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Enough is enough is enough. Starz topper Chris Albrecht at first was just going to shut down Overture and its home video arm Anchor Bay. (Founded in November 2006, Overture Films has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Starz LLC, which is a unit of Liberty Media Corp and which Albrecht runs along with the Starz Entertainment premium television business and the Starz Media production and distribution company.) Then he gave Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett months and months to find a buyer. 
But the time came today not to drag out this painful endgame. So Albrecht formally announced the departures of the Overture CEO and COO. Only patsies like the trades would believe the duo jumped before they were pushed over “strategic differences”. I’ve learned that the duo were told they would be fired if they didn’t resign first. Albrecht issued this terse statement: “I want to thank Chris and Danny for their dedication and hard work in building the studio from the ground up, and wish them well in their future business endeavors.” Now Peter Adee, president of worldwide marketing and distribution and new media, will oversee day-to-day operations of Overture. I’ll write more about the past, present, and future of Overture in a bit.
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so…does that take Overture and ABE off the market? Are they going to keep the units?
I don’t understand why they wouldn’t just shut down Overture — yet I also don’t understand why they would have considered shutting down Anchor Bay.
More feet to drop for sure and soon I presume…
Well, the smartest thing about all of this is that Peter Adee is now running day to day operations, whatever that means. Regardless of what it is, Peter is, and always has been, the smartest, most capable and most human executive over there. If you have ever had the chance to work for him, I am sure you will agree wholeheartedly. He is a great, great, smart guy.
Agreed. He’s the real deal.
This could be bad news for LET ME IN.
LET ME IN, should have never been made. If you saw the original, you should never try to remake perfection.
Sad day for employees and the future of Overture, but you could see this one coming within hours of its original announce. The model of “you create it and we distribute it” just isn’t sustainable on its own.
Any idea what’s going to happen to Anchor Bay?
Overture might be a failure as a studio but Anchor Bay holds lots of value in the home video market that was under valued by Starz, which was first shown by the removal of the Anchor Bay name to only have them bring it back months later. If LionsGate was smart they’d be quick to buy the Anchor Bay library as it would go well with their current catalog of titles.
Who gets another golden parachute?
Adee Do.
You silly people!!!
Movies don’t get made because they are good movies….
Movies get made because somebody is making money on making them … no matter how they are made.
Good or bad – it doesn’t matter to Hollywood.
It’s all about how much you can make BEFORE it hits the screen – not afterward. (And then if it does well afterward, you come out looking like a genius too)
But the real point was the money you made in making it before it hit the screen, that’s what people here admire you for … (and not in the money it made or loss after it got made).
That’s the way the system works like it or not.
Only the truth will change that …
AND YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
(giggle)
well, at least they put peter adee in charge, for whatever happens next. he’s always been the smartest and most talented exec at that place. if you haven’t had the chance to work for him, you’ve missed out – he is a great boss and a great man.
Time tells all truths….Chris and Danny were never equiped to run a studio. Both of them should have never had oversight of any creative choices…They both are bussneiss execs and not film guys. Danny spent allmost all his carear as a accountant and Chris spent his carear moving from company to comapny before any body could know who he was. Never did he pick films without a seasoned production exc….Joe Roth,Casy Silver, Michael nathanson….Left on his own look at his record…
Agreed. Neither were equipped or talented to make creative decisions. They hired 2 vanilla brother producers to run development and then never let them do their jobs and subsequently fired them and didn’t bring anyone new in. Nice. So who was running development? 3 dgirls that prance around the office and gossip all day. Great work team overture.
Sad if Anchor Bay goes away, they’ve been a long time strong supporter of movies. I remember several Anchor Bay video releases I was excited about — most importantly the Evil Dead flicks and the Disney ones like Black Hole that got full, extras-filled releases with widescreen video / DVDs.
Great news! The Bernie Madoff (McGurK) and his ‘mini me’ Rossett are finally gone from the most laughed at pseudo studio in town. Now Starz can finally turn it into what is should be — a smaller version of Focus.
Malone has no clue what he’s doing, neither does Albrecht. These two are tv people, tv people should never own, or try to own a theatrical and video company.
