“I wouldn’t survive a day in that environment”
That’s indie distributor Neon’s co-founder and CEO Tom Quinn‘s take on working within a major studio, let alone two combined.
In his first public appearance since taking home Neon’s seventh Cannes Palme d’Or, this time for Fjord, last week, Quinn was asked at the Produced By Conference his thoughts on the mega Paramount-Warner Bros merger ahead and how that would impact Neon. This year’s Produced By is being held on the Universal lot.
“The idea of putting two of those (companies) together — how you would you feel like if A24 and Neon merged? That would be ridiculous,” he exclaimed.
Expounding on the downside of corporate versus his low overhead operation, “The amount of politicking, the layers of middle management to get to a decision. I’ve worked with this companies, been on zoom with 50 people…In no way can anyone make a decision. It all goes off into black box (after the meeting). I don’t I want to work at a company like that,” said Quinn.
“The lack of competition is bad,” he added.
“Another thing that’s happening is the ‘Uber-zation’ of entertainment: the algorithm,” Quinn continued, “I don’t want to understand it, I want no part of it.”
In regards to being a juggernaut at Cannes consistently, Quinn was modest: “I spent 20 years not winning a single thing at this festival.”
He had a few early brushes with Cannes winning success. Quinn worked on Mike Leigh’s Secret & Lies in addition to the Magnolia Lars von Trier dystopian future title Meloncholia which didn’t win the Palme d’Or (von Trier made sympathetic remarks toward Adolf Hitler, getting himself banned from the fest), but won Best Actress for its lead star Kirsten Dunst.
“At no point did I think we’d ever win a Palme d’Or for Parasite,” which Quinn bought at the script stage.
“We’ve never planned or chased the idea of we must have a certain number for films in Cannes,” added despite having nine films there this year, six of which were in competition.
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