{"id":33536,"date":"2019-08-13T10:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/?p=33536"},"modified":"2019-09-04T09:02:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T13:02:11","slug":"hollywood-values-betray-moviegoers-and-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2019\/08\/13\/hollywood-values-betray-moviegoers-and-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Values Betray Moviegoers and Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"
Along with the liberal creations of a right to marry and a right to an abortion, liberal attorney Leo Terrell proclaimed on the Fox News Channel that \u201cHollywood has the right\u00a0<\/em>to make a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n While there is a right to free speech in America, and no true conservative wants that right to be infringed, there are also responsibilities that Hollywood must consider. In this case, Terrell was defending the right for NBCUniversal to distribute the movie \u201cThe Hunt.\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>The movie, which was recently pulled<\/a> <\/strong>from the company\u2019s movie schedule, had been marketed as a horror story about rich, elite Americans kidnapping and hunting their \u201cdeplorable\u201d counterparts.<\/p>\n In the debate about these rights on \u201cThe Ingraham Angle,\u201d Project 21<\/a> <\/strong>Co-Chairman Horace Cooper<\/a> <\/strong>responded:<\/p>\n Why do people lose their right as a citizen to comment on these movies? These movies that are violent. These movies that have disturbing messaging.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Horace said the problem is that Hollywood is catering to an extremely small segment of the population with these movies:<\/p>\n This is the problem that Hollywood has. This fever dream on the part of a couple of writers and directors and producers to say let\u2019s just talk to a small segment of the American society and have this idea \u2013 a murder fetish.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t gonna make any money. It never is gonna make any money.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s a sign that Hollywood really is kinda out of ideas. It\u2019s really kind of pitiful when you think about it, when there are really good ideas \u2013 credible ideas \u2013 that could have been put forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And \u201cThe Hunt\u201d is not an aberration of Hollywood\u2019s get-work\/go-broke filmmaking proclivity. This film comes from the makers of \u201cGet Out\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>and \u201cThe Purge,\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>which are steeped in conspiracy about race and class divisions. Then there is also:<\/p>\n Terrell suggested \u201cThe Hunt\u201d was a victim of timing \u2013 scheduled to come out so soon after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. He cited other movies with similar problems that were later released. But Horace said all this doesn\u2019t mean that Hollywood can\u2019t make successful suspense and action movies during trying times. He mentioned \u201cDeliverance,\u201d<\/a><\/strong> a film that made over 20 times its budget in December of 1972 despite a month of war in Vietnam, terrorism in Ireland and tens of thousands dead in earthquakes in Nicaragua:<\/p>\n You remember \u201cDeliverance\u201d? It was a movie in which we took people from a particular geographical location\u2026 mixed then in and had a really, really intense, amazing movie. This isn\u2019t anything like that.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s a good thing that they decided to pull it, because at least now \u2013 the money they\u2019ve spent \u2013 they don\u2019t need to waste any more with needing to market it or anything like that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Terrell also suggested this was a \u201cfree enterprise\u201d issue, suggesting that Americans \u201clet Hollywood decide\u201d what to make and overcome of the \u201ccensorship\u201d\u00a0of people such as Horace and President Donald Trump. The President reacted to \u201cThe Hunt\u201d by calling Hollywood \u201creally terrible\u201d and doing a \u201cdisservice\u201d to the nation. Horace pointed out:<\/p>\n There\u2019s no censorship\u2026 The government hasn\u2019t said anything. The government hasn\u2019t \u2013 in any way \u2013 interfered with this piece of junk coming forward. Common sense has prevailed, and instead this movie isn\u2019t gonna see the light of day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is a \u201cfree enterprise\u201d angle Terrell didn\u2019t consider \u2013 fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. \u201cThe Hunt\u201d was being distributed by NBCUniversal, a division of the publicly-traded Comcast<\/a><\/strong>. Because of the bad decision to get behind this movie, Comcast shareholders\u2019 investment has been harmed.<\/p>\n Now any potential for making a profit from this film is gone. At the next Comcast shareholder meeting, shareholders have a legitimate reason to question the board and the corporate leadership about \u201cThe Hunt.\u201d They should ask why a company that claims<\/a> <\/strong>to be \u201cuniquely positioned to education, entertain and empower\u201d likely lost tens of millions in shareholder investment. Was this a proper use, as they claim, of \u201c[l]everaging our far-reaching storytelling platforms to educate our audiences and ignite conversations about critical issues that shape the world?\u201d<\/p>\n\n