DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has acquired distribution rights to War Machine, the David Michod-directed drama which will star Brad Pitt as a four-star rock star U.S. military general. The character is patterned after Gen. Stanley McChrystal, for a time the commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The film is a satirical comedy inspired by the bestselling book The Operators: The Wild And Terrifying Inside Story Of America’s War In Afghanistan, by the late journalist Michael Hastings. Script was written by Michod, whose credits include Animal Kingdom and The Rover. Pitt and his Plan B cohorts Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce with Ian Bryce.
This picture package was on Deadline’s list of his Cannes titles, but Pitt and his reps have for several weeks been down the road with Ted Sarandos and his Netflix cohorts on an alternative strategy. With this deal, Sarandos has an opportunity to make the kind of seismic move in features as he did with TV series like House Of Cards. This will be the biggest investment Netflix will have made so far in a feature film, in the $30 million range. It is also the first time Netflix has really gotten hold of a film with one of the biggest global A-list movie stars, in his prime, along with his producing cohorts whose recent credits include Best Picture winner 12 Years A Slave and Best Picture nominee Selma.
The streaming service continues to establish itself in countries around the world — it just announced Italy, Portugal and Spain to raise its penetration to more than 150 countries — and is expected to be in even more by the time this movie is ready for a qualifying theatrical run, and then a big Netflix worldwide bow late in 2016.
Plan B acquired the Hastings book last year and originally it seemed like a straight nonfiction film. It has instead been turned into a fictionalized satire. The book captured McChrystal in his cocky glory, and focused on the backrooms and politics of war and the high-stakes maneuvers and political firestorm that shook the country. Hastings, who followed McChrystal around Europe and Afghanistan for a month in 2010 for a Rolling Stone article, quoted the general badmouthing the White House and its handling of the war. That proved to be his undoing; after Rolling Stone published the article “The Runaway General,” McChrystal was ordered back to D.C. by President Obama, and McChrystal tendered his resignation there.
Even though this is sophisticated subject matter and not the popcorn fare that studios covet, any studio or independent distributor would have salivated over releasing a movie with Brad Pitt as its star. But it is also the kind of movie that is often hard pressed to find a large theatrical audience, and P&A is exorbitant to chase that business. Pitt and his advisers instead decided to experiment with the idea that potentially more people would see the film through the Netflix global streaming subscriber base, while still having it eligible for Oscar consideration just like any other theatrical release. Deadline has reported that when Netflix makes a deal like this — or on a movie like the Cary Fukunaga-directed Idris Elba-starrer Beasts Of No Nation or the four movies that will star Adam Sandler and be produced by his company — its model eliminates the possibility for overages because the priority is the streaming service. We’ve heard that Netflix will pay 130% of a film’s budget. In order to get this coup, it paid at least that much or more, but it potentially knocks down a wall that could give Netflix a real shot at movie-star-driven pictures that want one-stop shopping. Netflix will also heavily market the movie.
“War Machine is a rip-roaring, behind-the-facade tale of modern war decision-makers, from the corridors of power to the distant regions of America’s ambitions,” said Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix. “Brad and David are a perfect team to make this timely, compelling and entertaining film.”
Said Pitt: We are so excited to be a part of the inspiring commitment by Netflix to produce cutting-edge content and to deliver it to a global audience.”
Said Michod: “I’m humbled to be making a big, bold movie about the whole sprawling, complex, cumbersome and crazy machinery of modern war and the many lives it touches.”
Pitt has hardly abandoned the traditional theatrical release that launched his star. He wrapped By The Sea, the Universal film with Angelina Jolie, who directed. After he wraps War Machine, Pitt will join Marion Cotillard in an untitled Steven Knight-scripted period spy thriller that will be directed by Robert Zemeckis for Paramount. He will then reprise in a sequel to the zombie apocalypse hit Wold War Z, which is being scripted by Knight and will be directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, with Plan B producing.
Pitt is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Alan Hergott. CAA brokered the deal. UTA reps Michod.
Netflix Lands ‘War Machine’, Brad Pitt’s Next Star Vehicle
Brad Pitt’s ‘World War Z’ Sequel Set for June 9, 2017
Paramount Pictures has set a June 9, 2017, release date for the sequel to “World War Z.”
