Don Wahlberg, senior editor of Launch, New York, passed away after a sudden heart attack on Jan. 16 while building an ice rink for kids in his neighborhood. Wahlberg, 52, was an editor at Charlex, New York, since May 1990, and joined its recently spun-off Launch division last year. He is survived by his wife, Marianne, and two children, Alexandra and Erik. At press time, plans were being made for a memorial service….Director Dewey Nicks, who received a DGA spot director of the year nomination in ’00, has joined bicoastal Villains. He formerly helmed spots via bicoastal Epoch Films….Director Joel Pront, who works via Good Oil, Sydney, has come aboard bicoastal Go Film for U.S. spot representation…. Editor Paul Bertino, formerly of Venice, Calif.-based King Cut, has joined Mad River Post, Santa Monica….Meanwhile, King Cut has added editor Alexis Chavez, who comes over from Jigsaw, Santa Monica….New York-based visual effects/animation studio Treehouse has added effects directors Mitchell Deoudes and Jay Randall….The recently formed partnership between Los Angeles shops Primal Scream and RubberBand Music (SHOOT, 11/28/03, p. 8) has yielded creative alliances with film composers Ramin Djawadi, Simone Benyacar, Jerry Brunskill and Todd Haberman for spots and film trailers. Prior to formalizing his relationship with Primal Scream and RubberBand, Djawadi worked with both houses on a Ford F-150 spot directed by Eric Saarinen of Plum Productions, Santa Monica, for Zubi Advertising, Coral Cables, Fla. Djawadi’s credits include scoring several pieces for Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Haberman has scored Crocodile Dundee III and Cecil B. Demented. Benyacar has turned out music for trailers promoting such films as Lord of the Rings: Two Towers and Sylvia. And Brunskill’s original songs have been on such TV shows as JAG, Crossing Jordan and American Dreams….Audio mixer Jeff Fuller, who had been freelancing in Los Angeles the past few years, has come aboard Eleven, Santa Monica. Meanwhile, audio engineer/mixer Mike Greenberg has left Eleven to return to longform mixing….Keith Ehrlich has joined Eric Kaye Music, New York, as producer….
“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