Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 103
January 14, 2019
Will there be a sequel to The Meg? Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura provides an update
Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, the producer of The Meg, has confirmed plans for a follow-up to the nautical blockbuster, which proved to be a smash-hit.
“It will happen,” Di Bonaventura tells Metro when quizzed about the chances of a sequel to The Meg. But obviously the follow-up is still quite a bit away, as the Bumblebee producer adds, “We’re still trying to figure out what that is.”
Will Jason Statham return for The Meg 2?
It is hardly a surprise that we’re going to see The Meg 2. While it only scored 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Meg went on to gross over $530 million at the box office, as it proved to be especially popular overseas, where it took in just under $385 million internationally.
Back in October, Catherine Xujun Ying, the executive producer behind The Meg, let the cat out of the bag about the sequel, telling Deadline, “It’s still in the very early stages, but we’re working on it. We’re trying to keep it secret at this time.”
Statham had already stated his intent to return for another entry to the franchise, telling Entertainment Weekly ahead of The Meg’s release, "I think it's like anything in this day and age — if it makes money, there's obviously an appetite to make more money."
"And if it doesn't do well, they'll soon sweep it under the carpet. But that's the way Hollywood works.”
Steve Allen, the writer behind the 1997 novel that The Meg is based on, which has 7 follow-ups itself, believes that there's plenty of material for more than one follow-up.
He told Metro around its release,”My feeling has always been that this is a billion dollar franchise if it was done right.”
“But to be done right you had to get the shark right, get the cast right, get the tone right. And Warner Bros. have nailed it completely. The producers have nailed it.”
Read more
January 13, 2019
Book sales are up this year over last year, and physical books are thriving
It’s a tale as old as time, or, at least, the internet: None of us are reading any more, the physical book is dead, Amazon has killed the independent bookstore, and it’s all only going to get worse. But this year, the story looks like just that—a fiction. We are buying books—especially the kind with physical pages—and we’re doing so, increasingly, in well-loved indie bookstores.
In the UK, the Guardian reports, Nielsen BookScan recored year-on-year book sale growth of 22 million pounds ($28 million). It’s likely that 2018 will top 2016’s total sales of 1.59 billion pounds, too, with booksellers on both sides of the Atlantic noting an anecdotal uptick in sales and browsing customers. It’s been good news for British book chains—the country’s largest bookseller, Waterstones, made its first profit since the 2008 financial crisis—and for independent bookshops, too: this year was the first since the advent of Amazon where the number of stores actually went up, rather than down.
In the United States, the news is even rosier for indies: the number of independent bookstores grew by 35 percent between 2009 and 2015, while sales of physical books have increased every year since 2013. (For big booksellers, it’s been trickier: Barnes & Noble’s annual report told harrowing tales of store sales down 5.4% from 2017, with total sales in decline since 2014.)
We’re buying books, and we’re favoring the kind you can borrow, lend, or drop in the bath: In 2017, print book sales were up 10.8% from four years earlier. (Between 2016 and 2017, however, e-book sales actually dropped 10 percent.) In October of this year, book sales were at $699 million, up by $50 million from a year earlier.
Perhaps surprisingly, Vox’s The Goods attributes this growth to our phones. By reading off-line, writes Nisha Chittal, we’re trying to mediate our screen times, driving up demand for paper books. On the other hand, when we are on our phones, we’d like everyone to know how well-read we are, usually via virtue-signaling #100booksin2018 Instagram posts—and that means buying books to show off. “All this bookstagramming has led to a thriving space for book lovers on social media,” Chittal writes, “and that’s been a good thing for independent bookstores too — because it plays to their key strength: creating community.” Booksellers are growing wise to our swipe-happy ways, and making sure their wares and whereabouts have a home and community online, where they’re lodged firmly in our minds and feeds.
Book sales may never recover to their pre-internet highs, but it’s encouraging news for aspiring novelists, anxious booksellers, and voracious readers alike.
Read more
January 11, 2019
Nicole Conn's New Film More Beautiful Coming Soon
MoreBeautifulMovie.com
writer/director Nicole ConnMore Beautiful is thematically characterized by the Japanese term Kintsukuroi – which means More Beautiful for Having Been Broken –This title is perfect for what has become an exquisite mainstream family drama. FEATURING
Cale Ferrin whose extraordinary breakout performance in this film will touch everyone’s heart.
