The optimistic way to view this situation is that A24 is getting much better at buying good movies for its DirecTV deal, rather than filler like Barely Lethal. An Industry Arts Company. When Ex Machina director Alex Garland was asked what he liked about working with A24, he compared the major studios to ocean liners: To change direction it takes them two days to even start to make that turn. And while they invited me into their headquarters to get a feel for the place and chat on background with the core team, they stressed that theyd prefer their movies to speak for themselves. The rise and rise of A24, a champion of storytelling on screen And we still have a great relationship now. And then its like on the biggest stage, I didnt thank anybody! Im dying. They kept shutting us down. No Comments Yet Be the first to comment on John Hodges! I just started talking. Franco: I would bet that [Alien] was one of the biggest, most popular Halloween costumes that year. We were watching it the whole time. And I remember hearing she was really upset. But youre like, Why didnt other people see that? I have no idea. Thats someone else. First movies gonna be so exciting! And I remember everyone came back from that test screening. A24 Founding Partner John Hodges to Exit - The Hollywood Reporter And theyre aiming at them. And suddenly its all over, and you think, Of all people, I knew the most about my film, so why was I was on the periphery of its release? But working closely with A24 throughout Rooms pre-release has altered his philosophy on film marketing: I used to think that the publicity process was both morally questionable and smoke and mirrors, that it was one of those invented jobs. Eggers: In the very beginning, when we went to Sundance initially, I didnt think that this was going to have such a large audience. Aizenberg: When I came to A24, they had Charles Swan already. John Heavey (distribution, A24): Especially the first two years, we fell in love with every movie. I think when movie companies get started, people want to define you immediately. Next year theyll re-team with While Were Young director Noah Baumbach on his brilliant doc about Brian De Palma, distribute one of the best horror films since The Shining, and release the first of the films theyve financed themselves. I won, I think, L.A. Film Critics and maybe one other. A24 Founder John Hodges To Part Ways With The Company A24 has an estimated net worth of about $1.89 million. Since then his contributions to growing the company have been invaluable and we cant wait to see what he does next., Added Hodges, I am incredibly proud of the company we created and of the amazing team at A24 that has been integral to its success. Ad Choices. And that takes time. We want to go two thousand screens. John Hodges - Entertainment Executive | Variety.com Fenkel: One thing we notice is now people are saying, Oh, good job. They were not the company that they are today. A24, which was founded in 2012, said that no additional changes in management will be made. Radcliffe (actor, Swiss Army Man): I could see them saying, like: Weve got a reputation now, and have money now. A lot of people in that position would then go, Okay, lets become quite conservative in our choices. And whats lovely is they are choosing to still channel that stuff back into supporting weird, different, ambitious ventures. Itd be very unlikely for that to happen. So I suppose the question now surrounding A24 is what Fenkel and Katz plan to make of it. James Ponsoldt (director, The Spectacular Now, The End of the Tour): Ive heard people refer to Miramax. John has been a trusted partner who helped conceive A24 and for that we will always be grateful, noted A24. I just Since then, A24's success has been immeasurable, especially for an independent Production company founded the same year The Avengers came out. Maybe even that guy with a two-way radio who keeps you from walking through a movie set. And she said it sucked. Said Korine: They saw that marketing was a creative act that could be entertaining in and of itself. She looked great. You know, theyre big-time. 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Rowling More Grace and Listen to Her, Britain's $4 Billion Boss: ITV Chief Carolyn McCall Bets It All on Talent, 2023 Music Festivals: How to Buy Tickets to Coachella, Governors Ball, Lollapalooza and More. All three had grown up admiring the rich world of 90s independent cinema, and they noticed a void where those movies had once been. People are like, Oh, I would have green-lit that! Im like, Come on!, Sacco: We had been talking about finding a person to produce for a long time. Not like we should have paid more. A24 was founded on August 20, 2012, by film veterans Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges. March 3, 2018. Gif excerpt from the film Under the Skin via A24 Films. Among critics and cinephiles I know, the A24 label is starting to mean something in the way that a 4AD record meant