Tom Rothman leaving Fox

[Tacit Ronin]

Hey now, he's written some of my favourite comics. (TV and Movies, not so much...)

He's also been been putting crap as words for a while now.

 

[I'm Old Greg]

BEST News i heard all week!

 

[georgec]

So how many movies did this guy screw up? I know there are plenty, but the two that stand out to me are X-Men 3 (fast tracked to beat Singer's Superman Returns out of spite) and Kingdom of Heaven (the director's cut is a masterpiece).

 

[dude stannis]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was essentially a film written and directed by him.

Max Payne, Hitman, Die Hard 4, the Alien vs. Predator films, other nerd properties I can't think of all felt his touch of crap.

 

[georgec]

^ LOL wow.

 

[craigdbfan]

Never forget

Spoiler

 

[Project862006]

dragonball was the biggest example of a movie made to not lose the rights

dragonball movie rights were gonna expire is why they made dBE

 

[Ultimatehero]

Rothman's approach of micro-managing directors was ruining the studios relationship with filmmakers and hurting their reputation with directors. He managed to change his attitude over the last few years.

I always said Fox (until a year back with 'First Class' and 'Rise') and NBC are two companies I would dread getting anywhere close to. So, I'm really happy to see that and anticipating where things go from here. Warner Brothers and Universal, although I'm somewhat bias lol, seem like companies where - for the most part - the creative talent brought in is trusted. And that kind of working environment is not only self-esteem building to fully tackle something without the fear of taking risks, but just knowing those 'suits' for the most part just care (even if the main producers at companies you have to watch out for lol).

I'm still wondering what would have happened to MSJ if he wasn't strung through the whole 'Daredevil' fiasco. His take on Daredevil wasn't really studio-driven (gritty, raw, dark, r rated) and was much more plot and character driven. Then came Ghost Rider which seems to be using all that was 'drilled' into his head from the DD experience rather than the kind of creative eye he seemed to be before that happened.

 

[Gianakin_]

Good riddance ang go f**k yourself, Tom.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Never forget

Spoiler

A 30 million budget.
There is no way in hell you can make a Dragonball movie for 30 million.

Edit : As someone who has seen DBZ from the very beginning to the end ( every week !) , i went and watched DB:E.
After watching the movie i finally understood the term "raped my childhood".

 

[terry78]

30 million would probably cover the cost of the CG used in about a third of the film if you were shooting an accurate DBZ flick.

 

[matrix_ghost]

30 million would probably cover the cost of the CG used in about a third of the film if you were shooting an accurate DBZ flick.

Exactly.
Seriously that movie was just bad. Like so bad "you wanna punch someone" bad.

 

[Warhammer]

I always said Fox (until a year back with 'First Class' and 'Rise') and NBC are two companies I would dread getting anywhere close to. So, I'm really happy to see that and anticipating where things go from here. Warner Brothers and Universal, although I'm somewhat bias lol, seem like companies where - for the most part - the creative talent brought in is trusted. And that kind of working environment is not only self-esteem building to fully tackle something without the fear of taking risks, but just knowing those 'suits' for the most part just care (even if the main producers at companies you have to watch out for lol).

I'm still wondering what would have happened to MSJ if he wasn't strung through the whole 'Daredevil' fiasco. His take on Daredevil wasn't really studio-driven (gritty, raw, dark, r rated) and was much more plot and character driven. Then came Ghost Rider which seems to be using all that was 'drilled' into his head from the DD experience rather than the kind of creative eye he seemed to be before that happened.

I feel for Mark Steven Johnson. I'm not saying that he would have been a great filmmaker (Ghost Rider sure as hell didn't help), but his reputation was forever tainted after Daredevil.

 

[matrix_ghost]

I feel for Mark Steven Johnson. I'm not saying that he would have been a great filmmaker (Ghost Rider sure as hell didn't help), but his reputation was forever tainted after Daredevil.

Really
I dunno about that. We've seen examples of directors making a succesful comeback after a disastrous failure. With MSJ though , especially after i saw GR , i just feel that he really isn't that great .
Hell i'd rate Joe Carnahan higher then MSJ. There are directors who , even if they get a relative amount of creative freemdom still wind up making a mediocre movie.

 

[Octoberist]

Imagine if Cowboy Bebop was made under Rothman's Fox (If he had it his way pre-2011: a nasty 90 minute, $75 million piece of crap!

 

[Warhammer]

^Thank God.

Really
I dunno about that. We've seen examples of directors making a succesful comeback after a disastrous failure. With MSJ though , especially after i saw GR , i just feel that he really isn't that great .
Hell i'd rate Joe Carnahan higher then MSJ. There are directors who , even if they get a relative amount of creative freemdom still wind up making a mediocre movie.

