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Sony responds to email hack, denies editing 'Concussion' to avoid NFL wrath
The NFL is the dark overlord of the universe, or at least that's how the league is portrayed by Hollywood.
Even Sony Pictures Entertainment, one of few film companies with no major strings attached to the NFL, feared what the league's lawyers might have done had they pulled no punches in a movie about the nation's most popular sport, according to hacked emails scoured by The New York Times.
On Monday, Sony released the trailer for "Concussion," a film starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennett Omalu, the neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a degenerative brain disease brought on by repeated head trauma — while performing an autopsy on Hall of Famer Mike Webster. The emails reveal that studio executives, director Peter Landesman and Smith's representatives discussed the idea of "softening some points" about the NFL's reported cover-up of Omalu's science.
According to The New York Times, the discussion centered around: changes to the script; editing "some unflattering moments for the NFL" from the film, eliminating "most of the bite" for fear of legal retribution; careful construction of the movie's marketing strategy (i.e., making sure to mention Smith's fandom and the fact his son played football); and the director's attempt to set up a meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, which ultimately went nowhere once a league spokesman demanded a copy of the script.
“Will is not anti football (nor is the movie) and isn’t planning to be a spokesman for what football should be or shouldn’t be but rather is an actor taking on an exciting challenge,” Dwight Caines, the president of domestic marketing at Sony Pictures, wrote in an email on Aug. 6, 2014, to three top studio executives about how to position the movie. “We’ll develop messaging with the help of N.F.L. consultant to ensure that we are telling a dramatic story and not kicking the hornet’s nest.”
Landesman defended Sony's decision to conduct edits, arguing such legal practice is customary when dealing with a film about real-life events. The director also said alterations were made only to ensure the film's accuracy and limit the league's ability to attack the credibility of its content. He told the paper, "There was never an instance where we compromised the storytelling to protect ourselves from the NFL."
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Sony and the NFL originally declined comment in the story, outside of a vague statement from the league and a studio spokesman clarifying that Sony and not the NFL hired the aforementioned consultant.
“We are encouraged by the ongoing focus on the critical issue of player health and safety,” the league said in a statement when asked to comment on the film. “We have no higher priority. We all know more about this issue than we did 10 or 20 years ago. As we continue to learn more, we apply those learnings to make our game and players safer.”
Once The New York Times piece gained steam, though, Sony issued its own statement in response.
“As will become immediately clear to anyone actually seeing the movie, nothing with regard to this important story has been ‘softened’ to placate anyone.”
As The New York Times noted, the NFL pressured ESPN, which broadcasts "Monday Night Football," to cancel "Playmakers," a horrible show about NFL players acting horribly in 2004, and more recently distance itself from the "League of Denial" documentary that eventually played on PBS. According to the paper, there are no business ties between Sony and the NFL beyond Giants co-owner Steve Tisch's production company at the studio and William Morris Endeavor Entertainment representing Landesman and producer Ridley Scott while also conducting some work for the league.
