Latest news with #R.J.Cutler
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Emmy-Winning Director R.J. Cutler's Docuseries Esports World Cup: Level Up Premieres June 6 on Prime Video
Groundbreaking Five-Part Series Chronicles the Inaugural Esports World Cup and the Intense Competition for a Record-Breaking $60 Million Prize Pool, Offering a High-Stakes, Character-Driven Look Inside the Future of Esports LOS ANGELES, May 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Prime Video, one of the leading entertainment destinations, will premiere the five-part documentary Esports World Cup: Level Up on June 6, with new episodes released weekly. Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler (Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, Elton John: Never Too Late and Martha), the series goes behind-the-scenes of the inaugural Esports World Cup (EWC) in 2024 — a defining moment in global esports, where over $60 million in prize money ignited a high-stakes, multinational battle to crown the world's top esports Club. The series is produced by This Machine (a part of Sony Pictures Television), with R.J. Cutler directing, John Dorsey serving as showrunner, and Jane Cha Cutler, Trevor Smith, Elise Pearlstein and Mark Blatty executive producing. Level Up will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Esports World Cup: Level Up offers a rare look inside a global competition that's redefining what it means to be a champion for a new generation of athletes and fans. R.J. Cutler and his team of expert storytellers embedded themselves within the eight-week tournament – watched by over 500 million fans globally – to uncover the personal sacrifices, rivalries and stakes driving the action. Shot in verité style, the series combines intimate home visits from around the world and on-the-ground coverage from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It follows a wide cast of characters – from Club CEOs orchestrating million-dollar strategies to rising stars chasing life-changing wins – while capturing the pulse of elite esports competition. 'What drew me to the Esports World Cup was the compelling human stories unfolding within this high-stakes arena,' said Cutler. 'Level Up isn't just about the incredible competition and prize money; it's about the dedication, the passion, and the sheer will of these athletes and teams pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Under high pressure, we discover the true character of the competitors who vie for $60 million, but who also expose their humanity in the process.' At the heart of Level Up is the 'EWC Club Championship,' an unprecedented, multi-title tournament format where Clubs compete across more than 20 games, earning points toward a single leaderboard. Every match, every point, reshapes the race for global dominance. With the highest prize pool in esports history on the line, the EWC is not just a tournament – it's a proving ground for the next generation of sports icons. 'A win might make the headlines — but the real story is the people behind it,' said Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation. 'Level Up dives into the human side of esports: the pressure, the ambition, the sacrifices. It's about what it really takes to compete at the highest level — and why it matters. R.J. is the best at bringing those stories to life, and this one captures the heart of what we're building.' Standout stories from the series include: The inaugural Esports World Cup in 2024 featured 1,500 elite players and 200 Clubs from 100 countries competing in 22 tournaments across 21 games for a $60 million prize pool, the largest in esports history. Esports World Cup: Level Up will be available exclusively on Prime Video beginning June 6. About The Esports World Cup The Esports World Cup (EWC) is a premier annual sporting event and global celebration of competitive excellence and esports fandom. The competition features a unique cross-game format that pits the world's top esports Clubs against one another for the largest prize pool in esports history. Returning to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the summer of 2025, the EWC will bring gaming and esports communities together again to crown the next Esports World Cup Club Champion. About This Machine This Machine (a part of Sony Pictures Television) was founded in 2020 and has quickly established itself as one of the premier producers of documentary film and television in the world. Headed by award-winning filmmaker and nonfiction pioneer R.J. Cutler, This Machine is a filmmaker-driven company that explores the times in which we live through nonfiction storytelling in all media. Recent This Machine projects include the three-part documentary event Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series (Apple TV+) as well as the feature documentaries Karol G: Tomorrow Was Beautiful (Netflix), Lee Soo Man: King Of K-Pop (Prime Video), Martha (Netflix) and Elton John: Never Too Late (Disney+). Other films and TV series include the PGA Award-nominated theatrical documentary The Disappearance of Shere Hite (IFC), the Emmy-winning documentary series Big Vape (Netflix), the HBO feature doc South to Black Power, the award-winning docuseries Murf the Surf (MGM), the celebrated history of women of color in the fashion industry, Supreme Models (Netflix) and the feature documentary Anthem (Hulu). This Machine is also behind the Academy Award-shortlisted Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry, the multi-award-winning BELUSHI, and the cult-hit Dear… (Apple TV). This Machine's team includes Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning producer and executive Elise Pearlstein, Cutler's long-time producing partner Trevor Smith, EVP Mark Blatty, and the development team of Sally Rosen Phillips and Alisa Cacho-Sousa. This Machine's team has decades of experience creating the highest-quality and most popular nonfiction films and series as well as scripted series, feature films, and podcasts. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Esports World Cup Foundation
New York Times
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Fight for Glory' Is an Ecstatic Treat
