Golden Globes’ AI, Charlize Theron’s Apex, and Angels.

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The slippery slope.

The Golden Globes just announced new rules for their 2027 show and beyond that allow for AI to creep in, stating:

“The use of artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI, does not automatically disqualify a work from consideration, provided that human creative direction, artistic judgment, and authorship remain primary throughout the production process.”

Compare that to AMPAS’s, the governing body of The Oscars, much stricter recent rule update. For the acting categories, only roles that are:

“demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible.”

In the writing category:

“the rules codify that screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.”

What the Golden Globes have done is allow the first whisper of AI slop to permeate. My deep fear is that very soon, this will become more and more commonplace until all the award bodies, which have recognized human excellence since their inception, will begin to crown the creativity of machines.

Matthew McConaughey, in a now viral town hall clip, stated that he believed there would soon be a “Best AI Film” or “Best AI actor” category.

Already, AI is creeping into performances without our knowledge. Some use cases are so specialized that they’re innocuous, like the overblown Adrien Brody The Brutalist scandal. But others are more real.

In a recent conversation I had with Riz Ahmed, he shared that in his recent film, Hamlet, they used an AI tool for ADR called Flawless AI.

“I’m against it replacing human creativity or jobs… we filmed the ghost speech in English, and afterward we were like it has to be in Hindi… he’s speaking to him from eternity in a timeless place.”

So instead of going back to the location and re-filming the scene, they just captured the actor re-filming his portion, doing his monologue in Hindi, and then used AI to comp his lip movements to the original footage.

At the same time, the Academy has just given a Scientific & Technical Award to dxRevive Pro, a tool that restores noisy/unusable on-set dialogue using a neural network.

Right now, these are truly just helpful tools. But it’s a slippery slope until the beauty of human performance gets eroded, then replaced.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Starz Q1 losses deepen, Sony Pictures FY2025 sees gains and losses.

  • Full breakdowns here.

• Charlize Theron reunites w/ Apex director on Universal’s Six Clean Kills.

• The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon showrunner David Zabel signs with AMC Studios.

• Warner Music Group gives Paramount first-look access to its artist roster.

• Rooney Mara joins Paris-set psychological drama Quest for Love.

• Jeff Daniels & Joel Edgerton star in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Netflix anti-AI thriller.

• Neon’s Ryûsuke Hamaguchi film All of a Sudden sells to 26 countries.

• Dan Aykroyd returns to Ghostbusters as EP on Netflix’s animated series.

• Benh Zeitlin directs Hold On to Your Angels starring Jessie Buckley & Paul Mescal.

• Studiocanal develops Freida McFadden’s new thriller, The Divorce.

Yesterday’s correct answer: 42 is a film, and the meaning of everything (all of above).
65% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Charlize Theron is back on the run. Theron will produce and possibly star in Universal’s Six Clean Kills from director Baltasar Kormákur. They just collab’d on Netflix’s Apex, which saw Theron hunted in the wilderness by a mad Taron Egerton. No word on the plot for this new film.

A police drama from the Walking Dead creators. David Zabel (Showrunner: AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon) signs a long-term deal with AMC Studios and has just sold a gritty cop drama to Netflix. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is a perfect blend of European gothic and the zombie apocalypse, highlighting ruined landscapes and wastelands. It would be interesting to see what Zabel can do with a gritty police series – maybe even a blend of modern Western genre would be perfect.

Warner Music Group has struck a first-look, multi-year deal centered on theatrical films inspired by the label’s artists with Paramount. From David Bowie to Madonna and more modern artists like Dua Lipa or Charli XCX, Paramount now has access to the company’s massive roster for biopics and future scripted features.

The Oscar-winning classic western High Noon (1952, trailer) gets exclusive adaptation rights scooped up by Teton Ridge Entertainment (The Moment). From producer Stanley Kramer (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), the film was led by the innocently sweet Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper as a steadfast, formidable, funny town marshal forced to face an outlaw all on his own.

A legend is back. Dan Aykroyd, the writer and star of the original Ghostbusters (1984), is returning to the franchise as an EP on the latest animated Ghostbusters series. Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation are steering the wheel. Netflix announced that there is also an animated movie in the works.

Mini Tidbits:

Stuart Ford (Producer: Hacksaw Ridge) and Miguel Palos (EP: Hit Man) sign 3-year extensions as CEO and COO of AGC Studios (Prod Co: Netflix’s Hit Man). Their upcoming slate includes a Netflix doc like Tinder Swindler (2022) & Netflix game show.

IATSE is striking the second season of the live-action YouTube series CoComelon: The Melon Patch. The crew union announced the picket after an unsuccessful attempt to unionize the production.

Peacock is developing a murder mystery, Keep Your Friends Close, EP by Leo Richardson (Wri: Netflix’s You) and Garcelle Beauvais (NYPD Blue). Based on the book, the show follows a mystery regarding the murder at the West Hollywood Moms Club.

Renewals:

Netflix’s Temptation Island (for S3)

Fox’s Murder in a Small Town (for S3)

SNL UK (for S2)

Trailers:

Apple TV’s Cape Fear

• Trailer

• Cast: Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson, Javier Bardem

• Release: July 31

Paramount+’s Criminal Minds: Evolution

• Trailer

• Release: May 28

Universal Studios’ Minions & Monsters

• Trailer

• Cast: Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg

• Release: July 1

HBO Max’s Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness

• Trailer

• Cast: Larry David, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama

• Release: July 26

French comedy-drama Shana

• Trailer

• Premiere: Cannes Film Festival

• Release: TBD

Hulu’s Alice & Steve

• Trailer

• Cast: Jemaine Clement, Nicola Walker

• Release: June 8

Netflix’s limited series I Will Find You

• Trailer

• Cast: Sam Worthington, Britt Lower, Milo Ventimiglia

• Release: June 18

Clips:

Japanese drama Nagi Notes

• Clip

• Premiere: Cannes Film Festival

First Look:

Neon’s Paper Tiger

• Dir: James Gray (Ad Astra)

• First Look

• Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller

• Cannes Premiere: May 16

BBC’s Beatles drama series Hamburg Days

• First Look

• Release: TBD

Warner Bros.’ The Batman: Part II

• Dir: Matt Reeves

• First Look Batmobile

• Release: Oct 1, 2027

Release Dates:

Prime Video’s documentary Groundswell

• EP/Cast: Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson

• Release: June 5

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Rooney Mara is on a Quest for Love, joining Irish writer-director Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ (It Is in Us All) newest feature. In the Paris-set psychological drama, Mara will play Maris, an “enigmatic, beautiful, violent mother” struggling to make sense of the fractured relationship she has with her estranged ten-year-old son.

Mara carries a quiet ache onscreen. From the icy intensity of her brilliant but troubled hacker in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) to her hauntingly introverted energy in Carol (2015), the actress has mastered playing unknowable women. Now starring as an imperfect mom whose charming and calculated exterior masks something far more destructive underneath, Quest for Love continues the actress’s fascination with playing emotionally vacant characters who are hard to trust but impossible to look away from.

HanWay Films is launching international sales at Cannes.

Netflix’s untitled anti-AI thriller adds Jeff Daniels, Joel Edgerton, and Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things) to the cast of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s newest directorial venture, joining Rachel McAdams.

The ensemble is already closely tied to Netflix.

From McLaughlin growing up on Stranger Things, Edgerton starring in last year’s Oscar Best Picture-nominated Train Dreams, and Daniels leading the streamer’s miniseries A Man in Full (2024), the cast is quite strong.

Production will start this summer.

Tidbits:

Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd) stars in political thriller Ceasefire, set during the Northern Ireland peace process. Directed by Oscar winner Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), the film will follow an Irish-American journalist who brokers a secret backchannel between the IRA and the Clinton administration. O’Dowd is joined by a star-studded cast, including Jane Fonda, John C. Reilly, and Tom Hollander. Though he is most known for his comedic performances, we saw his range in tense roles like The Cloverfield Paradox (2018).

Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) to star in MRC’s erotic thriller Mother’s Helper. Written and directed by first-time feature director Bridget Moloney, the film will center on a woman (Woodley) struggling to balance work, kids, and marriage as she hires a handsome young man to help out at home. This is the second time Woodley is playing a mother character after the successful HBO series Big Little Lies. Her portrayal of a young single mother was heart-wrenching, and we are excited to see what she can bring to the erotic thriller genre.

Casting Tidbits:

• Peter Gallagher

• Marisa Tomei

• Lizzy Caplan

All those and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Neon’s All of a Sudden, directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car), has sold to 26 countries, including the UK (Curzon), Italy, and Spain.

Tribeca Film Festival is rolling out the red carpet for founder Robert De Niro. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, De Niro is doing some great talks. Check them out here.

Cannes Market additions include films with Kevin Dillon (Entourage), Allison Williams (Get Out), and Michelle Randolph (Scream 7). Here.

