Jennifer Salke Amazon Sundance Selfie who won Brittany Runs A Marathon

As part of an unprecedented deal between the Sundance Film Festival and a single distributor, Amazon Studios has given the best indication of its cinematographic future by paying a record $ 50 million worth for five films. The avalanche of the acquisition began with the first big pact of the party Late at night (save $ 13 million for US rights). In a few days, Amazon has bought Brittany runs a marathon ($ 14 million for global rights), The report ($ 14 million for global rights), Honey Boy ($ 5 million) and A child nation. He could have obtained a sixth, the award-winning documentary at the Festival Favorite Award Shoot down the house, who went for a record $ 10 million to Netflix. But the decision was unfair because the film's heroine, Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, was also criticizing Amazon for its plans, since it had been abandoned, to put in place tax incentives to build a new building. headquartered in New York near his district.

"That could have been part of it, because we were engaged in this negotiation and then [the film] gone elsewhere, "said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. "We will always do what we think is best for Amazon Studios and our Prime customers, but yes, I'm not shocked at how things have gone, say things like that."

Despite this, and watching another movie, they are trying to win $ 6 million on A24 – the comedy directed by Lulu Wang. The farewell – Amazon Studios of Salke Studios, Ted Hope, Julie Rapaport, Matt Newman and Bob Berney spent a series of sleepless nights in Park City, Utah, putting unusually high sums on the table to bridge the gap between Past President, Jason Ropell. and Salke.

Sundance has always been a charm for Amazon: the company has bought The big patient and turned it into an escape success, and Manchester by the sea Casey Affleck for Best Actor and Kenneth Lonergan for Best Original Screenplay. There was also a noticeable failure: Amazon preempted the film scheduled for the Sundance 2018 opening night Life itself, and went out of the festival for a Toronto arc where he never recovered from a critical pounding.

Everyone at Sundance may have the impression that, in a year or two, when major studios begin to ingest finished documentary and narrative films for their streaming services, there will be an expanding market for sellers and filmmakers in festivals like Sundance. Amazon gave a glimpse of what it might look like, paying too much money for most traditional distributors.

Led by Jeff Bezos, a movie lover, Amazon Studios has unlimited capital to invest in content. But while Netflix has heavily invested and offers TV shows and movies in the light of the day to the week, the industry has been waiting for a clear picture of the giants of streaming technology like Amazon and Apple, which has made the subject of many rumors and should finally provide some clarification when it will unveil its catalog of OTT services around March 25.

Here, for the first time on the record of her film projects, Salke brings answers about the Sundance frenzy, as well as about the immediate and distant future of the films that will be screened by Berney or placed directly on the Amazon Prime service. And how to pay for generous minimum guarantees is a good deal when you sell theater tickets is as important as keeping customers subscribers to Amazon Prime, which also offers free shipping for paper towels, electronics, food for dogs and other products sold at retail by the conservative giant.

DEADLINE: Some old things to get out of the way. Woody Allen sued Amazon after canceling the deal struck by former head of Amazon Studios, Roy Price. There is a finished film, A Rainy Day in New York, starring Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning and Jude Law. Will we see this movie coming out this year?

Salke: We do not plan to release Woody Allen's films. Here are my two quotes on this: no Woody Allen release project, and I can not comment on what's going on in an ongoing dispute.

DEADLINE: You and your team assured me and the other journalists all night in Park City ….

Salke: I'm sorry for doing that. I did it myself too, which did not please me much. It was exciting but exhausting.

DEADLINE: Much better than some dark Sundance festivals we've seen in recent years when traditional distributors have been cautiously spending minimal warranties for fear of overpaying the next $ PattiCake. Have you been determined to make a statement?

Salke: No! I swear on everything that I consider sacred, there was no strategy or plan like that to do anything daring. We went knowing that if we saw things we liked and thought it would be great for Prime, we should jump on it. We arrived at the tail by announcing a direct service strategy that we find exciting, as well as the message that Ted [Hope] Julie Rapaport is working on the more commercial space, which broadens the openness to the kind of films we shoot. So, there was something strategic, that is, all systems could continue to acquire movies that fit in with this strategy.

DEADLINE: In your overall film strategy, how much do you expect to be prolific? For television, you have turned to the barriers with big commitments on The Lord of the Rings and other properties of series animated by stars. Similar ambitions here?

Salke: We always talk about 12 to 15 movies a year. In addition to the direct service strategy.

DEADLINE: So the account could double the numbers you mentioned?

Salke: Jason Blum's contract will be about eight films a year. There is also another category, which we call the sexy night, and Nicole Kidman started this idea with me. A week after starting work, I met her, and she was like, where are the movies like Primary instinct and Cruel Intentions and No Exit, which movies do you want to watch at home?
Now, she and a few other producers are working with us on a series of films that will go directly to service in this genre, and we are at the beginning of the YA genre, where I talk about partnering with some prolific producers in this region on a couple of movies each. I think you can look to that and then, in the theatrical release strategy, we were able to get as many options as possible, as to how we want to release these films.

DEADLINE: Do you see your Sundance movies getting traditional theatrical releases?

