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New Projects - Streaming VS Theatrical - COVID: Road to Reopening - Industry Intel

By Sean Gregory, July 13, 2021

I hope everyone has been staying cool here these past few sweaty, stormy summer weeks. The industry news cycle remained light this week after the Fourth of July but we're back to our regular email format. Very happy to be embracing some normalcy after a crazy past few weeks!

A quick reminder that we will be hosting the next round of our popular Seeking Representation 101 workshop with Actors Connection tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM EST. Summer is a great time to jump into an agent/manager campaign, and given the emergence of several new companies and switch-ups in personnel among other agencies, there's never been a better time to get your representation campaign started. Get yourself on track to land some awesome new rep this year with us!

Peace & Love ✌️

COVID: Road to Reopening

Cannes festival officials have turned to COVID-sniffing dogs to keep event-goers safe from any potential virus outbreaks. The dogs are said to be 94.3% accurate at spotting an individual with the disease, thanks to a unique odor that the virus is said to give off. Apparently officials around the world have been workshopping employing COVID dogs to process high volume events, as they can process up to 300 people within 30 minutes. I always knew dogs would save us in the end 🐶

Inaugural HCA Awards Announces Nominees

The Hollywood Critics Association announced its inaugural HCA TV Awards nominees last week, with Apple TV+' TED LASSO leading the field with eight nominations, followed by THE HANDMAIDS TALE with seven. Interestingly, the field is separated not just into comedies and dramas, but also broken up by broadcast, cable, and streaming offerings as well... potentially a sign of things to come? 👀 See the full list of nominees here!

Streaming vs Theatrical Battle Continues

Longtime filmmaker and European Film Academy president Agnieszka Holland advocated on behalf of the theatrical experience this past week at a Cannes panel, saying that while streaming services provide many unique distribution and financial opportunities that projects may not otherwise have, the industry must be careful to not allow festivals and academies to be erased in the process. "The platforms are great but they're not curated, they're curated only by the algorithms... We have to ask ourselves how much our audience, societies, countries, ourselves, need cinema which has this very strong identity. I'm sure that we cannot replace the experience of finding movies and TV on platforms with the strong experience of being together and watching in a dark room, united by common emotions."

But the power of streamers continues to be undeniable: Amazon Prime Video and IMDbTV announced a licensing agreement with Universal that will create a pay-one system starting with all of the studio's 2022 slate. The move follows months of similar moves from fellow streamers: Netflix signed a four-year deal with Sony Pictures in April, and NBCUniversal's streamer Peacock took UFEG's titles under its wing, which will now also be under Amazon control. And in a world where the most recent forecasts predict theatrical revenues not returning to 2019 heights until 2024, theater owners are scrambling to make sense of how to get butts back in seats and away from the allure of the living room. 🛋

There was a time in 2019 when many movie theaters felt good about their odds when stacked up against the ever-looming stream team - with so many movies coming out, giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime would surely need to rely on in-person viewing to cover all of their content, right? 2020 rewrote the book on pretty much every part of our industry, and while COVID's clash with the entertainment world is far from over, one thing has become clear: movie releases are changing, and it's up to all industry players - from studios to theaters - to make sure they're riding the wave rather than stuck in the sand. Netflix has begun toying with week-long theatrical releases before dropping new titles on their platform, in a kind of wait-and-see anticipation builder that may ultimately drive the divide between those who want a theatrical experience and those who are happy to watch at home. It's an interesting trend, to say the least, and assuredly not the last new-era cinema deal we're going to see in the months and years ahead. 🎬

Industry Intel

AMC Networks has been holding space for conversations surrounding outdated tropes and ideologies in older films through their CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS program, with the aim of reigniting conversation around the often stereotypical and problematic portrayal of certain groups from days gone by. "There are so many great movies, we don't want to cancel them, but we do think there is additional information we can present when we look at it through today's lens [to inspire] propelling conversation." AMC Network's Blake Calloway said of the company's response to what they believe has become an over-eagerness to cancel problematic films. CAN WE TALK, hosted by Jordan Carlos, sits down with writers and directors from today's cinema landscape to explore the causes and effects of these portrayals in our current film climate, and how they can be used as a yardstick for measuring where our representation needs to go in the years ahead.

