News
September 10, 2018
September 7th News Report from your Los Angeles Representative
Happy Friday everyone,
The Toronto International Film Festival officially got underway
last night. The trades are covering every breathless moment and many of you, no
doubt, are resigned to at least a week of no sleep. Enjoy every minute of the
insanity and try to maintain good cheer during a TIFF that the Los
Angeles Times describes as brimming
over with "movies that reflect a charged sense of unease and
uncertainty".
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-toronto-international-film-festival-preview-20180905-story.html
It may have been locked
out of competition at Cannes, but Netflix is poised to make its mark at TIFF.
As reported in the Times this week, Netflix has set its sights
on Oscar gold and its presence in Toronto this year is part of a major push in
that direction.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-netflix-fall-film-festivals-20180831-story.html
As expected, this
summer's box office numbers crushed
multiple records and produced the second-most successful hot season ever. As
detailed in The Wrap below, most surprising about this year
was that the wild success spanned from blockbusters to documentaries.
https://www.thewrap.com/how-this-summer-broke-box-office-records-by-breaking-all-the-rules/
The original content pie
seems destined to grow ever-larger: Deadline reported this
morning that Mattel, the toy company behind
such brands as Barbie, Masters of the Universe, Hot Wheels and Thomas and
Friends, is launching Mattel Films, a new division focused on producing motion
pictures based on the brand’s iconic franchises.
https://deadline.com/2018/09/mattel-launches-film-division-barbie-robbie-brenner-heads-up-1202458280/
It's
been four years since the unprecedented cyberattack against Sony riveted global
attention by exposing the deepest secrets of a major Hollywood studio and
sparked a national outcry over computer security and freedom of
speech. The Los Angeles Times reported this week
that the Justice Department will file charges against a North Korean
national over the massive assault, which crippled a major U.S. company and
disabled thousands of computers worldwide.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-sony-hack-20180906-story.html
Finally, this week, the Hollywood
Reporter took an in-depth look at the recent explosive growth of
Ontario's production industry. As detailed below, provincial agencies like Ontario Creates (formerly the
OMDC) have been aggressively supporting local producers and content creators
for many years and "after years of success in film and broadcast
TV, (they) are now succeeding with what’s now perhaps the biggest fish of all:
the streaming giants".
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-hulu-are-descending-canada-ontario-producers-couldn-t-be-happier-1140694
Warmest regards,
Kelly Graham-Scherer
Los Angeles
Representative
Toronto/ Ontario Film
Office