Searchlight Returns Rights to MAGAZINE DREAMS to the Filmmakers Amidst Jonathan Majors’ Real-Life Difficulties

Searchlight Gives Back Rights to Jonathan Majors Sundance Fave

Searchlight has returned the rights of the Jonathan Majors movie, Magazine Dreams, to the filmmakers as Majors‘ real-life problems continue to mount.

 It isn’t a good time for Jonathan Majors. He lost the role of Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel film world recently as well. Whereas Oscar nominee Colman Domingo is rumored to be a contender for taking over that role, Majors could have found himself in the Academy Award race as well had Magazine Dreams not been shelved last October, just months after Majors was arrested in New York. Now, the independent movie extension of Disney, Searchlight, has severed all ties with the project altogether.

Magazine Dreams is a “well-received by critics” story of an amateur body-builder and is a very dramatic film. It is now back on the open market for a studio which would like to pursue releasing it and, also, go after getting an Academy Award nomination for the career-troubled Majors. That will be an uphill battle, though, as the movie’s ship could have sailed given all the negative press which has resulted from Majors’ arrest and conviction on the grounds of “assault and harassment.”

Searchlight is an awards machine of a studio which is likely to crank out nominations for a couple of its movies that came out in 2023 such as Poor Things and All of Us Strangers. Magazine Dreams could have been in that group had Majors not gotten into so much trouble. Some critics had considered him something of a “shoo-in” for a Best Actor nomination even in a crowded field such as the one 2023 presented. Because of Majors’ real life behavior, that couldn’t happen under Searchlight’s umbrella. Could another studio be brave enough to take on the project for consideration for next year’s Oscars?

Magazine Dreams was reviewed by David McDonald for FilmBook who gave the film an 8.5/10. McDonald had much praise for the project. He wrote, “There’s no question that the camera loves Jonathan Majors.” Let’s hope audiences can love him again if the film eventually sees the light of day and scores the Oscar nod for Best Actor some say it deserves.

Elijah Bynum is the director of Magazine Dreams. Bynum’s promising career is also on hold due to the holding back of the critically acclaimed Sundance favorite from last year. Majors is going to be sentenced on February 6th so, perhaps, other studios will wait to see what happens there before opting to buy Magazine Dreams. In the meantime, you can await the Oscar season that actually is this year where Paul Giamatti and Cillian Murphy are duking it out for Best Actor with Majors nowhere in the picture.

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