George Clooney To Hedge Fund Honcho Daniel Loeb: Stop Spreading Fear At Sony

“It’s crazy he has weight in this conversation at all,” Clooney continued. “If guys like this are given any weight because they’ve bought stock and suddenly feel they can tell us how to do our business — one he knows nothing about — this does great damage then trickles down. The board of directors starts saying, ‘Wait a minute. What guarantee do you have that this movie makes money?’ Well, there are no guarantees, but if you average out the films Will Smith and Channing Tatum have made, you will take that bet every time, even if sometimes it just doesn’t work out.” Clooney also said he believes that down the line both films have a chance to be a wash. Clooney was particularly sensitive on the subject of job creation.

“Hedge fund guys do not create jobs, and we do,” he said. “On the movie we just made, we put 300 people to work every day. I’m talking about nice, regular people, and when we shot in a town, we’d put another 300 people to work. This is an industry that thrives; there are thousands of workers who make films. You want to see what happens if outside forces start to scare the industry and studios just make tent poles out of fear? You will see a lot of crap coming out.”

Phew! Despite the Loeb rant, Clooney was in a good mood after completing a WWII period drama he said went well, despite what he called “the worst winter weather that Germany had in about 150 years”. Clooney and Heslov wrote the script for a fact-based film about how a crew of art historians and museum curators united in a race to uncover renowned art works that were looted by the Nazis. The ticking clock was, Hitler was going to destroy them as the Third Reich tried to cover the tracks of a murderous regime during the final chapter of Germany’s rule. Clooney and Heslov (both of whom produced) got a killer cast. Besides Clooney, the film stars Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin. Daniel Craig was going to make the film, but it turned out he spent so much time making and promoting Skyfall that he told Clooney his wife, actress Rachel Weisz, would kill him if he didn’t go home. So he was a scratch.

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