By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Over a January weekend in 2010, Amy Pascal made one of the most audacious decisions of her long tenure as Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair, a nine-year run that has come to a tumultuous end.
When "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi voiced his unhappiness with plans for a fourth installment of the $2.5 billion franchise Pascal had shepherded, she abruptly changed course, ordering up one of the fastest reboots in blockbuster history.
"I wasn't troubled by it," Pascal matter-of-factly said at the time. "The Amazing Spider-Man," with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, would hit theaters less than five years after "Spider-Man 3."
The episode epitomized Pascal's boldness, a trait that served her well as the most powerful female executive force in the industry, a studio head widely respected for championing women filmmakers (like Norah Ephron and Nancy Meyers), producing ambitious awards-winners ("The Social Network"), churning out sharp comedies ("21 Jump Street") and creating some major blockbusters ("Skyfall").
But that same daring also contributed to her undoing. "The Interview," the film that provoked the North Korean hacking attack that precipitate Pascal's departure, was the kind of adventurous, star-driven film she loved to make, the kind other, less colorful executives would have surely balked at.
On Thursday, Sony announced that Pascal will step down in May, transitioning to a new production venture at the studio with a four-year contract. Pascal's contract was due for renewal in March, and her ouster was possible, maybe even likely (the "Spider-man" turnaround, for one, has underperformed and franchise-making is everything in studio-land).
But the timing was obvious enough. Coming just a few months after the massive hack hit Sony, Pascal's exit is the final blow in the messy fallout of the "Interview" scandal kicked off by hacker threats and fueled by embarrassing email leaks. It turned Pascal into a tabloid figure, tailed by TMZ cameras and pleading for forgiveness for racial remarks in emails in which she joked about President Obama's presumed taste in movies.
"In recent months, SPE faced some unprecedented challenges, and I am grateful for Amy's resilience and grace during this period," said Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, who for now becomes the temporary film production head.
Conjecture immediately began swirling at who may succeed Pascal, a Sony executive for nearly 20 years. The parent company in Japan, which has struggled in recent years, may look to shake up its movie business, or it could promote from within.
There are several strong candidates already on Sony's Culver City lot. Among them: Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrade, TriStar Pictures head Tom Rothman (head of Fox until 2012), former DreamWorks executive Michael De Luca; and Jeff Robinov, the former Warner Bros. chief whose production company Studio 8 resides at Sony.
No matter who gets the job, a new studio head will have to:
— Set a plan for "Spider-man" (Sony most recently postponed a third installment to instead ready a "Sinister Six" spinoff for next year).
— Decide on the fate of Angelina Jolie's costly "Cleopatra."
— Sort out the studio's relationship with producer Scott Rudin (who famously tussled with Pascal in leaked emails over his Steve Jobs film).
Sony Pictures will finance Pascal's new production company for four years and retain all distribution rights worldwide.
"I have always wanted to be a producer," said Pascal in a statement. "Michael (Lynton) and I have been talking about this transition for quite some time and I am grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to pursue my long-held dream."
Though the hacking scandal surely contributed, some viewed Pascal's departure as inevitable more because some of her biggest releases ("White House Down," Will Smith's "After Earth") have struggled in recent years, and because time inevitably catches up to all studio heads.
"The fact that she's lasted this long is a small miracle," said David Poland, editor of MovieCityNews.com. He called her tenure "extraordinary," praising it for its diversity, from women-themed films to ScreenGem's horror releases.
Under Pascal's watch, Sony Pictures has amassed over $46 billion in global theatrical box-office revenue and 315 Academy Award nominations. But Pascal's ways have sometimes seemed outdated, as Sony struggled to build new franchises. The unspectacular $202.8 million domestic gross for "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" caused considerable consternation. "And The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" failed to spawn sequels.
Poland noted that many longtime standbys for Pascal (Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Cameron Crowe) have either moved on or faded in popularity. "Her base, the power that she had in terms of filmmakers, kind of thinned out," he said.
Still, Damian Thong, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities in Tokyo where Sony Corp. is based, believes Pascal's future is bright.
"She's a woman of many talents," Thong said. "She has great relationships that are valuable to Sony in the future."
"Shake-ups are tough but sometimes they're necessary," said Paul Dergarabedian of box office tracker Rentrak. "This might open the door for a really tremendous future for the company."
The future of the corporatized movie studios, though, appears to be increasingly risk-adverse management, overseeing the careful global rollouts of franchises. Perhaps the only things that could have saved Pascal were a few more superheroes besides the web-slinger."
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Film Writer Lindsey Bahr in Los Angeles and Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads โ essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More