Gawker
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online video
Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner's grand insight on online video: Sex sells. [PaidContent]
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Sandy Litvack
Justice Department's trustbuster a hired gun with Mickey Mouse ears
Who is Sandy Litvack, the lawyer that the Justice Department hired last week, in a move which most believe mean the trustbusters are planning to break up Google's deal to sell ads on Yahoo? Litvack's resume might give Google's lawyers reason to sweat. If it takes a monopolist to catch a monopolist, Litvack's perfect for the job. At Disney, he was CEO Michael Eisner's right-hand man when the company went on its most aggressive acquisition binge ever. He masterminded Disney's purchase of the ABC television network, which was the Google-DoubleClick deal of its day. And Litvack is a guy who likes to take a case to trial. More »
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Comment by macbeach: When David Boise was up against Microsoft he seemed invincible. Later when he represented Al Gore in Florida,... more » | Other threads
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books
Steve Jobs ruthless, Michael Eisner clueless according to new Pixar history
Pixar, the computer animation company and digital film studio, was undervalued by everyone in Hollywood, from George Lucas who formed the original team at Skywalker Ranch to Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg at Disney. Steve Jobs, however, understood the potential for the company — and how to milk it for every penny. After buying the company for a mere $5 million, after Katzenberg balked on a $15 million price tag, Jobs hovered over the company like an "ominous cloud," according to Michael Hirschorn's review of David Price's new book detailing the company's history. At one point, Jobs squeezed more stock out the company so that the company could stay afloat — shortly before production on breakout hit Toy Story started production. "I’m sitting around here trying to make Steve Jobs richer in ways he doesn’t even appreciate," one employee quips. (Photo by AP/Eric Risberg)
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By Jackson WestComment by TheChris2.0: "I'm sitting around here trying to make Steve Jobs richer in ways he doesn't even appreciate," one employee quips Great quote... more » | Other threads
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online video
Michael Eisner's $500,000 "Foreign Body" project doesn't even qualify as a bomb
"My interest is getting in there before they explode," Vuguru svengali Michael Eisner told a crowd at Digital Content Newfront last week, regarding his efforts in producing Web video. And based on the numbers for his production company's project Foreign Body, he's certainly achieved that. The show's audience peaked at 43,000, even after winning a coveted feature slot on YouTube. Breaking a feature-length story into scenes no longer than two minutes and putting advertising at both ends of those clips isn't exactly the way audiences want to watch advertorials for airport-bookstore novels. With all those Indian hotties in the cast, Eisner should probably take a tip from LisaNova and increase the cleavage in the show's thumbnails. After the jump, check out the first episode — so mysterious, it makes absolutely no sense. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by jackparsons: I was really, really waiting for Axl Rose to appear, punch the dying lady in the head and drive a... more » | Other threads
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online video
Lloyd Braun returns to Yahoo, extends reign of terror to Microsoft
Hollywood's savvy hustlers have struck again, with Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman convincing Yahoo and Microsoft to hire BermanBraun to produce a content portal for MSN and a contentpole for Yahoo called "Lunacy Report," according to sources cited by All Things Digital. For the ADD-affected with long term memory issues, former Yahoo CEO and Tom Cruise BFF Terry Semel hired Braun to shepherd in Yahoo's reign as a media company, followed by Braun taking the fall for much of Semel's own lunacy before Semel himself was ousted. More » -
clips
These "dangerous Indian beauties" cost Michael Eisner $10,000 every two minutes
Michael Eisner spent $3,000 for every 90 seconds of footage for his series Prom Queen. His latest series Foreign Body, a promotional vehicle for a new Robin Cook novel, cost more than three times that for each episode. Find the first in the series embedded below. Of course, figures like that are low compared to what it costs to make content for film or TV, but the problem for Eisner is that despite his Web TV company's very Web-y name — Vuguru means "you are the guru of viewing," Eisner once told a reporter — it still hasn't made much money yet. Despite 15 million views, Eisner says he only made a couple thousand dollars on Prom Queen. The series sequel lost money. More »
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Comment by deathbychichi: He can afford to experiment. I don't begrudge him that. His idea that higher production values will eventually... more » | Other threads
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online video
Michael Eisner says the status quo gives him an advantage
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, now the backer of online entertainment studio Vuguru through his company Tornante, stopped by Microsoft's Advance08 this morning to deliver his diagnosis of what ails the entertainment business. Calling YouTube "old news," he says that storytelling online will inevitably progress from "the salacious and the stupid" (good luck with that). But he also pointed out that by enabling content producers, companies like Yahoo, Microsoft or News Corp. could create a competitor to the current distribution rackets: More »
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By Jackson WestComment by deathbychichi: All the Internet is is a distribution platform, dumbshit. Way more interesting than TV, way more fun, way more... more » | Other threads