Mini sales rep tidbits:

• Paradise City Sales

• Goodfellas

• + BFI Slate

More info here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Hold onto your Benh Zeitlin. The wunderkind director of Beasts of the Southern Wild has a new film, Hold On to Your Angels, which is being touted as a return to form.

It will reunite Hamnet stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. With Mescal as a crazed outlaw and Buckley as a wild collector of lost souls who is mad in love, set in the degenerating landscape of southern Louisiana.

There’s something about the magic realism fairytale of the home-stitched Beasts of the Southern Wild that resonated when it was released in 2012. Hold On to Your Angels also speaks to a love for a bygone way of life. So we’re confident that the trifecta of Zeitlin, Buckley, and Mescal, plus producers Alex Coco (Anora) and Brad Pitt’s Plan B, will make this exceptional.

CAA is selling at Cannes.

Tidbits:

American High (Prod Co: Pizza Movie) is reuniting with co-star Peyton Elizabeth Lee for comedy Second First Date. Matt Sacca, a former intern of American High and longtime collaborator, will write the film. The project idea came from American High’s founder, Jeremy Garlick, and the film follows a high schooler who spends a magical night with the guy of her dreams, only to discover he’s lost all memory of it the next day after a concussion.

The Housemaid author Freida McFadden’s next book, The Divorce, is getting the French treatment, with Studiocanal developing it. The thriller follows a woman whose seemingly perfect life is upended when her husband suddenly kicks her out.

Mini Tidbits:

• Variance Films

• Disney+ in Mexico

• Das Boot

All those and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1963. Dr. No premieres in the US.

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

Variance Films (Distributed RRR) to oversee theatrical distribution of Orlando von Einsiedel’s (Netflix’s Evelyn) next film The Cycle of Love. EPed by Priyanka Chopra-Jonas (The Bluff), the film documents the romantic journey of PK Mahanandia, a Delhi street artist who trekked 6,000 miles by bicycle in 1977, to reunite with the woman he loved.

Disney+ makes a content alliance with Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca (Mexico’s second-largest mass media company). The upcoming season of TV Azteca’s Masterchef 24/7 will be available on Disney+.

Amazon MX Player (Indian AVOD and streamer service) is integrating into Prime Video in India, creating the country’s largest selection of titles. This merger puts Prime Video ahead of the current market leader, JioHotstar (Disney-run Streamer).

Singapore’s Mokster Films and Taiwanese D-Day Pictures team up for Taiwanese horror film Revive. The film follows a Taiwanese artist whose life is transformed by a mysterious presence that reignites her career, until a series of tragedies forces her to question if the spirit is evil.

WWII U-boat drama Das Boot is coming to streamer MHz Choice. All four seasons of this classic series were available previously on Hulu. The show follows the crew of a German U-boat during World War II as they navigate the psychological and physical horrors of war, both at sea and on land.

Mediawan and Goodfellas sports-focused label Round 12 acquires its first sale of a Cannes title with the documentary The Match. The film takes a closer look at the iconic 1986 World Cup Quarter Final game between Argentina and England, with the production outfit committed to developing both scripted and non-scripted projects set in the world of sports.

BFI reveals their slate for the annual Great 8 showcase, including an upcoming drama film starring Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing) in his first leading role.

Ken Loach, the legendary British social-realist director, returns to Cannes for the first time in three years for a screening of his 1995 Spanish Civil War drama Land and Freedom.

MoreThan Films (Int Sales: Blue Heron) boards international sales of Swiss-French drama Summer Drift. The film follows a luxury watch factory worker who restores her aging VW Beetle, forcing her back into a male-dominated world of mechanics while confronting questions of labor and identity.

Melissa Barrera (Scream VI) stars in the upcoming horror feature Inhabit. Written and directed by Adam Alleca (The Last House on the Left), the film will follow a young woman who moves into a rundown apartment only to be terrorized by a possessive entity.

Will Patton (Yellowstone) is adding another western to his resume, set to join MGM+’s The Magnificent Seven series. Inspired by the 1960 original feature, Patton will play a new character, a ruthless and cruel land baron and one of the show’s primary antagonists. From Heroes creator Tim Kring, the series remake is starting production early next month.

The season five cast of Apple TV’s The Morning Show continues to grow with Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) set to join. In the New York-set drama, Caplan will play Gwen, a passionate Broadway theater director, though there’s still no word on how her onstage antics will factor into the series’ cutthroat world of morning news.

HBO and Sky Television’s legal drama War has cast Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) and David Harewood (Sherwood) to lead the next case in its second season. Following two rival law firms, both taking on one explosive defamation case, season two has already begun production prior to season one’s premiere at the end of this month.

Golden Globe nominee Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) stars in the new drama Beatrice. The film follows a woman who returns to her husband and child after dying in a car accident, in a new body that they can not recognize. Valentina Bellè (Ferrari) also joins her in the cast.

Starz Q1 2026 earnings. Their fourth quarter since the split with Lionsgate is continuing the bad news:

• $306.9M revenue

  • ↓7%

• $211.1M streaming revenue

  • ↓7%

• $164.9M net loss

  • vs. $153M loss last year

Starz ended Q4 with $523M net debt, an 11% reduction since last quarter.

One note: they exited their Pay 2 deal with Universal. Originally, Universal’s titles after theatrical would flow to its streamer, Peacock, and to Amazon. And after 12-18 months of exclusivity, they’d be available on Starz. But because of significant subscriber overlap from Starz and Amazon, the viewership has not been what Starz wanted.

Sony Pictures Entertainment Full Year 2025 results. Plus the delta from last year:

• $9.92bn revenue

  • Flat

• $3.28bn Motion Picture Unit revenue

  • ↓ 18%

• $687M opearting income

  • ↓ 11%

• $858M profit

  • ↑ 11%

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle helped boost theater revenue, but was offset by the closure of one of its virtual production studios. Full breakdown here.

Netflix’s Lord, Disney’s Darling, and a ham sandwich.

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I sat down with Jack Thorne, the Emmy-winning creator and writer of HBO’s His Dark Materials and Netflix’s Adolescence, to discuss his latest show, Netflix’s Lord of the Flies.

This has been a passion project of Thorne’s for many years, and although there’s obvious crossover in the subject matter to Adolescence, he actually conceived of and wrote Lord of the Flies well beforehand*.

Thorne shared what compelled him to adapt author William Golding’s dystopian vision of British boys whose flight crash-lands on an island, forcing them to form their own society, where law and order become undone:

“[Golding’s] not talking about what we are at our essence. He’s not talking about inner evil or any of that. He’s talking about boys playing at being grown-ups. And the grown-ups that they play at are the grown-ups that they’ve seen, that they’ve witnessed, that they’ve been… They are war babies”

At the beginning of the series, when the boys first find themselves on the island, they are infatuated with talking about their fathers and how their fathers will save them. But once this wish fulfillment falls apart, the group fractures, and something darker emerges.

Thorne stated:

“We define ourselves more by what we’re not than what we are. And I think that’s the age that Golding was writing about, obviously, a much more extreme time. But I do think this book has so much relevance for now.”

And that’s what makes Thorne’s vision so powerful: his children inherit the adult world’s rituals of fear, hierarchy, and violence, and mistake it for civilization.

For More:

Trailer + full interview with Jack Thorne. For anyone who wants to adapt a novel, it’s a masterclass.

*Lord of the Flies was shot first, but it was released later because Adolescence had very little post-production due to the long-takes.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Disney’s Q2 gains, Warner Bros. Q1 losses.

  • Full breakdown here.

• Matt Shakman will direct a new Planet of the Apes installment for 20th Century.

• James Marsden stars in Apple TV thriller Disavowed as a respected CIA officer.

• Ted Turner, CNN founder and cable TV pioneer, died at 87.

• Amazon MGM secures TV rights to Liz Tomforde’s sports-romance series.

• PBS Kids reboots Clifford the Big Red Dog.

• WME shuts down its international sales operation.

• Scarlett Johansson will star in Ari Aster’s new A24 film Scapegoat.

• Brendan Fraser returns to sci-fi with Anton’s Mars survival thriller Starman.

• Oscar Isaac will lead Netflix’s Vegas casino drama EP’d by Scorsese.

• Adrien Brody and Rachel Zegler board AIDS-crisis drama Last Dance.

• Mubi takes international territories on Lukas Dhont’s Cannes title Coward.

• Doug Liman, Joe Swanberg & Scott Adkins have new packages for Cannes Market.

• Utopia’s Circle Collective picks up NA rights to Tribeca’s Honeyjoon.

• Mubi acquires worldwide rights to Sundance doc winner Nuisance Bear.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

We’re revisiting the Planet of the Apes. Matt Shakman (Fantastic Four: First Steps) is directing the newest installment of the Planet of the Apes franchise for 20th Century. The film will not be a continuation of the most recent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), but a new story that Shakman and writer Josh Friedman (Wri: The Fantastic Four: First Steps) are conceiving.

