After Warner Brothers Chief (and poster child for anti-WGA sentiment) David Zaslav announced mass layoffs at the beloved institution of Turner Classic Movies, it was reported that the star-studded celebrity director trio of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson had pressured a meeting to express their collective dismay.
The meeting was, apparently, fruitful, as the three were invited to help curate the channel. The filmmakers will work closely, without pay, with Mike de Luca and Pam Abdy (WB Motion Picture Group chiefs) to help craft what TCM can look like now and in the future.
It's welcome news, as TCM's survival more or less depends on the three masters. In a joint statement, the three filmmakers said that they "have already begun working on ideas with Mike and Pam, both true film enthusiasts who share a passion and reverence for classic cinema that is the hallmark of the TCM community."
What level of direct involvement they will have has yet to be seen, and the business of curation and programming goes far beyond merely picking films – but for now the channel's history as a source of preservation of the classics seems to be in, however temporary, good hands.
