Latest news with #AlexWoo
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Netflix, Yahoo in Pact to Expand Programmatic Ad Sales
Netflix added Yahoo to its list of partners for programmatic ad sales, the streaming giant's latest effort to spark interest in its ad-supported subscription tier. 'This will enable clients to buy Netflix advertising through Yahoo programmatically, and will be available later this year in all 12 of our ad-supported countries,' said Amy Reinhard, Netflix' president of advertising, in a prepared statement. 'Integrating Yahoo DSP is all about driving performance for Netflix advertisers, and we will partner together on advanced targeting segments to optimize the best results for our clients.' More from Variety Netflix Spain at 10: Having Changed the Global Perception of Spanish Content, Netflix Ups the Ante on Investment, Ambition and Throws One Hell of a Party 'We Hatched Hairbrained Schemes to Save Our Family': Alex Woo's Childhood Memories Fuel Netflix's New Animated Film 'In Your Dreams' Emmy Voting Opens With 600 Program Series Submissions, 3% Drop From 2024 Netflix already works with The Trade Desk, Google and Microsoft to sell programmatic advertising, which allows for the purchase of digital inventory according to specific parameters that identify consumer habits, qualities or behaviors. Netflix recently gave advertisers the ability to target more than 100 interests in over 17 categories, including life stages, and to incorporate first-party data into their process. Others are also examining similar options. Amazon and Roku earlier Monday unveiled a new deal that will pool their connected-TV audience impressions to allow for better targeting and more precise placement of programmatic advertising in Amazon Fire and the Roku Channel. 'We're excited to bring Netflix's premium ad-supported inventory to Yahoo DSP clients, offering access to highly engaged audiences in a trusted, brand-safe environment. This integration makes it easy for advertisers to incorporate Netflix into their broader CTV strategies without added complexity,' said Alia Lamborghini, senior vice president of global revenue at Yahoo DSP, in a prepared statement. Netflix has been developing its advertising offers since 2022, and has been active in the annual 'upfront' sales market since 2023. Media buyers say the company's scale has been relatively limited on a region by region basis, though Netflix said earlier this year that its ad-supported tier reaches 94 million people around the world. Advertisers typically don't create a single campaign for global audiences, and may buy commercials for specific regions as well as consumers. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
Geek Tyrant
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Wild Trailer for Netflix's Animated Dreamworld Adventure Comedy IN YOUR DREAMS — GeekTyrant
Netflix just dropped the trailer for In Your Dreams , a new animated comedy adventure that looks wonderfully weird. The movie follows two siblings who discover a mysterious book titled 'The Legend of the Sandman'. They are launched into a candy-colored, chaos-fueled dreamworld where pretty much anything goes, including a town made of breakfast food and that classic nightmare scenario where you're suddenly, awkwardly naked. Set perfectly to Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams,' the trailer plays like a mixtape of childhood imagination, sleepover fears, and sibling bonds. You've got zombie waffles, dream monsters, and a talking giraffe named Baloney Tony, voiced by Craig Robinson. The voice cast also includes Simu Liu, Cristin Milioti, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, Elias Janssen, Omid Djalili, Gia Carides, SungWon Cho, and Zachary Noah Piser. Directed by Alex Woo and co-directed by Erik Benson, who also co-wrote the script from a story by Woo and Stanley Moore, the movie was produced by Timothy Hahn and Gregg Taylor, with music by John Debney and animation by Kuku Studios. At a recent Netflix panel, Woo opened up about the long road to making a 'dream movie' that actually works. 'Dreams have always fascinated me. A dream movie in the animated space has sort of been a white whale. I think every animation studio in the world has had a dream movie in development at some point over the last couple decades, but none of them have ever been made, because I think nobody could figure out how to give a dream movie stakes. 'I really wanted to make a movie that explores the question of: What do you do when your dreams actually don't come true? How do you find hope? How do you keep moving forward in life?' Robinson added: 'This script touches all of us. Everybody dreams. It is a love letter to our brothers and sisters. I have a younger brother and an older sister, so that was all real!' If the trailer is any indication, this one's going to be a heartfelt ride through the subconscious, with just enough weird to keep both kids and adults wide awake. The film is set to premiere November 14 on Netflix and it looks like a lot of fun!
