International Insider: ‘Warnamount’ Shocker; Box Office Downturn; BAFTA Tweaks

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here leading you into the Christmas break with your final dash of news and analysis of the year. It’s been a blast. Thank you to regular readers for taking time out your busy schedules to give this a good ol’ glance every week. As our counterparts across the pond like to say, we appreciate you. We’ll be back in 2024 with plenty more.

‘Warnamount’ Shocker

Bob Meets Dave: Save a bit of your Christmas sympathy for media reporters around the world this year, who let out a collective anguished cry amidst the Xmas wind-down period when news broke Thursday of a bombshell meeting between Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)’s David Zaslav and Paramount Global’s Bob Bakish. This of course only means one thing. The ink is barely dry on the WB-D merger and yet the defining story of 2024 could now be the next stage, with a potential WBD-P now on the cards. While sources stress talks are “preliminary” and Shari Redstone is still shopping the business around, the mega-merger does make some sense for two behemoths trying their very best to adapt to an increasingly tricky market while supercharging new streaming services and shepherding legacy linear operations. If a merger were to happen, there would of course be major international ramifications, as with WBD, whose creation led to thousands of layoffs around the world and senior departures, with the international rollout of relaunched streamer Max still to come. All players involved have had huge presences outside the U.S. for decades. The conditions of the WBD merger means adding any of Paramount to the roster could only happen after April, but this will of course be one to keep a keen eye on. For more, this fantastic long read from four top Deadline colleagues lays out, with a healthy dose of scepticism, the pros and cons of the potential deal. It’s well worth a gander.

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• 'Warnamount' Merger Talk Confounds Investors And Industry: "Why Would Any Company Try To Catch A Falling Knife?"

• How BAFTA Put Climate Storytelling On The Map At Global Summit COP28

Box Office Downturn

Strike impact: Mid-December brings Gower Street Analytics’ box office predictions for the following year and this time around it was bad news. The first post-pandemic decrease came courtesy of the London-based firm’s annual forecast, per Nancy’s write-up, with Gower predicting the global box office will decline by around 5% next year. Should the figure hold, it would put the year -20% against the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019). But it’s not all bad news. Delving deeper on the reasons why, Gower Street CEO Dimitrios Mitsinikos said that far from the projected fall being indicative of a declining interest in cinema, it is simply a direct consequence of limited product availability following the strikes, as he pointed to the amount of movies that will be delaying release dates until 2025. “In fact, as July 2023 marked a record-breaking month at the global box office, we know that there is a robust audience demand for compelling theatrical releases,” he added. Stay tuned for Nancy’s weekly box office roundups next year to see if Gower Street’s prediction rings true.

Shortlist: Speaking of Nancy’s box office coverage, this morning she wrote about the shortlist of 15 International films set to duke it out for the Best International Feature Film Oscar next year. Read about the more surprising choices and see the full list here for Nancy’s always on-point coverage.

‘Emmanuelle’ Returns

Challenge & liberation: Earlier this week we brought you a first-look image from Audrey Diwan’s remake of Emmanuelle. Diwan’s English-language debut is seriously anticipated and viewers will be intrigued to see the direction she takes following the success of sophomore feature Happening. Andreas had a peek into that direction during an exclusive sit-down with Audrey. While plot details have been kept under wraps, the contemporary movie will take place in a luxury hotel where Emmanuelle (Noémie Merlant) works, and the pic will “explore her quest for pleasure.” Audrey spoke about the challenge and liberation of helming the remake of the cult 1970s soft-core movie starring Sylvia Kristel. “When my producers handed me the book I thought it was interesting but I didn’t initially intend to adapt it,” she reveals. Much more here.

Rob & Ian From Accounts

Breakout: Few could have predicted that perhaps ‘the’ breakout comedy of 2023 would be an Australian series that kicks off with a nipple-flash-car-crash. But few could have predicted a lot of things that happened this year and Binge’s Colin From Accounts’ monumental success is certainly one of them. Jesse had an exclusive interview with producers Ian Collie and Rob Gibson, fresh from a second season of the Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer-penned sitcom rolling the cameras. With its easy-watching vibe, simple-to-love characters and addictive will-they-won’t-they (not to mention the dog) storyline, Rob and Ian have had front-row seats as the ratings and awards have rolled in, and they recently signed with CAA. Here, they talk about the difficulties of selling comedy in Australia, future projects and how the show could have ended up being called, simply, Colin.

BAFTA Tweaks

Attention streamers: BAFTA does love a tweak. This week’s rule change for the Best Film category felt welcome as the awards body moves to increase the minimum theatrical screenings requirement, bringing it in line with the Oscars. From 2025 onwards, films must be theatrically exhibited publicly for the first time to a paying audience on at least 50 commercial screens in the UK for at least seven days e.g. 50 sites WPOR (widest point of release) or the equivalent of at least 350 screenings. The update is seemingly aimed largely at streamers, both commercial and arthouse, and broadcasters such as Sky, which are increasingly active in major film acquisitions, Andreas wrote. Lengthier and broader cinema screenings can only be a good thing. Anecdotally, I’ve had many a chat with friends outside the industry of late who weren’t aware a certain film had even come out, feeling that these movies were being snuck on to streaming platforms with little fanfare. BAFTA’s move may go a little way to changing this.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: The Crown producer Left Bank can’t always get what it wants as FX takes Rolling Stones series out of development.

🌶️ A second: Disney+ Hotstar is making a scripted series about Bollywood power struggles.

🌶️ Another: Jonathan Pryce joined Steve Coogan in Peter Cattaneo and 42’s The Penguin Lessons.

🎭 West End: Nicole Scherzinger is setting sights on Broadway for her Sunset Boulevard revival, per Baz’s insightful London theater look ahead.

⛺ Festival latest: Martin Scorsese will be feted with Berlinale’s honorary Golden Bear.

⛺ More festivals: Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border and The Peasants will bookend Poland’s Kinoteka Film Festival in London.

🏪 Setting up shop: Leonine has opened an animation studio and upped its stake in Toon2Tango.

🔄 U-Turn: By British Airways, which reinstated a Jewish sitcom after initially dropping it due to the Israel-Hamas War.

✖️ Shuttered: The news channel of Poland’s oldest state broadcaster, with TVP bosses removed.

🤬 Excuse me?: Laurence Fox’s misogynistic rant about a female journalist topped Ofcom’s complaints list for 2023.

🖊️ Signed up: Netflix’s Finding Ola star Yasmina El-Abd, who signed with Artist International Group.

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