Matthew McConaughey’s Exodus
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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Matthew McConaughey goes virtual, Amazon's fun, Bill Hader is a cat, behind Leave The World Behind and Mayhem!
Let’s go!
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Oh. What. Fun. Amazon MGM is doubling down on its partnership with Director Michael Showalter. Their romance The Idea of You (starring Anne Hathaway), which we profiled in yesterday’s edition, has received a record number of trailer views. Their next project is the holiday comedy Oh. What. Fun. starring Michelle Pfeiffer (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Scarface).
Here’s the official synopsis from the book on which the film is based:
Everyone is home for the holidays, clamoring for all the Christmas cheer only their mother can whip up. They can already smell the chestnuts roasting—or is that Mom’s hair on fire? From a New York Times bestselling author comes a laugh-out-loud short story for any mom who’d rather wreck the halls.
Showalter co-wrote the script with the original author, Chandler Baker.
No details on production dates have been released.
$5M Grand Prize. The biggest payout in TV history will come from Amazon Studio's partnership with MrBeast for its new reality competition series Beast Games.
1000 contestants will compete for the grand prize.
Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, is the world's #2 YouTuber with 234M subs. MrBeast is best known for his wild competition videos ($456K Squid Game in Real Life, 100 Days Trapped win 500K). Amazon reportedly signed a nearly $100M deal to work with MrBeast on Beast Games.
It continues the trend of Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon, spending big on mass entertainment (e.g., the Rings of Power gamble).
Salke stated: