Warner Brothers Exec Told To “Make The Fucking Donuts”

There is nothing quite like an open letter from a disgruntled ex-employee to their former employers. And, oh boy, did Warner Brothers just get one.

An alleged ex-employee of the company had returned from a screening of Suicide Squad, and dusted off a diatribe they had started writing back when Man of Steel was released. The letter is reprinted below in its entirety, because it would be a shame not to do so. I’ll be back afterwards to give my two cents.

An Open Letter To Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara About Layoffs, Zack Snyder, and Donuts

When I left my screening of Suicide Squad last week, I was angry. I was annoyed and let down and frustrated as well, but mostly I was just angry.

Look, I’m a big dork. So of course I thought this trainwreck of a movie did a major disservice to the characters, concept, cast, and crew, but that wasn’t why I was mad. Yes, it is unfathomable to me that Warner Bros could mess up a movie starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and The Joker so completely. But that just had me flummoxed.

I was angry because I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Kevin Tsujihara.

A lot of fans might be angry (and rightfully so) because you keep completely whiffing at properties that they are desperate to love and enjoy, but this is a little more personal for me. See, I am a former Warner Bros employee. I have so much respect for your studio. I love every square inch of that magical backlot, from Stars Hollow to the fitness center I always meant to use. The people I worked with during my time with your company are now close friends. On my last day, I hugged them and I told them I loved them.

I was also there in 2014, when you made the decision to lay off 10 percent of your workforce. It was a terrible year. Let me catch you up: Every morning I woke up with a pit in my stomach, because I assumed that would be the day I lost my job. Every day I saw someone packing up their desk, or carrying a box to their car. I can not describe to you the relief I felt when my department was told we were safe, or the guilt I felt afterwards walking through the halls of my office with that relief.

But out of all that, the thing that really sticks with me is the memo you sent to all of us. Let me refresh you on my favorite part:

I wanted you to hear directly from me about our plans for the studio. In recent days, we have started to hear rumors here at the company and to read misinformation in the press, so I’d like to set the record straight. I know that the hard work and dedication of every employee around the world is the key to Warner Bros.’ success, and I am sorry for the distraction this situation brings to the workplace.

At Warner Bros., we work with the world’s most extraordinary storytellers, and our focus has always been to provide the creative environment and financial resources they need to realize their vision. Our commitment to that won’t change. In fact, we’re investing more than ever in our film and television productions.

This is how you opened a memo about layoffs. “Hey guys, we work hard for the people telling stories here and we want to make sure those visions are realized.” The balls on you.

That year we pursued the storytelling vision of Adam Sandler’s Blended and Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys. Failures. We pursued a potentially great summer movie like Edge of Tomorrow and completely botched its release. Same with Man From UNCLE. We dug in our heels and hoped The Hobbit Trilogy would somehow stop being a mediocre case of diminishing returns. Talented, loyal people packed their boxes and went home while your story tellers dropped the ball.

One could argue that this was not your fault. That you inherited former CEO Barry Meyer’s agenda and were merely trying to correct the course of an ocean liner heading for an iceberg.

I would not make this argument. And here’s why: I wrote this letter last year. I actually started forming it in my head after Man of Steel was a box office failure instead of the modern classic tentpole you were expecting.

I kept holding off on doing anything with it because of one title: Suicide Squad. Zack Snyder’s Dawn of Justice was a fiasco, but here comes this plucky little dark adventure about antiheroes. I love David Ayer. I love Harley Quinn. I love Will Smith. Put the letter in a drawer. The ship isn’t sinking anymore. Everything is fine. There’s no way this movie is bad.

And here we are. I got back from my screening and dusted this sucker off. You, your executive team, and the vision of your ‘extraordinary storytellers’ that resulted in the loss of around one thousand jobs seem intent on crashing the ship into as much shit as you can find in the ocean by making inane decisions over and over again.

Zack Snyder is not delivering. Is he being punished? Assistants who were doing fantastic work certainly were. People in finance and in marketing and in IT. They had no say in a movie called Batman V Superman only having 8 minutes of Batman fighting Superman in it, that ends because their moms have the same name. Snyder is a producer on every DC movie. He is still directing Justice League. He is being rewarded with more opportunity to get more people laid off. I’m assuming you yourself haven’t been financially affected in any real way. You and your studio are the biggest lesson about life one can learn: The top screws up and the bottom suffers. Peter Jackson phones it in and a marketing supervisor has to figure out a plan B for house payments.

Your uneven Hall H presentation at Comic Con this year was a ridiculous mess that ranged from rushed to boring. When Marvel announced their full slate of films with a fun fan event several years ago, you announced yours on a shareholder conference call.

You just don’t get it. And it’s not just DC movies, it’s your whole slate. Jupiter Ascending. Get Hard. Hot Pursuit. Max. Vacation. Pan. Point Break. Fucking PAN, you jerk. People lost their jobs and you decided Pan was a good idea. You think another Jungle Book is a good idea.

What are you even doing? I wish to God you were forced to live out of a car until you made a #1 movie of the year. Maybe Wonder Woman wouldn’t be such a mess. Don’t try to hide behind the great trailer. People inside are already confirming it’s another mess. It is almost impressive how you keep rewarding the same producers and executives for making the same mistakes, over and over.

If I worked at a donut stand, and I kept fucking up donuts, I’d be fired. Even if I made a tiny decent one every now and then, it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna get fired.

I love that studio, and you’re allowing it to sink. It’s not about making movies for ‘the fans’ and not ‘the critics.’ It’s not even about ‘ruining childhoods.’ It’s about protecting livelihoods.

It’s time to wake up and make the fucking donuts, Kevin.

Whew!

There’s a lot to unpack in there, but here are some points that struck me about the letter.

• The one big take away from this is that while I have in the past complained about Warners’ DC Output before, it is good to take time that a bad year for a studio means lost jobs for a lot of people. Which isn’t to say that we should go to see crappy films to save a person’s job, it just that we should keep it in mind when we are complaining about something that affects our little world.
• I would also like to reiterate that I really liked Suicide Squad. It wasn’t Oscar worthy, but it was a great action flick.
• I don’t know if I could blame Warners for getting into bed with Adam Sandler. The guy has a long list of hits to his name, and who knew he was on the downward arc of his career.
• But Jersey Boys? That musical is a hit and is still running in more than one city. It would be hard to screw that one up, but they did.
• Edge of Tomorrow and Man From U.N.C.L.E. were very entertaining films, in my opinion.
• However, you can’t blame the marketing department (and the woes of those two films listed above had to do a little with the way they are marketed) then paint the marketing department as innocent victims of corporate incompetence.
• It’s also good to point out that Warners problems are not limited the DCEU. That list of films the letter writer gave was painful to read through, and are rife with films that probably shouldn’t have been made, or at least not made the way they were. A serious, eco-friendly Point Break is a film no one needs.
• The part where they say that Wonder Woman is a mess breaks my heart. I hope that this is not true.
• And, of course, it needs to be said that Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice made close to $900 million worldwide. If that didn’t make it a hit, then something really is wrong at Warners, because they shouldn’t be spending that much where that kind of a gross doesn’t cut it. Just because it didn’t break the unrealistic expectation of a $1 billion gross doesn’t mean it should be called a failure.
• Also, Suicide Squad came pretty close to doubling its production budget in its opening weekend, which typically is the sign of a hit. Yet, the word on the street says that the film need to gross $800 million to break even. Why? What was all that extra money spent on?

What do you think?