There is this legendary and landmark American story by Ernest Hemingway that goes by the name of “The Old Man and the Sea”. The makers of this film inverted the idea and the Old Man became a “Young Woman”.
“Young Woman and the Sea” is an American biographical sports drama film directed by Joachim Rønning. The film is based on Glenn Stout’s 2009 book and written by Jeff Nathanson. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, it stars Daisy Ridley as Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel. The film also features Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Christopher Eccleston, and Glenn Fleshler.
The movie tells the story of Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer who won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics. In 1926, she became the first woman to swim 21 miles across the English Channel.
So what is Disney playing over here?
They are not targeting the movie for a big release that would bring a lot of people to the screens. Rather, they are eyeing the movie as an Award show candy and will move it to the usually dead Disney+. However, Disney is no fool. They want to qualify the movie for all the award shows. Thus, they are ensuring a theatrical release. It will have a limited theatrical run of 2 weeks before it drops at Disney+.
Does it remind you of something?
Yeah, you got us here. It is quintessentially a Netflix strategy as the platform always releases its tentpole films in selected theaters before bringing them on Netflix. Let’s see how successful Disney comes out to be in again imitating Netflix.