Sell it, move on. AB is not making money. Overture, never did. Run by two people with bad taste and no idea on how to market a film. (Horrible head of marketing who is in charge lol WTF)
Sell it and move on. Stop punishing us.
is there another story out there? please reply ro all. thanks
What’s going to happen to Film Roman? I heard a rumor that Phil Roman is trying to buy it back.
All sorts of mismanagement here. But the biggest problem is that they never had a hit. And the decline in video margins has been a killer.
Still, there was a good base to build on with AB but their model was flawed. Just letting AB release films is one clue to dysfunction.
But one hit, like Summit, would have covered up lots of errors.
Too bad. Lot of good people at AB.
Is Starz selling Starz Animation and Film Roman? Do they have any assets? It will be interesting to see what happens to Anchor Bay and Film Roman
So because Danny knows how to count he’s not a “film guy?” Nonsense. Danny has taste, discernment, a love of film and a willingness to back tough but interesting projects. Talk with him about film and you’ll soon know that he’s far more a “movie guy” than a great many people who started out as “creative execs.” To think otherwise because of his business background is myopic.
Signed,
A Fan.
PS., McGurk? Maybe not so much.
The best thing to come out of this is Peter Adee gets mentioned and takes the helm even if the ship is sinking. He is a class act, a funny guy and one of the most down to earth film executives in the business… second only to Ron Meyer. In Difficulty lies opportunity and I hope he finds it.
I wonder if they’re going to close Film Roman if they can’t find a buyer?
I concur regarding Peter Adee, he is a class act! And even if Danny was a money man he always had the passion, wish him all the best!
Overture seemed to suffer from an identity crisis. It could not decide whether to be an indie studio (The Visitor and Sunshine Cleaning) or be a major studio (Law Abiding Citizen and The Crazies).
And it also doesn’t help that they didn’t seem to want to spend the cash to develop themselves and movies.
EVERY mini-major seems to suffer from the same identity crisis. I suppose to them it’s more like having your cake and eating it too.
These posts are off base. McGurk and Danny are great guys and good people. Overture was on a roll recently. This is not a good thing. They will do something new as Chris is a brilliant strategy guy and Danny does film agreements better than anyone. Not good for Overture, or what’s left, because it was a nice workplace under their leadership. Adee is ok but cannot run a business. Danny and Chris hired him after he got fired from 4 other studios for being to much of a suck up to producers. Thats the truth.
Chris was a bad choice from the start, but he snowed the guys at Liberty into thinking he actually knew what he was doing. I told the old COO about his track record at Disney but he had already drunk from the koolaid. Leave the movie making to those that know how to do it instead of allowing the numbers crunchers to try their hand at it. At least Liberty has had a great tax write off.
Chris is as smart as they come and made a lot of people a lot of money at MGM. At Overture, if you look at it, they did about the same level as Focus did. Danny and Chris always told it like it is to people who don’t always like to hear that. Some hated them for it and are bitter. Some respected them for it.
A lot of harsh comments. From what I have heard, Overture emplyees really liked these guys and were happy to be there with new jobs when the business was falling apart. Rosett produced Capote and ran production and McGurk is a business guy who helped rebuild and sell MGM for billions before Harry Sloan and his minions then destroyed the Company. They did hardly any movies, like 5 or 6 a year for just a couple of years. Seems like somebody just didnt want to give the film business a chance. It takes years.
It always amazes me how many of these posts sound like they are from frustrated and unemployed entertainment wannabees. You wonder whether, at 9pm when their mommies are tucking them into bed like they have done for the past 45 years, whether these geeks whine to mommy about the studio people who passed on their limp scripts for the 100th time? Pathetic, vengeful, hateful LOSERS! It’s tough out there whiners! Get used to it. Now kiss mommy good night and go to sleep.
Great post! I always thought most of these anonymous posters were failures in this business with time on their hands. Whatever the outcome at Overture you had many people with good intentions who started a company out of nowhere and tried to succeed in brutal times. All these new companies except Summit are going under. These haters should get out of bed and do something positive…after Mommy changes the sheets!
I’m beyond shocked that Ryan Kavanaugh didn’t have a quote along with Chris. Publicity whore without a quote on his new company? Shocking
Sad to see the death of Overture. It was a noble idea and at least a lot of people held new jobs for 3 years when everyone else in the industry was being let go. For just releasing The Visitor, it was worth it. Good luck to Chris and Danny and Peter and Robert and the rest.