Month: April 2021

Second world war drama Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas) has broken the opening weekend record for a local-language film at the Finnish box office.

Aku Louhimies’ historical epic, the most expensive Finnish film ever made at an estimated €7m, drew 170,213 viewers across previews and weekend screenings.

The debut marks the third-biggest opening ever in the territory behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Spectre, both of which went on to make more than $7m in the market, which has a population of only five and a half million.

Unknown Soldier, which screened at 140 locations, is the story of an infantry unit’s tour of duty that lasts for more than three years during the second world war.

Louhimies produces alongside Mikko Tenhunen and Miia Haavisto.

”We’re extremely proud that a Finnish film can compete at the box office with the biggest film productions in the world,” said Timo Räisänen, head of theatrical distribution at distributor SF Studios.

”I’m happy that so many people wanted to see Unknown Soldier,” added director Louhimies. ”Our film has clearly reached different generations, and it’s being widely discussed in the media, social media and elsewhere. On behalf of the crew, cast and everyone else involved in the making of the film, I’m thankful that people have embraced this film.”

Beta Cinema handles international sales on the historical drama and will be screening it at the AFM in Los Angeles this week

Just in time for Halloween, Jay Russell has sold an original horror thriller to Paramount Pictures and Akiva Goldsman. In a twist for the director of the beloved family film My Dog Skip and the heroic Ladder 49, Russell now has an an eye to direct the creepy You’re Not Real.

The story follows a young school teacher who reunites with her reclusive, scientific genius grandfather for the first time at his isolated country estate, uncovering disturbing truths about her childhood. The project is a micro-budgeted horror film which has been so popular with this current generation of movie audiences (think Blumhouse).

The project will be produced by Akiva Goldsman via his Weed Road with Zero Gravity Management’s Michael McConnell and Marc Manus on as executive producers. Rachel Reznick from Weed Road brought the project into the company. Reznick will oversee along with Weed Road President of Production Greg Lessans. Vanessa Joyce is the exec overseeing at Paramount.

Russell, who also has 59 Rows Of Teeth in development at Millennium and is also attached to direct the Lou Gehrig film which has not yet been set up yet. The Gehrig film is based on the Jonathan Eig biography Luckiest Man and is titled The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth. Dan Kay adapted.

Russell is repped by Zero Gravity Management and APA.

Game of Thrones alum Aidan Gillen is set as the lead in History’s scripted drama series Blue Book, executive produced by Oscar winner Robert Zemeckis. In addition, Maleficent helmer Robert Stromberg, an Oscar and Emmy-winning production designer/special effects artist, is set to direct the first two episodes of the series, from A+E Studios and Compari Entertainment, a division of Zemeckis’ ImageMovers.

Created and written on spec by David O’Leary, the 10-episode Blue Book chronicles the true top secret U.S. Air Force-sponsored investigations into UFO-related phenomena in the 1950s and ’60s, known as “Project Blue Book.” Gillen will play Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a brilliant astrophysicist, family man, and UFO skeptic who is recruited as the Chief Scientific Advisor to “Project Blue Book.”

O’Leary co-executive produces, with Sean Jablonski (Suits) serving as showrunner, executive producer and writer. Zemeckis, Jack Rapke (Flight) and Jackie Levine (Allied) are executive producers for Compari Entertainment.

Gillen, who played Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish on the first seven seasons of Game of Thrones, is currently filming the Freddie Mercury feature Bohemian Rhapsody, playing John Reid, Queen’s manager from 1975 to 1978, and just wrapped a Dave Allen biopic for BBC Two. He will be seen next in the upcoming season of Peaky Blinders.

Stromberg became the first production designer to win back-to-back Oscars for his work on James Cameron’s Avatar and Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. He also received a total of five Emmys for special visual effects for his work on Boardwalk Empire, John Adams, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: The Next Generation. His directorial debut, feature Maleficent, grossed over $750 million worldwide and became the highest-grossing live-action directorial debut ever.

Blue Book is one of two new History scripted series that are now casting, along with The Breach: Inside the Impeachment of Bill Clinton from producer R.J. Cutler.

A Swedish TV drama exploring the postwar period has by far exceeded expectations, pulling in over 1.5 million viewers – that’s more than a tenth of Sweden’s entire population.

