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Geek Tyrant
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
HIGHLANDER Reboot Finds New Home at Amazon MGM After Lionsgate Reportedly Lost Faith in Henry Cavill — GeekTyrant
The Highlander reboot starring Henry Cavill is proepering for production, but it's reportedly not moving forward with the studio that had been developing it for years. According to a recent report from The Wrap, Lionsgate ultimately passed on the project after balking at both the budget and a lack of faith in Cavill's current box office draw. So, Amazon MGM Studios has stepped in, ready to bring a new generation of immortals to life. At the center of this behind-the-scenes shuffle is director Chad Stahelski ( John Wick ), who had requested a $180 million budget to fully realize his vision of the Highlander universe. Lionsgate, however, wasn't willing to go higher than $165 million. That $15 million difference, combined with mounting concerns about Cavill's recent performance at the box office, proved to be a dealbreaker. It's worth noting that Highlander, while containing visual effects, is largely a grounded action film that leans heavily on swordplay, practical stunts, and martial arts choreography. That's Stahelski's bread and butter. The first three John Wick films were made for a fraction of the cost: $30 million, $40 million, and $75 million, respectively. But Lionsgate's hesitation reportedly ran deeper than just production numbers. According to the report, executives were concerned about Cavill's diminishing returns as a box office draw. The most recent examples? Argylle , which had a reported budget of $70–80 million, with Apple spending $200 million for global rights, grossed just $96.2 million worldwide and earned tepid reviews. Then there's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare , which Lionsgate released in North America. Despite a $60 million budget, it brought in only $29.7 million globally. Studio sources went even further, telling The Wrap that Highlander was seen as "Highlander is a one-quadrant movie, catering to Gen X males who remembered the original movie (and the sequels and syndicated TV series that followed)." So, the studio didn't see enough mainstream appeal to justify the investment. Enter Amazon MGM Studios, who is already collaborating with Cavill on other projects including a high-profile live-action Voltron remake and the Warhammer 40,000 cinematic universe. Amazon saw the value in pairing Stahelski's vision with Cavill's star power. Now, the reboot has a new home and fresh momentum. Stahelski recently shared that the plan is to begin filming Highlander in September, with an eye toward a 2027 or 2028 release. Highlander began in 1986 with Christopher Lambert starring as Connor MacLeod, an immortal warrior battling others of his kind across centuries. The film spawned four sequels, a popular 1990s TV series starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, and multiple spin-offs. The core mythology is simple but really cool with immortals having existed since the dawn of time, and they're locked in a centuries-long 'Contest' that must follow three unbreakable rules: Combat must be one-on-one; Holy Ground is off-limits, and In the end, there can be only one. In a previous conversation, Stahelski talked about his pitch to Cavill and why this role stands apart: 'My selling point was, to [Henry Cavill], look, you've got a guy that's been alive for over 500 years. He's the last person in the world that wanted to be in this situation. So you get to cover quite a broad spread of a character arc there. And you get to experience someone that's trained over 500 years and sort of played [with many types of] martial arts.' The filmmaker also previously teased the action in the film and explained that it will be inspired by the action in the John Wick films. "I'll keep it to the core. Most audiences, I'll use the gun analogy, most of what you know about gunfights or car chases because most of us don't get involved in gun fights, or car chases, or sword fights, we learn through movies.' "And what those movies show you is about 95% bullshit. You don't fight 50 guys with your bare hands and then walk away, but it's fun. It's wish fulfillment. 'So John Wick, we know it's a cartoon – I know it's not – but we also have fun with it. But we do tactical reloads, we try to do fire manipulations, stuff like the professionals do, the military do. But then we have fun with it, you know? Sword work is very much the same."' Cavill previously shared how big of a fan his is of the franchise and then said that the script for the film is 'extraordinary' and that the movie will take some 'big swings.' He said: "I am a Highlander fan, they're great fun movies. Obviously I watched them when I was a lot younger and have since rewatched, but also the TV show. 'I really enjoyed the lore behind it, that sense of a tragic warrior with more of a story to tell than a cool guy with a sword, doing cool things, and this goes even deeper into that. "What they've done so far and we're doing with the development of the script is extraordinary, I think people are going to be really, really pleased. 'Big swings are important, you play it safe, you're going to just go, 'Eh, I suppose it's fine?" but if you take a big swing, people love it or they hate it." Stahelski also explained that they are taking the best story elements from across the franchise and implementing it all into one story that will be spread out across a trilogy of films: "I think the TV series hit on a lot of great stuff wasn't in the feature, between the watchers and all the different types of immortals. How do we get this into a feature mode before we dribble it into the TV world? 