Showing posts with label Joachim Rønning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joachim Rønning. Show all posts

Sunday, August 13, 2023









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Saturday, January 29, 2022


with comments from Miyavi "You gotta lemme kno if you need a while cool looking fairy who teaches kids" and Matt Smith "So excited to work on this again!🧚‍♀️ #M3"

Ugh! On the basis of everything he did on MMoE, I'm not happy if it's M3 Joachim Rønning is working on. One can only hope he learned from his mistakes and will make something closer in quality to his earlier co-directed and Oscar nominated Kon-Tiki.

MMoE: 39% critics, 95% audience (from 10K+ ratings) on RT, 6.6 from 98K votes on IMDb, $492M ww.
M: 54% critics, 70% audience (from 100K+ ratings) on RT, 7.0 from 364K votes on IMDb, $758M ww.




Posted November, 2017. Reports surfaced that he was in talks to direct M2 in October, 2017 and he was officially announced in March, 2018.


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Thursday, November 7, 2019


Mendelson makes interesting statistical comparisons.  But I find some of his arguments less than convincing.  I seriously doubt MMoE was advanced from May 2020 in order to get it to Disney+ faster.  There is already an abundance of material for Disney+.  But I could imagine that Eternals' release in November 2020 might have played a role since a 6-month gap between them would mean an overlap in their campaigns with both prominently featuring Angelina in fantasy roles.  Disney has a lot more riding on Eternals which anchors phase 4 of the MCU and their first priority would be to protect it.  When they announced the change in MMoE's release date in early March this year Angelina would have already been signed for Eternals.  Her involvement was leaked in late March.

If they had gotten a truly competent director, the change in release date may not have mattered.  As it is, Disney could have tweaked MMoE into a better film, crafted a more effective promotional campaign, and MMoE could have benefited from a summer release.  The difference would be the gap between MMoE's eventual haul and M's $758M.  

We'll have to wait til Frozen 2 is released to judge how well MMoE held.  Its week to week hold has been good so far, down 32% (domestic) from the previous weekend, down 38% for the week --  a reflection of good word of mouth and its audience score.  Mendelson points put that MMoE has already done better than Alice TTLG, Dumbo and Mary Poppins Returns.  All had much lower audience scores of 48%, 50% and 66% respectively.


Forbes

Scott Mendelson

In a random Tuesday box office update, Walt Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer, earned $1.74 million yesterday, falling just 20% from last Tuesday and jumping an absurd 106% from Monday. I don’t know if that’s a record (non-holiday) Monday-to-Tuesday jump, but it’s almost certainly among the very biggest. The Angelina Jolie flick has now earned $87.824 million as it remains on track for a $115 million domestic total. That’s a sharp comedown from Maleficent’s $242 million domestic cume in the summer of 2014, especially as this sequel cost about the same ($180 million) as its predecessor. It has earned just 22% of its global total in North America. As such, Mistress of Evil should cross $315 million overseas and $400 million worldwide today.

Alice Through the Looking Glass ($299 million in 2016),  
Dumbo ($350 million in 2019) and  
Mary Poppins Returns ($349.5 million in 2018).

Oz: The Great and Powerful ($492 million in 2013) and
Cinderella ($542 million in 2015).

Rio 2 ($131 million/$500 million worldwide in 2014)),  
Ready Player One ($137 million/$587 million in 2018),  
Transformers: The Last Knight ($130 million/$605 million in 2017) and  
Life of Pi ($125 million/$609 million in 2012)

Fate of the Furious earned $226 million in North America in 2017, which is the lowest domestic total for any Hollywood flick that earn on to earn even $900 million worldwide, let alone its eventual $1.236 billion global cume.  
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw earned $758 million despite “just” $173 million domestic, the third-lowest domestic total for a live-action $700 million-plus Hollywood release after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ($172 million out of $794 million in 2017) and
2012 ($166 million/$769 million in 2009).

The Last Samurai ($111 million domestic and $457 million worldwide in 2003),  
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ($104 million/$415 million in 2010),
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ($102 million/$403 million in 2008),  
Pacific Rim ($101 million/$411 million in 2013) and  
Troy ($133 million/$497 million in 2004). And it should be noted that there has yet to be a fourth Mummy or Narnia flick while Pacific Rim: Uprising earned just $290 million worldwide in 2018.