Cale Ferrin
with and Kayla RadomskiCale's portrayal of “Freddie” is not only brave and raw but will really help people to understand what a child with Special Needs goes through on a daily basis. And congrats to Cale who is currently working on a Hulu series in Toronto.
Cale Ferrin and Zoe Ventoura
Zoe Ventoura
Kayla Radomski and Cale FerrinThe entire cast is stellar – headed up by Zoe Ventoura and Kayla Radomski - both of their journeys’ are relatable on so many levels. And the supporting cast is pretty darn remarkable for a film this size: Bruce Davidson, French Stewart, Brooke Elliott, Harley Jane Kozak, Gaby Christian, Kay Lenz and my daughter Gabrielle Baba-Conn.
It's a wrap!!! 
French Stewart, Cale Ferrin, Bruce Davidson 
Harley Jane Kozak and Gaby Christian
Brooke Elliott, Cale Ferrin and Gaby ChristianNicoleConn.com
January 9, 2019
January 7, 2019
Guest Post: BILL SHAKESPEARE: AN AGENT’S DREAM CLIENT by Nancy Nigrosh
Many writers often mistake writing as a source of personal identity, instead of a job, a business or a product.
The original Greek dramatists celebrated the gods in their work, but they had no issue claiming ownership as authors. They were successfully self-promoting to the extent their work is still performed and still attracting profitable enterprise. If the Greeks are too distant a reference, let’s take a look at the king of all the writing gods: Bill Shakespeare.
He is unmistakably the consummate businessman who founded a repertory company, secured patrons, erected a theatre, and promoted its product while writing some of the world’s greatest plays as a line item alongside all the rest. He is the credited writer of over 1,000 screenplays. At this very moment films based on his work are being prepped, while countless theatrical productions of his work are being performed all over the world.
Nancy Nigrosh spent 23 years as a top Hollywood agent representing world-class directors, writers and authors. Now she’s a writing coach, who offers insider knowledge about the process of how to attract an agent. She is an MFA alum of UCLA’s Theater, Film & Television Program, and serves as a judge for UCLA’s Annual Master Screenwriting Competition. She also holds an MA in Education and two Teaching Credentials from Antioch University. She teaches at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and frequently contributes to Indiewire. She’s on the Board of the Los Angeles Historic Theater Foundation and an Advisory Board member of BookWorks a worldwide Self-Publishers Association in partnership with Publishers Weekly.Read more
January 4, 2019
Laurence O’Bryan's 10 critical things to get right before you get started on Amazon ads
1. Expect to invest time in understanding how the AMS platform works, what keywords to use, what bids to make and how to monitor results so you can make adjustments.2. Each ad is called a campaign. You can only choose books you have published on your Amazon account for your campaigns.3. Start with a low budget ($5 a day – often not spent) test campaign. Create a naming system for your campaigns, to help you identify each campaign’s attributes quickly.4. Only spend what you can afford. It will take between a few days and a month to see sales generated for the previous period, so be patient.5. Know your royalty rates (70% or 30% if self-published – probably less if you share royalties with a publisher) or the latest KENP (Kindle Edition Normalized Pages) rate, the KDP Select per-page read rate royalty. The rate rose to $0.0046 in June ’18 and has been at about that level each month recently. That means that currently for 1,000 pages read Amazon pays the author $4.60 if the book is in Amazon Select.6. You will need to maintain an ACOS (Advertising cost of sales) below 70% to be in profit if you are on 70% royalty and below 30% if you are on a 30% royalty rate on your ebooks.7. As sales and borrows are slow to report, a good metric to focus on is your CPC – Cost per Click. A low cost per click, 12c for instance, means it cost you 12c each time someone clicked your ad and was taken to the Amazon book page for your book.8. Ensure your book description on Amazon is the best it can be before starting your Amazon ads. There is no point in paying to get people to look at your book/s on Amazon if the Amazon description/s will not help you sell it.9. Ensure your cover/s look amazing. Homemade covers are no longer appropriate, except in rare circumstances. Look at the covers of the books at the top of your genre and rate yours against them. If your cover is not as amazing get a cover designer, not a graphic designer to make you a new one. This is not as expensive as previously. 10. Ensure you have at least three honest (not one line) reader reviews on Amazon.com before you start. Read moreLaurence O’Bryan founded BooksGoSocial in 2013. He previously worked as a sales director for a software as a service firm and in technology marketing for over twenty-five years. He also founded the Dublin Writers Conference in 2014.
