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Dick Cook has been relatively quiet since being ousted as Walt Disney Studios chairman in September 2009, save landing a board seat at Legendary Pictures back in April. But now it appears he is making noise in a big way: Bloomberg is reporting that Cook is looking to raise $625 million in equity financing to make and distribute family-oriented films, according to a banker with knowledge of the matter.
Cook is talking to private equity, hedge funds and wealthy individuals, Bloomberg says. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed. If successful, the move would return Cook in full to the business of making movies, which he did for seven years as the Disney Studios boss (he was at Disney for 38 years, famously starting out as a ride operator at Disneyland), overseeing the creation of the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean series among other franchises. Until now, Cook was aboard only one film project: as producer of Legendary’s Jackie Robinson biopic, which was announced in June and will be done at Warner Bros.
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Perfect. For $625M he just might be able to make Lone Ranger I and II.
That’s a really big number for a guy with not much of a track record as a producer. Wonder which bank is taking this out to market. He’s a classy guy and I wish him luck, but would be surprised if he was able to get that kind of funding.
“Not much of a track record”? are you fucking kidding me?
Who does have a track record in your world? What color is the sky there?
Do your homework Jacko. Dick Cook greenlighted most of Disney’s recent hits, including Pirates and Alice. Who better to ask a bank for $650 million than a guy who was responsible for Disney making billions. And what’s Disney done at the box office since Cook got boot?
Here is Dick’s fucking track record (hope they still have monorail gigs for him):
Cook began his career with Disney in 1970 as a monorail and steam locomotive amusement park ride operator at Disneyland in Anaheim and moved to the Disney Studios in Burbank in 1977 to manage pay television and non-theatrical releases.
In 1980, he moved to the company’s film distribution department, eventually heading both its distribution and marketing efforts. He earned a reputation there by his marketing of Disney’s home video collection and hosting media-worthy movie premieres, for example securing a United States Navy aircraft carrier based in Pearl Harbor to host the debut of the film Pearl Harbor.
In 2002 Eisner named him as Peter Schneider’s replacement as chairman of studios, popularly called the studio chief. Cook was in charge of developing, distributing and marketing all films, live-action or animated, released by Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. Cook was also the executive in charge of the Disney Music Group, which encompasses Hollywood Records and the better known Walt Disney Records. He also oversaw the Home Entertainment and Home Entertainment International divisions of Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group. He was responsible for legal and business matters relating to the studio.
I wouldn’t go near this guy with my 10 foot pole. As one who was privy to his conversations, this guy is just another numbskull. And old. They all do the same. Find money to try and remain relevant. They make crap.
Larry, if you knew what you were talking about, you wouldn’t be spending your time trolling the DHD boards. Dick Cook is great with talent, has an eye for quality projects, and knows how to put together and sell big movies.
why don’t they just hire him to clean house at Universal?
Dick’s a real gentleman but also a fierce promoter. He’s the chairman who shows up to every preview. Always makes you feel supported whether your movie is working or not. Very few bother to do these things today, and studios suffer for it. And one more thing… It was Dick’s idea to make a movie based on the Pirates rides. He knows family movies.
No, it was Terry Rossio and Ted Eliott, the screenwriters, and Disney refused at first.
You are SOOOOOOO wrong. You don’t even know the facts. It was Dick Cook’s idea to do do the Pirates movie. Once he met with Johnny Depp who wanted to do a movie that his kids would love, Dick pitched the Pirate Idea and Johnny was onboard!
Wait. He’s raising this money to…
“…to make AND distribute family oriented films…”
DISTRIBUTE? Urgh. These investors would be better feeding their cash to wild dogs.
Raising cash to co-finance a slate with a studio like Legendary is one thing but self distribution is madness.
Warner Borg go back to the mother ship. The entertainment business is all about distribution.
What exactly is $625m going to pay for? A slate of self financed films AND P&A costs?! He’ll need more cash than that if he’s going to go down that route.
Distribution may be the name of the game but it’s an expensive one. Overture and MGM got out of the self distribution game and (depending on who you ask) Relativity may soon be behind them.
The family audience is a lucrative one but it costs to attract them to the multiplexes and Dick Cook will need a billion plus just to get a seat at the table never mind win the pot.
Hmmmmm….not long ago I heard he was raising money for a start-up distribution company targeting the wealthy with home theaters. Guess it didn’t work out.
It wasn’t Dick’s idea to make the movie based on the Pirate’s ride. He got the idea from a producer who was on the ride and told someone else on the ride that the ride is a great basis for a movie. He doesn’t look creative and eavesdropping on the conversations of people at Disneyland to get ideas to steal is not creative, it’s plagiarism.