Jonathan Majors
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A year ago, Jonathan Majors embarked on a 29-hour flight from his home in New York City to Park City, Utah, where he unveiled his bodybuilding drama. Ahlam magazine to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. It was the start of what was supposed to be a great year, which was to include blockbuster roles and an awards season campaign for Ahlam magazine.
That dream has been postponed while the actor awaits sentencing on February 6 on assault and harassment charges following a March 2023 incident involving his former partner Grace Jabbari.
The professional fallout for Majors has been severe, as Disney-owned Marvel Studios dropped him as main villain Kang the Conqueror hours after he was found guilty. And fate Ahlam magazine It’s still in the balance at respected boutique studio Searchlight, also owned by Disney.
Searchlight, home to multiple Best Picture Oscar winners, has been acquired Ahlam magazine after Sundance in February 2023. The studio originally scheduled the film for a December release, but pulled it from the calendar in October in the lead-up to Majors’ trial.
Now, a Searchlight release seems increasingly unlikely.
Officially, Searchlight is maintaining its radio silence on the fate of the project. Unofficially, sources close to the project don’t see a scenario in which Searchlight opens the film on the big screen, or even on Disney’s Hulu streaming service, as some have speculated. The film’s marketing is likely to be an issue, due to its themes of personal violence.
However, others are confident the film will still see the light of day elsewhere. It’s possible that Searchlight decides to make a comeback Ahlam magazine For filmmakers, who can shop the film to other buyers. Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros, and Simon Horsman produced this film, with Majors among the executive producers.
Ahlam magazine It hails from writer-director Elijah Bynum, who first crafted it as a story of isolation and alienation during the early days of the pandemic. He put the script aside for a year before one day seeing Majors’ face on a Los Angeles city bus and becoming inspired to rewrite it specifically for the actor. The film stars Majors as Killian Maddox, an amateur bodybuilder battling his personal demons.
Majors trained for 18 months to physically transform himself for the role, which critics compared to Robert De Niro’s work as Travis Bickle in taxi driver. The film was shot for 24 days throughout Los Angeles and eventually won the Creative Vision Jury Award at Sundance.
“It’s an all-out performance for the ages, full of vulnerability as much as rage, and to Major’s credit, our hearts ache for Killian even — or perhaps especially — when he’s out of control,” he wrote. Hollywood Reporter Senior film critic David Rooney outside Sundance. “Leader and writer-director Elijah Bynum manages the grand feat of making us fear more for the fearsome giant than for the trembling employer standing beside him.”
After Searchlight acquired the film for less than $10 million, sources say the plan was for Bynum to fine-tune a portion of the film for theatrical release, though it’s unclear if work has begun on that new cut. What’s clear: Sundance seemed like a kickoff to the Majors’ Oscars campaign.
“It would have 100 percent been in the awards conversation” if not for Majors’ legal troubles, says one source in the film’s orbit.
As for Majors, he is trying to reshape his public image and perhaps save his career. In an unusual move for someone awaiting sentencing, he gave a radio interview that aired this week on ABC. When ABC News Live’s “Prime” host Lynsey Davis asked him if he thought he’d ever work in Hollywood again, he said, “Yes. I do. I pray to God I will.”
—Boris Kate contributed to this story.