Even if Mistress of Evil, which I will argue was a better movie than its predecessor, won’t be a blow-out hit, just breaking even is a qualified win for this one. That’s both because it was (arguably) dropped into theaters this year instead of May 2020 in order to get it onto Disney+ faster and because it shows that the live-action Disney fairy tales can potentially justify sequels, especially if they can keep the budgets in check. Moreover, even if they lose a few bucks spending too much on Maleficent 2, they still have a mega-budget theatrical offering to tout as a “big deal” when that movie arrives on Disney+. And, yes, folks spending money on Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is folks not spending money on non-Disney movies.

If the goal is market share, then even a box office disaster like the (as of now) $145 million-grossing Terminator: Dark Fate (which Fox/Disney is distributing outside of North America and China) helps the Mouse House. Between October 17 and December 25, Disney had/will have the second-biggest global grosser of the fall (between Joker and It Chapter Two), the two biggest global live-action flicks of the Thanksgiving season (Terminator: Dark Fate and Fox’s Ford v Ferrari, unless Doctor Sleep pulls a Conjuring for Warner Bros.), the biggest toon of Thanksgiving (Frozen II) and Christmas (Spies in Disguise) and presumably the biggest movie of the post-summer calendar (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). At least for the end of 2019, Disney’s acquisition of Fox will allow it to totally control market share.
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Still talking about cameras and still not mentioning it's star.





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Wednesday, October 30, 2019



 

Random

Rønning had previously cited the "privilege to be working with the legendary Michelle Pfeiffer" and "the great @ellefanning" and now cites the "Amazing cast," but still no specific mention of Maleficent herself.  In the only other set photo he posted of the two of them to celebrate "How it feels to have the #1 movie in the world" he did not mention her.  In fact, he has never mentioned her by name.  It isn't clear if relations between them were already strained during filming.  He had said he thought her lipstick in the first Maleficent was too red and they had "hours and hours" of discussions on what shade to use, the angle of her horns, etc  It was a total and unnecessary waste of time given that the audience already knows and likes Maleficent's appearance from the first.  Instead of focusing on how best to tell the new story, he was arguing over details that were long settled and best left to others.  This was reflected in his direction which missed the forest for the trees.  

A Disney employee tweeted: "Regardless of how it does, I’m still v thrilled to watch this film that #AngelinaJolie worked & pushed so hard to mold into its best shape possible in spite of all the hardships & over bearing men."  It might be one man in particular since she obviously loves working with Disney and Disney loves her.  From the lengthy debate over the shade of Maleficent's lipstick, Angelina had to battle for every inch past Rønning's focus on minutiae instead of the storytelling.  When Rønning gave an anatomy of the pivotal dinner scene to VF, he talked more about how they rigged and positioned the cameras instead of providing further insight into the critical interactions around the table and what they signified.  This was symptomatic of his fatal flaw as a director -- he is not a good storyteller and shows little interest in the story.   His singular focus was on the visuals but instead of enhancing and providing greater clarity to the story, he muddled it.  Angelina had to work and push so the story she and Linda Woolverton worked on could shine through.  It is the story that audiences connected with.  The unrelentingly dark trailers did not hint enough at the feel-good story at the heart of the film that would have attracted more families to see it. 
 
Disney's choice to direct the first Maleficent was Robert Stromberg who won 2 Oscars as an art director but had never directed before.  The thinking apparently was they had a strong script and only needed someone who could conjure up a magical world.  Disney found what he submitted to them problematic and CCO and co-Chair Alan Horn reportedly personally recut Maleficent. But if Angelina had any creative differences with Stromberg, it didn't show as she posed with hm and his family at the premiere.  In the London press con for MMoE, she said he "had made a beautiful film."

Rønning was also Disney's choice and MMoE is similarly the first film he directed on his own without his directing partner, Espen Sandberg   His previous films including Pirates OTC Dead Men Tell No Tales and Kon Tiki were all done alongside Sandberg.  In a battle of unproven directors, Stromberg's M had better reviews than Rønning's MMoE -- 53% to 40%.  There was not enough time to rework MMoE the way they did with M since its release was advanced from May 2020 to October 2019.  Based on his propensity for needless debate, Rønning was also more intransigent than Stromberg.  A manifestation of the rocky relationship between Rønning and Angelina is they never stood next to or even near each other at any premiere or press con -- highly unusual for a director and his principal star.  As noted previously, she was cold and evasive when asked about him during the London press con, avoiding any comment about him or his work.
 
It was Disney's decision to go with two inexperienced directors to helm the two Maleficents so they don't have to look far to assign responsibility for the problems both films had.  If they had chosen better, proven directors,  they would have had better films, better critical reception, better box office receipts.