'Well, let's restructure it in parts, let's look at it like it was a TV show, let's look at it like it was a high-end trilogy. How to we tell the story of The Gathering, The Quickenings, The Immortals and how do we really build this world out even more so than the original project? 'That's what we're restructuring right now. It's taking all the good stuff that we had before I was involved in the project from the script; redeveloping the script to give us really good chapters one, two and three; and expanding the world." He also talked about his vision for the film, saying: " The vision we're trying to get across and what we're trying to develop, I equate very close to Star Wars. The first one is a very satisfying ending but it does leave the door open and that's kind of how I see this. 'I would really like to expand it over three. I see The Gathering happening over three. It's tricky, don't get me wrong, that's why we're still developing it. We want to be able to tell three complete stories that all kind of fit. 'I think the Star Wars trilogy, at least up to The Empire Strikes Back, is a good example of how we want to process it." I'm pumbed up about this movie and I have no doubt it's going to be a badass film. I hope that it ends up being a huge success at the box office, but only time will tell.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ariana DeBose denies shading co-star Rachel Zegler with Instagram post
Ariana DeBose has insisted she didn't know a quote she posted on Instagram was a criticism of her West Side Story co-star Rachel Zegler. The Oscar-winning actress shared a quote reading, "Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged" in a since-deleted Instagram post on Tuesday. Many followers took the post to suggest that DeBose was taking at aim at Zegler because the quote was from Jonah Platt, the son of Snow White producer Marc Platt. Jonah recently went viral for blaming Zegler for Snow White's box office failure in an Instagram comment, which he concluded with the narcissism line. After deleting the post, the Argylle star insisted she didn't check the origins of the quote before she shared it. "I post quotes all the time and thought this one was meaningful. Will fully cop to the fact I did not do any research on where this quote came from, nor did I know of the connection until it was pointed out to me," DeBose wrote on her Instagram Stories. "I have no intention of inserting myself into a news cycle. This is not the first time I've posted about dealing with narcissism and it probably won't be the last, but next time I'll be sure to clarify its origins first." In his recent Instagram comment, Jonah claimed that his father flew across the U.S. to "reprimand" Zegler for writing "free palestine" in a series of tweets promoting the Snow White live-action remake. He claimed that the star dragged "her personal politics" into the promotion of the film and her "actions clearly hurt the film's box office". "Free speech does not mean you're allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions," the actor/producer continued in the since-deleted comment. "Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged." Snow White, starring Zegler as the title character, was released in March. It received underwhelming reviews and took less than expected at the box office.
The Guardian
21-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Big stars, little shine: is anyone actually watching Apple TV+ shows?
Next week Apple TV+ launches The Studio, a Seth Rogen comedy about the rapidly changing landscape of the film industry. Episodes follow a beleaguered executive as he's forced to make an ugly IP movie, because streamers are in dominance and this is all traditional studios are left with. For a show explicitly about the death of the theatrical experience to be made by a disruptive streamer – one funded by the deep pockets a global tech megacorp to boot – is unquestionably a show of power. Or at least it would be, were it not for a new report claiming that Apple TV+ is currently losing a billion dollars a year. According to the Information, TV+ is currently the only Apple subscription service that isn't profitable. This is said to be down to a number of factors. The first is that despite having 45 million subscribers, Apple blows through a $5bn production budget every year. And when a lot of it is being spent on blockbuster movies that squander every scrap of their potential – like the $200m spy disaster Argylle – then all this expense starts to look like bad financial sense. The report claims Apple TV+ is losing $1bn annually. Another factor is that despite all those subscribers, very few people actually seem to watch anything on Apple TV+. The Information reports that Apple shows constitute less than 1% of total US streaming service viewing. In other words, while an Apple subscription ($8.99 a month) might be half the price of a Netflix subscription ($17.99 a month), people still watch eight times more Netflix than they do Apple. If you're an Apple TV+ subscriber, this won't come as particularly shocking news. Like most streaming services, the Apple TV+ homepage has a submenu containing its 10 most-watched series. Despite regularly putting out big expensive shows starring