Shakman did a fantastic job of bringing the retro-future of Fantastic Four to life. And much of the power of the Apes series relies on its wonderful conflation of various technological periods, times, and places. So he’s a great fit.
Want more Apes? Check out our deep dive on why the series still resonates:
https://theindustry.co/p/planet-of-the-apes-black-mirror

WME is discontinuing its international sales operation, with longtime co-head Alex Walton exiting the company. Announced on the eve of the Cannes market, Walton will be creating his own sales venture, expected to take a number of WME Independent executives with him. The sales label will not be participating in any international dealmaking at Cannes, given the company’s new focus on securing sales for its upcoming domestic slate.

Ted Turner, CNN founder, media mogul, and one of the kings of broadcasting, has died at 87. Beyond creating the first 24-hour news channel and a slew of other cable networks, TBS, TNT, and TCM, to name a few, Turner was also a prolific environmentalist and an incredibly influential figure in the Atlanta sports scene. Turner revolutionized American cable television.

New and old IP:

• Amazon’s Windy City

• Clifford reboot

• HBO’s Us

Get the scoop on this trio here.

Mini Tidbit:

Vice News is getting resuscitated into a social-platform-first outlet.

Renewals:

Max’s Harry Potter series (for S2)

• Title: Chamber of Secrets

• Filming: Fall

Cancellations:

Hulu’s Foster Dade (pilot)

• Prod Co: Warner Bros. TV

Reboot:

Fox’s Highway to Heaven reboot

• Wri: Jason Katims (Parenthood)

• Release: 2027 ~ 2028

Trailer:

Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel, Elle

• Trailer

• Cast: Lexi Minetree

• Release: July 1

Hulu’s Deli Boys S2

• Trailer

• Release: May 28

Magnolia Pictures’ Maddie’s Secret

• Dir: John Early

• Trailer

• Release: June 19

Clips:

Latvian Basketball Drama Ulya

• Clip 1, Clip 2

• Release: TBD

Austrian Drama Everytime

• Clip 1

• Release: TBD

Release Dates:

Hulu’s The Bear S5

• Release: June 25

Prime Video’s System

• Release: May 22

Indian thriller Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata

• India Release: June 12

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Scarlett Johansson will star in Ari Aster’s new A24 film Scapegoat. Aster will write, direct, and produce the film, and Johansson was said to be Aster’s first choice for his new project.

Johansson has no problem doing horror. In fact, in the same way she can turn on her charisma, she can drain it. Just watch Under the Skin (2013), she plays an emotionless predatory alien that is unnerving to say the least.

We don’t know what Scapegoat will be about, but maybe she could be a mother-driven type character that Ari Aster excels at writing – imagine a Toni Collette type in Hereditary (2018). But we hope it’ll be closer to Joaquin Phoenix’s Beau is Afraid character, someone who has been punished for leaving the nest, and it has distorted his very reality into a hellscape.

Misery has long suited Charlotte Gainsbourg on screen, but in her new film, Oh, How Fun!, the actress sends herself somewhere far brighter.

Joined by Édgar Ramírez (Emilia Pérez), the Greek-island set satirical comedy follows a privileged friend group whose holiday spirals into chaos when a tradition of pranks goes too far.

The film marks a pretty sharp pivot for Gainsbourg, who earned international acclaim and Cannes Best Actress for playing a grieving mother descending into sadistic madness in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (2009), a performance that launched a career of dark genre films and psychologically heavy roles.

Oh, How Fun! will be presented to buyers at the Cannes Film Market.

Tidbits:

From George of the Jungle to Up in Space, Oscar-winning Brendan Fraser is set to headline sci-fi thriller, Starman. Completely different from John Carpenter’s Starman (1984), Fraser will play a visionary technologist who faces unforeseen events after the launch of his historic expedition to Mars, now faced with a new mission: survival. While Fraser is involved in a number of upcoming titles, Starman marks his return to the sci-fi genre nearly two decades after Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008). Anton (Fuze) will launch sales at Cannes.

Oscar Isaac is going back to Vegas. He will star in Netflix’s untitled Vegas casino series, EP’d by Scorsese and created by Ocean’s Thirteen writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The eight-episode drama will focus on the president of the hottest hotel/casino on the Strip, whose back-door negotiations and high-stakes power plays reflect the city’s dangerous glamor. We loved Isaac in Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter. Isaac wasn’t just a gambling addict, but an addict of retribution and pain. The shell of this new show is very different, but the dormant depravity feels similar.

Brody, in his first post-Oscar role, will star in Last Dance about a queer father who takes his daughter (Rachel Zegler) on a gay cruise in the midst of the AIDS crisis. There’s something very romantic and very messed up about this in a way that could, under Brody’s baggy eyes and heavy soul, turn out to be beautiful. FilmNation is bringing this to the Cannes Market.

Casting tidbits:

• Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice)

• Disney’s Hocus Pocus 3 cast

• Matthew Lillard

• Apple TV’s Disavowed

All those casting tidbits and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

The first big buy of Cannes. Mubi has picked up distribution rights in the UK, Ireland, Germany, LATAM, and six other countries for Coward.

The Official Selection is from the director of A24’s Close (2023, trailer), Lukas Dhont.

Synopsis:

A Belgian soldier struggles with cowardice and heroism in WWI trenches.

Close was a study of how young friendship can dissolve with the social pressures of a wicked world. It was delicate, and then it was crippling. And it actually won the Grand Prix when it played at Cannes in 2022.

From the first look at the image above, we can see he’s taking on similar themes about manhood and connection.

No US distributor as of yet.

Cannes Market:

New projects from director Doug Liman and Joe Swanberg, producer Ridley Scott, with cast like Miles Teller, Eddie Redmayne, Dakota Fanning, Orlando Bloom, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

Glorious breakdown here.

Mini Tidbits:

• The Devils

• Dark Ocean

• Bolivia’s iconic salt flat

More on these weird and wonderful projects here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Jennifer Kent (Dir: The Babadook) is making a sci-fi film adaptation of The Girl Who Was Plugged In, starring Sophie Thatcher (Companion).

Based on the novella of the same name, the film will follow a disfigured and suicidal young woman recruited by a tech company to remotely operate a perfect body named Delphi.

Kent is amazing at creating uncomfortable atmospheres, whether it be a house haunted by a demonic spirit in The Babadook (2014) or British colonial Tasmania in The Nightingale (2018). Her highly stylized world-building would be perfect for a dystopian future.

Launching at Cannes Market. Goodfellas (Nouvelle Vague) is the international sales rep. CAA and Range have the U.S. rights.

American Hostage, MGM+’s psychological thriller, will roll out internationally, along with other international streamers such as HBO Max.

Based on the successful scripted podcast of the same name, the show follows an Indianapolis reporter (Jon Hamm) when a desperate hostage-taker demands to be interviewed on his news program. Sony Pictures Television revealed that the show will roll out on MGM+’s international footprint in the UK, Germany, Italy.

HBO Max will oversee the distribution in France, Central and Eastern Europe.

Utopia’s Circle Collective picks up NA rights on Honeyjoon. The film premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Synopsis:

June and her Persian-British mom, Lela, travel to the romantic Azores for a grief anniversary, with contrasting ways of coping.

The trailer showcases an odd couple being a mother-daughter who don’t quite fit in their surroundings. Playing June 10th at IFC.

Mini Tidbit:

Mubi picks up worldwide rights to Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize Doc winner Nuisance Bear. This is interesting because A24 served as the production company. There’s nothing really offbeat about this film, other than it’s just very profound.

My deep dive after watching:
https://theindustry.co/p/nuisance-bear

ON THIS DAY

1997. The Fifth Element is released.

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

Mubi picks up worldwide rights to Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize Doc winner Nuisance Bear. This is interesting because A24 served as the production company. There’s nothing really offbeat about this film, other than it’s just very profound.

My full deep dive after watching:

Synopsis:

A polar bear’s traditional migration path leads it into populated areas, sparking conflict between human interests and wild nature as the animal struggles to survive in a changing world.

It is one of the best POVs I’ve ever seen in documentary filmmaking. We’re taken to Churchill, Manitoba, where we see how the town coexists with polar bears that increasingly encroach upon their habitat.

But this is not a story told from the town’s perspective, the mayor’s, the folks who trap the bears, or even the tourist trucks that bus people across the rock to see the animals. Nor is it told from the polar bear’s perspective.

It’s told from a third POV, that of the Inuit people who have coexisted with the bears. And this lens allows us to see more purely the effects that the bears have on the people and the people have on the bears.

It is a perspective removed and yet able to capture the entire situation with a beautiful balance.

Ken Russell’s controversial The Devils (1972) is getting a 4K restoration from Warner Bros. Clockwork. This version of the film will premiere in the Classics section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

HBO Max Europe buys Canadian Drama Yaga, starring Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams. Foxtel in Australia and Sky in New Zealand have also acquired the Crave series.

Fandango Sales (formerly Vudu) buys international rights to the Cannes Classics documentary Vittorio De Sica – Staging Life. The documentary follows Italian icon Vittorio De Sica’s life, work, and legacy as a leading figure of Italy’s neo-realism movement.