I see what you mean. Ghost Rider was horrible and Johnson isn't a good filmmaker at all. But at the end of the day, Daredevil was a casualty of Rothman to a degree. Ratner got a little too much flack for X-Men: The Last Stand, too. Don't get me wrong. He deserved the majority of the blame, but that film was a Rothman casualty as well and simply because he was salty at Singer.

 

[TheVileOne]

I don't hate Rothman like I used to. He's still a human being at the end of the day. But I'm not happy with how he ran the company and a lot of decisions he made messed up what could've been much better and bigger movies.

For starters what really annoyed me was how he micro-managed and ruined the Fantastic Four franchise. Then he went on talking about a reboot for Fantastic Four and said getting a cast that wasn't so bubblegum. I mean why didn't go that way the first time? You know Rothman also probably had some influence on Galactus being a giant cloud.

 

[Ultimatehero]

To me GHOST RIDER is just a pure studio film and seems like a MAJOR leap from Daredevil: Director's Cut. Also in DD he was basically saying, "but the execs were right, they showed me the way" and etc. It seems more like GR was just the result of him trying to please what execs wanted from his experience on DD. Basically they broke him.

 

[matrix_ghost]

^Thank God.



I see what you mean. Ghost Rider was horrible and Johnson isn't a good filmmaker at all. But at the end of the day, Daredevil was a casualty of Rothman to a degree. Ratner got a little too much flack for X-Men: The Last Stand, too. Don't get me wrong. He deserved the majority of the blame, but that film was a Rothman casualty as well and simply because he was salty at Singer.

Definately.
I do agree with thevileone with the fact that Rothman's micromanaging tactics have had their pros and cons. Yes he was able to keep the shareholders happy by churning out the most commercial version of a movie yet for fans the movies were just pure crap.
It's a tough business , i know. And i can understand why studios don't want to take risks. But it depends on just how you bring the movies to the audience. Many people were talking about comic book fatigue yet Marvel is still able to make movies that are both enjoyable , don't screw up comic origins and make money at the boxoffice.

 

[Gianakin_]

But it's not a matter of angering fans. Who gives a crap about us? Many Fox movies have underperformed because of his micro-management. It's not about fans, it's about the general audiences, who got mediocre (at best) products and simply didn't give those movies anything more than a barely acceptable amount of money.

In the long run, he didn't keep the shareholders happy.

 

[matrix_ghost]

But it's not a matter of angering fans. Who gives a crap about us? Many Fox movies have underperformed because of his micro-management. It's not about fans, it's about the general audiences, who got mediocre (at best) products and simply didn't give those movies anything more than a barely acceptable amount of money.

In the long run, he didn't keep the shareholders happy.

Really
I guess that's lately because Fox movies have been profitable.

 

[Octoberist]

Really
I guess that's lately because Fox movies have been profitable.

He was forced to change his ways the hard way.

After screwing up the mid-to-late 2000's with bombs like Dragon Ball, Babylon AD, Hitman, Max Payne and Street Fighter, the Fox execs sat Tom down as they read an editorial written by Aint It Cool's Moriaty (now Drew McWeeny from Hitfix) on how Fox sucks. This all happened right after the release of Wolverine. Drew confirmed that this actually happened and out came X-Men: First Class, Apes, and Prometheus. Then came the money.

after a while, there's a breaking point to Tom's cheap lowballing film strategy when the public gets wise.

 

[Gianakin_]

Well, yes, they weren't flops, but they never impressed, either. He killed a couple of franchises just as they were created and several directors were very vocal about not working for Fox again because of him (see: Babylon AD). His films may have been bringing in some profit but as a businessman he was hurting Fox in more ways than one.

 

[matrix_ghost]

He was forced to change his ways the hard way.

After screwing up the mid-to-late 2000's with bombs like Dragon Ball, Babylon AD, Hitman, Max Payne and Street Fighter, the Fox execs sat Tom down as they read an editorial written by Aint It Cool's Moriaty (now Drew McWeeny from Hitfix) on how Fox sucks. This all happened right after the release of Wolverine. Drew confirmed that this actually happened and out came X-Men: First Class, Apes, and Prometheus. Then came the money.

after a while, there's a breaking point to Tom's cheap lowballing film strategy when the public gets wise.

Makes you wonder if he still had a hand in the rushed schedule of both movies.
And Octoberist. I can see some truth in what you wrote. I wouldn't go so far to say that Prometheus success was also partially due to Ridley demanding the freedome to make the movie as he saw fit.
Remember that Fox also ****ed up Kingdom of Heaven. Which also was a Ridley Scott movie.

 

[dude stannis]

Which is why he had the upper hand during the production of Prometheus. The pitch went something like this;