One major storyline worth observing this season has been the studio making a concerted effort to front load potential awards contenders at the start of the season. Time and time again late-season releases have had a stronghold on GRA nominations. The studio's adjustments have made for a fairly high quality first half of the season. A whomping 10 of 15 releases came in at 70 or higher on their Metascore. Hopefully the second half will be just as entertaining!
With this mind, how do are the actual awards races shaping up? Well it's tough to say since only a couple of those first half films were of the MUST SEE status, leaving plenty of room for the second half of the season to take some spots. The Beat Goes On appears to be a clubhouse favorite for quite a few awards at the moment but The Lights might not be too far behind. After a few strong seasons for the category, Best Actress is looking completely up in the air at the moment (which could also be impacted by who some writers choose to run in that category versus Supporting).
An exciting trend emerging this season is that a number of new franchises appear to be on the horizon, perhaps providing a glimpse of what is to come heading into LRF's 30s. Duke Nukem was a runaway success at the box office, cementing John Cena as an A-list star for the studio. Amityville proved a hit with audiences and critics alike, with writer Jack Brown indicating that there will be more where that came from. Could we see more in the back half of the season? We haven't gotten a glimpse of it yet so it could be a one-and-done but Thorne sounds like it has all the makings to be something new for the studio.
In Hollywood at the moment, video game movies have been gaining momentum with a slew of hits, including Sonic the Hedgehog, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and most recently Five Nights at Freddy's. Might we see the same in LRF, with this season already seeing profitable films in Nukem and Watch Dogs and Gears of War 2 slated for Round 8. Meanwhile, superhero films have been in a bit of slump and, while that might not hold as true in LRF, there does seem to be less of a comic book focus of late than in past seasons. Of course, a successful Superman film to end the season (on the back of strong Wonder Woman and Batman entries) could help rejuvenate the superhero stable at the studio.
So what do we have coming up? There are quite a few adaptations in the next few rounds. Some are based on novels and that obviously brings some hesitation given the popular and critical reception of those over the years. Spike Lee and Jacob Jones teaming up for a loose remake of a 70s Iranian film would not have been on my bingo card but it certainly has me intrigued. There also appear to be some very original concepts, like the aforementioned Thorne and Wyatt Allen's The Untitled Paul Nichols Project. As always, I look forward to checking back after Round 10 to evaluate the season as a whole.
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