Directing duo Big TV! (a.k.a. Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom) has come aboard Santa Monica-based harvest for exclusive spot representation in the U.S.….Bicoastal/international Believe Media has partnered with production executive Gower Frost and director Diane Van Ussel to form a satellite, Conceive Media, which currently reps Van Ussel and director Liz Hinlein. Frost is president of Conceive Media….Directors Wayne Isham and Darren Grant have joined RAW/Progressive Films, Hollywood, for commercials and music videos….Director Mehdi Norowzian of Joy Films, London, is leaving the roster of bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures, his longstanding roost for U.S. spot work, effective Aug. 1….Ari Merkin has joined Fallon, New York, as executive creative director. He was a VP/associate creative director at Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York….The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission has survived extensive cutbacks in the state’s 2003-’04 fiscal year budget. The film commission has been allocated $406,000 in funding, the same amount as in fiscal year ’02-’03….Former creative director Chris Mosera has made the transition to directing full time, signing with IPS Productions, Valley Village, Calif. Mosera had most recently been with J. Walter Thompson, Denver….Cine/DRSA International, New York, has signed directors Jeremy Goodall and Greg Francois of Accelerator Films, Cramerview, South Africa, for U.S. representation….Passion Pictures, London, has signed directing duo John Williams and David Lea for commercial and music video representation….Visual effects compositor John Scheer has joined Company 3, Santa Monica….Lesley Robson-Foster has landed at R!OT, Santa Monica, as visual effects supervisor. Previously, she had held a similar post at R!OT Manhattan. Robson-Foster will work on commercials and music videos, as well as serve as visual effects supervisor and consultant for features and longform television….Catherine O’Donnell has joined music/sound design shop barton:holt, Culver City, Calif., as producer….Sparks Productions, Toronto, has entered into an agreement with ARF & Co., Hoboken, N.J., to represent director/ cameraman Alex Fernbach exclusively in Canada. Additionally, director Jim Manera has returned to Sparks for Canadian representation after a brief sabbatical. Manera and executive producer Tracy Hauser recently launched blindfaith, a production company based in Santa Monica….Bicoastal Face The Music has hired Chris Doyle as executive producer at its Santa Monica office. Also joining the West Coast base of operation is composer Ben Wise….Comedy director James Tooley has signed with Los Angeles-based The Mine for exclusive spot representation…. Dennis Myers has been promoted to general manager of Colorado FX, Santa Monica….Colorist Jeff Bauman has come aboard Atlanta-headquartered Crawford Post Production…. Bicoastal Hornet Inc. has added creative director Tim Brown…. Animation director Jeff Drew has joined Duck (formerly Duck Soup Studios), Los Angeles….
“Mickey 17” Tops Weekend Box Office, But Profitability Is A Long Way Off
"Parasite" filmmaker Bong Joon Ho's original science fiction film "Mickey 17" opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone "Captain America: Brave New World" after a three-week reign.
Overseas, "Mickey 17" has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.
A week following the Oscars, where "Anora" filmmaker Sean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – "Mickey 17" is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It's an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.
Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Parasite" faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven... Read More