outrage of the week: warner won’t do films with women leads

October 8th, 2007
by Laura Q
outrage-of-the-week-warner-wont-do-films-with-women-leads

I have little time to craft a suitably outraged blog post but FYO (for your outrage):

Warner Bros president of production Jeff Robinov has made a new decree that “We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead”.

When wikipedia editor Alientraveller updated the Wonder Woman entry to include this tidbit (in the context of further tabling the promised Wonder Woman movie) my thought was: “That fucker! I am no longer attending movies with Warner as the producer.” Or at least not until that asshat Jeff Robinov is fired.

read more at Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollwood Daily at the LA Weekly.

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- More blogging by Laura Q at http://lquilter.net/blog/



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Filed under TV & Film | Comments (12)

12 Responses to “outrage of the week: warner won’t do films with women leads”

  1. phantomas on October 8, 2007 3:05 pm

    I was equally outraged. A friend produced an email addres for the WB customer service (see below) and I promptly emailed.
    This is the (very prompt) reply I received:

    “Hello,
    Thank you for your email. The claims being made on blogs regarding Mr. Robinov, Warner Bros. and female casting decisions are untrue. Our 2008 film slate, which includes at least three motion pictures with female leads and casts, underscores our commitment to telling good stories regardless of gender.
    Thank you,
    Warner Bros. Customer Service”

    WB Customer service:
    http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/main/help/customer_service.jsp

    Good stories regardless of gender? I want to see it first.

  2. Laura Q on October 8, 2007 3:19 pm

    I wonder whether “untrue” means “never happened” or “we’re back-pedalling as fast as we can”?

    I also wonder what this film slate is? Films “in the 2008 slate” are probably mostly already done, or well underway; this comment is apparently addressed at “don’t even bring me any more scripts with women leads” — so we’re talking about 2009 release dates or later. That’ll make it hard to follow a story and ensure accountability.

    … at any rate, no matter what “untrue” means, or what which slate has, this has inspired a lot of useful commentary all over the intarwebs, focusing on
    * (a) the lack of hiring of female talent behind the camera;
    * (b) the constant use of untried ingenues for major roles;
    * (c) inadequate marketing of works featuring women;
    * (d) crappy scripting, dialog, and characterization for works featuring women (well — it’s true not just for works featuring women, but works featuring women have to contend with extra layers of crappiness: “this is what women want” “this is what women do” “this sounds like what a woman would say” “it’s scary to have a woman do this” and so on)

    See
    * shakespeare’s sister
    * ginmar* Jane Devin: Boycotting Warner
    * she-story: Warning Sisters About Warner Brothers
    * the hathor legacy

  3. Laura Q on October 8, 2007 3:38 pm

    Phantomas, thanks for the link to WB customer service comment form. I just posted this comment to them:

    I understand that Jeff Robinov has indicated disinterest in films featuring women, and that WB is denying those comments as “untrue”. I’d like to hear a statement from WB and/or Mr. Robinov explaining
    (1) how this story got around;
    (2) what is going to be done to correct the misapprehensions that led to this story; and,
    (3) most importantly, how WB is going to respond to the numerous suggestions from the public about ways to evaluate and improve performance of films featuring women.

    One suggestion would be to not just mention “three films” in a 2008 line-up, but to publicize and release statistics about the overall 2008 line-up, and establish commitments to address any deficiencies or disparities that you discover as a result of this attention.

    Best regards,

    Laura Quilter

  4. Normaltrouble on October 8, 2007 4:03 pm

    Thank you for the Customer Service email. I also sent them an email.

  5. therem on October 8, 2007 7:32 pm

    This story was linked at Whedonesque yesterday, and I had the misfortune of reading it before bed. I had to force myself to stop thinking about it so I could go to sleep.

    Oh My Fucking GOD! How sexist and repugnant can you get?!?! And how STUPID? Any studio executive who says to his entire female audience, “You don’t matter”, and announces to the entire world ahead of time what he’s NOT got up his sleeve is a complete idiot. I hope that I will soon hear he’s been fired.

    Thanks for the links to other comments on this story. It’s nice to see other people getting outraged.

  6. Ide Cyan on October 8, 2007 10:19 pm

    Given that we’re just a couple of months away from 2008, and that it can take years for a movie to go through preproduction? I wouldn’t say that having movies with female leads slated for 2008 contradicts the possibility that they’re not going to make any *more* movies with female leads, once the current batch is finished.

  7. BetaCandy on October 9, 2007 1:11 am

    I wonder whether “untrue” means “never happened” or “we’re back-pedalling as fast as we can”?

    I say “backpedalling.” I recently spoke to a screenwriter who’s just moved from NY to LA, and she was shocked at the resistance she received for writing her leads as women (of any color) and/or men of color. They talked about it being “limiting” to casting choices (I’ll let you make of that what you will).

    In my own limited experience in film school and actually working in film, the mantra I heard constantly was “The lead has to be a white male. That’s what the audience wants. Maybe after you’ve got a few successful movies under your belt, maybe you can try something else.”

  8. Update on Warner allegations on October 9, 2007 1:57 am

    [...] is a problem with this, as pointed out by LauraQ at Feminist SF – The Blog!: Films “in the 2008 slate” are probably mostly already done, or well underway; this comment is [...]

  9. Laura Q on October 10, 2007 3:53 pm

    Well, I followed phantomas’ example and sent my own comment (copied above). WB Customer Service was considerably slower in getting back to me than to Phantomas, which suggests that they were probably getting deluged on Monday with complaints.

    This is their response, and my response to their response:

    > On 10/10/07, Complaints wrote:
    >
    > Hello,
    > Thank you for your email. We have no idea how this story got around!
    > Someone, somewhere put it on a blog and then it became “fact”, even
    > though it’s completely untrue!
    >
    > Thank you,
    >
    > Warner Bros. Customer Service

    A lot could be said but I restricted myself to this:

    > As I suggested below, a productive way to deal with this “untruth” is
    > by addressing the specifics (having Mr. Robinov issue a statement
    > categorically denying the allegations), and the substance of the
    > complaint (having WB do some proactive work to ensure that no
    > hidden bias is or has been enacted).
    >
    > Best regards,
    >
    > Laura Quilter

  10. BetaCandy on October 11, 2007 12:58 am

    Or the ultimate way to deal with it: prove us wrong by making some good movies with good female leads.

  11. Laura Q on October 11, 2007 12:26 pm

    hear, hear.

  12. Cheryl’s Mewsings » Blog Archive » Feminist Rant Time on October 27, 2007 8:01 pm

    [...] the Feminist SF Blog I discover that Warner Brothers will no longer be making films with female leads. Apparently they [...]

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