Tag Archives: The Irishman

Netflix’s 2021 Release Plan: after 42 Globe Noms, 71 New Releases Coming

Video February 4, 2021 Madison Santel

Aggressive release schedule for 2021continues…

At the beginning of the year, Netflix dropped a beautiful and major bombshell, that they will be premiering a brand new movie every week of 2021. That means, thee will be appropxiately, it appears, upwards of 71 new movies with all the various genres covered! (action, sequels, dramas, musicals and more).

If you are not new to the platform, 2021 is streaming gold for Netflix (with 42 total Golden Globe nominations). With Bridgerton, Lupin, The Dig, Below Zero, Night Stalker and we are only barely into February.

Streaming is looking like a permanently dominant dissemination method for visual content going forward, as, in addition to Netflix, HBOmax is getting all of the WB theatrical slate based on the initial North American debut schedule, while Disney is going full bore with a string of Star Wars and Marvel spin offs. A slew of books are also getting film treatment including best selling titles: The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window, Munich, The Last Letter from Your Lover.

Below are some of the upcoming releases with trailers for the next two months:

MALCOLM & MARIE:

Sam Levinson teams up with Zendaya and John David Washington for an achingly romantic drama in which a filmmaker (Washington) and his girlfriend (Zendaya) return home following a celebratory movie premiere as he awaits what’s sure to be imminent critical and financial success. The evening suddenly takes a turn as revelations about their relationships begin to surface, testing the strength of their love. Working with cinematographer Marcell Rev, Levinson creates a film of rare originality; an ode to the great Hollywood romances as well as a heartfelt expression of faith in the medium’s future.

THE DIG:

As WWII looms, a wealthy widow (Carey Mulligan) hires an amateur archaeologist (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain’s past are illuminated in the face of its uncertain future.

BELOW ZERO:

A Spanish gritty action thriller movie (Bajocero) that has English voice-over features is set when a prisoner transfer van is attacked. The cop, Martin, who is in charge must fight those inside and outside while dealing with a silent foe: surviving the icy temperatures.

NIGHT STALKER

This historical limited series is a documentary that follows the young detective Gil Carrillo and legendary homicide investigator Frank Salerno as they work expeditiously to catch the “Night Stalker”. Beneath the sunlit glamour of 1985 LA lurks a relentlessly evil serial killer. In this true-crime story, two detectives won’t rest until they catch Richard Ramirez, who was eventually arrested for his terrible crimes.

I CARE A LOT:

A crooked legal guardian who drains the savings of her elderly wards meets her match when a woman she tries to swindle turns out to have equally shady ties of her own. Starring Rosamund Pike, Eiza Gonzalez, Dianne Wiest, Peter Dinklage, Chris Messina, and Isaiah Whitlock Jr.

PENGUIN BLOOM

Penguin Bloom tells the true story of Sam Bloom (Naomi Watts), a young mother whose world is turned upside down after a near-fatal accident leaves her unable to walk. Sa m’s husband, (Andrew Lincoln), her three young boys and her mother (Academy Award-nominated Jacki Weaver), are struggling to adjust to their new situation when an unlikely ally enters their world in the form of an injured baby magpie they name Penguin. The bird’s arrival is a welcome distraction for the Bloom family, eventually making a profound difference in the family’s life.

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

A bright city, a dull morning and a curious girl on the train. When a voyeuristic divorcee fixates on the lives of a perfect couple from afar, she soon gets embroiled in a murder mystery that unfolds revealing truths about her own life. Get on board a thrilling experience with Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Rao Hydari, Kirti Kulhari and Avinash Tiwary. Catch Ribhu Dasgupta’s The Girl On The Train on 26th February, only on Netflix.

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Entertainment, Movies

Golden Globes: Netflix Dominates and Apple TV+ makes Big Debut as Streaming still Shines

December 14, 2019 Madison Santel

Streaming is now Fully Integrated into Hollywood Awards System…

After Netflix’s “Roma” earned ten nominations at last years Academy Awards and took home three Oscars, director Stephen Spielberg came out with some controversial statements about streaming content’s questionable eligibility for cinematic awards. Ever since the esteemed director made these comments, streaming services have become an increasingly divisive topic in the film industry—especially as most of them are transitioning towards creating more in-house productions.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), however, clearly does not see an issue in recognizing streaming platforms for creating excellent content. On December 9th, the HFPA released its nominations for the 77th Golden Globes and a number of the most picked out titles came from streaming companies.

In the Best Picture categories, Netflix reigned supreme, with its original movies adding up to four of the ten nominees. In the Musical/Comedy category, Craig Brewer’s “Dolemite Is My Name” received a nomination alongside “Jojo Rabbit,” “Knives Out,” “Rocketman,” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” Meanwhile, in the Drama category, Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and Fernando Meirelles “The Two Popes” were all nominated alongside “Joker” and “1917.”

Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” actually led the entire race with more nominations than any other title. It received six nominations including Best Drama Motion Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern), Best Actor in a Drama Motion Picture (Adam Driver), Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture (Scarlett Johannson), and Best Original Score (Randy Newman).

The movie just narrowly beat out Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” which earned five nominations including Best Drama Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Steven Zaillian) and two for Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci and Al Pacino). Oddly enough, leading man Robert De Niro did not earn recognition for his performance in the film.

