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06.14.07, 09:02 AM #1
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Projectionist pans movie, loses job
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- A projectionist at a Memphis, Tennessee, theater chain has lost his job after writing an unauthorized early review of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" for the Web site Ain't It Cool News.
Jesse Morrison, the projectionist, claims that the film's distributor, 20th Century Fox, was behind the decision by Malco Theatres Inc. to suspend him for an undetermined period. The studio denied the charge.
While studios and filmmakers have endured early reviews of their movies, both negative and positive, on Web sites since the early days of the Internet, the incident might mark the first time someone working in the entertainment industry has lost a job for voicing an early opinion online.
On Saturday, http://www.AintItCool.com posted a negative review by Morrison (writing under his online moniker Memflix) under the headline "Memflix crushes all hope for 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.' "
A 29-year-old film, video and journalism major at the University of Memphis, Morrison worked for $7 an hour at the Ridgeway Four, next door to Malco's home office. He picked up further compensation by readying movie prints for exhibitor and press screenings, which allowed him during the past year to write reviews of such movies as "Disturbia," "Vacancy" and "Spider-Man 3" for Ain't It Cool. He also wrote reviews for Malco's movie blog and a circular distributed at the theater.
On Monday, two days after his "Silver Surfer" pan appeared, Morrison was called into a meeting with Malco senior VP Jimmy Tashie and, according to Morrison, was "suspended until further notice," with the suggestion that he would not be asked to return.
Morrison said Tashie pointed out that "20th Century Fox called them that morning and threatened to take away the press and trade screenings because of this whole thing. They were upset."
Asked if Fox had any role in the suspension, Tashie said: "Absolutely none." The executive said his company received a call from Fox that said "there's somebody there working for (Malco) who is writing reviews in advance. That's all they said. No one asked us to do anything. We have been in business 95 years, and this is the first time anything like this happened. And this boy knew what he was doing was the wrong thing. ... He was in a position of trust and he violated that trust."
Drew McWeeney, known as "Moriarty" on the Ain't It Cool site, picked up Morrison's cause. Amid two positive reviews for the new movie, he championed Morrison's right to free speech and wrote: "He's written many reviews for us before, but when he wrote one for 'Fantastic Four,' Fox went into hypersensitive overdrive. They tracked him down and had him fired, threatening to pull their business from the entire chain over that review."
Sources inside Fox denied the studio's involvement, saying that the disciplinary action was beyond their reach and was the theater chain's decision.
Some entertainment companies, including film productions, do ask workers to sign confidentiality agreements, agreeing not to disclose information. Morrison said he had never been asked to sign such an agreement, though he would have if asked.
"If they had sat me down and told me that this has caused such a stink and that we would like you to sign some waiver, I probably would have signed it," Morrison said. "In my opinion, they used strong-arm tactics. I don't regret going on my Web site or Ain't It Cool at all. I just wish it hadn't come to this, but I don't really believe I did anything wrong."
Tashie said: "In the future, anybody in that position will sign something."
A number of Ain't It Cool readers have rallied to Morrison's cause, some even offering him jobs like a cameraman gig in Mexico.
Morrison said he is weighing his options. "I'm hoping to get a job as a professional movie reviewer, but I don't know what's going to happen with that. I guess you could say I'm at some kind of crossroads right now.""Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.” -- Gen. George S. Patton
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06.14.07, 09:10 AM #2
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Achievements:
That's BS
"What we are dealing with here, is a complete lack of respect for the law" - Jackie Gleason, Smokey and the Bandit
www.geocaching.com - The site where you are the search engine.
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06.14.07, 09:24 AM #3
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He should have known better in the first place. If he'd checked with his employer to see if it would be OK to offer online reviews of films the theater screened in the first place, he'd have some legal standing, and even admits as much by referring to the "waiver" he states he would have readily signed.
He sounds like a typical, arrogant little fuck that was using his position (job) as a means to further himself, and when caught and called upon it, rather than face up to the ramifications, cries foul.
Fuck this asshole. Here's hope the closest he get's to a job in the industry is as a fluffer in a porn flick."The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."George Bernard Shaw
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06.14.07, 09:29 AM #4
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Well my son loved the first one so guess we'll wait til the dvd comes out for this second one.
I was wondering what the title of this thread meant. I thought it had something to do with using a camera incorrectly. You know, pan to the left, pan to the right?
Shutting up now.RIP - Classic Van Halen
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06.14.07, 10:01 AM #5
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Just my own opinion but the first movie was awful and this second one looks to be as bad or worse although the scenes with the Silver Surfer appear to visually do the character justice.
The Fantastic Four movie(s) are a prime example of a studio by committee making a lot of unneccesary changes in the main characters to try and appease what they think today's target audience will better appreciate. Making Mr Fantastic a younger geekish guy and the Thing basically a lumpy orange guy in a rubber suit are two big examples. Dumbing down the script with mawkish attempts at humor is another biggy. The Spiderman, X-Men (first two movies anyway), new Batman and Superman "reboot" movies and good examples of how to succesfully update these mid 20th Century pop icons for 21st century audiences.
As for this guy posting a review from his "insider" position. IMO, he took the risk, he's paying the price. 'Nuff said.
T.B.
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06.14.07, 10:03 AM #6
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Hey I didn't care for them, my son's the one who likes the movie.
RIP - Classic Van Halen
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06.14.07, 11:03 AM #7
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Wait a second, Fantastic Four 2 sucked??? That's impossible.
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06.14.07, 02:36 PM #8
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06.14.07, 11:57 PM #9
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I dunno. The clips I've seen of SS look decidely nonrealistic. Yeah,
I know these aren't realistic flix, but the SS was a guy, right, and not
a robot or something?
Same problem I have with Spiderman. I can never for a second believe
that that's Toby McGuire swinging through the city, because it's so obvioulsy
not even close. Oh well. Back to the Batman thread. That looks to be
awesome.
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06.15.07, 12:10 AM #10
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