Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

Paramount’s Promise, Netflix’s Profit, and a Salamander.

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Paramount CEO, David Ellison, took to the stage at CinemaCon and made some bold commitments:

• 45-day theatrical window

• 90-day window to SVOD (subscription video on demand)

• 30 movies total from Paramount + Warner Bros./year

  • Evidence: He upped Paramount’s slate from 8 movies last year to 15 this year

If you take him at face value, it’s all looking sunny. Of course, many in the industry don’t.

The Paramount presentation made another overture to the cinema community, opening with a massive video featuring Tom Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, Will Smith, Mark Wahlberg, Teyana Taylor, and Margaret Qualley, directed by Jon M. Chu (Wicked), proclaiming Paramount as the home of cinema.

Ellison is keen on diving into the Paramount treasure chest of golden IP. He name-dropped:

• World War Z

• Transformers

• Star Trek

• Paranormal Activity

Plus some other IP in development:

• The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil

• Possession

  • Dir: Parker Finn (Smile)

• Call of Duty

  • Dir: Peter Berg

  • Releasing: June 30th, 2028

He officially announced:

• Top Gun 3

  • Star: Tom Cruise

  • Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer

• Untitled Damien Chazelle’s film

  • Star: Daniel Craig

• Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow

  • Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones

  • Dir: Siân Heder (CODA)

There was footage from Scary Movie (very funny), and Jackass (gross-out as usual), and a casting announcement that Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie has voice actors Jennifer Hudson and Snoop Dogg with music from the Backstreet Boys.

Angry Birds 3 has voice actors MrBeast, Bill Nye, and Paris Hilton.

Street Fighter (trailer) co-stars David Dastmalchian, Eric Andre, and 50 Cent in the cast. No punches pulled on this one; it’s pure action.

The most impressive things shown:

Mr. Irrelevant

• Cast: David Corenswet and Michael Shannon

The film centers on the last man picked for the NFL draft (Corenswet), who goes on a wild mission to prove that he isn’t irrelevant to his coach (Shannon), his team, and ultimately himself. It’s so evocative that Shannon’s final trailer line, “I’ve never learned as much from a player as I’ve learned from you,” hits hard.

Heart of the Beast

• Dir: David Ayer

• Prod: Damian Chazelle

• Star: Brad Pitt

• Release 2026

The trailer shows a vet (Pitt) with post-traumatic stress disorder who now lives in a remote wilderness as a means to decompress.

One day while flying a biplane, he crashes into the water which triggers a wild man vs. nature struggle to return home. The core is that he relies on his three-legged dog and the dog relies on him. And they both must keep each other alive. It’s a role that combines the best of both Pitts. His contemplative side (e.g., Ad Astra) and pure action (e.g., Bullet Train).

Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol

• Dir: Ti West

• Star: Johnny Depp

• Release: Nov 13th

In the trailer shown, Depp becomes Ebenezer, sinking deep into being miserable. He doesn’t overdo it, yet emanates unlikability.

Paramount also showed some clips of a film meant to capture 50% of the Black Panther audience, Children of Blood and Bone (based on the novel). Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a king, Regina King plays a queen. Releasing Jan 15, 2027.

And last but not least, there was Disney.

The first 17 minutes of The Mandalorian and Grogu were shown. Notably, it featured the return of Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba the Hutt, on whom the Clone Wars animation feature film was based. He is a face familiar to fans, and people are excited about how a baby Hutt alien was turned into a giant gladiator (played by Jeremy Allen White).

More footage of Toy Story 5 was shown, and they even played the Avengers: Doomsday trailer twice (ensemble includes: X-Men, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts*, Black Panther, Channing Tatum, and Chris Evans). Releasing Dec 18th.

But the best thing shown by far was for 20th Century Studios’ Whalefall, produced by Imagine Entertainment and directed by Brian Duffield (Hulu’s No One Will Save You). Austin Abrams gets eaten by a whale. Old Testament style. The clip shown was all underwater, and the tension just ratchets up until there’s a claustrophobia so extreme I felt like I was drowning.

Releasing Oct. 16th.

Other announcements:

Disney’s Hexed

• Voice cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Rashida Jones

• Release: November 25

20th Century’s The Dog Stars

• Dir: Ridley Scott

• Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 28

Pixar’s Gatto

• Animated character: Black Cat

• Release: March 5th, 2027

20th Century’s Ice Age: Boiling Point (6th film in series)

• OG cast returns: Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah

• Release: Feb 5, 2027

They also had more great footage from Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, starring Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich as CIA agents aiming to topple the Chilean government, who take a side trip to Easter Island. It’s the best Malkovich has been in years.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Netflix Q1 reports $12.25bn revenue (↑16%), and $5.2bn profit (↑86%).

• Former Netflix CEO Reed Hastings steps down.

• David Hemingson’s An Unfinished Love Story adaptation lands at Sony.

• Sony wins a bidding war for Tom Hanks baseball film The Comebacker.

• Warner Bros. lands Matt Reeves’ Iran rescue feature based on NY Times story.

• Roku surpasses 100M streaming households worldwide.

• Matt Smith stars opposite Imogen Poots in The Salamander Lives Twice.

• Visions du Réel spotlights Swiss docs, including Heat.

• David Bruckner directs Universal’s Sydney Sweeney thriller The Caretaker.

• ITV launches Graham Norton’s new game show The Neighbourhood.

Yesterday’s top answer: Sean Connery, the favorite 007.
49% voted for Connery.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Stepping away from the Warner Bros deal was the best decision Netflix could’ve made, and the proof is in the numbers.

On top of rising international member growth and higher subscription prices, the $2.8bn termination fee paid out by Paramount resulted in a Q1 that outperformed expectations:

• $12.25 bn revenue

  • ↑ 16%

• $5.2bn profit

  • ↑ 86% ($2.9 bn Q1 2025)

Projections:

• $12.57 bn Q2 projected revenue

  • ↑ 13 %

• $50.7 bn full-year revenue

  • vs. $45.18 bn (2025 total)

• $3 bn ad revenue by end of 2026

  • ↑ 100% from 2025

Netflix’s biggest Q1 titles:

• Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

• Alan Ritchson’s War Machine

• Bridgerton (S4)

• His & Hers

Compensation for co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters in 2025 dipped to $53M, down from $60.3M.

After nearly three decades at the mega company’s helm, Reed Hastings, the longtime former CEO, is stepping down. His term expires at the end of April, truly marking the end of an incredibly influential era.

An impossible rescue mission.

Warner Bros. lands feature rights to The New York Times story “A Harrowing Race Against Time to Find a Downed U.S. Airman in Iran” after a bidding war between Netflix and Anonymous Content.

Matt Reeves (The Batman) and his production company, 6th & Idaho, are attached to produce.

The film follows the downing of an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet in Iran and how the pilot evaded capture for hours until the CIA executed a complex plan to rescue him. The script will be adapted by Harrison Query (Heads of State).

We are excited to see a Matt Reeves military film. Just check out his great battle between apes and humans sequence in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).

Tidbits:

The Holdovers screenwriter David Hemingson’s newest project lands at Sony. An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s is a memoir detailing Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s epic love story with her late husband, simultaneously defining the turbulent decade of the 60s. The film adaptation is a big get for Sony, with Goodwin’s last work, transformed for the screen, inspiring Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012).

A League of Their Own, Moneyball, and now The Comebacker. Sony Pictures has acquired the upcoming Tom Hanks-led baseball film that marks a reunion between the actor and his A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) director Marielle Heller. Billed as a love letter to baseball, Sony won the rights in a four-way studio bidding war.

Mini Tidbits:

• Roku

• QVC

• Rocky at 50

All those mini tidbits and more, here.

Renewals:

NBC’s Law & Order: SVU (for S28)

PBS Masterpiece’s Maigret (for S2)

Cancelations:

NBC’s Law & Order: Organized Crime (canceled after S5)

Trailers:

Prime Video’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War

• Dir: Andrew Bernstein (Ozark)

• Star: John Krasinski

• Trailer

• Release: May 20, 2026

Parallel Tales

• Dir: Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)

• Cast: Isabelle Huppert

• Trailer

• Premiere: Cannes Film Festival

• French Release: May 14, 2026

Paramount+’s SkyMed S4

• Trailer

• Release: May 21, 2026

Release Dates:

CW’s All American S8 (final season)

• Cast: Michael Evans Behling, Greta Onieogou

• Release: Jul 13, 2026

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Matt Smith has never met a strange role he didn’t want to make weirder.

The Doctor Who actor is joining Imogen Poots (The Chronology of Water) in The Salamander Lives Twice, a left-field mystery headed to the Cannes market with sales rep Embankment Films.

Here’s the synopsis:

Follows a stranger who washes ashore on a remote island with no memory. Taken in by Iris, her daughter Goggy, and their butler Baby, he’s drawn into their decaying world of revenge, family betrayal, and violence.

Much like his House of the Dragon character, which we will finally see on our screen again this June, Smith thrives on unpredictability, balancing an incontestable charm with an enigmatic edge that leaves his intentions constantly in question. A man with no memories, the role gives Smith ample room to play with a shifting sense of self and the kind of offbeat absurdity he does so well.

David Bruckner (The Night House) will write and direct Universal’s The Caretaker, starring Sydney Sweeney. Based on the novel of the same name, the film follows a troubled young woman who takes a caretaking job at an isolated house, only to discover secrets regarding a reality-breaking entity.

This isn’t the first time Sweeney has found herself trapped in a disturbing household. We hope to see the same tense, unhinged performance she delivered as Millie Calloway in The Housemaid (2025), only this time, the force haunting her may not be human.

Michael Bay and Brad Fuller will produce the film.

Casting Tidbits:

• Kyle Gallner (Smile)

• Joey Pollari

• Mean Girls

• Disney+’s Wizards Beyond Waverly Place

All those and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

At this year’s Visions du Réel, Swiss doc projects are getting a global showcase, reflecting the country’s growing non-fiction scene. Check them out here.

The Directors Guild of America has set next year’s 79th DGA Awards for January 30th, just nine days after the 2027 Oscar nominations are announced.

As anticipation builds for Boulder, Colorado’s first time hosting the Sundance Film Festival, Oscar-nominated producer Paula Dupré Pesmen (Home Alone and Harry Potter franchise) has been hired as the new managing director.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Brady Corbet’s (The Brutalist) will be about the history of the Occult in America. He has been working closely with occultist historian Mitch Horowitz, who famously worked as a historian and commentator on Shudder’s found footage horror film V/H/S/Beyond (2024). While The Brutalist’s runtime was 3 hours and 35 minutes with 165 pages of screenplay to cover, Corbet revealed that his new script goes up to 200 pages.

Mini Tidbits:

• XYZ Films exec leaves

• Graham Norton’s new show

• Ella McCay goes to France

Read all those and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1918. William Holden born in O’Fallon, Illinois.

Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co

Looks like every mother and grandmother is not enough to keep QVC alive. The owners behind QVC and the Home Shopping Network will file for Chapter 11 following hundreds of layoffs in 2025 and several years of slipping sales.

Rocky 50, a 4K remastered version of the legendary film Rocky (1976), is set to hit the theaters from November 7th ~ 11th. Amazon, MGM Studios, Park Circus, and Fathom Entertainment will work together to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the Hollywood icon.

Barbara Gordon (WCBS’ Eye On), an Emmy-winning TV producer and writer, has died. Her revelatory 1979 memoir, I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can, told the story of her battle with Valium addiction, which was adapted into a feature film in 1982, garnering the writer widespread attention.

Graham Norton’s new game show, The Neighborhood, will launch in April. The beloved UK host has a brand-new 11-episode gameshow series on ITV (UK’s oldest and largest commercial TV network). The show will feature six households moving into a street, where they will compete in various challenges to win £250,000 ($336,000).

James L. Brooks’ Ella McCay (2025) is to have a French theatrical run. The film bombed at the U.S. box office, grossing only $4 M against a $35 M budget. However, the overwhelming love from French critics nationwide prompted 20th Century Studios to announce that Ella McCay would have a theatrical release in 100 theaters across France for 2 days.

Joey Pollari (American Crime) joins FX’s horror anthology series American Horror Story. Pollari is among the new faces in the cast that most notably includes Ariana Grande (Wicked), who will appear in AHS S13. No info on the plot or on Pollari’s role.

Disney+’s Wizards Beyond Waverly Place is bringing back a familiar face with the return of Gregg Sulkin (MTV’s Faking It). The heartthrob will guest star as werewolf Mason Greyback, reprising the role from the original series. The third and final season will drop sometime this summer.

Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett is making his daytime television return on ABC’s General Hospital. A full circle moment for the actor who began his career on All My Children; he will make his GH debut this May.

At this year’s Visions du Réel, Swiss documentary projects are getting a global showcase, reflecting the country’s growing strength in the non-fiction scene.

Heat

• Dir/Wri: Jacqueline Zünd (Where We Belong)

• Int. Sales Rep: Taskovski Films (Hadersfield)

Synopsis:

Set in the Persian Gulf, one of the hottest regions in the world, the film is an exploration of heat and its impact on character traits, economic dynamics, and social disparities.

Dentro

• Dir/Wri: Elsa Amiel (Pearl)

• Prod. Comp: Les Films du Bilboquet (Six Feet Over)

Synopsis:

A radical artistic experiment is explored in an Italian prison.

Saudades Eternas

• Dir/Wri: Emma Boccanfuso (debut)

• Prod. Comp: Close Up Films (I Am Not Your Negro)

Synopsis:

In a brick house at the heart of a Rio favela, Sueli yells, scolds, consoles. Matriarch of a noisy clan, she watches over her children and grandchildren, unfazed by the gunfire bursts that set the pace of daily life.

We chat about the highlights of the festival, including Quentin Tarantino’s first acting role in 30 years, two Al Pacino films, and some first-time directors backed by multiple Sundance-winning producers. And hidden gems in the official selection.

