View this email in your browser The Newsletter Hollywood Loves to Hate and Hates to Love

Richard Rushfield, Editor-in-Chief



One of Fast Company's "9 Newsletters to Make You Smarter" LASSEDAMMERUNG! Welcome to Hollywood's own up and coming daily newsletter, your round-up and dissection of the day's parade in the business, featuring news, gossip, amazing tidbits and fearless, pointed analysis. If you have any comments, responses or retorts, let us know at richard@theankler.com And please if you enjoy The Ankler pass this email on to your friends and colleagues! Forward Share Tweet 1. DISNEY'S LAW OF THE JUNGLE CRUISE



The moment of decision approaches on the Fate of John Lasseter. At stake is more than the management of one animation division. This is the precedent-setting crossroads: On the line here is whether Me Too remains on the march or starts to be swept under the red carpet. Not to mention, incidentally, the fates of two or three studios. After an initially blasé reaction, the battle has been raging over the past week with increasing volume inside and out, as a social media Stop John movement has gained traction. Over the past few days, the #LoseLasseter hashtag has been catching fire on Twitter; contributors include people from across the animation industry and even, shockingly for a company that brooks no public dissent, some Disney employees sprinkled in among the protesters. (I’ll let you find them yourself rather than draw undo attention to them.) And now, because of one obscure pebble in the galaxy of Disney merchandise--a grain of sand amidst the dunes of Tatooine if you will—a decision must be made at the worst possible moment for Disney. How much of history hangs on accidents of timing. It’s a cruel irony that the fate of empires should hang on something as frivolous as a tribute album to Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise ride, and more to the point, the accompanying CD tribute to the unscripted banter of the Cruise tour guides. But such is the tragedy of empires. The album in question is due out in just one month, on July 3. Here is a description of its contents according to its Amazon page: Enjoy the pun-omenal jokes written by the Walt Disney Imagineers and the Jungle Cruise skippers from the world-famous Jungle Cruise attraction. Guests board a boat and travel with a witty and experienced skipper to exotic rivers of the world, and leave smiling with memories of their vibrant voyage. In this book, Erwin Madrid's original illustrations accompany the jokes of the classic attraction, and together they steer readers deeper and deeper into lush lands filled with adventures, animals, and laughs. The included CD, featuring narration by John Lasseter, invites people to relive the rollicking journey or experience the magic for the very first time as they read. Ah, yes. That John Lasseter.



