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U.S. universities are reeling from the chaos resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, and one deans far-sighted business move might help save his school a lot of money.

In 2017, the Gies College of Business and the Grainger College of Engineering jointly took out a three-year contract with Lloyds of London to insure against a large drop in revenue from Chinese students resulting from specific events such as a trade war, a global pandemic, and visa restrictions.

The business schools dean, Jeff Brown, created the policy with two other university professors, Tim Johnson and Morton Lane. Brown declined to discuss details of the policy when reached by Yahoo Finance.

The coverage placed was innovative and required us to design the product as nothing like it had been done before, Andrew Martin, a broker at Besso, who syndicated the deal through Lloyds, told Yahoo Finance.The foresight of Dean Jeff Brown and the structuring skills of Dr. Morton Lane was a fortuitous combination that resulted in what may prove to be a valuable hedge for the University of Illinois.

The policy provides for up to $61 million in coverage to match revenue from Chinese students in the business school and the engineering school. The two colleges together have been paying $424,000 a year in premiums.The terms would be triggered if the two schools saw a combined revenue decline of at least 18.5% from a loss in Chinese students, according to Lane. (If there is a 50% decline in tuition revenue from Chinese students, the insurance payout would be about $30 million.)

Muslim students wearing hijab scarf on campus of the University of Illinois. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The stipulated events have largely occurred: The Trump administration continues to tighten U.S. immigration policy, a global pandemic is underway, and a trade war has been going on since 2018.

Visa restrictions, in particular, will have an unprecedented impact on both current international college students in the US and also incoming college students this fall, Command Education CEO Christopher Rim told Yahoo Finance.

The status of future international students is unclear, as non-critical visa appointments have been suspended since late March, Rim added. This will completely change the landscape of the student body on college campus over the next one to two years.

International students make up 5.5% of the total student population in the U.S., according to a report by the Institute of International Education. Chinese students form the majority of students, followed by Indian, South Korean, and Saudi Arabian students.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020. (Photo: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The higher education industry has been in flux even before the coronavirus pandemic, due factors such as reduction in state funding and enrollment declines. And according to one analysis by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, Illinois public universities have taken a 48% cut in funding since 2000.

And in 2019, the Gies business school shut down its residential MBA programs and pivoted online, responding to weaker demand.

If you were able to get every dean in the U.S. under a lie detector, outside of maybe the top 20 M.B.A. programs, every one of them would admit they were struggling to maintain enrollment andlosing money on the program, Brown told the Wall Street Journal in 2019.

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Chinese students account for a little more than 11% of the total student population at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Brown said in 2018 that the revenue from these students makes up a fifth of the business colleges revenue.

Having worked with Dr. Lane over many years it was not the first time that we had created insurance financial products, said Martin, the insurance broker. Lloyd's underwriters worked with us and we developed a programme that met the client's requirements.

Aarthi is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering consumer finance. Follow her on Twitter@aarthiswami.

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The University of Illinois made a prophetic insurance bet in 2017 - Yahoo Money

In a call with Yahoo Finance on Tuesday afternoon, Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown sounds like a man ready to get his earnings day over quickly so he could start executing on what may be a defining summer in the 11-year history of his plant-based meat outfit.

Amid a shortage of traditional meat and poultry as the likes of Tyson struggles to keep plants safely open during the coronavirus pandemic, Brown is poised to unleash fury on a meat market in bad need of healthier alternatives...and actual supply. Browns weapons in this meat war? New value packs for supermarkets with more plant-based food in them and competitive pricing on traditional product lines and on offerings at restaurant chains.

All of these efforts should make Beyond Meats offerings cheaper to consumers at long last and drive trial. With that trial, there is a good chance of gaining plant-based food loyalists.

This is the industrys moment, Brown tells Yahoo Finance. Calling the death toll stemming from the coronavirus pandemic heart-wrenching, Brown adds, We need to make sure that we are part of a solution.