‘Vår tid är nu’ (‘Our time is now’) has drawn comparisons to the global phenomenon Downton Abbey due to the ‘upstairs-downstairs’ motif of the drama, which follows the changing lives of the upper and lower classes in postwar Sweden.

The programme is a co-production between SVT and Viaplay as well as Film West, and though the exact cost hasn’t been made public, it’s one of SVT’s biggest ever investments in a drama. But it seems like the bet has paid off, with initial viewing figures suggesting it could be one of Sweden’s most successful drama series ever.

The premiere, broadcast on October 2nd, was watched by 1.49 million people, with viewing figures staying strong. The fourth episode, which aired on Monday, reached a record for the show with audience numbers topping 1.5 million. The latest episode was watched by a further 140,000 people on SVT Play, the channel’s online catch-up service.

For comparison, the first episode of Swedish-Danish thriller ‘Bron’ (‘The Bridge’) had just over 1.03 million viewers in Sweden in 2011, while the first episode of its third and most recent series was watched by 1.48 million. Other popular dramas ‘Innan vi dör’ (‘Before we die’) and ‘Midnattsol’ (‘Midnight Sun’) pulled in 1.4 million and 1.39 million viewers respectively for their opening episodes.

Two series of ‘Vår tid är nu’, each with ten one-hour episodes, have already been filmed, with the second series expected to air late next year. The first episode opens with scenes of jubilation following the end of the Second World War, and follows a blossoming relationship between the wealthy Nina Löwander, whose family runs an upmarket Stockholm restaurant, and the restaurant’s new kitchen assistant, Calle.

The restaurant is a microcosm for society, and over the 20 episodes, ‘Vår tid är nu’ looks at how people of all classes, and the city of Stockholm itself, adapt during the two decades after the war. It doesn’t shy away from difficult subject areas, such as Swedish collaboration with the Nazis, as well as abortion and LGBT issues.

Zero Gravity Management is expanding into the digital space with the formation of a new Digital Dept. which will be overseen by Ray Jimenez. The new division will focus on developing content for digital platforms, managing influencers and crossover talent as well as digital business development and brand creation and management.

Prior to joining Zero Gravity, Jimenez owned Embolden Entertainment, a digitally-based talent management and business development firm whose clients (and collaborators) include digitally-based creators and brands with massive social followings. He joined Zero Gravity this summer and first produced a documentary Thank You LA, that explores the city from the perspective of top leaders. Now he is pulling together the digital business strategy.

As part of the deal, Zero Gravity will also operate a digital production studio in Hollywood, which was an asset of Global Voice Broadcasting, a company Jimenez acquired in 2016.

Jimenez previously orchestrated a joint-venture between The Young Turks, the number one online news network and the country’s top Spanish language news publisher ImpreMedia. One of his TYT clients — Ana Kasparian, who is a premiere digitally-based female journalist — was honored in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list last year.

Prior to joining Zero Gravity, Jimenez worked for several high level companies across the industry, including CAA and NBC-Universal. He has been a part of the digital community for over 12 years.

“We are keenly aware of the impactful nature of the digital market and are excited to explore new avenues for storytelling for our content and our talent. Diversifying the traditional approach allows us, as well as our current and future clients, the ability to reach all audiences on all platforms,” said Zero Gravity principal Mark Holder. “This team is strategically qualified to immerse us in the market and we are thrilled to all be working together.”

After his arrival, Jimenez subsequently brought in Kamran Kamjou, Damian Mazzotta and Ryan Espinosa to be part of the division.

Kamjou is a digital media executive whose career spans a broad array of work, including investment banking where he worked on several high level accounts such as RTL Group’s acquisition of BroadbandTV; business development at CAA where he incubated early-stage companies such as WhoSay; and executive finance and business development roles with Maker Studios, both pre- and post-acquisition by Disney in 2014.

Kamran also has extensive experience in entrepreneurship and strategy consulting as well as advising digital media companies on strategies to grow revenue, increase profitability, and prepare for outside investment or acquisition.

Mazzotta is one of the most reputable executives in American-Latino media. He recently was the head of LA Opinion (the top Spanish language newspaper in the country). He is also the recent West Coast General Manager for ImpreMedia (around one-fourth of U.S. Hispanics access an ImpreMedia project each month and their websites have a top ten ComScore in their demographic).