Variety reported a year ago that the studio had hired Steven Knight to write the sequel, which is co-financed by Skydance. J.A. Bayona (“The Impossible”) will direct the zombie tentpole with Brad Pitt returning in the starring role.
Plot details for the film, based on Max Brooks’ novel, have been kept under wraps. Pitt will produce the tentpole alongside Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner for Plan B.
“World War Z,” directed by Marc Forster, earned more than $540 million worldwide in 2013 and became the highest-grossing film of Pitt’s career.
The sequel is the second title dated for June 9, 2017. Fox has also set “Fantastic Four 2? for the same date.
By The Sea gets a release date and new Still of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Universal Pictures today announced that it will release By the Sea, Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie Pitt’s directorial follow-up to the studio’s Unbroken, on November 13, 2015, domestically. International releases for the film will build around this date.
Written, directed and produced by Jolie Pitt, the dramatic film stars Brad Pitt and Jolie Pitt, who are supported by an international ensemble led by Mélanie Laurent, Niels Arestrup, Melvil Poupaud and Richard Bohringer.
By the Sea follows an American writer named Roland (Pitt) and his wife, Vanessa (Jolie Pitt), who arrive in a tranquil and picturesque seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis. As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Laurent) and François (Poupaud), and village locals Michel (Arestrup) and Patrice (Bohringer), the couple begins to come to terms with unresolved issues in their own lives.
In its style, and its treatment of themes of the human experience,By the Sea is inspired by European cinema and theater of the ’60s and ’70s.
“This is a story about a relationship derailed by loss, the tenacity of love, and the path to recovery and acceptance,” said Jolie Pitt. “It has been a privilege to explore these universal human experiences with such a generous and talented cast and crew.”
“Angie and Brad have created an intimate gem of a film that will surprise people and delivers an experience they might not expect from them,” said Donna Langley, Chairman, Universal Pictures. “Universal is honored to market and distribute it to audiences around the world.”
Jolie Pitt is joined behind the scenes by a key crew that includes cinematographer Christian Berger (The White Ribbon), who used his Cine Reflect Lighting System to shoot the film; production designer Jon Hutman (Unbroken); editor Patricia Rommel (The Lives of Others); and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps). Pitt joins her in production duties, while Chris Brigham (Inception), Holly Goline (Unbroken) and Michael Vieira (Unbroken) serve as executive producers.
The Big Short Solidifies With Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
You don’t usually get so many stars who carry pictures themselves to headline the same movie. But Paramount Pictures, New Regency and Plan B Entertainment formally set Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt to star in the Adam McKay-directed adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine. Melissa Leo and Marisa Tomei also star. McKay wrote the most recent draft, from script by Charles Randolph. Pic tells the story of the genius contrarian investors who, recognizing just how insane the housing bubble had become, figured out how to “short” the market prior to the financial collapse of 2008. If that sounds un-cinematic, so did Lewis’ books Moneyball and The Blind Side, and those movie adaptations worked out pretty well. Tracy Letts, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Byron Mann, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong and Finn Wittrock round out the cast. Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are producing. They are just getting underway in New Orleans.
Brad Pitt to Star in Romantic Thriller from Robert Zemeckis
Brad Pitt will star in an untitled romantic thriller for Paramount with Robert Zemeckis directing from a Steve Knight script.
Graham King, who developed the project, is producing alongside Zemeckis and Steve Starkey. The project will be produced through King’s GK Films banner with New Regency. Executive producers are Jack Rapke, Knight, Patrick McCormick and Denis O’Sullivan.
The logline for Knight’s script is being kept under wraps.
Pitt was last seen in “Fury” and recently finished filming “By the Sea” with spouse Angelina Jolie, who’s starring and directing.
Zemeckis’ directing credits at Paramount include 1994’s “Forrest Gump” and 2012’s “Flight.” He is in post-production on “The Walk,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit as he crossed the Twin Towers on a tightrope, which is set for an October release from Sony.
King and Knight are also partnered on the action-thriller “The Red Circle,” a remake of the French film “Le Cercle Rouge,” reset in Hong Kong. Knight wrote the script and is producing under GK Films.
Knight’s credits include “The Hundred-Foot Journey” and “Dirty Pretty Things.”He also directed Tom Hardy in “Locke.”
King produced “Rango” and “The Departed.”
