I thought it would get a distributorI thought it was good enough for that. Sacco: I show up at the airport. Aizenberg: We had a couple movies in there that we tried to force into making, like, event-y theatrical, and they werent. And even this public face represents the companys nonhierarchical structure: Thats only funny, Beyer once observed, because youre not quite sure whos saying it. 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. PARK CITY, Utah At the Sundance Film Festival here in January, executives at A24, the upstart movie and television studio, stood in the back of a makeshift theater looking as if . A24 Co-Founder John Hodges Exits - Yahoo It was me! Activity. The news of Hodges exit was abrupt, but one source said the move has been in the works for some time. The films were darlingsincluding David Michds The Rover, starring Robert Pattinson; Denis Villeneuves Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal; and Jonathan Glazers Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johanssonand, by and large, box-office underperformers. Whatever lingering reservations I had about the VOD side of A24s business were dismantled by the recent rumblings of a demonically possessed goat: The DirecTV logo may still be lurking toward the bottom of The Witchs teaser poster (which accurately identifies and champions Black Phillip as the movies breakout star), but at some point along the way it was decided that this crowd-pleasing, pants-ruining work of art has the makings of a communal sensation, and A24 pivoted. Photos courtesy A24, by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images, and Janette Pellegrini/WireImage/Getty Images. I Just Raised The Oscar At Them. In between, A24 went from being a tiny, disorganized room of eight or so people to being the place where big stars like Robert Pattinson and Scarlett Johansson go to make small, strange movies, and auteurs like Jonathan Glazer and Denis Villeneuve go to make deeply personal films unmolested by studio notes or clueless executives. Earlier this year I was drinking in a hotel bar with the head of another distribution company at a film festival. How A24 is Disrupting Hollywood | GQ See what happens.. Which is vanishingly rare in the film industry. This story appears in the summer issue of GQ Style. That didnt come with any veto rights or cut rights, Abrahamson told me. Buying and burying not-great movies isnt necessarily a problem if it grows the business without harming the brand. [6] The name "A24" was inspired by the Italian A24 motorway Katz was driving on when he decided to found the company; coincidentally, the motorway is also renowned in Italian film history as the setting of many small Abruzzan towns and rural landscapes employed in the films of neorealist and surrealist masters. Your vision is incredible.. That company and the old Miramax and Fox Searchlight had a real brand and a hold on their audience. Love that movie. When it wasnt us. In the last 18 months alone,along with Room and The End of the Tour,it has pioneered the abortion comedy with Obvious Child, scored a commercial hit with the seductive thriller Ex Machina, released one of the most daring science fiction films this side of 2001 in Under the Skin, and driven the most lucrative documentary in years with Asif Kapadias Amy Winehouse portrait, Amy. And it just kept getting better and better and better. Its coveted because six of the past seven winners were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and the harrowing, emotional Room looks poised to follow in their footsteps after it opens in October. (Joy, Annapurnas only 2015 title, arrives in theaters on Christmas Day.). And I think it is down to companies like A24. We wish Hodges the best of luck with his next endeavor, since the indie landscape has certainly benefited from his contributions. And I was just acting! They kept shutting us down. Despite lacking any pre-defined structure, episodes generally contain discussions around recent works of the two guests, allowing for branching discussions to other areas. The only monsters we ever see in "It Comes at Night" are the ones that live under one roof. Beyer: And respect them and treat them the way they would by any other company. Sure, were talking about an aggressively uncommercial director whose previous feature was called Trash Humpers, but the success of Spring Breakersand how it was achieveddemonstrated that theres still an audience for the kind of challenging and essential medium-budget movies that most in the business left for dead. John Hodges | A24 Films Wiki | Fandom Which, if you look two years back, theres just no way in hell anybody would have thought that A24 would finance a film like Moonlight and release it in the way they did, to the tune of a Best Picture and $55 million in international box office. I kept calling the guy. The photo has been replaced. [He won at least six.] Signed on as producer beginning with the third season. Losing a movieI wanted to jump off a bridge. Johnny Hodges Net Worth. Because they didnt expect the traffic. They didnt have a ton of movies, you know? And theyre aiming at them. None Of Us Thanked Them. Fenkel: In LA, every meeting is about the hot air. And so with [The Rover], they took that into account, and instead of blowing loads of money, [they did] more targeted marketing and also really sophisticated online campaigns and stuff. Since its inception in 2012, A24 has become one of the hottest destinations for indie filmmakers, ushering such edgy films to theaters as The Bling Ring and Spring Breakers. Fenkel: And they were like, You cant do that! We saw the red envelope. And Im not saying theyre magicians. John Hodges will be leaving A24 to pursue other opportunities, the indie distributor announced Monday. Aizenberg: I was already, like, putting together the distribution plans for Frances Ha. 