Show Business and the Fear of Failure : Creativity Can’t Thrive in Such a Climate

The press seems quick to jump on any perceived failures or mistakes made by any of the studio heads (“On the Ropes,” Calendar, March 17). In November, Jeffrey Katzenberg of Walt Disney Studios was being portrayed as the idiot of the month after the releases of “Billy Bathgate” and “Marrying Man.” The press never attributed to him the many years of success that led him to become head of the studio.

By January, Katzenberg was again a genius with five out of the top 10 hits. Joe Roth and Fox had their turn at being at both ends--first, the man who brought Fox back with “Home Alone,” and then the man with no future after “For the Boys.”

Now it’s Columbia’s turn. The Calendar article (subtitled “Columbia Execs Under Fire Over Costly Flops”) ignores the fact that Peter Guber and Jon Peters took a studio that had been critically ill for a decade and within two years, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s two divisions, Columbia and TriStar, had 20% of the overall market and 37 Academy Award nominations. Now they’re being called to task for “Gladiator” and “Radio Flyer.”

Jon Peters is criticized for his strong belief in “Radio Flyer.” What about his strong belief in “Prince of Tides” and “Boyz N the Hood,” or his previous 20-year track record, which includes, along with Peter Guber, such giant hits as “Batman,” “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Rain Man” and many others.

What about Columbia’s belief in “Bugsy” and TriStar’s in “Hook”? What about the great campaign for “My Girl” devised by Columbia chairman Mark Canton after only a few days on the job and the team that executed the ideas? Canton over the years was also involved in such innovative campaigns as “Purple Rain” and “Batman.” In addition, unlike most new studio heads, he inherited someone else’s projects and still gave his full enthusiasm regarding the ad campaign and distribution.

“Radio Flyer” in particular was an important piece of material that was believed in by Peters, Guber, Michael Douglas, Dick Donner and many others. All these gentlemen have long and successful track records in the motion picture business.

The material deals with an important and sensitive subject--child abuse--that affects a large part of the population. The press should not make filmmakers wary of tackling important subjects. Remember, these are the same filmmakers who spent four years developing “Rain Man.”

At least the parent company, Sony, thinks long-term and is not impacted by minute-by-minute judgments of people’s performances. With articles like Calendar’s “On the Ropes,” the press helps create an atmosphere of fear where people are loath to take chances and make hard decisions.

On a larger scale, we see this in an immobilized government where the President and Congress are frozen by fear of failure. The result is a government of inaction and reaction instead of innovation and imagination.

Our film industry is one of our strongest “American exports” and still sets the standard for the world. The visions we create in movies and television are the windows the rest of the world use to view us.

We cannot allow the press to intimidate our business and our political leaders. This applies to the film industry or any of our industries. We cannot have people create and communicate and prosper in a climate of fear, afraid to make mistakes. Our studio heads must be judged over the long term, not by the success or failure of a few pictures.

I applaud Guber, Peters, Canton and the people involved for taking a chance with subject matter like “Radio Flyer.” No one sets out to make a bad film or a bad ad campaign. I hope there is still room in our business to take chances and that there is room for both “Radio Flyer” and “Wayne’s World.”

I am a former employee of Sony Pictures Entertainment (formerly, president of the television division of Guber-Peters Entertainment Co.) and have no ax to grind except to see fairness and truth in the media. The press has a responsibility to be balanced and fair and not fan an atmosphere of instant success or failure, providing more instability and insecurity in an already unstable economy.

We are all part of the same community and need to encourage each other to prosper.