When I first saw that, I assumed it had to be a joke. Did the head of a major American movie studio really say he would no longer greenlight any movies with women in the lead role?

And knowing that comes from Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily column in L.A. Weekly, it should perhaps be greeted with skepticism, but since I’ve yet to see any kind of denial I have to assume it’s true.

It seems that Warner Bros president of production Jeff Robinov has made a rather weird new decree: “We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead.”

In case that weren’t sick decent by itself, you need only look at what evidence he used to reach that conclusion to see just how wrong it is. What drove that man by the edge? The poor box-office performance of two movies, “The courageous One” and “The Invasion.”

Now, I didn’t bother to see “The Invasion” considering, well, I’ve seen “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and didn’t need to see it again, but I can speak with authority on “The courageous One.” Having had about a month to digest that one now I can state firmly that it was the worst movie I saw that summer, and is a strong contender for the overall title for the past five years or so. Is he really proposing we condemn women to the role of sidekick simply considering these two terrible movie underperformed at the box office? (Yes, apparently.)

Forgive me whether I’m unable to come up with much of a cogent argument here, considering that just pisses me off and it’s still rather early in the , not a great combination. But rather than go on a rant about the virtues of women (if you don’t know what they are, I’m 100 percent convinced I can’t help you), I got to thinking about whether or not there is anything we can do about that.

A viewers’ boycott of Warner Bros. would prepare sense, but I’d advocate instead a conscious effort to support what few big box-office movies there are with women in the lead. I could only think of two for the rest of the year, but whether there are any others coming up that I’ve missed please let me know (and I’m not counting conventional romantic comedies here

considering, well, it would be rather hard to form one of those that wasn’t, well, homosexual without at least one woman in a prominent role.)

The first that comes to mind, and yes, I’m gonna mention it again, is “Juno.” whether you build the sacrifice of seeing adorable Ellen Page in the lead role (gasp, a woman!), I can virtually guarantee you’ll get one of the smartest and funniest movies of the year.

But it starts earlier than that in wide-release land, that weekend in fact. It’s a busy fall weekend with a lot of good titles. Personally, I’ll be going to see as many as four movies: “We Own the Night,” “Michael Clayton,” “Tyler Perry’s Why Did We Get Married?” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” Though I can’t believe that would actually be essential, I’d like to produce a plea in honor of Mr. Robinov that out of that crowded slate everyone at least take the date to go see “Elizabeth.”

With (gasp again!) perhaps the world’s greatest actress in the lead role of Queen Elizabeth I, that should be a rousing period tale about Elizabeth’s relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh and its impact on the world. There’s precisely one review at the IMDB calling it an “awful, boring film,” but I’m betting that once a more representative sample comes in the scorecard will tilt back in its favor.

Even whether “Elizabeth” does somehow turn out to be horrible, however, that doesn’t change the fact that Robinov is a moron, even whether, looking at the current slate of movies, he simply was silly suitable to say out loud what must run through the minds of most movie studio chiefs as they greenlight movies. I guess the most I can ask is that you go see as many good movies as possible, and whether you do get lucky decent to see one with a woman in the lead role enjoy it while you still can.

“Futurama” to the rescue

Well, that was all rather depressing, so here’s a YouTube clip certain to manufacture at least a few public laugh. I’d already seen a rough cut of that, the trailer for the upcoming “Futurama” DVD movie “Bender’s Big Score,” from ComicCon, but that is of much higher quality. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic