Action & Thriller Contest Spotlight: Nu Image/Millennium Films

by ScreenCraft - updated on January 20, 2022

By: Andrew L. Schwartz

As ScreenCraft’s 2017 Action & Thriller Screenplay Contest nears its final deadline of October 11th, we're taking a look at Nu Image/Millennium Films, whose Creative/Development Executive, Tanner Mobley, sits on the judges’ panel for the competition.

In a cinematic landscape increasingly defined by declining ticket sales and box office bombs, the success of films like The Hitman's Bodyguard stands out. Even now, the film - which just so happens to be Nu Image/Millennium Film’s single contribution to the 2017 summer circuit - continues to do well, outperforming all of its projected numbers. The only movie to have stayed at number one for three weeks this summer, The Hitman's Bodyguard follows a similar pattern that has helped Millennium Films maintain its status as a company that, in the words of its former Head of International, John Fremes, “continues to deliver an incredibly strong slate of commercially driven action fare that buyers worldwide have come to rely on."

Millennium Films is a studio eager to embrace the changing landscape of the film industry while staying true to its slate of high-concept action/adventure movies. Since its inception in the mid-90s as a subsidiary of Nu Image, whose output at the time included movies such as Shark Attack and Danger Zone, Millennium Films offers no indication of slowing down or changing their formula for success.

Today, their canon includes The Expendables franchise, the final installment of the Rambo series and the Has Fallen film series as well. On their development slate is a reboot of Hellboy titled, Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, which the company plans on presenting at the Cannes Film Festival, an all-female version of The Expendables, and a film about Pablo Escobar titled, Escobar. The company boasts two studios: one in Shreveport, Louisiana, and another in Bulgaria — the latter being one of the largest and most efficient studios operating in Europe.

Today, Nu Boyana Film Studios is known as the Hollywood of Eastern Europe. Boasting the ability to host a wide variety of productions, the studio caters to both ends of the filmmaking spectrum. From low-budget to high-concept action/adventure films, Nu Boyana can do it all. The studio, which opened in 1963 and was subsequently purchased by NuImage/Millennium in 2005, is fitted with state of the art facilities that enable the studio to fulfill every and any production needs imaginable from start to finish. Located in Sofia, Bulgaria, one may find themselves strutting the streets of New York City and accidentally wandering into a Roman town square without missing a beat.

Reporting on Nu Boyana Studios for definitionmagazine.com in 2015, Adam Garstone writes,“the end-to-end service is one that [Nu Buyoana] CEO Yariv Lerner is keen to stress… A producer can hand off a script to one of the in-house Unit Production Managers, who will return a full budget and source everything possible.” Because of their readily available accouterments, the studio can offer competitive rates — where a production may spring for an expensive post-production package they will in-turn save costs on using one of the studio’s 10+ sound stages or live sets.

Since the company’s acquisition of the studio, some of Millennium’s most notable films have been made there including, The Expendables II and III, Conan the Barbarian and Olympus Has Fallen. Projects such as The Black Dahlia and The September of Shiraz were also filmed at Nu Boyana, the latter of which being an example of a project that was completed end-to-end at the studio. Even The Hitman’s Bodyguard saw principal photography done at Nu Boyana.

And while Hollywood stars may balk at the idea of filming at the (relatively) newly updated studios, their reluctancies quickly fade once they arrive. Just ask Liev Schreiber who, according to the studio’s website, harbored a pessimistic attitude toward shooting one of his latest films, Chuck, on a Nu Boyana sound stage. That is until he and his director arrived and were completely taken aback by the studio’s abilities made possible by a passionate and dedicated crew.

In the company’s most recent news, Millennium’s founder and CEO, Avi Lerner, announced his pending retirement, as well as a deal to sell 51% of the studio to a subsidiary of China’s Recon Group called Recon Holding led by Tony Xia. China is currently emerging as one of the film industry's premier markets, which puts Millennium films in an unparalleled position to top global markets.

According to the London-based research firm, IHS Markit, whose findings were reported in a dispatch.com article written by Rafer Guzman, “China last year added more than 7,500 new movie screens for a combined 39,000, a close second to America’s 40,475 screens.” With China’s growing number of cinemas matched by an audience intrigued by the Hollywood studio spectacle, it’s safe to say Millennium Films will continue to provide a steady stream of action films that will perform well across all markets. As Xia himself states in a 2017 Deadline article regarding the buyout, “this is an incredible opportunity for us to build upon Millennium’s premium brand by accessing a film market in China that continues to experience a period of unprecedented growth.”

Action and adventure films have long held a position of being mainstays in the global film industry regardless of their domestic box office performance. According to Alissa Wilkinson writing for vox.com, “ [action] films tend to be heavy on spectacle… And light on story. [This] isn't because foreign audiences prefer bad storytelling, but rather because visual spectacle translates across languages more readily than plot.” Seeing Johnny Depp parade around as Captain Jack for the fifth time may be old news for Americans, but audiences overseas are still intrigued by the CG spectacles and are eager to embrace the familiar face.

Contrarily, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has had a less than stellar opening weekend in China with some theaters even boycotting the film due to its central themes of survival and evacuation, which present themselves in stark contrast to the apparent Chinese values of victory, retaliation, and nationalism. These ideals are most clearly demonstrated in this year’s fifth highest grossing film worldwide, the China-produced Wolf Warriors 2.

Where Dunkirk takes a closely intimate and artful approach to the action film, Wolf Warriors 2 does the exact opposite with the international market accounting for 99.7% of the film’s sales. If the international markets, specifically China, are consistently providing a safe-haven for American flops, it’s safe to say the action/adventure film genre will be around for a long time. It’s even safer to say Hollywood will continue to produce reboots and franchises that have long outstayed their welcome with American audiences — so long as they continue to perform well overseas.

Original films such as The Hitman’s Bodyguard prove that studios such as Nu Image/Millennium Films are doing something right both domestically and abroad. With Millennium’s Tanner Mobley reading as a judge for ScreenCraft’s Action & Adventure Screenplay contest, the time to write a great genre-defining script has never been better. With their sights set on international markets where Hollywood action films continue to do well, the company’s potential for growth is unlimited, and yours can be, too.