something in 1988, or a Grove Press book meant something in 1955. John. In 2013, A24 released their first five films: Sally Potters Ginger & Rosa, Harmony Korines Spring Breakers, Sofia Coppolas The Bling Ring, James Ponsoldts The Spectacular Now, and Roman Coppolas A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, starring Charlie Sheen. Yes, Scream VI Marketing Is Behind the Creepy Ghostface Sightings Causing Scares Across the U.S. David Oyelowo, Taylor Sheridan's 'Bass Reeves' Series at Paramount+ Casts King Richard Star Demi Singleton (EXCLUSIVE), Star Trek: Discovery to End With Season 5, Paramount+ Pushes Premiere to 2024. Aizenberg: That first private plane didnt make it to Austin. Its such a really fucking well-executed movie. The tech titan is reportedly in the midst of dropping $1 billion on original content, but has yet to make a major film market move. The End of the Tour freed Jason Segel from the succubus of network sitcoms by allowing him to inhabit the image of an iconic American writer. TV production powerhouse Jax Media is expanding into film and tapped John Hodges, one of the founding partners of A24, as its new head of film. IP & Literary Intern, Literary & IP Acquisitions at Amazon Studios, Assistant, Physical Production at Lionsgate, Executive Assistant/Production Office Coordinator for iONE Digital (NY), Manager, Scripted Film and Television, Cond Nast Entertainment. Distribution: Theatrical, TV, DVD-video, VOD, USA. Uncut Gems ($50 million). [7], Guggenheim Partners provided the seed money for A24 The company was started to share "movies from a distinctive point of view". When I arrived at A24s office, in an anonymous building so close to the western lip of lower Manhattan that it can practically taste New Jersey, my fears that the company might be growing too fast werent exactly assuaged by learning that within weeks it was moving to an enormous office closer to midtown. Thus far, A24 hasnt made any of the movies its released, but its made all of them A24 movies. Brie Larson (actress, Room, The Spectacular Now): A24 has the unique ability to find and champion authentic narratives that cut to the core in a raw and honest way. You know what? John Hodges (co-founder and co-head of TV, A24): It was one of those conversations where it was always like, How would we do it differently? And it was usually fueled by beer and things scribbled down on napkins and a lot of bravado. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE|SUBSCRIBE|CONTACT. It wasnt disrespectful. New York, no one gives a shit. 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The next day it was like, Anythings possible.. With how bad it tested. Were always cognizant of trying to sell the film by not selling it, said marketing exec Jesse Patrone-Werdiger, speaking to A24s rare faculty for promoting around the product its trying to push, shifting the tectonic plates of culture in the hopes of giving rise to a mountain. Buying and burying not-great movies isnt necessarily a problem if it grows the business without harming the brand. Thats not a go-wide movie. IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. When historians of the future try to pinpoint the precise moment that the film industry crawled out of its deathbed and back onto its feet, theres a good chance theyll land somewhere in March 2013, when a fledgling distribution company called A24 Films transformed a Harmony Korine movie starring a cornrowed James Franco into a genuine cultural event. Its a film about guilt that forever haunts you and the fear of being watched. The outfit is new enough that the same people have been working there from the very beginning, and the consistency of their titles reflects that of their tastes. For Ponsoldts latest, A24s marketing efforts followed the films example of approaching a highbrow topic with a low bar for entry, partnering with Medium.com for a project called Just Words, for which writers, artists, and other intellectual types collectively celebrated the life and work of David Foster Wallace. He later left A24 on March 2018 to focus on future opportunities. 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I woke up one morning to an e-mail from Daniel that was sent at three in the morning: Can you go to Pittsburgh? I come into the office, and there are interns running around like in some crazy factory. As one of the founding members of the New York-based company, Hodges played a key role. How do you know when an ad campaign is working? Theres music labels I can think of as well. Aizenberg: There was a week in January where we dropped the trailer of Spring Breakers. Fenkel: Look at The Witch. Dont get left behind. A mother undergoes reconstructive facial surgery, but her two twin boys dont recognize the woman beneath her bandages. Noah Sacco (head of acquisitions and production, A24): I think some of our biggest movies had no stars in them at the time of releaseEx Machina, Moonlight, The Witch, Room, The Spectacular Now. [29][30], "A24 Films" redirects here. See what happens.. When your audience does the work for you. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter, As one of the founding members of the New York-based company, Hodges played a key role in putting A24 on the map, culminating with last year's best picture winner, 'Moonlight.'. Aizenberg: I was already, like, putting together the distribution plans for Frances Ha. Fenkel: And the Spring Breakers trailer dropped the first day of Sundance, and MTVs servers fucked up, because we gave them the exclusive, and they stopped serving the video. That was the first time it screened for U.S. audiences. Agent. The indies can be liquid and fluid. A24 may be growing fast, but no one has displayed greater agility in navigating the waters of a business that constantly seems to be changing course. And [my producer] kept saying it, and I kept thinking, Okay, at some point Ill figure out what hes talking about. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Their whole point was, We dont know this world. You were in the A24 offices. Subsequent DirectTV titles havent fared much better (in fact, most have fared much worse), and it soon became clear that these early acquisitions were the unloved stepchildren of the A24 family. Fenkel: So hes booking, what, fifteen hundred screens? For instance, an actress. Colin Farrell (actor, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer): They have such a great eye for these small little films and rich and unique stories that may have not found it to the big screen if it wasnt for them. It was a perfectly good jet! Steven Soderbergh retired. Spike Lee turned to Kickstarter. Garland: I didnt know what Tinder was until the festival. Igoe: Even with Ex Machina at the time, we were getting bigger, but we still had that kind of start-up mentality that I dont know wed be able to get away with now. [16] The company, with cooperation from Bank of America, J.P. Morgan & Co. and SunTrust Banks, also raised its line of credit from $50 million to $125 million a month later to build upon its operations. At the same time, we get a call saying that Selena and Ashley [Benson], their hair and makeup team hadnt gone on the private jet we had got for them, because they didnt think it was big enough or secure enough. The Rover found a mentally deficient Robert Pattinson singing Keri Hilsons Pretty Girl Rock in the deserts of post-apocalyptic Australia. The division of labor is clear, but there arent any titles for the companys employees, who all work elbow to elbow in a single room. Other indie labels, like Megan Ellisons Annapurna Pictures (which co-produced Spring Breakers), tend to go in the other direction, releasing a minuscule handful of movies into the currents of Oscar season in the hopes that the waters will carry them toward a crowd. A24 Founding Partner John Hodges to Exit Daniel Katz and David Fenkel will continue to oversee the NYC-based indie Thom Geier | March 26, 2018 @ 10:08 AM A24 founding partner John Hodges. They had heart to them. Sacco: I used to think seeing people faint was what happened in movies. Fenkel: Do you have to be a genius to do Sofia Coppolas movie, or Harmonys? Selena and Ashley had no issue with this. Genre hounds stoked by the Sundance hype would surely seek it out, but Eggers extraordinary debutabout a family of early American pilgrims who get banished to the wrong forestwould never be given the opportunity to meaningfully connect with its audience and worm its way into the culture. Everybody was talking a few years ago how cinema had died. I think when we started [2016], it was another, like, what Id consider a building year. Johansson plays something between an android and alien symbiote who seduces men in order to envelop them in a dark, infinite pool of nothingness. There has been speculation for the past six months that the company is for sale. At a time when young people are increasingly going to the movies only for blockbuster spectacle, A24 has established itself as the film industrys most forward-thinking company by releasing the kind of midsized, stylish, quality films that seemed on the verge of going extinct, transforming them into a collective theatrical experience, and aiming them squarely at a demographic that would rather watch movies on their phones. While there is speculation in the trades that A24 may be on the block, I get the impression that sale rumors are just that rumors. [26], In July 2021, A24 reportedly explored a possible buyout for between $2.5 billion to $3 billion. Nandan: I remember seeing a screener of [The Witch], and yeah, it was like, oh, right, howd that movie not sell for more money? The company said he will exit to focus on "future opportunities," but did not clarify beyond that statement.. Far left, from left: A24 founders David Fenkel, John Hodges, and Daniel Katz. Notable guests on the show have included Bo Burnham, Paul Schrader, Sofia Coppola, Alia Shawkat and Martin Scorsese.