UPDATE: Puck is reporting on the budget and, more or less, corroborating what I had stated last month — they’re saying it’s over $300M.
Posted on 05.10.24: I would really like to know where this all ends. When is the cataclysmic moment when studios realize that overspending on movies might not be the way to go?
This decade, we’ve seen budgets balloon, and, yes, some of it might have to do with pandemic delays and recent strikes, but those are not the only reasons. Earlier in the week, I reported about how Joseph Kosinski and Brad Pitt’s F1 Apple movie cost $300 million to produce. Here’s another costly example…
Fresh off the streaming “success” of “The Gray Man,” I’m hearing that Joe and Anthony Russo‘s latest Netflix extravaganza, titled “Electric State,” is said to have cost $320 million to produce. Now, there’s been a lot of behind the scenes drama with this one and I’ll try to briefly recap why the budget might have been this high.
Principal photography on the film began way back in October 2022. A month later, production had to be temporarily paused after a crew member working on the film died in an off-set car crash. Filming “officially” wrapped in February 2023. However, reshoots did occur in March and April of this year.
The cast for “The Electric State” includes Millie Bobbie Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Giancarlo Espostito, Anthony Mackie, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, Brian Cox, and Jenny Slate. It’s a sci-fi story, based on Simon Stålenhag‘s 2018 illustrated novel of the same name. Here’s the synopsis:
“The Electric State” is a coming-of-age tale that mixes sci-fi and western genres in a retro-futuristic past. Brown plays an orphaned teenager who traverses the American West with her robot friend and an eccentric drifter in search of her younger brother.
Netflix outbid its opponents to snatch up “The Electric State” when it went on the market in early 2022. Will their investment pay off? There is currently no release date for ‘Electric State,’ but Netflix has been hinting that it could be released this year. Given the recent reshoots, I believe we’re looking at a 2025 launch.
What I do know is that you’ll be hearing a lot more about this story. I’m expecting trades to report on it, but you have the inside scoop right here. I’m told that ‘Electric State’ was one of the reasons why Netflix recently conducted a reassessment of its film division, which, among other changes, had Dan Lin replacing Scott Stuber as head of film.
Reeves is supposed to direct, David E. Kelley is writing, and just like that, Apple got cold feet — the usual “creative differences” excuse is being cited in the report, and maybe that was indeed the case.