International Insider: India’s New Power Player; ‘Gladiator II’ Goes Global; McQueen’s Powerful Message
Friends, Romans, Insider fans! Lend me your ears. Jesse Whittock here, back with the latest international film and TV news in the week Gladiator II released and Disney’s Indian plans came to fruition. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Disney & Reliance tie the knot: India has been gearing up for a new big kid on the block for over a year now, when news Disney might be selling its operation in the country to industrial giant Reliance first emerged. We’ve watched on as Sony and ZEE Entertainment Enterprises made a hash of their planned union, and wondered if the same might befall the House of Mouse and Mukesh Ambali’s giant business. However, the complex agreement involving the likes of former Disney India boss Uday Shankar, James Murdoch and more has (relatively) smoothly moved through the stages of a deal. Yesterday, just as Disney was announcing fourth quarter financials, the company released the news that the deal was done. A new player had formed, albeit with all the boardroom shenanigans, no-one had found the time to name the thing. It’s currently just being called ‘the Joint Venture’, though that would technically only be the case if the partners held 50-50 equity shares. They don’t.
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The details: The new media and entertainment giant’s formation was valued at ?70,352 crore ($8.5B), with Reliance set to pour ?11,500 crore into running the biz. It will house popular streamers Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema with an aggregate subs base of 50 million, TV channels Star and Colors through respective operations Star India and Viacom18, and own most of the rights to the cricket — and you know how much India loves cricket. Basically, there won’t be a bigger player in the market. But here’s the rub: Reliance will ultimately own over 63% of the combined business, primarily through Viacom18 (whose former parent Paramount Global sold up its final shareholding yesterday). Disney will have under 37%, and Reliance’s Nita Ambali will be Chair (this was controversial when first announced a few months ago). Intriguingly, Shankar, the former Disney exec, is to be Vice Chair through his and James Murdoch’s Bodhi Tree Systems. Like a 2016 Facebook relationship status update, it’s complicated, but Disney is only seeing upside — at least that’s what CFO Hugh Johnston wanted us to think yesterday on an earnings call, in which he said the company was “very, very excited” about the agreement while noting Reliance would be in the driving seat.
Earn your keep: Talking of earnings, it’s earnings season! Disney’s Q4 numbers yesterday broadly followed a trend we saw at Paramount, Warner Bros Discovery, ITV, RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 Media: Overall revenue and profit unspectacular, streaming growth significant. In fairness, Disney had a pretty decent quarter, with revenue up 6% and operating income growing 23%, but adding another 4.4 million subs helped the DTC segment swing from a $420M loss a year ago to a $253M profit, as Jill Goldsmith succinctly reported from the East Coast yesterday. More Disney news here and earnings reports here, but moment of the week definitely goes to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was caught on a hot mic during an earnings call with analysts saying, “I don’t know if I was supposed to disclose those AVOD numbers.” In the often dry world of earnings season, Bob’s slip-up served up some light relief — while also offering some further insight into the Disney+ streaming ecosystem.
‘Gladiator II’ Goes Global
Swords ‘n’ sandals: Buzz around Ridley Scott’s long-awaited Gladiator grew as loud as the bloody-thirsty fans at the Colosseum in 200AD this week, as the action pic premiered globally. First up was the Pete Hammond review — and happily, it was thumbs up for the Paul Mescal-starring Roman Empire epic. “This is the movie Imax was invented to show,” was the enthusiastic call. Oscars noise is growing, and our Editor-in-Chief for Film, Mike Fleming Jr., got some face time with Scott to discuss the long years it took to get the sequel made, and asked the question: will it be the film that finally wins the prolific director, known for everything from Blade Runner to Alien, a Best Director Oscar (the original won five others, including Best Film and Best Actor for Russell Crowe). Read that here, and for a much deeper dive on the whole production, including chats with Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and Pedro Pascal, here‘s where you go. That feature is the cover story of our latest AwardsLine print magazine, which now has this brilliant accompanying microsite where you can access everything digitally (and bravo to the team who created it).
And there’s more: Gladiator II‘s launch really does feel like a proper ‘movie’ event. Following a screening at Sydney’s Darling Harbour, accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra performance, a red carpet was rolled out on Tuesday night at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in the UK for the Royal Film Performance, with Scott, the stars and even King Charles III entertaining the crowds. Nada and Baz were in the press huddle for Deadline, and you need to watch this heartwarming clip of Irish actor lads Mescal and Andrew Scott embracing (with glorious commentary from our International Editor-At-Large, Mr Bamigboye.) Early box office signs are Gladiator II could be on the way to becoming one of biggest action hits of recent times, as Nancy’s preview revealed. However, while Paramount is eyeing an international box office bow of up to $90M, the moviegoing climate remains challenged and success will be dependent on older audiences leaving their homes for a sequel nearly a quarter century in the making. Mescal, Gladiator II‘s Russell Crowe, and his co-stars will be in cinemas internationally from today and in the U.S. and Canada next Friday (November 22). Enter the arena and feast on more Gladiator II stories here.
