Maha Dakhil just can’t catch a break.
The outspoken CAA super-agent who represents everyone from Tom Cruise to Natalie Portman to Anne Hathaway, recently told attendees as part of a Forbes Iconoclast Summit in New York on June 3 that filmmakers don’t necessarily need film executives to execute their vision.
“We are seeing that we don’t even need studios to green-light ideas. We just need talent and courage,” said Dakhil who, we are told, was referencing the breakout hits “Obsession” and “Backdoors” which have prompted all sorts of chest-beating within a Hollywood desperate for any hopeful news about the future of moviemaking.
Well, it turns out Dakhil’s comments rankled some actual studio executives, some of whom sit on the greenlight committees for major studios. Says one: “Is Tom Cruise going to self-fund? Is the Church of Scientology going to pay for everything he does? How do you make ‘Digger’? Who pays for that?”
“Digger,” of course, is Warner Bros.’ upcoming Cruise movie that costs anywhere from $125 million to $200 million, depending on who you ask.
A Warners rep says the budget of the Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed, black comedy is $125 million, while a studio insider says it is “pushing a $200 million, which is insane.” Either way, it represents a figure that can only be approved by a … studio.
Asks another top manager, “Does CAA really want her out in the world talking like that?”
But other veteran execs involved with the breakout projects have been publicly making the rounds praising the films on panels, and even chastising Hollywood studios, with no blowback. Jason Blum, an executive producer of “Obsession,” likened Barker and Parsons’ films in a recent talk at the producers guild to nothing less than the ’70s new wave of cinema.
And Peter Chernin, the former Fox exec turned producer who co-financed “Backrooms” with A24, told “The Town” of the big studios, “You can’t just live on sequels, you can’t just live on IP… [the major studios] should be taking risks.” (Chernin also told CNBC of any impending copycats, ″I guarantee you 80% will be failures… Your job is to innovate… not to just jump on a bandwagon.”)
Some are chalking up the tempest in a teapot to Dakhil’s polarizing reputation. In October 2023, she wrote on her then-public Instagram account: “What’s more heartbreaking than witnessing genocide? Witnessing the denial that genocide is happening.” Facing backlash, she apologized for the post, resigned from CAA’s board and promptly turned her account private. Dakhil has since regained her footing as one of the top agents working today (Last month, she hosted a party to celebrate Warners toppers Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca). And privately, many pro-Palestinian industryites applauded her labeling the situation in Gaza a genocide, a position that has become more mainstream and embraced even by Los Angeles Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman.
One unintended consequence of the back-to-back success of “Obsession” and “Backdoors” is the casting of a spotlight on Hollywood’s generational divide.
Across the industry, on the Monday after “Backrooms” opened, boomer studio honchos sat down with their younger millennial and Gen Z staff and earnestly asked their advice on how to harness the power of YouTube. To some, it feels like a classic bandwagon moment that a generation of top executives will undoubtedly squander.
One meme that was making the rounds featured a suited executive standing over his assistant with the line: “My boss making me find the next Kane Parsons or Curry Barker by EOD.” Ironically, most of the studio executives passing around a clip of Dakhil’s gaffe were either around the same age as the 50-year-old agent or younger.
After all, Hollywood outrage can be selective and often complicated. One studio executive who was offended by Dakhil’s genocide post is defending her latest polarizing position. “I think she’s just talking about how there’s more of a meritocracy and talent discovery going on right now,” that executive says.
Said another source of any controversy: “Maha’s support of the entire industry eco-system, including studios, is well known. She was speaking to this being an exciting time for the business overall, with young artists having even more ways of advancing an idea – that’s the operative word – and audiences are responding, which is great for all. One way doesn’t negate the other. Like so many of us, she is celebrating these new voices breaking through.”
Credit: Source link