Here is how Beyond Meat (BYND) performed versus Wall Street estimates in the first quarter:

Net Sales: $97 million vs. estimates for $88.2 million

Gross Margin: 38.8% vs. estimates for 30.73%

Diluted EPS: 3 cents a share vs. estimates for a loss of 7 cents a share

2020 Guidance: company pulled its full-year guidance (previously called for sales of $490 million to $510 million)

Beyond Meat plans to make a big statement on product pricing this summer in a bid to gain new customers. Here is how Brown explains the actions:

We're still priced at a premium, but we have to become relevant to the consumer cost basis because we can get people to try our products in a way that we may not have otherwise. So we will be be aggressive on pricing this summer. It makes sense. We're not going to reset our long-term margin targets. We are going to use the summer as an opportunity to bring new consumers into our brand, increase the overall consumer base, so you will see us be aggressive in stores with longer discounting than we've done in the past. Deeper with the discounts as well, as well as special promotions with our quick-service restaurant partners. We want to use this opportunity to introduce people to plant-based meat and hopefully get them to stick with it.

How Wall Street reacts to Beyond Meats earnings day will be interesting to watch. The company blew away analyst forecasts yet again (due to strong demand at retailers and restaurants), across the board. It has ample liquidity ($246.7 million in cash to be exact) to fund its growth ambitions. Brown sounded impressed in our interview with the early response to new Beyond Meat products at Starbucks stores in China.

Shares were up almost 5% in after-market trading Tuesday.

The wildcard here is how the Street views more aggressive discounting on Beyond Meats traditionally premium-priced product. While the initial read may be of margin concerns amid price drops, we would suggest that those worried investors revisit the thesis on Beyond Meat. At its core the investment thesis is to get people into plant-based meat in large volumes one way to do that is to price competitively in a period in the world (now) where there are mass shortages in proteins.

Sounds like the investment thesis is still intact right now, no?

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Beyond Meat earnings beat expectations, founder says it's the plant-based meat 'industry's moment' - Yahoo Finance

Publicly, the Trump administration is pushing for states to let businesses reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Privately, it's forecasting a very disturbing future.

The Trump administration is forecasting the U.S. daily death toll from coronavirus will rise to 3,000 by June 1. That's nearly twice the current toll of 1,750 deaths per day, The New York Times reports via an internal administration document.

This is what CDC thinks the future looks like. https://t.co/5NnljVJqVJhttps://t.co/bQYUD9LUGM pic.twitter.com/xGGm1SZYfF

Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) May 4, 2020

The White House's prediction is based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modeling, though reported COVID-19 deaths have already far outpaced the CDC's model. The CDC also predicts the U.S. could go from adding about 25,000 new coronavirus cases every day to adding 200,000 or more daily by the end of the month. As some states resume business as usual, those growth rates could further worsen.

More stories from theweek.comTrump is pursuing a herd immunity strategy whether intentionally or notHow George W. Bush exposed Trump's biggest failureTrump doesn't wear mask during tour of Arizona mask production facility

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The Trump administration is privately estimating the daily coronavirus death rate will double in the next month - Yahoo News

New data from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that relaxing lockdowns across U.S. cities and states could have serious consequences for the countrys battle to contain the coronavirus, which has infected over a million people while killing more than 66,000 people.

According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM), reopening states will result in an additional 233,000 deaths from the virus even if states dont reopen at all and with social distancing rules in place. This means that if the states were to reopen, 350,000 people in total would die from coronavirus by the end of June, the study found.

Kent Smetters, the PWBMs director, said the decision to reopen states is ultimately a normative judgement that comes down to the statistical value of life.

He explained: Thats not a crude way of saying we put a dollar value on life, but its the idea that people will take risks all the time for economic reward.

That figure far surpasses estimates and models that the White House has cited from the University of Washington, which put the death toll at roughly 73,000 by the start of August.

The U.S. economy is reeling as statewide lockdowns have thrown 30 million Americans out of their jobs, and stoked a furious debate about how long the restrictions can remain in place. Some states, like Georgia, are choosing to partially reopen, allowing businesses like restaurants, hair salons, massage parlors, and more to open again.