McQueen’s Power Message
Spreading awareness: More from Baz here, as he penned this truly remarkable story about how director Steve McQueen secretly fought and beat prostate cancer while filming his new movie Blitz. Having learned of his diagnosis on the eve of filming, he decided against telling cast and crew of the situation. The only indication anything had happened was an unexplained two-week delay to shooting, as he recovered from the surgery that cut out the tumor. Needless to say, but we’re all overjoyed he’s back to health now. Yesterday was exactly two years after McQueen’s procedure, and the director was at the House of Commons addressing attendees including politicians, Claudia Winkleman and Gary Lineker (more on him below) at a Prostate Cancer Research event. McQueen also urged all men to be aware of the disease and to test for it during a pre-speech interview with Baz, which ended with this thought-provoking message: “The tragedy of this is no one has to die of it. That’s the tragedy.” Blitz debuts on Apple TV+ next week. This wasn’t actually the only time McQueen made the news this week, as he also talked Damon Wise through the process of making Blitz. Earlier in the week, Zac had this report on how the director had dropped out of a Blitz screening at Poland’s Camerimage Film Festival following the fallout from a controversial op-ed by the festival’s founder about female cinematographers.
Lineker’s Last Match
‘MOTD’ departure: As I hinted above, it was a big week for Gary Lineker, the British sports presenter and highest-paid star at the BBC (for now). On Monday night, tabloids ran stories saying Lineker’s long-expected departure from the BBC, where he fronts the iconic Match of the Day Premier League football highlights program, was set to be announced. And so it came to be the following morning, when the BBC released a statement confirming Lineker would leave Match of the Day at the end of the current season in May 2025 before exiting the BBC completely after the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is being held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Lineker is that rare thing in UK telly: A former sports star who played at the highest level before seamlessly transitioning into presenting. However, his exit has been a topic of speculation for several years now, as his social media posts became more outspoken against the former Conservative government and eventually led to his suspension from the BBC last year. That, in turn, led to a mass walkout as other presenters as talent unified around the much-loved star and quickly led BBC Director General Tim Davie to U-turn and reinstate him. Given Match of the Day‘s status in British television there is fervor over who replaces him. Currently, the smart money is on Match of the Day 2 presenter Mark Chapman, with the likes of Alex Scott, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan all in the frame. That wasn’t it for Lineker this week, though, as Jake revealed yesterday his production company, Goalhanger, was closing its TV arm to focus on its influential podcasts output. Goalhanger Films, behind docs such as Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health, is being voluntarily liquidated so that Lineker and business partner Tony Pastor can aim all efforts on the likes of The Rest is History, The Rest is Entertainment and The Rest is Football, which will stream on BBC Sounds through Lineker’s final contract with the BBC. As my TV hero, Alan Partridge, once said: “Striker!”
Work-For-Hire Workaround
Left U.S., found right angle: Over recent weeks, I’ve been talking to a host of U.S. unscripted producers who have decided to head to the international market place — some for the very first time — to offset the continuing contraction in states. The work-for-hire model that sustained a whole heap of independent production houses through cable and streaming commissions could be permanently broken as the U.S. market resets and reshapes for the future. Those impacted have reassessed and struck out to the international market, with a bunch at MIPCOM talking new types of deals and better ways to exploit the rights they own. In the new world of global content, there’s a strong sense that only those willing to have that creative entrepreneurialism will really thrive. Read the full feature here.
The Essentials
??? Hot One: Acorn TV and Paramount’s Channel 5 are co-producing an adaptation of Reverend Richard Coles’ bestselling church-meets-crime novel ‘Murder Before Evensong’, as Jake revealed.
??? Very Hot: Not to be outdone by Gladiator II, Russell Crowe’s Roman Empire action movie The Last Druid sold to Amazon Studios and bunch of other international distributors.
??? Hot, Hot Hot: Newly-formed Swiss Studios has worked up a streamer-friendly slate out of Switzerland.
?? Adapted: Ben Aaronovitch’s fantasy novel series ‘Rivers of London’ is coming to TV, with Sky on board and U.S. interest registered. Stewart with the reveal.
?? No, thanks: Andreas revealed a group of influential AFM regulars won’t attend next year if the film market stays at the Palms Resort in Las Vegas.
??? Sold: Arthouse cinema chain Curzon was acquired by Fortress Investment Group for $5M.
?? Fair COP: The UK’s main broadcasters have agreed to provide data from their programs that measures on-screen climate change impact, as COP29 got underway. Stewart with the scoop.
??? Asian incentive: Thailand is increasing its production rebate to 30% after the country’s Prime Minister met with studio execs in LA.
?? Animalistic: The Day of the Jackal became Sky UK’s highest-rating original on record.
??? Signed: You Will Die at 20 filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala by 75East.
?? Incoming: Former Warner Bros exec Joerg Bachmaier to Germany’s Studio Babelsberg.
???? Exiting: Barry Furlong will leave Prime Video Europe at the end of the year. Andrew Bennett will relocate to replace him.
?? Gone shopping: Spain’s Movistar Plus+ acquired most of Sony’s biggest upcoming TV dramas.
?? Box office: Venom: The Last Dance waltzed to $405.5M globally a few weeks after release.
??? Trailer: For Prime Video’s German movie The Calendar Killer.
This week’s International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Stewart Clarke.
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