Life off the Lot
Exiting film execs once got golden parachutes, but Scott Stuber and others are discovering times have changed
When Amy Pascal was toppled from her perch as Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairperson in 2015, the landing was soft. The longtime executive negotiated a lucrative four-year exit deal that guaranteed her two theatrical releases per year and the right to produce future “Spider-man” movies. That meant Pascal would earn tens of millions of dollars in backend compensation from the next seven films in the Spider-verse, pulling down $10 million for the 2018 “Venom” spinoff alone. The pact, signed off on by then-sony chairman and CEO Michael Lynton, even provided Pascal with $10 million annually for overhead and discretionary spending. Over the ensuing years, those arrangements have gone the way of the Walkman.
When Netflix film chairman Scott Stuber exits the streamer in March, becoming the latest film chief to pivot to producing, he faces a less hospitable climate. Consider former Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich, who exited his post in 2022 with a five-year producing deal at the studio but has yet to announce a significant project. Sources say Emmerich tried to board the next “Ocean’s” movie, but that move was nixed by star Margot Robbie, who already is producing the film through her company, Luckychap Entertainment.
“On all these franchise movies, the big filmmaker or the actor-producer has to decide if they’re OK with adding another voice to the mix. And often they don’t want another producer,” says one high-profile agent.
Some studio heads leave their posts with nothing at all. Former Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara and Nbcuniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer, both of whom were caught up in public sex scandals, had to look outside the Hollywood studio system for their next acts. Meyer is currently CEO of Wild Bunch AG, a European independent film distribution and production company. Last year, Tsujihara and former Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes raised $360 million for their Alignment Growth equity fund, whose Hollywood investments include Spyglass.
But Stuber enters the fray with one significant advantage: He was a successful producer before becoming an executive. His credits include “Ted” and “Central Intelligence.” (Stuber declined to comment for this story.)
Though he has told friends that he has raised money for his new unnamed production company, it is unclear who is providing the funds. Sources say Stuber has amassed enough to cover both development and production and won’t need to latch on to an existing property at Netflix in the Pascal vein. That’s a good thing given that Netflix has nothing comparable to the Spider-man franchise.
“Scott Stuber isn’t exactly going to be put on a ‘Kissing Booth’ movie,” says one fellow producer. “He’s too big for that.”
Friends say Stuber is looking to pursue the types of movies he made as a producer and later championed at Netflix. Among the streamer’s films that demonstrate his taste are the action-comedy “Red Notice,” the Sandra Bullock thriller “Bird Box” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
Agents who have worked closely with Stuber in recent years expect that his track record and ties to talent will help him in his new endeavor.
“When Scott joined Netflix, it gave notice to the entire film community that this was going to be a great place for world-class storytellers to do amazing work, and that’s exactly what happened,” says WME’S Robert Newman, whose clients include Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, who made “Roma” and “Pinocchio” at Netflix, respectively. “The best filmmakers on the planet were eager to work with Scott, and I have every confidence that they will continue to do so in the next chapter of his career. I would work with him again in a minute.”
As for who will replace Stuber at Netflix, several names are being bandied about, including those of Emmerich and former Paramount exec Emma Watts. After all, the Hollywood conveyor belt that moves studio heads into producing often extends in the other direction.
For Italian conductor Beatrice Venezi, 2024 kicked off on a decidedly sour note.
On New Year’s Eve the baton-wielding Venezi, a friend of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was heckled at the Opéra de Nice by French anti-fascist protesters as she took to the podium.
The incident reflected tensions rippling through European entertainment industry circles as far-right parties sweep to power in Italy and the Netherlands and gain ground across the EU.
Italy took a sharp turn to the right in 2022, when Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots, emerged the winner in the national elections. Since then her right-wing camp, which denies accusations of nostalgia for fascism, has moved to hold more sway within state-controlled media and cultural institutions such as broadcaster RAI, the Centro Sperimentale film school and the Biennale, the Venice Film Festival’s parent organization.
Scrutiny is being directed at Venezi, an adviser to Meloni-appointed culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. She’s also artistic director of the foundation that runs Sicily’s Taormina Film Festival. Venezi is the daughter of Gabriele Venezi, a leader of neo-fascist party Forza Nuova, but denies being a fascist. Still, within Italy’s film community there are concerns about the undue influence of Sangiuliano and others in Meloni’s government on the film and TV industry.
Last July left-leaning producer Marta Donzelli was ousted as chief of Centro Sperimentale without explanation, prompting protests from prominent directors Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino.
On Jan. 16, news broke that the culture ministry is plotting a similar shake-up at the state-funded David di Donatello Academy, which bestows Italy’s top film prizes.
And Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera’s leadership is hanging in the balance. Last October, the government appointed right-wing journalist Pietrangelo Buttafuoco as the next Biennale president. Barbera, who has one year left on his contract, has turned Venice into a springboard for awards hopefuls such as “Poor Things.”
Francesco Rutelli, president of ANICA, Italy’s motion picture association, praises Buttafuoco for being “a nonconformist.” Yet he predicts Buttafuoco will be pressured to replace Barbera.
