When The Hollywood Media Admits There Are Problems...

If The Hollywood Reporter is reporting on the problems in the movie industry, then things must really be bad. Jamie Lee Curtis Has Some Ideas on How to Protect the Film Industry

This article is mostly about a movie Curtis produced, and had a small part in, but if you get far enough in, you find the bit on the decline of Hollywood.

Curtis’s fast rise as a power producer has given her a front-row seat to the anxieties and struggles of the industry she grew up in. “I see the lists of actors who are available for work, and when you start going down these lists, these are people who have starred in movies, had their own TV series — and they’re willing to go on tape for a small part in either your movie or your TV show,” she says. “It is a desperate time. There is very little work available.” She worries about “consolidation” — referring, no doubt, to Paramount’s impending acquisition of Warner Bros. — and recently reposted a criticism of Timothée Chalamet’s viral comments about preferring to work in movies versus ballet and opera, art forms that he said are fueled by strained efforts to “keep this thing alive.”

Now why could that be? They told half or more of their audience to go away, and then were shocked when they went away. They stopped hiring based on merit, and started hiring based on what boxes you check in the demographic Olympics, and are now insulted if you say that the stuff they produce is bad. (It is bad.) Or they call you names for not liking stuff because it was created this group of that group. They hit you over the hear with The Message™ at every juncture, and don't understand why we don't want to consume the slop.

And Curtis does go to bat for ballet, but really when was the last time you listened to an opera, let alone attended a live performance, or went to the ballet?

Now some people are trying to do something about the decline. Zachary Levi is currently trying to build a studio in Texas, outside of the Hollywood bubble. He compared it to United Artists in a panel discussion I saw. A place where art would be allowed to be the goal, not just the over-produced slop we get from Disney with Marvel and Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and DC, and the like. Something aside from sequels, prequels, etc. (If you watch that video from Zachary L, at that link, you will see why it won't be mentioned by the Hollywood media.)