Rocket Science (Int sales: Better Man) buys worldwide sales rights to Dark Ocean, the debut feature of Icelandic TV maker Glassriver. The film follows a young deckhand on his first voyage, as his team battles the powerful forces of nature.

Epicenter Films acquires French rights to Mexican drama Six Months In A Pink Blue Building. The film follows a Mexican protagonist reminiscing about his childhood memory of his father getting HIV. It is playing at Cannes Critics Week.

Vorteks buys international rights to Taiwanese thriller The Evil Inside, starring Joan Chen (The Last Emperor). The film follows a disgraced former Taiwanese star as she must gamble with the lives of the terminally ill to escape a sinister facility and return to the daughter she abandoned.

Film Factory acquires world sales rights to director Albert Pinto’s (Dir: Netflix’s Money Heist) new high-voltage thriller Lions in Winter. The film follows a grieving father who returns to a life of violence to avenge his daughter’s murder.

Bolivia’s iconic salt flat, Salar de Uyuni, is hosting a new film festival. Famous for its world’s largest mirror effect, the inaugural Salar International Film Festival (SalarFF) will start on May 28, 2026.

Malcolm D. Lee (Dir: The Best Man) and his Blackmaled Productions team up with Tribeca Studios to launch “Love & Laughs”, a new initiative for emerging new filmmakers.

Squid Game’s Front Man as a martial arts master. Korean star Lee Byun-hun (No Other Choice, Squid Game) will lead a Korean martial arts action film, Nambeol. The project is being described as a hard-boiled martial arts action film set in the early Joseon dynasty. Nambeol means Northern Expedition or Northern conquest in Korean, so we can expect to see some hand-to-hand combat between a rag-tag group of Korean warriors and Japanese pirates in this film.

Apple TV promotes James Marsden from guest star to series lead for new thriller Disavowed. The Paradise actor recently joined the second season of Apple’s ongoing crime dramedy Your Friends & Neighbors, as a suspicious, bold billionaire, unafraid to get his hands dirty. In Disavowed, Marsden will play the opposite type of character, a legendary and respectable CIA officer, with the series coming from Iron Man (2008) co-writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.

Get your broomsticks out, Disney is developing Hocus Pocus 3. Serving as the sequel to Disney+’s most-watched original film in 2022, writer Jen D’Angelo is returning with Hannah Waddingham’s mother witch character set to take more of the focus. Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker have not signed on yet, but are expected to reprise their roles.

The “Purple Guy” from the FNaF franchise joins Superman 2. Matthew Lillard (Five Nights at Freddy’s) is set to join the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow. No info on his role, but we would love to see him in a slightly unhinged Superman-villain role, like Trickster or Toyman, that could highlight his ability to swing from comedic to crazy real fast.

Mini Tidbits:

Vision Films (Extinction) has acquired the rights to the Jeff Bridges-narrated documentary In the Company of Wolves: An American Journey (trailer). The doc follows wolves and other animals throughout history, exposing how the wild reflects the state of our society. The film will premiere at Cannes next week.

David Arquette (The Mess We Made), Jodi Balfour (For All Mankind), and William Zabka (Cobra Kai) join Season 2 of Prime Video’s Scarpetta. The show follows Kay Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman) and Dorothy Farinelli (Jamie Lee Curtis) as they solve a grisly murder in their hometown.

Amazon MGM Studios is taking a trip to the Windy City, securing the TV rights to Liz Tomforde’s bestselling book. The first of the sports-centered romance series, it follows a close-knit group of professional athletes, each navigating new love. Alison McDonald (EP on Russian Doll) will write with Premeditated Productions through its first-look deal with the studio.

Here comes the big dog. Clifford the Big Red Dog is getting rebooted at PBS Kids. 9 Story Media Group (Prod Co: Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood) is making a 26-episode animated series of Clifford the Big Red Dog, the beloved children’s book series by Scholastic. PBS’s 2000 65-episode Clifford the Big Red Dog was a massive hit with 71,000 hours of watch time. A new interactive game will also be launched as a companion to the series.

This Is Us duo, Mandy Moore and writer Julia Brownell, are developing a new untitled project with the help of HBO Max. An IVF story, the show will follow two families coming together against all odds, with Moore set to play one of the parents if the series is greenlit. Moore and Brownell will both executive produce, with the latter serving as showrunner.

Synopsis:

A plane crash strands a group of British boys on an unoccupied tropical island, where they gradually slide into anarchy as social conventions disappear and attempts at responsible rule divide them into warring factions.

In this interview, Thorne gives a masterclass in adapting iconic material. And how he conceived, executed, and realized his own childhood vision of making Lord of the Flies a reality.

Here is the trailer:

Now streaming.

Disney released its Q2 2026 results. Here’s the breakdown plus the change from last year:

• $11.7bn entertainment revenue (Disney+, Hulu + Linear)

  • ↑ 10%

• $1.34bn entertainment operating profit

  • ↑ 6%

• $4.7bn streaming revenue

  • ↑ 16%

• $582M streaming profit (not including sports)

  • ↑88% - price hikes!

• $1.72bn gain - Content Sales/Licensing and Other (e.g., Theatrical + TV Licensing)

  • ↑ 8%

Just a note, Disney is no longer breaking out their Linear revenue, profit, or subscribers for Disney+ and Hulu, and studio profit/loss, so it’s hard to see exactly what the growth trends are.

This was CEO Josh D’Amaro’s first quarter as CEO and a very successful one. They’re looking to use AI in all facets of the company, yet no word on exact plans after their deal with Sora got canceled after the AI video-generation app shut down.

Warner Bros. Discovery Q1 2026 results tell a grand story about where the company is at. Numbers are down all across the board, with the exception of streaming revenue.

Here are the topline Q1 numbers and the change from last year:

• $2.92bn net loss Q1

  • *including $2.8bn fee to Netflix for breakup, repaid if the PSKY acquisition closes

  • ↑ from $494M net loss

• $8.89bn revenue

  • ↓ 1%

• $2.2bn EBITDA

  • ↑ 5%

• $3.13bn studio income

  • ↑35%

  • $775M profit (↑156%)

  • ↑21% theatrical revenue

• 140M subs

  • ↑8.4M since last quarter

  • Projections for 2026: 150M subs

• $2.9bn streaming revenue

  • ↑ 9%

• $438M profit streaming (vs. Disney’s $582M)

  • ↑ 29%

• $4.38bn linear division revenue

  • ↓ 8% overall

  • ↓ 9% profit ($1.63bn)

Bottom line is that WBD faced massive losses that will be repaid, but the studios unite their gallery of Oscar wins and nominations, leading them into massive studio profit. Linear is still shrinking, but there is massive streaming revenue.

So PSKY WBD will now own a metric ton of declining linear assets. Maybe those will get spun off separately at a later date.

As for Paramount+ and HBO, both are doing well, so no word on if those will get smashed together due to operational efficiencies.

A24’s Reservation, AMC’s Attendance, and a Snake.

Let’s go!

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“Are You a Good Guy or a Bad Guy?”

A24 has released the first trailer for Tony, the Anthony Bourdain origin story, set over one transformative summer in Provincetown, Cape Cod, where a kitchen job becomes the catalyst for his future identity.

The trailer plays surprisingly conventional for a figure who spent his entire life actively dismantling convention. Leaning into a familiar biopic rhythm, cookie-cutter montages of rejection, rebellion, first love, and self-realization play against a nonstop kitchen backdrop.

Seeing Bourdain as an enfant terrible in Tony is both shocking and inevitable. But only because the adult Bourdain, the one who hit our synapses in No Reservations and Parts Unknown, is, behind all his cynicism, wise, almost enlightened.

I believe director Matt Johnson’s (2023’s BlackBerry) style will add this layer of nuance to the behind-the-scenes formative years of Bourdain that the trailer lacked. Johnson’s gritty storytelling is unafraid to show all sides of its subjects. So I’m hopeful we’ll get to see some more glimmers of the Bourdain I recognize along the way.

19-year-old Bourdain is played by Dominic Sessa and it’s a perfect fit. Sessa broke out in Alexander Payne’s beautifully heartwarming The Holdovers (2023), where he exemplified a prickly, loner college student with a kind heart. That feels crucial for Tony: young Bourdain before the wisdom, still figuring out whether he’s a good or bad guy.

Tony premieres in August.

For More:

Tony - Trailer

The Holdovers - Trailer

BlackBerry - Trailer

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• AMC Theatres’ Q1 revenue rises 21% to $1.04bn as attendance climbs to 47.6M.

• Netflix adapts YA rom-com Better Than the Movies with Julia Hart directing.

• Netflix sets docuseries The American Experiment for America’s 250th anniversary.

• Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions undergoes more development layoffs.

• CAA names Caressa Douglas Head of Content and Integrations.

• The Bear drops a standalone Richie/Mikey flashback episode.

• Isabella Rossellini joins Alice Rohrwacher’s The Highly Incestuous Sisters.

• Matthew Rhys will play journalist Harold Evans in BBC’s Dragon Slayers.

• Charlie Kaufman’s Later the War heads to Cannes Market.

• Mubi takes multiple international territories on Na Hong-jin’s Neon-backed Hope.

• Cannes Classics sets a 20th-anniversary 4K restoration of Pan’s Labyrinth.

• Kevin Spacey, Sebastian Stan, and Ana de Armas lead Cannes Market packages.

• Neon picks up Jeff Nichols’ Southern Gothic thriller King Snake for 2027.

• Whit Stillman returns after a decade with WWII drama A Night at Claridge’s.

Yesterday’s correct answer: The Safdie Bros directed Daddy Longlegs.
37% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

AMC Theatres Q1 2026 earnings. Plus, the change from last year:

• $1.04bn revenue

  • ↑ 21%

• $117M net loss

  • Down from $202M loss in Q1 2025

• 47.6M attendance

  • ↑ 13.6% (from 41.9M)

CEO Adam Aron stated that:

“AMC achieved our best Adjusted EBITDA first quarter result since 2019 pre-pandemic, an Adjusted EBITDA improvement of $96 million year over.”

Hopefully, with the new 45-day window commitment by many studios, AMC will be able to achieve profitability.

Tidbits:

Netflix is all in on Better Than the Movies, a feature adaptation of Lynn Painter’s beloved YA novel, with Julia Hart (dir. I’m Your Woman) attached to the helm. “A love letter to romantic comedies,” this high school-set story follows a young girl who relies on her obsession with rom-coms to fix her love life. The adaptation marks the second collaboration between Netflix and Original Headquarters, following the Sunny Sandler-led Don’t Say Good Luck dropping this August.

Netflix celebrates the 250th anniversary of the USA with the doc The American Experiment. Directed by Brian Knappenberger (Netflix Turning Point docs), the five-part docuseries will follow the founding and future of democracy in the U.S. Former VPs Al Gore, Mike Pence, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton.

Darlene Love documentary on the way. Production has started for Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, a documentary about the Rock & Roll legend known for her holiday hits. Directed by Barry Avrich (Oscar Peterson: Black + White), the documentary will follow Darlene Love, who was one of the participants for the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom (2013) about backup singers.

Mini Tidbits:

The Sphere’s newest resident, The Wizard of Oz, has grossed nearly $400M. Vegas’ Sphere Entertainment announced that, since its opening last August, the AI-infused screening of the classic film has sold almost 3M tickets.

Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions (Get Out, Him) continues extensive layoffs in its development department. Three folks were let go. Last year, three in the dev department were also cut. Peele has been working on ideas/scripts for his next film for years, but nothing has stuck. His last film, Nope, was released in 2022, and we hope he can get back his creative mojo.

CAA Entertainment Partnerships group (Shondaland) has brought on Caressa Douglas in the new role of Head of Content and Integrations. With twenty years of entertainment marketing under her belt, Douglas will work with talent and studios to shape the brand of co-developed content and original IP.

Entertainment publicist, Audrey Beth Davis, who worked on iconic series like The Golden Girls and ABC’s The Love Boat, has died. A veteran in industry public relations, she worked on a number of Dick Wolf programs, including the original Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, and Criminal Intent.

Netflix’s Narnia carries a $320M+ budget, their most expensive ever.

Renewals:

NBC’s The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (renewed for S2)

Trailers:

New Line’s Evil Dead Burn

• Trailer

• Dir: Sébastien Vaniček (Infested)

• N.A. Dist: Warner Bros

• Release: July 10

Paramount’s Dutton Ranch

• Trailer

• Cast: Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, Annette Bening

• Release: May 15

Netflix’s The Boroughs

• Trailer

• Cast: Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Bill Pullman

• Release: May 21

First Look:

Netflix’s The One Piece (remake series)

• First Look

• Release: February 2027

Home invasion horror The Heretiks

• First Look

• Wri(s): Luke Piotrowski and Ben Collins (Hulu’s Hellraiser reboot)

• Cast: Luke Speakman (Weapons)

• Headed to the Cannes Market

Starz’s Fightland

• First look

• Prod: 50 Cent

Release Dates:

Hulu’s King of the Hill S15

• Release: July 20

Netflix’s Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing

• The follow-up doc to Downfall: The Case Against Boeing

• Dir: Rory Kennedy

• Release: August 19th

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

FX is serving up a cousin-and-Mikey character study we didn’t know we'd ordered. A standalone episode of The Bear just dropped on Hulu, written and starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the aimless, but sweet Richie, and Jon Bernthal as the funny, but self-destructive late Mikey.

A flashback story, the episode, titled “Gary”, shines a spotlight on what makes this pairing truly magnetic on screen, the imbalance at the core of their relationship.

Set before the events of the series, Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach deliver masterful performances shaped by contrasting responses to aimlessness and longing during an hour-long out-of-the-restaurant road trip.

Changes are imminent in the kitchen, with the new episode only fast-forwarding the grief of what’s to come when the full fifth season of The Bear heads to Hulu in June.

The duo is currently flashing their chemistry, finishing out their sixteen-week run together in the Broadway play Dog Day Afternoon.

The highly anticipated film adaptation, The Highly Incestuous Sisters, adds Oscar-nominated actress Isabella Rossellini to its cast. From director Alice Rohrwacher (La chimera), Dakota Johnson, Saoirse Ronan, and Jessie Buckley will play the titular roles alongside Josh O’Connor as a man who disrupts their lives. The film reunites the latter with Rossellini, who played his somewhat delusional, doting maternal figure in Rohrwacher’s last feature, the beautiful Cannes title La Chimera (2023).

Rossellini’s role is being kept under wraps, as filming is ongoing on the island of Stromboli off the coast of Sicily.

Casting Tidbits:

• Matthew Rhys

• Abigail Breslin

• Rita Wilson

All those and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Charlie Kaufman is coming to Cannes. Well, maybe not literally, but his new film, Later the War, starring Channing Tatum and Tessa Thompson, is. The Veterans (Amazon’s Pretty Lethal) will serve as the sales rep. Shooting 2027 in Cyprus.

Full cover story breakdown on this project:
https://theindustry.co/p/charlie-kaufmans-dream-scenario

Where Neon goes, Mubi follows. Mubi has scooped up some of the international rights for one of Neon’s Cannes official selection films:

Hope

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

• Dir/Wri: Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea)

• N.A., UK, Australia Dist: Neon

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.

Mubi took LATAM, Italy, Spain, and 4 other territories.

The Cannes Classics lineup is led by a 4K restoration of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) for its 20th anniversary, with the director scheduled to attend the screening.

To see the full list of restored films and notable attendees in this year’s Official Selection Cannes Classics, see here.

Kevin Spacey, Sebastian Stan, and Ana de Armas lead Cannes Market packages. Full breakdown here.

Tribeca:

London’s MetFilm Sales (Wilding) has secured worldwide sales to Colors of White Rock (trailer), from filmmaker Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig’s debut feature documentary. Set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in the official doc competition.

Sundance:

Zeitgeist Films (Distribution company for the Oscar-winning Nowhere in Africa) acquires Sundance hit How to Divorce During the War. Releasing at New York’s IFC Center this summer.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Neon has picked up King Snake, from Mud (2012) director Jeff Nichols, bringing the filmmaker fully into Southern Gothic territory.

Set in rural Arkansas, the film follows a couple (Margaret Qualley and Outer Banks’ Drew Starkey) whose inherited farm begins to expose a violent, possibly supernatural past.

We can’t wait for Nichols to get back to the supernatural. His film Midnight Special (2016), also starring Michael Shannon, was a profound meditation on how virtual systems overlay onto our world using the genre of sci-fi.

Neon, likely backlogging its high-profile titles considering their 2026 is already packed, has set King Snake for a 2027 release.

Whit Stillman (Dir: Metropolitan, Barcelona) is making a comeback after a decade-long hiatus. Stillman is set to direct A Night at Claridge’s, a film that follows a displaced woman who moves into a boarding house as she seeks refuge from the Blitz in 1943. Based on Patrick Hamilton’s novel The Slaves of Solitude, this will be the first film Stillman has directed since Love & Friendship (2016).

Ray Mendoza (Dir: A24’s Warfare) is making a Western Drama, Blood on the Promontory. The film follows five convicts shackled together by foot as they try to escape through the mountains following a train robbery. We saw how Mendoza was able to craft tense real-time firefights of the Iraq War in Warfare. It would be interesting to see how he steps out from the influence of his co-writer and co-director Alex Garland (Dir: A24’s Civil War) for a completely different Western genre.

For more:

• StudioCanal’s joint venture

• Paris Hilton’s Road To Reality

• Strand’s Diamond Diplomacy

All those tidbits and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1915. Orson Welles born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

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

Abigail Bresline (Little Miss Sunshine) and David Denman (Brightburn) join the cast of the final season of Netflix’s The Night Agent. Bresline will play a young FBI agent, and Denman will play a veteran CIA agent and former head of a Joint Terrorism Task Force.

HBO Max’s drama pilot How to Survive Without Me casts Rita Wilson (Sleepless in Seattle) in a lead role. An ensemble family drama, Wilson plays the “Me” the title is referring to, a lovely and accomplished mother who finds a way to keep her family connected even after losing her battle with cancer.

Melissa Collazo (Motorheads) will lead Prime Video’s The Probability of Miracles. Based on the novel of the same name, the show will follow a teenager dying of cancer who moves to the town of Promise, where miracles are said to happen. Henry Eikenberry (Euphoria) will lead alongside Collazo.

Strand Releasing picks up North American rights for Diamond Diplomacy. This is Yuriko Gamo Romer’s baseball doc tracing U.S.-Japan relations from 1872 to Shohei Ohtani, with a fall theatrical rollout after festivals and awards attention in North America. Trailer here.

Paris Hilton’s production company 11:11 Media (Infinite Icon) is joining forces with Saw director Darren Lynn Bousman for Road To Reality. Set inside the world of a long-running reality television franchise, the horror film is set to start production this July.

StudioCanal (How To Make a Killing) and France’s biggest publisher, Hachette Livre, are launching On Screen, a joint venture set to develop film and TV based on Hachette’s extensive catalog. Jumping on the international book-to-screen adaptation bandwagon, StudioCanal now gets first look at thousands of titles ranging from the Astérix comic book series to James Patterson novels.

Pathé (Prod Co: Emilia Pérez) and Vendôme Pictures (Prod Co: Coda) launch Emotion Pictures – a production company that specializes in English-language films. Under this new banner, Emotion Pictures will develop, acquire, fully finance, and produce a slate of films that will be theatrically released in Europe.

N Lite (U.S. and Tokyo-based anime studio) is making a manga series based on their upcoming animated feature film Mfinda. The manga follows a 13-year-old Congolese girl who is transported to the Mfinda, a magical forest of spirits, gods, and ancestors.

Paramount’s Legs, Universal’s Lies and MTV.

Let’s go!

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Forget the 2026 slate, forget 2027. Paramount’s most anticipated film lands in 2028. It is the Untitled Longlegs movie from director Osgood Perkins, starring Nicolas Cage. It will release on January 14th, 2028. Full details here.

In the meantime, Paramount Skydance has a glowing Q1 2026 earnings compared to last year:

• $168M profit

  • ↑10%

• $7.35bn revenue

  • ↑2%

• $3.7bn TV/Media revenue

  • ↓ 6%

• $1.06bn TV/Media profit

  • ↑11%

• $1.28bn Filmed Entertainment (Studios) revenue

  • ↑11%

• $164M Filmed Entertainment profit

  • ↑100%

Paramount streaming was way up as the DTC division keeps reporting healthy gains:

• $251M profit

  • Up from $4M loss last year

• $2.4bn Subscription revenue

  • ↑ 11%

• 79.6M subs

  • ↑ 700K for the quarter

Paramount is confident that it will unify Paramount+, Pluto TV, and BET+ this summer. Cost efficiencies galore.

For More:

Want to see the rest of Paramount’s slate? Here’s the scoop.

Want to see the full deal scope of PSKY’s WBD acquisition, which they’re promising to close by Q3? Here’s the breakdown.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Lionsgate promotes Amanda Kozlowski to President of Worldwide Marketing.

• Robert Greenblatt returns to NBCUniversal with a new first-look TV deal.

• Jerry Bruckheimer Films president Mike Stenson dies at 65.

• CBS’ Tracker moves production to L.A. after a record $48M tax credit.

• Nocturnal Entertainment launches with Netflix WWII thriller Play Dead.

• Sony TV casting head Dawn Steinberg exits after 23 years.

• Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settle their It Ends With Us legal battle.

• Patrick Schwarzenegger joins Cannes package The Bookie & The Bruiser.

• Cannes reveals its full international jury.

• Lucy Hale leads Cannes Market rom-com Vision Board.

• A.I.-assisted family feature Critterz heads to Cannes market.

• Neon boards Geremy Jasper’s MTV origin film I Want My MTV.

• IFC and Sapan Studios take Joe Swanberg’s The Sun Never Sets theatrical.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Wings, the first Best Picture Oscar winner.
53% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Former NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt is returning to NBCUniversal after eight years. Under a new first-look deal, Greenblatt will develop and produce TV through his production banner, The Green Room (Officer on Duty). First on the slate is a series adaptation of the novel The Lies I Tell, a story following a genius con artist who forms a connection with one of their victims.

Lionsgate’s interim Head of Marketing, Amanda Kozlowski, has been promoted to President of Worldwide Marketing. She has led the studio’s brand strategies for tentpole franchises like John Wick and The Hunger Games. With over 18 years at the studio under her belt, Kozlowski’s most recent year was one of her most successful, with Michael just grossing $424M and becoming the second-highest-grossing musical biopic of all time.

Nocturnal Entertainment officially launches with the Netflix sale of its first feature, Play Dead. Led by producers Keaton Heinrichs and Akiva Nemetsky, the company will focus on providing filmmakers with a creative suite and meeting their creative needs throughout the production of the film. Play Dead is a World War II thriller starring Noah Jupe (Hamnet) and Matthias Schweighöfer (Oppenheimer).

Mini Tidbits:

Tubi picks up season 1 of Why Are You Single?, a dating game show hosted by comedian Marie Faustin. Hook: one single person as four suitors reveal their romantic baggage, forcing the contestant and the live audience to decide which red flags are worth overlooking.

Dawn Steinberg, the agent behind the casting of Breaking Bad and Outlander, is leaving Sony Pictures Television after 23 years with the studio. Named the head of casting nearly a decade ago, Steinberg will leave her role of overseeing talent for Sony’s global TV slate this summer.

It Ends with a settlement. The legal battle between It Ends With Us (2024) co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is no longer going to trial, with their lawyers agreeing on a non-public settlement deal. And, scene!

Joining in 1998, Mike Stenson, the longtime president of Jerry Bruckheimer Films, has died at 65. From the five Pirates of the Caribbean installments to Top Gun: Maverick, he helped bring to life countless iconic franchises, overseeing development and production for nearly three decades as one of Bruckheimer’s right-hand men.

Cancellations:

CBC’s Son of a Critich (canceled after S5)

Netflix’s The Night Agent (canceled after S4)

Fox’s Going Dutch (canceled after S2)

Trailers:

Universal’s The Odyssey

• Dir: Christopher Nolan

• Trailer

Netflix’s The Four Seasons S2

• Trailer

• Cast: Tina Fey, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Kerri Kenney-Silver

• Release: May 28

National Geographic documentary Time and Water

• Dir: Sara Dosa (Oscar-nominated for Fire of Love)

• Premiere: Sundance

• Trailer

• Release: May 29

Indie Horror Film Homebody

• Dir: Nick Toti (It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This)

• Trailer

• Release: TBD

Clips:

Spanish film Viva

• Dir: Aina Clotet (This Is Not Sweden)

• Premiere: Cannes Critics’ Week

• Clip 1, Clip 2

• Release: TBD

Poster:

A24’s Tony

• Dir: Matt Johnson (BlackBerry)

• Poster

• Cast: Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Antonio Banderas

• Release: August

Release date:

Amazon MGM’s Artificial

• Dir: Luca Guadagnino

• Cast: Andrew Garfield, Monica Barbaro

• Release: 2027

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

After making out with his brother in The White Lotus, Patrick Schwarzenegger is now playing his brother at Cannes. The actor has joined The Bookie & The Bruiser, a 1960s New York City-set PTSD story, starring alongside Vince Vaughn as “an Italian-American tough guy” and Theo James as a “pensive Jewish fellow.”

With a number of projects in the works, this will be Schwarzenegger’s most ambitious project yet, as he is set to play polar-opposite twin brothers, Augie and Bernard, whose lives are violently upended by the reckless behavior of one, bringing dangerous men, unexpectedly, to the other’s doorstep.

From writer-director S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk). Anton (Fuze) will represent international sales for the film at the upcoming Cannes market.

First, he becomes conjoined with his wife, now he’s facing an alien invasion, Dave Franco can’t catch a break. The Now You See Me and Together actor is joining the thriller film Soon You Will Be Gone and Possibly Eaten from Russian director Egor Abramenko (dir. A24’s upcoming Altar).

Trying it out in his directorial debut, the horror movie The Rental (2020), Franco, primarily known for his comedy, is starting to lean further into the thriller genre following the success of Neon’s Together last summer. Starring opposite Babygirl actress Sophie Wilde, the new alien film will begin production this summer.

