'ding dong the merrio, clap your hands, get out of bed, ding dong the wicked witch is dead!'

Hey folks, Harry here... Sources have been calling geek headquarters and IM-ing me throughout the day with the news that one of the chief guys responsible for some of the worst decisions in Film Geek History... along with a few great ones... has left the desk.

As the official word has it, Lorenzo has stepped down, wanting the more relaxed life as a producer. He knows it is hard, but less stressful than the life of ... 'an executive'. However, what AICN's spies inside Warners has been telling us is that given Warner Brothers' miserable summer outing, where their biggest success was the dreadfully mediocre SCOOBY DOO... well... he didn't stand up too well. HARRY POTTER has been a resounding success, but both productions on the MATRIX sequels and TERMINATOR 3 have reportedly been hemmoraghing money like... um... films with problems. Then - to have his superhero films falling apart, Pitt leaving THE FOUNTAIN. Another expensive project was attacked by nature when SOUND OF THUNDER got water-logged in Prague. His slate this year has delivered such wondrous bombs as AVENGING ANGELO, DEATH TO SMOOCHY, COLLATERAL DAMAGE, JUWANNA MAN, MURDER BY NUMBERS, THE TIME MACHINE, SHOWTIME, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED and more. Well... again this doesn't look good. All of a sudden all he had to show for his year was SCOOBY DOO - which made money, but a case could be made that if an actual good movie had been created, it could have had HARRY POTTER style numbers. So once again, this is a success that points at a failure.

What was Lorenzo good at? He was very good with talent. He has always known how to massage egos and court stars and directors that he favored. However, when I was talking to Robert Evans earlier this year about running a studio feature division he told me the worst thing you could do was make "Star Fucking Movies" He then cited a couple of his "Star Fucking" projects at Paramount like PAINT YOUR WAGON and WUSA as being the worst projects he had... Whereas his "Writer-Fucking films" like THE GODFATHER, THE CONVERSATION, MARATHON MAN, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, LOVE STORY, CHINATOWN and so on... Well those were the projects that have lasted and succeeded.

While the terms: "Writer" and "Fucked" often were associated with Lorenzo DiBonaventura in the rounds I made, they were hardly ever meant with good intentions. This is the executive that pumped BATMAN & ROBIN while letting 187, CONTACT and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL die... The blame was put on Chris Pula... But Pula was being told to sell the MGM Musical with no songs or dances.

This is the executive that essentially killed THE IRON GIANT by neglect.

For his benefit, he can be complimented for getting THE MATRIX made, but then gave WILD WILD WEST the July 4th position instead of THE MATRIX where it could very well have gone on to make a much larger profit.

He got THREE KINGS made, but then allowed it to die through neglect in terms of pushing it with either advertising or for awards. Same goes for THE GREEN MILE and TRAINING DAY.

Since taking over Warner Bros' Head of World Wide Production in 1998 he's overseen the release of such disasters as: 3000 MILES TO GRACELAND, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, THE ART OF WAR, THE AVENGERS, GET CARTER, JACK FROST, OSMOSIS JONES, PRACTICAL MAGIC, QUEST FOR CAMELOT, SEE SPOT RUN, SOLDIER, U.S. MARSHALS, SWEET NOVEMBER, SUMER CATCH, THREE TO TANGO, WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE and... well the list continues...

His greatest success in that time was HARRY POTTER, which given the creative control that J.K. Rowling fought for - including talent, cast, advertising, script and what not... a strong case could be made that she protected the film and its talents from being exploited, raped and pillaged. Which happened on every other franchise that Lorenzo touched.

Lorenzo has been a real "Throw Money At It" type of executive, and frankly I'm glad to see him go. Of course, does that mean us Film Geeks will no longer be influenced by his treachery? Not so... Even now, as his first producing deal film is getting off the ground, he has Keanu Reeves cast in CONSTANTIN - an adaptation of HELLBLAZER - with a terrible script! Shock, another reliable Lorenzo standard.

For now, I look forward to seeing what comes to pass with Jeff Robinov, Steve Papazian and Dawn Taubin. It seems likely that Jeff will end up taking over the position vacated by Lorenzo, and I'm hoping that we'll see some gleam of inspiration and intelligence from them now that Lorenzo is out of there. I know... tis a dream... Maybe now Warners will concentrate on scripts and screenplays first before attaching stars... Contemplate the right directors based upon their actual work instead of the smile they give and that gab they sling. And perhaps now we'll have executives that can recognize greatness in the films they produce and get behind those films with the support that only a studio can give, to ensure those films find an audience BEFORE HOME VIDEO AND CABLE!

There was dancing in the streets of Gotham City and Congo Lines through downtown Metropolis today, let us hope that the leadership from this point forward nurtures instead of destroys!