However, partially reopening would also cause the death toll to rise, the universitys data found. An additional 45,000 lives would be lost, according to Whartons Budget Model, bringing the U.S.s death toll from COVID-19 to 222,000.

However, the policy of reopening states would provide a much needed economic boost, according to the model.

Almost all net job losses between May 1 and June 30 would be eliminated, the report found.

To date, more than 1.1 million are infected by the virus, and over 65,000 have died.

Keeping stay at home orders in place would result in a growth contraction of 11.6% year over year, the data found, but opening the states would curb some of that decline somewhat, paring back the downturn to 10.1% year over year.

However, Whartons data found that the state lockdowns will result in a more dramatic increase in unemployment, boosting the total of unemployed to nearly 50 million.A partial reopening would partly blunt that impact, but not by much.

In a bright spot for the plan to open states, the PWBM projects that almost all net job losses would be eliminated.

The model aims to quantify the trade-off to the economic benefits of reopening states amid the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 240,000 people worldwide, with some 60,000 deaths in the United States.

The PWBM shows that when it comes to states plans to reopen their economies, not all states are created equal. One states decision could cause more damage than another.

If Colorado were to fully open, for example, the PWBM projected that by the end of June over 10,000 would die from coronavirus. Thats much higher than neighboring Kansas, where roughly 1,300 would lose their lives to COVID-19 under the same scenario.

And when it comes to economies, if Wisconsin stays closed, GDP would decline by 13%, compared to 10.8% in Maine.

You may look at some states and say You know what, theyre not ready to reopen yet, Smetters said.

Kristin Myers is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow heron Twitter.

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Wealthiest Americans raking in billions from coronavirus pandemic: report

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Reopening states will cause 233,000 more people to die from coronavirus, according to Wharton model - Yahoo Finance

The 2020 schedule is almost here.

The NFL will officially drop a full schedule in a three-hour special starting at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, the Schedule Release 20 on the NFL Network, the league announced on Monday afternoon.

The schedule special will include analysis of every teams schedule and divisional breakdowns, along with other presumed top matchups next fall. It will also include, per the release, remote interviews from league coaches and general managers.

The full schedule comes despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought the sports world largely to a halt in recent weeks. Teams are already participating in virtual offseason training programs, and the league announced earlier on Monday that there will be no international games this season due to the virus.

[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]

The Miami Dolphins shared their preliminary plan for holding games this fall amid the pandemic on Monday, too. The teams plan, CEO and president Tom Garfinkel shared on Good Morning America, included varied arrival times, exiting by row, ordering food pickups from seats and a reduced attendance capacity.

There were more than 1.1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Monday afternoon, according to The New York Times, and more than 68,500 deaths attributed to the virus.

Still, the NFL said over the weekend that it planned to start the season on time with games beginning on Sept. 10.Any changes due to the virus will come later.

If we have to make adjustments, we will be prepared to do so on the latest guidance from our medical experts and public health officials and current and future government regulations, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

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NFL to release 2020 schedule in 3-hour special on Thursday - Yahoo Sports

As nearly half of U.S. states begin to ease restrictions that were put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is quietly projecting a stark rise in the number of new cases of the virus and deaths from it over the next month.

Modeling from the CDC, incorporated into a chart prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and circulated within the administration, was obtained by the New York Times. It projects 200,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus by the end of May and 3,000 daily deaths in the U.S. At present, approximately 25,000 new cases are reported each day, with roughly 1,750 deaths.

Without disputing the accuracy of the modeling used by the CDC, the White House quickly distanced itself from the projections.

This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a Monday statement. The presidents phased guidelines to open up America again are a scientific-driven approach that the top health and infectious disease experts in the federal government agreed with.

Despite the growing risk of exposure and death from COVID-19, many states are proceeding with a relaxation of restrictions that were meant to slow the spread of the virus, which have brought the nations economy to a virtual halt. Those moves in states like Georgia and Texas do not follow the phased federal guidelines issued by President Trumps coronavirus task force on April 16.