In his concurrent role with ImpreMedia, he oversaw a staff of 150 people. He also spent time as their Executive VP of Business Development and managed their entire national marketing and distribution plan. One of his biggest accomplishments was facilitating La Opinion and ImpreMedia’s transition from traditional to digital outlets.

Espinosa’s work includes managing talent and providing digital media marketing consultation services to brands. One of his Premeire clients, Matthew Espinosa, is a top digital fire-brand, who is finding great success in the traditional market as well. Matthew received over a billion loops (views) on Vine and has well over 19M followers across his multiple social media outlets. Last year, he starred in Be Somebody, a film that was distributed by Paramount. Espinosa will continue to manage digital talent as well as build digital brands.

Zero Gravity saw its internationally-based client Yoola climb to success as the top independent multi-channel network in the world, now receiving over 8 billion views monthly. In addition, ZGDD is also developing a Spanish-language news show with one of the top five Mexican YouTubers with over 6M subscribers.

Zero Gravity currently has Netflix number one streamed show Ozark on air and is gearing up for it’s Madam CJ Walker series at Netflix where they are partnered with Lebron James and his Springhill banner and Academy award Winner Octavia Spencer starring as well as the HBO movie Queenie with Tim Story directing.

Nikki Toscano has teamed with directors-producer Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) and Craig Brewer (Empire, Hustle & Flow) for two drama projects which have received script commitments with penalty from Fox. 20th Century Fox TV, where Toscano is under an overall deal, is the studio.

Written by Toscano, the untitled Toscano/Reeves project is a female-led character drama that unravels the complicated personal and professional lives of a family of cops as they investigate a high profile missing persons case across two timelines. In 2001, Shane McGuinty, a new detective in the NYC Missing Persons division, and her partner, Dominic, are drawn closer together when they embark on their first (and most haunting) case on the worst day of the year: 9/11. In present day, we follow as Shane and Dominic (now ex-partners and ex-lovers) are forced together again when new evidence threatens to blow both their unsolved 2001 case, and their entire squad, wide open.

Toscano executive produces with Matt Reeves and Adam Kassan via 6th & Idaho. The company’s Rafi Crohn is co-producer. At Fox, Reeves’ 20th TV-based 6th & Idaho also has in development cop drama The Dime from Hell On Wheels creators Tony Gayton & Joe Gayton as well as the pilot The Passage.

Written by Toscano, the Toscano/Brewer project is a character-driven soap that follows a blue collar man with a beautiful mind who is suddenly thrust into a world of instant wealth, taking with his loud and irreverent family along for the ride. His journey into this new life will force him to confront demons from his past, his exciting new future, and the girl who got away that happens to be front and center in all of this.

Toscano and Brewer executive produce, with Brewer set to direct.

Under her overall deal, Toscano most recently served as co-executive producer on Fox/20th TV’s drama 24: Legacy. Last season, she wrote and executive produced the Fox drams pilot Behind Enemy Lines, based on the movie of the same name. Toscano previously worked on A&E’s Bates Motel and ABC’s Revenge and created and executive produced drama Red Zone, which went to pilot at CBS that starred Anthony Lapaglia. She is repped by UTA, Zero Gravity Management and Patti Felker.

A few months ago, a Netflix exec mused to IndieWire that he was actually surprised that the streaming service’s viewership data hadn’t leaked out. Plenty of Netflix insiders know exactly who’s watching what, and when.

Yet, the streaming giant has managed to keep its ratings under lock and key. Accurate data remains a mystery to even top-level Hollywood execs outside of the Netflix bubble.

That’s starting to change, as more services chip away at the facade of Netflix ratings. Parrot Analytics has made headlines recently with its proprietary “Demand Expressions” metric, which looks at a variety of factors in determining a digital program’s popularity. And according to a new study revealed exclusively to IndieWire, the Jason Bateman drama “Ozark” led the pack among all streaming shows over the past 90 days.

“Demand Expressions” measures audience demand for a title — including streaming, social media, blogging, file sharing, blogging, comments and other sources. The measurement is weighed by importance, which means a stream or download take precedence.

Meanwhile, Nielsen, the grandaddy of all ratings services, has been working on streaming viewership data for some time, and finally revealed some of that information this week.

According to Nielsen, which handed out just a few morsels of viewership info to reporters, the first episode of Marvel series “The Defenders” averaged 6.1 million viewers during the first week it was released, between August 18 and August 25. The first episode of “Fuller House” Season 3 posted 4.6 million viewers between September 22 and September 29. And the premiere episode of Season 5 of “House of Cards” also averaged 4.6 million viewers, from May 30 to June 6.