Tidbit:

Jenna Elfman (Two and a Half Men) joins the cast of the upcoming Fox drama The Interrogator. The show follows MI6 agent Conrad Henry and his elite team as they crack the minds of the world’s most dangerous criminals through interrogation tactics. Elfman appears alongside Stephen Fry (V for Vendetta) and Luke Kleintank (FBI: International) as a struggling CIA agent who was a rising star until a mission gone wrong sends her tumbling down the ladder.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

The jury is not out! The Cannes Film Festival has revealed its nine-member international jury panel:

1. Jury president director Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice, Oldboy)

2. Demi Moore

3. Stellan Skarsgård

4. Chloé Zhao

5. Ruth Negga (Loving)

6. Isaach de Bankolé (Chocolat)

7. Paul Laverty (wri: Cannes-winning screenplay Sweet Sixteen)

8. Diego Céspedes (dir: Un Certain Regard film The Melting Creatures)

9. Laura Wandel (dir: Un Certain Regard film Playground)

Jacob Elordi, whose previous two films, The Sweet East (2023) and last year’s Oh, Canada, both premiered at the festival, was originally selected for the Cannes jury, but had to drop out due to injury.

This group will decide the winner of this year’s Palme d’Or, with the festival running May 12-23.

Cannes Market:

Vision Board

• Int. Sales Rep: Concourse Media (Sovereign)

• Dir: Peter Hutchings (The Hating Game)

• Cast: Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars)

Synopsis:

Follows a struggling fashion designer who, after drunkenly creating a vision board, wakes up living her dream life with a mansion, fashion empire, and perfect romance, but realizes achieving everything may cost her authentic self.

Full list of Cannes market projects here.

Mini Tidbit:

Pluto Film (Berlin-based film sales company) acquires the worldwide sales rights to Chilean thriller Summer War. The film follows a nerdy champion of a board game whose vacation in Chile spirals into a mystery after a tourist disappears, and he encounters a local master of his game. Summer War will have its market debut at Cannes’ Marché du Film and its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

TECH SECTION

New A.I.-assisted animated feature Critterz comes from the screenwriting duo behind Paddington in Peru (2024), James Lamont and Jon Foster.

Co-founder of A.I. studio Native Foreign, Nik Kleverov is set to direct the outcast story, which follows brave woodland creatures who work together on a high-stakes quest. Eliciting the same “wonder of 80s fantasy movies”, AGC International (Hit Man) has picked up worldwide sales rights and will pitch the project as the first commercial family A.I. feature to buyers at Cannes.

Because the uncanny valley doesn’t apply to animated films, The Industry feels there may be a quicker product-to-market adaptation over live-action.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Neon picks up Geremy Jasper’s new film, I Want My MTV, which follows the inception and first years of MTV.

Turn it up to 11 and smash my head into a Piña colada. There’s no one better for this than Jasper. His directorial debut, Patti Cake$ (2017), was mind-blowingly sonically amazing and doused with magical realism. It hit at the heart of an outsider whose true talent for rap was euphoric.

A24 picked up the book rights 10 years ago, but it looks like they’re no longer involved. The producing team picking up the mantle is top-notch, including Cinetic Media, Riva Marker (former head of Jake Gyllenhaal’s prod co), and Glen Powell’s prod co Barnstorm.

We can’t wait to see how Jasper takes the journey of MTV to the nth level.

Tidbits:

Drinking Buddies director Joe Swanberg’s SXSW-premiering The Sun Never Sets gets U.S. theatrical distribution with Independent Film Company and Sapan Studio (The Baltimorons). Made up of a strong cast led by Dakota Fanning, Swanberg regular Jake Johnson, and Cory Michael Smith, the 35mm film centers on a love triangle involving Fanning’s Alaskan Wendy, who reconnects with her ex (Smith), after her older boyfriend (Johnson) unexpectedly leaves the relationship. Marking Swanberg’s 10th collaboration with IFC (Silver Bullets), a company that has championed his work from the beginning, the film is set for a theatrical release later this year.

The director behind the grunge '80s-set Sundance title SLC Punk! is jumping forward to the ‘90s punk rock scene. Director James Merendino is set to direct Gasoline, a new, true story, musical-centered movie from his own script. Based on the rock band Eight Buck Experiment, it follows a young struggling singer who forces his brothers to travel the country to show off their music, with the band’s founder, Evan O’Meara, also attached to produce. SLC Punk! (1998) - Trailer

Tidbits:

• Kino Films pickup

• The Big Bang Theory writers

• Jaggi Entertainment

All those tidbits and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1983. Henry Cavill, born in Jersey, Channel Islands.

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

“Half Italian/Half Jersey Boy” content creator, Davide De Pierro, is set to write and star in an in-development untitled comedy series. Both through his online presence and his book The Letters I Never Sent, De Pierro has made a name for himself by sharing his insights on love, life, and mental health. The Big Bang Theory writers Maria Ferrari and Andy Gordon will pen his upcoming series.

Jaggi Entertainment (Netflix’s This Little Love of Mine), based out of Queensland, Australia, has hired former senior Netflix exec Andre Lawson as Chief Financial Officer, as the company secures its financial team as it grows its production slate.

As part of USA Today Studios new venture into sports content they’ve signed a first-look deal with Zero Gravity Management (Netflix’s Ozark). They will partner on producing both scripted and unscripted projects based on Today’s deep sports IP vault.

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

Tarantino’s script, Oscars’ rules, and art.

Let’s go!

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

Before Quentin Tarantino became a renowned screenwriters, there was one script that blew his mind: Walter Hill’s Hard Times.

Accepting Final Draft’s Hall of Fame Award in 2020, Tarantino shared what resonated about Hill’s script, best known for writing Alien (1979):

“Hill wasn’t just giving a blueprint for how a bunch of technicians can make this movie later... The prose was written for me, the reader. I was supposed to get caught up into this. I was supposed to be excited about this story. And, even more importantly, I was supposed to make the movie in my mind.”

He continued:

“When the script was over and I put it down, I saw it. I saw the movie. Because I didn’t just read a how-to, I had a whole artistic experience with the page.”

Tarantino understands how to craft the artistic journey on the page. His smooth-talking, bloody amalgamations of pop culture sing before they ever hit the screen.

Just take his first film, Reservoir Dogs, which captured the dichotomy between the horrific violence and true tenderness between a group of bank robbers. That movie propelled him into the screenwriting stratosphere. And he won two Oscars for Best Original Screenplay (Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained).

At the end of his Final Draft acceptance speech, Tarantino offered some words of advice: to pour your soul into your “cockamamie masterpieces,” a script that is an undiluted version of you.

He shared a private conversation with top studio executives about what they’re really looking for from screenwriters:

“If you want to go into your bedroom and lock the door, and three months later come out with a screenplay, I heard from big people. They’re waiting to read those. They want to read that diamond bullet script by that person that they’ve never heard of before that they can say is their own.”

Executives are not reading that material lately.

For More:

Are you waiting for your big screenwriting career break? The Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest is NOW OPEN for entries. Learn more here.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• The Academy updates 99th Oscars rules, nixing AI.

• SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP reach an agreement.

• Cinemark 2026 Q1 results here.

• Netflix wins the Tiger King copyright case.

• Sony Pictures Classics buys Wishful Thinking w/ Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke.

• Lewis Pullman and Dylan O’Brien star in Cannes Market package Bulls.

• Richard Gere returns to romance in Edward Zwick’s Asymmetry.

• Lewis Pullman and Dylan O’Brien star in Cannes Market package Bulls.

• Diego Luna joins Disney’s live-action Tangled.

• Craig Johnson’s I Am Not Your Mother heads to Cannes Market w/ Carrie Coon.

• Fernando Meirelles’ Art stars Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell, and Wagner Moura.

• PBS begins airing Vanessa and Ted Hope’s doc Invisible Nation.

• Ketchup Entertainment acquires John Travolta’s JFK crime thriller November 1963.

Friday’s top answer: Charlie Chaplin, over Buster Keaton for lunch.
58% voted for Chaplin.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

AI may be taking over, but they will not take our trophies.

The AMPAS has just released an updated set of new guidelines for the 99th Academy Awards.

Most notably, the Academy is aggressively pushing back on AI, requiring only performances by humans, human-authored screenplays, and solely human creativity to be considered eligible.

Other major changes came within the International Feature Film category, which now allows qualification either through a country’s official submission or by winning a top prize at one of the six major international festivals: Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice. This award will now be presented to the director on behalf of the creative team, rather than the country.

To see the rest of the rule changes, here’s the Academy’s guide.

Mini Tidbits:

SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP reach a new agreement! Right now details are under wraps but we can expect AI protections and better pensions. This won’t be finalized until the guild’s 160K members vote.

The courts have sided with Netflix in the infamous Tiger King copyright case. After a cameraman alleged the series used his footage without permission, the court ultimately determined the clips qualified as fair use.

A Baggage Claim worth waiting for. Lufthansa finally reunited director Pavel Talankin (Dir: Mr. Nobody Against Putin) with his missing Oscar after a week of searching.

AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron made $14.9M in 2025. The second-lowest of the major media companies CEOs. Full details here.