Regardless, both are Netflix titles, and with them leading the nominations by the numbers, it makes Netflix the most recognized production company in the runnings. Obviously, the streaming service’s newfound focus on producing prestigious content is paying off in a critical sense, and Spielberg’s comments have not slowed it down on the road to success.

Stars of “The Morning Show” from Apple TV+

New Kid on the Block Hits Pay-dirt on first Try

Meanwhile, Apple TV+ also received three nominations for its original series “The Morning Show”—one for Best Drama TV Series and two for Best Actress in a Drama Television Series (Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, both of whom are also executive producers on the show).

“The Morning Show” debuted just over a month ago on November 1st, the same day that Apple TV+ launched. While the new service may not be as popular as Disney+ or Amazon, it is the first streaming website to receive recognition from the HFPA in its first year online. This bodes well for the young platform’s future.

Other direct-to-streaming shows that received nominations this year include Hulu’s “Catch-22,” Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and Netflix’s “Unbelievable,” “The Crown,” “The Kominsky Method,” and “The Politician.” And that’s not including all of the individual actors, actresses, composers, and songwriters who also got nominated.

Clearly, streaming is dominating television nowadays, but if this year’s Golden Globes are any indication, it is also starting to leave a mark on film. This recognition is good news for both Apple and Netflix. With the recent oversaturation of options causing a streaming war within the entertainment market right now, awards will start to mean a lot more than they did in the past. Everything else aside, at least these two companies are not skimping on quality.

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Entertainment, Movies, Tech

Netflix Aiming for Prestige to Combat Debt as Streaming War Brings Extreme Competition

November 10, 2019 Madison Santel

Can this Digital GrandDaddy Stay Relevant as Disney+, Apple TV+ and more enter the Fray?

For years, Netflix has been pointed to as the premiere streaming service and the foremost company responsible for popularizing watching content online instead of on a television or movie screen. It has earned a spot alongside Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google as one of the most influential companies in the world of 21^st century technology and entertainment—being the N in the notorious acronym FAANG.

Recently, however, Netflix has been hitting some hard times. Its debt has been steadily increasing for a while and fewer companies are renewing their contracts with it, thus limiting the breadth of its library. Likewise, the launches of Disney+, HBO Max, NBCUniversal’s Peacock, and Apple+ are creeping closer and closer. When these new streaming services become available, their parent companies will stop licensing content to Netflix, and they will bring about unprecedented competition.

While Netflix has slowly been increasing its amount of original content over the years, its most popular offerings remain properties from outside sources. As it has been for a couple years now, the two most watched programs on Netflix are “The Office” and “Friends.” In fact, one has to go pretty far down the list before finding a Netflix original among company’s most popular shows.

Once the streaming war begins, though, Netflix will lose many of these licensed-out titles. Originally airing on NBC, “The Office” will be available exclusively on Peacock. Likewise, being a Warner Brother’s television production, “Friends” will find its new streaming home on HBO Max. Netflix will thus be in a pickle, as they will have fewer titles in their libraries and fewer active deals with pre-established studios and networks.

Nevertheless, Netflix is responding to the impending streaming war with surprising optimism. The company’s CEO, Reed Hastings has expressed feelings of confidence, explaining how the increased competition will force Netflix to be creative and improve its model.

Content is, once again, Key in a Competitive Market

Creativity will be the key to success in the streaming war, as original content will largely determine which platforms outlast the others. Netflix has certainly been upping its original content game throughout 2018 and 2019. On the series side, season three of “Stranger Things” broke records for the company, and the innovative “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” introduced the choose-your-own-adventure model to television and garnered a Primetime Emmy win in the process.

Likewise, ever since Alfonso Cuaron’s 2018 Netflix original film “Roma” earned several Oscar nominations—including wins for best director and best foreign film, and a nomination for best picture—Netflix has been seen as a far more legitimate production company, worthy of immense talent and prestigious content. To an extent, Netflix has ran with this new reputation in 2019, creating Steven Soderbergh’s “The Laundromat” starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas, as well as Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci.

It is a bold strategy for Netflix, but it seems like the company is going for prestige as its new brand. When the streaming war takes place, one of the things Disney, Warner Brothers, and NBC have that Netflix currently lacks is an identifiable brand-type. For the majority of streaming history, a subscription to a service simply meant that you were paying for a smorgasbord of content that could range all different genres and cater to diverse tastes. Now that streaming services and production companies are merging into one entity, subscribing becomes a far more divisive strategy based on brand recognition.

In order for Netflix to remain afloat, they will need to sell themselves as offering something not available anywhere else. For years creative and business-minded people have scratched their heads trying to figure out what kind of content Netflix desires. Perhaps this prestigious trend brings us closer to an answer.

Nevertheless, Netflix has also employed a couple other strategies to keep itself moving through 2019. It has dug into some preexisting intellectual properties and expanded upon them. Recently, it re-capitalized on “Breaking Bad” with Vince Gilligan’s “El Camino” taking place in the same universe as the show. Meanwhile, it also exploited 1990s nostalgia by producing original movies based off of old Nickelodeon cartoon shows “Rocko’s Modern Life” and “Invader Zim.”

Therefore, Netflix’s playbook remains mysterious. Unlike other web-based companies of its caliber, Netflix keeps its data private. So while there are guesses and estimates about trends in Netflix’s model, it is quite possible that the company has a few unseen tricks still hidden up its sleeve. Only time will tell if Netflix will find a way to keep up with the competition, or if the service will go down as an immensely influential, yet tragically short-lived blip in entertainment history.