Crouching Tiger, Hidden Blade Runner

written by: Gabe Miller
May 8, 2024

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Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:

Michelle Yeoh’s tears in rain, Olivia Colman’s fractured families, John C. Reilly’s AI wife, Cannes’ Smart House, and a model car.

Let’s go!

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN BLADE RUNNER

*Everything Everywhere All At Once*. A24.

Michelle Yeoh has just been cast in Blade Runner 2099.

The series takes place fifty years after Blade Runner 2049 (2017), the Denis Villeneuve-directed follow-up to the Ridley Scott-directed original Blade Runner (1982).

Yeoh will play a replicant at the end of her life.

Replicants are synthetic humans that are the target of permanent retirement, e.g., assassination by a specialized police force or the blade runners.

Yeoh herself felt she was headed for retirement before she took on her Oscar-winning role as a mother turned superhero in the sci-fi Everything Everywhere All At Once.

She explained:

“You know, as you get older, the roles get smaller. It seems like the numbers go up and these things go narrow, and then you start getting relegated to the side more and more.”

The central question of Everything Everywhere All at Once shares DNA with Blade Runner. Facing an extinction event (whether it be death or taxes), how do we find meaning in our own lives?

Yeoh will challenge our perceptions of heroism, humanity, and the eternal quest for self-discovery, ensuring that her portrayal resonates not just with fans of the genre but with anyone captivated by the story of what it means to find yourself amidst certain death.

The role has the potential to establish Yeoh as a landmark force in the science fiction genre.

For More:

Everything Everywhere All At Once trailer.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Trailer. Ryan Gosling stars.

Blade Runner (1982). Trailer. Harrison Ford stars.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Disney Q2 2024. Here are the gains and losses. And the comparison to Q1 2023:

$18 M net l0ss – DTC
- Lowered losses by 97%
- $6.19 bn revenue (↑12%)
$47 M profit – DTC w/o ESPN e.g., Disney+ & Hulu
- $634 M gain
- $5.64 bn rev (↑13%)
$2.27 bn revenue – Linear
- ↓ 7%
↑ 6.3 M subs
- 156 M paid global
- 22.5 M ad tier

Disney CEO Bob Iger said:

“We’ve said all along our path to profitability will not be linear… while we’re anticipating a softer third quarter, due in large part to the seasonality of our Indian sports offerings, we fully expect streaming to be a growth driver for the company in the future and we have prioritized the steps necessary to achieve this.”

In an additional path to profit, Iger will pursue selectively licensing content to other streamers like Netflix.

Also, following recent losses from:

The Marvels (2023)
- $270 M budget + marketing
- $204 M gross
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
- $326 M budget + marketing
- $476 M gross

Marvel will only release two or three good films per year, down from four+. They will also cut down on the TV series and lean into sequels.

Hasbro is racing off with another of its franchises and Sam Hargrave (dir: Extraction) is behind the wheel. Matchbox, based on the diecast model cars from all of our collective childhood, is one of the 40+ movies in development riding the billion-dollar Barbie wave. Skydance will produce and just closed a deal with Mattel for Hargrave to direct. Hargrave started his career as a stunt coordinator for various Marvel movies and found success as a director for Netflix’s Extraction movies.

Badlands is the new horror label. It’s a recent production company formedfrom:

Thunder Road (production company)
- John Wick series
- Monkeyman (2024)
- Sicario (2015)
Scott Strauss (former Screen Gems exec)
- Tarot (2024)
- The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)
- Slender Man (2018)

They will team to develop and co-fund 2-3 films/year.

Strauss stated:

“Badlands will be an extension of both companies’ entrepreneurial spirit and is moving quickly to acquire and produce a fresh slate of horror IP.”

First on their slate is Arachnid, directed by Matilda Lutz (dir: Reptile starring Benicio Del Toro & Justin Timberlake).

The film will launch at Cannes with CAA Media as the domestic sales rep.

Tidbits:

Following Apple’s recent theatrical losses:

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
- $250 M budget
- $157 M gross
Argylle (2024)
- $200 M budget
- $96 M gross

The Head of Marketing Ricky Strauss is leaving the company.

So, while the leash around recouping some level of investment may now be a stronger priority, Apple is still locked into the flywheel thesis of using the film’s theatrical releases to push more eyeballs onto their streaming platform to sell more iPhones.

Next up for Apple is a $300 M F1 movie starring Brad Pitt.

Westeros’ dynamic duo “Dunk and Egg” get their adventures adapted for another Game of Thrones spin-of, George R Martin’s novella Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The new series will start with a short order of six episodes, and Owen Harris, the director of Black Mirror’s San Junipero and Be Right Back, two very popular episodes in the sci-fi anthology series, will direct. Not too much is known about the adaption of the book of the same name, but here is its summary:

A century before the events of Game of Thrones,’ two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg.

Knight of Seven Kingdoms is expected to air sometime in 2025.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Olivia Colman and John Lithgow will lead Jimpa, a multi-generational family tale and LGBTQ+ story from Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) director Sophie Hyde.

The official synopsis:

Hannah (Colman) takes her trans nonbinary teenager Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) to Amsterdam, to visit their gay grandfather ‘Jimpa’ (Lithgow). But Frances’ desire to stay with Jimpa for a year abroad means Hannah is forced to reconsider her beliefs about parenting and finally confront old stories about the past.

