She’s most known for her role as the persnickety neighbor Liz across three seasons of Shrinking. And her aura throughout the season is infectious as she’s able to turn on a dime, moving from silly to vicious to empathetic.

Her timing in these multi-layered scenes is influenced by her expertise as a music supervisor on Scrubs, Ted Lasso, Bad Monkey, Shrinking, and Rooster.

In this wide-ranging interview, Miller details how her music supervision experience informs her acting and vice versa. She also breaks down her process for understanding scenes, being loose on set, and creating such wide-ranging performances.

Plus, how a hug with Jason Segel changed the entire season.

Here’s the Season 3 trailer:

Now available on Apple TV.

Ben Stiller B Ball, Wagner Moura O 11, and $107M.

Let’s go!

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Ben Stiller will direct a multi-part Knicks docuseries with A24 and HBO.

• Netflix wins rights to adapt novel Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It.

• Janelle James and David Caspe are developing Hulu comedy Rock City.

• Jeff Probst announces an animated Survivor movie at Paramount Animation.

• Vice Studios is developing a scripted drama about sports ownership & corruption.

• Amazon hires Matt Schwimmer to lead its Creator Services team.

• Wagner Moura joins Warner Bros.’ Ocean’s Eleven prequel as the villain.

• Daniel Kaluuya reteaming with Shaka King for Amazon MGM’s The Parlay.

• Sandra Oh is in talks to join Matt Damon in the Daniels’ Universal project.

• Alan Cumming’s queer drama series Tip Toe lands its U.S. release at Starz.

• Nikki Glaser joins Netflix animated fairy-tale film Steps as villain Priscilla.

• David Permut produces debut motocross drama Ragamuffin, w/ Lewis Pullman.

• BBC will cut $107M, eliminating over 500 roles by 2027.

• Studiocanal is making art-heist docuseries The Paris-Tokyo Job.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sean Penn’s long-haired role.
97% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

While the entire tri-state area is still on a high after the NY Knicks’ history-making NBA Finals run, no one was paying closer attention than superfan Ben Stiller.

In partnership with A24 and HBO, Stiller is officially directing a multi-part documentary series about the history and legacy of the New York Knicks, culminating with the franchise’s first championship in 53 years. Many eagle-eyed fans even guessed a potential project was in the works as the actor and longtime director was seen throughout the team’s entire postseason run filming on his iPhone on the sidelines.

The announcement comes just one year after Stiller’s first go at documentary filmmaking with his personal Tribeca-premiering film Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost (2025).

Tidbit:

Popular internet personality Brooke Averick’s (Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast) debut novel is set to be adapted into a feature film at Netflix. Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It follows a hopeless romantic whose fear of intimacy has kept her love life at a standstill. The streamer won the rights in a competitive bidding war ahead of its end-of-May publication date, with The Nightingale producer Elizabeth Cantillon and Girls writer Sarah Heyward on board to pen the screenplay.

Mini Tidbits:

The tribe has spoken. After a whopping 50 seasons, host Jeff Probst has announced that an animated Survivor movie is in the works with Paramount Animation. The wild comedy will feature animals competing for the chance to be crowned the sole “Survivor”.

Abbott Elementary’s Janelle James is developing Rock City, a new Hulu comedy with Happy Endings creator David Caspe. The show will follow a woman returning to her hometown after inheriting her estranged father’s beachfront bar, only to discover it comes with far more than she expected.

Pablo Torre (Emmy-nominated host of Pablo Torre Finds Out) is developing a scripted television drama with Vice Studios (Prod Co: The Beach Bum starring Matthew McConaughey). The series will center around sports ownership, extreme wealth, and corruption.

Amazon has hired Matt Schwimmer to lead its Creator Services team. Schwimmer brings years of experience in creator business development, particularly in the podcast space, having worked on hit shows such as Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert and the Kelce Brothers’ New Heights.

Toy Story 5 is Pixar’s most expensive movie of all time. Despite a $250M budget (not including marketing costs), Pixar is expecting a record-breaking opening weekend.

Renewal:

Prime Video’s One Night in Idaho: The College Murders (Renewed for S2)

Cancellation:

Netflix’s The Boroughs (Canceled after S1)

Trailers:

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day

• Trailer

• Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Mark Ruffalo

• Release: July 31

German-Turkish drama film Hijamat

• Clip 1, Clip 2

• Editor: Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident)

• Festival Premiere: July 3

MGM+’s The Westies

• Trailer

• Cast: J.K. Simmons, Will Jeffs

• Release: July 12

Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest: The Final Season

• Trailer

• Release: July 2

Lunette Film’s Dreams in Nightmares

• Trailer

• Cast: Denée Benton, Mars Storm Rucker, Dezi Bing

• Release: Aug 21

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

The Oscar-nominated Wagner Moura is back as a villain.

Moura is set to join Warner Bros.’ highly anticipated Ocean’s Eleven prequel as the main antagonist opposite Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper.

His performance in last year’s The Secret Agent earned him the coveted Best Actor prize at Cannes, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination. Yet before these accolades, Moura learned Spanish and gained 40 lbs to transform into the infamous Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s Narcos (intro scene).

What made his portrayal of the ruthless drug kingpin so compelling was his self-confidence, which allowed him to be loved by the people so deeply that they viewed him as a king. A villain as charming as he is terrifying is the perfect foil for Danny Ocean’s parents, played by Robbie and Cooper, in the new installment of the Ocean’s universe. He has a way of imbuing characters that could be cartoonish with real weight.

Releasing June 2027.

An Oscar-winning reunion. Daniel Kaluuya is reteaming with his Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) director, Shaka King, for the action-crime feature The Parlay. From Amazon MGM Studios, Kaluuya is reportedly set to star alongside Teyana Taylor.

In King’s Judas and the Black Messiah, Kaluuya delivered an Oscar-winning performance as Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton. There are some standout speech scenes in the film where Kaluuya is pure bile, driven by love, showcasing the revolutionary leader’s commanding presence.

The plot details remain a secret, but if Judas and the Black Messiah proved that Kaluuya and King have chemistry, The Parlay has every reason to be one worth betting on.

Tidbit:

Universal’s secret Daniels project just got even more interesting. Emmy winner Sandra Oh is in talks to star alongside Matt Damon in the newest epic film from the Everything Everywhere All at Once directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. While plot details are being kept under wraps, should she officially sign on, it would mark the first leading role for the highly selective Killing Eve actress since the 2023 Hulu comedy Quiz Lady. The untitled film is slated for a November 2027 release.

Mini Tidbits:

Alan Cumming’s queer drama series Tip Toe will have its U.S. release on Starz. The show follows two warring neighbors who have been living next to each other for 15 years. The show debuted in the UK on May 31st on Channel 4, with its premiere garnering over 1M viewers. Tip Toe’s U.S. release date is not confirmed yet.

Comedian Nikki Glaser is channeling her inner villain for Netflix’s animated fairy film Steps. Joining Ali Wong and Amanda Seyfried, Glaser will voice the evil Priscilla, a wannabe princess who will stop at nothing to control everyone around her. Steps will premiere on Netflix sometime this fall.

Two music legends are buzzing into animation, with Cher and Bob Geldof circling voice roles in Australian insect adventure film FlySquad - First Strike! The Oscar winner will voice the bug mother of the film’s protagonist, while the Live Aid founder will voice a legendary insect rock star.

Grace Gummer (Love Story) is set to star alongside Dakota Fanning in Apple TV’s untitled thriller series. Gummer will play the daughter of the powerful chief of a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate that Fanning’s undercover agent character is tasked with infiltrating.

Daveigh Chase, most famous for her role as the haunting Samara Morgan in U.S. remake of The Ring (2002), dies at 35. She also voiced Lilo in the original animated Lilo & Stitch (2002) and the protagonist Chihiro in the American dub of Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away (2001).

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Oscar-nominated producer David Permut (Hacksaw Ridge) is taking a chance on Ragamuffin, the debut feature from filmmaker Kaitlyn Mikayla. Starring Thunderbolts* actor Lewis Pullman, the film is based on Mikayla’s short film that Permut discovered at last year’s Sundance festival.

Inspired by Mikayla’s own experience in the world of motocross, the film will follow Mad Mike (Pullman) and his ambitious 14-year-old daughter as she competes in a summer-long tournament. There’s a dirty sexiness to it with the right amount of homespun, rural adrenaline that must have piqued Permut’s interest (trailer).

The coming-of-age drama is just one of many Sundance projects Permut has his name on alongside Olivia Wilde’s high-profile The Invite and the Dylan O’Brien-led Twinless.

Pre-production is now underway on Ragamuffin.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

After over a year of talk of the BBC’s financial concerns, new director general Matt Brittin announces spending will be cut by $107M across TV, radio, and news.

As part of the company’s new savings plan, over 500 roles will be eliminated by the start of 2027. The goal is to shave $670M in costs, or 15% annually, over the next three years, which means several existing shows will be canceled. The plan will involve merging divisions in the coming months and fewer opportunities for new commissions.

