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This Week's Bullets

This Week's Curated Articles

Hollywood Grapples With Mass Layoffs as the Biz Redefines Itself for Streaming Future

The pandemic shook the world and what is happening now is new for all of us. It’s difficult to predict how big an impact it'll have in upcoming years for many industries, Hollywood included as much as your mom's job.

And we all knew the time will come when even studios start cutting people. And it came. Media giants are moving from direct-to-consumer to subscription-based models and that needs change in programming, marketing as well as distribution and sales because the new model is now all about the personalized, centered on a customer. That means a lot of people are being laid off, because they were specialists of the old approach, which is no longer needed.

Hollywood Grapples With Mass Layoffs as the Biz Redefines Itself for Streaming Future
This is the winter of discontent for Hollywood workers, as no level of seniority has been spared from the wave of mass layoffs. Warner Bros. has been shaken by two rounds of layoffs and a wholesale restructuring that have ushered out veterans with decades of service to the Hollywood studio. NBCUnive…
VarietyCynthia Littleton

European Screenwriters and Designers Discuss Collaboration in Film and TV

We repeat almost as our mantra that film is a teamwork and you can never achieve as much as a loner as you can in a creative group. And this belief we share with screenwriters and designers from Variety's Streaming Room.

Hosted by editor Leo Barraclough, the topic of this roundtable was “Lost in Translation? Visual Story Development from Script to Screen” and all creators came to an agreement that nowadays, filmmakers often have ideas that aren’t limited to just the part of the film or television project they’re working on.

European Screenwriters and Designers Discuss Collaboration in Film and TV
Creators and screenwriters from Europe discussed the importance of collaboration in filmmaking during a panel in the Variety Streaming Room. Hosted by international features editor Leo Barraclough, the conversation, titled “Lost in Translation? Visual Story Development from Script to Screen,” includ…
VarietyEli Countryman

Anthony and Joe Russo on Producing Netflix's 'Mosul' with an all Arabic Cast

Netflix and other distributors are (finally, thank you) giving more space to international productions and stories. Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed for example some Marvel movies, opened up about the movie Mosul, which they produced and which is based on a true story of a Iraq city that SWAT team is trying to keep safe from ISIS. Powerful story, powerful interview.

Anthony and Joe Russo on Producing Netflix’s ‘Mosul’ with an all Arabic Cast
Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo tells us why they wanted to produce Mosul and how the Netflix film shows Arab people as heroes.
ColliderSteve Weintraub

Anya Taylor-Joy on The Queen's Gambit and Robert Eggers' The Northman

If you are at least half as a series fan as we in the Spotlight are, you've probably watched at least one of these (if not both) shows. Dive into interviews with Anya Taylor-Joy, the leading actress from Queen's Gambit, about learning chess, connecting to character and more; and also with Josh O'Connor, who's known from The Crown as Prince Charles, in case you want to shorten your waiting for season 5.

Anya Taylor-Joy on The Queen’s Gambit and Robert Eggers’ The Northman
Anya Taylor-Joy shares some fun stories about making The Queen’s Gambit for Netflix and reveals her first movie crush.
ColliderSteve Weintraub

This Week's Recommendation

Best Post-Apocalyptic Movies - The End is the Beginning

As I mentioned several times already, and you might have seen that based on recommendations and Trailers of the Week, I am a big-ass fan of post-apocalyptic movies. And because of that, as well as me hating click-baits, I will tell you the top 3 movies:

  • Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
  • Threads (1984)
  • The Road (2009)

And a few honorable mentions I'd recommend as well:

  • Stalker (1979)
  • Twelve Monkeys (1995)
  • Snowpiercer (2013)
Best Post-Apocalyptic Movies — The End is the Beginning
The end of the world is a topic many films tackle but these are the best post apocalyptic movies ever made.
StudioBinderSam Kench

Trailer of the Week

Small Axe | Red, White and Blue Trailer | Prime Video

Small Axe has been talked about for some time now, especially about Boyega's appearance in it and his amazing performance. Now we get to see it ourselves.

In the third of five in McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series, the movie follows the true story of Leroy Logan (John Boyega), a forensic scientist who resolves to become a part of the police force to change racist attitudes from within only to become despised despite his exemplary work.