10 Most Annoying Phrases In The Movie Business
1. Creative Differences
What it really means: Either 'I quit' or 'you're fired'.
The shocking removal of Phil Lord and Christopher Lord from the Han Solo spinoff is pretty much the textbook definition of 'creative differences'. It was announced that the duo were departing the project with three weeks of shooting left (which is virtually unheard of), only for reports to surface later that day that they had in fact been fired over frequent disagreements with veteran producer Kathleen Kennedy.
It is a bland phrase designed to protect both parties; the studio doesn't want to seem ruthless by publicly firing creative talent and the filmmakers save face by claiming that their vision didn't suit the project. However, it has become overused to the point of ubiquity these days and the cause (as seems to be the case with Lord and Miller) is frequently interference by studio representatives.
Edgar Wright leaving Ant-Man after developing it for nearly a decade, The Flash looking for its third director at barely the pre-production phase, Tim Miller exiting the follow-up to $783m smash hit Deadpool and half of the projects Doug Liman signs on to are just some recent high-profile examples of 'creative differences', and it rarely works out to the benefit of the filmmaker.