The 11th Hour Dispatch — Friday, September 14, 2018
BINGE WATCH
Lebron James’ Uninterrupted has sold a show focused on Odell Beckham Jr. to Facebook Watch. The 16-episode docuseries I Am More: OBJ will center on the New York Giants wide receiver as he recovers from his ankle injury during the 2018 NFL season. In addition to making Facebook Watch the exclusive social media home of the series, Beckham will also use Facebook Live to discuss his thoughts after games and converse with fans. Also also, there will be a Facebook Group where fans can chat with each other and participate in Beckham-led Q&As. Behind the scenes info will also be shared on Instagram (which Facebook also owns). Beckham currently boasts 1.5 million followers on his Facebook page, and he’s one of the latest major sports stars to pick up a deal with Facebook. Tom Brady, Dwyane Wade, and Cristiano Ronaldo are also joining Zuckerberg’s content party.
BIG BUSINESS
Lady Gaga may have stole the show, but the Toronto Film Festival was reportedly slower than usual on the deal side of things this year.
TIFF is normally a festival that draws studios into the land of maple syrup and moose (meese? Idk what the proper plural here is) to purchase distribution rights. However, according to The Orchard’s VP of Film Paul Davidson, that wasn’t so much the case this year. “We went in looking for narrative films with casts that we thought could be appealing to broad audiences. There weren’t many of those,” he said. According to Variety, the biggest sale of the entire festival was a $6 million purchase of Greta, a Chloe Grace Moretz-led thriller, by Focus Features. For reference, Paramount paid $12.5 million for Chris Rock’s Top Five in 2014, more than double the price tag of the biggest sale of the week. Co-head of Sony Pictures Classics Tom Bernard said, “I didn’t see any films that warranted a $5 million or $10 million price.” Experts link the low amount of purchases to two things. First, most of the “buzzy” films of the festival came in with distribution deals already signed. Second, streaming giants are getting pickier and haven’t been shelling out as much as they were over the last few years (though Apple did leave Toronto with two films).
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
As a weather nerd, I am so into The Weather Channel’s work with AR.
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