Warner Production President Says He Is Still Committed to Women

Anne Thompson reports in today's Variety that Jeff Robinov, who was accused over the weekend of having said he is not interested in making films with female leads, is still committed to making films with women in them.

"Citing such Warners hit chick flicks as Cinderella Story and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (a sequel is in the works), Robinov said he is still in the business of making pics with women."

Well, good for him. But I am not convinced.

To me, both the films cited above are what I call "tween chick flicks" -- where the stars are young women -- like Hillary Duff in Cinderella Story and the quartet from Sisterhood which includes America Ferrera (it seems that her rise in stature due to Ugly Betty star is what pushed this sequel into production), Blake Lively (now on the CW's vile Gossip Girl), Alexis Bledel (late of Gilmore Girls), and Amber Tamblyn (Stephanie Daley - have you rented that yet?) And, Sisterhood was adapted from the famous teen novel by Ann Brashares.

While lovely, the actresses cited above are young, most not even in their mid-20s, so Robinov actually confirms my theory that in Hollywood you can make films with strong, female leads on the condition that those leads be young women and targeted towards a younger demographic. I can't believe that he would even think that those two films cited above would show that he is committed to women.

The other films he cites as "women's films" (my italics) co-star men except for Spring Breakdown about 20-somethings on spring break (sounds really stupid to me) The other are an adaptation of Nights in Rodanthe from a Nicholas Sparks novel starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere and Fool's Gold staring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. Women will also be thrilled to learn that there will be a female character included in the The Justice League and Watchmen (gee, that sounds like a movie about women)

I think he really believe that the slate above is representative of women and that women should feel satisfied that Warner Brothers is still pro-woman. I think he just dug a deeper hole for himself.

This post first appeared here.

Comments

[kjacobsmeyer]

Considering that the audience that sees a movie when it opens is most important for studios (and that audience is primarily young males or tweens), this doesn't surprise me as much. That a male studio head would actually tell the truth outside the boardroom, does.

Warner Bros. isn't the only studio making films. Amy Pascal and Stacey Snider head Sony and Dreamworks. Furthermore, if the common woman really wants to spark some change, she'll help raise kids not to have the attention span of a gnat, not using mass media and video games as a babysitter and refuse to give them disposable income to see the same stupid movies over and over and over again the same weekend (which is what rules the minds of studio heads like Robinov. In the end, it's all about $$$).

[mommadona]

"You talkin' to ME, eh? You talkin' to me?? Go away, little boy, ya bother me...."
~one irritated old woman to the head of Warner who will never get one dime again for being such an obvious male jackass.