A lot of TV sports documentaries in the post-'Drive to Survive' world take a broad, rudimentary and personality-driven approach: Make the sport welcoming to new viewers, and give extant fans new access to their faves. After 'The Last Dance,' we also got a wave of sit-down interviews and ostensible introspection — the stories behind the story. 'Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series,' a three-part documentary that arrives Friday, on Apple TV+, is playing a different game. This mini-series, directed by R.J. Cutler ('The September Issue,' 'Martha'), is almost all on the field. Rather than cutting away to seated talking-head interviews, the additional intel and commentary is delivered in voice-over, while the camera stays on the game. Only a few players get any back story, and only one, the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman, drives the emotional arc of the show. 'Glory' has an interesting task, which is to retell a story that is already a pretty good, pretty legible story without the documentary. Championships have built-in stakes; the Yankees and the Dodgers are internationally known legacy franchises; many of the players here are already huge, huge stars; and some of the contextualizing footage is from news conferences. There is no excavation of the unknown. The games have been played. Instead, 'Glory' is a distillation, an ecstatic highlighting of highlights in their most alluring form. Sure, there's a brief interlude about the battle between a batter and a pitcher, but that takes all of one at-bat. The hero here is home runs, and not just any home runs but grand slams — and not just any grand slams but a walk-off grand slam from Freeman, the World Series M.V.P. The Yankees fan in me was of course in writhing in agony while I watched this. But the sports hedonist in me was dancing a jig. Just the good parts, please, and make them extra good. Never let me go more than a few minutes without hearing the crack of a bat and the roar of a crowd — a Yankee Stadium crowd, when possible. Feature only super-duper fans, and show them only losing their minds. Replay the injuries in slow motion. Frame the errors as egregious and the homers as a symbol of processing personal tragedy. Show us some loving families so that we may experience their joy as well. Take us all out to the ballgame, why don't you.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brrrr Cold War: Filmmaker R.J. Cutler To Drill Into Secret 1960s Plan To Turn Greenland Into U.S. Nuclear Missile Base
EXCLUSIVE: Award-winning director R.J. Cutler's latest project is taking him to a very remote and very icy environment. He's at work on a documentary about Camp Century, a U.S. military installation built in Greenland at the height of the Cold War. Officially billed at the time as, 'Nothing to see here, folks – we're just studying the feasibility of ice-cap military outposts,' the site's true purpose was only revealed decades later: a secret nuclear missile complex buried underneath the Greenland ice sheet. More from Deadline Doc Talk Podcast: R.J. Cutler Responds To Martha Stewart's Criticism Of His Netflix Doc, Shares Scoops On Elton John, Billie Eilish Films In 'Murf The Surf,' Director R.J. Cutler Explores Dashing Jewel Thief-Turned Murderer Who Became A Proto-True Crime Celebrity Roll Camera: Inaugural Ladyface Mountain Film Festival Set To Open Thursday In Agoura Hills, Just Outside L.A. The highly classified endeavor was dubbed Project Iceworm (a vaguely sinister appellation that would have delighted Ernst Stavro Blofeld), 'a major military installation, with almost two miles of covered trenches as well as laboratories, an underground railway track and a… portable nuclear reactor to supply power,' as the Washington Post reported. The underground city 'was planned to eventually be three times the size of Denmark… include more than 2,000 firing positions through which the 600 MRBMs (nicknamed 'Iceman missiles') could be moved on rail cars.' Cutler tells Deadline, 'The largely unknown story of Camp Century – this top-secret military base hidden under the ice of Greenland – is such a rich metaphor for the eternal desire to bury our secrets. But secrets always come out, and as the Arctic ice melts, Camp Century is coming into clear view.' Last month, Pres. Trump called for the U.S. to take possession of Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark. He also raised that specter (should I say 'Spectre'?) in his first term, but this time hasn't ruled out military action to achieve his goal. However, the Cutler documentary project could examine a downside to seizing Greenland (apart from disrupting the NATO alliance): the site is strewn with hazardous material. That includes '9,200 tons of building equipment, 53,000 gallons of diesel fuel, carcinogenic chemicals used in paint, and radioactive cooling water from the camp's portable nuclear reactor,' the Post reports. 'A 2016 study suggested that these contaminants are likely to be released in a few decades' time as a warmer climate continues to melt the ice sheet.' 'I've been fascinated by the mystery of Camp Century for some time,' Cutler notes. 'Greenland is suddenly back in the news, but the territory's strategic importance—rich in natural resources and crucial for military positioning—has long captivated American leaders. Our film will tell a great story, while also looking at the broader implications of Arctic geopolitics in an era of climate change and global power shifts.' Camp Century and Project Iceworm caused significant environmental damage, but a potential benefit of the secret installation has recently emerged. Back in the 1960s when the military construction plan was being implemented, scientists 'drilled through more than 4,500 feet of ice to pull up a 12-foot-long soil and rock sample from beneath the ice sheet,' as CNN reported in 2023. That preserved ice core is now being studied to offer clues about the impact of climate change and the potential for dramatically higher sea levels. The ice core reached soils dating back 400,000 and scientists discovered, to their surprise, that it showed Greenland in that earlier epoch was ice-free. Their study, published in Science magazine, augurs trouble ahead for humanity as ice once again recedes from Greenland, this time caused by human-generated global warming. 'It's really the first bulletproof evidence that much of the Greenland ice sheet vanished when it got warm,' Prof. Paul Bierman, lead author of the study, told CNN. 'Greenland's past, preserved in 12 feet of frozen soil, suggests a warm, wet, and largely ice-free future for planet Earth.' No estimated timetable for the release of Cutler's documentary has been announced. It's a production of This Machine, the company Cutler launched in 2020 that's a part of Sony Pictures Television. The filmmaker directed two documentaries in 2024: Elton John: Never Too Late (co-directed with David Furnish) which has an earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, and Martha, his film about Queen of Hearths Martha Stewart. He has several projects in the works in addition to the Camp Century documentary, including the baseball-focused documentary series Fight for Glory: World Series 2024. Cutler is a two-time winner of the primetime Emmy Award, for Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium (2023) and American High (2001). He won a News and Documentary Emmy for Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul (2024). He began his filmmaking career as a producer on the Oscar-nominated classic documentary The War Room, directed by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Christopher Nolan's Next Film – 'The Odyssey': Release Date, Cast And More 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More 2024 Hollywood & Media Deaths: Photo Gallery & Obituaries