-- Fussy











HOLLYWOOD, CA - MAY 28: Actress Angelina Jolie (L) and director Robert Stromberg attend the World Premiere of Disney's "Maleficent", starring Angelina Jolie, at the El Capitan Theatre on May 28, 2014 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
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Monday, October 28, 2019





Estimate was $18.5M.  Again coming in close to $1M above estimates.  A good 2nd weekend hold of - 47.5%, Sat. and Sun. down just 40.75%.  It retains the #1 spot since Joker's actual is $19.24M. Bragging rights are very important for MMoE in its 2nd week to convince people it is worth seeing in theaters and make up for the ineffective prior marketing. It will take a few more days for MMoE to equal M's opening weekend.   It may make up lost ground by having a longer run with less competition.


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Sunday, October 27, 2019




MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL

After an international debut that was at the low end of expectations last week, Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil had a good hold of -43% and with families turning up during the midweeks. The overseas weekend was worth $64.3M for an offshore cume of $228.1M and a global tally of $293.5M to date.

Europe held well with France down just 10%, the Netherlands -11%, Poland and Russia off 35%, and the UK and Germany dipping 36%.

Asia/Pacific, excluding China, has grossed $98M regionally while China, which performed solidly in the midweeks, dipped 61% for a $42M cume through Sunday. Also of note, MMOE is now the all-time highest grossing Disney Live Action release in Thailand.

Latin America as an overall region dropped by just 37%, holding No. 1s in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Central America, Venezuela and Paraguay. 

Overall, Maleficent 2, while not casting a mega-spell, has passed the lifetime cume of the original in Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina, Russia, India and China (unadjusted).
The Top 5 are China ($42M), Russia ($21.2M), Mexico ($15.1M), Brazil ($10.1M) and France ($9.9M).




Random

I think the clip above captures the feel of MMoE better than the other clips and trailers they released which focused heavily on the dark scenes and didn't make it look like a fun fairy tale for the whole family.  As Deadline pointed out, the film's marketing failed to effectively sell the film and show how it was different from the first.  That may be among the issues a Disney employee alluded to in her tweet: "Regardless of how it does, I’m still v thrilled to watch this film that #AngelinaJolie worked & pushed so hard to mold into its best shape possible in spite of all the hardships & over bearing men."  Angelina was very cool when asked why she wanted to work with Rønning at the London press con.  She clarified it was Disney who was "very excited about Joachim."  She added it is "always interesting to work with different directors and have a new take on a film, since our first director made a beautiful film and then to see with new fresh eyes."  And with a shrug she quickly tossed the question over to the rest of the cast: "Does anybody else have thoughts on Joachim?"  She made no comment about his work or her experience working with him.  Linda Woolverton had praised Angelina, "She’s a really multi-talented individual. She isn’t just all about being an actress. She really brings so much to the table."  Rønning described her as "Relentless."  He is undoubtedly one of the "over bearing men" who caused her "hardships" and by the time the film was released, their relationship was so strained she did not want to stand beside him on any red carpet or public appearance.  The general audience connected with MMoE's story and message which Woolverton said she and Angelina worked on together.  With over 11K ratings, MMoE's audience score remains at 95% and is its source of strength.  The critics on the other hand looked at the storytelling -- and felt it did not work enough to support the cast or the visuals.  Angelina probably agreed.  More verified accounts raved about OUATIH and Ad Astra than MMoE.  If there is an M3, it will have a new director -- probably a female director -- not necessarily Angelina.


-- Fussy








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Friday, October 18, 2019




By Tracy Brown Digital Editor
Oct. 18, 2019 12:27 PM

...But the big revelation in “Mistress of Evil” is that Maleficent is not the only one of her kind. The film introduces the dark fey, who have all been living in exile from the human world, and digs further into Maleficent’s origins.
Among the new dark fey introduced are Conall (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Borra (Ed Skrein), two leader figures of their community. Visually, the dark fey are a stark contrast to the various CGI fairies that populate the Moors. And they also look distinct from one another.
“As a civilization, they are very, very diverse,” said costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, who explained that the dark fey’s backstory informed how their different looks were developed.