The guidelines were announced at a White House press briefing, where Trump proclaimed that now that we have passed the peak in new cases, were starting our life again, were starting rejuvenation of our economy again, in a safe and structured and very responsible fashion. There were 32,076 new cases in the U.S. on that day, a number that has been exceeded on at least four days since.

While the implementation was left to the discretion of state governors, the guidelines were clear that no state should attempt to ease restrictions until it had observed a downward trajectory of new cases of the virus over a 14-day period. Yet, as of this weekend, no state in the nation could make that claim.

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On Fox News Sunday, anchor Chris Wallace pressed Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the leading health experts on the coronavirus task force, on that point.

Not a single state has met the White House gating guidelines of two weeks of steady decline in new cases. Are you concerned about this patchwork reopening, and why leave it up to the governors? Wallace asked Birx. Why not set a firm, if not binding, a firm national policy on when states can reopen?

Well, I think federal guidelines are pretty firm policy of what we think is important from a public health standpoint, Birx responded. We also made it possible for states to open counties independently of the entire state, because, again, some of these outbreaks are very local and have to be studied and understood that way.

Reopening the country without ramping up testing, building an army of contact tracers or having a plan in place to isolate those who test positive for the virus is certain to result in a spike of new cases, numerous health experts have warned.

Yet at least 26 states intend to test that prediction, many of them starting this week.

Georgia became the first state to lift coronavirus restrictions when Gov. Brian Kemp announced on April 20 that he would allow businesses like massage and tattoo parlors, hair salons, gyms and bowling alleys to reopen on April 24. Three days later the state further loosened restrictions, allowing restaurants and theaters to reopen.

Before his announcement, Kemp informed Trump of his decision on a conference call between the president and the nations governors. On that call, Trump was heard praising Kemp for doing a great job.

But after Kemp was sharply criticized for lifting the states restrictions too soon, Trump said he was unhappy with the governor.

I want them to open, and I want him to open as soon as possible, Trump told reporters on April 24. And I want the state to open. But I wasnt happy with Brian Kemp. I will tell you that right now.

Since moving to reopen the state, Georgia has continued to see a high number of new cases, with 1,000 reported on Friday and another 999 on Saturday. Despite the new data, Kemp let his shelter-in-place restriction for residents expire on Monday.

As this public health experiment has taken place, the risk of exposure to the virus for Georgia citizens has risen by 42 percent, according to data compiled by Stanford Universitys COVID-19 Case Mapper.

Similarly worrying figures have been reported in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott lifted stay-at-home orders last weekend. In a tweet posted Sunday, the governor sought to emphasize what he saw as a bit of good news about the number of people in the state who have recovered from COVID-19.

Yet Sunday also marked the fourth straight day that the state tallied more than 1,000 new cases of the virus. Far from showing a 14-day decline in new cases, Dallas County reported Sunday its highest daily tally so far, with 234 new positive results.

And while Abbott is correct that on Saturday and Sunday Texas reported a higher number of people who had recovered from the virus than were still infected by it, Texas ranks 49th among states for per capita testing for the coronavirus. As of Monday, the state, which has a population of 29 million, said 407,398 tests had been administered. More testing would certainly reveal a much higher number of active cases, health experts say, and the overall number of cases continues to grow. As of Monday, 32,332 Texans had tested positive, up from 25,297 a week earlier.

Given the Trump administrations own internal projections, states across the nation can expect to see many more cases and deaths in the days ahead.

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Click here for the latest coronavirus news and updates. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please refer to the CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

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As states push ahead with reopening, CDC warns coronavirus cases and deaths are set to soar - Yahoo News

Clorox chairman and CEO Benno Dorer is working nearly around the clock, fitting in a meal or two, squeezing in some family time, getting a wee bit of rest and then rinse and repeating that routine.

Suffice it to say, its very busy days at 107-year-old bleach and disinfecting wipe maker Clorox as the world continues to battle through the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Clorox, that has meant enduring through insane levels of demand by shoppers for bleach (have to wash those cloth face masks), disinfecting wipes (have to wipe down the counters 25 times a day), Fresh Step cat litter (cant keep running out for the stuff during stay-at-home orders, and cats have to use the bathroom too during a pandemic) and Hidden Valley salad dressings (yes, Clorox owns that Hidden Valley dressing you have used on some kind of packaged food of late).