While it’s a grim day over at the BBC, finally gaining some clarity on a plan to keep the UK’s leading media brand and news channel afloat is at least a step in the right direction.

Mini Tidbit:

Studiocanal (Prod Co: Paddington series) is making a docuseries about one of the most famous art heists in the world. The Paris-Tokyo Job (Or How To Rob a Yakuza) follows Philippe “Fifi” Jamin, who became an international criminal after he began stealing famous artworks around the world, getting tangled with the Yakuza in the process.

ON THIS DAY

1952. Isabella Rossellini born in Rome, Italy.

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

We also interviewed the renowned British musician Rita Ora, who also EPs, as well as the doc’s audacious directors, producers, composers, and cinematographers, Steve Happi and Dione Roach.

Here’s the synopsis:

New Bell is one of the most overcrowded prisons in Africa, built for a capacity of 800 incarcerated individuals but now houses nearly 6,000 men. Inside the overpopulated prison is “Jail Time Records,” a music studio that serves as a creative hub as well as a therapeutic outlet for the men.

There’s a sweetness to it, burrowed in the sweltering danger of the pent-up fury of thousands of men stuck behind bars. There are many films where art is used as a method of mental salvation from prison, recently A24’s Sing Sing. However, this doc strips away the edifices and shows us the scars of the real.

Waititi was struck by the film’s poignancy and extreme creativity with limited resources. Ora was moved by the innovation in the music.

And these directors got a crash course in kill-your-darlings-type editing that birthed Jail Time Records.

Here’s a clip:

At the Tribeca Film Festival, Jail Time Records also won the Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director and Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature.

Sean Penn’s Friends, Amazon’s Shots, and Pulp.

Let’s go!

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

In honor of Flag Day this past weekend, I had the pleasure of interviewing filmmakers Andrew and Melissa Shea, who shared what inspired them to make their doc, Flag Day.

It’s a wonderfully warm documentary about how people from all walks of life create the tapestry of the small town of Three Oaks, MI. From an octogenarian school bus driver to prom queens to local heroes, the people of this town come together to create the largest Flag Day celebration in America.

The paradox of the film: the years it took to get to know their subjects, and the 6 days it took to shoot.

Full interview + trailer here.

Two months after securing his third Academy Award, Sean Penn is stepping back from acting as he prepares for his seventh feature as a director, a politically charged drama centered on the January 6 Capitol riot for Warner Bros.

Penn will write and direct the untitled feature, with Bradley Cooper being eyed for the leading role as a cop who gets mixed up in the 2021 riots.

Cooper’s character may be similar to Penn’s most recent in PTA’s One Battle After Another as the deeply insecure and cruel military officer Lockjaw. Or it could share DNA with his psychologically burned to the brim EMT in Vertical’s Asphalt City (2023).

Penn’s new film is described as “an unexpected story about friendship,” which is vague enough for me to imagine that, within this setting, both friends will push each other to the brink of madness. Much like in Asphalt City and even his brief but wild romance in OBAA with Teyana Taylor.

But beyond drawing from the great films he has been in, Penn would be wise to study his own: Into the Wild (2007).

That’s a film that forces you to think it’s about isolation, when the true message is about friendship, ending with the quote:

“Happiness is only real when shared.”

Penn and Cooper feel like a natural pairing, and if they can carve a personal, heartfelt story about connection and retribution against this political backdrop, it will be one to watch.

Shooting mid-2027.

For More:

Asphalt City trailer.

Into the Wild trailer.

OBAA trailer.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Hulu develops high-end NYC real estate drama The Pinnacle.

• Republic Pictures picks up sports doc Mighty Mary, narrated by Hugh Jackman.

• UCP and UIS merge into Universal Global Television, led by Beatrice Springborn.

• Sony Pictures will distribute Greta Gerwig’s Narnia internationally.

• Amazon MGM picks up Jason Momoa action-comedy Shots! Shots! Shots!

• LaKeith Stanfield joins Netflix’s Monsanto courtroom drama.

• Ariana Greenblatt will star in romcom Egg Baby for Amazon MGM.

• Samantha Morton joins Phoebe Dynevor in Amazon crime thriller Dirty.

• Mubi acquires Garth Jennings’ Pulp reunion-tour doc for worldwide distribution.

• BBC Studios is developing a live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service series.

Yesterday’s correct answer: 2005, The Comeback S1 release year.
57% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Hulu is developing a series based on the world of high-end New York real estate, The Pinnacle, EP by George Stephanopoulos and Ali Wentworth (It’s Complicated). The show follows an ambitious real estate agent as he tries to secure a permanent place in New York’s super-rich circles.

Paramount Pictures’ Republic Pictures picks up Mighty Mary, a sports documentary from Skydance Sports and Olympian turned filmmaker Mary Mazzio (Underwater Dreams). Narrated by Hugh Jackman and Elizabeth Banks, the film follows the first all-women’s sailing team to compete for the America’s Cup. Premiering June 18th at the Nantucket Film Festival.

Universal Content Productions (UCP) and Universal International Studios (UIS) are combining to make one studio, Universal Global Television (UGT). The consolidation seemed inevitable, as former Pixar exec Beatrice Springborn was the president of both groups and will lead the now-merged UGT.

Mini Tidbits:

Sony Pictures will distribute Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew internationally. The domestic distribution of the original Netflix film will be handled by the streamer itself.

Amazon MGM picks up action-comedy Shots! Shots! Shots! starring Jason Momoa. The project was previously developed by Universal and is being described as a family-centric adventure that feels like a mixture of True Lies (1994) and Liam Neeson’s Taken.

Content Partners (Hollywood investment firm that owns The CSI franchise) gets a new funding deal from Carlyle Global Credit (Credit investment arm of The Carlyle Group).

“It’s astounding!” Las Vegas’ The Sphere has set The Rocky Horror Picture Show as their next movie experience in 2027 after The Wizard of Oz passed $400M in sales.

Renewals:

Apple TV’s The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy (for S4)

Prime Video’s Bloodaxe (for S2 ahead of its S1 2027 premiere)

Disney+’s Rivals (for S3)

Trailers:

DreamWorks’ Shrek 5

• Trailer

• Cast: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Zendaya

• Release: Summer 2027

Netflix’s Heartstopper Forever

• Trailer

• Release: Jul. 17

Paramount+’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (S4)

• Trailer

• Release: Jul. 23

National Geographic’s Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston

• Trailer

• Release: Jul. 23

GKIDS’ Cocoon - One Summer of Girlhood

• Trailer

• U.S. theatrical release: Sept. 4

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

LaKeith Stanfield (I Love Boosters) joins the new Netflix courtroom drama about the landmark legal trial against U.S. chemical company Monsanto.

Directed by John Lee Hancock (Dir: Netflix’s The Highwaymen), the untitled film will follow attorney Brent Wisner (Jonathan Bailey), who took a case against the chemical company Monsanto on behalf of Dewayne Lee Johnson (Stanfield), who used the company’s most popular pesticide, Roundup, at a high school. Wisner and Johnson won the seemingly impossible case, getting awarded $289M and the discovery that Roundup causes cancer.

Stanfield excels at being a vulnerable victim, such as a man trapped inside his own head in Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017). His performance changed the atmosphere of the film. He has a softness and an explosiveness that this role needs, and we think he is perfect for the courtroom drama.

Ariana Greenblatt is officially a parent to an Egg Baby.

From XYZ Films, comedy director Natalia Anderson (Black-ish) is directing Egg Baby, a new coming-of-age romcom.

The Now You See Me: Now You Don’t actress will play yet another angsty teenager, this time tasked with co-parenting an egg for her health class alongside the precious quarterback. From the anarchic Tiny Tina in the live-action Borderlands to her moody Barbie skeptic Sasha, Greenblatt has become Hollywood’s go-to actress for witty but emotionally guarded teens, making the health-class assignment from hell feel right in her wheelhouse.

Amazon MGM Studios has picked up Egg Baby to release worldwide.

Tidbits:

Samantha Morton (Morvern Callar) joins the cast of Amazon crime thriller Dirty, starring Phoebe Dynevor (Fair Play). The show follows trainee detective Eva Bennett (Dynevor), who joins a new homicide investigation led by her estranged mother and legendary detective Lois Mercer (Morton). Matt Charman (Wri: Bridge of Spies) will write and produce the new crime series.

Young actress Millicent Simmonds first blew audiences away in the A Quiet Place films, but now she will both star and write Grace, a crime thriller feature. The film marks the first project from Inevitable Foundation’s Inevitable Studios, which aims to craft stories through a unique disability lens. Details are being kept under wraps, but Grace is centered on a deaf teenager who begins to unravel the violent secrets of her family’s past. Shooting will begin early 2027, marking a major step up for Simmonds in her career both in front of and behind the camera.

