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So…. How was your last month and a half? Anyone else experience a profound life change? One which has them and their partner staggering around like an additional in a George A. Romero movie?
Allow me to specific my gratitude to my sensible Company Town colleagues for covering newsletter duties while I got to know our latest baby, Maxwell. And thanks to all of the readers who sent their well wishes and film recommendations ahead of my leave of absence. “Parenthood,” the Ron Howard film starring Steve Martin, was a preferred suggestion amongst Wide Shot subscribers, and a welcome one, albeit a tad on-the-nose.
Because we’re not married to our usual format, let’s start things off with…
Variety of the week
Dec. 9, that’s — the streaming release date Apple on Monday announced for its Will Smith slave thriller, “Emancipation.” Yes, that’s right, Apple, despite rampant speculation that “The Slap” would derail plans for the film, will release “Emancipation” this yr in any case, and in time for awards season, no less.
The Antoine Fuqua-directed picture will get a theatrical run starting Dec. 2, followed by its arrival on Apple TV+ per week later. Indeed, the movie will qualify for Oscars consideration, although Smith won’t have the option to attend the ceremony due to a 10-year ban as punishment for his onstage attack of Chris Rock at this yr’s Academy Awards (he’s still eligible for a nomination if film academy voters feel so inclined).
There are a lot of ways to overthink the possible explanations for this decision.
Perhaps Apple realized that the controversy surrounding Smith was unlikely to diminish on a regular basis viewers’ interest within the movie, and should even have boosted its prospects. Holding it for a yr probably wouldn’t help matters much, and with the $120-million picture able to go, December might be nearly as good of a time as any to place it out into the world.
Unless you’ve got a “Top Gun: Maverick” in your hands, a long-delayed movie can feel stale when it finally comes out, especially one with the sort of political relevance that “Emancipation” has. Besides, people love a comeback story.
Let’s be real, though. These narratives are mostly noise to an organization like Apple, which doesn’t operate like a standard studio but slightly is concentrated on putting compelling stuff on Apple TV+ to maintain customers using its services.
Apple seems confident that individuals will just like the movie once they see it in theaters or on the streaming service. “Emancipation” held its first screening in Washington, D.C., over the weekend and the response was positive. That probably matters greater than some other factor for the corporate, which doesn’t need its movies to be financially successful in a conventional sense. It doesn’t need the cash, and it already has its best picture Oscar anyway, because of “CODA.”
“Emancipation” isn’t some piece of quiet Oscar bait, either. It’s an enormous, industrial movie. Speaking in front of an audience for the film, Smith described “Emancipation” as being not about slavery but about freedom and resilience.
Look, that is definitely a big gamble in some ways. Yet it was clear from a recent Latest York Times story that Apple executives desired to move ahead with the film this yr. The one real query was when and the way.
Apple representatives declined to comment beyond the firm’s media alert announcing the discharge date and teaser trailer.
The corporate rolled out the news with a lengthy Deadline Q&A with Fuqua, an indication that the Cupertino, Calif., giant isn’t going to draw back from a publicity push. How much Smith will figure into the pre-release press tour and awards campaign stays to be seen, though.
While the actor has made some public statements, including a video discussing the notorious Rock incident, he has yet to do an enormous “60 Minutes”-style interview or magazine profile for purposes of image rehab. The approaching months will provide plenty of fabric for public relations case studies. It’ll be an interesting test of the industry and the audience’s appetite for forgiveness.
High anxiety
I’ve been taking note of industry matters really only out of the corner of my eye for the previous couple of weeks. But indulge me this one statement. Last month was nearly as good a time as any to not should concentrate to the movie industry, for the sake of mental health, if nothing else. I’m only halfway kidding.
After months of mounting optimism for the recovery of theatrical film, a pair headlines underscored the general state of the industry.
First, Cineworld, the British owner of the Regal cinema chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection within the U.S., citing the lingering financial devastation from the COVID-19 pandemic and a weaker-than-expected film slate.
Adding to the gloomy mood, Cineworld projected in a recent financial update that 2023 and 2024 admissions would remain below pre-pandemic levels. Which will seem obvious, given the best way studios have shifted a significant slice of their filmmaking efforts to streaming. But seeing the world’s second-largest theater operator acknowledge that in writing was a reality check. And now Disney has removed a “Star Wars” film from the calendar? That doesn’t help.
Then there was this: The domestic box office was clobbered with the worst September since 1996, greater than 1 / 4 century ago, excluding the lost yr of 2020. That’s not even accounting for inflation. Yikes.
No wonder people seem so stressed.
If fact, one could make a convincing case that “anxiety” has grow to be the word of the yr for 2022, in the best way that “disruption” was the defining term of the last three to 5 years. Before that, “convergence,” referring to the merging of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, was king of the buzzwords.
Vanity Fair last week published a bit by Natalie Jarvey that captured the “existential dread” and overall sense of burnout and frustration amid what former Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger has called an “age of great anxiety.” A headline from the Ankler, acting because the industry’s mood ring, suggested that we’d hit “peak anxiety.” Wait, isn’t this business imagined to be fun?
