Film News Roundup: Women Moviegoers Show Support for ‘Aquaman,’ ‘Venom’
By Dave McNary
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – In today’s film news roundup, female moviegoers are most excited to see “Aquaman,” Matt Jackson starts his own company, and a Columbian thriller is getting a Korean remake.
SURVEY
“,” “Venom,” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” are the upcoming movies that female moviegoers are most excited to see, according to a survey by Atom Tickets.
The online ticket seller announced the results Friday in celebration and support of Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26, and launched a digital and social media campaign to promote Women’s Equality Day with a ticketing offer of half off a movie ticket for first-time buyers.
The results were based on an Aug. 23 survey of 10,000 women who are “frequent moviegoers.” “Night School” was ranked as the most-anticipated comedy title in the survey. Women ranked their favorite genre as action/adventure, followed by comedy and sci-fi/fantasy.
An overwhelming number of women (90%) said they prefer to see a female and male duo in the movies rather than an all-male or all-female cast. The survey showed that 40% of women are still not satisfied with how females are portrayed in blockbusters and that 95% would like to see more women in filmmaking careers such as directing, producing, or writing.
The survey showed that 12% of women prefer seeing content created by female filmmakers, while the majority of respondents said they don’t have a preference.
“Aquaman” opens on Dec. 21 while “” launches on Oct. 5 and “Fantastic Beasts” debuts Nov. 16.
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Veteran producer Matt Jackson will launch Jackson Pictures, which will maintain a first look agreement with Entertainment One.
Jackson has been head of film at the Mark Gordon Company and was a producer on “Molly’s Game,” “End of Watch,” and “Southside With You.” eOne’s Joanne Lee will also join Jackson Pictures as vice president.
Mark Gordon, eOne’s president and chief content officer, said, “Matt is a talented executive who helped us build a diverse slate of films at a critical point in The Mark Gordon Company’s trajectory before we were fully acquired by eOne. I appreciate his contributions and look forward to working alongside him as an independent producer on future films.”
Prior to joining MGC, Jackson led development and production at IM Global as the president of production, where he produced “The Journey,” starring Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Freddie Highmore and John Hurt; and “The Secret in their Eyes,” and starring Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Chiwetel Ejiofor. He also executive produced Gary Ross’ “Free State of Jones,” starring Matthew McConaughey.
PROJECT LAUNCHED
Los Angeles-based Ivanhoe Pictures, an SK Global company, has partnered with Next Entertainment World to produce a Korean-language remake of the Spanish-language Colombian psychological thriller “The Hidden Face.”
Ivanhoe and NEW will co-finance, co-develop, and co-produce the local-language film, aiming for an early 2019 production start. The original feature centered on a young man who may be involved in his girlfriend’ smysterious disappearance,
Ivanhoe Pictures’ recent films include “Crazy Rich Asians.” Ivanhoe’s upcoming projects include the three-part series “Ghoul” for Netflix India and the Spanish-language feature “La Caja,” developed in partnership with Mexico City-based Lucia Films.
Next Entertainment World started out as a film investment and domestic distribution company in 2008.