Even with factories cranking at full speed and Clorox investing in new capacity, Dorer concedes in an interview with Yahoo Finance that consumer demand continues to outstrip supply. That situation may not stabilize until the summer, Dorer suggests, as households settle into their new disinfecting routines and more steadily buy cleaning products instead of the panic hoarding seen in March and into April at Walmart, Target and on Amazon.

So if you go to stores, we're shipping to our stores every single day. But what we're shipping is pretty much scooped up right away. So it's gone after a few minutes, Dorer explains. Clearly there's an unprecedented demand spike for some of our products, in particular wipes. We've seen spikes of up to 500% in terms of demand and no supply chain in our industry is built to satisfy that demand increase in a short period of time.

Dorer adds, We have significantly increased our production we've done so by simplifying our lineup, which allows our lines to run faster, turning out 40% more products last quarter than we did in the previous years quarter. We're activating third-party suppliers who produce for us to help us. And we're investing in further capacity. So we continue to find new ways to speed up our lines and find capacity. And we think that there's going to be substantial improvement this summer. It's going to be touch and go until then, unfortunately, but help is on the way and I think should ease up in the next few months.

Clorox brand products line the shelf of a supermarket in the East Village neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Cloroxs latest financials underscore the new reality its navigating. Its a reality highlighted by consumers paying more attention to personal hygiene and cleanliness standards at home and using Cloroxs disinfecting products (and yes, those from the likes of P&G, etc.) to do so. Its a reality where businesses are opening their wallets big-time to disinfect offices to support the return of workers...and ultimately keep them safe and COVID-19 free hopefully for months.

Fiscal third quarter sales exploded 15% from the prior year. Volume surged 18%. Organic sales blew up 17%. Earnings soared 31%. Sales and pre-tax earnings in Cloroxs important cleaning segment increased an impressive 32% and 71%, respectively. These are growth rates that would have been unimaginable at this point last year but may become the new medium-term norm at a Clorox settling into a post health pandemic world.

For its full fiscal year that ends in June, Clorox sees organic sales growth of 6% to 8%. Earnings are expected to be up 6% to 9%. The probability is high Clorox outlines double-digit growth for sales and earnings for its new fiscal year when it reports earnings again sometime in early August.

Clorox shares have reflected the new world it lives in the stock is up 30% this year versus the 13% drop for the S&P 500. P&G shares are down 7% year-to-date, whereas Church & Dwight is up only 2%.

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JPMorgan analyst Andrea Teixeira believes Clorox will play an integral role in fighting off COVID-19 and remains bullish on the stock.

On May 3, Clorox celebrated its 107th birthday. Dorer says the mission of the company is the same today as it was back then serve the public.

We have a proud history started by making disinfecting products available to the broad public in service of public health. And never has that mission been clear than it is today, Dorer points out.

So true indeed.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Clorox has seen 500% increases in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic: CEO - Yahoo News

The once-bustling New York Stock Exchange trading floor could become a thing of the past once New York Citys coronavirus lockdown ends, one Wall Street veteran said on Tuesday.

After the COVID-19 crisis forced the Big Apple to adopt strict stay-at-home orders, the NYSE went fully electronic, with many traders and staff working remotely. With New York City still experiencing high infection rates, theres no telling when things will get back to normal.

And Alan Valdes, senior partner at Silverbear Capital, believes the longer the iconic floor stays closed, the less people it may need when it re-opens.

Im busier now because I dont have any clerks to help me, Valdes told Yahoo Finance in an interview, explaining how hes more productive working at home.

Im busier now doing our trades electronically than when we were on the floor, and ... were making more of a profit, Valdes said adding hes now used to working from home.

I actually like it. Ive got all my screens up here, he said. So its working, and its working very well.

