Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
Guess which newish senior management member at Lionsgate is becoming the fall guy for the mini-studio's falling off of their business plan over the last 18 months in hopes of becoming a major? Yes, Joe Drake.
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I heard that Ken Katsimoto was out as well.
Joe Drake should take the fall because it is fault. He had made some of the worst decisions that have ever been made at Lionsgate… getting rid of peter block who was responsible for the saw franchise… Bringing in Ali Shermur behind Michael Pasernek’s back.. the man who was not only a long time friend of Drake’s but was responsible for the tyler perry/LG relationship….
How Michael Burns and Jon Feltheimer could let this happen is another huge question people need to ask…
Bye, Ali. I don’t think LG will be making her brand of movie.
People need to get with it. Many of the problems that Nikki is laying at Drake’s feet were already in progress before he got there. Drake was trying to do something different at Lionsgate because the company needed it. If Ichan and others are ousting Drake before he gets a chance to get his plane off the runway, then they’re just dumb. And, as for Nikki’s reporting on this matter, I think she is incredibly biased for no reason. She has been laying into Drake since Day One, often times going off half cocked.
This is the first time I am happy about someone taking a fall.
Joe Drake is the devil.
Joe Drake has pissed off the horror community as was reported on DHD last summer with the way he treated Midnight Meat Train and then in the fall with Repo: The Genetic Opera.
I’m sure there’s two sides to every coin.
Absurdity to claim Drake is to blame for “falling off model.” The films that are performing poorly for Lionsgate now were in the pipeline long before he arrived. Just more political crap. Drake made Mandate. Mandate made good films. I’m sure he wants to do the same at LG … but hasn’t exactly had time given the backlog of utter refuse he clearly inherited.
Drake did a great job emerging from that mess known as Senator and transforming Mandate into a top flight indie sales and production outfit. However, his lack of studio level talent relationships, coupled with his abandonment of Lionsgate’s core low budget horror business, eventually undermined his respect and authority within LGE. Rumor is that upper management has been holding “off the record” talks with several young genre execs throughout town with eyes on returning to its roots in order to stabilize its stock price and fend off Icahn’s Barbarians at the Gate.
Absurdity to claim Drake is to blame for “falling off model.” The films that are performing poorly for Lionsgate now were in the pipeline long before he arrived. Just more political crap. Drake made Mandate. Mandate made good films. I’m sure he wants to do the same at LG … but hasn’t exactly had time given the backlog of utter refuse he clearly inherited.
i guess all those secret cannes”casting meetings” finally karmically caught up with you joe fake can’t just use and use people and think you can get away with it
Jon Feltheimer-had “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and gave it back to Gold Circle Films for FREE.
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Joe Drake-The guy who went along with Felt’s scheme to give away “Greek Wedding” in the middle of the night, and whose first two greenlit movies at LGF were “New in Town” and the aptly titled “Disaster Movie”
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Michael Burns-wannabe screenwriter and producer, aka the “Undiscovered” John Galt. (What is really disappointing is that the entertainment press never mentioned this insult to Ayn Rand. Do you guys read?)
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Steve Beeks-In what alternative universe does someone run home video and human resources?
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“Disaster Movie II”
It looks like Feltheimer and Burns should have trusted the people who were already working at LGF AND making money AND winning multiple Oscars before they went out and bought a company that duplicated what they already had.
Mandate made one good film before LGF bought them.
“Gods and Monsters”, “Affliction”, “The Red Violin”, “Monsters Ball” and “Crash” all won Oscars without Joe Drake’s entreprenurial spirit.
Come on guys, you are dying for Carl Icahn to take over your company, right?
If all of this is true, then those Summit merger/acquisition rumors from a week ago would make a lot more sense. Wachsberger would be an upgrade over Drake in both character and charisma. Also, Summit’s ability to create studio level product (especially franchises like “Twilight”) in the mini-major space is something that Lionsgate has failed to do with nearly a ten year head start. Then LGE could bring in a Nick Meyer, Brad Fuller, Chris Tuffin, Steve Richards or Drake protege (and in-house choice) Nathan Kahane to revive their bread and butter horror/genre biz.
The mistake LGF made was giving Peter Block (the man who brought them their successful Saw franchise and Oscar winning film Crash) the boot . The way they held out on renewing his contract, and basically ousted him once they had Drake was diabolical. Block had tight relationships with others in this industry and has very close ties with TWC.
We can also blame their acquisiton team and their crap choices in films as well as their theatrical distribution/marketing teams. Feltheimer and Theat. Distribution have made the worst choices re: when to release films ie: The Spirit at Christmas. Who in their right mind would think that film could compete against the majors during the holidays? The Spirit got lost in that madness. Theatrical marketing…well they suck period. Their posters and trailers are somewhat misleading or homo at best. Not like there is anything wrong with that, but when you’re releasing a family sports movie like “Pride” ( a film about an African American swim team), it’s probably not best to have a half naked man with Terrance Howard leering at him while some psychadelic shit is going on in the background.
Nick Meyer is available and a familiar face over there. They should give him a call to see if he can right this ship.
I hope they get it together. What this town doesn’t need is Summit, Lionsgate and MGM being rolled up into one company. There are few enough buyers out there as it is.