a full spectrum of household names, the second most-watched show on the service is currently Ted Lasso, a dormant sitcom that hasn't put out a new episode in almost two years. The rest of the list doesn't do much to lift the spirits. The top show is Severance, a rare breakthrough hit that was recently named as the most-watched show in the service's history. But third is Slow Horses (last episode October 2024). Ninth is Bad Sisters (last episode December 2024). Twelfth is For All Mankind (last episode January 2024). Dope Thief, which launched this week, is languishing at number five. It sits just behind Prime Target, another new show that died on impact. Compare this with Netflix, which has a top 10 so fiercely fought that it's seen as momentous if a show can last a week at No 1, and it all starts to look a bit stagnant. Of course, this can be rationalised to some extent – Netflix puts out dozens of new originals every month, while Apple might only do one or two; Apple's catalogue is lighter because it doesn't bring in existing programming from elsewhere or locally produced foreign language shows – but still, a billion dollars a year is an awful lot of money. What must be particularly galling for Apple is that the platform is what Netflix used to be. There's no question that it attracts big-name talent. Natalie Portman has an Apple show. Harrison Ford has an Apple show. Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, Cate Blanchett, Jake Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell and Brie Larson have all had Apple shows. The problem is, you wouldn't be able to tell me the names of their shows if you had a gun to your head. Michael Douglas made an entire eight-part Apple biopic about Benjamin Franklin less than a year ago, for crying out loud. This is probably as much news to you as it is to me. And the shows it makes are actually good. There's a heavy emphasis on quality and prestige, with complicated stories being told by visionary storytellers. Todd A Kessler's The New Look, to name one show, was incredibly ambitious. It was a series about Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, and how their spirit of expression worked as an act of rebellion in Nazi-occupied France. With Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche, it starred two of the world's best actors. It was absolutely sumptuous to look at. The problem is, you could stop people in the street for months before you found someone who had actually watched it. There are signs that Apple is trying to turn the ship around. The recent news that a fourth season of Ted Lasso is on the way now might carry an air of desperation – after the disappointing third season nobody, not even the people who made it, seemed to want any more – but it's a reliable hit on a platform that doesn't exactly have a lot of reliable hits. Apple's annual production budget has been slashed by $500m a year (or two and a half Argylles). According to the Information, management is also being a bit stingier about flying talent around in private jets, which has to help. But that won't help as much as one undeniable fact. If Apple starts making hits – properly marketed shows that people actually want to watch – all this could change in a heartbeat. After all, how hard could it be to find the next Severance?
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple TV+ Hits 45M Users but Bleeds $1B a Year-Will It Turn Profitable?
Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) streaming platform, Apple TV , has nearly reached 45 million subscribers, yet it continues to operate at an estimated $1 billion annual loss, according to a report from The Information. Since its launch in 2019, Apple has allocated approximately $5 billion per year toward content production. However, that budget has been scaled back to around $4.5 billion as CEO Tim Cook and company executives reassess expenses following a series of underwhelming movie performances, including Argylle, the report stated, citing sources familiar with the matter. Apple TV+ is part of the tech giant's Services division, which achieved a record $26.34 billion in revenue last quarter, up from $23.11 billion in the same period last year. It is important to note that Apple stock has shed 14% of its value YTD, and around 5.7% over the past six months. The past month has been especially tough where the stock lost more than 12% of its value. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple TV+ Inches to 45M Users as Losses Reach $1B Yearly
Apple (AAPL, Financial) reported that its streaming service, Apple TV , is nearing 45 million subscribers while still incurring annual losses of about $1 billion, according to a Thursday report by The Information. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Signs with NVDA. The service, a key component of Apple's Services division, has trimmed its yearly content spending from roughly $5 billion to around $4.5 billion following several high-profile film underperformances, including the recent flop of Argylle. Meanwhile, the Services division set a new revenue record last quarter at $26.34 billion, up from $23.11 billion a year earlier. CEO Tim Cook and other executives are scrutinizing spending strategies to enhance profitability amid fierce competition in the streaming market. Despite growing subscriber numbers, the ongoing losses underscore the challenges Apple TV+ faces in monetizing its expanding digital content platform. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
