David Zaslav says okay, fine, the writers are “right about almost everything”
Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav remains one of Hollywood's most hated executives, continues to put his foot in his mouth
Aux News Zaslav
If you were a wealthy Hollywood executive who had inadvertently become the face of studio greed, you might want to resist commenting on the relative salaries of the laborers with whom you were recently locked in a long-term battle. Yet Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav can’t help himself. “They are right about almost everything,” he says of the writers strike in a recent The New York Times profile. He’s doing well so far, but then: “So what if we overpay? I’ve never regretted overpaying for great talent or a great asset.”
Oh, brother. Despite the Times profile suggesting Zaslav wanted to be a bridge between executives and creatives during the strike, it seems the big boss can’t help but sneak in a majorly backhanded compliment. The backlash online to this “overypaying” remark was swift. “[Dude] really has the gall to say this shit after the strikes, fucking billionaire asshat,” tweeted Moonrise Kingdom’s Jared Gilman. “Hahaha! WE’RE overpaid?! The strike is over and he’s still giving us material,” posted The Tick writer and WGA strike captain Susan Hurwitz Arneson. “It’s not an overpay. The money belongs to the workers in the first place,” wrote New Girl writers room alum Nick Adams.
Zaslav immediately positioning himself as a villain (inadvertently or otherwise) as soon as both strikes ended is pretty typical of him, as the New York Times profile lays out. It’s a portrait of a man who wants to be part of the Hollywood scene, to entrench himself in the tradition of a grand studio legacy, and to be part of the future of entertainment. Except the Zaslav way is to slash and burn while throwing nouveau riche parties with seemingly little awareness of the bad optics at every turn.
Take his company’s latest move, to shelve a completed Wile E. Coyote movie that was apparently testing well with audiences. In the wake of the resolved strikes, the decision reminded everyone why Zaslav and W.B. got such a bad rap on the picket lines in the first place. And though the movie may end up being saved from total obscurity after all, he managed to alienate creatives further and outsource a fundamental W.B. property in Looney Tunes—burning bridges and tossing legacy out the window in one fell swoop.
Despite a pretty ruinous reputation and not particularly promising financials (don’t worry, the company had great cash flow during the strike), don’t expect to see Zaslav abdicate the throne any time soon, per the NYT. The W.B. board reportedly still has complete confidence in him, and “D.Z. loves running this!” his good friend Barry Diller says. “Are you kidding? He’s the happiest clam in the universe.” As for Zaslav himself, he tells the outlet, “We’ve got great assets here. Great artillery in this incredible fight. And during moments like this, maybe more than any other time, everything is possible. Everything is possible.”
26 Comments
I find writers insufferable, and people in Hollywood insufferable, but this guy manages to make himself the villain.
I’m a writer and my wife says I’m entirely suffereable. At least, I think that’s what she said.
The W.B. board reportedly still has complete confidence in himThis is the sort of thing Boards say right up until they announce that they have voted the guy out. That’s why it is known as “the dreaded vote of confidence.”
“We are behind him 100%. That is, after all, the best position from which to push someone down the stairs.”
But enough about choosing Australian Prime Ministers.
This is actually how we choose Prime Minsters down here.
The old Tom Eagleton assurance.
Ah yes. The dreaded vote of confidence.Can someone contact Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos to create a personal ship for this asshat so we can watch him get launched directly into the sun?
“It’s a portrait of a man who wants to be part of the Hollywood scene, to entrench himself in the tradition of a grand studio legacy, and to be part of the future of entertainment. Except the Zaslav way is to slash and burn while throwing nouveau riche parties with seemingly little awareness of the bad optics at every turn.”Wanting a solution completely at odds with the actions you take to get there all but ensures he will be running on a gop ticket at some point in the future.
Zaslav is awful in many ways, but I think that when he said “overpaying”, he just meant “paying writers more than I absolutely need to” in an economic sense, not “paying writers more than what they deserve” in a moral sense.
Thinking there’s a difference between the two is exactly what makes him a dick
I mean it is true that the economy allows employers to pay writers much less than they “deserve” based on merit alone. I think all Zaslav means is that he doesn’t mind paying writers more than the bare minimum he can get away with, not that he thinks writers don’t deserve more than that bare minimum. (That’s not to say his actions actually align with that sentiment—he still sucks.)
I think that’s what’s called “a distinction without a difference”.
People associate art with the people directly involved. No matter how much executives try to influence projects, no layman will associate them with any movie, show, music, etc.
To be fair, it used to be the case (like, 60+ years ago) that big-name producers were associated with their movies (Selznick! Mayer! Et cetera!) but that hasn’t really been a thing for a long time.
Also…are we pretending that people don’t know who David Geffen is?Or Suge Knight?Or Diddy?
Some names look like they should always have an exclamation point after them, and Selznick! is one of them.
They do if the producer happens to be famous. For example movies produced by Steven Spielberg always bring up his name, even if he isn’t actually the director, who often goes almost noticed by the public.
There are also your big name blockbuster producers whose movies tend to be similar despite having different directors, casts etc. Don Simpson & Jerry Bruckheimer are (or were in Simpson’s case) probably the best example
“No matter how much executives try to influence projects, no layman will associate them with any movie, show, music, etc.”I have two words for you: steampunk spider.
Yeah, but how much did he have to pay the writers to come up with this statement?
It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong, and also sometimes David Zaslav does it.
Rich Asshat Asshat
With maximal charity, I think I could see what he’s trying to say being “if we’re going to commit too many resources to one part of the process of making movies and television, the best place to do this is probably *writing* since it’s hard to make anything good from a bad script/screenplay.”But I don’t think he’s earned the benefit of the doubt.
Doesn’t admitting they were right effectively mean admitting you wasted everyone’s time (and shareholders’ money) by trying to starve them out?Like my big takeaway from the strikes is that the unions more or less won, and while they did give some concessions, those concessions strike me as the sort of things that could have been hammered out in a few weeks of negotiations.
what a fucking knob. who is this statement for? it’s certainly not going to make the writers happy that this fuckface let them strike for months knowing all along that he would cave. it’s certainly not going to make his cronies happy that he’s (ineptly) siding with labor, so what the fuck is this dipshit doing here?