According to an Ankler Friend on the inside, when the Lasseter news broke last November, most of the album and the art around it had already been completed. But as more and more came out, some people involved in the project began to feel uneasy about the notion that the executive with such unsavory stories now circulating about him should be fronting a children’s storybook and record. People involved in the project created new art that removed his face from the package. When higher-ups learned about that the overhaul, fireworks broke out between the senior Lasseter loyalists at the top and those working on the album project. Now with the release date a month away, just as the Harvey Weinstein indictment came along and put Me Too back front and center and reminded the world what this had all been about, a decision looms. So as to the question – who gives a damn about a damn Jungle Cruise tribute album? Why not bury the project under a mountain of Elsa and Anna diapers and move on? In the corporate scheme of things, the album itself is of no importance. This isn’t ESPN after all. But within the company, the battle over this album has been allowed to rage until it’s taken on an importance beyond itself. The decision about whether or not to airbrush John Lasseter, THE John Lasseter, out of a Disney product will signal to the troops which why the company is planning to go on the bigger decision. It’s become battle by proxy over the larger question if you will, and the decision on this could trigger the road to that denouement. For IP Bob Iger, dealing with his seven plagues of 2018 , this couldn’t be happening at a worse moment. After the return in streamlined capacity, trial balloon was floated, the path was cleared for relatively clean return. Then came the Weinstein arrest, reanimating a Me Too movement that seemed to be losing steam. And then, perhaps even more important for IP Bob’s lieutenants, there was the Roseanne debacle, which I’m told, completely overwhelmed the company’s debacle handling machinery, and necessitated that the Lasseter Question be tabled until everything calms the f - down. But now, whatever the right and wrong, this is not, as many suggest, a cost-free decision, a cost-free decision for IP Bob. John Lasseter remains a man who has created untold billions of dollars of value for Disney. Along with Kevin Feige and Kathleen Kennedy (as of last week with a question mark over her division) he is the most valuable player in film today. Would a new animation chieftain fill his shoes as well, or better? Maybe! You don’t know until you try but with any new manager, there’s always a more than zero chance that they’ll turn out to be a disaster, for a myriad of reasons. Disney can’t just will John Lasseter into non-existence. If they get rid of him, what other studios struggling with their own animation units would be willing to take the heat to get him at their helms? (I can name at least three). And not only studios, how about Head of Netflix animation? Hulu? Or what about Apple? I recall he’s got some contacts there. A successful animation division, let’s recall, isn’t just like having better signage in the parking structure; these movies and all that comes with them are the foundations for an entire modern studio. What is Universal minus Illumination? It’s not a coincidence that the two studios we consider in vigorous health right now are the two with the most successful animation divisions. So better yet, a dispatched Lasseter can pick up the phone, or even just wave his desk lamp at the phone and have a gazillion dollars in VC money air-dropped on his desk to start up his own animation company. A gazillion dollars he can use to hire away his loyalists from Disney/Pixar. Yes, there’s lots of people who wouldn’t work for him, but if he’s waving billions + stock options around, I’ll bet there’s a few who would. Most important, what do any of the above scenarios do to the Disney stock price? In a month where it's already reeling. That’s the same stock price that you have to use to fund the Fox purchase and fend off Comcast’s cash offer, on the table, awaiting a decision, also as it happens – right this minute. Could a Lasseter Lurch be the hit that kills off the merger? Terrible choices if you’re IP Bob. A terrible price to pay for having to protect your employees and make them feel safe and respected in your workplace. It almost must make one wish they’d dealt with these issues when they first heard about them. As for John Lasseter, awaiting his fate amidst the rain of Disney’s Seven Plagues, I can only think of that warning the Jungle Cruise guides give as they enter headhunter territory. “We are now entering the most dangerous part of our journey. Shhh. Keep your voices down. This is a bad place to be headed.” 2. CRAZY LIKE A BOX OFFICE: SOLO YOU CANT GET UNDER IT Alright, we’ve got the comps, the numbers, the overseas. There’s one big story from this weekend’s box office: the week that Star Wars didn’t come back. In the age when the companies are going all in on Big IP when a piece of Big IP fails, that’s cause for a little concern. So let’s just kick a few tires and think about some possible consequences and takeaways from the state of this Universe: 1. Grosses A. The Trilogy. (Worldwide)

The Force Awakens (2015): $2.06 billion

The Last Jedi (2017): $1.3 billion 2. Grosses B. Standalones. (Worldwide)

Rogue One (2016): $1.06 billion

Solo (2018): TBD - $500 million? 3. Grosses takeaways. On either track, the arrows point only one way. Granted, each case has only two data points on it, so that can turn around with one blockbuster, but so far, so alarming. And in both cases the fall-off between Film 1 and Film 2 is fairly massive. If Last Jedi was finding a new sea level after the intense excitement around Force Awakens, that would’ve been one thing. If going forward, you could count on Lucas to produce a billion-dollar film every year, that would be a happy enough result for all, particularly with it leading the charge of ancillary rev. But right now, who would put their money on that’s where we’re headed? 4. This whole thing is just looking adrift, on-screen and off. Behind the scenes, there are the director changes, the last minute scrambles, the press tours overwhelmed by explaining the messy product. For the film blogger/media world to be raising eyebrows of skepticism against Star Wars, takes a lot. And that’s where they are. On screen, prequels, standalones, new visions, fidelity to the old vision – it’s completely confused where all this is headed, both narratively and just in terms of creative vision. 5. None of it looks like its headed anyplace that connects with anyone under 40 who aren’t just in the thrall of the original films. Whatever you think about Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley's characters, the evidence that they've captured the public heartstrings as Luke, Han and Leia once did is pretty hard to find. 6. The next film may be so great that JJ wipes all that away (Things happen!) but that’s a year and a half away. In the meantime, without another at-bat, this is the perception that will hang out there. 7. While Kathleen Kennedy worked wonders relaunching this property from the abyss of the Lucas prequel trilogy and turning it into a bigger than ever all-devouring cultural force, there has to be more than some thought that it’s time for new blood at the helm. The talk out there is of a September changing of the guards. We'll see. 8. There’s also plenty of reason to believe that Kennedy herself is tiring of this. The fights, the bad press – can’t be fun after a very gilded career. The job requires constant commuting between LA and London, which also gets old. An Ankler friend points out that she elected not to stand again for the AMPAS Board of Governors, even though she had not been termed out, suggesting that someone who has been omnipresent at poohbah conclaves for forty years now may finally be looking to scale back. And really, having made the big step of relaunching Star Wars, how much more is there to look forward to from here? 9. All that said, the whole point of these giant IP Universes is that once you get them off the ground, they were supposed to be immune from the ups and downs of fortunes that affect more mortal, standalone movies. If these movies have to each stand on their own two feet, then what’s the point? Or does it take more than five hits in a row to for a Universe to leave orbit? And if so – what kind of maniac would make a plan based on scoring more than five hits in a row? 10. Or worse still: the over-exposure, whatever anyone claims, was a factor here. There is nothing to suggest that the public appetite for Star Warsing was anything but satiated when Solo came along and suggested just one more helping. Given that, is this a case when the Universe actually worked against the movie? 11. If they make a change at the wheel here and replace Kennedy, whether by mutual choice or what have you – that’s getting to be a hell of a lot of mishegas for a company in the middle of a tumultuous transition preparing for the Great Entertainment Semi-Finals AND a merger with another studio? John Skipper, the Roseanne imbroglio, whatever happens with John Lasseter, and then – Kathleen Kennedy? How many of these make people start asking, is there a problem higher up the chain here? 12. Not what you want to be dealing with on the week Howard Schultz kicks off his Presidential campaign. 3 . RICHARD NIXON PLAYS PIANO ON THE TONIGHT SHOW Just finding the Ankler? Subscribe today and join the newsletter that's got Hollywood in a tizzy. 4. MAILBAG: A READER WEIGHS IN ON SOLO Richard,



