This was the summer that theatrical audiences really refamiliarized themselves with the famous 20th Century logo, arcing searchlights and all. The Disney-owned division was everywhere, thanks to hits Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Alien: Romulus, not to mention The First Omen. Even Deadpool & Wolverine, which grossed $1.3 billion, featured the logo before and in the movie, which was in part a love letter to the Fox era Marvel movies.
Guiding 20th is the steady hand of Steve Asbell, the longtime Fox exec who became president of the division in 2020, just when the pandemic hit. He navigated the transitional movies and then the pandemic movies, and then the switch to streaming and back to theatrical again.
But as much as the summer’s movies were about franchises long ago, the studio has one eye very much on the future. It is working with up-and-coming filmmakers on streaming features that it could pivot to theatrical if an opportunity opens up. And it’s stepping on the gas on some original theatrical movies.
“All of this success gives us equity and momentum to sort of take these shots,” says Asbell noting the division goes into production on a Bruce Springsteen feature starring Jeremy Allen White later this month and is due to shoot Send Help with Sam Raimi in January. Next year it will release a comedy from James L. Brookes and Rami Malek spy thriller The Amateur. More projects will get underway in the summer.
Even the offices are lively these days, with a life-size Planet Apes simian, adorned with cool shades, greeting visitors and a handsome wood-and-glass case being built to house the division’s many historical Oscars.
With Alien wrapping up its theatrical run in October and Springsteen close to starting production, Asbell, who oversees nine production executives along with their support teams, is catching his breath, if only for a moment. But he sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss balancing streaming and theatrical, originals and established IP, and spilled more than he should about two, yes we said two, Predator movies coming next year.
This was in many ways the summer that 20th Century Studios came into its own within the Disney empire. So what does it mean being 20th Century Studios in 2024?
I’ve been here five years now almost, and it’s been an amazing journey with Disney in fact, because there is no sort of us and them, it’s just us. I mean, Alan [Bergman, Disney co-chair] has been a champion of ours since the beginning. He’s been supportive of our slate from the very beginning, all through marketing, distribution, publicity. We’re all very close now and we’re all friends. It feels very integrated and it feels like this summer, in particular, we were able to contribute to the larger Disney model. And now we have David Greenbaum, who’s, happily for me, a very old friend of mine. He’s an executive of impeccable taste and he’s brought a real energy, frankly, to both divisions. And so what it means is I think filmmakers, great franchises, and original films for both theatrical and streaming.
Where is the balance between originals and franchise plays?
Right now it’s looking like next year, half the slate. Job one was figuring out these franchise movies first and coming up with the right cadence of Avatar, Apes, Alien and Predator specifically. Getting those right was the first part, which we’ve done now. And so that idea is to be able to say, “Okay, we know when the Avatar movies are coming. We know now about Predator. There’ll be another Apes in ‘27, let’s just say.”So knowing where we can plan those franchises, it helps us look to see and ask what kinds of original movies in terms of genre do we want to test the marketplace with?
How do you decide which ones go streaming and which ones don’t?
The landscape has changed so that theatrical is back. There’s a lot more opportunity in theatrical films, but since the consolidation of Disney+ and Hulu, there’s a tremendous audience for those [streaming] films. There’s still that thing with the streaming movies where we can really take chances with it and they can sort of be what they need to be. They don’t necessarily have to hit that theatrical threshold of, “how much is it? How many screens?”
Alien: Romulus was supposed to go straight to streaming, but that changed right before filming. So what prompted that change?
It was started as a streaming movie because we started development when we were in COVID and it wasn’t clear what our strategy was going to be theatrical or streaming. At the time we had different sorts of budget categories for streaming, which we were always circumspect about not wanting to spend too much money on streaming movies. We didn’t know quite yet how they would perform based on the metrics. And the truth is we started it hoping that theatrical would return to some measure of normal. But we made that film and, frankly, every other film we’ve made for streaming, with the same care and curation as we do our theatrical movies.
What’s the next step for Alien?
We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, “Wow, where do people want to see them go next?” We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.
Jon Landau, who was producing the Avatar movies, sadly passed away this summer. Has the day-to-day on Avatar 3 changed at all?
It’s just hard personally, because Jon’s somebody I talked to every day and he was a mentor to me and a good friend and had unbelievable impact on everybody. I mean, it’s a huge loss. He was a great, great friend and a great sort of half mind to Jim [Cameron], however he describes it. We just miss him every day. But it hasn’t changed. It hasn’t affected the release date or Jim’s timeline or anything of that. We were already on a track that has its own milestones and guideposts.
Lightning round on 20th Century titles! Free Guy 2?
Not yet. [Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds] have to come up with an idea. And they’re just busy.
Kingsman sequels or prequels.
There’s no plans on doing them anytime soon.
More Agatha Christie mystery movies.
More, yes. We have, And Then There Were None. We have Witness for the Prosecution. We’re doing Miss Marple. There’s a bunch of other titles that we’re working on. We have very close relationship with the estate.
A Master and Commander prequel?
I’m trying so hard. It’s the first movie I worked on at Fox twenty years ago. We have a great script. It just needs the right director.
Any Die Hard plans?
No, not yet.
Here’s a big one. Will the next Predator movie get a theatrical release? [Editors note: this conversation took place before Disney dated Predator: Badlands for a 2025 release in theaters.]
Yes. And no.
You’re killing me here.
Yes, a Predator movie will have a theatrical. I’ll tell you very simply. After Prey became a success, Dan [Trachtenberg] came back and said he didn’t want to do Prey 2. And we’re like, “What do you want to do?” And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool. We’ve actually done two of them. Two are coming out next year. One I can’t talk about yet, but the other one is the live-action Predator film with Elle Fanning that just wrapped in New Zealand. That’ll be out theatrically sometime next year.
You’re blowing my mind. Let’s tackle this one at time. One Predator movie is coming out theatrically?
It’s titled Badlands and it is an absolutely bonkers idea. It is a sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everybody thinks it is. And I mean, it’s awesome. It is so nuts. But in Dan, we trust.
Now you said there’s a second Predator movie.
There’s a second Predator movie that we have different plans for. Dan has actually directed both.
So there’s a secret Predator movie—
There’s a secret Predator movie that will come out before the theatrical one but I can’t say anything about yet.
Fine. Will we eventually see another Alien vs. Predator?
Probably.
Not sure how I feel about that.
It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.
At a 30th anniversary screening of Speed a few weeks ago, Sandra Bullock said Hollywood may not be brave enough for a Speed 3. Response?
Hollywood is brave enough. We are brave enough. We are sitting by the phone. (Laughs)
It is one of those last movies that we haven’t remade. And to really be a reason to come back, it’s got to be a great idea and an idea that excites (Bullock and Keanu Reeves). Because that’d be the reason to see it. It’s obviously a really important title for us, but it’s not something we would handle lightly or just try to press them into service. They’d have to be a part of the development of that idea.
A version of this story first appeared in the Oct. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