Jimpa seems to perfectly fall in line with Colman’s most previous also family oriented credits, The Father (2020) with Anthony Hopkins as her aging father and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter (2021) as a lost woman who rediscovers herself from the help of a mother and daughter duo.

Colman also played Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’ satirical comedy film The Favourite (2018), the role for which she won the coveted Best Actress Academy Award.

Above all else, Coleman seems to have carved a niche into roles that either lean on the creation or destruction of broken families.

Jimpa has recently started production in Amsterdam and will soon be shooting in Australia and Finland.

The film will be launching sales at the Cannes market later this month.

Great to see John C. Reilly again; he will make his first return in a lead role since 2018 when he stars beside Elizabeth Banks in DreamQuil.

DreamQuil looks to be a sci-fi learning story about a husband (Reilly) and a wife (Banks) whose lives are upended by AI, a virtual wellness retreat and a robotic wife replacement ‘Carol-Too’ that wants Banks gone.

When people first think of John C. Reilly, they probably immediately think of his wild, off-the-wall characters in Adam McKay’s early comedies, where his comedic partnership with Will Ferrell has led to some of the funniest exchanges in cinema:

Talladega Nights (2006)
- We’re getting married Ricky
Step Brothers (2008)
- Did you touch my drumset?

He had frequent appearances in Tim and Eric and quite possibly made the funniest, most evergreen lampoon of a biopic with Walk Hard (Get out of here Dewey clip), and he lent his voice to Disney’s Wreck it Ralph.

There is no doubt John is a funny guy, but he also displays a surprising breadth of a dramatic actor. He plays the sweet but dim Jim Kurring in Magnolia (1999), he brings a sweetness to the role and a quiet control. Watch him on a date.

He also gives a heartbreaking and well-sung rendition of Mister Cellophane in Chicago (clip).

And while we enjoyed hearing his disembodied voice for 2.5 seconds, Licorice Pizza (2021), we can’t wait for this new role.

DreamQuil is being billed as an AI Thriller, a perfect space for John to show off a bit of his range.

It is currently filming in LA. It has been pre-sold to Paramount’s newly revived Republic Records for North American distribution. HanWay Films will be launching sales at the Cannes Market.

FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES

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The course begins by covering the technological considerations required to create modern-day orchestral sounds:

Sample libraries
Sequencing techniques
Different types of hardware setups

From there, you will learn the characteristics and idiomatic writing techniques for each orchestral instrument family:

Strings
Brass
Woodwind
Percussion

As well as approaches for writing for full orchestra.

The course allows students to use the DAW of their choice, and a sample library such as East West, Kontakt, or Vienna.

By the end of the course, you will have the knowledge to orchestrate music and apply this knowledge to both digital and live orchestral performances.

Enjoy a Free Four-Week Sample of This Course here.

Explore All of Berklee Online’s Courses in Music for Film, TV & Games here.

Cannes Market. The Latest and Greatest:

11817
- Stars in talks: Greta Lee (Past Lives), Kingsley Ben-Adir (Bob Marley: One Love)
- Dir: Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Fast X)

Here’s the synopsis:

Inexplicable forces trap a family of four inside their house indefinitely. As both modern luxuries and life or death essentials begin to run out, the family must learn how to be resourceful to survive and outsmart who – or what – is keeping them trapped.

Sounds like the adult sci-fi horror version of Disney’s Smart House (1999, clip).

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Rocky Balboa will be back in the ring and back on the big screen in Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky.

The Green Book (2018) director’s film will follow Sylvester Stallone’s remarkable true story from humble beginnings to creating the box office hit and Best Picture Winner Rocky (1976).

Peter, together with his equally funny brother, Bobby Farrelly, has written, directed, and produced several successful comedies, including:

There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Me, Myself, & Irene (2000)
Dumb and Dumber (1994) and its sequel (2014)

In addition to directing, Farrelly will be producing alongside Toby Emmerich, former Warner Bros chairman, and Christian Baha of Baha Productions.

Here is what is known of the Rocky origin film so far:

A struggling actor with a partially paralyzed face and a speech impediment writes a script that a big movie studio wants to buy, but he refuses to sell it unless he gets to play the lead. Turning down an offer of life-changing money, he works for pennies to get the movie made with himself in the starring role.

Casting for I Play Rocky is underway, with the film selling at the Cannes market this month.

Final Destination 5 director, Steven Quale, will direct the supernatural thriller Black Box (Flight 298) from Capstone Studios and Hammerstone Studios.

Based on the original screenplay from horror writer Stephen Susco, Black Box will follow the mysterious and supernatural events surrounding Vero Airlines Flight 298 from New Orleans to Seattle.

Susco is most known for writing The Grudge (2004) and its sequel, The Grudge 2 (2006), both of which have developed a cult following among the horror community.

Most known for directing the disaster film Into the Storm (2014), Quale began his career as head of James Cameron’s second unit on both box office record holders Avatar (2009) and Titanic (1997) before directing his own films.

Capstone and Hammerstone Studios most recently collaborated on Bill Skarsgård-led action comedy Boy Kills World, which premiered in theaters this past April.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Border crossings in conflict areas are impossibly intense. Oscar-nominated director Agnieszka Holland (Mr. Jones) turned her lens on her home country of Poland to harshly critique the Polish-Belarusian refugee situation in her film Green Border.

The film has racked up some impressive awards: