Hollywood Execs Continue To Ignore The HBO Formula...

Subtitle: "...And they're stupid enough to still wonder why no-one likes their crap anymore."

Last month, Zogby conducted a poll in which most respondents said that "poor movie selections" are a main reason why they're not interested in paying to see theatrical films. "High ticket prices" tied for first place, actually. Meanwhile, 45 percent of adults said that they're seeing fewer movies than they did five years ago. It doesn't require a anything other than good taste to figure out why.

Most movies really, really suck.

To be fair, there's a pile of most excellent films that have been recognized this year by the Academy: Borat (Best Adapted Screenplay), The Departed (Best Picture), Letters From Iwo Jima (Best Picture) and United 93 (Best Film Editing) to name a few. Oscar nominated films and almost all of the truly great films are produced by filmmakers who are allowed to do what they do best, for better or self-indulgent worse, without the stink of corporate studio meddling, incomprehensible notes or focus group participants who, scientists say, have just recently learned to employ their opposable thumbs to self-drain their drool cups. That is, when they're not getting their tongues inexplicably stuck to the backs of their old W'04 bumper stickers.

Most studios, especially now, have failed to honestly embrace a truly hands-off creative approach to their films and hired filmmakers. Instead, studio executives aimlessly stagger around Hollywood in search of either something good to steal, or a promising work-in-progress to ruin; their Blackberries overflowing with derivative ideas -- every major studio slowly self-destructing in a massively expensive circle jerk of nepotism, mismanagement and nearsightedness. The same can be said for television, the news media and almost every other format of traditionally produced moving picture.

And here's what they seem to be completely missing: HBO. Or, rather, they're seeing HBO but stealing all the wrong things.

HBO has assembled a staff of executives who appear to possess an almost unfailing ability to recognize unique and visionary creative minds. The HBO people hire creative producers -- Ball, Milch, David, Shandling, Gervais/Merchant, Baron Cohen, Maher -- and then... HBO let's them play. This, to me, should always be the primary role of every studio executive: find the great talent, give them a budget and then back the fuck off. You've hired a top shelf creator, so let him or her create.

But it's expensive to make movies and shows and since they're putting up the money, they should be allowed to play dress-up and pretend to be filmmakers, no? No.

There will always be a huge financial risk, but it all comes down to who makes the decisions. Would notes ameliorate the financial risk on a show like, say, Deadwood any more than it would by allowing David Milch to find his own way to perfection? Again, if you hire a superior talent, it's very likely that talented person will tirelessly rise to the occasion. They didn't hire an unoriginal hack who takes risks because he can. They hired David Milch who takes creative risks because he should. The idea demands it. And that, more often than not, will breed success, at least more so than notes given by an executive who's trying to justify his or her salary, or an executive who's playing office politics, or an executive who has a personality conflict with the filmmaker, or an executive who's bitter because he still hasn't learned to empty his own drool cup.

HBO's creator-driven formula has succeeded. And there's no reason it can't happen elsewhere. Unfortunately, networks tend to stumble blindly over the meat of HBO's success and pruriently misjudge HBO as "the place where they can say the word 'motherfucker.'" So naturally, when The Sopranos broke through, you could almost hear the whispers from other network executives: It's because they can show graphic violence and say fuck. I wish we could say fuck, then we'd have a hit! Maybe then I wouldn't have to fail upwards, and I could actually succeed on my own talent.

Insanely set in their ways, network rubbernecks refused to accept that The Sopranos was successful because HBO hired David Chase to make a great show and, left to his own devices, he -- SHOCK! -- made a great show.

Here's another example: The Incredibles. I tend to repeat this running mantra to anyone who suffers through my rants about animation: Brad Bird could've made The Incredibles with stick figures and sock puppets and it would've been just as awesome. Three reasons: it was a perfectly crafted story with compelling characters; Pixar hired The Brad Bird to tell his story; and then Pixar freed him to make the movie according to his own design. Similar to the misperceptions about HBO, competing studios harrumphed and probably attributed its success to the popularity of CG. The popularity of CG movies had a little something to do with the success of The Incredibles, but it was the elegant story, the jokes, the action (the 100-mile Dash sequence kills me every time) and the characters that made it one of the best animated movies ever released. If those elements weren't there, it would've failed. In the end, awesome CG can't totally fix an ill-conceived story (there are many examples of this, but I'll take the high road... in my pod racer).

There's no doubt that Hollywood, if it looks hard enough, can find several hundred HBO-caliber auteurs and creators to write and direct its movies every year instead of the usual roundelay of hacktastical dinguses. But they have to follow the HBO rule: hire the very best filmmakers and then... shut the fuck up. These men and women aren't hard to find. Hell, start by watching HBO original series then write down the names of the writers and directors. And if you want to look like a genius, don't tell anyone. Have you seen Showtime's amazing series Dexter? I counted at least three former HBO people in the cast alone.

Next, the studios have to fire any executive who thinks they can do better than the filmmakers they hire. The only creative mandate of an executive's job should be to recognize creative greatness. Also known as good taste. Then stop. Surely there will be failures, though I can't imagine movies any worse than Basic Instinct 2, You, Me & Dupree or Epic Movie. But simultaneously, there will be more successes like Borat, Thank You For Smoking, Talladega Nights and Little Miss Sunshine.

Many more theaters, and far fewer drool cups, will be filled as a result.