January 2, 2019
January 1, 2019
December 31, 2018
Spotlight: Success of films with Chinese elements in North America excites Hollywood insiders
"The Meg" is the highest-grossing U.S.-Chinese co-production of all time in North America.
The success of Hollywood films with Chinese elements at North American box office in 2018 has attracted interest from critics and Hollywood insiders, triggering enthusiastic discussions about cooperation between Chinese and American film industries.
The shark-themed thriller, "The Meg," and the racial diversity triumph, "Crazy Rich Asians," are among the most successful films incorporating China-related elements, gaining mainstream appeal in North America.
Hollywood films incorporating Chinese elements, including "The Meg," "Crazy Rich Asians" and Legendary and Universal's big-budget release "Pacific Rim: Uprising," have stayed atop North American weekend box office 5 out of 51 weeks as of Dec. 23 this year.
"The Meg," a Chinese-American co-production, released by Gravity Pictures in China and by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States, grossed more than 530 million U.S. dollars in the global box office against a production budget of around 150 million dollars.
"Crazy Rich Asians" was a Warner Bros. Pictures release, and produced by SK Global, Color Force, Ivanhoe Pictures, Electric Somewhere and China-backed firm Starlight Culture. The romantic comedy-drama film, based on Kevin Kwan's novel of the same name and directed by Chinese American filmmaker Jon M. Chu, has brought in 238 million dollars worldwide against a modest 30-million-dollar production budget.
"Chinese co-productions have been among the most successful films of 2018. Titles like 'Crazy Rich Asians' and 'The Meg' reflected a true understanding of what global audiences are looking for when they go to the multiplex," said U.S. movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian at Comscore.
Dergarabedian pointed out that "Crazy Rich Asians" became a comedy sensation in North America and drew audiences of all backgrounds who were attracted by its universal themes and relatable situations while "The Meg" featured an irresistible concept embraced by audiences on a global scale and also featured notable Chinese talent.
"Films like 'The Meg' and 'Crazy Rich Asians' are great models for how to perfectly combine the best of U.S. and China-based talent to create appealing filmed content for global consumption. In the future, we will likely see more such productions and perhaps there will be more China-based productions that reflect the taste and culture and Chinese point of view that could be produced in a way that will enable them to cross over in a more profound way to audiences outside of their country of origin," he told Xinhua.
"The Meg" is already the highest-grossing U.S.-Chinese co-production of all time and "Crazy Rich Asians" became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the last 10 years in North America.
"The growth and importance of the Chinese movie market has been incredibly impressive, with a growth rate that has been sparked over the years by the building of state-of-the-art cinemas that inspired enthusiasm by audiences who flocked to a multi-faceted slate of home grown and U.S.-based productions. Its yearly revenue has come close to rivaling that of North America and is the second biggest movie market in the world," he noted.
The follow-up of "Crazy Rich Asians" is reportedly in the development stages. The team behind the film is planning to reunite for the sequel, based on Kwan's second book, "China Rich Girlfriend." Producers said the new film is targeting a shoot in Shanghai, and possibly as a co-production.
"There have been many earlier attempted co-productions where the story didn't really work for both audiences, and so it felt forced and strange. As the two film industries have worked together more though, they've found ways to make the Hollywood and China elements live together naturally, so then the story feels believable and strong, and movie audiences respond," said Elizabeth Dell, head of the China Task Force of the Producers Guild of America, adding that audiences love new stories and new worlds to explore, but they have to feel authentic.
She noted that the progress of China's film industry over the last ten years has been remarkable. "I think there is still more progress to make, especially in the areas of strengthening skills and understanding of story and of producing, but the Chinese film industry continues to impress me with the quality and breadth of the work," She told Xinhua.
"Successful cooperation and co-production needs to look to stories and creators that work between the two industries and so naturally know how to collaborate in a seamless way," said Dell.
"Experience is key. It cannot come from only one film or one collaboration; it comes from a history of many projects together and learning how each culture thrives," she concluded.
"The growth of the Chinese film industry reflects the growth of the Chinese middle class, which has been meteoric and will continue to be over the next five to ten years," said William Mundell, producer of "Better Angels," a documentary film examining the U.S.-China relations through the lives of ordinary citizens of the two countries.
Mundell added that China is an obvious target for American film makers who are looking to expand beyond their existing mature markets.