The NYSEs floor has been closed for over a month now, having moved to fully electronic trading for the first time in history on March 23rd (the day the markets sank to their 52-week lows.)

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 crisis is hastening a shift thats been underway for years: Automation has already transformed the Big Boards iconic trading floor from its heyday, whittling down the number of active brokers on the exchange.

Still, Wall Streets most photographed broker recently announced he beat the coronavirus and is ready to go back. While NYSEs president has insisted the floor will reopen although no date has been announced yet Valdes has his doubts.

The problem for the exchange is there's no social distancing on the floors, the trader told Yahoo Finance. Even though the floor has less traders than it did years ago, the booth layouts create a close working environment thats ill-suited for the post-coronavirus normal.

People are next to each other six feet? They're six inches away from each other, he argued. I think that's going to be a problem reopening.

Valdes also believes traders may think twice before going back.

Myself, Im saying, I dont know if its worth coming down, he said. Until they come up with a vaccine I dont know how they can really open.

[Read More: Stock market news live updates: Stocks rise, with some states' reopenings under way]

Ines covers the U.S. stock market from the floor of the New York Exchange. Follow her on Twitter at@ines_ferre

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NYSE trading floor vet on why hes much more productive and profitable working at home - Yahoo Money

It is no secret, US airplane giant Boeing (BA) has suffered badly at the hands of COVID-19, with one piece of bad news following the other. But with Boeing shares still down by 60% year-to-date, might now be the right time to pull the trigger on BA stock?

Not quite, says Canaccords Kenneth Herbert. The 5-star analyst believes there are too many variables to consider and expects Boeings commercial services business to drop by more than 50% in 2Q20 and likely at very depressed levels for the rest of 2020.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Herbert rates Boeing shares a Hold. In fact, Herbert had maintained his Hold rating on the stock since 2016. The good news for new investors is that Herbert's $175 price target implies a 40% upside from current levels. (To watch Herberts track record, click here)

Boeing has a lot of issues to contend with, as highlighted in the companys recent earnings statement, and that is even before taking into consideration the long-term grounded Max 737. Cancelled orders, jittery investors on account of a suspended dividend, significant pandemic driven lower demand, an industry in tatters with uncertainty on the horizon, all weighing down on the company.

But there were glimpses of hope in the quarter. Despite losing $1.35 billion, and spending $4.7 billion in the process, the cash burn was not as bad as estimated, coming in below the $5 billion-plus many analysts anticipated ahead of the report. And although the company ended Q1 with $39 billion of debt, it saw out the quarter with $15.5 billion in total cash.

Boeing has also taken steps to reduce costs, with the intention of cutting loose 10% of its workforce along with adjusting its commercial airline output to match the current lower demand. But it is clear the company will need to raise cash and management have said it continues to explore options. Additionally, based on its current outlook, the company anticipates being FCF positive in 2021, and expects a more normal environment to resume by 2022 as production rates stabilize.

Herbert summarized, We believe that until investors get greater confidence in Boeings liquidity, and in the pace of the expected recovery in travel, the stock will see limited upside. We believe the risk around future production schedules continues to be biased to the downside, even with the substantial cuts announced by the company. We appreciate the implied upside in our $175 target could justify a more positive rating. However, with the current volatility in the stock, we are seeing much greater than normal movement and temporary price dislocations.

All in all, when considering BAs prospects, the rest of the analyst communitys views are a mixed bag. A Moderate Buy consensus rating is based on 6 Buys and 13 Holds. Although, with an average price target of $183.11, the Street anticipates upside of 37% in the year ahead. (See Boeing stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

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Is Now the Right Time to Invest in Boeing Stock? 5-Star Analyst Weighs In - Yahoo Finance

Gareth Evans new action-drama series Gangs of London has landed on Sky Atlantic but its not the first time the The Raid director has been associated with all-out, highly-choreographed action vehicle.

In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Movies UK, Evans has spoken candidly about the DC Comics Deathstroke movie he was attached to direct back in 2017, and why it hasnt materialised.

