Originally published at: Long-awaited Gorillaz movie axed at Netflix | Boing Boing
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Dang. I moved to Los Angeles in 2020 thinking I had it made finally for the first time in my life. As an artist I’ve never had a full time gig with benefits until getting a lucky break in animation - and thanks in large part to the fact that it’s unionized at most studios here. But now there’s layoffs left and right, thousands of artists looking for work and only a small handful of jobs. Super talented people getting laid off. Shows getting canned. We were one of the lucky industries being able to work from home relatively easily during the pandemic. The tide has turned… it’s brutal out here…
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That is sadly very, very true - not just in Hollywood either. Most CEOs have this drive to “make their mark” (and also install their cronies).
@Jim_Campbell I am really sorry you are having to go through this. I hope that things improve soon. Right now it seems like every creative profession is bearing the brunt of the fallout of years of terrible decisions by those at the top. Between the number of times I have heard “We assumed that the boom we experienced during the pandemic would never end” and seen streaming companies act as if there is no “good” outcome other that being #1 is ridiculous. I think we need to teach MBAs that there are other numbers beyond that which are still fine businesses.
I hope you find something soon. It’s insane that you are suffering to add a little fraction of additional wealth for those that won’t even notice it in any real way. It’s sick
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Just finished reading No Rules Rules - Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. It’s got a lot of interesting material mixed in with a self-congratulatory version of the company’s history. Reading it now has been extra fascinating considering the recent departure of Reed as CEO (co-CEO?) and the massive shift in the company’s trajectory as of late. Might be an epic public irony if several years after publishing a “we’re awesome” book the company itself goes full Hindenburg as people are predicting.
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This happened to me last year when Netflix cancelled “Boons and Curses” which looked like it was going to be so great. That would have been at least a year of work, but as mentioned by others, the animation world right now is very quiet.
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Damn, they are cancelling some cool project.
They cancelled Matt Wagner’s Grendel, and I believe it was basically done.Was it really bad and they decided to cut bait, or just a line item to delete by the bean counters?
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I work in animation and the business has always had this weird bust/boom cycle for as long as I can remember. Studios with no animation experience decided there was money to be made (like when Pixar was making hit after hit film) and jumped into it and created a bunch of lesser quality products that didn’t do as well and then bailed out when they stopped making as much money. I worked at Warner Bros when they merged with AOL; they laid off about half the people in the building when they realized they had too much duplication of positions. I was just lucky not to be one of the folks escorted to the elevator with a box of their office stuff. Executive shift is just one of the things you have no control over in this business.
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Dammit… by the time the fictional characters of Gorillaz get a movie, they’ll all be in their 60’s. Murdoc has a notorious heroin habit (albeit a fictional one) – will he actually live that long?
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At least guest artist Ace (from Powerpuff Girls) will still look 80 and claim to be a teen hoodlum!
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Counterpoint!
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All the best with finding new work.
@anon52120741 I was self-unemployed in comic books back in the 90s, and the boom and bust was a real rollercoaster ride.
Edit for @anon61221983 Life is weird isn’t it; River Phoenix takes a speed-ball and dies, while the likes of Burrows, Lemmy, Oliver Reed, and Iggy Pop last for decades.
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New bosses are like new dogs in a neighborhood. They run around and piss on everything just to prove they’ve been there.
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And dig up all the flowers while they are at it!
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Oh I hate hearing about something after it’s already been cancelled. This sounds great - I hope it gets picked up elsewhere.
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