What kind of cinematic world are we living in when a project starring two female icons of the screen cannot get off the ground? Yet here we are. No amount of star power alone can seemingly launch a project these days. Even Tom Cruise had a studio look at something that didn’t have the words “Gun” or “Impossible” in the title and say “No thank you!” for his diving movie.
It needs to be recognised IP. Part of a mega-franchise. Or, at the other end of the scale, it has to be something cheap that can leverage some sort of online craze, like the recent YouTube-driven profit machines.
Still, in the words of failing project managers everywhere, we are where we are!
Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver are not enough to get the green light, apparently. Last year, Amazon MGM Studios had filmmaker Joseph Cedar all set for Useful Idiots, to star the two as leads. Story details were a secret, but we knew it was written by Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) and it was set to film early this year.
Well, that didn’t happen. Production didn’t begin because the project was quietly axed, and nobody really noticed until Sigourney Weaver was asked by El Pais, when she said:
“Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. But I hope we have another chance.”
Good luck with that! Incidentally, Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver were classmates at the Yale School of Drama and remain good friends to this day.
Elsewhere in the world of original IP, there are more challenges. According to The Wrap the animated feature Ray Gunn, from none other than Brad Bird, will not be getting a cinematic release.
Reports say the team had been angling for a slot in the release schedule that had been vacated by Grete Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magicians Nephew. That was an IMAX slot, and Gerwig’s movie had been shifted out to Thanksgiving, leaving the way clear.
However, Netflix instead opted to give the slot to David Fincher’s follow-up to Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In America – The Adventures of Cliff Booth.
The issue appears to be that Fincher wasn’t fussed about a premium format theatrical release, whereas Bird and his team felt that the format was perfect to show off their work. The title is caught up in some tension between Netflix and Paramount / Skydance after the Warner Bros. tussle, as it was made by Skydance Animation. As a result, neither Netflix nor Paramount seems to want to back an expensive theatrical release to help each other out.
Ooooh, handbags!
