Steven Soderbergh’s Subversion
Steven Soderbergh’s Subversion
Alfonso Cuarón’s coincidence, George Clooney and Brad Pitt x 2, Ron Perlman kills a demon, UFO abduction in Nomadland and the jungles of 1970s Brazil.
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Alfonso Cuarón’s coincidence, George Clooney and Brad Pitt x 2, Ron Perlman kills a demon, UFO abduction in Nomadland and the jungles of 1970s Brazil.
Let’s go!
I had a nice meeting with A24 today. They were fun to chat with, and I expect The Industry will be getting some cool access to their upcoming films: The Front Room, We Live in Time, Heretic, A Different Man, Baby Girl, Y2K etc.
Steven Soderbergh is the king of subversion.
His new film Presence is a horror-thriller that premiered at Sundance and just released a trailer.
The logline is razor thin:
A family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone.
But the twist is that the entire film is told from the ghost’s point of view.
Soderbergh is no stranger to unconventional perspectives.
His acclaimed 1989 film Sex, Lies, and Videotape was an unabashed look at private sexual frustration. The film, which won the Palme d’Or and the Sundance audience award, eventually led to his directing major hits like Oceans 11, which is told from the POV of the criminals to the Magic Mike series, told from the POV of the male strippers.
Alongside these successes, he consistently works out of the spotlight on low-budget projects, often simultaneously with his high-profile films.
The same year he made Ocean’s Eleven (2001), he also directed Full Frontal (2002), shot in under a month on digital video, starring Julia Roberts and David Duchovny (trailer).
In 2018, he directed, shot, and edited Unsane, a psychology ward stalker horror film using the iPhone 14 (trailer).
Soderbergh is the epitome of a rapid-paced filmmaker who, no matter the cost, makes a movie. He does not wait on decision-makers. And no matter whether he's producing something big budget like Logan Lucky ($30M), where he used clever tactics to go around the studios, he just green lights himself.
This kind of self-belief has fueled his passion for passing it forward to young directors, first Christopher Nolan in 2002, allowing him to direct the film Insomnia, for which Soderbergh was initially hired. And then most recently with Eddie Alcazar’s Divinity, which played at Sundance last year.
Here’s a fun story about my relationship with Steven Soderbergh:
https://theindustry.co/p/my-relationship-with-steven-soderbergh
I can’t wait to see Presence on January 17th.
For more:
Presence teaser.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
It’s not a TV show it’s a 7-hr movie. Everything about the teaser trailer for Alfonso Cuarón’s (dir: Roma, Gravity, Children of Men) Apple TV+ series Disclaimer, starring Cate Blanchett screams cinema.
Here’s the teaser. Read more about the project here:
https://theindustry.co/p/cate-blanchetts-trial-joseph-gordon
Interestingly, Blanchett’s new character shares DNA with Tár.
Disney Q3 2024 results. And the change from last year:
$10.58bn Entertainment revenue
↑$453 M
118.3 M subs (54.8 M US/Canda)- Disney+
↑700K (International, excluding India’s Hotstar)
↑800K US
51.1 M subs - Hulu
↑900K
$47 M streaming profit
↑ from $512 M loss
Disney CEO Bog Iger stated:
“We achieved profitability across our combined streaming businesses for the first time and a quarter ahead of our previous guidance.”
Disney noted that Inside Out 1 (2015) drove 1.3M Disney+ sign-ups and 100M views since Inside Out 2 (2024) dropped its first teaser.
Warner Bros. Discovery Q2 2024 results. And the change from last year:
$9.99 bn net loss
↑ from $1.24bn
$2.45bn studio net loss (↓5%)
$1.8bn EBITDA
↓16%
$210 M studio EBITDA (↓31%)
103.3 M subs (52.4 M domestic)
↑3.6 M
$107 M loss DTC
Up from a $3.6 M loss
CEO David Zaslav stated:
“Two plus years after launching our company, we are still in the midst of a long term transition marked by many notable progress points, as well as some tough challenges.”
Silver lining: Advertising revenue grew 98% to $240M thanks to Max.
Apple has shifted its release strategy for the Jon Watts-directed Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Instead of a wide theatrical release, it will debut in limited theaters on September 20 and stream globally on Apple TV+ one week later. This is a bombshell strategy shift given that Apple has not fared particularly well with its theatrical releases (see Argylle, Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon, etc.).
Wolfs has received positive test screenings, so perhaps the strategy is to boost sign-ups for Apple TV+. The majority of the titles (films and shows) rarely break the top ten most streamed, with Jake Gyllenhaal’s Presumed Innocent being a rare exception.
In addition, Wolfs is getting a sequel with the same cast and director.
Tidbits:
Michael Bay, Documentarian: Pulling his head out of the TikTok series Skibidi Toilet franchise, he is trying to get off the ground. Bay is releasing his first foray into documentary. Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Saviour will debut on Investigation Discovery over Labor Day.