Cancellations

NBC’s Brilliant Minds (canceled after 2 seasons)
NBC’s Stumble (canceled after 1 season)

Trailers:

The Network’s Milky Way

• Dir: Vasilis Kekatos (Palme d’Or short film winner)

• Trailer

• Release: May 5

Release Dates:

Netflix’s Narnia

• Dir: Greta Gerwig (Barbie)

• Cast: Meryl Streep, Daniel Craig, Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan

• U.S. Theatrical Release: Feb 12, 2027

• Netflix Release: April 2, 2027

This is remarkable for Netflix: a full, wide theatrical 50-day release. Gerwig had tremendous bargaining power post-Barbie (even though she signed on to make this film before it became a mega-hit). She upped the original deal from two weeks of IMAX. We hope Netflix will continue to bet on theatrical.

Neon’s Her Private Hell

• Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive)

• Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton

• Release: July 24

Warner Bros’ Cut Off

• Dir: Jonah Hill

• Cast: Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig

• Release: TBD (previously July 17)

Warner Bros’ Panic Carefully

• Dir: Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot)

• Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Julia Roberts, Eddie Redmayne

• Release: April 2027

Shoot Dates:

Netflix’s Under Paris 2

• Dir: Alexandre Aja (Crawl)

• Cast: Bérenice Bejo, Nassim Lyes

• Shoot Dates: May ~ TBD 2026

Shooting Wraps:

Lionsgate’s The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One

• Dir: Mel Gibson

• Budget: $125M

• Shooting Wrap: May 2026

Dangerous Games to Play

• Dir: Ángel Gómez Hernández (Crawlers)

• Wri: Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Pope’s Exorcist)

• Shooting Wrap: May 2026

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

It’s a good day to be Lewis Pullman.

Sony Pictures Classics has just made the biggest buy from SXSW with Wishful Thinking, the narrative competition winner.

It’s a surrealist relationship comedy that pits Lewis Pullman (Thunderbolts*) and Maya Hawke (Do Revenge) against each other as a volatile couple who discover their complicated emotional state has supernatural consequences for the world around them.

Hawke and Pullman make a good couple. Him more straight-laced and scientific. Her more of a free spirit. It’s a good split for this type of predicament.

Pullman also stars in a high-profile project heading to Cannes Market:

• Bulls

  • Cast: Lewis Pullman, Dylan O’Brien

  • Dir: James Morosini (Dir: Magnolia’s I Love My Dad starring Patton Oswalt, Star: Netflix’s It’s What’s Inside)

  • Financier: QC Entertainment (Get Out)

  • US Sales Rep: CAA, WME

Synopsis:

A man (O’Brien) books a last-ditch trip to a hedonistic island resort to save his crumbling relationship, only for a hookup with a married woman to put him on a collision course with her alpha-male husband Marco (Pullman).

We can’t wait to see a jacked-up Pullman eviscerate O’Brien. It plays into both their strengths, O’Brien’s natural meekness and Pullman’s newfound crazed dominance, which was exploited so well in Thunderbolts*.

A rare return to the romance genre for Richard Gere (Chicago), who stars in Asymmetry, the first film in eight years from Oscar-winning filmmaker Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai).

Based on Lisa Halliday’s 2018 novel of the same name, it follows a young editorial assistant who sparks a connection with a 70-year-old world-renowned author (Gere).

Besides starring in Paul Schrader’s Oh Canada (2024) or Paramount+’s political drama series The Agency, Gere has appeared in only a handful of projects over the past decade. Long associated with romantic dramas like Pretty Woman (1990) or An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), his return signals a revisit to the genre that defined his career as a leading man.

Asymmetry is headed to the Cannes Market.

Casting tidbits:

• Diego Luna in Disney’s Tangled

• Da’Vine Joy Randolph in Hold The Devil

• And two obits

All those and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

A new Cannes Market project is coming in hot.

• I Am Not Your Mother

  • Cast: Carrie Coon, Ben Platt, Lukas Gage

  • Dir/Co-writer: Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins)

  • US sales reps: CAA and UTA

  • International sales rep: Mister Smith Entertainment (Dangerous Animals)

Synopsis:

A young queer director (Ben Platt) with a murky past becomes fixated on an iconic actress (Coon) seeking a comeback. When she agrees to star in his debut feature, admiration turns to obsession and control.

Johnson’s breakout was the Sundance 2015 film The Skeleton Twins starring Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as estranged twins bound by their shared trauma and crippling depression. Deeply emotional, his new film resembles that same strained relationship dynamic taking focus, but this time in the form of obsession.

Mini Tidbit:

Toronto’s 33rd Hot Docs Film Festival announces House of Hope as the Best International Feature Documentary winner. Full breakdown and winners here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Five months after one of Sundance’s highest-profile films, The Gallerist (starring Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega), eviscerated the art world, there’s a new film taking another shot:

• Art

  • Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell, and Wagner Moura

  • Dir: Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Two Popes)

  • Based on the Tony-winning play by Yasmina Reza

  • Prod: Charles Finch (Priscilla)

  • Prod Co: 193 (sales rep: Die, My Love)

  • US Sales Rep: CAA

  • Selling at Cannes Market

Synopsis:

Follows three long-time friends whose relationship fractures when one buys an expensive white painting, another finds it absurd, and the third is caught trying to mediate their conflict over what constitutes art.

Meirelles has transformed from a director who excels at the frenetic, impressionistic, and wonderfully poetic filmmaking (e.g., City of God) to a more stoic and deliberate filmmaker built around tight close-ups (The Two Popes). The argument will no doubt be bombastic, but which approach he takes will be interesting.

Sundance’s The Gallerist, which takes place entirely at a single art gallery, is a farce about what is real and unreal. It is still seeking distribution.

Art feels more about the exploration and the de-evolution of friendship, and Fiennes, Farrell, and Moura couldn’t be a better cast.

Tidbits:

PBS is now airing Invisible Nation. The doc from director Vanessa Hope and producer Ted Hope follows the first female president of Taiwan as she combats the threat of authoritarianism. It’s a wonderfully cinematic piece that pairs intimate close-ups of the president of Taiwan with long-lensed wide shots of her citizens, hungry to maintain their freedom. The doc shows a number of scenarios in which the first female president of Taiwan seems out-matched and that titanic fight is emblematic of her nation’s larger struggle. Check out the film on PBS here.

John Travolta and John F. Kennedy. Ketchup Entertainment acquired the U.S. distribution rights for John Travolta crime thriller November 1963. Directed by Oscar-nominee Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields), the film follows the intense 48 hours surrounding the assassination of JFK through the eyes of those operating in the shadows. Travolta will play Johnny Roselli, a key figure in organized crime on the West Coast and Vegas. It would be great to see John Travolta in a historical thriller – something we haven’t seen him doing for a bit. We loved his performance as a cynical lawyer who later becomes emotionally attached with the victims in A Civil Action (1998).

ON THIS DAY

1959. The 400 Blows is released.

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

House of Hope

• Dir: Marjolein Busstra (We Don’t Talk)

• Int. Sales Rep: First Hand Films (Burma VJ - Reporting from a Closed Country)

• Prod. Comp: 100% Films

• Dist: Cinema Delicatessen (Citizenfour in the Netherlands)

• Trailer

Synopsis:

A determined educator and her husband operate a progressive school in the West Bank, striving to maintain a peaceful learning environment while surrounded by regional conflict and daily challenges.

Beyond a $10,000 prize, the powerfully timely feature-length doc now automatically qualifies for Oscar consideration.

To see the rest of the winners, click here.

Disney is not letting go of Diego Luna that easily. The Andor actor has been cast in the upcoming live-action Tangled movie in an unknown, presumably new role. Luna can currently be seen on his journey to becoming a devoted rebel leader in the ongoing second and final season of Disney+ and Lucasfilm’s Andor (S2 trailer). Tangled will begin filming next month in Spain.

Mexican cartels, possessed children, and the supernatural. Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) and Demián Bichir (The Nun) star in action-thriller Hold The Devil, directed by Álex de la Iglesia (The Day of the Beast). The film follows a police officer, Sara Myall (Randolph), and a security guard, Henry Campos (Bichir), who are trapped in a remote house with a young boy whose supernatural power makes him the target of a ruthless cartel leader. Randolph nailed the role as a lonesome cafeteria manager and grieving mother in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers; we’re excited to see that nurturing performance carried into the thriller genre.

Mini Tidbits:

Fox’s Marriage Market has found their host in actress and comedian Whitney Cummings (NBC’s Whitney). The newest matchmaking series will follow singles who relinquish all control of their love lives to their families, with an engagement as the end goal.

The many nurses of M*A*S*H, Gwen Farrell Adair, has passed away at 94. The actress starred as multiple nurses, as well as an anesthesiologist, popping up all throughout the CBS war dramedy’s eleven-season run.

Beau Starr, actor best known for the Halloween franchise and playing Ray Liotta’s abusive father in Goodfellas, dies at 81.