Because one of the underlying themes of the “Maleficent” franchise is “man versus nature,” it was important for Rønning that the production’s team look to nature in crafting the dark fey and their civilization. And they were struck by a surprising source of inspiration while working at Jolie’s house.
“We were working on the script at her house together with the screenwriters,” said Rønning. “We were trying to crack the code to the dark fey because we wanted to have different factions.
“And then, one of [Jolie’s] younger daughters came in the kitchen one day. She had done a school project about biomes that you find in nature,” explained the filmmaker. “She had made this board with pictures of the different biomes, and we all just looked at each other like, ‘Brilliant, we have the different factions of nature here.’ That was a huge breakthrough for us.”
From there, the four different kinds of dark fey that are shown in the movie were born: The tundra fey, the forest fey, the jungle fey and the desert fey. These four different factions are as visually distinct as the environments they are based on.
The desert fey have wings with colors that evoke their environment, and wear things that appear bleached and rough and cracked. The tundra fey are all ice, with a palette of white and blues and grays. Green and wood are what inspired the looks of the forest fey, while the jungle fey aesthetic was all about endless colors.
“What I really hoped to achieve in terms of the entirety of the dark fey and their costuming was that you not really notice the costuming that much,” said Mirojnick. “Because they’re a species that all have to look organic, and not ‘costume designed.’”

Additionally, they had to consider the dark fey’s wings and their ability to fly with every design.
“You would look at something and say, ‘Do you believe that will go up in the air? Will that fly?’” said Mirojnick.
Production designer Patrick Tatopoulos explained that they had actually developed a full backstory for the dark fey to help explain their different looks as well as why they are all living in exile on an island. This includes the idea that the dark fey all originated in one place — their own version of the Cradle of Humankind.
“We had such a backstory for this and it’s not all necessarily revealed in the movie,” said Tatopoulos. “Their original world was that island. The island exploded, like a giant volcano, so they left many, many thousands of years ago and moved around the world, to different parts of the world, different climates. … But they’d been tracked and trapped by people through the centuries and they came back to their original island.”
This history helped guide the design of the island that Maleficent briefly explores during the film, and how the various factions of the dark fey re-created their different home environments.
Both Tatopoulos and Rønning explained that these details were very important to Jolie. As creatures that have been forced out of their homelands, the dark fey are essentially a band of refugees. Their backstory requires care and adds another dimension to the movie’s overall story.
Although the movie alludes to some of these elements, most of the dark fey’s backstory is not explicitly addressed during “Mistress of Evil” since the focus is on Maleficent actually meeting her kind for the first time.
“Sometimes you come up on backstories that are just here for us, the people working on the movie, to understand what we’re doing, and you don’t necessarily need or have the opportunity to reveal all of it,” said Tatopoulos. “But it’s fun. It’s one of the funnest things in the design world.”



