Nikki Finke had an interesting post the other day on Warners’ supposed discomfort with funny stuff:
Who cares if Warner Bros just signed a 3-year/first-look deal with Steve Carell? Because everyone in Hollywood knows that Jeff Robinov and Alan Horn have no sense of humor. So they’ll waste him in unoriginal mainstream crap. (Don’t expect anything similar to The 40 Year Old Virgin. Horn is such a PC dipstick that he won’t allow the studio to make low cost/big box office Judd Apatow-type laughers rated R.) And Russell Crowe confirmed this during last night’s appearance on Letterman. The actor explained that his soon-to-be-released film Body Of Lies contained “my favorite line I ever delivered in a movie. But it’s not in the film. They took it out. I think that Warner Bros executives had an attack of taste.”
The post goes on to quote the line and why it was removed, and we can see why some might think the PTB were being a little sensitive. Apply to WB’s superhero movies as desired.
Well, that seems to kill the chances for a LOBO movie any time soon.
I’ve read Finke’s columns, and she’s pretty humorless herself. I don’t know how anyone can cover an industry they have such contempt for. Life is too short!