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Netflix's ‘In Your Dreams' Is The ‘White Whale' Of Animated Movies
"Dreams have always fascinated me, and a dream movie, in the animated space, has been a white whale," explains director Alex Woo at a sneak peek footage screening for his directorial debut, In Your Dreams. "Every animation studio in the world has had a dream movie in development at some point over the last couple of decades, but none of them have ever been made because I don't think anyone could figure out how to give a dream movie stakes. When we started our company, and we were dreaming up different movie ideas, when we cracked it, we were like, 'Oh my gosh, we've got to make this.'" In Your Dreams, which lands on Netflix this fall, is a comedy adventure that follows Stevie and her brother Elliot as they journey into the absurd landscape of their own dreams. If the siblings can withstand a snarky stuffed giraffe, zombie breakfast foods, and the queen of nightmares, the Sandman will grant them their ultimate dream come true-the perfect family. "I grew up on movies that told me that if I wished hard enough, if I wanted something badly enough, that my dreams could come true," Woo, who previously worked on WALL·E and Incredibles 2, continues. "As I got older, I realized that sometimes that's true, but sometimes it's not, and I wanted to make a movie that explores the question, 'What do you do when your dreams don't come true? How do you find hope? How do you keep moving forward in life? How do you find a way through?' That was why I wanted so desperately to make it." Already tipped as an awards season contender, In Your Dreams has taken Woo on a personal journey of discovery within his own relationships that he never, to be honest, dreamed of. "I have a little brother, and Elliot is based on him. I'm very much like Stevie. My brother and I had our epic battles throughout our childhood," he explains to a handpicked group of journalists and other guests at Netflix HQ in Hollywood. "I'm sort of the perfectionist, overbearing older sibling, and he's the carefree, fun, loving, charming little brother. A lot of this movie was about me trying to understand and appreciate him and his unique perspective on life. One of my good friends, who knows me a little too well, saw the movie and said, 'You know, this film is just a circuitous way of you telling your brother that you love him?' and I was like, 'I guess so?' Making movies is easier than dealing with your feelings." In Your Dreams' ensemble voice cast includes Shang-Chi's Simu Liu and The Penguin's Cristin Milioti as the kids' parents and Hot Tub Time Machine's Craig Robinson as Elliot's lost cuddly toy, Baloney Tony. The streamer is so convinced that horse plushy will be popular with audiences that they have even recreated him for real. Expect it to be on Christmas lists this year. "I've been a huge fan of Craig's for years," Woo enthuses. "He's a genius, so I was so thrilled when he agreed to be in the movie, yeah. His performance as Tony is just fantastic. He just brought so much energy to that character. We improved so many of his lines, and he brought a lot of comedy that we couldn't come up with ourselves. It was just a fantastic time." Robinson adds, "The script touches all of us. Everybody dreams. You daydream, and we all dream about dreaming, so to be a part of it was something real. Tony was just so funny and silly, and I could see myself as this crazy stuffed animal." "It is a love letter to our brothers and sisters. I have a younger brother and an older sister. My brother and I are relentless in teasing our sister, but it's with love and fun. For instance, with text messages, you can't misspell a word in our text chain, or it's over. We're like, 'What does that mean? I never heard that word before.'" Meet Baloney Tony! NETFLIX The comedian also understands Baloney Tony on a deeper level, admitting he still has all of his stuffed animals. "When I was growing up, I had this teddy bear, but it was later, in my teens," he shares. "I had it in college. For some reason, I had all these stuffed animals. I put them all in storage in LA, but I said to myself, 'Why don't I have like 30 stuffed animals?' Anyway, my teddy bear is in there, too." Woo also believes that casting Simu Liu was kismet and recalls approaching him with the project at precisely the right time. "We cast Simu before Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings came out in 2021," the filmmaker, who also co-wrote the movie, reveals. "I have a friend who is good friends with him, and he was filming Shang-Chi at the time. My friend was like, 'Hey, you should think about this actor because he's going to be huge. He's really charismatic.' We were introduced, and I was charmed by him, his good looks, and that charisma. I just asked him if he'd be willing to be a part of this film. I think what hooked him is that his character, the dad, is a musician, and he's this struggling musician himself. He sings a song in the film, and Simu loves singing, and he's very good. I told him, 'It's not musical, but you're going to be able to sing in this film,' and he was like, 'Oh yeah, Sign me up.' That was fantastic." (Left to right) Stevie, Baloney Tony, and Elliot. NETFLIX In addition to the relationships between siblings and our love for our cuddly childhood companions, In Your Dreams also explores the iconic lore of The Sandman. The character, voiced by British comedian Omid Djalili, turned out to be a bigger piece of the puzzle than he expected. "To be honest, it helped us crack the movie," he confirms. "He has this Scandinavian folklore about why kids have dreams when they sleep. The mythology is that when you go to sleep, the Sandman sprinkles sand over your eyes, which is why you wake up with a little crust in the morning, but that's how you get dreams. The story is limited to that origin story of why we have dreams, so what we did was extend that and say, 'Well, what if we could find him in the dream world and he can make your dreams come true?' Suddenly, you can have something in the dream world affect the real world, and that's how we connected those two realities and then gave the film stakes." "Also, one of my favorite movies in the world is Back to the Future, and the song Mr. Sandman, sung by The Chordettes, was used in that movie and this one, so it's a secret homage to that film from me by using that." Finally, what is in Woo's dreams, and did any of them make it into the movie? "That naked dream moment we see in the trailer is shot-for-shot one of the recurring dreams that I have," the In Your Dreams co-writer laughs. "It's me in a department store trying to find a place to hide from all these strangers because I'm completely naked. I forgot to put on clothes when I went out. I also used to have a recurring dream of my parents as lobsters, but I didn't know they were lobsters at the time. Mom and Dad are like, 'Don't cook us,' and I'm putting them in the boiling pot. It's dark, and I don't know what it means."
