Oscar-nominated director James Mangold has a lot of big movies on his plate, and he’s just secured a deal to make even more of them. Mangold just signed a deal to “develop, direct, and produce feature film projects” at Paramount, which was recently acquired by Skydance. It comes on the heels of an upcoming Mangold film, High Side, being acquired by the studio, a motorcycle racing film that’ll reteam the filmmaker with his A Complete Unknown star, Timothée Chalamet.
“I am very excited to begin this collaboration with David [Ellison], Josh [Greenstein], Dana [Goldberg], and everyone at Paramount,” the director said in a press release. “The enthusiasm they have demonstrated toward big screen films and the passion with which they have embraced my ideas for future projects is truly thrilling.”
Goldberg added that “James Mangold is one of the most talented filmmakers working today, and we could not be more excited to welcome him to the Paramount family, starting with High Side and many more collaborations to come.”
“Many more collaborations to come.” That’s great for Paramount and Mangold, but it skirts around the fact the filmmaker is currently attached to at least two major genre films fans have been keeping an eye on, neither of which is at Paramount. We’re talking about his “Dawn of the Jedi” Star Wars film with Lucasfilm and Disney, as well as Swamp Thing with DC and Warner Bros. And, we’re sure you’re wondering, does this new deal impact those in any way?
io9 reached out to Paramount, DC Studios, and Lucasfilm about the news and heard back from a representative for Mangold. They confirmed to io9 that the filmmaker, “remains attached and available to develop all his other projects.” So there you go. All is well and it makes sense. Past experience shows that just because a creative signs a deal with one studio doesn’t mean that they won’t or can’t work with another. For example, J.J. Abrams was under a deal with Paramount when he made Star Wars: The Force Awakens with Disney. Also, just because Tom Cruise recently signed a deal with Warner Bros. doesn’t mean he’s not going to work on a Top Gun: Maverick sequel for Paramount.
The key is that those preexisting projects have to be part of whatever language is in the deal worked out with all the executives. Which, it seems, is the case here. So while the news is not a nail in the coffin of either project, it also doesn’t bode incredibly well for them either. Mangold’s focus is likely shifting to High Side and those “many more collaborations to come,” but if either project gets to a point where it’s ready to go, we’d imagine it will.
And no matter what happens, Mangold has proved time and time again that he has the right stuff to make great films. Not everyone loved Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but we all love Logan, right? And The Wolverine, Cop Land, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, and Ford vs. Ferrari are pretty damn good too. Hopefully, he just keeps making great movies and, maybe even, great Star Wars or DC movies.
This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. with a comment from Mangold’s team.