Warner answers the 'No Female Leads' rumor
A Warner Bros rep denies that Jeff Robinov would ban movie prods with female protagonists.
On Tuesday (9 October), we posted a report, which originated on Nikki Finke’s "Deadline Hollywood," claiming that Warner Bros president of production Jeff Robinov had decreed: "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead." However, Slashfilm's PETER SCIRETTA has received an update from another source that includes Warner's first comment.
"Mr. Robinov never made that statement, nor is it his policy," a Warner rep told John at The Movie Blog. "That is not our policy. A blogger made a statement without giving us the opportunity to first respond."
Robert at IESB remarked that Robinov has a very positive reputation, but that Finke does not.
"She is at times unethical, bad intentioned, unliked by many, and she has views which are considered by many to be too extreme," conceded Sciretta. "She might draw unfounded conclusions from factual information, but she doesn’t just make stuff up."
Instead, he posited the believable theory that Robinov may have made an off-the-cuff statement in a meeting.
"No matter what was said behind closed doors," concluded Neil at FilmSchoolRejects, "the official public position of Warner Bros. is that they will not be using any gender profiling techniques when choosing who will be taking top billing on future projects. So that’s good news. At least, that’s what they’d have us believe."