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has contributed mightily to this high-strung age with layoffs and an overhaul of the corporate’s content strategy that has left creators scrambling. Zaslav recently told staff that the corporate he just took over was “absolutely” not on the market. Comforting!
Zaslav aside, the industry has plenty to worry about. A potentially devastating writers strike looming in the long run. The collapse of linear TV. Fights over how talent and employees can share within the riches from the surge in demand for streaming content, as my colleague Anousha Sakoui recently covered for this text. Corporate headaches over whether streaming is definitely a very good technique to earn cash, following Netflix’s correction.
I’ll say this much. Hollywood managed to maintain things interesting while I used to be gone, even with its current prolonged drought of hits.
The publicity tour for “Don’t Worry Darling” provided intrigue but caused no observable damage or profit for the film’s financial prospects. It achieved its fairly decent $19-million opening weekend by following the identical playbook studios have used because the days of the silent movie matinee idols: put the recent guy on the large screen. On this case, Harry Styles.
Every attempt of inclusion in essentially the most escapist of our entertainments — a Black mermaid, a Puerto Rican elf, a gay romcom — became a goal for bigots online.
The dismal $4.8-million opening weekend for “Bros” marked yet one more disaster for the state of theatrical comedy.
Disney, having committed greater than any of the normal studios to using its moviemaking prowess to convert streaming subscribers, turned heads by releasing an all-too-rare sleeper hit, the R-rated horror film “Barbarian,” in theaters.
The corporate’s decision to scrap a Don Cheadle Marvel show for Disney+ and as a substitute redevelop it as a movie got some people (including Sonny Bunch) speculating that Disney had seen the error of leaving hundred of thousands and thousands in box office revenue on the table. Put one other way, this looks like an example of the sort of flexible planning that Bob Chapek has been talking about because the big Disney reorganization.
It’s as if, 2½ years after the pandemic broke the business model, everyone’s still sort of just attempting to determine what comes next.
But we’re not all concerning the doomsaying here. To shut on a high note, Nicole Kidman’s beloved AMC Theatres industrial, perhaps the defining piece of movie culture content from the pandemic era, received the “Saturday Night Live” treatment with a scarily accurate parody starring Chloe Fineman.
As Fineman demonically levitated and as patrons stood to salute while cultishly chanting “heartbreak feels good in a spot like this,” this thought crossed my mind: Not less than someone is having a very good time.
Stuff we wrote
— What’s it like being the lone liberal on Fox News? Stephen Battaglio profiles Jessica Tarlov, the co-host of “The Five,” a rare voice of dissent in an increasingly partisan and doctrinaire media landscape.
— What’s happening with the “Rust” investigation? Anousha Sakoui analyzes the important thing takeaways from “Rust” prosecutors’ request for emergency funding. Charges appear imminent.
— The difficulty with Triller. Because the video app and TikTok rival prepares to go public, Brian Contreras and Wendy Lee dig into the lawsuits which have faced the firm.
— ICYMI: SEC sues former MoviePass executives for alleged fraud and misleading investors. Warner Bros. Discovery faces suit alleging inflated HBO Max numbers. Lionsgate looks to spin off film and TV studio, as a substitute of Starz. Lynette Romero lands at KNBC after tumultuous KTLA departure.
Movies shoots
Los Angeles-area on-location shoots were down 12% from the identical week a yr ago, in line with data from FilmLA.
Latino diversity push
My colleague Wendy Lee writes: As Hollywood looks to diversify its ranks, there’s an increasing effort by studios to support highschool students from underrepresented communities, giving them exposure to encourage them to pursue careers in entertainment.
Amazon says it’s partnering with the Latino Film Institute, and the tech giant is the exclusive sponsor of the Youth Cinema Project Alumni Program for the 2022-23 school yr, which connects greater than 300 program graduates with learning opportunities and mentorship. Amazon said it is going to fund a YCP fellowship, where 15 college-bound highschool students will work on a brief film that can screen on the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival next yr.
“That is gonna give young people a chance to actually compete for film schools in a possible way,” said Latasha Gillespie, global head of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility for Amazon Studios, in an interview. “To have your project screened at a movie festival at such a young age, just that whole process and experience goes to make them that far more prepared.”
Better of the net…
— Dragons versus elves: Who has the higher release strategy? (Vulture)
— Andrew Dominik’s, uh, revealing interview on Netflix’s NC-17 “Blonde.” (Sight & Sound)
— Does seeing Billy Eichner’s “Bros” should be marketed as a political act? (Slate)
— The seek for the proper sound in music’s Digital Age. (Washington Post)
Finally …
I agree with Ada Tseng’s Essential California newsletter headline: We Don’t Appreciate Stunt Performers Enough. Tseng spoke with coordinators and performers including Alex Daniels, who was David Hasselhoff’s double on “Baywatch,” about this regularly missed a part of the filmmaking process and the way aspiring employees can enter the occupation.