As it does every time another company claims to have cracked the Netflix ratings mystery, the service was quick to dismiss the numbers. “The data that Nielsen is reporting is not accurate, not even close, and does not reflect the viewing of these shows on Netflix,” a spokesperson said.

Netflix, of course, could be right. Past numbers, including well-publicized ratings information from the now-defunct Symphony Advanced Media service, have been considered wildly inconsistent. But until it finally releases actual data, and not just press releases on quirky user habits that ultimately don’t reveal much information, this is the closest thing we’ve got.

Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and now CBS All Access remain stubbornly resistant to sharing viewership info, yet studios need that information to assess the value of their content and set license fees. Actors and creators also need that information in order to negotiate and renegotiate their deals. The business as a whole could use more information on the value of placing content on streaming services. And the media would like to know, in order to gauge audience interest. At some point, that Netflix exec will be right, and someone will intentionally or accidentally release real numbers — so it behooves those services to get out in front of it.

Nielsen has been working on its streaming ratings methodology for some time, and was originally expected to launch a new streaming ratings service months ago. But it got caught up in a few hiccups, including coding issues.

Nielsen is using its people meter boxes, the same ones that measure broadcast and cable ratings, for Netflix measurement. For streaming programming, it relies on an audio code embedded inside the shows, in order to track viewership. Because there’s such a big rush of viewership for Netflix shows on the first day of viewing, Nielsen has to make sure that studios are sharing those audio cues from the very beginning.

Nielsen’s reveal of Netflix stats also came following months of hardball negotiations with networks and studios to start buying that data. Nielsen knows the traditional Hollywood studios are hungry for those ratings, and insiders said the company has been looking to charge networks as much as four to five times more than what they now pay for broadcast and cable ratings. Companies initially signing on include Disney/ABC, NBCUniversal, A&E Networks and Warner Bros.

As for the Parrot Analytics data, the company shared the top 10 digital originals in the United States over the past 90 days, and Netflix easily dominates the roster. The sleeper hit “Ozark” actually topped the charts, while CBS All Access’ “Star Trek: Discovery” was No. 2, followed by Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” which remains popular even before the launch of Season 2. Hulu makes an appearance with Emmy winner “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but as has been discussed recently about the lack of buzz surrounding Amazon Prime’s programming, none of that service’s shows make the top 10.

Here’s the full chart:

RANK

SHOW

AVERAGE DEMAND IMPRESSIONS

1

Ozark Netflix

16,720,066

2

Star Trek: Discovery CBS All Access

12,567,397

3

Stranger Things Netflix

12,258,168

4

The Handmaid’s Tale Hulu

11,579,728

5

Narcos Netflix

10,181,955

6

Orange Is The New Black Netflix

8,803,608

7

Castlevania Netflix

8,524,775

8

Marvel’s The Defenders Netflix

8,409,691

9

13 Reasons Why Netflix

7,698,884

10

House of Cards Netflix

5,862,874

“Universal Soldier” and “The Expendables” star Dolph Lundgren will challenge contestants to complete physical and mental challenges in “Take The Tower,” a new action-movie-inspired entertainment format for ITV in the U.K.

Lundgren will soon be seen in “Aquaman” and “Creed 2.” He will host “Take The Tower,” which sees contestants take on a combination of physical challenges and quiz questions that draw on action movies and their tropes. Contestants attempt to reach the top of the titular tower to win.

The six-part series of hour-long episodes is being made for the ITV4 channel by British producer Twofour, which is behind formats such as “This Time Next Year.”

“This is probably the most bonkers idea we’ve had the good fortune to make,” said Melanie Leach, the production company’s chief executive. “But in the words of the A Team, it’s so crazy, it just might work.”

The show was commissioned by Amanda Stavri for ITV and will be executive produced by Twofour’s Leach, Andrew Mackenzie and Rachel Watson.

“’Take the Tower’ will anchor a night of new original series this coming autumn on ITV4 as we push forward with a commissioning strategy that puts male-skewed entertainment at the heart of primetime on the channel,” said Paul Mortimer, ITV’s head of digital channels and acquisitions.

Twofour was acquired by ITV in 2015. Its distribution arm, Twofour Rights, is selling the finished show and format internationally.