Hollywood Gets Memphis Man Fired for Negative Review

Hollywood is an awfully long way from Memphis.

However, that did not stop 20th Century Fox from pulling around its hefty Hollywood weight to get a Memphis man fired from his job as a movie projectionist at a Memphis movie theater, according to a news report from WMC-TV news Channel 5.

29-year-old University of Memphis college student Jesse Morrison is a serious movie lover. Not only does he work at a movie theater as a projectionist but he also writes screen plays, publishes a movie magazine called Memflix, and also writes movie reviews on-line. On Friday June 8, 2007, Morrison wrote an on-line movie review for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. This review was posted on aintitcool.com, which is a movie gossip site. The review was titled Fantastic 4 Travesty, and brought to light all of the negative aspects of the upcoming film.

20th Century Fox saw the review and was very displeased. They were so displeased that they tracked down Morrison and filed a complaint with his employer. Morrison's employer, Malco movie theaters, has suspended him until further notice. The senior vice president of Malco movie theaters told WMC-TV in Memphis, TN that Morrison "violated policy by writing a review on a movie that had not been released to the public yet." Morrison did write this review after working a private screening for the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer as a projectionist.

Morrison told WMC-TV he has never had any issues with writing reviews before, and he has worked at the theater for one year. Morrison says 20th Century Fox singled him out because "They don't have very much confidence in the film they are about to put out, and that is what seems to be the case here."