Oscar Predictions: Will the Academy "Dream Big" With 'Marty Supreme'? Is Netflix Backing the Wrong Horse?

Happy Monday, folks!

I’d like to start with an apology, as I neglected this newsletter last week due to a busy schedule, and I won’t let that happen again. The truth is that I’ve felt both overwhelmed by the sheer amount of news this past week and also paralyzed by how to talk about some of it.

Take Deadline’s James Bond story, for example. It picked up some heat online for claiming that Bond would be played by a fresh face, and a Brit, to boot, but is that really news? I never thought it was going to be Aaron Taylor-Johnson…

For example, who is considered a “fresh face/unknown” these days? Is One Battle After Another star Chase Infiniti a “discovery,” or was she already discovered in Apple’s Presumed Innocent? Does she still qualify for “newcomer” status after that?

All of these Bond rumors, which have been going in full force for the past two years, have been rubbish, and until there’s a script, I’m kind of convinced this report is rubbish, too.

That’s no slight to Baz Bamigboye, who has always had solid Bond sources, and now he’s at Deadline, which breaks most industry news anyway. He adds that production is slated to start in 2027 ahead of a planned 2028 release, but even Baz admits that casting won’t begin until director Denis Villeneuve wraps Dune: Part Three, and with the Bond franchise now at Amazon MGM, I wonder if leaks will continue to be funneled through him first. I guess we’ll see…

Ultimately, my point is that one person’s “fresh face” may be a more familiar face to others, so while Deadline’s story about James Bond wasn’t exactly “news” to me, I’ll admit that it may very well have been “news” to the millions of people fancasting Jacob Elordi or Theo James as the next 007. Start looking at recent LAMDA grads, folks! That may be where the smart money is these days…

In other news, Disney announced it will release a new Simpsons movie on July 23, 2027, taking the place of an untitled Marvel movie that the studio is no longer under pressure to make. I’d heard it was going to be Blade, or a Midnight Sons movie, but those rumors never made a ton of sense to me, and I’m glad Disney removed the untitled Marvel movie from its calendar so we no longer have to speculate.

If a new Simpsons movie sounds familiar, it’s because I said it was likely coming nearly two full years ago in November 2023, on the same day that the trades trumpeted James L. Brooks’ upcoming film, Ella McCay. So now I ask you — if The Simpsons predicts everything, and I predict The Simpsons, what does that make me? Homertradamus?

The sequel will arrive in theaters nearly 20 years to the day as The Simpsons Movie, which grossed $536 million worldwide back in 2007, when the film missed out on an Oscar nomination.

Speaking of the Oscars, tonight, you’ll read my latest thoughts on this year’s Oscar race, including why I think A24’s Marty Supreme is the frontrunner in my book, sight unseen, and why I suspect Netflix plans to back the wrong horse this season — again, sight unseen, for the most part. But my awards antennae are twitching, which tells me something…

There are also items about Millie Bobby Brown’s new Netflix movie, Bette Midler playing Jonah Hill’s mom in a WB comedy, Together director Michael Shanks jumping from Neon to A24, Nicolas Cage’s Con Air reunion, the new Fast & Furious book arriving in time for the holidays, and a look at the star-studded trailer for The Bride! from writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Paid subscribers can enter the Sneider-Verse to read more… and be sure to come back tomorrow for my thoughts on Tilly “Don’t Call Her an Actress” Norwood and another AI-themed treat.

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