As Hollywood grinds to a halt and thieves steal props from the Beetlejuice film set, the Screen Actors Guild has allowed a small number of indie films to continue production. Most of these flicks are by tiny companies that would probably go under if cash flow dried up – but Daniel Katz’s studio A24 stands out on the list. A24 is not like other indies. Its output includes Oscar’s stormers Everything Everywhere All at Once and Moonlight as well as Brendan Fraser’s The Whale and breakthrough movies Ex Machina, Midsommar and Beau is Afraid. Plus there’s TV like HBO’s Euphoria and Netflix’s Beef. Katz and co-founders David Fenkel and John Hodges set out to disrupt Hollywood – they refused to join the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and are agreeing to film Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway, and Death of a Unicorn, with Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, in line with SAG’s demands. With the AMPTP in disarray, Katz could effectively be running the movie industry this year.
Photograph A24
