Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
BAFTAs vs. The Oscars, Marvel’s Daredevil, Warner Bros.’s Gremlins.
Let’s go!
To our readers in LA being affected by the fires, our heart goes out to you. Please stay safe.
BAFTAS VS. THE OSCARS
The BAFTAs dropped their award nominations.
Here’s a comparative analysis of how they’ve matched with the Oscars in the top categories:
Best Picture Matches
2/10 (past 10 years)
8/20 (past 20 years)
Best Actor Matches
9/10 (BAFTAs gave Butler the Oscar for Elvis over Brendan Fraser’s The Whale)
16/20
Best Actress Matches
8/10 (BAFTAs gave the 2022 Oscar to Blanchett for Tár over Michelle Yeoh)
15/20
Best Director Matches
7/10
13/20
We’ll look to the BAFTAs for Best Actor and Best Actress predictors, but not much else seems to be statistically reliable.
Here are the nominations in those four categories:
Best Film
A Complete Unkown
Anora
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
The Brutalist
Director
Anora Sean Baker
The Brutalist Brady Corbet
Conclave Edward Berger
Dune: Part Two Denis Villeneuve
Emilia Pérez Jacques Audiard
The Substance Coralie Fargeat
Leading Actress
Cynthia Erivo - Wicked
Demi Moore - The Substance
Karla Sofía Gascón - Emilia Pérez
Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Hard Truths
Mikey Madison - Anora
Saoirse Ronan - The Outrun
Leading Actor
Adrien Brody - The Brutalist
Colman Domingo - Sing Sing
Hugh Grant - Heretic
Ralph Fiennes - Conclave
Sebastian Stan - The Apprentice
Timothée Chalamet - A Complete Unknown
Conclave was the highest awarded, with 12 nominations. Emilia Pérez took 11 noms.
The badass film Kneecap, picked up by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance, scored 6 nominations, the most ever for a film by a first-time director. Universal scored 32 nominations (it distributed Anora and The Brutalist in the UK).
Big shout out to Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was tremendous in Hard Truths.
A few notable snubs: Hugh Grant making it in for Heretic over Daniel Craig (Queer) is an interesting upset for the two Brits leading A24 films. I’m not super big into horror, but Grant was outstanding in the film. Saoirse Ronan slid her way in over Oscar nominee hopeful Nicole Kidman (Babygirl).
The BAFTA winners will be announced Feb 16th.
For More:
Full list of BAFTA noms here.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Daredevil Born Again launches on Disney+ March 4th.
Feature Film shoot days in LA skyrocketed 82.4% in Q4 2024.
Leonardo DiCaprio pledges $1 M to help the recovery efforts for the LA wildfires.
Warner Bros. has Gremlins 3 script in development, written by Christopher Columbus (writer: Gremlins).
Due to the revamp of NBCU, distribution chief Matt Bond has announced his retirement.
Former MGM executive and high-profile publicist Michael Gerety died earlier this week at age 82.
Starz is back with a reboot of their popular 2010 series Spartacus with Spartacus: House of Ashur.
Two-time Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins plays both a criminal and a police officer in HBO’s upcoming limited series DTF St. Louis.
Robert De Niro looks deliriously frantic in Netflix’s Zero Day.
Cannes re-elects its president, Iris Knoblock.
WGA releases their nominations.
Adam McKay (dir: Don’t Look Up, The Big Short) has come on board to EP A Lien, an Oscar-shortlisted short film.
The Match Factory (prod company: The End, Memoria), has hired Agathe Valentin in the new role of Sales Director.
Actor-turned-director Daniel Auteill and Emilia Pérez AD Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux have set up their next features with Les Films Velvet.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
To Beat the Devil: Marvel's best work might surprise you. For a long time, Daredevil was always kind of treated as a distant cousin to the MCU's other works, the three increasingly fantastic seasons lived on Netflix until fairly recently. But that distance and freedom led to a violent, dark character study of the man and the mask. Some career-high performances from Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin (Full Metal Jacket), John Bernthal‘s Punisher, and of course, Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoc, aka Daredevil.
After years, Daredevil is born again on Disney+, now in the big leagues fully canon and respected, and now season 4 is nearly upon us.
This time, we catch up with our cast of heroes and villains slightly more world-weary, having gone through all of the upheavals that the MCU hinted at, but with a focus on street level, the seedy underbelly of Hell's Kitchen.
The teaser trailer is just a glorious flood of memories, punches, two horrific compound fractures, and some good ‘ol primal screams, elements that just made the series so perfect. Welcome back, Matt Murdoc.
Check out the official trailer here.
There’s still time you can catch up on the whole series before Daredevil Born Again launches on Disney+ March 4th.
