Free Guy filmmaker Shawn Levy has been making the press rounds of late for his new Ryan Reynolds movie, and the director-producer spoke to Collider about renegotiating deals for theatrical features that become content for streamers, which can happen for a variety of reasons, including market forces that are really beyond anyone's control.
This subject has, of course, been in the news of late. There's certainly a lot to be said about Scarlett Johansson's recent lawsuit against Disney, which alleges that the studio interfered with her Marvel contract by offering a day-and-date hybrid release of Black Widow in theaters and via Premier Access on Disney+, thereby costing her up to $50 million in pre-negotiated bonuses tied to the film's box office haul. While Levy did not address Johansson's situation specifically, he noted that he's in a similar position himself at the moment.
See, Levy owns and operates 21 Laps Entertainment, the production company behind the hit Netflix shows Stranger Things and Shadow and Bone as well as the Night at the Museum movies and acclaimed films such as The Spectacular Now and Denis Villeneuve's Best Picture nominee Arrival. Levy and his team at 21 Laps are also producing WB's upcoming Sesame Street movie, which is slated to star Oscar winner Anne Hathaway.
Now, I wouldn't blame you if you'd forgotten about that project, which has had a real rollercoaster ride the last few years, especially for a movie based on one of the most beloved IPs of all time. Levy offered an update on where Sesame Street stands these days, which is what prompted his comments about renegotiating contracts. Here's the backstory...
"We were about to make it the first time and Anne got pregnant. We were about to make it the second time in [the] spring of 2020, and COVID shut us down. We now are still at Warner Brothers, and Warner Brothers, as we all know, is a very different landscape now. They're pushing a lot of their content towards HBO Max. So we are figuring out the path forward and whether it will be a streaming gambit only [or] whether it will be a hybrid, and just kind of trying to claw our way back to a new iteration of a greenlight," explained Levy.
So again, Sesame Street is still a theatrical-only Warner Bros. movie as of this moment. But as Levy noted, the situation is pretty fluid. And that's where things get interesting, because if the Sesame Street movie shifts over to WB's sister streamer HBO Max then its entire financial forecast changes, which obviously impacts contracts.
"Funnily enough, the call I had today was about, well, 'what's your willingness?' and my answer to that. I mean, look, we had to redo our deal on pretty much everything, right? Like everything you do for a streamer, contrary to the controversy that is very much in the news right now, in my experience, these deals are remade upfront. So in cases like we're reading about now, where they weren't necessarily remade in a way that's deemed equitable and fair, I understand that gets messy," said Levy.
"For us, if it's a movie that we developed as a theatrical feature and we're making it for the streamer, we have to remake that deal. And what that means is that Hulu is a little different than Netflix, and a little different than Disney+ and Amazon. And frankly, I think all these companies are trying to figure out a structure that's fair and that rewards the people who would have participated in the theatrical revenue in the absence of theatrical revenue," added the producer, who knows a thing or two about this already seeing as his next movie with Reynolds moved from Paramount to Netflix.
If Levy's 21 Laps banner -- as well as likely backend participants Hathaway and director Jonathan Krisel -- is able to come to terms with HBO Max and find a metric that both sides are comfortable measuring "backend" bonuses by, I would expect the Sesame Street movie to move forward pretty quickly. Levy agreed and seemed generally confident that they'd be able to work things out, as that kind of children's film just makes too much sense not to try. In fact, it may even flourish on HBO Max without the weight of big box office expectations.
Chance the Rapper is expected to co-star in the Sesame Street movie, which will feature original songs by Bo Burnham, whose Netflix special Inside was something of a quarantine masterpiece. As for Free Guy, the video game movie is getting strong reviews, and it will be released exclusively in theaters on Aug. 13.
Steven Weintraub contributed to this report.
