Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Spielberg Upset Universal Ignoring "Munich"?

The Drudge Report is suggesting Spielberg's camp is quietly angry (how adult of them) over Universal ignoring their film in favor of "Brokeback Mountain." The LA Times award site Gold Derby picks up on the rumour. Spielberg may very well feel slighted -- but it doesn't begin with Universal, it begins with universal acclaim for "Brokeback" and decidedly mixed reviews for "Munich." As one commentator at GoldDerby points out, it was also Spielberg who put the kibosh on promoting the movie in the first place, saying it should speak for itself. When you turn off the pr machine, it's very hard to turn it back on again. Of course, Universal would love to have two big Oscar contenders -- not to mention three with "King Kong," which just hit $500 million worldwide and had infinitely better reviews than "Munich" to boot.

Finally, no one mentions the most diabolical reason why Universal would conceivably diss Spielberg. They thought they had a deal to buy their longtime partner DreamWorks but Paramount snatched it out from under them. Maybe this is subtle payback?

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