When an unknown group of hackers (who may or may not be North Korean) leaked thousands of Sony’s files, we didn’t just find out what K. Fed was paid to cameo in The Interview and whether Annie’s any good or not. In a text file called “Sony_2012_Comments,” we also found a treasure trove of feedback from unknown Sony employees. Gawker sorted through the whole thing and found one common complaint: People at Sony really don’t like working for a place that makes so many Adam Sandler movies. (Since 2008, the studio has released You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, Grown Ups, Just Go With It, Jack and Jill, That’s My Boy, and Grown Ups 2.)
A selection of the employee complaints:
Be more focussed and ruthless in directing our resources to businesses that will sustain the long term health of SPE - networks, broadcast TV shows, new movie franchises, digital distibution By the same token, stop or reduce support for areas that have no more value (Sandler movies, DVD)
There is a general “blah-ness” to the films we produce. Althought we manage to produce an innovative film once in awhile, Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films.
In TV and Theatrical, I hope management looks closely at the money spent on development and term deals to ensure efficiency. There are a lot of term deal personnel as well as creative personnel, yet we only release a dozen or so Columbia Pictures a year, for example. And will we still be paying for Adam Sandler? Why?
Perhaps it’s a generational thing, but I’ve been disappointed with the content of some of the films we’ve been producing lately. I don’t think people who know me would consider me a prude, but the boorish, least common demomonator [sic] slate strikes me as a waste of resource and reputation
[T]he studio needs to change deal structure that has been in place with Happy Madison, as this arrangement has disproportionately benefitted Adam Sandler and his team, relative to SPE.
The rare spot of happy news for Sony employees? Sandler is Netflix’s problem now.
