Random Disneyland and Walt Disney World tidbits too time-sensitive or inconsequential to cram into a formal article.
Did Pirates Lawsuit Haunt Dick Cook?
Posted 09-25-2009 at 09:10 AM by David Koenig
Common wisdom holds that last week’s firing of Disney Studios chief Dick Cook resulted from him greenlighting movies not enough people wanted to see, causing his division to lose $12 million dollars in the most recent quarter. Cook’s forté, after all, had not been financials, but was befriending big stars. Note that Cook received his pink slip a week after convincing Johnny Depp to publicly pledge to appear in "Pirates of the Caribbean IV."
Disney’s movie division has been in a downward spiral ever since the release of its third and final "Pirates" film and the firing of studio president Nina Jacobson in 2006. It was time for Cook to take the hit.
Not so fast, says Royce Mathew. Mathew, you may recall, is the writer who alleges that Disney stole his “supernatural pirates” story to create their film franchise (See http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/blog.php?b=453). Mathew now claims that his lawsuit, not the studio’s woeful box office performance, caused the axe to fall on both Cook and Jacobson.
His arguments:
(1) Jacobson was fired several days after he re-filed his lawsuit, while she was at the hospital with family, but days after the premiere of "Pirates III." “If she was doing bad at the company, why did they let her attend the premiere?” Mathew asks. “Why not take her aside and prepare her for the dismissal? Surely if Nina was doing bad, it had to be growing, so what was the urgency to fire her at the hospital? Why not wait till she got home?”
(2) A few months ago, Mathew sent a notification letter of his suit to all Disney board members. “About one week [later], Disney suddenly announced that it was rushing 'Pirates IV' into production,” moving it ahead of a planned Lone Ranger with Depp.
(3) Cook and Depp promoted 'Pirates IV' at D23, at the same time that Mathew “had sent out more of my correspondence, [in] which I demanded accountability and investigations into these serious charges. Then, about one week later, Cook is abruptly forced out of the company.”
Mathew contends that if Cook was actually under fire for poor performance, Disney never would have afforded him such a big role at D23. (“It makes no sense that Disney will first let their fans, attending a multi-million dollar expo, see how all these celebrities love Cook, just as they plan to fire him less than a week later.”)
In addition, Cook got a late-Friday bum’s rush, instead of a “big countdown send-off,” as given to Marty Sklar and Michael Eisner.
(4) News statements blamed failed movies like "Shopaholic" and "G-Force," when in fact "G-Force" was profitable. Plus, "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer produced both movies, and "Pirates’" screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio contributed to "G-Force."
“So if Bob Iger wanted to truly blame someone for the bad performance of [these] movies, they would have fired Bruckheimer or those writer/producers.”
In sum, Mathew contends, “Iger is now feeling the collective heat. Evidently he is finally feeling pressured by certain powerful people, who are rightfully questioning Disney’s documented criminal acts. I believe the facts above substantiate that Cook didn’t see his dismissal coming, because Iger didn’t see it coming either. Or maybe Iger dismissed Cook because he is trying to show that he wasn’t involved and, thus, is trying to save his own skin. Whichever the case may be, I believe that Iger is now walking on thin ice to save his job. I do believe that there will be more dismissals, as there should be, and I believe that Iger should get the boot, too.”
Sorry, Royce. I’m not a conspiracy theorist. The truth is usually the obvious—and arguments fall apart when they have to take too many improbable leaps of logic and coincidence. I’ll let you readers deem for yourselves whether his arguments have merit.
However, Mathew does give us one indication on how we can decide, since his website (www.disneylawsuit.com) has continually demanded the dismissal of certain Disney employees, some of whom have now been fired. “Surely this mystery will be solved within the next several months,” he says, “for if all of this is just a coincidence, then Bruckheimer, Elliott, and Rossio will all still be involved with 'Pirates IV,' and the film will go into production next year. However, if the film does not go into production next year, then you know all of the above is accurate.”
Disney’s movie division has been in a downward spiral ever since the release of its third and final "Pirates" film and the firing of studio president Nina Jacobson in 2006. It was time for Cook to take the hit.
Not so fast, says Royce Mathew. Mathew, you may recall, is the writer who alleges that Disney stole his “supernatural pirates” story to create their film franchise (See http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/blog.php?b=453). Mathew now claims that his lawsuit, not the studio’s woeful box office performance, caused the axe to fall on both Cook and Jacobson.
His arguments:
(1) Jacobson was fired several days after he re-filed his lawsuit, while she was at the hospital with family, but days after the premiere of "Pirates III." “If she was doing bad at the company, why did they let her attend the premiere?” Mathew asks. “Why not take her aside and prepare her for the dismissal? Surely if Nina was doing bad, it had to be growing, so what was the urgency to fire her at the hospital? Why not wait till she got home?”
