A studio that’s in determined want of a success might need simply landed a giant one: Lionsgate has seen a string of flops this 12 months alone, all of the costly selection, however the studio is hoping to show its fortunes round by teaming up with three of the most important stars working at present – The Weeknd, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan.
Per Selection, Lionsgate has landed worldwide theatrical distribution rights to Hurry Up Tomorrow, a movie described as a “musically pushed psychological thriller” starring Abel Tesfaye, in any other case often called The Weeknd, Ortega, and Keoghan. The movie marks The Weeknd’s characteristic debut as an actor, and it is directed by Trey Edward Shults, who earned vital approval for his movie Waves – a movie that additionally relied closely on music to propel its narrative. When Hurry Up Tomorrowwas introduced final 12 months, it was mentioned to be based mostly on an concept from The Weeknd, with Shults doing work on the screenplay.
The undertaking can be supposed to be a companion piece or extension of an upcoming album of the identical identify from The Weeknd. The album’s launch date has but to be disclosed, however it can additionally work along side the movie’s rating, which was composed by The Weeknd and Daniel Lopatin. The Weeknd can be on board as a producer by his Manic Section banner, alongside Reza Fahim, Harrison Kreiss, and the late Kevin Turen, all of whom beforehand backed the controversial HBO collection The Idol.
Lionsgate Movement Image Group chair Adam Fogelson has this to say about touchdown Hurry Up Tomorrow:
“Abel is a visionary whose are can’t be confined by any single medium. With Hurry Up Tomorrow, in partnership with Trey, his musical universe expands onto the massive display with a psychological thriller that may usher in a brand new cinematic expertise for followers. We’re thrilled to be bringing it to audiences worldwide.”
Lionsgate Is in Determined Want of a Hit
Lionsgate actually wants this one to work as a result of its monitor file as of late has not been so sizzling after a slew of dismal box-office performers. The duds started with Borderlands over the summer time and continued quickly after with The Crow reboot, 1992, By no means Let Go, The Killer’s Sport, Megalopolis, and White Fowl. That is seven consecutive monetary misfires in a row launched between August and October. Whereas not all of these releases had astronomical budgets, every one represents a loss indirectly for the studio and would not precisely encourage confidence in a few of Lionsgate’s upcoming releases.
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There’s a excellent news/unhealthy information state of affairs with The Weeknd’s newest undertaking. On the one hand, his music could be very widespread, and he has bought greater than 75 million albums worldwide. Connecting the movie to an album launch, which is about to finish a trilogy of data that started with 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Daybreak FM, might result in strong cross promotion. Then again, The Weeknd’s different performing credit score was for HBO’s The Idol, a present he co-created and starred in with Lily-Rose Depp in 2023. The collection was nearly universally panned by critics after present process a number of artistic overhauls, and the rankings weren’t all that nice, both. As an actor, The Weeknd is a bet, however this subsequent undertaking does have the help of Ortega and Keoghan, with the previous being a rising bona fide field workplace star and the latter proving to be among the finest actors of his technology.
Shults can be a expertise to look at, along with his 2019 movie Waves incomes glowing evaluations for his route and cinematography. Earlier than that, he directed A24’s underrated 2017 horror movie It Comes at Evening. Whereas the movie wasn’t an enormous field workplace success, the undertaking additionally earned excessive reward from critics for Shults’ eye behind the digicam. Hurry Up Tomorrow may very well be the perfect-storm form of hit that Lionsgate wants proper now. If that does not work, the studio nonetheless has the Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, on deck, in addition to the John Wick spin-off Ballerina, and Now You See Me 3.
If nothing else, 2025 is certain to be brighter for Lionsgate than 2024.