\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tJustin Wilkes arrives at the Los Angeles Special Screening Of Amazon MGM Studios \u201cAfter The Hunt\u201d at David Geffen Theater, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 04, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter\/WireImage)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWireImage<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tIt\u2019s unclear if Bauer will battle baddies as part of a series or a movie. If he does go the feature route, he may be taking one of his biggest risks yet. The film business faces stiff headwinds \u2014 the box office has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, and studios are focusing most of their resources on comic book movies and videogame adaptations. Those aren\u2019t the kind of films that Imagine specializes in producing (its movies tend to be $50 million to $70 million affairs that are geared at adults). Yet, the company has nearly a half dozen movies in various stages of production and an active development pipeline. Brody says that they\u2019ve been able to stay busy by finding stories that have a compelling hook.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be unique,\u201d Brody says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be different. You\u2019ve got to do something that nobody\u2019s ever seen before. They need to be cluster busters with something you can market.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tIn the case of one of their upcoming films, an adaptation of Daniel Kraus\u2019 novel \u201cWhalefall,\u201d that \u201ccluster buster\u201d angle is a premise that sounds like \u201cPinocchio\u201d mixed with \u201c127 Hours\u201d \u2014 a diver is swallowed by a sperm whale and has only 60 minutes to escape.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe majority of the movie takes place inside the belly of a whale,\u201d Brody says. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I could have made that movie 15 years ago. But at this moment, I can because it\u2019s so different than anything anybody has seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s also a Snoop Dogg biopic from the makers of \u201c8 Mile,\u201d as well as \u201cHow to Rob a Bank,\u201d an upcoming heist thriller with Nicholas Hoult,\u00a0Anna Sawai,\u00a0Pete Davidson and\u00a0Zo\u00eb Kravitz; \u201cAlone at Dawn,\u201d a war film with Adam Driver that Howard directs, and \u201cSpaceballs 2,\u201d a follow-up to the Mel Brooks cult favorite. \u201c\u2018Spaceballs\u2019 is all about joy and and silliness,\u201d Brody says.<\/p>\n \n\tThose will all be theatrical releases, unlike \u201cThe Mosquito Bowl,\u201d the story of a football game that took place on the eve of the Okinawa invasion and involved former football stars who enlisted in the Marines following Pearl Harbor. That movie will debut on Netflix. \u201cIt\u2019s a profound version of a war film,\u201d Brody says.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Imagine team is also looking at past hits to revisit. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere are conversations around what to do with \u2018The Grinch,’\u201d Brody says. \u201cThere are conversations around \u2018Liar, Liar.\u2019 There are conversations that we\u2019re having around a lot of this IP that we own.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tImagine has moved aggressively into the documentary space, producing acclaimed films about cultural icons like Julia Child, Judy Blume, Barbara Walters and Luciano Pavarotti. Bernstein says that Howard and Grazer have tapped their rolodex to encourage people to participate in these intimate looks at their lives and careers.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe work really hard on access, we tend not to really do unauthorized personality projects,\u201d Bernstein says. \u201cI don\u2019t think we come at it like, \u2018this is an expose.\u2019 It\u2019s: \u2018you tell us your story.’\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tImagine is at work on several documentaries including Rory Kennedy\u2019s follow-up to \u201cDownfall: The Case Against Boeing,\u201d and a project based on Jonathan Haidt\u2019s \u201cThe Anxious Generation,\u201d a look at rising rates of mental illness in children. But the company has not been immune to the challenges facing the non-fiction business. Streamers has invested heavily in the space, but as the media industry has constricted, they\u2019ve made cut backs. Bernstein says not only are they commissioning fewer films; they\u2019re also insisting they be made for less money.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFor us, it\u2019s always about what\u2019s the opportunity within this consolidation,\u201d Bernstein says. <\/p>\n \n\tThe collapse of cable and the decline of the theatrical film business have made it more challenging for companies like Imagine to turn a profit. That\u2019s led Imagine to work hard to find new sources of revenue. It\u2019s been a pioneer in the branded content space, working with the likes of Coca-Cola, P&G and Ford. Projects have ranged from short films that are intended to play on social media to feature-length documentaries such as \u201cThe Day Sports Stood Still,\u201d a look at the global shutdown of pro sports in wake of the coronavirus that was produced with Nike, and \u201cDads,\u201d an examination of fatherhood that Bryce Dallas Howard made in conjunction with Unilever. In both cases the brands made a profit on their investment when the films sold to HBO and Apple TV+.<\/p>\n \n\tCompanies are also exploring turning their products into narrative features. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPost \u2018Barbie,\u2019 we have started to see more and more brands interested in taking a big swing at a scripted film,\u201d says Gilbar.<\/p>\n \n\tIn order to land the big clients, it helps that Imagine has its own brand identity. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re a media company that is all about telling inspiring stories of humanity,\u201d says Farrand.<\/p>\n \n\tOver 40 years, it\u2019s been Howard and Grazer who have helped Imagine remain relevant by finding and developing those types of films and shows. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey both bring different superpowers to their partnership,\u201d says Michael Rosenberg, former co-chairman of Imagine. \u201cI\u2019ll give you a sports analogy. Kareem and Magic were great by themselves, but when they were together, they were a combination unlike any other. The same is true of Ron and Brian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For 40 years, Imagine Entertainment has been virtually synonymous with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, the company\u2019s Oscar-winning co-founders. And even as they remain at the helm of the media company they created, they have empowered a team of younger executives to help them continue to grow their film and television businesses, while also branching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2169113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[416601,368558,393284,358554],"class_list":["post-2169112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-416601","tag-friday-night-lights","tag-how-the-grinch-stole-christmas","tag-imagine-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Imagine-Leaders-on-Rebooting-The-Grinch-and-Friday-Night-Lights.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2169112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2169114,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169112\/revisions\/2169114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2169113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2169112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2169112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2169112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}