In a town and an industry that can often be primarily about profit and dollar signs as its bottom line, Wayfarer Studios is striving to put some more humanity back in Hollywood, proving that business can in fact thrive without losing one’s morality along the way.
I recently sat down with Wayfarer Studios Co-Founder/Chairman Justin Baldoni, CEO Jamey Heath and President Tera Hanks at their Beverly Hills, California office to discuss their team’s evolution so far, the journey surrounding their much-anticipated film It Ends With Us (in theaters on August 9) and to preview what is coming next from them.
Started in 2020 by Baldoni and Steve Sarowitz, Baldoni began to see Wayfarer’s potential very early on. Arguably best known so far for his five seasons as Rafael Solano on the hit television series Jane the Virgin, Baldoni also directed the feature film Clouds, a true story about a teenager with cancer who finds joyful purpose and inspiration through music.
After originally teaming up with Warner Bros. on Clouds as an investor around its intended theatrical release plan, Baldoni said, “In the contract - in the deal, if this movie does not go to theaters, then Wayfarer will gain control of the movie. The [Covid-19] pandemic hit and then suddenly, HBO Max launched. We were really lucky to be starting the [Wayfarer] company at that time. Now, it’s a Wayfarer movie and we choose its destiny. Disney had just started their [Disney Plus] streaming service, so we became the first acquisition from Disney at a time they didn’t have any movies to go on their platform.”
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Heath, previously known for his celebrated career as a writer, musician and producer for some of the biggest names in entertainment, joined Wayfarer four years ago and worked his way up to becoming CEO. He added about Wayfarer’s first big steps and his personal thoughts on Baldoni, “Wayfarer Entertainment, before it switched over to Wayfarer Studios, it was ‘for service.’ [Justin] is super creative. He’s not a control freak but he wants to be in control of how things are done because he has grand ideas. You can’t always do that when someone else is holding the keys. So, he raises money, he and Steve become partners - now [Wayfarer] becomes a studio. What does that mean, really? We don’t have distribution - we still have to partner with people but it meant now, instead of going to others and begging for them to fund what you want to make, now we have our own money. Now, we can go make it and control the property. We can choose which distributor has it. Make sure it’s the right partner - they are going to do it in the way that we would like.”
Serendipitously, as Wayfarer Studios was on the cusp of its formation, author Colleen Hoover’s 2016 book It Ends With Us was brought to Baldoni’s attention.
Baldoni recalls, “I had just signed a deal to write [my book] Man Enough and my book agent [Johanna Castillo] discovered Colleen. It was 2019, so I knew we were starting a studio. I said [to Johanna] we’re going to be starting a company that is able to finance things and I’m really looking for commercial IP - what’s a book or an idea that can touch people’s lives but also could be received by a global audience?”
He added: “She sent me a list and said, ‘Give this a read. I know this looks like a book you wouldn’t maybe be interested in, but it’s ranked the second best romance novel of all-time on Goodreads. This author has a huge Goodreads following and this could be an example of something that could be right for you.’”
Being a story that revolves around the character Lily Bloom (played by Blake Lively), as readers follow her elaborate journey, from falling in love with a boy named Atlas during her teenage years to opening her own flower shop as an adult and meeting the charismatic Ryle, Lily finds herself navigating through a life of love, loss and abuse.
Baldoni continued about the book, “[Johanna] sent it to me and I was hooked from the opening rooftop scene. It was sexy and it was interesting, and I didn’t know where it was going. Then, I found myself like gasping while I was reading and crying, and by the end in the hospital scene, when [Lily] says, ‘It ends with us,’ I just lost it. I just had a daughter - my daughter was only a few years old. I called Johanna - I said, This is amazing! She introduced me to Colleen - we started communicating by email. I was finishing [my other Wayfarer directed film] Five Feet Apart at the time, while acting on Jane [the Virgin] - so, I had a full plate. Five Feet Apart came out - Colleen went to see it. She said [to me after watching], ‘You are the right person to make this movie.’”