Mini Tidbits:

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) and Rudy Pankow (Reminders of Him) join supernatural romance Thud. The film follows the Grim Reaper and the Devil’s meet-cute at a three-day destination wedding, where they’ve each come to sow their own chaos. Gellar plays the Grim Reaper, and Pankow will play the Devil. The film is directed by Mali Elfman, the composer Danny Elfman’s daughter.

One of Heated Rivalry’s breakout actors, François Arnaud, is joining Hulu’s Count My Lies, set to share the screen alongside leading ladies Lindsay Lohan and Shailene Woodley. In a recurring role, he’ll play a good friend to Lohan’s gorgeous and wealthy Violet, who hires a compulsive liar (Woodley) as her family’s new nanny. The limited series is expected to drop later this year.

Dallas actor William Smithers has passed away at 98. While he didn’t shoot J.R., Smithers’ Jeremy Wendell was a powerful and diabolical oil tycoon, whose constant schemes made him one of Dallas’ most formidable men (scene). The character actor guest-starred on countless shows throughout the 70s and 80s, like Star Trek and Hawaii Five-0.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Sing director Garth Jennings is turning his attention from animated singing animals to documentary filmmaking with Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? Acquired by Mubi for worldwide distribution, the musical feature follows the iconic Britpop band Pulp during their acclaimed 2024 reunion tour and includes four decades of never-before-seen archival material.

While they are best known for their arthouse films, Mubi has built a strong documentary slate in recent years, like Steve McQueen’s Occupied City (2023), and the Martin Scorsese-narrated Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (2024). Pulp marks the studio’s first foray into music documentaries, set for a fall premiere exclusively on Mubi.

Tidbits:

Biographical dramas have become Alejandro Monteverde’s calling card. The Sound of Freedom director is set to write and direct a feature biopic on Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. An incredibly influential figure in Spain, the film will explore the inner battles and spiritual revolution he experienced as he transformed Barcelona’s legendary skyline into what it is. After tackling child trafficking in Sound of Freedom (2023) and chronicling the life of Catholic missionary Francesca Cabrini in Cabrini (2024), Monteverde has carved out a niche for faith-driven portraits of extraordinary real-life figures and true experiences.

New York-based indie studio Curious Gremlin (Our Hero, Balthazar) is developing a feature adaptation of author Ava Reid’s gothic Lady Macbeth. The feminist retelling of Shakespeare’s play is told from the overlooked lens of the famously complex Lady Macbeth herself. Oscar nominee Emma Donoghue, who beautifully adapted Room (2015), will pen the screenplay, and BAFTA-nominated Skogland (The Handmaid’s Tale) is attached to direct.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

A collaboration we didn’t know we needed. Studio Ghibli’s beloved Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, trailer) is being made into a live-action series by BBC Studios.

One of the lighter and more wholesome movies from Ghibli’s near-perfect resume, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the adorable titular young witch as she forges her own path by starting her own flying delivery service.

From BBC Studios Kids & Family and Japan’s Kadokawa Corporation, the first season will feature ten thirty-minute episodes.

New production banner titled Black Harbor launches in Vancouver. The founding partners include the location manager of A24’s Backrooms (2026), Jacob Bailey, and the line producer of Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs (2024), Jonathan J.J. Dubois. The company will focus on locally shooting international projects and overseeing the entire production of a project through to delivery.

Canadian animator and two-time Oscar nominee Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back) is making a Christmas special, The Anta Claus of the South Pole.

ON THIS DAY

1936. Ken Loach born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

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

It’s a wonderfully warm documentary about how people from all walks of life create the tapestry of a small town, Three Oaks, MI. From an octogenarian school bus driver to prom queens to local heroes, the people of this town come together to create the largest Flag Day celebration in America.

In my interview with Andrew and Melissa, they detail the paradox of the film: the years it took to get to know their subjects, and the 6 days it took to shoot the documentary. At one point, they had eleven crews on Flag Day itself.

The entire process from filmmaking to the story on screen is about collaboration.

Here is the trailer:

Showtimes here.

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

Fox’s Roku, Disney’s Ground and Dragoons.

Let’s go!

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

Returning for Season 3 after a 12-year hiatus, Lisa Kudrow is back in The Comeback.

She’s TV’s most nonchalant micromanager. We met her at a low point; by her standards, she’s podcasting and day-playing in indie films until she gets a starring role in an AI-written series.

It’s a speculative fantasy so grounded that we realize how much we’ve all been turned into performers by technology.

Click here for more info.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Fox is set to acquire Roku in a $22bn deal.

• Higher Ground Productions is developing an animated fantasy series with Disney.

• Netflix is adapting Hannah Grace’s hockey romance novel Icebreaker for TV.

• Hulu is developing a time-travel graphic novel adaptation of RetroActive.

• Sony Pictures TV’s Maxine Productions develops a true-crime docuseries.

• Anya Taylor-Joy joins The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.

• Peter Serafinowicz joins HBO’s Harry Potter series as Peeves the Poltergeist.

• Kumail Nanjiani, Pamela Adlon, and BD Wong cast in Prime Video’s Sex Criminals.

• Michael J. Fox will voice the lead in animated feature Dragoons.

• Rod Blackhurst’s viral horror short Alone Time is being adapted into a feature.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Outlander, Richard Gadd acted in an episode.
57% got it correct.

After 12 years, Lisa Kudrow is back in The Comeback. Click here for more info.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Let there be mergers. Fox is set to acquire Roku for $22bn. Here’s a breakdown:

• $25bn implied equity value

• $22bn enterprise value

• $160/share for Roku

• $14.6bn in cash (60%) / 40% Fox Class A stock

• Fox shareholders will own ~73% of the combined company

• Roku shareholders will own ~27%

Roku founder/CEO Anthony Wood will join Fox’s board.

Before the deal:

• Fox

  • 7.2% total U.S. TV viewership

  • Tubi is 2.2% of that share

  • Tubi had 100M monthly active users

• Roku Channel

  • 3% total U.S. TV viewership

  • 100M+ streaming households

Together, Fox and Roku would hold the third-largest share of U.S. television viewership at 10.2%, more than Netflix’s 8.2% share but less than the combined 14.2% share that Paramount and Warner Bros. will have if/when they merge.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approval.

However, questions remain, as Roku is a gatekeeper for other streamers such as Disney+, Paramount+, HBO Max, Peacock, and Netflix.

Tidbits:

After an eight-year run with Netflix, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions (Leave the World Behind) are working with Disney on the musical fantasy animated series Journey. Created by animator Matt Munn (Rio 2), the series follows a young heroine named Journey, who goes to a forbidden territory to solve her father’s disappearance and discovers a powerful magic within herself. Higher Ground previously worked on family-friendly projects like Netflix's children's series Ada Twist, Scientist.

Netflix is joining the hockey romance craze right now with a TV adaptation of Hannah Grace’s bestselling novel, Icebreaker, in the works. An enemies-to-lovers story, the college romance follows a competitive figure skater and a disciplined hockey captain who have an undeniable chemistry. Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper will EP via her Unwell Productions, along with Gossip Girl co-EP Amanda Lasher on board as showrunner, and Jade Bartlett (wri: Miller’s Girl) attached as a writer.

Hulu is developing a series adaptation of the Humanoids graphic novel RetroActive. Based on the comic series of the same name, the show will follow the invention of time travel and a new war that wages between global powers as they exploit information from the past. Bruce Miller (Showrunner: Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale) is on board as an EP. We have seen what a Bruce Miller dystopia looks like in The Handmaid’s Tale, a world of totalitarian control. We would love to see how that dreadful atmosphere could play into an espionage genre.

Mini Tidbits:

Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) wrote a new song, “Along the Way,” for the live-action version of Disney’s Moana. The song is performed by Catherine Laga’aia, who plays Moana, Dwayne Johnson, who plays Maui, and the original voice of animated Moana, Auli‘i Cravalho.

Sony Pictures Television’s Maxine Productions (The Fall of Diddy) is taking on the tragic 2023 murder of Kristil Krug in a new untitled true-crime docuseries.

Disney Branded Television rebrands itself as Disney Kids & Family.

Renewals:

Netflix’s The Four Seasons (Renewed for S3)

Trailers:

American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez

• Trailer

• Release: July 17

Netflix’s The Last House

• Trailer

• Cast: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura

• Release: Aug 7

The Wave

• Trailer

• Release: June 26

Film Movement’s Barrio Triste

• Trailer

• Release: July 10

First Look:

Live Nation Studios’ Youth Juice

• First Look

Release Date:

Paramount’s Untitled Duffer Brothers’ film

• Dir: Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things)

• Release Date: Nov 3, 2028

Neon’s Sheep in the Box

• Dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters)

• Cannes Premiere: May 16

• U.S. Release: July 24

After 12 years, Lisa Kudrow is brilliant in The Comeback. Click here for more info.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Anya Taylor-Joy joins the next Lord of the Rings film, The Hunt for Gollum, directed by Andy Serkis himself, who is also reprising the role of Gollum.

