Eliza Bynom’s ‘Magazine Dreams,’ Tour De Force With Jonathan Major Performance, Searchlight Pictures Muscles Deal For Sundance Pick
Exclusive: Closing a deal for Searchlight Pictures Magazine Dreams, the Elijah Bynum scripted and directed drama starring Jonathan Majors as a troubled amateur bodybuilder willing to go to any lengths. Sources said Neon, Sony Pictures Classics and HBO were also in the mix. Release plans will be announced once the deal is formalized.
Majors is about to get a big star boost by starring in Kang the Conqueror Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania Which leads to the next Avengerand Michael B. Square off against Jordan Religion III.
His performance as Killian Maddox Magazine Dreams Really shows his full range and includes the acting chops and turns honed at Yale Lovecraft Country, San Francisco’s Last Black Man, Hard they falland more recently devotion His promise in Magazine Dreams Beyond the 6000+ daily calories and constant workouts that made him bench press 340 pounds, he believably plays an amateur bodybuilder. What’s most impressive is how Majors inhabits the spirit of a restless and socially awkward young man so hell-bent on getting out and succeeding that he destroys his liver with steroids and creates a combustible rage problem for himself. As things continue to go wrong for him, Maddox gradually descends into the darkest places during his trip down the rabbit hole, but almost never gives up hope that the audience will somehow get out of snoring.
Jonathan Majors in ‘Magazine Dreams’, ‘Creed III’ and Batak in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania’
Courtesy Sundance Institute/Netflix/Marvel
The film premiered at Eccles on 20 January in the US Dramatic Competition category, but its dark turn means it will take some time to finalize a distribution deal. Weighing heavily in favor of this is an award caliber performance from the majors, which Searchlight cherishes with the best of them.
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 20: Elijah Bynum attends the 2023 Sundance Film Festival “Magazine Dreams” Premiere at Eccles Center Theater on January 20 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Arthur Holmes/2023 Getty Images)
The film is produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Simon Horsman and Jeffrey Soros, major exec producers. He stars alongside Haley Bennett, Harrison Page, Taylor Page, Michael O’Hearn and Harriet Sansom Harris.
The film also announces a new and compelling voice in Bynum, who is repped by CAA and Kaplan/Perrone, while the majors are WME and Entertainment 360.
The agreement was brokered by CAA.
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