🍿 2022-06-03 17:01:47 – Paris/France.
Netflix's announcement of 'The Invisible Agent' is much more than an attempt to draw attention to its own productions after a first quarter of around horrible: drop in subscribers, unpopular announcements (advertising, capture of multi-accounts and, so far, unsuccessful attempts to block them) and unflattering forecasts for the next quarter. With the Russo Brothers movie, they want to turn things around, but moving such a heavy boulder with just one point of support requires a truly colossal Archimedes.
'The invisible agent' as spearhead. We had already analyzed it at the time: the 200 million budget for this film is only the tip of the iceberg. Not only (as seen in the trailer) do they shine with far more intensity than similarly priced Netflix productions, such as "Red Alert", but their cast and crew are a statement of intent.
That is, they lead the Russos, responsible for 'The Winter Soldier', 'Civil War', 'Avengers: Infinity War' and 'Avengers: Endgame'. Chris Evans stars as Captain America. And they script Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, responsible for all of Marvel's Russo movies and many more in the Disney franchise. On top of that, they're based on a series of clearly serializable bestsellers by Mark Greaney.
“Bigger, less and better”. That is to say bigger, less and better. This is the goal of Netflix with its productions in feature film format for the coming months. These are orders from Scott Stuber, head of the film division, as revealed by 'The Hollywood Reporter' in an article on the platform's future films in which they provide data from "multiple sources".
At the moment, it is unclear exactly what this goal means. According to confidants of 'The Hollywood Reporter', there's always the goal of releasing original movies every week, so what about less of We will have to see how to interpret it. The general feeling is that we are not going to move on to a few $200 million films a year, but that two films with a $20 million budget can become a $40 million, which allows for more ambitious bets.
They still suffer the same way. Among the most ambitious decisions made by Netflix is the layoff of 150 employees or the permanent closure of creative departments such as independent original films (i.e. those costing less than $30 million), animation or home movies. With these last two, it is easy to detect Netflix's strategy: to avoid direct competition in an area where Disney reigns supreme.
However, this courtesy should be understood not as a way to avoid conflict, but as a strategy to win by avoiding head-on collision where Netflix knows it is losing. How will the platform compete with a giant who, two months after the release of a film that broke box office records, takes it to its turf, in what is no longer an exception, but a new normal? This is why we must understand “The invisible agent” also as a declaration of intentions; With the same resources (budget of 200 million, the Russos, Chris Evans) we are not making a family action film, but a film aimed at a more adult audience.
Black swallows will not return. What's clear is that Netflix ended up succumbing to the easiest creative route of all: relying on budgets, not innovation or personal products. Perhaps among these new Netflix projects, the worst thing that has affected the film community is that productions bearing the seal of an author such as "The Irishman" by Scorsese or "Roma" by Alfonso Cuarón have been described as vanity projects.
“This tendency to do everything to attract artists and to give them carte blanche is disappearing,” the article quotes. That is to say, there are no more auteur films on Netflix, as limited as this concept is within the platform, and the big productions are coming out of the offices, with distributions to perfection algorithmic and absolutely no splinters to lay. Netflix has definitely become what it intended to be from the start: a major Hollywood production company.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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