THE LL WOLD

Contributing editor LEILA LATIFhas something to say…

Ican feel it in my bones. In 2024, my annual New Year’s resolution to spend less time on social media will finally stick. And though moderation is harder than abstinence, I can’t bring myself to just delete the accounts and deprive myself of all those unvarnished industry revelations.

Recently, it was shocking to see beloved comedian Kristen Schaal begging her followers to help her burn a DVD of her Disney+ show The Mysterious Benedict Society, as she’d discovered it was about to be deleted and wanted ‘to show it to my daughter one day’. As 2023 drew to a close, Guillermo del Toro posted an inspiring call to arms about the Fahrenheit 451-level responsibility we all have to preserve cinema: ‘If you own a great 4K HD, Blu-ray, DVD etc. of a film or films you love, you are the custodian of those films for generations to come.’

Hollywood has had a rough few years amid pandemics, strikes and Samuel L. Jackson not realising we can see what he ‘likes’ on Twitter, but this year should have been a celebratory return to normalcy. Unfortunately, its creative forces are facing an existential threat. The Paramount+ film library lost more than half its titles over the past year, 2021’s Passing won Netflix awards but good luck being able to watch it anywhere in 2024, and Disney+’s Crater was scrubbed out of existence seven weeks postpremiere. Casts and crews now show up to work, aware their projects could meet the same fate as Batgirl and never see the light of day.

THIS MONTH Why 2024 is the year Hollywood needs to rebuild trust.

It’s not just studio executives who told press that they would ‘break’ the writers and allow things to drag on until striking members began ‘losing their houses’. Or Seth Rogen’s claims that the powers that be were sacrificing the livelihoods of thousands with ‘infighting and divergent priorities’. Or – as highlighted by screenwriter Ed Solomon – the fact that studios can employ creative accounting to make it seem like successful movies lost money, and stymie profit-sharing. It’s that cinema’s artistry can play second fiddle to tax-break opportunities.

We all understand that companies need profits to survive. But the future of movies should be in the hands of those who love them, and Hollywood was built by risk-takers who pushed cinema’s boundaries. Now, it’s being rebuilt at the mercy of those who reassure shareholders with how profitable it is to stop making movies.

In 2022, director James Grey warned that to think of filmmaking as ‘a very strict balance-sheet equation’ is not just creatively stifling but financially shortsighted: ‘When you make movies that only make a ton of money and only one kind of movie, you begin to get a large segment of the

population out of the habit of going to the movies. The studios should be willing to lose money for a couple of years on art-film divisions and, in the end, they will be happier.’ But in 2024, filmmakers at every level face potential jeopardy.

Star-studded crime drama The Bikeriders (which graced Total Film’s cover) had to be rescued by Focus Features after 20th Century Studios pulled it from release, and blockbuster slates are now a cacophony of ‘creative differences’, protracted delays, and nixed sequels.

This year is an opportunity to rebuild trust within the industry, with audiences sick of seeing highly anticipated films drop from the release schedule, higher fees for the privilege of streamers shrinking libraries, and TV shows that are cancelled without resolution. So even if filmmakers begin the year unable to trust the higher-ups to be the custodians of their future, they can at least rely on the rest of us to do our part.

Keep going to the movies, keep celebrating original filmmaking, and when spring-cleaning time comes around, whatever you do, keep a hold of those Blu-rays.