Sep 22, 2026 · 1 hr 44 min · 25 segments
"FALLure to Franchise" concludes with a *very* recent movie. One starring two big movie-stars coming off of the biggest hits of their career, directed by one of the filmmakers behind John Wick, and a…
Can a potential franchise starter not deliver its intended sequels, yet still leave an undeniable, indelible mark on cinema history? To answer that question, let us first consider the legacy of Yakima Cnut, who for decades stood as the only stunt performer to receive an Academy Award for his work.
Technically, the award, which Cnut received in 1967, was an honorary one, officially designated as given for achievements as a stuntman and for developing safety devices to protect stuntmen everywhere.
The award came after actor Charlton Heston personally lobbied for it.
Heston had worked with Canut on 1959's Ben-Hur, where Canut coordinated the horses, chariots, stunt performers, and actors for the famous chariot race, and felt Canut deserved special recognition.
Heston even personally presented the award to Canut.
But for a long time, it seemed Canut might remain the only stunt performer to be recognized by the Academy.
Just ask stunt coordinator Jack Gill, who in 1991 began a personal campaign to have a Best Stunt Coordinator Oscar created, after legendary director Sidney Lubet told Gill stunt professionals had become department heads comparable to cinematographers and production designers, and should have their own Academy category.
Lumet helped Gill gain Academy membership so that he could personally lobby the organization, kicking off a long process of proposals and, ultimately, Academy rejections, with the group often citing the low number of stunt coordinators in the Academy, the already too long length of the Oscar telecast, and the Oscars having too many categories as their reasons.
Even the support of notable Academy members like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't move the needle.
for their broader overall contributions to filmmaking,
both of which brought renewed public attention
to the lack of an actual stunt Oscar, but still nothing.
Gil's campaign reached a three-decade mark with frustratingly little results, but things took a marked turn in 2023 when former stunt performer and coordinator turned filmmaker David Leitch teamed with his producer and wife Kelly McCormick and fellow stunt coordinator Chris O'Hara to lobby the Academy with a new angle, the push to award stunt design instead of stunt coordinator.
To sell the idea, O'Hara was officially listed as stunt designer, a new title, on the film he was making with Leach at the time, a film actually about stuntmen, and one which Leach and McCormick deliberately made, at least in part, to demonstrate what stunt design actually entails.
O'Hara's new credit of stunt designer was a terminology shift intended to clarify the work as a creative design discipline comparable to other Academy-recognized crafts.
The new title was approved by the Director's Guild and the Screen Actors Guild, and at the 96th Academy Awards, the stars of Leach films introduced a tribute to stunt performers, highlighting more than a century of stunt work in movies.
Soon after, Leach, McCormick, and O'Hara made a formal presentation to Academy leadership, and sure enough, on April 10, 2025, The Academy announced the first-ever annual competitive Academy Award for Achievement in Stunt Design will be awarded at the 100th Oscars in 2028.
Leach & Co. finally brought resolution to a decades-long quest for Academy recognition for one of filmmaking's most important, but often unsung categories.
Can a potential franchise starter not deliver its intended sequels, yet still leave an undeniable, indelible mark on cinema history? To answer that question, let us first consider the legacy of Yakima Cnut, who for decades stood as the only stunt performer to receive an Academy Award for his work.
Technically, the award, which Cnut received in 1967, was an honorary one, officially designated as given for achievements as a stuntman and for developing safety devices to protect stuntmen everywhere.
The award came after actor Charlton Heston personally lobbied for it.
Heston had worked with Canut on 1959's Ben-Hur, where Canut coordinated the horses, chariots, stunt performers, and actors for the famous chariot race, and felt Canut deserved special recognition.
Heston even personally presented the award to Canut.
But for a long time, it seemed Canut might remain the only stunt performer to be recognized by the Academy.
Just ask stunt coordinator Jack Gill, who in 1991 began a personal campaign to have a Best Stunt Coordinator Oscar created, after legendary director Sidney Lubet told Gill stunt professionals had become department heads comparable to cinematographers and production designers, and should have their own Academy category.
Lumet helped Gill gain Academy membership so that he could personally lobby the organization, kicking off a long process of proposals and, ultimately, Academy rejections, with the group often citing the low number of stunt coordinators in the Academy, the already too long length of the Oscar telecast, and the Oscars having too many categories as their reasons.
Even the support of notable Academy members like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't move the needle.
for their broader overall contributions to filmmaking,
both of which brought renewed public attention
to the lack of an actual stunt Oscar, but still nothing.
Gil's campaign reached a three-decade mark with frustratingly little results, but things took a marked turn in 2023 when former stunt performer and coordinator turned filmmaker David Leitch teamed with his producer and wife Kelly McCormick and fellow stunt coordinator Chris O'Hara to lobby the Academy with a new angle, the push to award stunt design instead of stunt coordinator.
To sell the idea, O'Hara was officially listed as stunt designer, a new title, on the film he was making with Leach at the time, a film actually about stuntmen, and one which Leach and McCormick deliberately made, at least in part, to demonstrate what stunt design actually entails.
O'Hara's new credit of stunt designer was a terminology shift intended to clarify the work as a creative design discipline comparable to other Academy-recognized crafts.
The new title was approved by the Director's Guild and the Screen Actors Guild, and at the 96th Academy Awards, the stars of Leach films introduced a tribute to stunt performers, highlighting more than a century of stunt work in movies.
Soon after, Leach, McCormick, and O'Hara made a formal presentation to Academy leadership, and sure enough, on April 10, 2025, The Academy announced the first-ever annual competitive Academy Award for Achievement in Stunt Design will be awarded at the 100th Oscars in 2028.
Leach & Co. finally brought resolution to a decades-long quest for Academy recognition for one of filmmaking's most important, but often unsung categories.
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