Collider: This character seems like it’s so much fun to play. Did you have some idea that you would get to revisit him, or was it a surprise to you?
SAM RILEY: It was kind of a surprise ‘cause so much time had passed since the last film. My dad was convinced that they would do a sequel, at some point. We were looking online at box office figures and everything, and he definitely thought that, at some point, it was gonna happen. I was really thrilled, to be honest. I’ve never done a sequel before. I hadn’t been killed off, in the first one, so it was possible. I enjoyed the first one, but I was just beginning to really enjoy, when it was all over, with my anxiety and my fear of the whole thing. So, this time, I was happy to be able to go back and just enjoy it. 
At what point did you realize that there actually was going to be a sequel? How far ahead did they call and tell you?
RILEY: It wasn’t a whole lot before. There wasn’t a massive amount of notice, which was quite surprising. My dad was like, “I can feel it, it’s gonna be this summer. This is happening. Angie will probably wanna do a movie.” I was like, “Dad, you have no idea.” He works in the textile industry, by the way. So, I rang my agent and was like, “My dad’s convinced that they’re gonna do the sequel. Have you heard anything?” And they were like, “Well, funnily enough, Disney did ask about your availability.” So, there wasn’t a lot of notice, but I was available.
Since he does get to come into his own a little bit, were you surprised at the direction that Diaval takes in this?
RILEY: Yeah. Angelina is more influential than I am, but we both enjoyed what we were starting to work out, in the first one, with the idea that they were bickering with one another, and that he also really does know where her heart lies and can see past her angry sorceress front. So, we talked about what’s been happening, in the last six years, and how we’ve become the mother and father of Aurora, to some extent, but that the two of them are still bickering with one another, like an old married couple. That’s a lot of fun to play with anyone, but it’s great fun to play with her, obviously.
What have you enjoyed about that relationship, and about sharing that with Angelina Jolie?
RILEY: I’m a huge fan of Angelina Jolie, as so many people are. When she comes on set, I still go, “Fuck, it’s Angelina Jolie! Wow!” With the horns, especially. But, she’s really lovely. We get on really well. We got on well, the last time, but we got on even better, this time. And I never really get to play comedy, in my career. I’ve been pigeonholed more as the dark, troubled characters, or psychopaths, so that was nice. I really enjoyed being silly. And she has great ideas. (Director) Joachim [Rønning] let us mess around, a little bit. We knew that it was going to get quite dark and serious, so we wanted to make sure that there were also some playful moments.
Did you ever get disappointed that you didn’t get some of the wild hair and make-up and prosthetics that some of your co-stars had, or were you fine with not having to go through that for hours?
RILEY: I actually had a lot of hair make-up. In the first movie, I had some of the most because I had a whole chest piece. But my nose wasn’t real, there were scars, and a wig. I still had two and a half hours, or so, in make-up. It was worse in the first film, so I was really happy to not be one of the dark fae. When I saw my pick-up time, it would be five in the morning, but then I’d see 1:30am for the dark fae, who had to sit for six hours to get make-up, and then be ready to start work at seven. So, I was happy. I was working with the same people that did it last time, so we we’re friends and would just chat away. What I’ve learned, in the years in this business, in my experience, is that there can be long periods of time without work. I’ve had that, in the last 10 or 12 years, as an actor. So, I don’t see being in make-up for two and a half hours. I’m grateful to be working. There are worse things. I’ve had real jobs before. 
Do you think Diaval wishes he could just go off on his own, or does he love bickering with Maleficent too much?
RILEY: I think he’s in love with her. That will be Maleficent 3. Otherwise, why would you stay, unless it’s sort of submissive thing. I think he just likes it.
It’s funny that he finds himself in the middle of this big battle that he didn’t ask to be a part of, and he has to save people. 
RILEY: And he’s not really the butch guy. He’s happy that he can be there to help, in the moment that he is there. He loves Aurora and he wants the wedding to go ahead. He sees how happy she is. But he has no idea what’s going on, when all of the other characters turn up.
How cool was it to be on such incredibly elaborate sets?
RILEY: A lot of it was practical. I’ve done really low budget films, and medium size ones. I love the whole process of being on a set, and all of the people coming together, and to witness something on that scale is really exciting to watch. It’s like herding cats, sometimes. Sometimes you’re just like, “How the fuck are we gonna do this? There’s a hundred extras.” There were so many dark fae. At one point, I saw a group of 200 people in one corner and they weren’t in costume. I was like, “Who are they?” They were the make-up artists because every one of the fae needed three make-up artists. I don’t even know how any other film was being shot in England, on that day, because every make-up artist in the country was there. It blows your mind, that stuff.
And with all of that going on, your director had to keep everything straight, in his head.
RILEY: Yeah. Joachim did an incredible job of keeping track of it. On the last days, everybody who was in the movie was there, so you’re dealing with a lot of actors and a lot of questions, not only from the actors, but from every single department. And then, there are all of the things that aren’t there. And there are the things that you have to change. You have to roll with it.
Did you have a moment on set, where things just felt so surreal that you couldn’t believe this is your life?
RILEY: On this one, there were many times like that. We shot the banquet scene over 10 days. You tell a friend what you’re doing, and it’s pretty nuts. They’ll say, “What are you doing today?,” and you say, “Well, we’re shooting a scene with Michelle Pfeiffer and Angelina Jolie.” It was very fun. Every day was pretty extraordinary.













#Maleficent 2 is playing in theaters 🎭 First of all, to Angie, Thank you for having me on your journey. You always inspire me and I’ve been learning tons from you. Such an honor to fly with you and see how you put your passion toward your creation with a strong message to deliver. Big big respect as always.🙏🏻🙏🏻😌💯And of course awesome @joachimronning and all the professional and sweet cast and film crew, it was surreal to be on set and work with you guys as a team with an important mission. (Big up to Tundra!!!!🙌🏻x1000) And... Team UDO!!!!! Big appreciation to your hard work every single day, putting makeup on my face while I’m dozing off on the chair (That was an absolutely brilliant invention to put gaff tape on my head with the chair so that my head doesn’t move while I was sleeping 😴) Thanks to you guys, it was always so much fun filled with laughter and smiles. Thank you so much, sending big love to you all. Everyone, please get your ticket and check it out at the theatre. And don’t forget to find yours truly as a white dark fey ☝🏻☝🏻🧝🏻‍♂️💙 マレフィセント２、公開されました！ディズニーならではの素晴らしい映像美とストーリー🎬そして作品に込められたメッセージ。ちょっぴりですが参加できて光栄でした！現場でも沢山のことを学ばせていただきました🙌🏻アンジー姉さんはじめ最高のキャスト＆クルーに感謝です🙏🏻皆さん、是非、劇場で白い妖精を探してみてね 🧝🏻‍♂️ #マレフィセント
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