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Last week, I wrote about a Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment deal to acquire the original Addams Family drawings by Charles Addams so Tim Burton could direct a stop-motion 3D animated film. Numerous Deadline readers thought the story was false based on an MTV.com “exclusive” report. I stand by my story. The deal happened. Deadline hardly needs MTV.com to become a self-appointed truth squad. That site should stick to its strength –which appears to be aggregating, and all the breathless scoops that come from surface-scratching celebrity junket interviews. As for my own cynical readers, I figure you are the same ones who sent nyah-nyah missives when Neil Patrick Harris denied my report that he would be in the song and dance number that opened the Academy Awards. (He rehearsed with Martin Short, but the latter bowed out due to a personal emergency). You guys should learn to trust me.
UPDATE: MTV.com and I buried the hatchet.
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You forgot, “neener-neener-neener.”
Way to deliver the goods. I like it
Don’t worry Mike. You’re pretty swell in my book.
Hahah, love it. Some of that snarky Nikki-’tude is rubbing off on you.
Wow. I agree with you Mike, though that’s quite the bitter response don’t you think? Let your work speak for itself.
What about PAWN SACRIFICE – do you stand by that one? I can guarantee that the movie is NOT happening, despite what Maguire’s company says. Fincher is doing GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO in the fall.
Hey Nyah Nyah Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Where is the news this is going ahead in the fall please, I have been waiting on information for this project.
At least MTV sources their scoops.
A little secret my dad taught me about writing angry messages, Mike. Write it, read it, then delete it. “I told you so” is about as flattering for you as it is for my 8-yo daughter.
Oh my, in that last sentence you sounded just like Darth Vader!
Translation: (baby wail). Defensive much?
This is why I come here first! I trust you mike, I really really trust you!!!
Um, stay classy Mike. It was your strength. Do you really need to get into teenage “he said” “she said” battles? Do you really want to go there with all you’ve gotten wrong over the years?
Please. MTV actually does get plenty of scoops. It also links to other sites once in a while, which Deadline never does (even when they’re clearly not the ones reporting the exclusives).
It’s a shame that you have to belittle your own excellent scoop by bringing the focus onto the fact that you’re disrespected in the industry…
Are you going to write a whiny screed every time somebody contradicts you?
Me-OW!
Mike:
The answer to competition (or the peanut gallery) is performance.
I would guess that you are working with Nikke Finke for a reason. Have faith in your work and the diligence required to achieve your ends. Don’t sweat the small stuff or the occasional story that doesn’t pan out as your sources suggest…
Much of the Hollywood game, as everyone knows, is about insecure, self-absorbed sycophants running around trying to best each other with the latest “scoop”, 99.5% of which, in the greater scheme of things, matters not at all. Sound and fury signifying nothing. Except to them.
Channel your energies into producing the most valuable, substantive information you can. Would that Hollywood-at-large could be focused on the same. We’d be spared a seemingly eternal pipeline of puerile, mindless shite masquerading as entertainment.
But the best revenge is with one’s wallet.
So, I’d suspect that some of the loons here who have nothing better to do than attack your work product (between, that is, knifing one of their colleagues at the office), might one day find themselves without a gig. What a horror that will be-when the only real skill many of them demonstrate is a capacity (in spades) for snarkiness and superficiality.
You, on the other hand, get paid to write. What a blessing. Pursue THAT with vigour.
mike, your laundry is done.
love,
mom
Calm down! Calm down! We do trust you.
To be fair, that MTV article says, “‘The Addams Family’ could very well be something that Burton will be working on in the near or far future, but there just haven’t been any decisions made yet.”
So, no need to hate. There’s room for more than one scooper in this biz.
How many years did you spend at Variety and this is as thick as your skin got? Welcome to the world of online journalism, where everything you write is instantly criticized, policed and scrutinized. As far as I remember, MTV’s story didn’t smack at Deadline; they just quoted his reps as saying he wasn’t doing the project (right now). This was a disproportionate response to a perceived slight, and it only makes you look defensive and your original report that much shakier. I really like your work, Mr. Fleming, but this rant diminished you.
You forgot to say TOLDJA!
Thank God for this important information. Is there still a war on?
Don’t worry, Mike. The moment MTV denied your story, I was reminded of how, a few months ago, MTV denied all the reports which indicated that the plug was being pulled on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4. MTV claimed an “exclusive” in that case, too — but, as it turned out, the reports were right and MTV was wrong. So I’d say MTV is developing something of a reputation in this regard; they’re becoming the studios’ go-to website for issuing denials of this sort.
I’ve found that people are less likely to question your assertions if – every time one of them is proven true, you immediately follow it up with a post that says, “TOLDJA!”