Posted by Will Reynolds. Last modified on October 6th, 2007 at 11:14am

The Warner Bros Woman Haters Club

robinovI don’t know how true this is, because having read the originating article for this story it may just be Chinese whispers, but I’ll assume it’s genuine for the purposes of this article.

The studio’s president of production Jeff Robinov (the little bald guy on the right) has apparently issued a very bizarre mandate:

“We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead.”

The reason for this is apparently down to the poor box office performances of Jodie Foster’s THE BRAVE ONE and Nicole Kidman’s THE INVASION. If that’s the case then it’s a little baffling, can you really blame a female lead for the failure of those movies?

THE BRAVE ONE was yet another revenge thriller - a genre that has been done to death - and making the protagonist a woman is also nothing new (seen KILL BILL, Mr Robinov?). THE INVASION had severe production problems and went through multiple re-shoots and directors, plus isn’t it the second or third remake of this particular idea?

The studio has been successful with movies like 300 (bewilderingly a movie that was both macho and extremely gay) and less so with more sensitive, flimsy action films like SUPERMAN RETURNS. Plus, four quadrant action movies with female leads have bombed – though I’d attribute the failure of CATWOMAN, AEON FLUX and ELEKTRA to the fact they all had terrible scripts and clueless directors.

Robinov’s thinking is closed minded, lacking in ambition, sexist and one of the reasons why we get so many pointless remakes and sequels. I’d point him to KILL BILL and Jennifer Garner’s ALIAS to show him that original, high concept ideas with female leads can work. Both those properties were propped up guys with a modicum of talent in Quentin Tarantino and JJ Abrams whereas the two movies Robinov sights as failures were Joel Silver quickies.

Interestingly, Jessica Biel recently turned down the role of Wonder Woman in the JUSTICE LEAGUE movie, perhaps one of her reasons was because the studio wouldn’t guarantee that they’ve give her a spin-off feature. On this evidence I don’t think we’ll ever get a WONDER WOMAN movie while Robinov is running Warner Bros.

source – deadline hollywood daily

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6 Comments »

  1. Geez, what’s next? Saying you won’t do any more movies with blacks in the lead if Denzel/Tyrese/Will Smith’s next film flops?

    And how many flops does a particular demographic get before the studio declares that group no longer saleable?

    Does Russell Crowe’s three flops in a row mean he doesn’t get to headline any more films? If we’re going to excluded entire groups based on that then we have to do them all, right?

    Right?

    Comment by JaySmack | October 6, 2007

  2. They’ll change this policy once there’s a big hit movie with a female lead. I think it’s partly to do with there not being many female writer/director/producers out there.

    It shows why WB are a lame studio, they follow trends instead of trying to set them. It’s sad because in most walks of life you’d get fired for this type of thing.

    Comment by Will Reynolds | October 6, 2007

  3. Is’nt Warners run by a load of Homosexuals anyway? You’d think think they’ed have Barbra Steisand in ever picture!!
    Yeah man, Yentil for Wonder Woman! Yentil for Wonder Woman!!

    Comment by The Glove | October 6, 2007

  4. Wow, those are some extremely insulting comments.

    I really worry about Warner Brothers. They are almost using this as an excuse to cover their own failures with Catwomen and the like.

    Pushing ahead with the Justice League movie again seems like a desperate move from them and like I keep telling people, they thought Catwoman was a great idea only 4 years or so ago, so when they say they have a killer script here you to take it with a grain of salt.

    They have some clueless people running their studio.

    Jaysmack,

    3 Russell Crop flops?

    A Good Year - undoubtedly.

    3:10 to Yuma - a disappointment but not a flop. The movie will make it’s money back mainly thanks to his name, I would argue. I consider a flop to be when the movie is in the red, and Yuma wouldn’t end up that way.

    Cinderella Man - see above. Infact if you consider worldwide gross, it made a slight profit.

    1 flop and two disappointments.

    Comment by Matt Holmes | October 7, 2007

  5. [...] further than I thought it ever would. If you aren’t familiar with any of this then check out my initial article and Matt’s follow [...]

    Pingback by Obsessed With Film » Warners Bros vs. Women – Round 2 | October 10, 2007

  6. [...] all heard the rumours about Warners’ aversion to making action films with women and Jessica Biel turned the role down because she wasn’t guaranteed her own [...]

    Pingback by Obsessed With Film » RIP Wonder Woman | October 29, 2007

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