Universal gone down the toilet?

REEL NEWS: Movie blogs are buzzing with reaction to the comments made by Universal chief executive Ron Meyer concerning the …

REEL NEWS:Movie blogs are buzzing with reaction to the comments made by Universal chief executive Ron Meyer concerning the low quality of his own studio's movies. Speaking at the Savannah Film Festival, Meyer said: "We make a lot of shitty movies. Every one of them breaks my heart."

Meyer was (with some justification) particularly down on Universal's ghastly remake of The Wolfman, starring an unenthusiastic Benicio Del Toro. He grumbled: "The moment I saw it I thought, 'What have we all done here?' That movie was crappy. The director was wrong. Benicio stunk. It all stunk."

Meyer then went on to criticise some films that actually have a following. Apparently Babe 2: Pig in the City, a genuinely interesting sequel, was one of the studio's "shittiest movies". The perfectly tolerable Cowboys & Alienswas "a mediocre movie. And we all did a mediocre job on it." If you say so, mate.

Donald Clarke

Donald Clarke

Donald Clarke, a contributor to The Irish Times, is Chief Film Correspondent and a regular columnist