The rest of this article contains the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival program lineup.

Typically, when you see lineups, it is a long list spread across multiple web pages. What we have done is broken it up into categories:

• Cover Story that breaks down the top films at the festival.

• Tribeca Industry News, which breaks out the festival films from the major studios.

• Tribeca Actor Spotlight, highlighting the top talent at the festival.

• Tribeca Tech Section, with a film about AI that caught our attention.

• Tribeca Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, showcasing first and second-time filmmakers.

• Tribeca International News, showing the top international filmmakers at Tribeca.

All titles are linked to the Tribeca’s website, which has first look photos.

Enjoy!

To see the full article, you can read it here.

Tribeca Film Festival in NYC is a menagerie of some of the best up-and-coming in indie cinema. And interestingly, there are more studio pics here than at Cannes.

This year’s edition features a robust competition by mostly newcomers, while some of the flashier films, detailed below, are in non-competition sections:

The Last Day

• Dir: Rachel Rose (first feature)

• Cast: Alicia Vikander, Wagner Moura

• Prod Co: Killer Films

• Prod Co: Kaplan Morrison (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Josephine)

Synopsis:

On a July 4th in New York, Julia, a writer and mother, encounters figures from her past and a troubled young mother, prompting her to confront her lack of creative purpose and rediscover herself within the life she has.

The Accompanist

• Dir/Wri: Zach Woods (debut film)

• Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Susan Sarandon

• Producer: Carlos Zozaya (Gasoline Rainbow)

• Section: Spotlight Narrative

Synopsis:

70-year-old Sylvia becomes an unlikely foster parent to 8-year-old Emily, removed from her dementia-stricken grandfather’s care after a near-fatal incident in New Jersey.

In Memoriam

• Dir: Rob Burnett (The Fundamentals of Caring)

• Genre: dramedy

• Cast: Marc Maron, Talia Ryder, Lily Gladstone, Sharon Stone, Justin Long

Synopsis:

What is the one thing that a dying man (Maron) feels will prove his life was worth something? A place in the Academy Awards® “In Memoriam” segment, of course.

This is Burnett’s first feature in a decade. And Maron will play a version of himself.

Death Boom

• Prod: Eli Roth, Leonardo DiCaprio

• In Tribeca’s Escape from New York section

Synopsis:

Eighty years ago, the “Baby Boom” led to a massive uptick in births. Now, we’re seeing the inevitable end of that surge as those tens of millions of people pass away. This fascinating doc explores the dilemma now facing the funeral industry and the many inventive solutions being pioneered.

Roth hosts, so Death Boom has a macabre tinge.

Tidbits:

Alicia Keys will have a special appearance after the closing night film, Alicia Keys: Girl From Hell’s Kitchen. Sign up here.

The Boy Meets World child stars (Will Friedle, Danielle Fishel, and Rider Strong) do a live show podcast talkback after the premiere of their Spotlight+ Doc Meets World. Check it out here.

Hillary Clinton in the house. Clinton will give a talkback following the documentary Miss Representation: Rise Up. Sign up here.

Mumford & Sons performance?! Yes, after the world premiere of their Spotlight+ doc Mumford & Sons: The House Band, there will be an acoustic performance. Notably, the doc is produced by Bryan Ling (music supervisor: Good Smart), who started his career as a DJ on Grandma’s Boy (2006). Get tickets here.

THE TRIBECA INDUSTRY NEWS

HBO’s Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS. That’s the Weight of the World) will open the Tribeca Film Festival.

Continuing its pattern of opening-night films centered on musical legends (last year spotlighted Billy Joel), the doc will showcase the humble beginnings of Questlove’s epic, celestial, metaphysical, and pyrotechnical stadium shows.

Followed by a rocking live performance after the screening.

HBO will also world premiere:

• Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story

  • Prod: Caroline Waterlow (ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America)

• The Lion Queen

Here are the other studios showcasing films:

Netflix - 2 films

• 1x Spotlight Narrative - In the Hand of Dante, directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, and Gerard Butler.

Synopsis:

A handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” makes its way from a priest to a mob boss in New York City, where it is taken by Nick Tosches after he’s asked to verify its authenticity.

The film premiered at Venice.

• 1x Spotlight Documentary - Chris & Martina: The Final Set

Synopsis:

Tennis legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova reflect on their parallel journeys to sports stardom and their shared experience of cancer treatment.

Paramount’s Republic Pictures - 1 film

• 1x Spotlight Narrative - Finnegan’s Foursome, directed, written, produced, and starring Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen).

Synopsis:

Two Irish American brothers and their children, all highly competitive golfers, returning to their ancestral homeland.

Disney - 2 films

• 2x Spotlight Narrative - Hulu’s Never Change! produced by Spider-Man’s Jon Watts

Synopsis:

Former high school seniors reunite in their 30s to complete their education after a tornado abruptly ended their final year in 2005. As they return to the halls of North Meadows High, past relationships reignite and hidden truths surface.

• Disney+’s They Fight starring André Holland and Wendell Pierce. Produced by Disney’s Andscape

Synopsis:

Recently released from prison, coach Walt Mangian joins a local youth gym to help a ragtag team of adolescent boxers aspiring to a national championship.

Tidbits:

Angel Studios will premiere Young Washington, co-starring Ben Kingsley and Mary-Louise Parker. Trailer.

Topic Studios (Neon’s Splitsville, A24’s Mother Mary) is the production company for the Tribeca viewpoints doc Matininó. Visually, it looks insane.

Sony Pictures Classics’ Gail Daugherty and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which premiered at Sundance, and Unidentified, which premiered at TIFF, will play at Tribeca in the Spotlight Narrative section.

Not a studio film, but Just Look Up, the climate doc is EP’d by Adam McKay and Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing).

Oscar-nominee documentarian Sam Pollard has The Lorraine about the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

TRIBECA ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Zach Braff embraces his dark side. In the world premiere of Clean Hands, Braff plays a narcotics officer grappling with his 19-year-old daughter’s worsening opioid addiction.

It’s not the first time Braff has delved into much darker material. While not as an actor, he directed the Amazon MGM Studio’s A Good Person (trailer), which centered on Morgan Freeman’s son being killed in a car accident right before his wedding day.

Braff showed a surprising range in the original Scrubs (clip), but it has been hard for him to shake that ever-present shadow of twee. Braff has always had a lot of unappreciated acting chops, and we’re excited to see him do something that stretches his abilities.

Double Al Pacino. The 85-year-old actor appears in two Tribeca projects, Netflix’s In the Hand of Dante and Killing Castro.

The story:

In 1960, Fidel Castro comes to America to speak at the UN. He is invited by Malcolm X to stay in Harlem at the famous Hotel Theresa. Unsure of his intentions, the FBI, CIA and the Mafia, attempt to eliminate him by any means necessary.

It’s a wild piece of unknown history to unearth. No word on who Pacino is playing, but there’s been talk of an undercover cop in the story… it may be too late for a ​Serpico sequel, but we can always dream.

Tim Blake Nelson plays the Heaven’s Gate cult leader Marshall Herff Applewhite in the new true-crime thriller The Leader. The film, which is world premiering at Tribeca, is inspired by Heaven’s Gate (not the infamous movie), the infamous religious group that committed the largest mass suicide to ever take place in the US.

I’ve now had the pleasure of hosting 2x live events with Nelson and can say with confidence he is ultra-smart. And given his predilection to play oddballs, I can’t imagine anyone better for the role. All the footage of Applewhite looks like he’s on some sort of mind-controlled kids’ TV show. And Nelson can be commanding and goofy all in equal measure.

Vera Farmiga will play the cult’s co-founder.

Mini Tidbits:

David Cross, Thomas Mann, Hasan Minhaj. This hilarious trio stars in the Narrative Competition film Lucy Schulman, which follows a woman who, after a bad breakup, moves back in with her wacky dad. It’s supposed to be very sweet. Written, directed, and starring Ellie Sachs. Produced by Fernando Loureiro (Francis Ha).

Paul Rudd co-stars in Rain Reign about a 12-year-old, neurodivergent girl cared for by her struggling single dad and well-meaning uncle, but she runs off during a superstorm. Rudd often plays ill-equipped father figures, like his recent performance in Lionsgate’s Power Ballad, but it had him on such a righteous mission that he should do well in this.

3x Emmy winner Margo Martindale plays a long-haul trucker who’s been running from a dark truth for decades in The Long Haul.

Bob Odenkirk climbs a mountain. No, it’s not the next Nobody 3 or Normal 2. It’s a doc called Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu, following Odenkirk and David Cross on a crazy hike where they learn a lot about each other.

Quentin Tarantino acts for the first time in 30 years?! Yep, read our cover story breakdown for Only What We Carry.

TECH SECTION

There are several films at Tribeca that delve into AI, including the doc Probably Nothing to Worry About.

However, the one that stuck out to me is Deepfake, which is a feature narrative.

Synopsis:

Rudderless millennial Jane hires a team of Gen-Z consultants to reinvent her life. But what begins as a makeover soon spirals into a sharp social media satire about image, app culture, and the cost of becoming someone else.

Next up, an ever stranger science film: Retrieval (documentary competition).

Synopsis:

If science allowed you to hold onto a piece of someone you lost, would you? When Christina’s fiancé dies suddenly, she faces the unexpected decision of whether or not to carry on his legacy via postmortem sperm retrieval.

Not tech-related by subject matter. But DP turned Director Joshua Z Weinstein is a master technician. His sophomore film is in the narrative competition, Here I’m Alive.

Synopsis:

One night. One city. Migrants, sex workers, and dreamers hustle New York’s digital underbelly in this neo-realist urban epic driven by underground rap and spiritual jazz. Raw, unforgettable and unmistakably New York.

Weinstein was an additional DP on Paramount+’s Predators (2025), a camera op on Pavements (2024), and the DP and director of A24’s Menashe.

TRIBECA INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Producers Rafael Marmor and Christopher Leggett (Netflix’s Will and Harper) have two docs at Tribeca.

Odyssey

Synopsis:

From the rise of NASA to the gripping rescue mission of Apollo 13, told entirely through over 2,500 hours of rare archival material including much never before available to the public. Using rare footage, chronicles Apollo 13’s 1970 crisis through Lovell’s family perspective and global cooperation efforts. After tank explosion damaged vital systems, NASA worked to bring astronauts safely home.

Playing POTUS

Synopsis:

From Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford to Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris, Playing POTUS explores how comedians don’t just parody leaders, they help define them. Featuring comedy legends and late-night insiders, this sharp, entertaining documentary reveals how presidential impressions became one of America’s most influential and surprisingly powerful forms of political storytelling.

Directed and produced by Josh Greenbaum (Will and Harper).

What’s really astonishing about Marmor and Leggett is how versatile they are. Playing POTUS reminds me a little of their doc Becoming Bond (2017, also directed by Greenbaum), which focused on the wild way George Lazenby became Bond. It was as much fiction as it was fact, and we have a feeling that with the wild cast of subjects, playing POTUS could be similar.

Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read are some of the top indie producers in the game. They co-produced Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), and production supervised and line produced American Honey (2016) and Zola (2020). Now they are producing a new film:

Act One

Synopsis:

In this rhythmic psychological thriller, a lonely aspiring teen actress finds herself drawn to an acting teacher who pulls her into a web of desire and control, blurring the lines of seduction and obsession.

Tribeca actor turned director tidbits:

Katie Holmes third feature film is the rom-drama Happy Hours. It’s set in NYC and follows two former lovers reunited years after their relationship ended. Mary-Louise Parker also stars.

Gabriel Basso, the Super 8 actor who recently starred as J.D. Vance in Netflix’s Hillbilly Elegy, makes his debut film, Iconoclast, in which he also stars. It follows a reclusive loner’s obsession with a live-streaming influencer, who reshapes his entire existence.

Mini Tidbits:

Best Picture Oscar-winning producer Samantha Quan, EPs Via Negativa. The film, playing in the US Narrative Competition, follows a young priest facing a crisis of faith. He sets off on a road trip to heal when he picks up a wounded coyote.

Shanghai’s Before Sunset. In the narrative competition film Ephemera, set in post-pandemic Shanghai, a Chinese-American actress, Asher, asks out her Hip Hop dance teacher, Tori, sparking an electric, city-wide romance that must end by sunrise.

Like that scene in 500 Days of Summer, but the entire movie. In Next Life, directed by Drake Doremus (A24’s Equals), Emilia Clarke meets a handsome jazz musician on a train. The film follows two separate realities, one where she falls in love with the stranger, and the other where she reconnects with her ex.

First-time director Alex Vlack amasses a cast with Alison Brie, André Holland, and Dustin Hoffman. His film is The Revisionist, about a novelist who manipulates the people in her life like a book. We could see Brie being hilarious in that role.

Sundance and Berlin’s Take Me Home will make its NY Premiere. The film took the US Dramatic Screenwriting award this year at Sundance.

Greg Kohs, who directed the original Song Sung Blue documentary on which the Focus Features’ film with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson is based, brings a doc to Tribeca in the Spotlight section: The A-Word: The Future of Aging, about the science of extending lifespan.

An interesting doc that won’t be on the Food Network. How to Feed a Dictator centers on 5 chefs who have fed dictators and their experience of being morally compromised.

Fun doc synopsis: Stealing Magic: Someone is stealing the secrets behind magicians’ greatest tricks and selling them on illicit websites. An unlikely team of illusionists on an international caper to track down the culprits. I hope it turns out like the wild Sundance doc Tickled.

The son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono is Sean Ono Lennon. He has a doc in Spotlight called threeASFOUR: Full Circle.

Cheyenne Cage (prod: Omni Loop) produces the narrative debut of production designer Cheyenne Cage (Couple Therapy, art director: The Miseducation of Cameron Post). Mother Future Self is about an experimental dance camp in rural Maine, where two friends’ reunion goes horribly wrong.

