‘Don’t Look Up’ Becomes Netflix’s Second Biggest Film Of All Time

Tim Gray Senior Vice President“Don’t Look Up” has hit a nerve in a way that’s rare for films to do. That’s partly because it addresses an urgent, hot-button topic — climate change — with a film that’s partly a cry for help, partly a black comedy. The movie, written and directed by Adam McKay, with a story by David Sirota, boasts a starry cast, including Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett.

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Because the WGA created its award to be a prize for its members and those who write under its jurisdiction, a Writers Guild nomination is a less accurate predictor of Oscar success than noms from the other three major Hollywood guilds, the Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild and Directors Guild.WGA rules restrict eligibility to screenplays that were written under the guild’s Minimum Basic Agreement or under a collective bargaining agreement from one of 11 affiliate guilds around the world. As usual, that rule disqualified a number of top screenplays this year, including “The Power of the Dog,” “Cyrano,” “Passing,” “The Lost Daughter,” “Drive My Car” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in the adapted-screenplay category and “Belfast,” “A Hero,” “The Hand of God,” “Parallel Mothers” and “Prayers for the Stolen” in original screenplay.“Belfast,” “The Power of the Dog” and “The Lost Daughter” in particular are strong favorites for Oscar nominations.In the documentary category, only three screenplays were nominated: “Being Cousteau,” “Exposing Muybridge” and “Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres.”Winners will be announced at the WGA Awards on March 20, one week before the Oscars.The nominations: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYBeing the Ricardos, Written by Aaron Sorkin;Amazon StudiosDon’t Look Up, Screenplay by Adam McKay, Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota; NetflixThe French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, Screenplay by Wes Anderson, Story by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola & Hugo Guinness & Jason Schwartzman;Searchlight PicturesKing Richard, Written by Zach Baylin; Warner Bros.

Jon Burlingame editorHow do you write a love song that’s also a lament for the impending end of the world?That was the challenge for “Don’t Look Up” composer Nicholas Britell, lyricist Taura Stinson and their co-writers and performers, Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi, as they collaborated on “Just Look Up.” The song is performed in the film and is on the Oscar shortlist for possible nomination in February.The idea came from writer-director Adam McKay, Britell reports. Grande had already been cast as Riley Bina, a pop star who reconciles with her rapper boyfriend (Kid Cudi, as DJ Chello) on the same morning talk show where astronomers (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) reveal that a comet is on a collision course for Earth.

Clayton Davis The Producers Guild of America announced its nominations for the motion picture and television categories for the upcoming 33rd PGA Awards, and it was a good day for the streamers (once again).Netflix ruled the film side with three films landing in the field of 10 nominees: “Don’t Look Up” from Adam McKay, “The Power of the Dog” from Jane Campion and “Tick, Tick … Boom!” from Lin-Manuel Miranda.Warner Bros. captured two nods from its slate: “Dune” from Denis Villeneuve and “King Richard” from Reinaldo Marcus Green.At the best possible moment with Oscar voting opening today, Amazon Studios’ “Being the Ricardos” from Aaron Sorkin snagged one of the coveted spots, which helps its best picture chances considerably.

Clayton Davis The best picture prize is what every studio and filmmaker covets, whether they publicly admit it or not. But, of course, it would help if you had the star power to make it happen. Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett both have proven that they have said star power with the amount of best picture nominees (and winners) they’ve appeared in over their careers.

It stands to reason that a filmmaker reared in comedy improv, Adam McKay, would partner up with an editor, Hank Corwin, who is familiar with cutting for directors known for their impromptu style.

The Independent.“It’s corrupt. And it’s sick. And it’s twisted,” he added.In the film, a pair of scientists (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) discover a comet headed toward earth that will likely bring about the planet’s destruction.

If you’ve got negative things to say about “Don’t Look Up”, maybe avoid saying them around Ron Perlman.

Zack Sharf Ron Perlman is hitting back against critics of Adam McKay’s Netflix satire “Don’t Look Up,” in which the “Hellboy” favorite stars opposite an ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Timothee Chalamet, Joe Morgan and Mark Rylance. Perlman stars in the movie as Colonel Benedict Drask, a war veteran tasked with flying to space to destroy a comet that’s heading toward the planet. “Don’t Look Up” has become one of Netflix’s biggest original films to date since debuting December 24 on the streaming platforms.“Fuck you and your self-importance and this self-perpetuating need to say everything bad about something just so that you can get some attention for something that you had no idea about creating,” Perlman told The Independent.

No stranger to political works, writer/director Billy Ray was behind the recent Showtime series “The Comey Rule,” focusing on former FBI director James Comey and President Trump’s attempt to coax the FBI to drop an investigation into his campaign’s and his own personal dealings with Russia. Now, in an announcement that isn’t all that surprising given their outspoken politics on the matter, filmmaker Adam McKay (“Vice,” “Don’t Look Up“) and Ray are looking to unite to focus on the Trump administration by moving forward with a feature film focusing on the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: The January 6 assault on the US Capitol, considered the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War, will be the subject of a feature film scripted and to be directed by Billy Ray as his follow up to the highly rated Showtime miniseries The Comey Rule. Joining him on J6 is Adam McKay, who is in the Oscar hunt now for Don’t Look Up. McKay will produce along with Todd Schulman, Josh McLaughlin, Cullen Hoback and Shane Salerno, latter of whom was exec producer on the Jeff Daniel-Brendan Gleeson-starrer The Comey Rule. Deadline has confirmed that the script will be shopped to studios and streamers imminently, and that conversations with equity financiers have already begun.

Adam McKay has addressed criticism of Netflix’s environmental satire Don’t Look Up, stating that “you’re never going to make a movie to appeal to everyone” and praising its global popularity, which has seen the Leonardo DiCaprio pic move up to second in Netflix’s most-watched of all time.

EXCLUSIVE: Perhaps no film on his list of narrative star vehicles has subject matter as near and dear to Leonardo DiCaprio as Don’t Look Up, the star studded Adam McKay-directed Netflix satire that substitutes a metaphorical meteor in place of the toll that the climate crisis is taking on the planet. Since his Oscar-winning turn in The Revenant, DiCaprio has done in-person Deadline interviews for all his awards season films. Because of Omicron, this one was done by phone. Here, DiCaprio assessed everything from awards season to moviegoing in the age of Covid, and yes, the real danger of global warming for those who missed the symbolism.

EXCLUSIVE: Benedict Cumberbatch has been named the honoree of the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s Cinema Vanguard Award, which will be presented March 9 following an in-person conversation I will moderate about his career. That résumé includes Oscar-nominated turns in movies like The Imitation Game and Emmy-winning work in the iconic Sherlock Holmes series. It also includes a banner 2021 not only with his critically acclaimed SAG- and Critics Choice-nominated Oscar-buzzed performance in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, but also praised work in The Courier, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, as well as reprising Dr. Peter Strange in the uber-blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

Everyone has experienced the time when a friend or family member comes up to you and is like, “You gotta watch [Insert streaming TV series]! It’s the best!” A lot of the time, you kindly nod and say that you’ll have to watch it sometime later. But in the case of Jonah Hill, when Leonardo DiCaprio tells you to watch “The Mandalorian,” that’s exactly what you do.

The current fourth season of Netflix’s Cobra Kai finished No. 1 in streaming hours for the week of January 2-9, repeating in the top spot among all the streamer’s TV series after the season debuted December 31.

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.