The film takes place right in between The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, with Aragorn (Jamie Dornan) and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) searching for Gollum to learn more about Bilbo’s ring. Taylor-Joy will play Seren, a Sindar Elf of the Woodland realm and a lethal warrior of King Thranduil (Lee Pace).

Taylor-Joy’s last big live-action movie role was Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), where she played a younger version of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. Taylor-Joy nailed the role of a silent yet lethal warrior. She proved that she can pull off action scenes in the Mad Max film and that she has intellectual charisma as a chess prodigy in the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit. We think her portrayal of a dark elf will be a mixture of these two roles, a perfect fit for Taylor-Joy.

Tidbits:

Michael J. Fox will voice the lead in an upcoming animated feature, Dragoons, from Icon Creative Studios (Prod Co: Disney+’s Monsters at Work). The film will follow Dougie, an ordinary worker at WizCorp who is transformed into a mighty dragon, only to realize that his wizard CEO shrank them to build his empire. We’ve loved Fox as he voiced a fast-talking anthropomorphic mouse in the Stuart Little franchise and are excited to see the energetic charm he will bring to a dragon.

HBO’s Harry Potter series adds an unexpected cast member. English actor Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) will take on the cheeky Peeves the Poltergeist, a fan-favorite character from the books that never appeared in the original movies. Unlike his level-headed Shaun of the Dead (2004) character, one of the film’s few voices of reason, Peeves thrives on chaos, mischief, and causing ghostly trouble in the Hogwarts halls. Season one will premiere on HBO this December.

Mini Tidbits:

Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals), Pamela Adlon (Californication), and BD Wong (Jurassic Park franchise) join the cast of Prime Video’s Sex Criminals. Based on the comic book of the same name, the show will follow Suze (Imogen Poots) and Jon (John Reynolds), who can stop time when they are having sex.

Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building Season 6’s cast just got more star-studded. David Tennant (Doctor Who), Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls), Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who), and Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) join the show in recurring guest roles. The original stars, Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, will return as well.

The upcoming Russell Crowe-led action film The Last Druid casts the Gladiator actor’s son, Tennyson (The Billion Dollar Spy), in his second acting role. The film will follow a Celtic elder who is forced to defend his people when the Roman Empire threatens their way of life. Production is ongoing in Spain.

Emmy winner Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) is joining the family dramedy Turn the Lights Back On, inspired by real events families faced during the Covid era. Borstein will take on an exhausted elementary school teacher grappling with difficult family dynamics as the world begins to shut down.

Mini Mini Tidbits:

Claudia Black (Pitch Black), who played Mother Klothow in Disney+’s Ahsoka, will not return for Season 2.

Mark Hamill joins Peacock’s video game TV adaptation Twisted Metal Season 3 as Sweet Tooth’s father.

Anne Schedeen, the actress best known for her role in NBC’s sitcom ALF, passed away at 77.

After 12 years, Lisa Kudrow is zany in The Comeback. Click here for more info.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

The Academy has elected eight-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to the Board of Governors, set to represent the Directors Branch. Bad Robot composer Kris Bowers will lead the Music Branch, and Fred Berger (La La Land) will lead the Producers Branch.

Fremantle (Prod Co: Family Feud) and Bell Media (Prod Co: Orphan Black) are adapting Robyn Carr’s Thunder Point series for TV. They have previously found huge success with Canadian romantic drama series Sullivan’s Crossing (trailer), another series adapted from Carr with more than 600,000 same-day viewers per episode.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Rod Blackhurst (Dir: Shudder’s Dolly) is adapting his viral short film Alone Time (full short) into a feature film. The original short follows a young woman who is haunted by an unseen figure in the Adirondack Mountains, only to realize that the greatest threat was lurking within her own psyche. It garnered more than 8M views across many online platforms. Witchcraft Motion Picture Company (Prod Co: Blood for Dust starring Kit Harington) will produce the film.

Alone Time is by no means a jump scare horror film. Instead, the original short’s horror sneaks up on its audience – the last few seconds of the film entirely change what the 11-minute film means. This type of psychological horror is exactly what many horror audiences are looking for, and the original short has enough room to make the viewers wonder what will happen next.

Grasshopper Films (Dist: Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude, Nocturnes) picks up North American rights on Zi, the 2026 Sundance film from Kogonada (dir: After Yang, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey).

Synopsis:

In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night — and possibly her life.

Look, truth be told, I wasn’t the biggest fan of After Yang. It brought a humanism to the sci-fi concept of robot replacement that was conceptually interesting but lacked oomph. I’m hoping this one is more stirring.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Studiocanal is nearing a presale for a new animated Paddington film, which will be released alongside the upcoming fourth installment of the live-action franchise. Studiocanal has also locked down multiple deals for their new slate of films (CinemaCon breakdown), including Violette (dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet), sold to 20 territories, and Everybody Wants to F*ck Me (star: Taron Egerton) sold to Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Matiss Kaza (Prod: Academy Award-winning animated feature Flow) joins Ukrainian film Times New Roman. It will follow a Ukrainian artist, Roman, who is battling alcohol addiction while wrestling with the emotional strain of the war.

ON THIS DAY

1960. Psycho opens in New York City.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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LAST CHANCE for your Big Break!

Is this your big screenwriting career break?

The Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest closes June 29, 2026.

This is your last chance to share over $80,000 in cash and prizes, and kickstart your screenwriting career with meetings with executives, producers and managers. Enter your Film, TV or Short Film script. DID YOU KNOW? You can get feedback on your Big Break Entry. Select feedback when you check out.

Big Break winners and finalists alike have had their screenplays optioned and produced and have secured high-profile representation as well as lucrative writing deals.

ENTER NOW

The Contest That Means Career Success

The coordinators of the contest proactively reach out to industry professionals and introduce them to the writers and the work of the writers who place and/or win the competition. It exposes a writer’s work to industry professionals, including but not limited to, agents, managers, producers and studio/streamer executives, who vet and judge the scripts throughout the process, and exposure is the name of the game when you are starting out”

Jeff Portnoy
Bellevue Productions, 2026 Big Break Contest judge

Benefits & Prizes

2 Grand Prize Award Winners: One Feature Grand Prize and one TV Grand Prize winner will be selected from the 11 Feature Genre and TV Format award winners.

Each Grand Prize Award Winner:

Winners receive the prizes below plus the prizes listed under the Category Winners section.

• $10,000 Cash

• Apple iPad

• Dell XPS Laptop

• Roundtrip airfare to Los Angeles plus 3 night hotel accommodation

• Admission to one Robert McKee Virtual Story Seminar

• 1-year subscription to ScriptHop

• A one on one 60 minute meeting prep and career strategy session with screenwriting career coach Lee Jessup

• Copy of Save the Cat! Story Structure Software and book

• Signed copy of The Screenwriter’s Bible by Dave Trottier

Additional prizes for TV Grand Prize winner:

• Script Consultation from Jen Grisanti Inc.

• One-hour career coaching session with Carole Kirschner to create a personalized game plan for leveraging the contest win.

Each Feature and TV Category Winners Receives:

• $1,000 Cash

• Final Draft 13

• The New York Film Academy - Attend multi-week online immersive program in both film & television writing

• 5 Career coaching sessions with screenwriting coach Lee Jessup

• 60-minute webinar with screenwriting career coach Lee Jessup on how to capitalize on your Big Break win

• Participation in a 6-Week Teleseminar from Jen Grisanti Inc.

• One-year subscription to MasterWriter software

• Free Big Break Contest entry for 2027

• Script coverage from Big Break readers

• A Copy of ‘Save The Cat! Strikes Back’ by screenwriter Blake Snyder

• 6-month subscription to ScriptHop

Diversity Feature & TV Category Winners Receive:

• One-on-one consultation with Erika Alexander of Color Farm Media on development and producing

Short Script Winner Receives:

• $5,000 Cash

• $2,000 in casting services on Backstage

• $200 FilmFreeway credit

• Final Draft 13

• Free Big Break Contest entry for 2027

• 6-month subscription to ScriptHop

• One year subscription to MasterWriter software

Short Script Finalists Receive:

• Short Film Deep Dive Mentorship — Exclusive 6-week mentorship experience with John Trefry and Ramfis Myrthil designed to help standout short scripts become production-ready films built for top festivals like Sundance and SXSW. Learn the pathway from short to feature, with guidance on packaging, budgeting, casting, festival strategy, audience building, crowdfunding, and distribution.

• $400 in casting services on Backstage

• $100 FilmFreeway credit

• $100 credit reimbursement towards one rental on ShareGrid

*Please note: prizes are subject to change

ENTER NOW

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HBO’s Half Man, Lionsgate’s Monopoly, and an Open Door.

Let’s go!

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

I sat down to interview Richard Gadd, who won three Emmys for Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, and now returns with HBO’s Half Man, which he created, wrote, and stars in.

It’s a masterwork of a TV series about not being whole, as Gadd explained:

“Half Man is really about two people who lack something in themselves that they think the other person answers for them. Like the validation that they feel in life only really comes from the other one.”