The country’s generous production tax incentives, which lured Hollywood shoots such as “The White Lotus,” also are up in the air. Culture minister Sangiuliano wants to make them more cost-effective. But he has been dithering, leaving U.S. productions wanting to shoot in Italy waiting to see how the incentives will change.
Elsewhere, political interference is encroaching on Italy’s media industry. At RAI, which has always been a political fiefdom, Giampaolo Rossi — known for his support of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump — was appointed director general last May. The following month, left-leaning talk-show host Fabio Fazio took his program “Che Tempo Che Fa” to Discovery Italia. Lucia Annunziata, known for grilling politicians of all stripes, also left the pubcaster in protest.
Italy’s conservative media meddling is echoed in France. Vincent Bolloré, the conservative billionaire behind Canal+ Group parent company Vivendi, is giving exposure to far-right candidates through Cnews, the French equivalent of Fox News. And the governments of Hungary and Poland have been trying to quash contrarian voices. Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s refugee drama “Green Border” has been attacked by right-wing politicians and the press. In Hungary the bulk of public financing goes to movies that push a nationalist agenda.
So far that hasn’t been the case in Italy. Meloni has praised “There’s Still Tomorrow,” the megahit dramedy directed by leftist comedian Paola Cortellesi. And the culture ministry is supporting Matteo Garrone’s immigration epic “Io Capitano,” which premiered at Venice and was just nominated for the international Oscar.
Now, all eyes are pointed at what looms on the Lido after Barbera’s 2024 edition. “None of us feel the need for Barbera to be replaced,” says Riccardo Tozzi, head of Rome’s Itv-owned Cattleya.
More to the point, “in Italy there are no conservative cinephile figures — they are all leftists,” says Locarno Film Festival chief Giona A. Nazzaro.
That’s the crux of the brewing conflict between politics and art in the country. And Venice is the cultural arena where the Meloni government will show the world its true colors.
On her new series, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” Maya Erskine plays a character her fans may not have seen her inhabit before — a grown woman.
“I was so used to playing a 13-year-old with a bowl cut where no one would even glance my way,” says Erskine, speaking from the L.A. home she shares with her partner Michael Angarano and their baby son. She is best known for portraying a teenage version of herself on Hulu’s Emmy-nominated “Pen15,” where she reenacted the pains and joys of adolescence opposite comedy partner Anna Konkle.
Now, she’s updating the definitionally grown-up spy movie: “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” the 2005 film, was about tradecraft as a metaphor for marriage — even before its two stars, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, ended up together in real life. The new version, launching Feb. 2 on Amazon Prime Video, remixes the story, pairing Erskine and Donald Glover as assassins forced to feign married life, and then finding the mission of marriage has both complications and appeal.
All of which offers Erskine the chance to trade in her bowl cut.
Maya Erskine in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”
“To think of myself as Maya, 13 — I’m so much more comfortable in that. I’m so much more comfortable when I don’t have to look pretty,” she says. “When there’s an expectation to look attractive, it makes me want to run the other way.” As such, Erskine’s spy is more lived-in than Jolie’s version, with notes drawn from Jane Birkin and ’70s-era Jane Fonda. “The inspiration,” Erskine says, “was to feel sexy without trying to be so glamorous and so perfect.” (As for the preparation for the role, “Donald and I worked out at the same gym, and he got massively ripped,” Erskine says with a laugh, “and I just needed to get to a point of being believably strong.”)
This marks Erskine’s first series-regular role since “Pen15” ended in 2021. On that show, she was co-creator and also took on writing and directing duties, an at-times punishing lift. On “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” co-created by Donald
Glover and Francesca Sloane, Erskine had to worry only about her performance. “I needed, for whatever the next project was going to be, to feel a bit of a relief,” she says. “It was nice to come home to just acting, and relying on the people who are creating it that have great taste and vision. You take care of it, and I’m just going to focus on this one thing.”
That one thing, though, is more boundless than it seems. Unlike Pitt and Jolie’s characters, known to each other as spouses before discovering one another’s double identities, Glover and Erskine’s characters meet on the job, then have to build a relationship. Plenty gets uncovered in the process of planning a future. “It was really nice to explore the other side of the coin of being the person who’s saying they don’t want kids,” Erskine says. “It’s really interesting in a relationship because kids aren’t something you can negotiate.” (Erskine became a parent in 2021; her son accompanied her to the “Smith” shoot in New York and Italy.)
Parenthood has restructured the creative process for Erskine. “When you’re younger, it’s easier to feed off of ‘Let’s keep working through the night!’” she says. “When you’re older, your priorities change. There’s got to be a way to make work good without having to kill yourself over it.”
This role, created over a sixmonth shoot, felt more sustainable, and may open doors for an actor who gets to show off her strong and serious side. Erskine is looking to a star turn and a story that, like “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” delves into the complexities and inherent drama of marriage. “I want to play Gena Rowlands characters,” she says. “And one day, I want to do ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ’? But I’m not there yet. I’ve got to live a lot longer.”