Ex-Amazon Studios Head Slams Woke Hollywood
Roy Price slams movies for pushing 'The Message,' not fun and escapism
Roy Price can’t directly cheer on the success of “Project Hail Mary.”
Price stepped aside as head and founder of Amazon Studios, the company behind the Ryan Gosling smash, before it conquered Hollywood.
Price can still appreciate both the film and the message it hopes to share with major movie studios.
Audiences want to be entertained, not lectured. “Project Hail Mary” does the former oh, so well.
Price shared a jaw-dropping op-ed in, of all places, The New York Times, slamming Hollywood for losing the plot. It’s why the film industry is in big trouble, he argues. The only hope may be more movies like “Project Hail Mary.”
Smart. Uplifting. Original. Human.
Fun.
“Movies are starting to feel fun again,” he writes in the op-ed. And that wasn’t the case for the past decade.
But the most recent era, which started in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and went into overdrive after 2020, was one in which political and social messaging were what seemed to matter most in Hollywood.
Sexually charged thrillers went out of style. So did bawdy, R-rated comedies and rom-coms. And, yes, audiences noticed. And many started staying home instead of going out on date nights.
The Dionysian elements of popular entertainment — irreverence, sexual frankness and broad, even scatological humor — were cast aside as the industry sought to correct historic wrongs and resist current ones. An unmistakable censoriousness and fear of saying or doing the wrong thing [emphasis added] seemed to settle over the creative process.
He’s right, even if he shrewdly didn’t use the “W” word – “woke.” Yet few people within the industry were willing to vocalize this truth, let alone do something about it.
Blame the Hollywood “resistance” against President Donald Trump, the wild over-reaction to George Floyd’s death or the mishandling of the MeToo revolution. Artists chose to self-censor instead of fighting back.
The biggest stars in the country stood down rather than stand up to woke scolds.
Either way, films often felt like a chore to watch, not a pleasure. Awards show galas dripped with Virtue Signaling, not entertainment.
Audiences began to look elsewhere for their entertainment. TikTok. YouTube. Pluto TV. Tubi.
It’s shocking to see Price’s dead-on observations in The New York Times, a far-Left outlet that cheered on many of the elements Price calls out. It’s not the first time, though. A NYT essay published in 2024 suggested the woke film era was dimming and already looks moldy in retrospect.
Give credit where it’s due. Someone at The New York Times understood Price’s essay needed to be shared. Now, it’s up to Hollywood executives to read it and take serious notes.
No mention of the fact that Project Hail Mary stars outspoken male feminist Canadian Ryan Gosling, who spent the entirety of the Barbie press tour mocking men who were upset about the movie.
Christian left out two big things about Roy Price:
1- Roy says Jan 6th isn’t seen as a coup or an insurrection by most people. That’s a total lie. Most of the free world does see it as an insurrection.
2- Roy was fired for sexual harassment against female subordinates, including pressuring female subordinates for sex. He’s not some angel that you should want speaking out for your cause. He was accused by many women. He was Harvey Weinstein all over again.
And since when does every movie need to be “fun?” Was The Godfather fun? Was Apocalypse Now fun? Was Vertigo fun? Was On the Waterfront fun? Was Taxi Driver fun? Many of the greatest movies ever made had serious subject matters and something to say about society.
Movies that entertain. What a concept! It’s what normal people want. Crave, even. There’s a reason “Top Gun: Maverick” was a breath of fresh air as well as being a smash success.
You do realize that the highest grossing movie of 2023 with over 1.4 billion was Barbie, right? It entertained and had messaging. Just like hit shows such as Stranger Things, Wednesday, and Squid Game had entertainment, but also messaging.
Remember when Hollywood was Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, John Wayne? Class, proper diction, elegance, culture, good movies.
Hollywood wanted to be inclusive and let the DEI people in, now shocked to get attitudes, violence and cultural decline.
Not surprising that KNOWN RACIST JOHN WAYNE is your hero.
Sam, when you say let DEI people in, do you mean people of color? You want Hollywood to be an industry only for white men? Yikes.
DEI is not about color. Its about hiring Becuase of color or race instead of experience, or passion or ability.
That is how you get the non-performers instead of those that care about the job.
Woke means creating to follow an ideology instead of the story. Zealots will focus on their message instead of the story. Thus ruining a good farce in place of preaching.
Extra: You Can incorporate your message and have a good movie, you just have to be smart about it.
Woke got its foot in Hollywood’s door, and it will never remove it fully. Coincide that with the arrival of AI, which might truly democratize visual storytelling. Unless there is new legislation which puts the kabosh on AI video, I think we are about to see tons of new “talent” in the next 3-5 years, masters of the AI prompt who can craft compelling content without The Message. Or, horror of horrors, perhaps with an anti-Communist message, something not seen in films in decades.
Kelvin, being able to create AI videos doesn’t mean you can write scripts, direct, act, etc.
Kam, you sound like the Blockbuster execs circa 2007. AI is the point. It can serve as writer, director, etc.