Feature Film shoot days in LA skyrocketed 82.4% in Q4 2024 vs. last year, according to a new report by FilmLA. Indie films are said to be the big driver (hurrah!).
That was one of the sunnier patches in the report, which showed a 5.6% drop for 2024 in the total amount of LA shoot days. Q4 shoot days are up by 6.4% (5860 total).
Here’s a breakdown of the shoot days:
Feature Films 2023 → 2024
Total: 2022 days → 2403 days
↑ 18.8%
Q3 → Q4: 476 days → 589 days
↑23.74%
TV 2023 → 2024
Total: 9430 days → 7716 days
↓18.2%
Q3 → Q4: 1817 days → 1596 days
↓12.16%
TV Pilot 2023 → 2024
Total: 33 days → 136 days
↑312.1%
Q3 → Q4: 29 days → 24 days
↓17%
There were 113 Film-incentivized Q4 shoot days (19.2%).
There were 103 TV-incentivized Q4 shoot days (6.5%).
Get the full breakdown charts here.
Warner Bros is having a bit of a reckoning: The 101-year-old studio is navigating significant changes as it balances nostalgia-driven projects with its upcoming slate of more auteur-driven films from prominent directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Bong Joon Ho, and Ryan Coogler.
The Beetlejuice sequel (don't make me write it out) was a huge win last year, raking in $294,100,435 gross, so it is no wonder that executives are looking hungrily at their other long-dormant 80s franchise, with a treatment for a Goonies sequel being pitched and a Gremlins 3 script in development and written by Christopher Columbus.
Warner Bros. aims to rebuild its pipeline, looking to James Gunn's Superman to pave the way. Their upcoming 2025 slate is pretty exciting:
Mickey 17 - March 7th (4x delayed)
Superman - in theatres July 11th
The Battle of Bakatan Cross - PT Anderson arriving sometime in 2025
Sinners - Coogler vampire movie in theatres April 18
In a hyper-competitive and ever-changing market, Warner looks to the future as well as the past. A bit of balance but with an eye to create event films, it's exciting to see what happens next.
Due to the revamp of NBCU, distribution chief Matt Bond has announced his retirement. After working with Comcast for over 20 years, Bond sent an internal message announcing his departure and how proud he is of where the company is today, saying:
“We exceeded all our financial objectives while leaving flexibility for the growth of Peacock. As we’ve done every year for the last 13 years, we achieved this without a single distribution dislocation. NBCU Universal has never been in better condition with respect to distribution.”
In addition to securing extensive affiliation agreements with top-rated broadcast companies (i.e., Cox, Comcast, DIRECTV), Mr. Bond spearheaded the distribution of the XXII Olympic Winter Games from Sochi, which resulted in more than $250 M media exposures across NBCU’s properties.
This news comes a month after former Peacock boss Kelly Campbell also stepped down due to the upcoming NBCU changes.
Tidbits:
More organizations have started pledging money for the LA wildfires:
J. Paul Getty Trust - $12 M
Leonardo DiCaprio - $1 M
Film Academy - $250 K
Get a full list of event cancellations:
https://theindustry.co/p/cancellations-la-wildfires
Former MGM executive and high-profile publicist Michael Gerety, died earlier this week at age 82. He was originally hired by MGM in 1965 and sixteen years later began work as a publicist representing clients like Julie Andrews, Julia Garner, Chuck Norris, and many more. He will be greatly missed.
Get in the hole!: Pro Shop, a golf-focused media company, is launching a studio to focus on all sorts of media that include, well, golf. That includes stepping on as a producer for Happy Gilmore 2 (arriving sometime in 2025). Other projects include Full Swing season three and a Skins Game reboot.
I’m Spartacus! The Starz hit show Spartacus (2010-2013) is back with all the sex, blood, and sand of the original guilty pleasure. Spartacus: House of Ashur releases this fall. Here’s a teaser.
Mini Tidbit:
Check out brand new concept art for Avatar Fire & Ash - Here. It appears to show the new "fire” tribe Cameron teased recently.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Two-time Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins is playing both a criminal and a police officer at the same time following the news that he will be joining HBO’s upcoming limited series DTF St. Louis. He will be starring opposite Ozark’s Jason Bateman, Stranger Things’ David Harbour, and Dead to Me’s Linda Cardellini in the new dark comedy series about a love triangle among three adults experiencing middle-age malaise that leads to one of them ending up dead.
Jenkins will play a police detective in charge of investigating the death. The Shape of Water actor is probably best known for his prior HBO collaboration.
HBO’s Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
The (dead) father of the family
Calling Michael C. Hall on his phony existential BS clip
Last summer, Jenkins also was announced to join the cast of Criminal, Amazon Prime Video’s newest drama series. It’s great to see Jenkins, after a long career helm his own show. The directors of the first four episodes are Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Captain Marvel), expected to air on Prime fall 2025.