The five-episode series delves into the life of serial killer Hadden Clark, focusing on his violent history, family dysfunction, and his prison confessions, including believing his cellmate, Jack Truitt, was Jesus.
Bay personally interviewed Clark in prison, stating:
“Throughout my career, I’ve always focused on meeting real people"
Well, he certainly found a specimen.
Check it out on Labor Day on ID.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Embodying Legends, the Cast of Saturday Night (2024):
Jason Reitman's new film will take place over the 90 tumultuous minutes leading up to television history, the first episode of SNL 1975. The decision to use the film's 90-minute runtime to show all of the preparations and nerves is that time acts not only as the film’s antagonist but will create something that Reitman refers to as a "Thriller-Comedy.”
But in order to embody the bubbling legacy of the "Not Ready for Primetime Players" Reitman knew that casting was incredibly important.
Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans) stars as the young producer Lorne Michaels, who, at 30, is portrayed as a visionary yet overwhelmed leader. Gabriel took on the role at 21 quite a bit younger than Michaels was and Reitman implored that LaBelle focused on the essence of Michaels rather than trying to mimic him.
Standing out in an already stacked cast is Nicholas Braun (Succession) taking on the dual roles of Jim Henson and Oddball Comedy Genius Andy Kaufman.
There is also Mathew Rhys, who takes the honor of playing comedy legend George Carlin, the first-ever SNL host. Just a peek at the cast shows.
Here’s the full break out:
Gabriel LaBelle - Lorne Michaels
Mathew Rhys as George Carlin (first look)
Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase (first look)
Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd (first look)
Emily Fairn - Laraine Newman
Nicholas Braun as Jim Henson (first look) & Andy Kaufman (first look)
J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle (first look)
Reitman stated:
"We interviewed everyone we could find that was alive from opening night… every living cast member, every living writer, people from the art department, costumes, hair and makeup, NBC pages, members of Billy Preston’s band—I mean, anyone we could find.”
This dedication to historical accuracy packaged into an even more realistic pacing could be huge for Biopics and Comedy as a whole.
Fittingly this adaptation of 90 minutes that took place October 11th 1975 will land in theatres 49 years after on the very same day.
Tidbit:
We just want to see Ron Perlman kill some demons in Succubus. His Hellboy character felt like a pure externalization of who we always dreamed he would be. So it’s wildly exciting that this high-concept horror (and trust me, I rarely ever use that term) about online dating hits the mark. Perlman hunts a succubus (female demon) who is preying on some poor dude who just broke up with his girlfriend.
The trailer is like a gender-swapped Rosemary’s Baby–modernized with Ron Perlman as the saving angel that Mia Farrow never had.
FESTIVALS
Gotham drops its full project slate. These ones seem really fun:
Arc
Dir/Writer: Keisha Rae Witherspoon (Location Scout: Moonlight)
Prod: Oscar-Winner Mollye Asher (Nomadland)
Synopsis:
A young, black Miami outcast seeks answers to his mother’s supposed UFO abduction by becoming a follower of a mysterious cult leader promising extraterrestrial salvation.
Hyper/Space
Dir/Writer: Moon Molson
Prod: Mary Jane Skalski (American Animals, The Station Agent/Echo Lake Entertainment President of Production)
Synopsis:
A Black twenty-something, suffering from a bundle of unnamed psychological disorders, launches into a low-key manic quest to solve the mystery of his mother’s suicide.
There are also some cool new projects that are produced by Michael Gottwald (Beasts of the Southern Wild) and co-written/produced by Lily Gladstone.
TIFF docs just dropped a full list of selections. Highlights include docs on former Vice host Eddie Huang, US politician Adam Kinzinger, disability rights activist Patrice Jetter, and aerial cameraman Joe Jennings.
Here’s one we’re looking forward to:
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Dir: Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro)
Synopsis:
Follows Ernest Cole's journey as the first Black freelance photographer in apartheid South Africa.
The Last of the Sea Women
Dir: Sue Kim
Production Company: A24
Distributor: Apple TV+
Synopsis:
An extraordinary band of feisty grandmother warriors wage a spirited battle against vast oceanic threats. Often called real-life mermaids, the haenyeo divers of South Korea’s Jeju Island are renowned for centuries of diving to the ocean floor — without oxygen — to harvest seafood for their livelihood.
JOBS
Today, we’re introducing The Industry job listings. We have 3 executive, 13 midlevel, 16 entry-level, and 5 internship positions.
Here’s a top job in each category:
Executives:
A24 - Creative Title Lead
LA/NY
$110k - $140k/year
Mid-Level:
Paramount Pictures - Coordinator, Physical Production
LA
$100k - $130k/year
Entry-Level:
LucasFilm - Executive Assistant to CTO and VP Production
San Francisco
$57,400 - $77,000
Internship:
Magnolia Pictures - Paid Intern - Marketing
NY
$16/hr
Here’s the full list of 37 open positions:
https://theindustry.co/p/jobs-8824
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Viggo Mortensen does time travel.