And this struggle to define completeness ensnares these two quasi-half-brothers.

Richard Gadd plays the hyper-macho brute who must control everything around him with his violence or sexuality. There’s an addictive quality to his essence, felt most acutely by his half-brother, Jamie Bell, who, while the same age, is almost half his size. Not so much in height, but in terms of stature and temperament.

Gadd expanded:

“I think [their] shame has quite a toxic ability of feeling before thinking and so they feel shame before they have the ability to rationalize it.”

The beauty of the series is when these two men complete each other by bearing their souls.

Gadd shared:

“They find freedom at the end for a couple of minutes when they’re confessing their truth. And what they’re doing is they’re being who they are. They’re admitting who they are. And within that, there is freedom.”

It’s so acutely felt by both half men as to burst forth from a smoldering fire of wondrous intensity, giving a blissful catharsis, if only for a moment.

For More:

Full interview with Gadd + trailer.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Lionsgate restarts Monopoly movie w/ two writing teams.

• DOJ clears Paramount’s $111bn acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

• Lilo & Stitch co-creator Chris Sanders will direct Disney’s live-action sequel.

• DGA’s tentative four-year deal includes wage, healthcare, and AI protections.

• Kathryn Newton joins Hulu’s Cooper Hoffman-led drama pilot Durango.

• Theo Rossi joins Prime Video’s Creed spinoff series Delphi.

• Asghar Farhadi’s Cannes title Parallel Tales sells to 25 territories.

• YouTube horror short Open Door lands a feature adaptation.

• Jane Campion’s next film will be a musical.

• Matty Matheson launches production company Athletic Film Co.

• Blumhouse will adapt video game Dead by Daylight w/ director Thordur Palsson.

Friday’s correct answer: Yes, Lawrence and De Niro are in Silver Linings Playbook & Joy.
78% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Making Monopoly Money. A monopoly movie is on the way… again.

Lionsgate has scrapped their previous script from last year and hired two pairs of new writers:

• Neil Widener & Gavin James (A Minecraft Movie)

• Rebecca Angelo & Lauren Schuker Blum (Dumb Money, Orange Is the New Black)

Before they pass go and collect much more than $200 for this payday, it’s interesting how divergent these takes could be. The Widener/James incarnation may aim to break $1bn at the box office and become a viral spectacle with its own Jack Black chicken song. Maybe Black could play the Monopoly Man?

The Angelo/Blum take seems to aim for a more resonant anti-capitalist requiem that puts people over blind greed.

Maybe we’ll get something in between. That’s what we got with Barbie. The production company LuckyChap and Hasbro are partners on Monopoly.

DOJ gives the green light for Paramount to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111bn merger (full details here).

In a statement issued by the DOJ (read here), they outline why the merger won’t affect Streaming Video on Demand, Linear TV, and Studio Development, Production, and Distribution of Films for Theatrical Release.

Of course, David and Larry Ellison (the CEO and funder of PSKY, respectively) are close with Trump, which will have helped push this through.

The next battle will be with the UK’s regulatory board. And some of the state attorneys general, such as CA, are gearing up for a fight.

Also, for the second year in a row, the Warner Bros. stockholders have rejected their CEO David Zaslav’s pay package. However, the vote is non-binding and purely symbolic of their discontent.

The voice of Stitch is directing Lilo & Stitch 2. Chris Sanders, the co-creator, co-writer, and co-director of the original animated Lilo & Stitch (2002), will direct the sequel to the live-action hit Lilo & Stitch (2025). Sanders played the voice of the chaotic alien Stitch in both the animation and the live-action version of the film. The first installment of the live-action films earned over $1bn worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2025.

While Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) is the official sequel to the original animated film, the live-action Lilo & Stitch 2 will be a brand-new story written by Sanders. Sanders also directed The Wild Robot (2024), which told a simple story with great sophistication and heart, which is exactly what the live-action Disney films need.

The Directors Guild of America Board has approved a tentative four-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

DGA President Christopher Nolan stated:

“We entered this negotiation with three main priorities: secure our Health Plan, protect jobs, and ensure that our members remain secure as AI continues to impact our industry.”

Key deal changes:

• Wages and Residual Gains

  • Minimum salaries will increase by 3% on Jul. 1 of each year

• Health Care Contributions

  • Contributions will increase by 24.4% over the term

• Commitment for a Federal Tax Incentive

  • For the U.S. and Canada

• Renewed 2023 AI Safeguards

  • Enhanced Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) Protections

The agreement now moves to the full DGA membership for ratification, with a vote being held on June 25.

View the full summary of the agreement here.

Mini Tidbits:

Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast) now has 500M YouTube subscribers. That’s more than any person on planet Earth. So it’s only a matter of time before we get the Beast Games movie.

Roku is in talks to sell. No word on buyers, but the stock was up 20%. Roku had a great Q1 2026, w/ $1.25bn revenue (↑22% YoY) & $565M total gross profit (↑27% YoY).

A month after a settlement was reached on the infamous It Ends with Us battle, Justin Baldoni and his production outfit Wayfarer Studios must pay his former co-star Blake Lively’s attorneys’ fees while her claim for punitive damages was denied.

NBC’s Today, longtime quirky film critic Gene Shalit has died at 100 years young. From his signature handlebar mustache to his colorful bow ties, Shalit became a staple of The Today Show for over 40 years, reviewing thousands of films and books. Shalit has certainly left his mark on the film world and beyond.

No more magic pixie dust. Margaret Kerry, the model for Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell, has died at 97. Here’s a nice side-by-side image.

Greenlit:

AMC’s The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival

Renewals:

Netflix’s House of Guinness (for S2)

BBC’s The Uniform (for S2)

Trailer:

BBC’s Ludwig Season 2

• Trailer

• Cast: David Mitchell, Anna Maxwell Martin, Mark Bonnar

• Release: Aug

Release dates:

Damai Entertainment’s Dear You

• Chinese Box Office: $223M

• Chinese Release: April 30

• U.K. Release: June 26

• U.S. Release: TBD

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein) joins Hulu’s drama pilot Durango, starring Cooper Hoffman (The Long Walk).

The series will follow two Gen Z drifters on the run from the cops after a string of terribly impulsive decisions. Hoffman plays Mikey, a resident of a ski resort and a local snowboarding legend. Newton plays Bunny, a homeschooled runaway working as a diner waitress.

Newton has made her name as Hollywood’s next scream queen with a great sense of comedic timing in horror-comedy films like Lisa Frankenstein (2024), Freaky (2020), and Abigail (2024). She’s able to dial up a character’s intensity to the max, switching between an innocent high school student and a freaky serial killer. In Lisa Frankenstein, she had great romantic chemistry with the creature (Cole Sprouse), so we’re hoping to see that with Hoffman.

Tidbits:

Theo Rossi is stepping into the ring for Prime Video’s Creed spinoff series Delphi from Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society. The show will see a group of gifted young boxers fighting to achieve their dreams at the prestigious Delphi Boxing Academy. While Rossi’s role is unknown, if it’s anything like his fan-favorite character “Juice” from FX’s Sons of Anarchy, then he may be just the wildcard presence every great sports drama needs. Delphi is now in production in LA.

Hulu’s upcoming drama series Conviction casts Jimmi Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) to join Elisabeth Moss. Simpson’s role hasn’t been disclosed, but the series will follow a confident lawyer (Moss) who, in the middle of a case, is blackmailed by a mysterious stranger, forcing her to compromise legally and morally.

From CollegeHumor to comedy horror. Zac Oyama joins the cast of Best Friends Forever, starring Bobby Moynihan (SNL). This indie feature is about a bachelorette party gone supernaturally wrong. Oyama delivered the driest humor across years of sketches on CollegeHumor (clip), and we know he’ll deliver in Best Friends Forever.

Mini Tidbits:

Inanna Sarkis (After) joins Phoebe Dynevor (Fair Play) and Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus) in 20th Century Studios’ rom-com Beach Read.

Luciane Buchanan (The New Legends of Monkey) returns to the final season of Netflix’s The Night Agent as fan-favorite character Rose Larkin.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Official Selection Parallel Tales from director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation) sells to Canada, Australia, Germany, and 22 other territories. The film stars Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel. This got a lot of hate at Cannes, but it’s delightful in its narrative construction, with us seeing how fiction informs reality, which then becomes a distorted mirror. Like the twisted, indie version of Stranger Than Fiction.

Breaking Glass Pictures takes North American distribution to the romance thriller A Brief Affair, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

The age of YouTuber filmmakers has begun. YouTube sci-fi horror short film Open Door (2023) by director Kevin Cate will be adapted into a feature film.

The original film garnered over 15M views across many social media platforms and is said to have earned a six-figure development deal.

The premise of the short is quite simple: two people stuck on an elevator that goes to the -83rd (yes, minus eighty-three) floor to hell. A feature version of this three-minute short could be interesting, given that there isn’t that much context given to the audience regarding what “hell” would look like in this world.