TV director Doron Max Hagay (Hacks, SNL) makes his feature debut with She Keeps Me Young, playing in the Narrative competition.

Genre director Mickey Keating (Sundance’s Carnage Park) is back with Crooks in the Viewpoints section, centering on a timeless Chicago for a pulpy, streetwise crime thriller.

TRIBECA INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Ramin Bahrani (Dir: 99 Homes, EP: Neon’s The End) produces Zejtune, from Malta, Germany, and Qatar. The film is having its North American Premiere in the international documentary competition section.

Synopsis:

To sever ties with her homeland once and for all, Mar must traverse Malta to claim her inheritance. Guided by a charismatic, octogenarian troubadour, she finds herself softening to the country’s charms.

Another film that caught my attention…

Labrador — Autopsy of Silence playing in the International Narrative Competition.

Synopsis:

As a cargo ship sails through a storm off the coast of Basse-Côte-Nord, a cook is found murdered on board. From the perspective of Alupa Tulugak, an Inuk mechanic and friend of the victim, this story reconstructs the events as a thriller.

Directed by Rodrigue Jean.

This one sounds heavy but powerful:

I Spy with My Little Eye

Synopsis:

After losing their childhood best friend, Yalda and Lou are left to clear out Solveigh’s apartment. In Alisa Kolosova’s bittersweet love letter to female solidarity, the two women must confront the most important lingering question while they sift through memories: Who should take custody of Solveigh’s five-year-old daughter?

One film to look out for in the Viewpoints section is Crocodile. It follows a young Nigerian art collective that creates DIY sci-fi films with homemade equipment, documenting their lives while exploring fantastical alternate realities. An energetic celebration of creativity and resourceful storytelling.

See the full list of 2026 Tribeca films here.

Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.

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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

HBO’s Cannes, Searchlight’s Monitor, and Liman’s AI.

Let’s go!

If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• HBO’s The White Lotus begins filming S4 with Cannes-set storylines.

• Searchlight has picked up SXSW horror film Monitor for U.S. distribution.

• Kennedy Ryan has signed a first-look deal with Universal Studio Group.

• Lionsgate has extended CEO Jon Feltheimer’s contract through 2031.

• Roku is launching original doc series Gamechangers.

• Amazon MGM’s culinary thriller Tyrant has cast Demi Moore.

• Matt LeBlanc will lead CBS crime drama Flint.

• Love and War, starring Samantha Morton, heads to Cannes Market.

• Quo Vadis, Aida? is getting a sequel, with Indie Sales handling international sales.

• Doug Liman’s Bitcoin: Killing Satoshi, starring Casey Affleck and Gal Gadot, is using AI.

• Steven Schneider comes on to EP SXSW sci-fi thriller Imposters.

• The BBC is cutting up to 2,000 jobs.

• HBO Max is launching in India through JioHotstar.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Psycho, starred Osgood Perkins dad, Anthony Perkins.
70% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

It’s time to check in! HBO has confirmed production has begun on season four of The White Lotus, filming on the French Riviera. The timing isn’t coincidental, with the new season focused on love and fame set during the Cannes Film Festival, which will be unfolding in real time in just a few weeks.

Show creator Mike White brings his usual packed ensemble, led by Helena Bonham Carter and Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), with season four set to premiere early 2027.

We’ll be at Cannes, and maybe we’ll catch a glimpse of the show shooting. At least this is one way to get Warner Bros. Discovery to Cannes.

Searchlight Pictures picks up SXSW horror film Monitor. The studio has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the feature debut from filmmakers Matt Black and Ryan Polly. The movie follows a young woman and her colleagues who work as content moderators. When they remove a mysterious video from the darkest parts of the internet, they become haunted by an evil force that uses the screen to kill them. The film has been described as A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) meets Ringu (1998).

Lionsgate has extended longtime CEO Jon Feltheimer’s contract through 2031. The two-year add-on comes as little surprise following the studio’s recent separation from Starz and a strong year across film and TV with The Housemaid and the award-winning The Studio. The news arrives just a week ahead of Lionsgate’s highly anticipated Michael premiere.

Mini Tidbits:

NYT bestseller Kennedy Ryan inks a first-look deal with Universal Studio Group. The first project under the agreement is a series adaptation of her novel Before I Let Go, a second-chance romance story set in Atlanta that is currently in development at Peacock.

Just when us A-List members thought we had it all. AMC Theaters has announced a $2 increase to its Stubs A-List subscription for a total of $29.99 a month.

United Agents (UK rep for Jessie Buckley, Kate Winslet) launches its Unscripted Division. The new department will focus on representing reality TV stars, digital-first creators, and media influencers.

Roku launches original documentary film series Gamechangers. The docu-anthology will start with FIFA Women’s World Cup champion goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris and will be followed by two more feature documentaries.

Renewals:

MGM+’s From (for S5)

CBS’s Harlan Coben’s Final Twist (for S2)

CBS’s Beyond the Gates (for S3 and S4)

Cancellation:

Peacock’s Copenhagen Test (canceled after S1)

Trailers:

Prime Video’s Good Omens

• Dir: Rachel Talalay (Doctor Who)

• Cast: Michael Sheen, David Tennant

• Trailer

• Release: May 13, 2026

Apple TV’s Unconditional

• Trailer

• Release: May 8, 2026

AMC and Shudder’s The Terror: Devil in Silver

• (S3 of AMC’s The Terror Anthology)

• EP: Dan Stevens, Ridley Scott

• Cast: Dan Stevens, Judith Light

• Trailer

• Release: May 7, 2026

DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island

• Dir: Joel Crawford (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish)

• Cast: H.E.R., Dave Franco, Jenny Slate

• Trailer

• Release: Sep 25, 2026

As Deep as the Grave

• Cast: Val Kilmer (A.I.-generated likeness), Tom Felton

• Trailer

• Release: TBD

First look:

2026 French Zorro (series)

• Cast: Jean Dujardin (Zorro)

• First Look Clip 1, Clip 2

• Release: June 30, 2026

BBC’s Ludwig S2 (series)

• Cast: David Mitchell, Anna Maxwell Martin, Dylan Hughes

• First Look

• Release: TBD

20th Century Studios’ The Dog Stars

• Dir: Ridley Scott

• Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong

• First Look

• Release: June 30, 2026

Release date:

Peacock’s MIA (pilot)

• Release: May 7, 2026

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Amazon MGM Studios' high-stakes culinary thriller Tyrant casts Demi Moore (Landman), joining Charlize Theron and Julia Garner. Beyond taking place in New York City’s elite fine dining scene, plot details are being kept under wraps.

Following her Oscar-nominated turn in The Substance (2024), the new project only further distances the actress from the type of blockbuster roles (i.e., Ghost, Indecent Proposal, Striptease) that defined her breakout in the 90s, with her recent resurgence clearly marked by challenging, prestige-driven projects.

Filming will begin in LA next month.

Mini Tidbits:

Friends’ Matt LeBlanc is headlining Flint, a new CBS crime drama. The show will see LeBlanc as a burnt-out LAPD officer who is determined to get fired after the city unexpectedly extends his service. From CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Flint will most likely premiere in 2027.

Another CBS pickup sees LL Cool J making a franchise return for NCIS: New York, the eighth spinoff in the NCIS-verse. The rapper and actor will reprise his longtime NCIS: Los Angeles (2009-23) role as special agent Sam Hanna with the show set to premiere this fall.

Another star from the original series is joining Fox’s Baywatch reboot. Erika Eleniak will guest star, reprising her role as Shauni McClain, who begins as a nervous rookie before quickly becoming one of the beach’s most skilled lifeguards.

Cool Hand Luke (1967) actress Joy Harmon has passed away at 87. She made a number of TV appearances in shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Gidget, but her defining role was a wordless, three-minute scene in the classic Paul Newman prison drama. It’s a scene that wouldn’t be nearly as well-received today, but nonetheless put the actress’ name on the map.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Market:

Love and War

• Int. Sales Rep: Alliance Media Partners (Dead Eyes)

• Dir: Lisa Mulcahy (Lies We Tell)

• Cast: Samantha Morton (Minority Report, Morvern Callar)

Synopsis:

A mother is forced to enter war-torn Syria to recover her daughter after the child is taken across borders by her estranged husband.

Neon’s Oscar and BAFTA-nominated film Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020, trailer) is getting a sequel. Quo Vadis, Aida? – The Missing Part will pick up immediately from the ending of the previous film, as we follow Aida searching for her sons, who were taken by Serbian forces during the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. Paris-based sales company Indie Sales has been appointed to oversee international sales at the Cannes Market.

Mini Tidbit:

Cannes’ Marché du Film is partnering with Tokyo’s Content Market (TIFFCOM) for a three-day event that will give global buyers and producers a chance to tap into the surge of strong Japanese IP.

Cannes Docs will showcase four in-progress titles from Circle Doc Accelerator, connecting emerging documentarians with major industry players for financing and distribution opportunities.

TECH SECTION

Doug Liman’s new feature, Bitcoin: Killing Satoshi, is being billed as the first fully-generated, studio-quality AI feature film.

What does that mean? There’s no on-location filming; all the backdrops and sets are made with 3D models by the production designer, then fed into the AI program to create the final rendering, and lit with an AI program.

They’re touting that the budget has dropped from $300M to around $70M. And they’re not touching the performances, which are headlined by Casey Affleck and Gal Gadot.

We admire Liman’s ability to get the movie made, no matter the cost. He piloted a plane into the mountains to get the Bourne Identity rights from author Robert Ludlum. And during the pandemic, he shot a film called Locked Down to keep telling stories.

And even though this is admirable, I don’t really buy that the finished film without AI would cost $300M. Even though it’s set in 200 locations (including Antarctica), you could use a volumetric.

They’re only shooting for 20 days, and the budget is $70M, which means either the cast fees are enormous or the cost of this AI production is tremendous.

We’ll reserve any further judgment until it gets picked up by a distributor. Currently being shopped at Cannes.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Steven Schneider (Producer of Paranormal Activity) will EP SXSW hit sci-fi thriller, Imposters. Schneider’s company, Spooky Pictures (Production co: Late Night With the Devil), joined the project as well.

The film centers on a couple who find their missing child after a long search, only to realize that what came back might not be their child. Imposters debuted at SXSW in 2026 from filmmaker Caleb Phillips. Imposters teaser.

Tidbits:

Danny Trejo’s boxing film Counterpunch (2013) will get a sequel. The original film (trailer) follows a boxer as he faces mental health challenges while striving for a second shot at becoming a professional fighter. Danny Trejo will return as a mental health counselor, guiding the young boxer in his journey. Alexis Knapp (Pitch Perfect franchise) is also attached to star in the sequel.

Re: Uniting (2023) writer-director Laura Adkin is reuniting with producer Krista Rand for Out of Luck, the first full feature screenplay from bestselling thriller author Catherine McKenzie. The revenge story centers on a group of determined women who pull off a suspenseful heist of an ex’s Irish bars.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Berlinale award-winner Four Minus Three (Vier Minus Drei) from director Adrian Goiginger (The Best of All Worlds) has secured new international deals across multiple territories. Beta Cinema (Amrum) has sold to Pyramide (Sirāt) for France, A-Z Films (Invisibles) for Canada, and Palace Films (One Fine Morning) for Australia and New Zealand.

The drama, adapted from Barbara Pachl-Eberhart’s autobiographical novel, stars Valerie Pachner (A Hidden Life) as a clown navigating loss after a tragic accident. Following its strong festival reception and early box office success in Austria, the new deals further the momentum of its impressive rollout.

Mini Tidbits:

In an effort to cut costs, the BBC is laying off up to 2,000 employees across all departments as it looks to make up more than $500 million over the next two years. The cuts come amid mounting financial pressures, including production inflation, rising licensing fees, and a declining commercial income.

HBO Max launches in India. JioHotstar, a Disney-backed streaming service, will be its exclusive distribution partner. This is the first time all of HBO Max's content will be provided through a single streaming service in India. As of early 2026, HBO Max has expanded its reach to over 100 countries with 131.6M global subs.

Netflix is in development on a new Korean series, The Facade of Love, from the director behind the highest-rated Korean drama in history, Mo Wan-il (The World of the Married). The new show centers on two strangers who make a connection while abroad that disrupts their real lives once they return home.

ON THIS DAY

1889. Charlie Chaplin born in London, England.

Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co

For the next few days, we’ll be sending a separate breakdown of the studio films announced at CinemaCon, which are being positioned to generate either massive box-office revenue or awards.

CinemaCon Day 3 brought freshly announced films from:

• Universal

• Focus Features

• Amazon MGM Studios

  • Orion Pictures

Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Michael B. Jordan, and Rick Moranis all took the stage to share footage from their new films.

CinemaCon Day 3 was a stunner. Amazon MGM, Universal, and Focus gave powerful presentations of their upcoming films. One may win Best Picture.

Here’s a breakdown:

Universal

The Odyssey

We finally have clarity on why Christopher Nolan chose this film as his next project following his Best Picture Oscar win with Oppenheimer.

The two most universal Nolan themes are present: time and memory.

First, Nolan took to the stage and shared that The Odyssey is a story that has fascinated humanity for 3,000 years. And, just like in Memento, his main character, Matt Damon (Odysseus), has amnesia.

The footage was groundbreaking. It showed the delivery of the Trojan Horse to Troy, with the Greeks jumping out and burning the city.

In Nolan’s re-imagining, there is a powerful visual cross-cutting between the dark, sweaty interior of the horse’s hull and the sand-bleached wides of the horse being dragged into the city.

The entire thing feels epic and drenched in the psychological torture of a man who is both physically and emotionally wrecked. Releasing July 17th.

Disclosure Day

Spielberg took to the stage and revealed some new footage. It looked epic. There are definitely minor spoilers. So if you don’t want to know, skip and keep reading. If you want full disclosure, click here. Releasing June 12th.

