Paramount Pictures Gets Financial Aid For 10 Upcoming Blockbusters, Shifts 'Love And Monsters' To PVOD
Paramount Pictures, one of the oldest legacy studios in Hollywood, has not been in an ideal market position in a long, long time. Now the studio is getting some financial aid from New Republic Pictures, a production company whose credits include 1917, Black Swan, and Rocketman, for ten upcoming blockbusters, including Mission: Impossible 7 and Top Gun: Maverick.
The 100-plus-year-old studio has also decided to make its Dylan O'Brien-starring sci-fi adventure movie Love and Monsters available on premium video on demand services later this year, instead of giving it the theatrical release that was originally planned. Get the details below.
Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer, the two veteran producers behind New Republic Pictures, have locked down a co-financing deal for ten upcoming Paramount Pictures films, according to Variety. The films under the newly-formed deal are two Tom Cruise joints – Mission: Impossible 7 and Top Gun: Maverick – as well as the Chris Pratt-led action thriller The Tomorrow War, Antoine Fuqua's sci-fi movie Infinite, the Michael B. Jordan-starring Without Remorse, the highly-anticipated Eddie Murphy comedy sequel Coming 2 America, an untitled Transformers 7, and the live-action/animation hybrid Clifford the Big Red Dog. The deal also includes two fully-animated films: Under the Boardwalk, which pits sea crab tourists against land crab townies on the Jersey Shore, and The Tiger's Apprentice, which has Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding voicing a shape-shifting tiger who teaches a young boy about a fantasy world involving dragons.
If you read that list and thought, "Wait, Transformers 7? What about Transformers 6?", you're not alone. There have only been five movies in that main narrative thus far, but perhaps they're just counting the 1980s-set prequel Bumblebee as a sixth film and not getting tripped up on the timeline details. As of a few years ago, we knew that 14 Transformers films had been pitched and were in various stages of development, but there's no word on what they might entail – or whether this Transformers 7 is actually going to be Bumblebee 2.
Meanwhile, THR reports that Love and Monsters (formerly known as Monster Problems) will be going to PVOD on October 16, 2020 instead of hitting theaters on February 12, 2021. Here's the outlet's plot synopsis for the new movie: "Monsters is set in a post-apocalyptic time when giant monsters have taken over Earth's surface, forcing mankind into underground colonies. One young man (O'Brien) decides to risk it all to find his high school sweetheart (Jessica Henwick), and along his dangerous journey, he makes unlikely friends including a heroic dog and a pair of survivalists (Michael Rooker, Ariana Greenblatt) who help him survive the monster-infested road to true love."
It's worth noting that the price point for this movie is a bit lower than some of the other films we've seen take the PVOD path recently. Love and Monsters will be available on PVOD platforms for a 48-hour rental period at a suggested rental price of $19.99 in the U.S., and will be available for early digital purchase for the suggested retail price of $24.99.