Salke: Yes. This story remains to be told about where all these films will fall, but we will also continue to light the green light of other films, and we have The aeronauts and other films coming out this year. Due to the transition, 2019 has been a bit of a dry year. So if you had to say that there was a strategy, in hindsight it would be that I'm so happy to have seen as many great movies as we could have for 19, so we do not have Would not have the standstill that could & # 39; were we, did we buy anything?

DEADLINE: Does this mean that this frenzy of chords was an aberration, or will you be so aggressive at future festivals?

Salke: We will be as aggressive as we wish in festivals, given the content we see. We do not think we'll ever do that again. As it happens, we have seen all these films and we have loved them. I've been to Sundance the other years, I will not name names, where I saw 10 movies I would never have bought. It was about the films we saw, the variety. Some movies felt a little more commercially viable than I thought, so I think that's really what made all the difference with Brittany runs a marathon and Late at night. But we also bid for L & # 39; farewell and we put a line, and we did not have that movie. And we also met on the documentary AOC, and we did not understand that. So it was not like we had thought, we will overpay everyone and get what we want.

DEADLINE: Let's look at these acquisitions. Late Night was the first big deal of the festival. The most paid in this country for a market only American. Describe the night and explain how your relationship with screenwriter and star Mindy Kaling has been beneficial, a relationship that dates back to your days at NBC and Office?

Salke: It was useful, and I have a relationship and a story with her from NBC, but no one showed me the movie in advance. I have not entered yet knowing that I was going to buy this movie. This is reminiscent of how my team and I would work on TV. If something incredible comes up and we listen to it on the couch and we feel we have to have it, we will argue to get it, whatever. We will set a limit, but we will intensify and compete, which we have done aggressively over the past year. No difference here. I felt really optimistic. I am a big fan of Mindy and Emma Thompson. The idea was that it would be a movie that would really appeal to our clientele. And having had a seat in the front row when she climbed the ladder of NBC and OfficeI also knew Mindy's inspiration, and I greatly appreciated her perspective as a stranger entering an established world and how she would be a catalyst for change. I have been living in Deer Valley, Park City for eight years. I am no stranger to Sundance and have seen a lot of movies here, just as a fan. I saw with my team and we watched the movie and we really enjoyed it. We were delighted. We were laughing. We were completely entertained. In the end, we all looked at each other and we thought it would be a very good movie for us. It started my first time in these unusual negotiations overnight to try to secure the movie for Amazon Prime. I was so excited when we prevailed.

DEADLINE: To be specific, when you say Amazon Prime, explain how you monetize an acquisition of this type. I've heard a lot of traditional prestige movie distributors who said that if we paid $ 13 million for this film, we had to support it with double that of P & A for a chance to succeed. You have the impression that your metrics and your goals are different.

Salke: Our goals are different. We examined this film thinking that the theatrical release would be a success for us. So it's not an obstacle, but some things you look at might be a little more disturbing. We felt, it's a great movie, one that I would really like to go see. And when I talk about Amazon Prime, it's for me the life of the film beyond and the fact that our customers will be able to watch it for years and years. We all know how competitive it is, whether in theaters or streaming. We are all competing to save time. I think this movie could live again and again and create an audience for something of high quality, we think it will do very well on the service.

DEADLINE: Then you bought The Report, the political thriller directed by Scott Burns. How is this adapted to the Amazon model?

Salke: We respected these creators and had met Steven Soderbergh. I had not met Scott yet, but we sat down to watch the movie and found it really convincing. We did not want to go down a single avenue. We wanted to make sure we had a variety of things that we liked. He offered us a lot of variety as to how we wanted to publish it, so we were very happy to participate. We loved the casting, the performance. When we got back to LA four days later, we had dinner with Steven and Scott. [Burns] and its producing partners. We thought that they would be an asset and a great partner for Amazon Studios and that the movie would also be very useful for us.

DEADLINE: And then you still hit with $ 14 million on Brittany Runs at Marathon.

Salke: I do not know if you saw any of these movies, but by the time I got there, I did not feel limited in the number of things we could jump into. I did not expect much from this movie. I was excited to see it, but it's not like I had any pre-existing relationships with any of these people, and I have not heard much about it. We went as fans and it was such a charming, emotional and fun movie. I think the star is a complete escape, Jillian Bell.

We just liked the authenticity of the voice. I was so amazed that a man wrote and directed it. I met him and we had a great meeting of minds about it. I thought our audience would really like it, and part of it was geared towards the premium audience and felt that the female premium subscriber and moviegoers were desperate for truly authentic, emotional content, relatable and really well executed.

And then, we were told that we did not understand it.

DEADLINE: Explain.

Salke: On the Britain thing, I was so passionate about the movie. We were all. We sat literally in front of them, in one of those rental homes in Park City, and we understood why we thought Amazon was home to it. I learned things about my team that I had never known, as if Matt Newman had lost 50 pounds in running years ago. There was a connection with the material, even from people you might not have expected. At the end of the night, I had to go home very late and they called to tell us that we had lost the movie to the benefit of a competitor. We were really sad. I just told the filmmaker and the team, as well as Tobey Maguire and his partners, I wish you all the best, but I'm sorry. But I did not hang up the phone or anything. I just said that I am really sorry, it did not work. I stayed true to what we wanted to do for the film. A few hours later, someone sent a text message to ask me if I was still standing.

