EXCLUSIVE: After another vigorous battle for a stellar cast package, Netflix prevailed and won world rights to Julia Roberts, starring Denzel Washington and Mr. robotSam Esmail directing Leave the world behind, an adaptation of an upcoming Rumaan Alam novel. I heard that it all came down to Netflix, Apple, and MGM, but that there were 10 deals on the project with studios and streamers offering limited movies and series. Esmail will adapt the novel.
The novel will be published this fall by the HarperCollins Ecco publishing label. The part of the book was a 7-figure agreement and the outline for a budget was part of the negotiation, the sources said. This becomes another in a series of precedent-setting deals, including salaries and backends for the stars and the filmmaker. Word spread quickly that the value of this deal will rival that made by Apple for Antoine Fuqua-Will Smith’s runaway slave drama Emancipation, which landed in the $ 120 million range, counting backends. It is also a re-team for Roberts with Washington and Esmail. Washington and Roberts starred together in The Pelican Report and I’ve always wanted to work together again. Esmail and Roberts worked together on the first season of the Amazon drama series Homecoming, in which Esmail is co-creator, executive producer and director.
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Roberts is producing through his Red Om Films banner; Denzel Washington is producing and also Sam Esmail and Chad Hamilton through Esmail Corp. Alam will be executive producer and Lisa Gillan and Marisa Yeres Gill of Red Om will also be involved in a production capacity.
The drama has a timely premise, given the disorienting nature of events around the world so far this year: Amanda and Clay’s vacation aspirations with their teenage children are interrupted by the arrival of a middle-aged couple who are She owned the vacation home and fled an unprecedented blackout in the city. When the Internet, television, and radio stop working, like the landline phone, they have no way of finding out what’s going on. As strange sonic booms break the peace of the field, and animals begin to migrate strangely, the physical and mental health of families begins to disintegrate. Tenants are exclusive and white; The owners are exclusive and black. Race and crash issues become distractions for the most alarming things going on around you.
Roberts will play the mother of the family who rents the house. Washington will play the owner of the house.
CAA representatives along with Julia Barer in The Book Group; CAA Roberts representatives with Hirsch Wallerstein; Washington is WME and Hansen Jacobson, and Esmail is CAA and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
The deal comes after Netflix establishes Joe and Anthony Russo to direct Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in an adaptation of the Mark Greaney novel. The gray man an attempt to launch a successful spy franchise with a budget of more than $ 200 million.