With more than enough room for worldbuilding and exploration, Open Door could mark the feature debut of another soon-to-be film-making star born on YouTube.

Tidbits:

Blumhouse is getting back into the video game adaptation market. Following the two Five Nights at Freddy’s films grossing $530M at the box office, they’re adapting Dead by Daylight with director Thordur Palsson (Netflix’s The Valhalla Murders). More info on the game here.

Jane Campion’s new film will be a musical. She previously directed Netflix’s The Power of the Dog, which won her an Oscar for Best Director. No other details were announced.

More indie filmmaker tidbits:

• Matty Matheson’s prod co

• Watermelon Pictures picks up Who Killed Alex Odah?

• John Zaring’s Thought

Details for those here. Plus, Matheson wrestles a fish.

ON THIS DAY

1960. The Apartment premieres in New York.

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

Writer-producer John Zaring is returning to narrative filmmaking with his newest screenplay, The Very Thought of You, a jazz-infused romance. After spending much of the last two decades producing celebrity-driven events and sports broadcasts with ESPN and FOX Sports, this will mark his first feature since the 2001 romantic comedy Pursuit of Happiness. Set in Los Angeles’ Eagle Rock neighborhood, the new film follows two wounded musicians finding connection through their shared love of music.

Sundance winner Who Killed Alex Odah? is acquired by Watermelon Pictures (Palestine 36, shortlisted for the Academy Awards). The feature doc won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film tells the true story of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian American teacher who was killed by a tripwire bomb explosion in his office.

Synopsis:

Ruben (Gadd) turns up at his estranged brother Niall's (Jamie Bell) wedding, acting as a catalyst for a revival of the last 40 years of their relationship.

In this interview, Gadd details everything from how he created a wild vocal transformation, dropping his voice many octaves, to how he deals with the most emotionally taxing scenes on set.

On the writing side, he breaks down his process for creating stories with a non-linear narrative structure that falls into a rhythm while also upsetting expectations.

It’s a mini master class from one of the youngest and most provocative voices in prestige TV.

Here is the trailer:

The full series is available on HBO Max.

• Universal’s Disclosure Day

• Lionsgate’s The Furious

• Bleecker Street’s Stop! That! Train!

Plus, a full breakdown of the top ten at the box office this weekend, including Focus Features’ and A24’s top-earning film of all time.

If you’ve been forwarded this email, click here to sign up: https://theindustry.co/subscribe

Universal’s Disclosure Day took #1 at the box office with $44M domestic. Internationally, it earned $48.9M. This brings its worldwide total to $92.9M.

Not counting inflation, this is Spielberg’s fifth-highest opening of all time, right behind:

• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

  • $100.1M opening

• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

  • $72.1M opening

• War of the Worlds (2005)

  • $64.9M opening

• Jurassic Park (1997)

  • $47M opening

However, adjusting for inflation, this would be his 13th-highest opening (he has directed 37 films).

The film had a production budget of $115M and a marketing budget of $80M, so we’ll have a better sense next week of whether it will recoup theatrically.

Here’s the breakdown of the rest of the top 10:

$19M - Obsession (Focus Features)

• $188.4M domestic total

• $286.5M worldwide

• $750K budget, picked up by Focus for $15M

• RT: 96%

• Week 5

• Trailer

In its fifth week, Obsession has taken the largest drop of its entire run at 25%. Not too shabby, but the previous weeks’ drops/gains were remarkable:

• +39%: Week 2

• +10%: Week 3

• -7%: Week 4

Obsession is now Focus Features’ highest-earning film of all time (not including inflation), topping:

• Downton Abbey (2019)

  • $96.9M domestic total

  • $194.7M worldwide

• Coraline (2009)

  • $116.9M domestic total

  • $188.1M worldwide

• Nosferatu (2024)

  • $95.6M domestic total

  • $182M worldwide

By next weekend, it should become the highest-earning Focus Features film of all time, including inflation, as Coraline would be $298.1M in today’s dollars.

Curry Barker is in a rare category of horror directors, one that already has him taking on iconic IP like A24’s new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film.

$14.5M - Scary Movie 6 (Paramount)

• $84.6M domestic total

• $169M worldwide

• $30M budget

• RT: 24% (critic), 67% (audience)

• Week 2

• Trailer

Despite having the highest opening of any Scary Movie film in the series, without inflation, it took the largest week 2 drop at 73%:

• Scary Movie 6 (2026)

  • -73% week 2 drop

  • $169M worldwide

• Scary Movie 4 (2006)

  • -58.2% week 2 drop

  • $90.7M domestic total

  • $178.3M worldwide

• Scary Movie 3 (2003)

  • -57.5% week 2 drop

  • $110M domestic total

  • $220.7M worldwide

• Scary Movie 5 (2013)

  • -56.6% week 2 drop

  • $32M domestic total

  • $78.4M worldwide

• Scary Movie 2 (2001)

  • -53.4% week 2 drop

  • $71.3M domestic total

  • $141.2M worldwide

• Scary Movie (2000)

  • -38.1% week 2 drop

  • $157M domestic total

  • $278M worldwide

However, this is a massive win for Scary Movie for two reasons. First, its budget is $30M, and it has already recouped. Second, it’s a massive jump from 13 years ago when Scary Movie 5 ended its theatrical run with $78M worldwide ($112M w/ inflation).

$11.3M - Backrooms (A24)

• $160M domestic total

• $262.3M worldwide

• $10M budget

• RT: 89%

• Week 3

• Trailer

This is A24’s top-earning film of all time by a mile:

• Marty Supreme (2025)

  • $96M domestic total

  • $191.3M worldwide

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

  • $77.2M domestic total

  • $147.9M worldwide

• The Drama (2026)

  • $48.1M domestic total

  • $130.8M worldwide

Coming off the 4th-highest opening of a horror film of all time, Backrooms has cooled down a little, with a week 3 drop of 57%. Compare that to the three other highest-opening horror films of all time:

• It (2017)

  • $123.4M opening ($167.8M w/ inflation)

  • -50.5% week 3

• Hannibal (2001)

  • $58M opening ($108.5M w/ inflation)

  • -46.9% week 3

• Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023)

  • $80M opening ($86.8M w/ inflation)

  • -52.6% week 3

• Backrooms (2026)

  • $81.4M opening

  • -57% week 3

Of course, this is a remarkable result. The director Kane Parsons is 20 years old. And this film is based on his YouTube series, which has racked up over 220M views on YouTube, with the top video garnering 80M views.

$8.7M - Masters of the Universe (Amazon MGM Studios)

• $46.7M domestic total

• $71.4M worldwide

• $170M production budget

• RT: 66%

• Week 2

• Trailer

This took a massive week 2 drop of 71%.

Mattel was hoping for a smashing success like their previous film based on a toy:

• Barbie (2023)

  • $162M opening

  • -42.6% week 2 drop

  • $636.2M domestic total

  • $1.4bn worldwide

Masters of the Universe won’t come close to recouping theatrically, let alone break even.

$4.7M - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (Disney)

• $165.1M domestic total

• $315.1M worldwide

• $114M budget

• RT: 62%

• Week 4

• Trailer

Now in its 4th weekend, it’s underperforming the previous Star Wars spinoff by 15%:

• Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

  • $193.7M week 4 domestic total (vs. Grogu’s $165M)

  • $213M domestic total

  • $392.9M worldwide

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu has already recouped theatrically.

$4.1M - Michael (Lionsgate)

• $362.8M domestic total

• $932.2M worldwide

• $200M budget

• RT: 38% (critics), 97% (audience)

• Week 8

• Trailer

In its eighth week, Michael is now the highest-earning music film of all time, besting:

• Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

  • $51.1M opening

  • $216.7M domestic total

  • $910.8M worldwide

Although with inflation, Bohemian Rhapsody would be at $1.2bn.

This is now Lionsgate’s highest-grossing film of all time, not counting inflation, surpassing the top Hunger Games and Twilight films:

• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

  • $424.7M domestic total

  • $865M worldwide

• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)

  • $292.3M domestic total

  • $848.6M worldwide

Lionsgate has made massive profits on Michael.

$3.8M - BTS World Tour Arirang: Live Viewing (Trafalgar Releasing)

• $6.2M domestic total

• $9.4M worldwide

• RT: 97%

• Week 10

• Trailer

Synopsis:

Pop royalty BTS returns to the iconic Busan Asiad Main Stadium for a monumental homecoming, broadcast live to cinemas around the world. This marks their poignant return to the very venue where they shared their final full-group performance before enlistment in 3 years and 8 months. Spanning 34 cities with 85 shows, this tour sets a new pinnacle as the most extensive tour ever by a Korean artist.

This is doing remarkable business for a live concert film. Although not quite as strong as the previous incarnation:

• BTS Permission to Dance on Stage - Seoul: Live Viewing (2022)

  • $6.8M domestic total

  • $32.6M worldwide

BTS is massively popular, and these types of live concert films will continue to generate strong box office numbers.