Also mentioned…

Illumination’s Minions and Monsters. Set in 1920, the film involves the minions trying to make it as actors, with a bunch of footage homaging The Great Train Robbery and iconic scenes from Chaplin and Buster Keaton’s work. Christoph Waltz voices the director working with the minions. And John Goodman voices the studio head. Releasing July 1, 2026.

Snoop Dogg film

The Dogg himself came out on stage to share the previously announced team:

• Dir: Craig Brewer

• Cast: Jonathan Daviss (as Snoop)

• Prod: Brian Grazer

• Release: 2027

Daviss was wondrous at imitating Snoop's laid-back California-baked rap style. And Brewer, post Song Sung Blue, can ratchet up a heartfelt emotional storyline with some serious punch. This should be great. Filming this summer in the LBC.

Focker-In-Law

• Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Ariana Grande

• Trailer

• Release: November 25, 2026

The triangular dynamic between Grande winning De Niro’s approval and being enemies with Stiller is wondrously chuckle-inducing.

One Night Only

• Dir: Will Gluck (Anyone But You, Easy A)

• Cast: Callum Turner, Monica Barbaro

• Release: August 7th

Synopsis:

Two New Yorkers search for love on the one night of the year when sex is legal.

Turner isn’t playing the same ultra-confident suave type that has typified his recent performances (e.g., A24’s Eternity). Here he’s more boyish and nervous, like in Netflix’s Tramps (2016).

Violent Night 2

• Cast: David Harbour, Kristen Bell (as the violent, charming Mrs. Claus)

• Release: December 4th, 2026

Other Mommy

• Cast: Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass

• Release: Oct 9, 2026

This one is going to be super creepy with Chastain playing one normal mom and a look-alike, which is a vision of pure horror.

Oddly, it’s not the only film this year with two mothers, one of whom is an evil duplicate. The other leans more sci-fi and is Republic Pictures’ DreamQuil, which premiered at SXSW and stars Elisabeth Banks.

Focus Features

Sense and Sensibility (2026)

• Release: Oct 16th

Werwulf

• Dir: Robert Eggers

• Release: December 5th, 2026

The trailer showed us something a little darker than previous Eggers films.

This one is populated with a multitude of close-ups of the twisted faces of victims or Werwulfs. Again, Eggers unlocks the Gothic heart of this legend, but there’s something primordial and raw about the way he films Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s body twisting to transform into the creature.

Amazon MGM Studios

After a big win with Project Hail Mary, currently at $525M globally, the Amazon team took to the stage, recommitting their efforts to release 15 films/year. They’re also moving full force to build out their international distribution arm.

Here were the big projects mentioned.

I Play Rocky

• Dir: Peter Farrelly (Green Book)

• Release: Nov 13

The film tells the story of how Sylvester Stallone made Rocky. And in a true case of life mirroring art, it was a true battle. Stallone was a broke actor who spent a decade getting rejections and decided to bet on himself. I was blown away by how resonant it was. Perhaps because, as a filmmaker, I identified with the struggle.

Stallone’s story is as great as Rocky’s. I believe its Oscar chances are strong.

Spaceballs: The New One

• Cast: Mel Brooks, Rick Moranis (first film in 30 years), Bill Pullman, Lewis Pullman, and Keke Palmer

• Trailer

• Release: April 23, 2027

The extra footage shown at CinemaCon was hilarious and gives me high hopes that this may be as funny as the original. The scene that convinced me: Rick Moranis in a urinal next to one of the Avatar creatures, and he sneaks a peek.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

• Cast: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito

• Prod Co: Orion

• Release: 2026

Ali is a man of faith, a father, and also a hit man. He sells oils and perfumes and kills to protect his community. It’s great to see an action film where the person doing the killing is pained by each death he inflicts. Ali brings a spiritual soulfulness.

The Rest of the Slate:

The Sheep Detectives

• Wri: Craig Mazin (The Last of Us)

• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine

• First look

• Release: May 8, 2026

How to Rob a Bank

• Dir: David Leitch

• Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Pete Davidson, Zoë Kravitz, and John C. Reilly

• Prod Co: Imagine Entertainment

• Release: Sept 4, 2026

Hoult and Davidson go full anarchy as they create a YouTube channel to livestream their armed bank robberies. They want to inspire others to rob banks (90% success rate) rather than trying to become a millionaire (1% success rate). They’re 2026 Robin Hoods, and the punk style is exciting.

Verity

• Source Material: Colleen Hoover

• Cast: Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett

• Release: Oct 2, 2026

Synopsis:

Lowen Ashleigh gets hired by Jeremy Crawford to ghostwrite novels for his bestselling author wife Verity, who’s unable to finish after an accident.

Johnson, the ghostwriter, starts to see ghosts everywhere. It’s bombastic but very self-serious. Like you’re watching a true-crime series unfold in real time. This will continue the trend of Hoover IP doing very well at the box office.

The Beekeeper 2

• Cast: Jason Statham

• Release: Jan 15, 2027

Statham is back. This time with a little more bee-inspired violence. One stunt was inspired; he grabs a flamethrower and shoves it in someone’s mouth, and incinerates them. Later, we see him cure a bullet wound with a bunch of bee stings.

The Thomas Crown Affair

• Dir/Prod/Star and co-writer: Michael B. Jordan

• Co-star: Adria Arjona

• Composer: Jon Batiste

• Release: March 5th 2027

Jordan got on stage and spoke about what he drew from the previous two iterations of the film. For him, the 1997 Pierce Brosnan version was stylish, smart, and sophisticated. The original McQueen version was effortless, cool with a rebellious edge.

Jordan wanted to give the Crown a real reason, a real driver. And the trailer showed that he’s a man who loves living on the edge, while also being effortlessly cool. The chemistry with Arjona is great.

Prime knows this is a valuable piece of IP in their war chest.

A Colt is My Passport

• Cast: Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Tim Roth

• Release: 2027

This has a tinge of Tarantino to it. Dìrísù is a man who can kill anyone with a six-shooter, and he does.

Highlander

• Dir: Chad Stahelski (John Wick)

• Cast: Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Dave Bautista, Marisa Abela

• Release: 2027

• Upcoming filming locations: Poland, Scottish Highlands

Seeing Abela (Amy Winehouse in Back to Black) kicking ass was pretty fun. Stahelski can always capture electric footage. This has a tinge of John Wick and Blade Runner.

CinemaCon continues this week through today (Thursday).

Upcoming presentations include Paramount and Disney.

Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co

Blunt is used as a conduit to speak this alien tongue live on the news (she’s a weather reporter). And O’Connor discovers that he can understand what she’s saying. They seem to have a telepathic connection.

The aliens hide out as animals, and when their true form is revealed, they look like tiny humanoids with giant eyes.

Josh O’Connor plays a whistleblower who has stolen footage of a discreet facility where the government houses alien corpses.

Collin Firth uses his Men in Black team to track down Blunt when she, as a newscaster, gets on TV and accidentally speaks in an alien tongue. Colin Firth has an alien dialogue database and matches the sample.

None of the third act will be revealed in any of the promotional material.

Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

Paramount’s Longlegs, Seyfried’s Octet, and a Prisoner.

Let’s go!

If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Osgood Perkins is developing a new Longlegs feature for Paramount.

• ABC’s The Rookie: North is the network’s strongest new pilot.

• New Jersey production is surging, up 45%.

• Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Octet casts Amanda Seyfried and Rachel Zegler.

• Patrick Schwarzenegger stars w/ Phoebe Dynevor in 20th Century’s Beach Read.

• Cate Blanchett is set to play Martha Stewart in the biopic Good Thing.

• Adria Arjona has joined the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow.

• Michelle Monaghan cast in Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors.

• Tom McCarthy’s Sony drama adds Zach Woods, Michael Chernus.

• Dan Stevens has joined Dexter: Resurrection S2 as the Five Borough Killer.

• Doug Liman’s Bitcoin, starring Gal Gadot + Casey Affleck, at Cannes Market.

• Questlove’s Earth, Wind & Fire doc will open this year’s Tribeca Festival.

• Juan Devis is the new president of Film Independent.

• Maya Erskine makes feature directing debut with A24 teen comedy.

• Janus Films acquires Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Samurai and the Prisoner (premiere: Cannes).

• Berlin Golden Bear winner Yellow Letters lands UK distribution with Curzon.

• SXSW title Chili Fingers acquired by Signature Entertainment for the UK.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Rodriguez enrolled in a drug trial to fund his first film.
64% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

A Longlegs film… from Paramount. Director Osgood Perkins is working on a new Longlegs feature film with Nicolas Cage returning as the star, with Paramount financing and distributing.

That’s a big twist because Neon distributed the original film in 2024, which took a massive $128M at the box office worldwide on a $10M budget.

However, many indie horror films have moved from an independent distributor to a bigger studio setting before, most notably James Wan’s Insidious franchise, which was initially released under FilmDistrict but later picked up by Sony Pictures, and the Paranormal Activity franchise, which started as a small film with a $200K budget, but was expanded by Paramount Pictures.

Osgood Perkins holds a first-look deal with Neon, but this does not necessarily prevent Longlegs from moving to Paramount. First-look agreements typically grant the original distributor the right of first refusal, meaning Neon may have passed on the sequel or chose not to match the scale required for a studio-backed follow-up.

This could mean we're getting a bigger, deeper dive into the Longlegs universe, with Paramount attempting to build a horror franchise around the brand.

Tidbits:

Lip Sync Productions, the UK-based film investor behind the award-winning film The Brutalist, is in serious hot water. HM Revenue & Customs claims the company is responsible for a “deliberate” failure to pay a $19M tax bill between 2019 and 2023. This case comes almost exactly a year after the collapse of sister company Lipsync Post, which was also named one of the UK’s top tax defaulters.

The pilot for The Rookie spinoff, The Rookie: North, is panning out as ABC’s strongest contender for its next pickup. Starring Top Gun: Maverick’s Jay Ellis, the pilot maintains the middle-aged rookie cop premise, but set in the rural forest. The potential series order comes along with ABC renewing all its current scripted shows.

Disney isn’t the happiest place on Earth for roughly 1,000 employees, who are being laid off across TV, film, ESPN, marketing, and corporate divisions amid new CEO Josh D’Amaro’s streamlining push. Marvel Studios has been among the hardest hit, with 8% of staff, specifically in visual development, being let go. As well as the home entertainment team.

Move over L.A. Move over NYC. New Jersey is emerging as a fast-rising production hub, with shoot counts up 45% year-over-year and production spending up 37% in Q1 2026. Good for the Garden State.

Renewals:

Paramount+’s The Madison (for S3)
Prime’s Young Sherlock (for S2)

Trailers:

Paramount’s Passenger

• Director: André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe)

• Trailer

• Release: May 22

The Mountain

• EP: Taika Waititi

• Premiere: TIFF Centerpiece

• Trailer

• Release: April 24

Stolen Kingdom (doc)

• Topic: Million-dollar Disney World theft

• Trailer

• Release: May 21

Colony

• Dir: Yeon Sang-ho

• Premiere: Cannes Midnight section

• Trailer

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Lin-Manuel Miranda knows a thing or two about putting together an ensemble.

The Hamilton scribe and tick tick… Boom! director’s newest movie, Octet, is a film adaptation of Dave Malloy’s musical of the same name. The cast is made up of:

• Amanda Seyfried

• Rachel Zegler

• Tramell Tillman (Severance)

• Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary, the original cast of Broadway’s Dreamgirls)

• Jonathan Groff (Broadway’s Hamilton, Netflix’s Mindhunter)

Synopsis:

Follows eight internet-obsessed people who meet in a church basement, lock their phones in a box, and struggle with digital dependency using only their voices.

While the premise doesn’t overly excite me, such a strong group of actors, each possessing otherworldly singing voices, makes this worth tuning in for.

Tidbit:

A casting has never made more sense. Cate Blanchett is officially playing Martha Stewart in her biopic titled Good Thing. The eight-time Oscar nominee’s entire career has been built on portraying strong, powerful women, making someone like Stewart, the ultimate lifestyle mogul or original influencer, if you will, a role that feels almost tailor-made for Blanchett. Her unforgettable performance as the world-renowned composer in Tár (2022), a meticulous, exacting woman obsessed with control and perfection, qualities that, while more extreme, closely mirror Stewart’s formidable persona.

Young Schwarzenegger’s streak of romantic comedies. Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus) will star in 20th Century Studios’ Beach Read, opposite Phoebe Dynevor (Fair Play). Based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, the film follows a struggling romance novelist who reconnects with her college rival and fellow author through a writing challenge over the summer. Director Yulin Kuang (wri. People We Meet on Vacation) will be adapting and directing the film.

Adria Arjona (Hit Man) joins James Gunn’s Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow. The role is kept under wraps, but she might be playing Maxima – an alien conqueror from the planet Almerac. The sequel will follow Superman (David Corenswet) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) teaming up to face the superintelligent cyborg Brainiac (Lars Eidinger).

Michelle Monaghan (The White Lotus) joins the cast of Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors Season 3. No info on her role as of yet, but speculation suggests she might play a potential love interest for the protagonist, Andrew Cooper (Jon Hamm). The series follows Hamm, a suburban thief, as his new neighbor threatens to expose his secrets. Monaghan has a track record of entering an established series between seasons and leaving a distinctive mark – her portrayal of a famous actress, part of a “toxic trio,” in The White Lotus S3.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight line-up includes films starring Barry Keoghan, Monica Bellucci, Ayo Edebiri, Kenneth Branagh, and directed by Radu Jude and Quentin Dupieux. Full breakdown here.

Cannes Market:

Bitcoin

• Dir: Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow)

• Cast: Gal Gadot, Isla Fisher (Now You See Me), joining Casey Affleck and Pete Davidson

• Prod. Comp/Int. Sales Rep: 193 (sales rep: Die My Love)

Follows a man’s quest to prove he created Bitcoin, a claim that puts his life in peril and sets off a high-stakes race between tech billionaires and world leaders with the financial system hanging in the balance.

