“Hollywood studios are dying” | EUROtoday

On May 22, 2025

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CE was the resounding information of this Sunday, May 18, in the midst of the Cannes Film Festival: a collection mission on the historical past of the founders of the Adidas Empire, fomented in live performance by the German producer Niels Juul and the American screenwriter Mark Williams, ex-Cocreator of the collection Ozark For Netflix. Statchy nonetheless unknown: the announcement of the 2 males, rigorously orchestrated within the movie of the movie on the Croisette, is exactly supposed to set off the proposals. Case to comply with, subsequently …

The day earlier than, Niels Juul and Mark Williams chained the appointments with some journalists in an house at 4^e ground of a small constructing positioned a stone’s throw from the Palais des Festivals. We had been there. Ex-collaborator of Martin Scorsese (which he produced Silencein addition to The Irishman For Netflix and Killers of the Flower Moon For Apple TV+) and Michael Mann (on Ferrari For premium video), the (very) voluble German producer, on the head of the manufacturing firm no fats ego (“no big ego”, actually), doesn’t spare its bagout to arouseAdidas: Impossible is Nothing.

During our dialogue, Mark Williams will stay moderately imprecise on the precise progress of the writing of this future fiction. He should meet these very subsequent days in Germany the beneficiaries of the Dassler household, founding father of the shoe producer in 1949. Just we perceive throughout our trade with the scriptwriter-showrunner that a lot of the collection will happen throughout a interval from the Nineteen Seventies to the Nineteen Nineties, with flashbacks relationship again to the roots of the household historical past. The format can be concentrated in eight an hour episodes and would additionally tackle the Tapie interval.

At the center of the plot: the tumultuous relationship between Adolf “Adi” and Rudolf “Rudi” Dassler, the 2 brothers behind the model. Signed a couple of 12 months in the past with the Dassler household, the contract binding no fats ego in Adidas will depart the authors of the long run collection, in keeping with Mark Williams and Niels Juul, an entire artistic freedom to disclose sure darker corners of the Dassler saga (notably the lively collaboration with the Nazi regime of Rudolf through the warfare). In addition, the producer and the showrunner have had little entry to the household archives. No fats ego, who specializes within the diversifications to the sagas display linked to well-known manufacturers or personalities (tasks are additionally underway with LVMH, Valentino, but additionally on a really well-known deceased jazzman …), will she discover a purchaser at Pas de Race in Cannes for Adidas? Business to comply with …

The level: Why attempt to arrange a collection on Adidas?

Niels Juul: Because it is a unbelievable story that’s near my coronary heart. The Adidas model, in addition to Puma, is all my youth. Adidas, these are reminiscences linked to Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Muhammad Ali, it is Nadia Comaneci, Arthur Ashe … All these sports activities heroes who’ve accompanied me till as we speak. Adidas was a part of my life and the model is in every single place in our lives. But there’s additionally, alongside this story of the model, one other fascinating story of two brothers who’ve recognized the conflict and by no means talked about it: Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, the founders of Adidas in 1949. Intrafamilial warfare, all this materials could be very attention-grabbing, these are very near a collection like a collection like Succession.

And this household drama truly began greater than 100 years in the past, at the start of the XX^e A century, in a really small Bavarian household enterprise for manufacturing footwear. This small enterprise turned Adidas, one thing a lot greater than they by no means imagined, then she cut up in two with the argument between Adi and Rudi, who based Puma. Most individuals have no idea this story … The collection will subsequently each method household dramaturgy whereas revealing the behind the scenes of the magnitude of sports activities advertising and marketing behind this sports activities model with which many people reside as we speak.

Where did the preliminary thought come from and the way a lot does the acquisition of the rights from a collection on the Adidas Empire value you?

It did not value something … effectively, it did not actually value me very costly. I’m fortunate to have a profession within the career that individuals have been respecting since I produced Silence From Martin Scorsese, a mission that was unattainable to go up since 1989. No one needed to purchase it! We did it with Martin respecting the deadlines and the price range, similar to, later, we did collectively The Irishman And Killers of the Flower Moon. Later, I additionally produced Ferrari From Michael Mann, as a result of I’m keen about unimaginable destinies. From Ferrari, I’ve been approached by many manufacturers who wish to see their story instructed in movie or collection in flip.