$2.75M - The Furious (Lionsgate)

• $20M production budget

• RT: 97%

• Week 1

• Trailer

This is a slightly lower opening than Lionsgate’s previous highly rated hard-action film:

• Sisu (2022)

  • $3.3M opening

  • $7.3M domestic total

  • $14.2M worldwide

The Furious earned $13.5M in China in its opening weekend (#1 at the box office), although Lionsgate is not distributing in this territory.

$2M - Stop! That! Train! (Bleecker Street)

• $5M production budget

• RT: 83%

• Week 1

• Trailer

This is slightly down from the average indie action comedy by 30%.

Here are the lowest-grossing films of the week:

$6.6K - The Python Hunter (Oscilloscope)

• $63.6K domestic total

• Premiere: SXSW

• $1.1K /screen average

• Week 6

• Trailer

$2.1K - Ask E. Jean (Abramorama)

• Official Selection: Telluride

• $41.1K domestic total

• $297 /screen average

• Week 4

• Trailer

$1.4K - Underland (Oscilloscope)

• $9.1K domestic total

• $146.6K worldwide

• Narrator: Sandra Hüller

• Producer: Darren Aronofsky

• Premiere: Tribeca 2025

• $686 /screen average

• Week 2

• Trailer

Lionsgate’s Power Ballad fell 80% at the box office in its second weekend of wide release. It has earned $2.4M total domestically. The film stars Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas and premiered at SXSW.

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

Jennifer Lawrence’s Month, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s morals, and a Hit Man.

Let’s go!

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

Set in the world of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone, Paramount’s Marshals is a Montana-set procedural that is a minefield of gangs, drugs, and a million ways to die in the west.

Click here for more info.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Apple lands Jennifer Lawrence-starring romcom One Month Mark.

• Maggie Gyllenhaal will write and direct Warner Bros.’ Creation Lake.

• Netflix develops a Hit Man series with Glen Powell + Richard Linklater as EPs.

• Lionsgate buys equity in Runway AI to develop a short-form series.

• AMC raises $150M in cash.

• Jason Fuchs will write Paramount’s next Transformers film.

• HBO Max develops family drama Six Days to Sunday.

• Amazon MGM develops The Boyfriend, a standalone follow-up to The Girlfriend.

• Prime Video moves forward with romance adaptation Things We Never Got Over.

• Hulu develops Music Theories, an American Vandal-style comedy.

• Jeff Shell settles his $150M lawsuit with gambler R.J. Cipriani.

• Sean Astin joins high school sports drama Will to Win.

• Peter Sarsgaard joins season 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us.

• Clive Owen teams with The Tribe filmmaker Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Donnie Darko, Noah Wyle plays a professor.
45% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Apple has found its lead in Jennifer Lawrence for their hot romcom package, One Month Mark, from first-time screenwriter Sophie Fleur de Bruijn and The North Road Company’s Chernin Entertainment (Ford v. Ferrari).

The film follows two individuals: she has never made it past a month in a relationship, and he has never gone longer than a month without one.

This isn’t Lawrence’s first rodeo with Apple; she starred in the beautifully underrated PTSD drama Causeway (2022) and just wrapped the highly anticipated Scorsese-directed thriller What Happens at Night, also with the studio.

The Die My Love actress has an obvious natural knack for comedy, seen not just through her countless viral press moments, but finally on screen in the Netflix relationship comedy No Hard Feelings (2023, trailer).

Warner Bros. believes in Maggie Gyllenhaal. Shortly after the premiere of her divisive The Bride!, Gyllenhaal is already attached to write and direct an adaptation of Rachel Kushner’s novel Creation Lake.

The story follows Sadie Smith, a spy-for-hire who infiltrates an environmental collective in rural France, only to begin questioning her own morals and whether she can finish her mission.

While The Bride! was a bold, maximalist swing, both that film and Gyllenhaal’s acclaimed directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, were deeply interested in women wrestling with the uncomfortable truths they uncover about themselves. Gyllenhaal is drawn to intelligent but deeply complex and self-destructive women, difficult to categorize, and constantly at war with their own minds.

Tidbits:

Amazon MGM is developing The Boyfriend, a follow-up series to the Olivia Cooke-led (House of the Dragon) The Girlfriend. Adapted from the novel by Michelle Frances, the original psychological thriller followed a twisted clash between a man’s seemingly two-faced girlfriend (played by Cooke) and his dangerously possessive mother (played by Robin Wright). While little is known of the plot, The Boyfriend will be an entirely standalone story with new characters.

Netflix is expanding the world of Hit Man into a series. Glen Powell and Richard Linklater are EPs, while Stephen Falk (creator of Hulu’s You’re the Worst) writes the script from Prod Co AGC Television (Hit Man). No word on whether Powell will reclaim his role, but the film was bolstered by the multiple dimensions of chemistry that Powell had with Adria Arjona.

Jason Fuchs (Wri: HBO Max’s It: Welcome to Derry) has been tapped to write the new Transformers film by Paramount. The new film will be a continuation of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023), in which Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) was offered a job at G.I. Joe in the post-credits scene.

More projects in dev:

• Universal International’s Such a Nice Girl

• HBO Max’s Six Days to Sunday

• Hulu’s Music Theories

For all those and more, click here.

Mini Tidbits:

Former Paramount Skydance president Jeff Shell has finally settled his $150M lawsuit with Las Vegas gambler R.J. Cipriani. The multiple lawsuits stemmed from allegations that Shell shared confidential corporate information. The ordeal contributed to Shell’s exit from Paramount earlier this year.

Harbor Lights Entertainment, formerly a Redstone property and now owned by the Ellison family, which consists of 13 movie theaters located throughout the Northeast and Midwest, has been sold to the multinational exhibitor Kinepolis for $30M.

Stanley Tucci is traveling again! National Geographic is officially moving forward with Tucci in Great Britain, a spinoff series of the Emmy-nominated Tucci in Italy.

George Miller (no relation) is pitching a new Mad Max movie. Apparently, Warner Bros., which released the previous Mad Max films, has passed.

AMC raises $150M in capital. AMC had a decent Q1, up 19% in revenue with a $6M net loss.

Lionsgate has acquired equity in Runway AI with plans to produce a short-form series. To read my short AI rant, click here. If not, carry on.

Renewal:

Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay (renewed for season 2)

Trailers:

Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast

• Dir: David Ayer (Fury)

• Trailer

• Cast: Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons, Anna Lambe

• Release: September 25

Pixar’s Gatto

• Trailer

• Cast: Ismail Elsene, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Ruffalo

• Release: March 5, 2027

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

• EP: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama

• Trailer

• Cast: Larry David, Jon Hamm

• Release: June 26

IFC’s Night Nurse

• Trailer

• Release: July 10

Dogwoof’s Sundance-winning documentary Birds of War

• Trailer

Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie

• Trailer

• Release: July 9

AMC’s The Walking Dead: Dead City S3

• Trailer

• Cast: Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

• Release: July 26

Gebeka Films’ Animation Julián

• Clip

• Premiere: June 23

First Look:

Apple TV’s Slow Horses S6

• First Look

• Cast: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas

• Release: Sept 16

Paramount+’s Lioness S3

• First Look

• Cast: Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman

• Release: Aug 2

Release dates:

Lionsgate’s Karoshi

• Cast: Teo Yoo, Isabel May, Bill Camp

• Release: January 29, 2027

Gangs, drugs, & a million ways to die in the west. Click here for more info.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

In his first film role since becoming SAG-AFTRA’s president, Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) has joined Will to Win, a high school sports drama feature. The film will follow a young softball player (played by newcomer Isabel DeRoy-Olson) who, after losing her parents, finds herself joining her new school’s boys’ baseball team under the protection and guidance of her coach (Astin).

From The Goonies to the unbelievably earnest Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings, and even his short-lived Stranger Things character Bob, who was likable to a fault, this new role feels perfectly in line with the wholesome screen persona audiences have come to expect from Astin.

Filming on Will to Win is ongoing in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Mini Tidbits:

Paul Anthony Kelly (FX’s Love Story) joins the cast of The Housemaid (2025) sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret. Based on the novel of the same name, the film will pick up as Millie (Sydney Sweeney) takes a job for a woman she’s never met. Kelly will play Douglas Garrick, a controlling billionaire CEO.

Winter is no longer coming; we are in the bleak midwinter. The Peaky Blinders sequel series begins its casting announcements with a strong start, adding Conleth Hill, the Game of Thrones actor behind Westeros’ resident master manipulator and fan-favorite character Lord Varys. The BBC and Netflix spinoff will take place a decade after WWII, where the race to rebuild Birmingham inevitably turns bloody.

Isla Fisher (Now You See Me) and Jane Krakowski (30 Rock) join Larry David’s HBO sketch show Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness (trailer). The show was made in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. and will be a satire of the major events in American history.

Megan Lawless (Obsession) stars in indie psychological drama Ping. The film follows Annie (Lawless), who joins a wellness startup that suddenly spirals into obsession, isolation, and collapse. This will be the feature debut of writer-director Richie Gordon.