Regarding #5 on the Solo breakdown; Toy sales have bombed since The Last Jedi and we’re declining after Rogue One. Rogue One toy sales flunked too. Isn’t it obvious why? What kid wants to play with an action figure and imagine new adventures when they know the characters die at the end? Disney left a whole sub-franchise of toys killing off the Rogue One characters. Then TLJ hit and ruined Luke for so many, that toy sales are now in the dumps. I’ve lived next door to the 99cent store on Wilshire and Fairfax for 14yrs. I have never seen a Star Wars toy there ever until Rogue One. Now you see them off and on there. Good ones too. $40 figures for $8 kind of thing. They had a $100+ Millennium Falcon toy there for $20. Bottom line - This franchise cannot function as loss leaders for toys and games. Because it’s the emotional attachment to the story that makes people want to put time and energy into playing in that universe with toys and games. Unfortunately, among all the SJW bullshit complaints, Disney and LFL are really missing what has caused this: How they handled the reverence for the original trilogy three. Han gets killed off like a punk from his emo son; Luke has a complete tonal change from the guy who risked going to the dark side to save his friends, to a bitter elder man who turned his back on everyone after one failure. Worse they pulled it offscreen and expected the audience to roll with it. Leia received the least damage, but so many missed opportunities (Like Leia with a lightsaber) and now Carrie’s gone. Disney thought they could treat those three characters like a brand. Ruin their happy endings from Return of the Jedi, re-cast them with younger actors and start telling side stories. But they miscalculated the emotional connection the world has with Star Wars is not starships and lightsabers and Jedi. It’s the familial relationship established between those three characters that anchored the world audience to this universe. Think of the princess rescue/trash compactor scene in ANH. Luke’s hospital scene in ESB. Those were the moments that emotionally anchored the audience to this franchise. Disney brings them back, yet did we get one movie or even one scene with them all together? No. Then they break a 101 rule of storytelling which is to never invalidate a story/character’s happy ending. They’re lucky they’re working in a space fantasy, where anything can happen and they can fix this stuff. But they’re in such denial thinking that the backlash is only from MRA bigots that it will take IX opening like Solo to wake them from their denial. And it will happen. It cannot be understated how much damage they did with the core repeat, toy buying customers. It’s not SJW, it’s not franchise fatigue, it’s not production troubles. It’s that nobody really wanted a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford. Nobody wants to see a prequel when they know how a character dies and don’t like how he went out. And finally, there is a legit backlash from how Han and Luke were handled in TFA and TLJ. Everyone gave the Han killing a pass in TFA because no body was shown, so the benefit of the doubt was given until TLJ made it clear that he’s so dead they have to cut the scene of Luke mourning for him. I’m telling you, that’s what’s really going on. It will take IX opening dismally to wake them up and it will happen. Watch. TLJ really was that damaging. Cheers, Gary deBrown



The Ankler would love to hear and share your thoughts on the great issues of our day. Send your responses, retorts and reprimands to richard@theankler.com. Love to hear from you. 5. THE DAILY WELLS

"We were heading back to Entrada Road when a late 50ish hippie-chick type wearing a half-pound of mascara approached with the oldest and fattest Chihuahua I’ve ever seen in my life. It was as if the poor dog, who appeared to be in his mid 80s in canine years, had been eating nothing but cupcakes and french fries his entire life. I shouldn’t have said anything, but for some reason I said something about her dog being in his declining years. Mascara hippie chick stopped and turned and said, “Why did you just say that?”Me: “Sorry…it was the first thing that came into my mind.” In fact, I lied — the first thing that came into my mind was that this poor dog would most likely be dead from a heart attack within six months or even sooner, and so I translated this observation into a vague remark about dotage. “Well, I just got him from the pound,” the woman said with a steely, half-hostile smile, “and my first thought was that he’s beautiful.” I said something approving — “Sounds good!” — and we walked away. God, some people. We all understand love and compassion for mistreated animals, but the dog was clearly withered and not even close to healthy. Some things are better left unsaid. My bad." From Strange Topange Vibes at HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE THE ANKLER'S GOT PEOPLE TALKING!



Hear The Ankler talking Solo, Roseanne and

Everything Show Biz on

The Ricochet Podcast



From The NY Post















Help support an independent voice in industry coverage. Spread the word about The Ankler! IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING The Ankler looks to you! to help us be the eyes and ears of this great industry! Got a crazy email from your boss? See a major poobah have a meltdown in the commissary (or forget to tip)? Just had the worst story notes meeting of your career? Heard a rumor that the Big Guy is packing his office? Did they change the name of a conference room on your hall? As in all detective work, no tip is too small. Help The Ankler tell the world. . Send your tips to richard@theankler.com or, with end-to-end encryption on whatsapp at Richard Rushfield, or on Signal at richardrushfield. And of course, ping me on gchat at richardrushfield anytime day or night. Confidentiality guaranteed on pain of death.







EDITORIAL POLICY: If you have been the subject of a piece on the Ankler and you would like to respond, the Ankler will be delighted to print your reply in full. Please send your response to richard@theankler.com