"The film industry in Hollywood has a history of over 100 years so it's very developed. China can learn from that and create its own distinctive version of Hollywood," he told Xinhua.
Read more
The success of Hollywood films with Chinese elements at North American box office in 2018 has attracted interest from critics and Hollywood insiders, triggering enthusiastic discussions about cooperation between Chinese and American film industries.
The shark-themed thriller, "The Meg," and the racial diversity triumph, "Crazy Rich Asians," are among the most successful films incorporating China-related elements, gaining mainstream appeal in North America.
Hollywood films incorporating Chinese elements, including "The Meg," "Crazy Rich Asians" and Legendary and Universal's big-budget release "Pacific Rim: Uprising," have stayed atop North American weekend box office 5 out of 51 weeks as of Dec. 23 this year.
"The Meg," a Chinese-American co-production, released by Gravity Pictures in China and by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States, grossed more than 530 million U.S. dollars in the global box office against a production budget of around 150 million dollars.
"Crazy Rich Asians" was a Warner Bros. Pictures release, and produced by SK Global, Color Force, Ivanhoe Pictures, Electric Somewhere and China-backed firm Starlight Culture. The romantic comedy-drama film, based on Kevin Kwan's novel of the same name and directed by Chinese American filmmaker Jon M. Chu, has brought in 238 million dollars worldwide against a modest 30-million-dollar production budget.
"Chinese co-productions have been among the most successful films of 2018. Titles like 'Crazy Rich Asians' and 'The Meg' reflected a true understanding of what global audiences are looking for when they go to the multiplex," said U.S. movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian at Comscore.
Dergarabedian pointed out that "Crazy Rich Asians" became a comedy sensation in North America and drew audiences of all backgrounds who were attracted by its universal themes and relatable situations while "The Meg" featured an irresistible concept embraced by audiences on a global scale and also featured notable Chinese talent.
"Films like 'The Meg' and 'Crazy Rich Asians' are great models for how to perfectly combine the best of U.S. and China-based talent to create appealing filmed content for global consumption. In the future, we will likely see more such productions and perhaps there will be more China-based productions that reflect the taste and culture and Chinese point of view that could be produced in a way that will enable them to cross over in a more profound way to audiences outside of their country of origin," he told Xinhua.
"The Meg" is already the highest-grossing U.S.-Chinese co-production of all time and "Crazy Rich Asians" became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the last 10 years in North America.
"The growth and importance of the Chinese movie market has been incredibly impressive, with a growth rate that has been sparked over the years by the building of state-of-the-art cinemas that inspired enthusiasm by audiences who flocked to a multi-faceted slate of home grown and U.S.-based productions. Its yearly revenue has come close to rivaling that of North America and is the second biggest movie market in the world," he noted.
The follow-up of "Crazy Rich Asians" is reportedly in the development stages. The team behind the film is planning to reunite for the sequel, based on Kwan's second book, "China Rich Girlfriend." Producers said the new film is targeting a shoot in Shanghai, and possibly as a co-production.
"There have been many earlier attempted co-productions where the story didn't really work for both audiences, and so it felt forced and strange. As the two film industries have worked together more though, they've found ways to make the Hollywood and China elements live together naturally, so then the story feels believable and strong, and movie audiences respond," said Elizabeth Dell, head of the China Task Force of the Producers Guild of America, adding that audiences love new stories and new worlds to explore, but they have to feel authentic.
She noted that the progress of China's film industry over the last ten years has been remarkable. "I think there is still more progress to make, especially in the areas of strengthening skills and understanding of story and of producing, but the Chinese film industry continues to impress me with the quality and breadth of the work," She told Xinhua.
"Successful cooperation and co-production needs to look to stories and creators that work between the two industries and so naturally know how to collaborate in a seamless way," said Dell.
"Experience is key. It cannot come from only one film or one collaboration; it comes from a history of many projects together and learning how each culture thrives," she concluded.
"The growth of the Chinese film industry reflects the growth of the Chinese middle class, which has been meteoric and will continue to be over the next five to ten years," said William Mundell, producer of "Better Angels," a documentary film examining the U.S.-China relations through the lives of ordinary citizens of the two countries.
Mundell added that China is an obvious target for American film makers who are looking to expand beyond their existing mature markets.
"The film industry in Hollywood has a history of over 100 years so it's very developed. China can learn from that and create its own distinctive version of Hollywood," he told Xinhua.
Read more
