia did not "suck balls," but they sure botched the release of "Prince Caspian" and allowed the relationship with Walden Media to sour beyond repair.

Given the uneven performance of the studio the last couple of years this is not a complete shock, but the way it was handled seems very "Eisner-like" which is NOT a good thing.

Aslan said...

Narnia did suck balls.
Walden Media are hacks.
Disney is better off without.
Good luck to whoever partners with Walden in future.

2.0 and beyond said...

Well, while Narnia may not have reached "sucked balls" level, it WAS a really weak overall production. Outside of Bruckheimer's Pirates movies, Disney hasn't been very adept in the action/adventure genre.

To put Narnia in perspective, it was Disney's Black Hole of fantasy films.