DTF St. Louis was created by Steven Conrad (wri. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Wonder) and is set to begin filming in Atlanta sometime this year.
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Tidbits:
From one nightmare situation to another, Hunger Games the Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes (2023) actor Josh Rivera stars in the newly dropped trailer for horror movie Inhabitants. Written and directed by Matt Chung (The Mad Whale), Rivera is seen in the trailer having to face his demons, all the while trying to protect his roommate and girlfriend from both the terrifying mysteries lurking in every eerie corner of their new home as well as his disapproving family.
Inhabitants is set for a Valentine’s Day release.
Robert De Niro looks deliriously frantic in Netflix’s Zero Day, and we love it! In the upcoming Netflix series, he plays the former President of the United States.
Here’s the series synopsis:
After a cyberattack sabotages transportation and power infrastructure across the U.S., former President George Mullen is asked to find the culprit.
Here’s the teaser. The show is due out February 20th. The also stacked cast includes Angela Bassett (playing the sitting President) and Jesse Plemons.
A few new additions to Netflix's One Piece Season 2:
Rigo Sanchez (Outerbanks)
Dragon the leader of the revolutionary army…
Yonda Thomas (Seriously Single)
Igaram Captain of The Alabasta Guard
James Hiroyuki Liao (Barry)
Ipponmatsu, an arms shop owner in Loguetown.
Season 3 of Prime Video’s fantasy series, The Wheel of Time, adds five new stars to its third-season roster.
Isabella Bucceri (Finally Me)
Nukâka Coster-Waldau (Thin Ice)
Salóme Gunnarsdóttir (Justice League)
Björn Landberg (Galileo Mystery)
Synnøve Macody Lund (Ragnarok)
Based on the fourteen best-selling novels by Robert Jordan, the new additions will be joining a cast of Rosamund Pike (Saltburn), Madeleine Madden (Mystery Road), and Josha Stradowski (Just Friends).
The Wheel of Time will return to Prime for season three beginning on March 13th.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
Cannes re-elects its president, Iris Knoblock. It’s a four-year term, which will carry her through the 2028 Cannes Festival. Knoblock was instrumental in championing The Artist (the only French film to win the Best Picture Oscar).
Writers Guild Nominations here. Alex Garland’s Civil War gets a surprise Best Original Screenplay nomination. You must be a WGA member to get nominated, making The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez ineligible.
Check out Vimeo’s Best Staff Picks for 2024 here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Adam McKay (dir: Don’t Look Up, The Big Short) has come on board to EP A Lien, an Oscar-shortlisted short film.
Here’s the synopsis:
A young couple face up to and deal with a dangerous immigration process.
The opening of the short film (full short) is wildly claustrophobic, and the use of overlapping sound is extremely well executed. Props to the director, writer, and producers David Cutler-Kreutz and Sam Cutler-Kreutz for the good work.
Tidbits:
Two notable acquisitions:
Greenwich Entertainment acquires UnBroken
Plot: Doc on 7 children who survived Nazi Germany
Premiere: Doc NYC
Release date: Feb 21 (Theatrical)
Hulu acquires Memes and Nightmares
Plot: NBA Twitter king's quest unravels the fleeting nature of online content
Premiere: Tribeca 2024
Release date: Feb 20
Germany-based film international sales agent/production company, The Match Factory (The End, Memoria), has hired Agathe Valentin in the new role of Sales Director. A veteran of international sales, Valentin will be key in executing initiatives that expand the organization’s international footprint. For the past eight years, she worked at Les Films du Losange, selling titles such as Palme d’Or winners The White Rabbit (2009) and Amour (2012). She will begin her new role effective immediately.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Actor-turned-director Daniel Auteill and AD Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux have set up their next features with Les Films Velvet. The production company is currently behind The Musicians (Les musiciens), the opener at this year’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris.
Auteill wrote, directed, and starred in last year’s murder mystery film, An Ordinary Case (2024), and will be returning to the director’s chair for One Night (Une Nuit), a WWII drama based on a remarkable true story.
Pouilloux most recently worked as the assitant director on the Golden Globe-winning Emilia Perez, having worked closely with director Jacques Audiard on other projects like the Canal Plus series Iris (2009). Pouilloux will make his directorial debut with Thanks Mom (Merci Maman), an irreverent comedy about a mother who reluctantly drags her son to couple’s therapy.
Les Films Velvet is on board to produce both One Night and Thanks Mom with both films in pre-production.
ON THIS DAY
Ethel Merman (1908-1984) is born in Astoria, New York City.
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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