Tidbit:

Oscar winner Questlove (dir. Summer of Soul) is back in the director’s chair for Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS. That’s the Weight of the World) set to open this year’s Tribeca Festival. Continuing its pattern of opening night films centered on musical legends (last year spotlighted Billy Joel), the doc will feature archival footage of the band, followed by a rocking live performance after the screening. Tribeca begins June 3.

Mini Tidbits:

Nonprofit Film Independent has finally named Juan Devis (prod. Artbound) as its new president. He was the former CCO of broadcasters PBS SoCal and KCET. In Devis’s role, he will oversee the lab mentorship programs, screening series, and the annual Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Cannes Un Certain Regard’s I’ll Be Gone in June picked up by Int. Sales Rep: Luxbox (Magellan). Wim Wenders is the producer.

Cannes Un Certain Regard’s Ulya picked up by Int. Sales Rep: B-Rated (Dark Star Pictures’ Buzzheart).

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

From a spy to A24’s newest director. Mr. & Mrs. Smith actress Maya Erskine is set to helm an untitled teen comedy with the studio. A24 has a long track record of backing not just first-time directors, but actors deciding to step behind the camera.

• Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017)

• Paul Dano’s Wildlife (2018)

• Jonah Hill’s Mid90s (2018)

• Jesse Eisenberg’s When You Finish Saving the World (2022)

With numerous TV credits under her belt, Erskine really broke out in Amazon Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith opposite Donald Glover, where she showcased a sharp, instinctive performance that could potentially hint at a strong eye for directing.

No word on the plot, but Emma Stone’s Fruit Tree is attached to produce.

Tidbit:

Janus Films (American Distributor of Oscar-nominated Drive My Car) acquires Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Samurai and the Prisoner, which is set to debut at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Based on the novel of the same name, the film will follow a Japanese warlord who is besieged within the walls of his own castle. When mysterious murders start happening in his castle, he partners up with a brilliant yet dangerous prisoner in the dungeon to solve the case. Kurosawa is a Japanese Horror legend during the turn of the century who made films like Cure (1997), Pulse (2001), and Retribution (2006). We are excited to see what he can bring to a historical thriller genre.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Berlin 2025 Golden Bear (Top Prize) winner Yellow Letters gets picked up for UK distribution by Curzon as well as 12 other territories, including Australia and Canada. Directed by Ilker Çatak (SPC’s The Teacher’s Lounge).

Synopsis:

Life is good for Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Turkey, until an incident at their play’s premiere. Suddenly targeted by the state and struggling to balance their ideals with life’s necessities, their marriage is pushed to a breaking point.

Trailer.

Tidbits:

Italy’s highest-grossing movie of all time Buen Camino (2025, trailer) will get a Spanish remake. The film follows a rich and self-indulgent father who travels through Spain’s famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage on a red Ferrari. The film made a whopping $82M at the Italian box office. Spain’s AF Films (Spanish production company of Above and Below) has acquired the rights to the comedy. With a more universal story, Buen Camino could prove that local comedies can cross borders to international audiences.

SXSW gem Chili Finger has been acquired by Signature Entertainment (Terrifier) for UK and Irish rights. The offbeat dark comedy starts with Judy Greer (13 Going On 30) discovering a severed finger in her bowl of chili, setting off a genre-bending, chaotic blackmail case. Greer shares the screen alongside heavy hitters Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, and Sean Astin, with Archstone Entertainment (American Dreamer) handling distribution elsewhere.

ON THIS DAY

2012. Girls premieres on HBO.

Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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Cannes Directors’ Fortnight’s most high-profile films:

Butterfly Jam

• Dir/Wri: Kantemir Balagov (Cannes breakout Beanpole)

• Cast: Barry Keoghan, Monica Bellucci, Riley Keough, Harry Melling (Pillion)

• Int. Sales Rep: Goodfellas

Synopsis:

A Circassian-American teen in New Jersey balances working at his family’s struggling ethnic diner with his wrestling aspirations, until his father’s risky decision forces him to face harsh realities and grow up quickly.

Never would I have predicted a movie set in New Jersey would be one of the headlining films at Cannes, but crazier things have happened!

Opening the section, Balagov’s English-language debut features a cast of strong young actors and a raw coming-of-age story that feels both personal and universally relatable.

Clarissa

• Dir: Aerie and Chuko Esiri (This Is My Desire)

• Cast: Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), David Oyelowo (Selma)

• Worldwide Dist/Int. Sales Rep: Neon

Synopsis:

A re-imagining of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” set in Lagos.

Woolf’s 1925 landmark novel perfected a stream of consciousness style that, reimagined today, with Edebiri in the titular role, could bring the story’s interiority to life in a really cool, cinematic way.

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

• Dir: Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant)

• Cast: Anthony Boyle (Masters of the Air), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders), Daryl McCormack (Wake Up Dead Man)

• Prod. Comp: BBC Film

• Int. Sales Rep: Charades (Int. Sales The Testament of Ann Lee)

Synopsis:

Five childhood friends face adult struggles: Patrick and Shiv’s relationship strains over a secret, Oli parties destructively, Conor awaits fatherhood with business dreams, and wealthy Rian can’t escape his past despite moving away.

In addition to direction from BAFTA nominated Barnard, screenwriter Enda Walsh who’s fantastic track record of book to screen adaptations (Die My Love, Small Things Like These) makes this one to definitely look out for.

Diary of a Chambermaid (Journal d’une femme de chambre)

• Dir: Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)

• Cast: Ana Dumitrascu (Immaculate), Amélie Prevot (Band of Spies)

• Prod. Comp: SBS Productions (Benedetta)

Synopsis:

A young Romanian woman living in France works for a French family and joins a theatre company who are adapting Octave Mirbeau’s “The Diary of a Chambermaid.”

Jude’s comedy and contemporary adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s classic novel is bringing him to Cannes (shockingly) for the first time. Diary… marks back-to-back projects for Dumitrascu, who starred in Jude’s satirical horror Dracula last year.

Mini Tidbits:

Two American directors are being featured in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight lineup. Reed Van Dyk is making both his Cannes and directorial debut with Atonement, an Iraqi war drama starring Kenneth Branagh and Succession’s Hiam Abbass.

One of the few documentaries in the section Neon’s Once Upon A Time in Harlem is from New York’s own David Greaves, the son of the late great William Greaves (dir. Symbiopsychotaciplasm: Take One), making its way to Cannes after a strong reception at its premiere at Sundance earlier this year.

The widely absurd and quirky French director Quentin Dupieux (Rubber) is bringing two films to the festival this year. Full Phil, the father-daughter dramedy starring Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart, will screen in the midnight section, and his debut animated feature Le Vertige is closing out the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar.

For the next few days, we’ll be sending a separate breakdown of the studio films announced at CinemaCon, which are being positioned to generate either massive box-office revenue or awards.

CinemaCon Day 2 brought freshly announced films from:

• Warner Bros.

  • Warner Bros. Pictures

  • DC Studios

  • New Line

• Neon

• GKIDS

Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Sandra Bullock, Denis Villeneuve, and Alejandro Iñárritu all took the stage to share footage from their new films.

Tom Cruise only worked with Stanley Kubrick once.

But now, over a quarter of a century after he gave a spellbinding performance in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), he will star in Warner Bros.’ Digger (2026), which shares a spiritual center with another Kubrick film: Dr. Strangelove (1964).

In Digger, Cruise plays a spoiled, overweight owner of an oil-digging company whose inaction causes the operation to go haywire, sparking a global catastrophe.

Director Alejandro Iñárritu described the Cruise character as:

“Humanity, human folly, the delusional need to control things. A powerful man who changed the way people see the world, who makes the worst decision in the world.”

The film is a world-on-the-brink-of-collapse black comedy with a zany tone. Cruise’s character feels like a strange combo of every Peter Sellers character in Dr. Strangelove: mad, fearful, self-righteous, silly, etc.

Tom Cruise already has an Oscar, but this may earn him a nomination for sure.

Releasing October 2nd.

Speaking of Kubrick, Warner Bros. announced the name for their newly created indie label: Clockwork. The logo is reminiscent of the style of A Clockwork Orange (a WB title).

The first film will be Sean Baker’s, Ti Amo! That’s a massive get as this will be Baker’s first major studio film. And it goes against his ethos of having distributors in a bidding war after he makes the finished product.

Part of the reason he jumped? WB’s Clockwork is run by a trio of former Neon execs: Christian Parkes, Jason Wald, and Spencer Collantes.

The new label aims to create smartly budgeted global theatrical releases with innovative marketing campaigns.

Completing our WB Kubrick coincidence trio, Eyes Wide Shut co-star Nicole Kidman got on stage with Sandra Bullock to show the trailer for Practical Magic 2.

Bullock spoke about the production team's wild attention to verisimilitude, replicating the exact architecture of the house from the original film. It seems that the level of detail brought back all the sensory memories of the first film (1998), unleashing a nostalgia that permeates.

On stage, Kidman and Bullock had great chemistry. A standout line from the trailer: “Everyone we love dies. Not great for a Tinder bio.”

Non Kubrick-related Warner Bros. films:

Denis Villeneuve, Zendaya, Chalamet, and Jason Momoa showed off the first 7 minutes of Dune 3. No spoilers, but Paul Atreides’s nightmares have come true. Seventeen years after Dune 2, he is a warlord, sending his people to certain death. And Villeneuve crafts the opening battle to reveal the soldiers' emotional scars well before a single shot is fired.

On stage, Villeneuve said that the first two Dune films were for him, and this final was for the fans. It’ll have a faster pace and more action. That has us a little worried, but we like what we’re seeing so far.

Two more things caught my eye…

DC’s Clayface is molding a new villain in Tom Rhys Harries. Written by Mike Flanagan, directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil), and produced by Matt Reeves. It is a wild genre mash-up of a superhero film and a body horror. Harries, a B-movie actor, gets his face slashed to shreds and requires a horrific amount of plastic surgery, which transforms his face into clay. It’s about the horror of measuring self-identity through personal image. Releasing October 23rd.

This is J.J. Abrams’ first new film as a director since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). It’s called The Great Beyond and stars Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega. The trailer opened with a rewording of a famous H.G. Wells quote, “There is, though I do not know how there is or how it may be, another world out of sight and sound.” There’s some sort of parallel world here, but it’s hazy. We like Abrams when he focuses on intimate character work like Super 8 (2011) or Pine and Quinto’s chemistry in Star Trek (2009).

Mini tidbit:

Fun trailers from The Cat in the Hat (release: Nov 6) and End of Oak Street (release: Aug 14). Although one is animated and one is live-action, both speak to the need for an escapist fantasy when we are displaced from our homes.

On New Line’s side…

Evil Dead Burn (Release: July 24th) and Mortal Kombat II starring Karl Urban (release: May 8).

Now on to the rest of Warner Bros. Pictures’ slate. In 2027, they promised to release 18 films, up from 14 in 2026 and 11 in 2025. Warner Bros. is eager for these films to spark franchises and sequels.

Remain

• Dir: M. Night Shyamalan

• Wri: Shyamalan + Nicholas Sparks

• Shyamalan hype quote: “My best since The Sixth Sense.”

• Release: Feb 5, 2027

Panic Carefully

• Dir: Sam Esmail

• Cast: Julia Roberts, Elizabeth Olsen, Eddie Redmayne, Brian Tyree Henry

• Release: Feb 26, 2027

Godzilla x Kong: Supernova

• Release: March 6, 2027

Bad Fairies (animated)

• Cast: Cynthia Erivo

• Bold, musical

• Release: May 21, 2027

Ocean’s (prequel)

• Dir: Bradley Cooper

• Cast: Cooper, Margot Robbie

• Plot: Heist at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix

• Release: June 25, 2027

Man of Tomorrow

• Superman sequel

• DC Studios

• Release: July 9, 2027

Minecraft 2

• Jack Black and the rest of the cast return

• Release: July 23rd, 2027

Shiver

• Star: Keanu Reeves

• Deep dive

• Release: Aug 13, 2027

Margie Claus (animated)

• Cast: Melissa McCarthy

• Plot: McCarthy is Margie Claus, trying to track down her lost husband, Santa

• Release: Nov 5, 2027

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum

• Cast: Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Kate Winslet, Jamie Dornan (taking over the role of Aragorn), Leo Woodall, and Lee Pace.

• Release: Dec 17, 2027

Untitled Nancy Meyers film

• Cast: Penélope Cruz, Kieran Culkin, Jude Law, Emma Mackey, and Owen Wilson

• Release: Dec 25, 2027

2028 and beyond…

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (animated)

• Release: March 17, 2028

Evil Dead Wrath

• Prod: Sam Raimi

• Dir: Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop in Yuma County)

• Release: April 7, 2028

Final Destination 7

• Release: May 12, 2028

Dynamic Duo

• DC Studios

• Release: June 30, 2028

The Hello Kitty Movie (animated)

• Release: July 21, 2028

The Flood

• Dir: Zach Creggar (an original film)

• Release: Aug. 11, 2028

Gladys prequel

• Prod: Creggar

• Release: September 8, 2028

The Lunar Chronicles (animated)

• Release: Nov 3, 2028

Baz Luhrmann’s Joan of Arc

• Release: Nov 22, 2028

Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest

• GOT film now confirmed

NEON

Showed a very sexy sizzle of all their upcoming films. Here’s their line-up:

Hokum

• Dir: Damian Mc Carthy (IFC’s Oddity)

• Cast: Adam Scott

• New trailer showed

• Release: May 1

Scott spoke about growing up in the golden age of horror in the 80s, with The Thing and The Shining. When he saw Mc Carthy’s previous film, the simplicity scared him shitless, and it was an easy “yes.”