I was actually quite enthused and excited about [Deathstroke] back in the day, when it was first pitched to me. I met with them, and talked to them about it, and was certainly attached to it at a certain point, Evans tells Yahoo.

Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello was introduced as supervillain Deathstroke in the post-credits sequence of 2017s Justice League. Arriving on Lex Luthors yacht after the events of the movie, the masked villain is asked by Jesse Eisenbergs bald baddie to set up their own an anti-Justice League team.

The scene appeared to be setting up the masked merc (real name Slade Wilson) and his own league of villains to appear in the upcoming DC extended universe, which at the time included the Ben Affleck-starring Batman solo movie.

However, with that version of the extended DC universe now not happening, with Robert Pattinson recast as Batman and Matt Reeves taking over to direct The Batman for a slated 2021 release, it appears that Joe Manganiello probably wont be cast as the villain anymore either.

I've spoken to Joe Manganiello, who was attached to star as Deathstroke, Evans tells us. I spoke to him a while back, and we both lamented the fact that it didn't happen. But yeah, I don't really have much more than that, in terms of anything lately on it.

Read more: Eisenberg keen for Lex Luthor return

The plan was, I wanted to tell something that would be a lean story, that would be kind of an origin of that character. Something that felt like it could be 100 minutes or 110 minutes long, max not to go over the two hour period with it, says Evans.

Actor Joe Manganiello attends The Hollywood Reporter's annual 35 Most Powerful People in Media event at The Pool on Thursday, April 12, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

The heightened, highly stylised take on London in Gareth Evans Gangs of London Evans removed major landmarks from the London skyline, for example offers a hint at the world design that might have existed in his take on Deathstroke.

Back then, I was massively influenced by the noir films coming out of South Korea, so that was my pitch. I was like, these films are amazing: the texture, and the tones of colours, the grit and the aggression of them is super interesting to use to tell Deathstroke's story.

Despite not getting far in the project, Evans did research which Deathstroke comic book arcs he would want to use for the big screen origin story.

I'll be the first one to admit it, I'm not a massive comic book or superhero fan, but something about Deathstroke interested me. I did some reading into it not enough to make real hardcore fanboys happy but I tried my best to consume as much as I could in the time that I was on it, for a bit, Evans tells us.

Director Gareth Evans attends "Meet The Filmmakers" at Apple Store Soho on March 17, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic)

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When I read up on it, there were about three different versions of how his character originated, explains Evans, And so I thought we could do something quite Shakespearean, in terms of how he loses his eye, and how he gets created as the character that he is.

Of course, wed also expect tightly choreographed, Indonesian-inspired martial-arts fight scenes, as Evans currently exhibits in Gangs of London and became known for with his seminal martial arts movies The Raid, The Raid 2 and Menantau.

Read more: Gareth Evans talks Gangs of London

We had ideas of the kind of style that we would have gone for with that, which would have married some of the more grounded style that I have, Evans tells us, but then because of the world of it, it would allow me to be a bit more flamboyant and a bit more stylised. We could have taken it in some really interesting areas.

We had some pretty bold ideas there that could have been really visceral and really fun, reflects Evans, But, yeah, I don't know. Who knows? They might come back again in five or ten years time, you never know.

I don't know what exactly happened. I think there might have been a change of personnel, as happens quite a lot in big US studios. I think that project just stopped being a priority for them. It never really went further than two or three phone calls. I've never heard anything since, so I just presumed that project was either on the back burner somewhere, or someone else might be doing it.

Read more: Gareth Evans shares Raid 3 concept

Gareth Evans next project, after Gangs of London, is a Christmas film, Havoc, which he is writing now. Weve already done a lot of the action design for it, and it's pretty crazy and relentless. But it's got a lot of heart in there, which I'm really excited about, the director revealed to Yahoo.

It's more of a sort of mainstream take on what I've done before, but still has all the edge and the fun that comes along with it.

All nine episodes of Gangs of London are available to watch now on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.

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Gareth Evans reveals pitch for his 'lean, visceral' Deathstroke movie that never happened (exclusive) - Yahoo Finance UK