Fortunately for everyone involved, It Ends With Us would soon gain some major momentum with readers everywhere, becoming a New York Times bestseller and building a growing desire from the public to see this story be told up on the big screen.
Baldoni said, “We did not think that a pandemic would hit, and suddenly, it would become one of the biggest books in the world. Whether that’s good luck, whether that’s intuition, whether that’s a mix of good luck and intuition and some actual guidance that we are supposed to be doing what we’re doing.”
Ultimately deciding to take on the It Ends With Us role as Ryle and also becoming the film’s director, he added: “We ended up deciding to partner with Sony. We talked internally about it [at Wayfarer] - Well, should we make this on our own completely, or should we partner? We talked for a while about that, because on one hand, we were starting something that we wanted to be able to control completely, but on the other hand, we wanted to make sure that this had the best chance of being seen by as many people as possible.”
Hanks, who joined Wayfarer over the past six months, after years as the President of Westbrook Inc., the Will Smith-founded entertainment venture company, and a tenure at CAA before that, said, “I feel super grateful because I’ve been able to watch the evolution [of Wayfarer]. Justin is such a beautiful storyteller and Jamey has done such an incredible job guiding the ship here. I get to come onboard when Garfield and Will & Harper and now It Ends With Us, which is such a beautiful and important film, followed up by PAC-MAN. The scale and scope of what we’re going to get to do now is amazing. Stories that really matter.”
She added about the creative filmmaking freedoms that Wayfarer has with It Ends With Us and PAC-MAN, “We have an exciting opportunity right now - I feel the momentum. We’re leading up into this movie that I think is really going to make an impact on the town and on audiences and people all over the world. Then, we’re following it up again with something that is this big, global IP - done in such a fresh and just heartwarming way. Now, I think we become a magnet for partners and material.”
Other feature films coming soon by way of Wayfarer Studios include Empire Waist with Rainn Wilson, A Nice Indian Boy with Karan Soni & Jonathan Groff and Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut with Eleanor the Great.
Baldoni said of his Wayfarer team, “People are not just numbers and obstacles on the path to success. They are humans and individuals with souls, and if we want to have success and be different, we have to be different. We have to treat people differently. I knew I could trust [Jamey] with any situation, whether it was a business deal - whether it was an intense legal negotiation. There’s almost nobody in my life, with the exception of now Tera, who I can think of, that can handle the pressures of starting a studio and also be able to bring those values, like Jamey. That’s why he is the backbone of the company.”
Heath added: “We have to surround ourselves with people who buy into the fact that going this path is sometimes a bit more uphill than this path over here - by having integrity. By doing deals that may not benefit us the best way and would if we had another mindset. We have to be fair to artists, we have to be fair to directors - fair to our other companies. I may get five percent less than I would have if I would have been like a cold-hearted businessperson, but what you get in changing culture, building relationships and then actually doing what you say you want to do - now, you’re actually doing it.”
With It Ends With Us arriving in theaters this weekend, I concluded my conversation with these Wayfarer creatives, wondering what they hope audiences will think or feel, after watching this bestselling book-turned-major motion picture.
Hanks said, “To me, it’s the choices we make matter. People will walk out and feel really empowered, witnessing someone make a positive choice.”
Heath added: “I believe all of us are here to bring forth an ever-advancing civilization, so that we become better - humanity gets better. One of the things that we have gotten wrong is how we treat each other - how women are treated often times, historically, by the hands of men. Men are abused too - not taking that away - but it has typically been women. I hope that people leave the theater feeling inspired - that for those who have been hurt, that they feel seen and the story was told in a way that honored them. I feel like people who may in themselves, as someone that may hurt somebody, may think twice about it. So, I hope that people leave feeling that they got a glimpse into a world that, often times, we turn our eyes away from.”
Baldoni continued, “I always wanted people to leave feeling hopeful, and whether you’re dealing directly with what Lily was dealing with, what Atlas was dealing with or what Ryle was dealing with - that you know that there is hope. I also believe it can show that no matter how hard or how bad something gets, that hope is possible and help is possible.”