I Love Boosters

• Dir: Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You).

• Cast: Will Poulter, Keke Palmer, LaKeith Stanfield

• Release: May 22

Pure phantasmagoria, and Boots pulls out all the stops. On stage, Boots was wonderfully gestural, so much so that LaKeith Stanfield began mirroring the wild hand gestures.

Leviticus

• Premiere: Sundance

• Release: June 19th

The trailer Neon showed had a down-and-dirty It Follows vibe, with the Australian film following two queer teens in love who start seeing doubles of each other that hunt them down. There’s a tepid sweetness to the whole thing before it gets bloody. Mia Wasikowska co-stars as the disapproving mom.

A Place in Hell

• Dir: Chloe Domont (Fair Play)

• Cast: Michelle Williams, Andrew Scott, and Daisy Edgar-Jones

• Release: Dec 25th

The trailer was a beautiful cat-and-mouse game between two lawyers dead set on making partner. With Williams playing a woman about to take maternity leave, whose temp (Daisy Edgar-Jones) begins to replace her. If you’ve seen Netflix’s Fair Play, you know that office spaces escalate from corporate side-eye disapprovals to full-fledged bloodbaths.

Hope

• Premiere: Cannes 2026 - In Competition

• Dir: Na Hong-jin (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea)

• Cast: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Hoyeon (Squid Game), and Taylor Russell

• Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

• Worldwide Sales Rep: UTA

• Mind-bending poster

Synopsis:

A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before

The trailer shown here was Neon’s best piece of their presentation.

It opens with a tiny earthquake-devastated town in South Korea, littered with crushed bodies, which we later see is a result of giant humanoid aliens. It’s got a cowboy style, with punk wide shots swinging around to reveal humans running to or being chased by aliens. It’s going to be one epic battle.

GKIDS

A sneak peek of Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to the VFX Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One. The trailer teased Godzilla entering New York City, with a crazy low-angle shot of the monster dwarfing the Statue of Liberty. Releasing November 6th.

CinemaCon continues this week through Thursday.

Upcoming presentations include Focus/Universal, Amazon MGM, and Disney.

Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.

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David Fincher’s Document, Amazon MGM’s Field, and Running.

Let’s go!

If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• More than 1,000 filmmakers sign a letter opposing Paramount-WBD merger.

• Amazon MGM is developing Playing the Field, a soccer comedy series.

• Roblox hit 99 Nights in the Forest is being adapted into a feature film.

• Robert Rodriguez will direct the original Paramount Animation Christmas movie.

• Talia Ryder lands a major breakout role in Prime’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith (S2).

• Nick Jonas has joined Netflix’s untitled Ari Sandel rom-com.

• Jonathan Pryce has been cast in the ITV drama Mavis Eccleston.

• Apple’s Running casts Brian Tyree Henry.

• Cannes Critics’ Week has unveiled its lineup.

• Dave Boyle will direct Paramount’s 18Hz’s untitled sci-fi horror feature.

• Neon has promoted Joey Monteiro & Alex Altschuler as it expands its marketing.

• Mubi has acquired its first Mexican title with Files (Moscas).

Friday’s correct answer: Willem Dafoe did not play Nosferatu.
34% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

David Fincher. Denis Villeneuve. Yorgos Lanthimos. Joaquin Phoenix. Kristen Stewart. Are part of over 1000 filmmakers and actors across the film industry who signed a letter opposing the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.

Their biggest concerns are:

• Consolidation of the media landscape, e.g. fewer projects getting made

• Fewer studio buyers

• Fewer jobs

• Fewer choices for the audience

Read the full letter here.

Paramount has responded that their new company will:

“Greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers.”

Purely, on a film creativity side, Warner Bros. had an incredible 2025 with a bold bet on original films.

Paramount’s 2026 slate of 15 films includes 7 sequels (Scream 7, Jack Ryan: Ghost War, Jackass: Best and Last, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, Avatar: Aang The Last Airbender, Focker In-Law, and The Angry Birds Movie 3).

Tidbits:

Amazon MGM Studios is developing Playing the Field, a comedy series based on the sports romance novel Cleat Cute. With this pickup, Amazon is leaning into both the global frenzy surrounding this year’s World Cup and its strong track record of book-to-screen adaptations like the fantasy series The Wheel of Time or popular YA romance The Summer I Turned Pretty. Writer Sarah Tapscott, known for New Girl and The Sex Lives of College Girls, is on board as showrunner with Playing the Field set to follow the messy, exciting lives of four professional women soccer players in New Orleans.

Mini Tidbits:

A Roblox horror movie. 20th Century Studios is developing 99 Nights in the Forest, one of the most popular Roblox games, into a feature film. 99 Nights in the Forest is an action-survival game where players must endure 99 nights in a haunted forest. It garnered nearly 26bn lifetime visits and reached an all-time peak player count of 14.2M.

Robert Rodriguez’s Christmas movie? Paramount Animation brings on Rodriguez to write, produce, and direct an original Christmas film, The Naughty List. It combines holiday themes with a modern, next-gen approach. Rodriguez is no stranger to making family-friendly films, having directed films in the Spy Kids franchise.

Trailblazing puppeteer Sid Krofft (Land of the Lost, NBC’s H.R. Pufnstuf) has passed away at 96. Alongside his brother, Marty, the imaginative pair created a number of classic kids’ shows merging the era’s psychedelic style with Saturday morning cartoons. He’ll now be reunited with his brother.

Renewals:

ABC’s Will Trent (for S5)

ABC’s The Rookie (for S9)

Peacock’s The Burbs (for S2)

Trailers:

Netflix’s Nemesis (series)

• Co-Creator: Courtney A. Kemp (Starz’s Power)

• Trailer

• Release: May 14

Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie (series)

• Trailer

• Release: July 9

Netflix’s The Boroughs (series)

• Cast: Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman

• Trailer

• Release: May 21

Ice Cream Man

• Dir: Eli Roth

• Trailer

• Release: August 7th

Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

• Trailer

• Release Nov 20

“Go out there and make them remember you.”

Franchise director Francis Lawrence returns for the prequel film, which not only offers a look at younger versions of the beloved characters from previous installments but also introduces a more unfamiliar, retro aesthetic in contrast to the cold, industrial look of the original tetralogy. It’s bursting with color!

Release date:

Neon’s A Place in Hell

• Dir: Chloe Domont (Fair Play)

• Cast: Michelle Williams, Andrew Scott, and Daisy Edgar-Jones

• Release: Dec 25th

Variance Films’ O Horizon

• Cast: Maria Bakalova (The Apprentice) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck)

BBC’s Twenty Twenty Six

• US release on Tubi: May 1

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Talia Ryder finally gets her big break moment. She has just been cast as Mrs. Smith in Prime’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 2.

If you don’t know Ryder’s work, just watch The American; she goes full Black Swan. It’s like Whiplash for ballet, and Ryder is on point, flexing herself to her physical and mental limits in the pursuit of perfection (​trailer​).

The actress has been making a name for herself ever since her feature debut in ​Never Rarely Sometimes Always​ (2020). Since then, she’s been in:

• Dumb Money (2023)

  • Trepidatious but inspired college student

• ​Little Death​ (2024)

  • Suicidal yet lively LA warrior hipster who goes through hell twice over

With this role, she’ll get to play something slicker, which is a fun change for her, but also will bring a tremendous amount of depth. Mr. Smith is Mark Eydelshteyn (Anora). Wild pair!

Production is kicking off in LA.

In between albums, Nick Jonas (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) has really been buffing up his acting resume.

Jonas is joining Netflix’s upcoming untitled romcom from The DUFF director Ari Sandel. The film follows a perpetual bachelor whose carefree life is turned upside down when he suddenly inherits his cousin’s baby. Things take even more of a turn when the child’s godmother shows up, because nothing says romance like a custody battle.

His casting comes not long after the SXSW premiere of Lionsgate’s Power Ballad, where he played a version of himself with great abandon.

The new untitled film is in pre-production.

Tidbits:

Two-time Tony winner and Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes) has been cast in the ITV drama Mavis Eccleston opposite Downton Abbey’s Penelope Wilton in the titular role. A modern Romeo and Juliet with a true crime twist, Pryce will play the terminally ill husband and disappointed father who makes a suicide pact with his wife, with his subsequent death leading to her unexpected murder trial. As Prince Philip in the final two seasons of The Crown, he certainly had a strained marriage, but nothing quite this bad.

Apple is keeping Brian Tyree Henry (Dope Thief, Causeway) close, reuniting with the actor for Running, a new underdog sports drama from director Gavin O’Connor (The Accountant). While Henry’s role remains under wraps, Running centers on (you guessed it) a running prodigy who uses his talent to outrun a troubled home life.

Casting Tidbits:

• Erin Kellyman (28 Years Later)

• Richard Harmon (Final Destination Bloodlines)

• Josh Charles (Best Medicine)

Read here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la Critique) drops its selection. The parallel selection of the Cannes Film Festival focuses on first and second-time feature directors.

There are seven competition films, including a few that caught our eye:

Dua

• Dir: Blerta Basholli (Hive)

Synopsis:

Prishtina, Kosovo, late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her peers and within her changing body.

If you haven’t seen Hive, it’s a must.

In Waves (opening film)

• Dir: Phuong Mai Nguyen

• EP: David Levine (Nickel Boys)

• Sales Rep: CAA

Synopsis:

AJ, meets Kristen in high school. Kristen is passionate about surfing. AJ, Kristen’s life starts falling apart, shattered by illness.

Check out the full selection here.

Club Kid, playing at Un Certain Regard, gets sales reps. UTA comes on for domestic, while Charades picks up international.

Also, here’s the Cannes Acid selection.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

East will meet the west in Dave Boyle’s new horror film. Dave Boyle (Surrogate Valentine) will direct Paramount’s 18Hz’s untitled sci-fi horror feature.

The film will be produced by Walter Hamada, the former president of Warner Bros’ DC Films, who served as an executive producer on popular horror films like The Conjuring (2013) and It (2017) while at New Line Cinema.

No info has been provided on the plot of the film, but Boyle’s latest SXSW hit, Never After Dark, gives us a hint. The film follows a Japanese traveling psychic who battles a powerful entity at a remote house. It gained critical buzz and won the Audience Award in the Midnighter section, and is a thrilling ride that nods to Japanese and South Korean horror films like Ringu (1998) and A Tale of Two Sisters (2003).

We hope to see the blend of Asian horror tropes and sci-fi madness in this new film.

Tidbits:

Neon’s already stellar marketing department sees some hires and promotions. Previous EVP Joey Monteiro has been named the new President of Worldwide Marketing. Alex Altschuler, who left A24 for Neon back in 2023, will be the President of Media. After a staggering 18 Academy Award nominations across four films, next up on Neon’s slate is the ensemble comedy I Love Boosters and the much-anticipated Adam Scott-led horror Hokum.

Weapons… part 2? Zach Cregger (Weapons) will produce a dark comedy feature, Little One. The film centers on a sudden change in a child’s behavior that threatens to tear a perfect family apart – a logline quite similar to Cregger’s breakout hit Weapons. The film will be directed by Cregger’s friend Alex Kavutskiy.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Mubi has secured its first Mexican title, Files (Moscas), with Latin American rights.

From writer-director Fernando Eimbcke (dir. Cannes’ title Duck Season), the film follows a bitter, lonely woman who rents out a room in her large complex to make ends meet. When her tenant secretly sneaks in his nine-year-old son, the woman develops an unexpected deep bond with him, changing her life.

Files is set to open the Guadalajara Film Festival later this week with a theatrical release in Mexico and the rest of Latin America in the second half of 2026.

Sadly, his film Olmo from Plan B has not found a distributor. Read our interview with him here.

Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) and Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) join the cast of BBC/MGM+’s series Legacy of Spies.

Based on John le Carré’s beloved book of the same name, the series will follow George Smiley (Matthew Macfadyen) and his espionage during the Cold War.

Stevens will play Bill Haydon, a brilliant insider of the British spy organization Circus, and Kammerer will play Hans-Dieter Mundt, a deadly Stasi enforcer.

International Tidbits:

• Asia Media Alliance Group’s slate

• Beta Film’s deal

• CrossBorder Films launches

• 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival winner

• Mario Adorf RIP

Read here.

ON THIS DAY

1940. Julie Christie, born in Chukua, Assam, India.

Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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Richard Harmon (Final Destination Bloodlines) to star in horror thriller A Most Delightful Game. Set in the 1980s, the film follows a young woman’s investigation of her sister’s death that leads her to a death-plagued highway. This film will be the theatrical directorial debut for Boman Modine (Amazon Prime’s Dark/Web), who has mainly worked in TV. No info on Harmon’s role, but we would love to see him in a nonchalant role whose intensity suddenly gets dialed up to max – similar to his performance as tattoo artist Erik in Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025).

Josh Charles (Best Medicine) joins Netflix drama The 99’ers. The series follows the true story of the 1999 U.S. Women’s soccer team, which won the FIFA Women’s World Cup against China. Charles will join an ensemble cast led by Zoey Deutch (Zombieland: Double Tap).

• Pendekar: Warrior, a silat-driven action film starring Iko Uwais (The Raid franchise).

• The Indonesian remake of the Korean action hit The Man from Nowhere (2010) starring Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat).

• Extraction: Tygo, a spin-off from the Netflix action franchise starring Don Lee (Train to Busan) and Blackpink’s Lisa.

Beta Film GmbH, one of the leading producers of European film and TV, has made a deal with Enteractive (part of the Splendid Group). Enteractive will take over the technical distribution of Beta Film’s library, including popular series like Babylon Berlin (German TV series sold over 140 countries) and Gomorrah (Italian TV series sold over 190 countries).

Australian streamer Stan is putting a spotlight on OF creators in a new eight-part docuseries, Turned On: Dirty Sexy Money. Emma Lamb of Mischief Maker Productions (The Real Housewives of Sydney) will produce with the focus on the most successful women on the platform. The series premieres in May.