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. And it was like. Daniels like, Okay. Aizenberg: Ex Machina winning for visual effects was the most shocking thing. A24 - Wikipedia And the guy asked me, Is there anything we might find suspicious in there? I said, Theres an art piece inside in the shape of a gun. And literally the entire security department was like, What is wrong with you? Long story short, it made it through. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks. Login to view all information @ [15], In January 2016, Sasha Lloyd joined the company to handle all film, television distribution and business development in the international marketplace. 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. The films backers will be made whole, its makers will get another chance at bat, and its distributors will continue to enjoy the financial solvency provided by the DirecTV dealnot to mention the $50 million line of credit the company secured last fall. A24s biggest success, Lady Bird, grossed $49 million domestically, so can that ceiling support the duos ambitions, or will a larger distributor make them an offer they cant refuse? And it was the hair and makeup people. But more independent existed then. Harvey Weinstein (via email): A24 is a great company. I go, Huh., It Sucks, Man. 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. 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. It specializes in film distribution, and film and television production. As one of the founding members of the New York-based company, Hodges played a key role. A24 Co-Founder John Hodges Exits as Sale Rumors Plague Indie Studio The bottom line is that there were 677 new releases in 2013, and that number is only getting bigger. Spring Breakers had a whole Oscar campaign: Consider This Shit.Zoe Beyer. 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. With Hodges leaving, the company behind the Oscar-winning best pictureMoonlight made it clear that no additional changes in management will be made. 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. It Follows takes the horror trope of getting punished for having sex to a new level. A24 FILMS. Katz, Fenkel and Hodges prior to A24 worked in film and production, before leaving to eventually co-found the company, In September 2013, A24 struck a partnership valued up to $40 millionwith satellite television provider DirecTV. I mean, I have no idea what theyre doing, really. They rented some office space in Manhattan. Steven Soderbergh retired. Spike Lee turned to Kickstarter. I dunno! I mean, it made sense at the time. Although A24's actual net worth is not known. It was also that A24 was releasing these films not with a sigh and a shrug, but with panache, style, and humor: bright neon colors, guerrilla marketing tactics, and in the case of James Francos Britney Spears-loving gangster character from Spring Breakers, an actual Oscar campaign. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. It was such an out-of-body experience. We wanted to deliver in a meaningful way. From It Follows to The Babadook, these horror gems didnt have blockbuster budgets. But youre like, Why didnt other people see that? I have no idea. Mahershala Ali (actor, Moonlight): I definitely have a lot more opportunity right now than Ive ever had before. That broke the film out., For Room director Lenny Abrahamson, working with A24 on his films campaign has been a dramatic change. Description. Sacco: We were on our way to the bathroom. Fenkel: Look at The Witch. And then there was another one where hes deep-throating the gun, and we replaced it with a gold statue. [24], On November 15, 2018, A24 and Apple announced that they had entered into a multi-year partnership where A24 will produce a slate of original films for Apple. And that question is the birth of fandom. That Oscar win came within five years of A24s launch, but so did Open Roads win for Spotlight, and now that company is part of the larger entity Global Road. John Hodges is leaving A24, the Oscar-winning indie studio that he co-founded. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. A24 Founder John Hodges To Part Ways With The Company Fenkel: So hes booking, what, fifteen hundred screens? you never leave your partner especially in a fire villas san angel rosarito a24 john hodges net worth. And with the opening weekend, with the numbers that we did, it became very clear that, yes, this is a viable strategy, to keep this very small, gay, art-house hood-ass filmlike, yeah, were just gonna keep it in theaters. The monster at the center of The Babadook is a personal demon, not a literal one. Theyre just on it. Heavey: He didnt really use a computer. The things about it that didnt were what made me most excited, both for Moonlight and the future of a company thats confident enough in its sense of self to stretch toward something new. A24 Founding Partner John Hodges to Exit - The Hollywood Reporter I actually tied with Jared [Leto], who obviously won the Oscar that year, for L.A. Film Critics. A24 will. Hodges has been an integral part of the studio since its inception in 2012. Hodges had run A24 with David Fenkel and Daniel Katz as a ruling troika, albeit one that operated without offices (located in Chelsea, the company was known for its open space and banquette tables). Jenkins: I dont know if [Moonlight] was a glittering jewel of a project. They were thinking in a different way, trying something newer and maybe more radical with their approach. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. There has been speculation for the past six months that the company is for sale. All Rights Reserved. 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Dont get left behind. [laughs] I remember I had to have a conversation with Alicia about it, where she was saying, What the hell? and I was saying, I dont know.