Disney/Bruckheimer Marriage Tipping Closer to Divorce

"The nature of the film business is that success is a rarity. Failure is the norm. And if you want to be in the movie business, you have to be able to overcome the occasional flop."

That was the late producer David Brown in the terrific documentary Final Cut: The Making & Unmaking of Heaven's Gate (You can watch it here). Thirty-three years on, the after-effects of Michael Cimino's western are still felt. In the face of an overwhelming financial disaster, the studio executives responsible for their own flop-in-the-making no doubt think to themselves, "Oh God, this can't be another Heaven's Gate." Translation: a flop so big it brings down their company along with their jobs and, worst of all, their reputations.

Disney is going through similar woes right now. While the results are nowhere in the stratosphere as United Artists (Their pockets are too deep and their asses are covered thanks to their ownership of Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm), a major casualty is coming from the commercial catastrophe of The Lone Ranger. The Wrap reports the studio is reassessing their current-standing deal (and working relationship as a whole) with producer Jerry Bruckheimer for Pirates of the Caribbean 5.

How severe? Enough for Disney to relinquish final cut authority from their longtime hit-maker and trimming the budget on the Pirates sequel (set for release July 2015) from a reported $250 million closer to $200 million. A task they tried to avoid a few years upon initially pulling the plug on The Lone Ranger. A problem they thought they avoided upon agreeing to a tighter budget under the supervision of Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski. Only to see it all go up in smoke once production got underway.

Disney took a bath here to the tune of nearly $200 million as revealed yesterday, and someone has to pay. It won't be Johnny Depp (Too deep with the studio with not just Pirates 5 but Alice in Wonderland 2 and Into the Woods) and director Verbinski is already damaged. Bruckheimer is taking the hit here. And while nobody is saying it, the writing is on the wall. If Disney is making their one-time biggest asset hand over final cut, it's the beginning of the end. They're going to split up.