And so the Dassler household has truly come to see me to supply to provide this mission. They introduced me to Herzogenaurach. I went across the headquarters with the grandson of Adi Dassler, I visited the behind the scenes of this firm and, rattling it, I understood that this story was truly a lot better than I assumed. Adidas is just not solely a sports activities model, additionally it is a vogue model, a tradition model, it may be credited to have embodied the Hip-Hop motion … In New York, the city neighborhood instantly adopted the model and carried the tracksuit.

Do you have already got a broadcaster in sight to Adidas: Impossible is Nothing ?

No, just because, for the second, the collection solely exists on paper. I simply purchased the rights and, with Mark Williams, I’ve the absolute best creator … I’ve nothing in opposition to Netflix, they do very lovely issues, however we wish to have complete artistic management and, with them, it isn’t all the time apparent; I want to work with Apple. We even have a superb relationship with Fremantle.

Precisely, what’s your margin of artistic freedom in your contract with Adidas? Are you going to have the ability to method the sympathies of the Dassler brothers with the Nazi regime through the warfare?

I’m a producer on the service of the authors, not on the service of a model. Yes, I like Adidas, however I’m not right here to promote. Mark Williams would be the solely grasp on board and I stated to the board of administrators. With the reality, there’s nothing else to do than look it straight within the eye. Like saying, for instance, that Kanye West is a grimy shit, you may publish it as is, I feel and I assume it. More severely, we wish to inform essentially the most genuine story attainable, greater than what I’ve seen in movies like Air Or Gucci From Ridley Scott, who’re, I discover, fairly caricatured.

I’ll by no means work with Michael Mann once more.

What reminiscences do you retain of your collaborations on three movies with Martin Scorsese (Silence, The Irishman And Killers of the Flower Moon) and Michael Mann (Ferrari))?

I might love to transform with Marty, we have now had a rare human {and professional} relationship since Silence. But he ought to conform to decrease his costs a little bit for the long run … On the opposite hand, I’ll by no means work with Michael Mann once more. Ferrari is an unimaginable movie, but it surely was a really troublesome take a look at. This movie ought to have been made for $ 75 million, it ended up costing 100 million or extra. This is what occurs whenever you let Michael Mann do 50 laps by automobile for a scene when he already has the appropriate field.

You know, a bonding firm seems to be on the rushes each day on a set. If you might be two days late, it’s she who decides to chop the meals, and it’s the nightmare of an govt producer. Why do you assume that Clint Eastwood works on a regular basis and that Warner all the time says sure when he’s over 90 years previous? Because it respects the price range and the deadlines. Same for Spielberg! He too respects the concept this job is to start with a enterprise.

You have produced Silence for cinema, but additionally the next two movies of Scorsese in addition to Ferrari On behalf of Streamers. When Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s CO-PDG, says that film theaters are an outdated mannequin, is he proper?

He’s unsuitable. It is 100 % unsuitable. Ted Sarandos, you might be 100 % unsuitable! People nonetheless wish to go to the flicks for occasions. Look on the instance of Taylor Swift, unimaginable! Myself, I’m positive that, if I handle to create an occasion across the collection Adidas At the appropriate time with the appropriate individuals for the promotion and that I get, for instance, the presence of a Lionel Messi with a number of projections, I’ll fill the rooms world wide. People all the time wish to exit.

My youngsters, who’re between 19 and 20 years previous, wish to go to the flicks and they’re those who determine what’s going to occur, they’re the compass! They wish to reconnect with actuality, they transfer away from Tiktok and you may neglect Facebook and Instagram. They wish to go to an appointment in a cinema, like us in our youth, however to see one thing particular.

Is there nonetheless any future within the cinema for filmmakers on the planet you describe?

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Yes. If … if Hollywood slows down on everybody’s charges. This is what killed Hollywood, with the franchises. The studios are dying. I can not any extra Marvel and others Fast and Furious 1, 2, 3, 4, 10. I’m fed up and I feel persons are fed up too. Studio leaders should get up and attempt to supply one thing completely different.

For my half, I’ve a movie mission with Brian de Palma. We are underneath dialogue. The studios now not need him when he wrote a superb situation. But, of their discharge, they need to all reply to shareholders, who’re solely within the enhance in the midst of their shares. Artistic brokers wish to win commissions, it’s subsequently of their curiosity that the whole lot prices as a lot as attainable. It is their mannequin, the fee. You must blow up this complete system.

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