Shortly after the Sacramento Bee dropped its 4,300-word bomb on the Morning View film studio this weekend, I reached out to get the company's response.
The Bee story notes that Morning View CEO Carissa Carpenter was out last week for an emergency hysterectomy. I can confirm that I received an email about her surgery four days before the Bee piece dropped.
With Carpenter out, I contacted Robert Naylor, the attorney and former lobbyist who serves as Morning View’s spokesperson when Carpenter is out for health reasons.
“It’s very misleading,” he said of the Bee story. “We are committed to moving the project forward. When the property is purchased and we’re starting the entitlements process, nobody will remember this article.”
That quote is consistent with everything Naylor and Carpenter have said since the project began dragging out early this year, although the Bee article casts some new light on the delays.
Morning View has been extremely secretive about the 33-person group that makes up the corporate team of investors and lenders. They cite the finicky nature of Hollywood relationships for the confidentiality.
I asked Naylor if he knew the 33 investors involved. Here’s how the conversation went:
Me: Do you know the 33-person team?
Naylor: “I’ve been in email communications with most of them, or have met them personally. But I don’t know all the people."
Me: Have you seen their names on a list or anything like that?
Naylor: “I’ve dealt personally with 8 or 10 of them. I’ve seen other names on email lists.”
Me: Have you seen all 33 names? Do you know who the full team of investors is?
Naylor: “I’ve been with the project for a little over two years. I’ve encountered who I’ve encountered. [Carpenter] has been doing it for 14 years, so I’m not concerned.”
It appears that Naylor does not know the full 33-person team of investors who would be funding this project. As one of Morning View's most prominent players, this raises questions.
It’s understandable that those names would be confidential to the outside world, but it’s hard to imagine that a spokesperson for the project would lack that information about such a vital component.
Another possibility could be that one of the 33 investors is a huge power player, and that all others are just peripheral players on the list (rendering them less important in the grand scheme).
Morning View doesn’t comment on speculation about George Lucas, but they also don’t definitively squash it. What they say is that the 33-person team is private, which lets people continue to wonder (and sometimes hope).
A spokesperson for Lucas told the Bee that they had no knowledge of the Morning View project in Dixon.
“This is [Carpenter’s] brain child and she’s the the one who put together the critical elements of it,” said Naylor. “She’ll remain CEO. When the funding comes through, we’ll be hiring a Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Financial Officer and a true spokesman.”
So, Morning View is pushing forward in the wake of the Bee's article, which Carpenter told the Dixon Tribune is 99 percent misleading.
“We think it’s happening soon. [Carpenter’s] been in touch with the bankers," said Naylor of the land purchases. "We hoped it would happen before this article.”
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