I was lying on the ground with my dog, just because I had not been there for days and I felt really disgusted with the movie. They asked, can I get on the phone, and their WME representative, Mark Ankner, said: I can not tell you how bad it is torture, but look at this photo of the writer / director. He sent a picture of a guy lying on the phone, the phone gone astray, and I said, "Oh, my god, me too." I sent back a picture of me lying on the floor with the dog . Apparently, they all … just at that point decided that we should have the movie for Amazon. It was great. And when they called, there were real tears on both sides and a lot of happiness because I really think the movie is amazing. And then, he won the Audience Award, and I was so happy that Sundance recognized the films we chose, for the same values ​​we saw them. The continuous reception of each of these films has been excellent.

DEADLINE: You asked if I saw any of these movies. You never do, when you pursue these offers. The one I saw was Honey Boy, the story of Alma Har'el's coming of age, written by Shia LaBeouf, in which Shia plays the father in a dysfunctional but non-derogatory look on her childhood. You paid $ 5 million for that one. Anyone with an alcoholic parent can identify. We have all seen LaBeouf go from a child superstar to a young man who has had a hard time acclimatizing to adulthood and this film explains why. I think that he will have a chance to be rediscovered. Why did you buy it?

Salke: We are on the same page here. I came in and … I do not have a lot of tolerance for the bad behavior of people in general. I did not stay in touch with what Shia's life was like, beyond basic information presented by the media. It was someone who had just moved away. I did not know either the filmmaker who, like you, loved him.

DEADLINEShe had close ties with the Shiites because they had both grown up with alcoholic parents. She wrote this as a love letter to others who have experienced the same thing.

Salke: She is so impressive and passionate and amazing. I took her to my apartment, I spent time with her while we were bidding for the movie. She was in my office a few days after her return, to talk not only about the film, but also about the fact that she, like her and me, can align herself with the broadcast for diversity and female directors, which fascinates me. And most of our films coming out of Sundance were made by women, which was totally coincidental but very exciting for me. I realized that I was not only looking at the Shiite actor, the story of the bad boy with the troubled past. I was looking at a very intimate personal reflection on his troubled education and his evolution, and I felt it was so reliable that, as you said, many people who suffer from this type of dysfunction or various types . The fact that he overcame all that and was convalescing, could dig up and write this text that I did not feel like a compliment … I thought it was just honest and beautifully told, entertaining and compelling. Frankly, I was really blown away and my team too.

DEADLINE: You ended up buying the documentary A child nation, on the limits imposed on Chinese citizens on the children they may have, due to overcrowding.

Salke: The director, Nanfu [Wang] spent a few hours with us while bidding, talking about the film and its education. I knew something about all this, I have friends who were adopted from China. I knew the policies and what the consequences were, but telling them so personally was so compelling.

DEADLINE: On your overall movie game plan. How quickly will the initiative with Nicole Kidman bear fruit?

Salke: Quickly. We are already looking at movies that were existing scripts. There were so many great movies that have scripts, but they were not created because the film industry does not support them. There is no limit to the subject, no more than interesting, new and varied voices that produce incredible material and have good ideas. One of the things we announced on Blumhouse's list is that these films will be sold to underrepresented directors and writers. I like that we open the world to new voices.

DEADLINE: Will you buy pitches and specs, or do you prefer packages and finished movies? And what about global offers?

SalkeIf you're used to television, we had a big first deal to build relationships with a lot of these creators and show them what a house like Amazon would look like. And we are already exposed to the film of some of these producers on television. We have a contract with Viola Davis, who is finishing a contract with ABC Studios, but we will try to collaborate more with her later, depending on where she ends up. It's really a matter of relationship building, whether it's on the movie side or on TV, or it's a lot of prolific and talented high school graduates coming in, who are really interested in both and who ask what a house is. like here for TV and movies?

Like Nicole Kidman. We have films to which it is attached that we are developing, we have a big television series in Hong Kong that is being created and that will start soon, and then we have other TV elements, as well as the DTS strategy ( direct broadcast) is an excellent example of how multiple partnerships are opening up in this type of partnership. When I had the script and I thought of a direction in which I wanted to press, I pick up the phone and call Nicole. She says, I'm about to go out the door of Aquaman first, but tell me. We spent 10 minutes on the phone and a week later she was in my office, with our teams, to talk about the changes.

I am very comfortable with that. I'm a worker. I am very active, I love it and I have a lot of energy to do it. And I love working in partnership with people who feel the same, regardless of their support. We already buy presentations, sources of information and options for producers. Back to the collaboration part. I think the future of a real studio at home is that my very experienced TV executives work hand in hand with Julie, Matt and Ted, as well as their teams, on book properties and other supports without the meaning of, whether for television or not. movie and we do not want television to watch. It has to be a collaborative process, the culture that I love and that I believe is most effective. Talent feels that when you're cohesive and excited about the content, and that it's not about politics or a maze of confusing structures.