There is a little film called Iron Cross, which was hoping to generate some Oscar buzz on a $400,000 “For Your Consideration” ad campaign in Variety Magazine, which the paper has been running non-stop since November all the way up until the end of the voting season at the end of January.
However when a negative review for Iron Cross was published online at Variety, the director Joshua Newton (who paid for this expensive ad) nagged them to take it down.
In Contention shares:
Must be good, right? Well, Variety’s own critic Robert Koehler didn’t think so in his damning review of the film, which he denounced as “preposterous” and “hackneyed,” among other choice adjectives. A slightly embarrassing result for a film the paper had previously boosted, but as Gawker’s John Cook reports, Variety solved the problem quite easily — by removing Koehler’s review from their website altogether, after “Iron Cross”’s producers complained.
The moral of the story appears to be that $400,000, plus a little nagging, can buy you a clean critical slate from one of the industry’s foremost tastemakers..
So this is Variety’s continued stance of integrity? Maybe no one will notice this one little review. I mean who reads their website anyways??
Well it was noticed and this subtle support by omission with all their wisdom, Variety bent to the pleas of their advertisers removing editorial to appease their paid adspace.
I find it appalling that Variety removed the offending review because the producers were also ad buyers. Did the Iron Cross producers think that buying adspace would give them a free pass from review?
Well apparently it did, however Variety has >put the review back up. It is the right thing to do.
In a new turn of events, it seems that Newton (Director of Iron Cross) has now figured that its ok to manipulate the press with heaps of money, and is offended that it bit him in the ass and is now considering to SUE Variety for posting the negative review. Gawker reports
Newton, a British filmmaker whose Holocaust revenge drama turned out to be Roy Scheider’s last movie, told Gawker that he and his investors are contemplating a lawsuit against Variety for selling them on a $400,000 Oscar campaign only to turn around publish a review calling the film “hackneyed,” “preposterous,” “mediocre,” “choppy,” and “uncertain.” Variety pulled the review, by freelance critic Robert Koehler, in December.
“We are currently reviewing our options,” Newton told Gawker. “I can’t comment on the legalities, but suffice it to say—how can I put this? There are issues. There are valid issues.”
Maybe I am just new to this whole journalism thing, but he has to realize that he bought AD SPACE with a publication that caters to the entertainment industry. I mean that was the whole point in buying in that publication right? Because the people passing judgment on his film (Oscar voters) will be reading it?
But its what they do! They do reviews on films, and there is no guarantee the critic will like it. You have to face that reality when you offer up your work for critique that it might not be well received.
How can he now sue them for doing their job, when he bought the adspace there because they presumably do their job???
He tried to essentially buy off Hollywood’s biggest industry publication (and they will take anyone’s money to sell adspace) but when he figured out that the reviewers don’t work in ad sales he got all confused.
Good luck with the lawsuit. You paid for ads, not a review.
