Though it’s far from a fait accompli, the national boards of SAG and AFTRA voted overwhelmingly in favor of bringing the two unions together under one banner. The boards are scheduled to convene again on April 5 to consider specifics of the merger, including the name of the umbrella organization. If the boards again give a thumbs-up at that time, members would vote on the proposal in May, with 60 percent approval needed from rank and file of both unions for the deal to come to fruition. What effect a combined union would have on upcoming advertising industry contract negotiations remains to be seen. The current SAG commercials contract expires at the end of October….Partners/directors David Daniels and Chel White, and partner/executive producer Ray Di Carlo have launched Bent Image Lab, a mixed media/animation shop in Portland, Ore….Feature filmmakers Sidney Lumet (Night Falls On Manhattan; Serpico) and the mono-monikered Kaos (Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever) have signed with Creative Film Management International, New York, for commercial representation….Editors Saar Klein and Peter Mostert have joined bicoastal Lost Planet…. Director Steve Dell, formerly of Highway 61, New York, has joined Hyena Films, the New York commercial production house founded by partners Alex Winter and Alex Halpern. Dell will continue to be represented overseas by Method Films, London. Four other directors out of Winter’s U.K. production facility Brave Films, London, have also signed up for stateside representation. Director Dave Hartley will be repped by Hyena while directors Sue Worthy, Sara Dunlop and Lucy Blakstad will work out of Hyena’s newly launched division Fur, New York. Fur was recently formed to differentiate its directors specializing in beauty, effects and drama from Hyena’s core of comedic helmers….Director Anthony Atanasio has signed with bicoastal production company Naked Project for stateside representation….Jessica Cooper Carlson has joined Bruce Dowad Associates, Hollywood, as executive producer, succeeding Heidi Nolting….Sarah Grey has joined bicoastal Brand New School as its East Coast executive producer. She comes over from Ogilvy & Mather, New York, where she was a broadcast producer….Editor Sophie Scoufaras, coming off a year of freelancing, has joined Steel Rose Editorial, New York. Scoufaras’ cutting background also includes a brief stint at New York’s Greene & Grand as well as nine years in the New York office of bicoastal/San Francisco Crew Cuts….Owner/editor Jonathan Smalheiser, most recently a partner at New York editing facility Three Fingered Louie, has bowed editorial boutique ChicKönKey, New York. On staff are executive producer Robin Hall, formerly of Crew Cuts, and editor Charlie Cusumano, recently with Mad River Post, New York, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Dallas and Detroit…. The directing team of Maureen Egan and Matthew Berry have reached an agreement to helm music video, commercial and branding projects for Vagrant Records Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based creative, production and advertising arm of Vagrant Records…Music video director Curtis Norman Fuqua has signed with 1171 Production Group, Los Angeles….Caleb Deschanel has wrapped principal photography on the Mel Gibson-directed feature The Passion, and is available to direct spots via Dark Light Pictures, Hollywood…Philip H. Knight, chairman of the board, CEO/co-founder of Nike has been named "Advertiser of the Year" by the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The honor will be presented at the 50th Cannes Fest on June 21. This is the second time Knight has received the award; the first came in ’94…. Editor Mark Block, formerly of Boomtown, New York and bicoastal Crew Cuts, has launched Have Avid, Will Travel, New York, a mobile editing studio that commutes to advertising agencies that are not equipped with editing equipment. Block hopes to fulfill a need among ad agencies where creatives are too busy to spend a day in an editing facility….
“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