From the folks at RADAR:
According to the Chicago Film Critics Association, 20th Century Fox has instituted a policy of favoritism in the Windy City, providing special treatment to select film reviewers. Others, it is charged, are not given adequate time to craft stories between seeing a movie and its release—or are shut out of screenings entirely.
According to CFCA president Dann Gire, Fox’s excuse for granting limited screening invites is that the studio does not trust many critics to honor embargo requests and fears piracy. Specifically, Fox reps told Gire, Internet critics are its worst fear because of their tendency to leak information. “We have a reputation of walking around Chicago with eye patches and parrots on our shoulders,” says Gire, who, as a critic for the Chicago Herald, is member of the reviewer A-list. Gire maintains that all critics, even those published in print, are Internet film critics.
“This is very disappointing and unprofessional behavior from Fox executives, who may be one of the few, if not the only, group of publicists in America who believe it’s in their best interests to antagonize, alienate, and ignore their clients,” Gire wrote in a letter to the studio.
In response CFCA has instituted a boycott against Fox releases, vowing to write nothing but reviews for its movies, withholding the more coveted coverage in features, profiles, and interviews. And they’re calling on their film critic brethren to join in. “We’ve hit a common nerve among all critics’ organizations who are suffering under the same kind of tyrannical rule,” Gire told Radar. “We have had amazing support from all over the country.”
“The studio system is still stuck in this archaic 20th-century vision,” he said.
My favorite part was: ““This is very disappointing and unprofessional behavior from Fox executives, who may be one of the few, if not the only, group of publicists in America who believe it’s in their best interests to antagonize, alienate, and ignore their clients,””
This is the same company threatening to end advanced screenings in Canada, also using “piracy” as their looming excuse to act like a bunch of boobs. How on earth is shutting out film critics in Chicago going to help fight piracy?!?! What are they smoking?