Matt Damon made for some lively conversation at his recent Cannes panel, sharing that he turned down a role in the original AVATAR movie that included a 10% stake in the film in order to stay with the Jason Bourne franchise (considering AVATAR would later gross $2.8 billion globally, that one might be keeping him up at night). Damon also discussed his exit from directing Oscar-winner MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, adding that he felt writer Kenneth Lonergan would ultimately fit as the best choice to take on the project. Judging by those two films alone, Matt is free to give me a call the next time he has a project he needs to turn down...

Chicago Artists Speak Out

The past year has served as a reckoning for theaters across the country, as most institutions hold the mirror to themselves and come to terms with their own histories of bias, underrepresentation, and complacency originally outlined in the We See You, White American Theater. A particular hotbed of advocacy has become the Chicago theatre scene, where jobs at highly sought after institutions like Steppenwolf and Victory Gardens have come with stories of exploitation, harassment, and racism for years. "It feels like anybody who comes with ethics and morals, it just gets squashed," Chicago artist Aaryanna Gariss said. "You think you can fix the system from within, and you just fucking can't."

Many artists in the Chicago scene feel that their calls for change have been ignored by the bigger names in the community, with the onus often falling on "protecting the company and not protecting the employee." Take some time to read the accounts from the folks that spoke up in this piece, it offered a completely new perspective on how theatre companies need to be approaching the relationships with the artists they're hiring and hopefully sheds light on the work our industry still needs to do.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The inaugural class of GIant Leap Accelerator's 12-week development program has been set, with a focus on elevating and celebrating Asian/Pacific American stories. The 8 emerging writers will be paired with top industry mentors that will help revise their scripts and develop a pitch for the project, alongside masterclasses and panels with other industry guests. The program will culminate with a showcase to studio/network execs and management agencies looking to acquire new talent for future openings.

In the fallout of allegations surrounding the "overtly racist" storylines and lack of representation in the writers room for KIM'S CONVENIENCE, series star Simu Liu reflected on the difficult position the "overwhelmingly white" producers put the cast in once showrunner Ins Choi left the show. "It made me really sad [for] what could have been, and made me angry, in a lot of ways, that we weren't able to pull things together to figure out our differences," Liu said. "In the spirit of speaking out about these issues, I really wanted — more than to cancel anybody or call anybody out — I wanted to make sure that future productions learn from our shortcomings and mistakes."

The Marvel Universe continues to be abuzz following the revelation of Loki's fluid sexuality several weeks ago, and execs in the MCU are ready to keep prioritizing and expanding representation in their future projects. "We're not changing anything. We're just showing the world who these people are, who these characters are," Marvel's EVP of Film Victoria Alonso said. "There's a lot that we have coming up that I think will be representative of the world of today." Love to hear it! 🌈

French media company Publicis Groupe of France has launched a new initiative to prioritize investing in companies that develop content from and broadcast to historically underrepresented communities. Once & For All Coalition will bring together nearly 50 advertisers and media outlets, committed to creating "equitable investment" with minority-owned media companies and content creators. "True equity requires sustainability, and our goal with the Once & For All Coalition is to take a long-term approach," Publicis' Lisa Torres said. "[I]n order to drive true change we need all industry players working together."

The Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Virtual 5K is officially set to take place the weekend of August 14th and 15th, open to participants across the world who wish to get moving in support of BCEFA efforts to provide for those affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses across the country. Registration is now open!

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has set aside a $1.5 million grant for a new partnership with five theater companies with the goal of supporting playwrights from underrepresented communities. The new initiative, Generation Now, will support the development of 16 new plays from Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian American and Pacific Islander writers, giving them the opportunity to reach multigenerational audiences with original stories and programming. "We are excited to collaborate with these incredible cohort theatres on Generation Now to reach across generations and geography, bringing multigenerational, diverse audiences together to appreciate the universal human experience and collectively shape an inclusive, shared future," Autry Museum of the American West artistic director DeLanna Studi said.

Iconic Costumes to Display in Times Square

WICKED, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL, JAMES BOND - these are just a few of the dozens of productions set to show off their wares at SHOWSTOPPER! SPECTACULAR COSTUMES FROM STAGE & SCREEN, setting up shop in the now-closed Modell's Sporting Goods on 42nd Street beginning August 5th. Spearheaded by the Costume Industry Coalition, the eight-week event is set to raise money for the group's Recovery Fund, which has advocated for the survival of custom costume-makers in New York since the onset of the pandemic. "We've been overwhelmed with the amount of support we have received since we launched the Costume Industry Coalition in June of last year," said founding member Brian Blythe. "While so many parts of the entertainment industry are announcing reopening plans, the majority of our members continue to feel the impact of being mostly dormant for more than a year."