“See you back here in 10 years,” says Zaslav, in Cannes for the premiere of the racy HBO series “The Idol.” “We’ll be toasting the 200 movies that Mike and Pam have made.” None of these movies, he continues, will be made for streaming only, but will instead receive theatrical releases exclusively. Zaslav says he expects a diverse slate of films from De Luca and Abdy: “Romantic comedies, gangster films, horror, tentpoles, the gamut,” he says. centennial hat, the CEO snaps a photo of his film chiefs being interviewed, like a doting dad at an amusement park. In a plain white T-shirt and a Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who stops by to say that he’s going all-in on that theory they tried to institute at MGM. The familiar face that crashes our table isn’t an agent or an actor - but someone far more powerful: their new boss, Warner Bros. Iñárritu’s “The Revenant,” Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” and Adam McKay’s “The Big Short.” Clearly, they know their way around the Oscars and A-list talent.īack at the du Cap, they’re interrupted. Abdy came to prominence as a top production executive at Paramount, and later worked at New Regency and Makeready, where she shepherded auteur-driven films such as Alejandro G. He later produced prestige adult dramas like “The Social Network” and “Captain Phillips,” landing Academy Awards nominations and selling plenty of movie tickets in the process. As a young hot-shot production chief at New Line in the 1990s, De Luca helped discover the likes of David Fincher and made “Austin Powers” into one of the most profitable comedy franchises in history. “The legacy studios seemed gun-shy in taking original swings, and we thought they were leaving a lot of talent and material on the table.”ĭeLuca and Abdy would know. “We thought of MGM as an opportunity to test our theory about original movies with signature filmmakers, and supporting first-timers,” De Luca says. In 2020, they were tapped to run film at MGM, where they lined up buzzy projects - to mixed results - such as Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” Joe Wright’s musical flop “Cyrano” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” before the studio sold to Amazon for $8.5 billion. Two years before, at CinemaCon, De Luca and Abdy were handing out different business cards. The quip didn’t make it into their final speech, being too frank an assessment of the dire situation facing an industry still battered by a pandemic and shifting consumer habits. “We’ll try to keep this job for more than two years,” De Luca said, sharing a private laugh with Abdy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |