International Insider: Tom Cruise’s Olympic Descent; Breaking Baz Meets Dave Stewart; How Entertainment Stoked The UK Riots
Roll up, Insiders. Jesse Whittock here with the outlook on the latest international TV and film news, as the Olympic flag left Paris and began its long journey to LA — certainly no Mission Impossible. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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Cruise control: Like a moth to a flame or a teenage girl to a Taylor Swift concert, Tom Cruise is drawn to global entertainment events. And half the time, he’s got a stunt in mind. Sunday’s closing ceremony of the Olympic Games was the perfect case in point. While Cruise had been seen in the crowd throughout the three weeks of sporting competition, rumors in Hollywood swirled that he’d embark on a Mission Impossible-style entrance as the Paris event wound down and the Olympic torch was, literally and figuratively, handed on to the 2028 host, LA. It was no surprise, then, when the Top Gun star was spotted on the rim of the Stade de France before abseiling into the center of the stadium to join LA Mayor Karen Bass and gymnastics G.O.A.T. Simone Biles, who had been handed the Olympic flag to take back to the states. Next, he jumped on a motorcycle, strapped in the flag and made an exit, with one commentator suggesting: “Tom’s going to drive this straight to Los Angeles.” A pre-recorded stunt then showed Cruise leaping out of a plane and landing on the Hollywood sign to pass the baton to a group of Team USA Olympians. All that, plus performances from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snopp Dogg and Dr Dre on the beach. What a show. The LA Games are expected to be the starriest for years, and Cruise and co certainly brought Hollywood to the French capital this month.
Staging the stunt: Over in LA, Peter White tracked down Fulwell 73 co-founder Ben Winston, who had overseen the splashy segment and talked through how he planned and produced such a huge stunt. It went almost exactly as he originally pitched to Cruise, albeit with one major difference — Winston planned to use a stunt man for the stadium descent, and you can imagine how that went down with the action star, who had already jumped out a plane alongside James Corden on the Fulwell-produced Late Late Show. “He said, ‘There’s only one thing. There is no way that you’re going to use a stuntman. It’s me on that roof’,” Winston explained. The Grammys exec producer, no stranger to live events TV, also revealed some of the more stressful elements of the production, which involved technical connections from LA to Paris, working with the Olympic broadcasting team and pre-filming certain sections over security concerns in Long Beach. “If it had leaked where we were or what was happening, then we would have been shut down,” he recalled. “I’m very aware that we can’t afford to be shut down, because we’re live to a billion people globally… then you’re also aware that the biggest movie star in the world was about to jump off a roof.”
Dom’s verdict: Dominic Patten called the LA portion of the closing ceremony “pure Hollywood,” and it’s hard to argue with that assessment. “It was over the top and cliché-filled — as if anything less would have sufficed,” wrote our man in the U.S. Dom noted that the sheer weight of the star power “simply dimmed” the majestic artistry that Thomas Jolly’s French portion of the three-hour ceremony favored — even despite the country’s new hero, Léon Marchand, bringing the Olympic flame into the stadium. In closing his review, Dom wrote that while Paris did the Olympics its own way, LA “clearly plans to go full bread and circuses in 2028 and give the people what they want.” Find our full Olympics coverage here. Sidenote: I’ll take this moment to shout out to our Paris MVPs Dom and Mel, who transformed from entertainment industry writers into Games gurus overnight and helped make Deadline’s coverage among the most comprehensive and creative you can find anywhere on the web.
Baz ‘N’ Dave
Eurythmics and musicals: Baz Bamigboye was in the company of music royalty this week when he caught up with Eurythmics rock legend Dave Stewart. Songwriter, guitarist and singer Stewart is making a feature film musical, Ebony McQueen, with director Shekhar Kapur, as Baz revealed. The coming-of-age tale set in the 1960s and early ’70s is inspired by the rocker’s teen years in the Northeast of England. South Asian composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) is attached. Filming will take place in Sunderland, best known to the entertainment world as home of the football team in Netflix’s Sunderland Til I Die and Winston’s production house Fulwell73, where Stewart grew up. In vintage Breaking Baz style, the fun interview revealing the news includes recollections of Stewart’s childhood, how he could have become a professional footballer had it not been for a nasty tackle, and his father’s Rodgers & Hammerstein record collection. A local lad, Tom A. Smith, will play the semi-autobiographical Stewart character in the film and the search is on for an actress of South Asian heritage to play the girl next door he falls for, while loads of other big names from TV and music are attached. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stewart has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide in a career that spanned half a century, and Baz’s deep dive into his entertainment career is well worth your time. Grab a cup of joe and read on.
Entertainment’s Role In The Riots
“You don’t take a dictionary to a race riot”: The far-right rioting across the UK shocked the world earlier this month. While communities rose up and launched far larger counter-protests that ended the wanton destruction and violence, Britain is still questioning itself. Elon Musk might think he understands what’s going on, but trust me on this, he doesn’t. Jake decided to explore what role television and film has played in such open shows of racism and hatred on the streets. He spoke to numerous South Asian executives and creatives, who voiced concerns over industry failings and the lack of meaningful change after “years of dehumanizing brown people and the normalization of racist language and behaviors,” as one producer/director put it. There is a sense within the British Asian production community that news coverage has been loathe to use the word “Islamophobia” to describe what’s happened, with one senior producer succinctly saying: “You don’t take a dictionary to a race riot.” In fact, of numerous internal memos sent to staff from producers and broadcasters last week, only Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon was willing to use the language, our analysis found. There is a sense that platforming divisive figures such as populist politician Nigel Farage, who appeared on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! last year, has only worsened the feeling Muslims are being ignored in the UK, while the Israel-Gaza conflict has complicated matters further. It’s a very difficult moment for race relations in the UK, and the TV and film industries need to acknowledge they can and must do better. Jake’s feature is here.
Fly Me To The Moonage
A Good Reporter’s Guide To M&A: Besides RedBird IMI buying All3Media and ITV Studios snapping up Hartswood, there hasn’t been much in the way of major mergers and acquisitions activity in the UK production market of late. Sadly, stories of indie producers shutting amid the brutal economic climate and commissioning slowdown have been more prevalent. But yesterday morning Max broke the news that the BBC Studios-backed Moonage Pictures is on the block after a hot period that has seen it produce BBC/Netflix drama A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and co-produce Guy Ritchie’s TV spin-off of The Gentlemen. Management at the indie have been keen to create a different narrative to the global market contraction, telling Max a few months back “the market is still bigger than it was 10 years ago.” That confidence is translating — next up on the slate is its debut foreign language series, Netflix Italy’s The Leopard — and sources in our exclusive report suggest the likes of ITV, Universal International Studios and All3Media could be hot on the drama house. BBC Studios retains its minority stake for now, but that could change. Full reporting here.
Shah Rukh Locarno
Brad Pitt’s fake jaw and other stories: Shah Rukh Khan was the star attraction at the Locarno Film Festival and he didn’t disappoint during a tell-all masterclass. As Stephanie Bunbury reported, this is as close as it gets to pandemonium in the usually reserved Switzerland. Spontaneous singing, cries of “I love you!” and the clanking of a cowbell accompanied the Bollywood actor’s talk, in which he told fest director Giona Nazzaro that stardom doesn’t mean much to him but “being able to entertain people when they come into contact with me” does. “I have always said I wear stardom like a T-shirt, not a tuxedo,” he said, all effortless cool and warm charm. Having made more than 100 movies, King Khan — as he’s popularly known — has a few stories from the biz and delighted the audience with tales of how he nearly opened a Chinese restaurant with Jackie Chan and wore a fake jaw adapted from a similar prosthetic made for Brad Pitt. He was also full of praise for female actors and directors, saying their work is often “a little more sensitive, a little more nuanced.” Read the full rollicking report of SKR’s Locarno love-in here.
Campion sounds: Also worth a read is this report from Friday morning on Jane Campion’s appearance at the fest, where she addressed everything from failing to retire to why Greta Gerwig’s success with Barbie means “women can be trusted with money, finally.” Full Locarno coverage is here.
The Essentials
??? Hot One: Rupert Everett and Ruby Stokes will join Callum Scott Howells in Madfabulous, the Celyn Jones drama that’s shooting in Wales, Zac and Andreas revealed.
??? Also Hot: Ishaan Khatter and Bhumi Pednekar will lead Netflix India’s rom-com series The Royals.
??? Hotter: Stellan Skarsg?rd, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning and Renate Reinsve have joined Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, per Andreas.
??? One more for luck: Bollywood star Abhay Deol and Elvis actress Natasha Bassett will star in indie-rom com Don’t You Be My Neighbor!.
? Fest in Focus: Diana looked at state of play at the Balkans’ CineLink Industry Days and previewed the Sarajevo Film Festival.
?? Buoyant: Prime Video made a splash by picking up former Disney+ original Nautilus in the UK and Ireland.
?? Swifties: Taylor Swift’s fans were banned from congregating outside Wembley Stadium as the Eras Tour came to town, over security fears.
?? Critical incident: Jenny Daly’s Critical Content struck co-pro pacts with Korea’s Something Special and Singapore’s Refinery Media.
??? Signed: Gasland director Josh Fox, by international agency 5XMedia.
???? Independent women: Eric producer Sister posted annual turnover of $264M, but is still in the red.
?? Viva Italia: Italy’s new co-production tax credit will cap payouts at €18M ($20M).
?? First look: Michael Sheen and Ruth Wilson are Prince Andrew and journalist Emily Maitlis in Prime Video’s series A Very Royal Scandal.
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