In case you haven’t heard, there are a couple of strikes going on in Hollywood, and it’s suddenly not so easy for movies to get made.
The trickle-down effect of the SAG-AFTRA strike has meant that actors with big projects to promote for the fall movie season suddenly can’t walk the red carpet, disrupting big plans around the corner. In the most prominent example, the Venice Film Festival lost its opening night entry “Challengers” once it became clear that star Zendaya wouldn’t be available to promote the commercial release, which has now been punted to April 2024.
Nevertheless: We have a fall movie season! On Monday, TIFF announced a robust selection for its galas and special presentations lineup, and followed that up a few days later with its documentary selection and the new Hayao Miyazaki movie as its opening night. Venice also dropped its selection, which has many of the big guns expected to make an impact on awards season, from Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” to Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” which will serve as the closing night of NYFF.
All of which means that there will be major filmmakers and buzzy movies making the rounds very soon. In this week’s episode of Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson delve into a busy week of fall lineups — including the hot-button subject of new work from Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, and Luc Busson — and what to make of its potential. They also look at the recent box office success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” now that the Barbenheimer phenomenon is in full swing.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