London-based sales agent CrossBorder Films launches its inaugural slate ahead of the Cannes Film Festival. Alongside a number of international titles, some highlights include the Australian relationship comedy Zombucha! and Mergen, a Kyrgyz thriller that follows a violent murder investigation in a remote gold-mining town.

Kangdrun’s Linka Linka (2025, trailer) wins two top accolades – Firebird Award and Fipresci prize for Young Cinema competition category at the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival. The film follows a woman who returns to Tibet after years of drifting in Beijing to reconnect with her estranged father.

Mario Adorf, the German-Italian Spaghetti Western legend, dies at 95. He was one of the most prominent figures of the New German Cinema Movement in the 60s, with films like Oscar-nominated Thriller The Devil Stalks at Night (1957). He also starred in Volker Schlöndorff‘s The Tin Drum (1979), which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes.

For now, here’s a deep dive on the freshly announced films from:

• Sony Pictures Entertainment

• Sony Pictures Classics

• Angel Studios

• StudioCanal

Danny Boyle, Dwayne Johnson, & Aaron Sorkin all took the stage at CinemaCon in Vegas to share footage from their new films.

CinemaCon is a mad mix of avid cinema distributors and the gambling-crazed.

Sandwiched in between are some genuinely spectacular presentations from distributors:

Sony - 14 films

There was one performance at CinemaCon that floored me. Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning.

Aaron Sorkin took to the stage to present the trailer for his sequel to David Fincher’s The Social Network. Sorkin serves as the writer and director on this one, and shared that it follows a Facebook whistleblower (Mikey Madison) who finds a journalist (Jeremy Allen White) to help her go public.

The trailer starts with Zuckerberg out of focus, practicing his courthouse defense on a mock set. When the camera focuses, I thought they’d gotten a look-alike actor, until I realized it was Jeremy Strong.

He has become Zuckerberg. The slimmed-down face, the waddling gait, the perfect vocal inflection, and the dead eyes. It’s scary how much Strong’s performance sucks you in. Could garner an Oscar nomination.

Releasing October 9th.

Another film floored me:

Resident Evil

• Dir: Zach Creggar (Weapons)

• Cast: Austin Abrams

• Release: Sept 18

On stage, Creggar shared that in this film, unlike his previous, there would be no:

“Non-narrative acrobatics, time jumps. Just locking in with one protagonist moving from A to B.”

The trailer opens with Abrams entering a home after being chased by an unknown force. He curls up under the telephone and leaves a voice message for a loved one about how this might be the last time they ever speak.

What struck me is that Creggar seems to have a fixation on suburban homes as places of psychological terror. We’ve seen it in Barbarian, Weapons, and now Resident Evil. In fact, the real terror of the trailer was in the wide open outdoor spaces that Abrams sprints through to avoid his literal demons.

Two newly announced films:

• Bloodborne

  • Animated feature video game adaptation

  • R-Rated

  • Prod: PlayStation

  • Game trailer

• Buds

  • Animated film

  • Plot: A young plant breaks the first rule of being a plant: don’t talk to humans.

  • Release: Dec 2027

The rest of Sony’s slate:

The Breadwinner

• Cast: Nate Bargatze and Mandy Moore

• Trailer

• Release: May 29

Insidious: Out of the Further (6th in series)

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 21

Klara and the Sun

• Dir: Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor)

• Cast: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams

• Release: Oct 23rd

The trailer took us to a fanciful world, where the veneer of getting an AI companion (Ortega) is dressed up as commonplace. Waititi is a master of making dystopias look like utopias. He did it in Jojo Rabbit, and it seems he’ll do it again here.

The Nightingale

• Cast: Dakota and Elle Fanning

• Status: Currently Filming

• Release: Feb 12, 2027

Zelda

• Release: May 7, 2027

Helldivers

• Dir: Justin Lin

• Cast: Jason Momoa

• Lin’s word on the video game adaptation: “satire with humanity.”

• Release: Nov 10, 2027

Grandgear

• Dir: Takashi Yamazaki (Godzilla Minus One)

• Prod Co: Bad Robot

• Release: Feb 18, 2028

• The first look clip showed a robot battling a kaiju in a city. Like a low-fi Transformers, in a good way.

Sony also showed scenes from its two Spider-Man films, the live-action Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the animated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Both interestingly showed the main characters (Tom Holland and voice actor Shameik Moore, respectively) stuck in alternative realities where no one knows who they are.

And the presentation ended with Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson, and Kevin Hart all taking the stage and giving each other a bunch of grief:

It was all pretty funny, until Johnson turned it heartfelt by acknowledging their new spin on the series pays tremendous debt to Robin Williams.

The latest in their Jumanji series, Jumanji: Open World, sees the game breaking into the outside world. Releasing Christmas this year.

Sony Pictures Classics - 6 films

SPC’s films have mostly played at festivals (The Only Living Pickpocket in NY, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, Bedford Park, Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas). My personal favorite is Gail Daughtery and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which is a wild, zany, bonkers, delightful comedy starring Zoey Deutch and John Slattery playing a sad-sack version of himself.

They showed some cool footage from Unidentified, a Saudi Arabian film directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour (The Perfect Candidate). The true crime drama begins with the discovery of a teenage girl’s lifeless body in the desert, with no one claiming the body, and it becomes a full-fledged mystery movie.

StudioCanal - 9 films

Ink

• Dir: Danny Boyle

• Cast: Guy Pearce

Synopsis:

A group of misfits and visionaries who had an idea for a new kind of news - one that would give the people what they want, and would change the face of the world we live in today.

Ok, so this has already been announced, but Boyle got on stage himself and spoke about how he was seeing a direct line from his movie, about two young newspaper owners, to the modern media landscape.

The film opens with a young Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) explaining the 5 W’s of reporting (who, what, when, where, and why), and how the last one is the least important. Because once you know the “why,” it means the story is over. Cue our doom-scrolling, never-ending news cycle society.

Boyle uses a unique cinematic style to capture the opening scene. This will be a very dynamic take.

New Films:

• Paddington 4

  • The first three films have grossed $700M worldwide

• Escape from New York (reboot)

  • Original trailer (1981)

• The Howling (remake)

  • Original trailer (1981)

• Pippi Longstocking

  • Film based on the popular character

  • Producer: David Heyman (upcoming Bond, Harry Potter)

• Mr. Men

  • Film based on the popular book series

  • Producer: David Heyman

• The Mannequin

  • Cast: Melissa Leo

  • Based on the book The Midnight Library

We also got to see some incredible footage of Everybody Wants to Fuck Me starring Taron Egerton, which starts goofy and devolves into a straight, zombie-esque horror with throngs of women breaking down Egerton’s door to sleep with him.

There was also some beautiful footage of Andrew Scott in Elsinore, their upcoming film about actor Ian Charleson, who reckons with playing Hamlet while dying of cancer. There’s a nice mirroring about Scott facing his mortality, while the character centers on similar themes. It’s an Ouroboros of art imitating life.

Interestingly, it’ll be the third Hamlet-inspired film in 12 months (Focus Features’ Hamnet, Vertical’s Hamlet, and now this).

Angel Studios - 5 films

Runner

• Cast: Owen Wilson, Alan Ritchson

• Releasing: Sept 11

Synopsis:

A high-end courier has three hours to transport a liver from Brisbane to the Gold Coast.

The trailer was like Lorenzo’s Oil combined with Hardcore Henry. It takes some big swings with high-stakes action. Wilson and Ritchson have a tried-and-true funny man/action hero chemistry.

More Angel Studios films/dates:

• Angel and the Badman

  • Genre: Western

  • Co-star: Tommy Lee Jones

  • Release: Oct 2026

  • Trailer

• Zero A.D.

  • Dir: Alejandro Monteverde (Sound of Freedom)

  • Cast: Sam Worthington, Jim Caviezel, and Ben Mendelsohn

  • Release: Christmas

• Brink of War

  • Cast: Jeff Daniels as Ronald Reagan, J.K. Simmons

  • Release: Aug 14th

  • Trailer

Synopsis:

President Reagan races against time to make a deal with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that could dismantle nuclear arsenals-or ignite disaster.

• Young Washington

  • Co-star: Ben Kingsley

  • Release: July 3rd

  • Trailer

Emotional Core: George Washington’s moral crisis to abandon his home country of England to be an American soldier/leader.

They went big on the production. And my guess is this will be their biggest hit since Sound of Freedom took in $250.6M worldwide, making it the highest-grossing indie of that year.

CinemaCon continues this week through Thursday.

Upcoming presentations include Neon, Warner Bros., Universal, Amazon, MGM, and Disney.

Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.

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Enter the next big movement in horror cinema: Liminal Horror.

Two liminal horror films from the top indie distributors are set to be released in rapid succession:

The first is Neon’s Exit 8, which follows a Tokyo commuter as he navigates a never-ending subway space.

The second is A24’s Backrooms, which sees a therapist seeking her missing patient in an unsettling labyrinth of corridors.

Below, I explore where this exciting film genre has come from and how it will develop in the future.

Online Beginnings

Although liminal horror may be only just emerging as a movie genre, it has existed online for some time.

The word “liminal” refers to liminal spaces; transitional spaces you are supposed to move through rather than spend time in, such as hallways, staircases, or car parks. Images of these locations became popular in online forums, with participants reveling in their creepy mundanity.

These images resonated with internet users, as they were evocative of the feeling they got from wandering through web pages, or falling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole; liminal horror is born from the internet, and thus follows its architecture.

It is not a new concept per se; people have been losing themselves in the internet’s winding corridors since its conception. But these more niche experiences became universal during the COVID pandemic, sparking the liminal horror boom we are starting to see, making it a popular enough sub-genre to make A24/Neon hungry enough to capture the zeitgeist.

The Glitch in the Matrix

One particular image in the liminal horror space truly ignited the internet’s imagination: a series of interconnected rooms, with no apparent end, devoid of furniture and sporting sickly yellow walls and carpet.

Shared in 2019 on 4chan, the picture so perfectly encapsulated the idea of a creepy liminal space that - in a feat of group-storytelling - the forums came together to create a backstory for this place. They called it: The Backrooms.

No one enters The Backrooms on purpose. Through a strange “glitch” in reality (or a “no-clip” for all you gamers), they appear there. There is no recorded way out, only endless identical rooms, the hum of fluorescent lights, and, possibly, something sinister lurking around the corner.

The lore was built organically, with information being added by different people on the Backrooms Wiki page. It gained even more prominence in 2022 when filmmaker Kane Parsons was inspired to create an animation on Blender of a “found footage” style video exploring the Backrooms. The sheer popularity of this video and its further iterations have led to Parsons directing A24’s much-anticipated Backrooms, releasing in the US on 29th May.

This isn’t the first time an internet urban legend, or “creepypasta” as they are known, gained offline traction - Slender Man originated in the Something Awful internet forum in 2009 and spawned video games and a 2018 feature film.

But I believe Backrooms won’t just be a time capsule film, capturing a short-lived internet obsession. This film will be seen as the catalyst for liminal cinema - what The VVitch was for folk horror. It will inspire countless filmmakers.

However, it isn’t the first to venture into liminal territory.

Video Game to Film Adaptation Precursors

The power of liminal spaces has been utilized in video games for decades (the subway setting of Kotake Create’s 2023 game The Exit 8 reminds me of the subway sequences in Konami’s 2003 game Silent Hill 3), but it has been especially prevalent in the last few. Games such as Dreamcore (2025) and Pools (2024) take you through a series of eerie locations, building horror with a sense of unease rather than jump scares or gore.

And, although A24’s Backrooms will be the liminal boom’s catalyst, the genre has already started creeping into cinema with Exit 8, an adaptation of the earlier-mentioned game, premiering at Cannes last year and being picked up by Neon for a North American release this past weekend.

The first film to hint at filmmakers' interest in the liminal was most likely 2022 experimental horror Skinamarink, directed by Kyle Edward Ball. This follows two young children who wake up to realize their parents are missing, and all the doors and windows in their house have disappeared, leaving them in eerie darkness. Their home has become a series of void-like rooms interconnected by dark corridors. It’s nightmarish for a reason - Ball, similarly to Parsons, began his journey on YouTube, turning his subscribers’ bad dreams into videos.

Although it doesn’t include liminal spaces, Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair captures the ultra-online sentiment that created them. One sequence in the film moves through a bunch of interrelated images on TV screens. It focuses on a specific Creepypasta and how individuals online come together to create its lore. The horror comes from this online world breaching into the physical realm, with the protagonist questioning their own reality.

Liminal Horror is a representation of this breach.

Liminal Horror to Come

As more filmmakers recognize the potential of liminal horror, the genre will continue to gain traction. This is how I see the style and themes further developing in cinema over the next few years:

Analog and found footage. Analog (characterized by lo-fi visuals) has gone hand in hand with liminal horror online, as has found footage. This is because, while being eerie, it’s also budget-friendly and accessible to indie filmmakers. I can see grainy security footage and pixelated video game visuals making an appearance. These low-budget films will also be a massive draw for studios - Skinamarink was shot on the near-unheard-of $15,000 budget and grossed over $2.1M worldwide.

Surrealism. An idea that has strong roots in the history of cinema, from Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou to the screenwriting of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, I’m Thinking of Ending Things), surrealism questions reality, and so liminal horror will draw from the same inspirations - non-linear narratives, montaged imagery, and dream-like scenarios.

Nostalgia. The most familiar of feelings, warped to the surreal. Imagery from childhood - nursery rooms, toys, playgrounds - will be utilized, as well as properties that modern audiences would have grown up with. Imagery from long-running shows like Sesame Street or The Simpsons could be referenced (the whole layout of The Simpsons' home would work as a liminal horror setting). This was utilized in the 2024 film I Saw the TV Glow, Jane Schoenbrun’s sophomore feature, where the protagonist was continuously haunted by imagery from their favorite childhood TV show.

