IP Picks🔎: A 'Psycho' Girlboss
âž• The hunt for a long-lost cult movie unleashes supernatural horrors
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The Academy Award nominations reminded us once again of the power of underlying IP. Half of the best picture nominees announced this week are based on books: Oppenheimer was adapted from American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin; Poor Things is based on Alasdair Gray's novel of the same name; Killers of the Flower Moon grew out of a David Grann bestseller; American Fiction is a spin on Erasure by Percival Everett; and The Zone of Interest originated as a Martin Amis novel.
But the list doesn’t end there. Maestro is, of course, based on the life of Leonard Bernstein and Barbie is based on, well, Barbie. And even a pair of the best animated feature nominees, Nimona and Robot Dreams, began their lives as graphic novels. Meanwhile, a handful of the films that produced acting nods also tapped into pre-existing IP: Nyad (based on Diana Nyad's memoir Find a Way), The Color Purple (based on Alice Walker's novel) and Rustin (which, like Maestro, was based on research into the 20th Century luminary, Bayard Rustin). All of which points to just how dependent Hollywood has become on some form of underlying IP.
Of course, there's a lot of steps — and a lot things that have to go right — after acquiring a piece of IP. But if you're on the lookout for a subject that could take you all the way to the Dolby Theatre on Oscar night, we've featured plenty here before. Take the book about the origins of Paralympic sports, or the period racist serial killer story, or the provocative thriller about the undercover Black cop who infiltrated the Civil Rights Movement and was with Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was shot. Those are just three recent examples. But why not sift through our past issues where you’ll find loads more?
There are a few other stories that got me thinking about the the business this week. First, I really liked Elaine Low's piece on the current state of the TV market, looking at both the contraction of scripted series last year and what we can expect to see in the coming months. (One small bit of good news: Many industry insiders are predicting at least a small uptick in the wake of the strikes.) On the movie side, David Hemingson, who just got an Oscar nom for The Holdovers, is predicting "a renaissance when it comes to humanist filmmaking." That would be nice. Let’s hope he’s right. And finally, if you’ve ever wondered about ghostwriters — who they are and how they do what they do — The Hollywood Reporter hosted a few of the profession stand-outs for a roundtable. The conversation is short on dishy gossip and naming names, but it is full of details about the job. Not to be outdone, The New York Times hung out at a ghostwriting conference called, I kid you not, "A Gathering of Ghosts" (which seriously sounds like it could be the setting for a great Murder, She wrote episode).
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On to this week’s picks, which includes two sharp satires and a pair of timely, topical dramas. The full rundown:
A horror story that satirizes beauty start-ups and girlbosses.
A timely procedural about Muslim teens falsely accused of being terrorists.
A satirical road-trip dramedy about a former child star trying to convince his former co-stars to revive their hit show.
A horror thriller about a cursed 1920s cult movie.
A political drama about a suburban mom whose abortion crisis spurs her to run for office in Tennessee.
