Ansel Elgort is on a roll ... again. In the same week that his star turn in Baby Driver hits theaters, Deadlinereports that the actor has just been cast in an iconic role that could make or break his career: Elgort will portray John F. Kennedy.Mayday 109 is about a 26-year-old Kennedy's heroic actions as a Navy captain of a patrol torpedo boat in the South Pacific during World War II. According to Entertainment Weekly, the movie will show how Kennedy helped lead 10 of his 12 crew members to safety after their boat was split in half by a Japanese attack. For some of us, Elgort has been the perfect everything since before we knew how to pronounce his name. A.k.a, back in 2013, when it was announced that he'd be starring in both Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars. (Good news seems to come in twos for this guy!)
His latest, Baby Driver, in which he plays a reluctant but super-talented getaway driver with tinnitus, has been getting some of the best reviews of the summer, with a 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating (down just a touch from its 100% score last month). Advance buzz for this one put him on the map for anyone who turns their nose up at young adult novel adaptations.
PIECE ON BABY DRIVERFROM UPROXX.COM
When Baby Driverdebuted last Wednesday, the $34 million heist movie was enjoying good reviews in keeping with the reputation of its widely respected, and cultishly adored, director Edgar Wright. But it couldn't possibly do more than $20 million by the end of the weekend, according to rival studios. Even Sony seemed to expect a base hit instead of a home run. Instead, Baby Driver has currently cleared $34 million.
This number is surprising for several reasons, including the fact that it allowed Baby Driver to outgross Transformers: The Last Knight in its second week of release. That audiences were tiring of the franchise, at least in America, was obvious; the last entry made $100 million in a weekend in the US, but only $243 million total. But it took the fifth entry more than a week to stagger across $100 million, and $200 million seems a remote possibility at best. Worse, foreign audiences seem sick of the robots too.
According to Hollywood's current conventional wisdom, this shouldn't have happened. Audiences, it's assumed, love sequels and original ideas just won't sell. Films matching the latter description - especially ones that cost under $100 million even if they're headlined by big stars - are often destined for Netflix premieres, the fate of movies like the Brad Pitt-starring War Machine and the forthcoming Bright, led by Will Smith. Hollywood calls these "mid-budget" movies - films made by studios at a cost too great for an indie but considerably less than a blockbuster - and they're harder to make and market now than ever. In the past, many mid-range movies were made profitable by DVD and Blu-ray, but as home video revenue has shifted from selling each customer a $20 Blu-Ray to getting a tiny sliver of the $10 a month consumers pay to Netflix, Hollywood's model has shifted to making money globally, and mid-budget movies are seen as less profitable and harder to sell.