Oscar Glory for ‘Oppenheimer’ rewards Studio Chief’s vision

“Queen!”

It was a Friday night in January, and Snoop Dogg had just entered a cocktail party hosted by Donna Langley, NBCUniversal’s chief content officer and studio president. His shouted greeting, combined with a cheerful, reverent dance, seemed to embarrass her a little. “We’re here to celebrate filmmakers and films,” Langley told the audience a few minutes later. “This isn’t about me.”

For an executive who prefers to stay in the background — she declined to be interviewed for this article and sent a lieutenant to try to kill it — the 2024 Oscar stretch has been tricky. Like it or not, this moment in Hollywood history is largely about her.

It was Langley who, in a wild bet on a three-hour period drama about a physicist, gave Christopher Nolan the money to make “Oppenheimer.” The film won seven Oscars on Sunday, including director and best film. Nolan began his acceptance speech for best director by saying, “Donna Langley – thank you for seeing the potential in this.”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the supporting actress Oscar for her performance as a grieving mother and boarding school cook in “The Holdovers,” which was released by Focus Features, a specialty film studio that Langley also oversees.

In a rare feat, Universal’s creative dominance coincided with commercial supremacy: the studio hit No. 1 at the worldwide box office in 2023, sold nearly $5 billion in tickets and ended an eight-year Disney reign. Moreover, Universal reached the audience the old-fashioned way: by offering films from a mix of genres, without a superhero to be found. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.4 billion) led the way, followed by “Oppenheimer” ($958 million), “Fast

Other Universal successes included Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’, the comedy ‘Cocaine Bear’ and the horror-comedy ‘M3gan’. Over the weekend, “Kung Fu Panda 4” arrived to a solid $58.3 million in the United States and Canada. (There have been failures, of course, including “The Exorcist: Believer,” which bombed in the fall, putting a planned trilogy in jeopardy.)

Sometimes your luck is great in the casino called Hollywood. But Universal’s strength is also a testament to the 56-year-old Langley, who has doggedly tried to make her studio the home of choice for Hollywood’s top filmmakers and producers. As ticket buyers begin to push back on superhero thrillers and franchise sequels, Universal’s first-look deals and partnerships with talent like Jason Blum, James Wan, Jordan Peele, Elizabeth Banks, Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, Phil Lord and Chris Miller position the studio for continued prosperity.

“Donna is a spectacular studio executive,” Steven Spielberg, who returned to Universal in 2015 after a stint on his own, said in a telephone interview. “The relationship between directors and studios has historically been them versus us. There are exceptions and Donna is one of them. She is with us.”

Spielberg added that he showed Langley “a very early draft” of his 2022 cinematic memoir “The Fabelmans,” which was nominated for seven Academy Awards. “Not because I was obliged to,” Spielberg said. ‘Not because I was trying to get approval or fish for compliments. I needed Donna’s ideas on how to make the movie better.”

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, whose ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ won seven Oscars last year, including for director and best picture, signed a five-year exclusive deal with Universal in 2022.

“We were immediately impressed with Dame Donna Langley and the culture she has fostered in her studio,” Kwan and Scheinert wrote in an email. “She is a deeply feeling and creative human being who really listens to you when you speak. The first time we had dinner, we talked about integrating gut biome science into criminal justice, climate change, interior design, and the hunt for the perfect shade of yellow. We knew immediately that we had found our people.” (Langley, who grew up on the Isle of Wight, became one Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2020.)

Talent may feel comfortable with Langley, but she also makes it clear that the studio is her priority. She was one of four executives (the others came from Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros.) who engaged in bare-knuckle union negotiations with writers and actors last year, resulting in strikes. She recently lost a bidding war with Warner Bros. for a new film from Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”), in part because she refused to budge on a highly unusual deal point: Coogler wanted the copyright to revert to him after a certain period of time. . Warner agreed.

Universal, which is releasing 19 films this year, has also benefited from competitive instability.

Disney’s film operations have struggled with quality, causing the company to cut back on production; it will release 10 films this year. Warner Bros., which has a dozen films on its 2024 release calendar, has been divided among its owners and its parent company is widely seen in Hollywood as a merger candidate. (Possibly with NBCUniversal.) Paramount will release nine films as its parent company struggles with a rapidly crumbling cable TV business and streaming costs.

Universal is owned by Comcast, which has been relatively stable. “Film has always been a priority for Comcast and under Donna’s leadership we wanted to ensure she had the resources to invest in the talent and creators who would want to call Universal their home,” wrote Brian L. Roberts, CEO of Comcast, in an email. .

Langley came to Hollywood in 1991 and worked as an unpaid intern at a literary agency while working at a nightclub on the Sunset Strip. At the club she met Michael De Luca, then director of New Line Cinema, and he hired her as his assistant. (De Luca is now co-chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.) She climbed the ladder at New Line until joining Universal in 2001.

“Sometimes in our industry there is a sense of being afraid to operate – let me take the path of least resistance, let me do the thing that is least risky because the environment is tough,” said Will Packer, Universal based producer of hits. such as ‘Girls Trip’ and ‘Ride along’.

“I don’t get that feeling from the team at Universal,” he continued. “And for the creative community that makes the difference.”