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quotable
Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner on what makes America great
"What makes this country great is patents and copyrights." Amen, Mikey. God bless America. [Rex Sorgatz] More »
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Comment by growhappy: Tell that to the 1983 Mac team. Thank goodness there wasn't a legitimate patent on overlapping windows. Apple hardware markup... more » | Other threads
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hollywood
Michael Eisner fantasizes about end to writer's strike on CNBC
On CNBC today, he declared an end to the writers' strike. Not so, say our Hollywood sources. The strike will be over soon, they predict, but it's not done yet. Leave aside that question: Should we in the tech industry ever have cared about the strike in the first place? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by BobDope: If he shaved his head he'd look like that Hawk dude on 'The Wire' more » | Other threads
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hollywood
Man behind Nokia N-Gage debacle now wants your money for Michael Eisner biopic
After the success of former PayPal COO David Sacks's Thank You for Smoking, Hollywood has renewed its efforts to tap the swollen bank accounts of Silicon Valley's newly wealthy entrepreneurs. But the come-on I've just received is more unusual than most such attempts. The movie in question? A film adaptation of James B. Stewart's DisneyWar, a savage portrait of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Eisner drew many enemies in the Valley during his reign at the media company, so there might plausibly be some willing to fund a cinematic poke at him. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Patricia2: Ah, if only being the executive producer really mattered to an investor. more » | Other threads
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pixar
Steve Jobs nearly killed "Toy Story" sequel — and a baby
According to a new book titled The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, excerpted today in the New York Post, Apple CEO and Pixar founder Steve Jobs didn't want his studio to make Toy Story 3. His reluctance stemmed from a distrust of Pixar partner Disney and its CEO Michael Eisner. In the book, Jobs says he felt "sick about Disney doing sequels [to Pixar films] because if you look at the quality of their sequels, like The Lion King 1 1/2 and their Peter Pan sequels and stuff, it's pretty embarrassing." More »
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Comment by Davey D. David: I was lucky/unlucky enough to have worked at Disney's "Circle Seven Animation Studio", while they were doing Toy Story 3.... more » | Other threads
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online video
Quarterlife's bad online-video bet
Hollywood, abetted by Internet pundits, has drawn the wrong lesson from the rise of YouTube: that the only way to make cash on the Internet is to offer bite-sized chunks of content. Hence Quarterlife, the microshow about 20-nothing artists. The only reason anyone cares about it is NBC picked it up for broadcast distribution, impressed by Quarterlife's 700,000-viewer debut, and will splice together 8-minute Web segments into six hour-long episodes that will air on broadcast TV this February. The only problem is that Quarterlife episodes, shown on YouTube and MySpace, are now averaging a mere 100,000 viewers. More » -
jason calacanis
A portrait of the egotist as a young man
Perhaps inspired by our tale of the lonely wantrepreneur looking to pay someone, anyone to set him up on a date, a tipster forwarded a New York Observer article from way back in 2000. It's called "They're Single, Ambitious, Worth Millions, But Can New York Women Download Their Megabyte Egos?" It's primary subject? Jason McCabe Calacanis. See? There was a reason to get out of bed today. More » -
vuguru
Michael Eisner still good at losing money on the Internet
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner maintains Hollywood writers are stupid for striking over how much they should be compensated for Internet video. Over the weekend, he told the New York Times there isn't any money in Internet video. At least not any money in Internet video he has a hand in. "The shows that I made for [the Internet] cost like $3,000 for 90 seconds," Eisner explained, referring to his failed made-for-Internet efforts "Prom Queen" and "Prom Queen: Summer Heat." Of course, Eisner, whose exit from Disney was hastened by irate shareholders, is no stranger to failure. More »
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Comment by mandarin: Prom Queen : Summer Heat? Sounds like a porn video... Maybe it sounds better in a different language... more » | Other threads
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quotable
"[Movie and television studios] make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners. They make all these kinds of things, and who's making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I'd be striking up wherever he is." — Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner on the entertainment business and the Writer's Guild strike, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who played a big role in Eisner's ouster. By the way, Mikey? Apple's in Cupertino. Take 101 north, and then it's just a few exits off 280. If you'd spent more time there, maybe you'd still have a job. [CNET] -
online video
Michael Eisner, the Web 2.0 guru
Michael Eisner, the former Disney CEO, is turning into a Web 2.0 demigod, claims BusinessWeek. Except it fails to prove any kind of new-media apotheosis whatsoever. Beyond a few cursory details about Eisner's portfolio of invesments — kid-friendly, just like Disney! — the majority of the piece details his interest in a potential acquisition of Topps, the trading-cards company. Somehow, in the perfervid imaginations of BusinessWeek editors, the right to print Star Wars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trading cards and stickers transforms into "fodder for online shows." But never mind that. More »
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