November 4, 2011 
Honesty! Don’t you love it? Universal chief Ron Meyer spoke about his studio’s recent misfires at the Savannah Film Festival, with refreshingly foul-mouthed candour.
Movieline captured his headline quotes, the most significant of which relate to his disappointment over studio flops The Wolfman, Cowboys and Aliens, and Land of the Lost.
“We make a lot of sh**** movies. Every one of them breaks my heart…We set out to make good ones. One of the worst movies we ever made was Wolfman Wolfman and Babe 2 are two of the sh******* movies we put out, but by the same token we made movies we believe in.
“Cowboys & Aliens wasn’t good enough. Forget all the smart people involved in it, it wasn’t good enough… All those little creatures bouncing around were crappy. I think it was a mediocre movie, and we all did a mediocre job with it.
“Land of the Lost was just crap…I mean, there was no excuse for it. The best intentions all went wrong.”
He does have some kind words for his studio’s output.
“Scott Pilgrim, I think, was actually kind of a good movie. [Addressing a small section of the audience, cheering.] But none of you guys went! And you didn’t tell your friends to go! But, you know, it happens.”
Meyer also revealed that he no longer considered Universal as being in the business of winning Oscars.
“[A critical hit is] great when it happens. But we did A Beautiful Mind, and I don’t know that we’d do A Beautiful Mind again. That’s the sad part. It’s great to win awards and make films that you’re proud of and make money, but your first obligation is to make money and then worry about being proud of what you do.”
To read more of Meyer’s thoughts, including why Universal pulled the plug on Ron Howard’s proposed Dark Tower trilogy and Guillermo del Toro’s pricey monster movie At The Mountains of Madness, head on over to Movieline.
Discuss: The Wolfman really was terrible, but we must admit we have a soft spot for Land of the Lost. What say you?
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Babe 2,shit? He’s crazy!
I kind off agree with the oscar comments. It so political the awards that I don’t feel they are legitimate accolations. Also he is spot on about Scott Pilgrim but at the same token it had nowhere near the advertising budget that Cowboys and Aliens had. I saw more ads and promotions for Cowboys and Aliens than I ever saw for Scott Pilgrim.