Exclusive: A24 Enters the Kumite! Studio Negotiating for Remake Rights to JCVD Classic 'Bloodsport'

Happy Monday, everyone!

I was exhausted after CinemaCon last week, but I’m hoping to wrap up my coverage tomorrow afternoon with a long newsletter covering Universal, Paramount, Disney/Fox, and Amazon MGM Studios, which — spoiler alert! — impressed the hell out of me with its first presentation. Kind of ironic since Amazon MGM just fired Jennifer Salke — excuse me, signed her to a first-look deal after she left the studio of her own accord.

Speaking of embattled studio heads, it sure feels like Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have bought themselves a little bit more time at Warner Bros. with the monstrous opening weekend for the Minecraft movie. I had a feeling that this one was going to overperform, but I’d be lying if I thought it was going to do blockbuster business like this.

Kudos to the folks at Warner Bros. for keeping their heads down, ignoring the noise from industry gossips such as myself, and staying focused on the task at hand. Though I shudder to think what the success of the Minecraft movie means for the industry, which is drowning in enough IP — though evidently not enough for kids. That’s why they all flocked to this film — where are the rest of the movies for them?

I’m glad Minecraft worked as well as it did, as hopefully its success will embolden studios not to learn the wrong lessons, but to learn the right one — audiences are starved for comedies these days, no matter how stupid they are!

Make more comedies, people!

Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, seen here watching me do terrible beat poetry about 22 Jump Street, says that regardless of Minecraft’s performance, David Zaslav is still making a list of possible replacements for De Luca and Abdy.

The problem is, Zaslav doesn’t really need to “check it twice,” as it features the same studio heads we’ve had for years — Tom Rothman, Scott Stuber, Mary Parent, and Brian Robbins, who is expected to leave Paramount once David Ellison and his Skydance team take over.

So much for getting some fresh blood in the studio head ranks!

Tonight, I’ve got a hot scoop about an interesting piece of IP that A24 is on the verge of acquiring. Plus, my long-delayed tribute to the one and only Val Kilmer, a man who was “cooler than cool.”

There are also items about the new Netflix movie from Carry On director Jaume Collet-Serra, Juno Temple’s new Apple series, the welcome return of Alexandra Daddario, and the awards-friendly release date for Dwayne Johnson’s UFC movie The Smashing Machine, plus what it means for Lionsgate’s two-part(!) Michael Jackson movie. I also weigh in on the trailer for Guy Ritchie’s Apple TV+ movie Fountain of Youth starring Natalie Portman and John Krasinski.

Paid subscribers can enter the Sneider-Verse to read more…

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.