An Entity. If monsters lurk in these liminal spaces, they won’t be clear-cut fanged horrors. They will be an extension of the space itself - a suggested presence that rules over the location - think of The Entity from Skinamarink, a barely seen evil force that calls out to the children from the shadows.

Location. As the genre evolves, the “liminal” in liminal horror may be less important than the feeling a place emits, and setting the film in a transitional space won’t be necessary. To link back to the theme of nostalgia, locations such as playgrounds and schools would be likely settings.

The genre may change over the years, and in a decade or so, we may not even refer to it as “liminal horror” - but the uncomfortable terror caused by those abandoned corridors posted on internet forums will linger in the films to come.

Utopia’s Bunny, Sony’s Metal and a Leopard.

Let’s go!

If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.

I sat down with Katarina Zhu, the writer, director, and star of Utopia’s Bunnylovr, which premiered at Sundance and releases this weekend.

The film takes us into the world of a cam girl Brooklyn burnout (Zhu), who splits her time moping around her apartment, working a weird little assistant job, and being painted by her artsy friend (Rachel Sennott).

What makes the film so intriguing is the various ways in which Katarina’s character is seen by other people. As a cam girl, she’s a fetish object. With her painter friend, a muse. And to her father, she’s a child.

Katarina struggles to form her own identity outside the other identities to which she is beholden.

Zhu shared:

“This isn’t a character that’s super forthcoming or like the easiest to access as an audience member. So one of the ways in which we wanted you to be able to feel close to this character… was visually being really close up on her face and seeing all these micro movements and feeling really intimate with her.”

The camera locates Zhu’s loneliness well before she is able to define it for herself. And this stifling closeness forces her to take a risk.

She explained:

“You’re looking for validation in places that you might not normally look for it, or you’re willing to do things that you might not normally do, in order to just like fill the void and feel anything other than this like deep, deep loneliness.”

By the end, she burns herself out trying to be what other people want her to be, which forces her, for the first time, to look inward.

For More:

Full interview with Katarina Zhu + Bunnylovr trailer. It’s a super impressive feature debut.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Paramount Skydance reworks its WBD deal financing.

• David Zaslav’s reported $887M golden parachute deal is challenged.

• Jeff Shell will receive $5M in severance following his exit from Paramount.

• Final Destination: Bloodlines directors will helm Sony’s Metal Gear Solid.

• Disney has set a new communications structure.

• CBS greenlights vampire family comedy Eternally Yours from Ghosts creators.

• Chris Bremner has sold action-comedy sci-fi spec Ram to Netflix.

• Starz is developing Gary Lennon’s crime series Los Feliz.

• Prime Video moves ahead with Calamities w/ Glen Powell’s prod co.

• Apple’s The Husbands adds Richard Gadd and Joel Kinnaman.

• Jane Alexander (All the President’s Men) stars in Lillian, Next Door.

• Kevin Bacon will lead in Hulu’s drama Southern Bastards.

• Eve Hewson will star opposite Channing Tatum in Amazon MGM’s Isle of Man.

• Appian Way boards SXSW doc Snow Leopard Sisters.

• Jon Watts produces Manuel Figueroa’s feature debut.

Yesterday’s correct answer: In Being John Malkovich, Diaz looked unrecognizable.
55% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Paramount Skydance’s deal financing is changing. Previously it was:

• $47bn from the Ellison family + RedBird Capital Partners

• $54bn debt commitment from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Apollo

  • $15bn to cover WBD’s bridge facility

  • $39bn new debt

• $3.5bn bridge financing from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Apollo to cover $3.5bn line of revolving credit.

Now the $54bn is getting reduced to $49bn and spread across 18 lenders. The $3.5bn bridge financing will now be $0.

So what happened to that $8.5bn? PSKY no longer needs as much bridge financing because it has replaced part of the deal package with permanent financing, including $5B of term loans and revolving credit facilities.

Get the full details here.

No, no, no, no, don’t mess with my payday. Ok, so we doubt the Black Eyed Peas are playing in the background, but David Zaslav’s $887M “golden parachute” payday, which would be granted following the close of the PSKY acquisition of WBD, is being called into question by Institutional Shareholder Services. They have a lot of sway with investors. So we’ll see where the WBD shareholder vote lands on April 23rd.

Jeff Shell, Paramount Skydance’s former President, is getting $5M in severance pay. Full details here, on Pg 4 and 278.

Non-Paramount Tidbits:

Zach Lipovsky & Adam Stein, directors of Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025), are set to direct the Metal Gear Solid film adaptation. The legendary video game franchise by Hideo Kojima follows Solid Snake, a genetically engineered spy who goes on impossible missions. Known for being a pioneer in tactical 3D espionage games, Metal Gear Solid has amassed a huge fanbase – even appearing as one of the champions for the hit Nintendo crossover game Super Smash Bros. The film will be developed by Columbia Pictures with a first-look producing deal for the directors from Sony. The director duo Lipovsky and Stein revitalized the Final Destination series by mixing their mastery of suspense and tension with some great character depth, and we hope to see them successfully bring one of Japan’s most legendary games to life.

Prime Video is moving forward with the Texas-set crime series Calamities with Glen Powell and Dan Cohen’s production banner Barnstorm (Hit Man) on board. After a drug deal erupts into violence, a quiet border town becomes a battleground between a haunted sheriff, a sociopathic hitwoman, an overeager FBI agent, and a ruthless cartel sect. This news comes shortly after Barnstorm won the rights to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also set to be adapted into a series. The writer behind Amazon’s Hunters David Weil will write and direct Calamities.

Mini Tidbits:

CBS greenlights new single-camera comedy series, Eternally Yours, about a family of vampires, from the creators of CBS’ Ghosts, Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. Despite the financial challenges of producing single-cam comedies for broadcast vs. the more budget-friendly multi-cams, CBS has remained committed to the comedic genre.

Chris Bremner (wri: Bad Boys for Life) sells a spec script, Ram, to Netflix. It’s an action-comedy sci-fi. Bremner has been on fire lately; he’s writing the reboot script for the Men in Black franchise.

Euphoria EP Gary Lennon is developing Los Feliz, an emotional crime series with Starz. The L.A.-set series follows a messy affair that not only destroys friendships and careers resulting in a murder case. Lennon has currently been in development on the new Power spinoff Power: Legacy also with Starz.

Book Adaptations from:

• Amazon MGM

• Warner Bros. Animation

Full breakdown here.

Executive Shifts:

• Disney

• Anonymous Content

• Noah Hawley’s 26 Keys

Full details here.

Renewals:

HBO’s Rooster (for S2)

• Star: Steve Carell

Trailers:

Marvel’s The Punisher: One Last Kill (TV Special)

• Dir: Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard)

• Cast: Jon Bernthal

• Trailer

• Disney+ release: May 12

Lionsgate’s Mutiny

• Cast: Jason Statham

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 21

Paramount+’s My Killer Father: The Green Hollow Murders

• Trailer

• Release: April 28

First look:

Netflix’s Ray Gunn

• Dir: Brad Bird (The Incredibles)

• Cast: Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson

• Prod Co: Skydance Animation

• First look

Release dates:

Fathom Entertainment and Cineverse’s Pan’s Labyrinth (20th Anniversary)

• Release: Oct 9

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Four-time Oscar nominee Jane Alexander (All the President’s Men, Severance) has found her next role in Lillian, Next Door. She’ll headline as the titular ex-CIA operative who infiltrates the lives of two mysterious gay men who move in next door, discovering more about herself through her new unexpected friendship.

Alexander has extensive experience within the world of crime dramas, from NBC’s The Blacklist to CBS’ Elementary, she has carved out a knack for playing strong, inquisitive women.

Described as an “emotionally layered” crime dramedy, Lillian, Next Door will start filming in Nova Scotia this month.

A24’s take on polygamy? Apple TV’s The Husbands releases the cast for the multiple on-screen husbands of Juno Temple, including Richard Gadd (Baby Reindeer).

A new dramedy mystery series based on Holly Gramazio’s best-selling novel, the series will follow Lauren (Temple) who returns to her London flat one night only to discover that her magical attic keeps on making men who claim to be her husband.

We’re excited to see Gadd take on another bold take on modern relationships, following his gripping portrayal of a man being stalked in Baby Reindeer. The cast includes Joel Kinnaman.

Lionsgate is watching The Pitt. Their upcoming film, Head Full of Ghosts adds Fiona Dourif (Dr. McKay on The Pitt) to the cast.

Synopsis:

The Barretts’ normal suburban New England life is torn apart when their teenage daughter shows signs of acute schizophrenia, reluctantly leading them to be the subjects of a reality show. 15 years later, Merry faces her haunting past.

Dourif is great at dealing with mentally troubled patients so this role should be a breeze. David Harbour and Rebecca Hall also star.

Tidbits:

Kevin Bacon will lead in Hulu’s drama Southern Bastards. Based on the graphic novel of the same name. Bacon will play a tough yet humble army veteran. This isn’t the first time we saw Bacon play a soldier with his portrayal of a stoic yet honorful soldier escorting the deceased soldiers’ body back to the homeland in Taking Chance (2009, trailer). This project has a good pedigree: Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media. Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) directs and Nia DaCosta (Hedda) is a writer.

Eve Hewson (The Perfect Couple) will star opposite Channing Tatum in Amazon MGM’s Isle of Man. Eve Hewson previously starred in Steven Spielberg’s Cold War drama, Bridge of Spies (2015), as Tom Hanks’ character’s eldest daughter. The new film will follow Isle of Man TT, the world’s oldest running motorsport event. Pitt’s Plan B + Tatum’s Free Association will produce the film.

Shortly after her beautifully grounded presence in Train Dreams, Kerry Condon is set to headline Netflix’s The God of the Woods alongside Maya Hawke. Adapted from the bestseller of the same name, the story is a multi-generational drama with Condon playing a grief-stricken woman reeling with the unimaginable disappearance of her teenage daughter.

Mini Casting Tidbits:

• Tom Pelphrey

• Tyga

• Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine)

• Rachel Sennott

Full breakdown of their new roles here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Sundance CDMX is back for its 3rd edition. Running from April 30 to May 3, Mexico City-centered Sundance brings films from around the world to the famous Cinépolis Diana theater. Lineup here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions to EP feature documentary Snow Leopard Sisters. The doc premiered at SXSW and follows a snow leopard conservationist duo as they navigate the isolated terrains of the Himalayas. DiCaprio’s Appian Way has a flurry of these types of docs like The 11th Hour (2007), Before the Flood (2016), and Ice on Fire (2019). An accompanying campaign to the film was designed to support the snow leopard population of the Himalayas, connecting with the locals and snow leopard conservationists (trailer).

Jon Watts (dir: Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Ruben Fleischer (dir: Now You See Me: Now You Don’t) to produce Manuel Figueroa’s feature debut Wild Ones. The film will star Annie Gonzalez (Relationship Goals) and will be set in the mid-’90s world of Latinx Los Angeles as a young senior named Eddie, who lives the life of the party, meets a responsible schoolgirl, Darlene. Figueroa has been grinding for a while, starting as a location assistant on Training Day (2001) and a PA on Anger Management (2003).

Mini Tidbits:

Inaugural Entertainment (Afterburn) picks up Nimrods. It premiered at TIFF and features a wild Green Day plot. Read more about it here.

ON THIS DAY

1929. Max von Sydow born in Lund, Sweden.

Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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Tom Pelphrey (Ozark) joins Apple’s sci-fi action thriller Liminal. Based on the AWA graphic novel Telepaths, the film explores a world in which a tenth of Earth’s population suddenly gains telepathic powers, and the newly telepathic Boston Police force has to deal with it. He will star alongside Vanessa Kirby and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman franchise)

The star of I Love LA, Rachel Sennott, is the newest addition to Kockroach, the ensemble crime film from Captain Fantastic director Matt Ross. Sennott will play a supporting role opposite Chris Hemsworth and Alec Baldwin in a story that dives into New York City’s criminal underworld. Filming begins in Australia next week.

Emma Elle Paterson (The Boys) will star and produce thriller Candy. The film is described as a genre-bending thriller, directed by Jessica Michael Davis (Escaping Ohio), who will also star in the film. The film will follow a young woman who goes through a body transformation into a persona of Candy, who becomes a seductive yet dangerous being.

Grammy-nominated artist Tyga is making his feature debut in musical drama Baby, You’re a Star. Madison Bailey (Outer Banks) and Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) will star alongside Tyga. Set in 1989, the film will follow a young artist as he struggles to escape his environment and achieve musical stardom.

Comedic actor Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine) is giving another genre a chance, joining Netflix’s thriller An Innocent Girl. From director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan), the film follows a young woman who gets manipulated by a high-powered D.C. couple. Corddry’s role is unknown, but he’ll be joining Kerry Washington and Colman Domingo.

Sadie Calvano (Mom) and Gabe Gibbs (Schooled) join the main cast of the untitled NBC comedy pilot. The show has Katey Sagal (Futurama) and Jane Lynch (Glee) as its leads, following two friends-turned-foes who run into each other at a mutual ex’s funeral.

Warner Bros. Animation is bringing fantastical kids’ story Thisby Thestoop to life, adapting the adventure series into a feature film. Writers Steve Desmond (Knock at the Cabin) and Michael Sherman (prod. The Little Hours) are adapting the story focused on a courageous young heroine who serves as the gamekeeper of a massive dungeon.

Prolific romance author Ana Huang’s sports series Gods of the Game is making its way to Amazon MGM Studios to be adapted into a film trilogy. The Striker, The Defender, and her upcoming third book, The Keeper, are each set within the competitive world of English Premier League soccer. Alongside Amazon, Premeditated Productions, who are currently adapting a number of series (Fourth Wing, Dragon Cursed), will produce the sports films.