(2) A few months ago, Mathew sent a notification letter of his suit to all Disney board members. “About one week [later], Disney suddenly announced that it was rushing 'Pirates IV' into production,” moving it ahead of a planned Lone Ranger with Depp.
(3) Cook and Depp promoted 'Pirates IV' at D23, at the same time that Mathew “had sent out more of my correspondence, [in] which I demanded accountability and investigations into these serious charges. Then, about one week later, Cook is abruptly forced out of the company.”
Mathew contends that if Cook was actually under fire for poor performance, Disney never would have afforded him such a big role at D23. (“It makes no sense that Disney will first let their fans, attending a multi-million dollar expo, see how all these celebrities love Cook, just as they plan to fire him less than a week later.”)
In addition, Cook got a late-Friday bum’s rush, instead of a “big countdown send-off,” as given to Marty Sklar and Michael Eisner.
(4) News statements blamed failed movies like "Shopaholic" and "G-Force," when in fact "G-Force" was profitable. Plus, "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer produced both movies, and "Pirates’" screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio contributed to "G-Force."
“So if Bob Iger wanted to truly blame someone for the bad performance of [these] movies, they would have fired Bruckheimer or those writer/producers.”
In sum, Mathew contends, “Iger is now feeling the collective heat. Evidently he is finally feeling pressured by certain powerful people, who are rightfully questioning Disney’s documented criminal acts. I believe the facts above substantiate that Cook didn’t see his dismissal coming, because Iger didn’t see it coming either. Or maybe Iger dismissed Cook because he is trying to show that he wasn’t involved and, thus, is trying to save his own skin. Whichever the case may be, I believe that Iger is now walking on thin ice to save his job. I do believe that there will be more dismissals, as there should be, and I believe that Iger should get the boot, too.”
Sorry, Royce. I’m not a conspiracy theorist. The truth is usually the obvious—and arguments fall apart when they have to take too many improbable leaps of logic and coincidence. I’ll let you readers deem for yourselves whether his arguments have merit.
However, Mathew does give us one indication on how we can decide, since his website (www.disneylawsuit.com) has continually demanded the dismissal of certain Disney employees, some of whom have now been fired. “Surely this mystery will be solved within the next several months,” he says, “for if all of this is just a coincidence, then Bruckheimer, Elliott, and Rossio will all still be involved with 'Pirates IV,' and the film will go into production next year. However, if the film does not go into production next year, then you know all of the above is accurate.”
Total Comments 5
Comments
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What ever the political nonsense...Dick Cook was a Disney man...head to toe to HEART. Not only Depp's enthusiasm has been dampened for future studio releases. A punch in the gut after attending the wonderful Cook 9/11 presentation. You can believe THAT show was personal with Dick Cook and Disney's BIGGEST $$ guns he presented to us. He brought us up and Iger cut us down. Simple as that for me.
DougPosted 09-25-2009 at 01:31 PM by Doodle Duck 
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It's probably just a consequence of copy-and-pasting an email, but it's unclear which of the text in the post is David's and which is Mathew's.Posted 09-25-2009 at 02:44 PM by Andrew
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The intro is mine, as is the opinion expressed in the second to the last paragraph. The rest is Royce Mathew's, some paraphrased, some direct quotes. Hopefully everything is attributed correctly, if not clearly!
Posted 09-25-2009 at 02:54 PM by David Koenig
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either way - he can claim he was the cause all he wants. My contention is he won't win the lawsuit - then wonder why he can't win if he truly believes he was the cause celeb of the dismissals. Talk about delusions of grandeur.Posted 09-25-2009 at 10:24 PM by olegc
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http://www.orlandoweekly.com/columns/story.asp?id=10482
Sounds like Royce Matthew is quite a piece of work.Quote:Just the other day we was a-settin' 'round scratching ourselves, playing the banjo and wondering whatever became of Royce Mathew. If you've been a reader of this wildly popular column and its wildly popular predecessor Slug (God rest its soul), you don't need no introduction to Royce Mathew. You know him as the firebrand who got all up in Orlando city commissioner Vicki Vargo's grill for cozying up to the homo-haters at Exodus International by declaring an Exodus International Day in Orlando back in 2003. You also know him as the guy who bombarded commissioners with e-mails asking them to stop praying before meetings because of that whole church-state separation nonsense.
Ah, the good old days. More germane to this item, however, is Mathew's lawsuit against the mouse. Our man Royce claims those rat bastards at Disney stole his idea for a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride! (Cue Johnny Depp intro.) We wrote about his lawsuit back in 2004. And then, just the other day, Mathew called to update us on the suit. The short version: He's almost ready to file. (Full disclosure: We've heard that before.) And with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest due in theaters this July, Mathew is doubly hot.
"My claim is that they should not be doing that movie," he says. "I own the right to that franchise. The facts will speak for themselves. There's a lot more to this story than I can speak about. I look forward to my day in court." And so do we, Royce.
See also:
http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/a...uit_about.htmlPosted 10-05-2009 at 04:14 PM by mouse411