Peter Sarsgaard (The Bride!) joins season 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us. He is playing Amon, one of the leaders of The Seraphites – a fanatical cult that will play a major role in Abby Anderson’s (Kaitlyn Dever) story, which will be the primary focus of the final season of The Last of Us.

Gangs, drugs, & a million ways to die in the west. Click here for more info.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

The 2026 Tribeca Festival is shortly coming to a close, revealing the few titles that make up this year’s competition award winners.

Daniel Blake Schwartz’s Cotton Fever won Best Feature and Best Cinematography in the U.S. Narrative section.

Rodrigue Jean’s Labrador - Autopsy of Silence won Best International Narrative Feature and Best Cinematography for the international section.

Steve Happi’s Jail Time Record won Best Documentary as well as Best New Documentary Director.

Carlitos Ruíz-Ruíz’s Summer of Three won Best Screenplay and Best Performance (Marcel Ruiz) for a U.S. Narrative Feature.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Clive Owen’s newest film is with Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi. OK, if you just went, who?! Run, do not walk, to see his 2014 Cannes film called The Tribe. It’s in Ukrainian Sign Language with no subtitles and follows a school of deaf teens. Each scene is a long take, and it’s hyper-violent, gritty, and sexual in a way that’s shocking and poetic. We don’t know what they’re cooking up, but we can’t wait.

James Gray (Ad Astra) had one of the best films at Cannes this year with Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson. Now he’s back with a new film from producer Rodrigo Teixeira (Call Me by Your Name, The Witch). It’s about the US and the current political situation. Not too much to go on, but Gray is a chameleon of many genres, and his filmmaking has a classical Hollywood style that burrows into intimate stories. Shooting in 2027.

Disney+ is making Canadian originals with comedy Knighted and true crime series I’m Not Coming Back. Disney+ launched in Canada in 2019, but it never had a local production until now. Knighted follows a missing person’s case that spirals into a documentary-style investigation of the dark secrets of a local medieval dinner theatre. I’m Not Coming Back will follow the story of two armed criminals who went on a killing spree in 2019 that turned into one of the largest-scale manhunts in Canada.

LA and Toronto-based Quiver Distribution (Crisis) picks up domestic rights to cyberpunk action thriller Kill Code. A crazy concept, the film takes place in a crime-ravaged future where a power-hungry major corporation infiltrates the prison system, making criminals the new law enforcers. I’m not sure how that could end well. Kill Code will hit theaters on July 24.

Mini Tidbits:

Michael Giacchino (Composer: Ratatouille) boards Brad Bird’s (Dir: The Incredibles) upcoming Netflix animation, Ray Gunn.

Ben Young (Dir: Hounds of Love) is directing a film adaptation of Stephen King’s short story Mister Yummy.

ON THIS DAY

1968. US premiere of Rosemary’s Baby.

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

It’s a monumental public-facing move in a battle to pump out content as quickly as the human race can consume it to compete against the next failing studio.

Lionsgate Vice Chair Michael Burns stated:

“This is an iterative process. As we continue to expand the use cases of Runway technology across our production operations and introduce its tools to more of our filmmakers, we believe it will help our talent redefine and reshape the art of the possible in their creative endeavors.”

There’s a massive vagueness in this statement, but let’s assume that “reshape” means supplementing human creativity. Will that make Lionsgate’s films better? It will certainly cut down on whatever development dollars exist, but at what cost? If Lionsgate decides to help Runway AI train its models off its tremendous library of content, we enter into the dangerous territory of a feedback loop that can only create weak simulacras on what it is fed.

HBO Max is developing an hour-long family drama, Six Days to Sunday. Written by Brendan McCarthy and Alex Kavallierou (Wris: Netflix’s Grace & Frankie starring Jane Fonda), the show will follow middle-aged siblings with broken lives who must navigate the messy reality of a modern American family. Marta Kauffman (EP: NBC’s Friends) and her production company, Okay Goodnight, will produce the series.

Amazon Prime Video is officially moving forward with Things We Never Got Over, the first novel in author Lucy Score’s Knockemout trilogy. The story follows Naomi, a woman who just can’t catch a break, a runaway bride who immediately must deal with her estranged sister and her teenage niece while her own love life falls to pieces. From Reacher to YA hit The Summer I Turned Pretty, Amazon has had lots of success with TV adaptations, with Score’s book already having a vast, passionate fanbase anticipating the adaptation that has been in the works with Amazon since the fall of last year.

Hulu is developing Music Theories, a new comedy with Dan Lagana (Showrunner: Netflix’s American Vandal) as EP and showrunner. The show is being described as VH1’s Behind the Music (1997) documentaries in the style of American Vandal, about the shocking true story behind Fountains of Wayne’s hit song “Stacy’s Mom”. The song tells the story of a young boy who tries to tell his friend Stacy that he is actually in love with her mother.

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

Sony’s Jump, Close’s Oscar, and a white lie.

Let’s go!

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

Our Tribeca Film Festival panel was a huge success.

I would like to thank Shannon Treusch from Falco Ink, Shayna Weingast, Kaitlyn Hughes, and Anwulika Oputa from Tribeca, and our panelists, Lilly Riber from Mubi and Tyler DiNapoli from Bleecker Street. The room was at capacity, and we had some great questions from the audience.

HBO Max’s The Pitt season 2 once again taps into the chaos of overworked healthcare professionals at a Pittsburgh hospital.

This season navigates through their personal crises, workplace politics, and the emotional toll of treating critically ill patients. All the while escalating the uncertainty principle by asking a sinister question: what happens when the leaders in charge of the people who save lives become untrustworthy?

The cast is led by a great performance by the righteous but tormented Noah Wyle, who presses through this “deli of death.”

Click here for more info.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Fubo and NBCUniversal strike a new carriage deal, restoring NBC.

• Sony develops 24 Jump Street with Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, & Ice Cube.

• Glenn Close, Ridley Scott, and Christine Vachon set for honorary Oscars.

• Netflix unscripted VP Jeff Gaspin exits.

• Former Paramount exec Brendon Thomas joins Radial Entertainment as CRO.

• Scott Nemes exits AGBO to launch his own production company.

• Miles Teller joins John Swab’s West Texas thriller Copperhead.

• Phil Dunster cast in Amazon MGM’s romantic comedy Hello & Paris.

• Hugh Laurie and Joe Alwyn join MGM+’s John le Carré adaptation Legacy of Spies.

• Edgar Ramírez cast in S2 of HBO’s Mark Ruffalo-led crime drama Task.

• Geena Davis joins Arnold Schwarzenegger in Amazon MGM’s The Kellys.

• Oliver Stone wraps his Josh Hartnett-led drama White Lies.

• Matt Shakman will direct A24 & Paramount+’s Nicole Kidman legal thriller.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Spike Lee’s production company is 40 Acres and a Mule.
82% got it correct.

Noah Wyle (Dr. Robby) is the most problematic of all - click here for more info.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Welcome back to Jump Street. Sony Pictures and the original cast, Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube, are in talks to return to that universe with 24 Jump Street.

Oscar-winner Rodney Rothman (Dir: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) will direct, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Dirs: Project Hail Mary, 21 Jump Street) returning to produce the third installment of the comedy franchise.

Now that Lord and Miller have created a visually stunning blockbuster in Project Hail Mary, we can see why they would be attracted to Rothman’s dazzling visual sensibilities. Doesn’t hurt that Rothman also scripted 22 Jump Street.

We may be in for a wildly divergent visual language for this third film. The two previous installments made over $500M worldwide.

After six months of nonstop negotiations, Fubo and NBCUniversal have reached a new distribution agreement that restores the latter’s networks to the streaming platform.

The deal brings back channels including NBC, Bravo, Telemundo, and regional sports networks, ending a programming blackout that began late 2025.

The disputes revolved not only around the integration of Peacock but also around NBCU’s package pricing, which Fubo said would increase subscriber costs. The timing of the resolution could not have worked out more perfectly for the heavily sports-focused Fubo, with the 2026 FIFA World Cup about to begin.

Mini Tidbits:

It’s about time! The eight-time nominated Glenn Close will finally be getting her Oscar. This coming November’s Governors Awards will bestow honorary Oscars to Close, Ridley Scott, animator Floyd Norman (Monsters, Inc.), and Killer Films producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler (Past Lives).

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s flagship San Francisco theater is officially being renamed the Christopher Nolan Cinema. We’re jealous of any filmgoers who will see Nolan’s The Odyssey on 70mm this July at his new namesake theater.

Executive Changes:

Netflix’s VP of Unscripted Series, Jeff Gaspin, is exiting the company. He was Chairman of NBCUniversal Television Entertainment before joining the streamer two years ago.

Former Paramount Global executive Brendon Thomas joins Radial Entertainment (Content distributor of over 70,000 films and television episodes) as Chief Revenue Officer. Previously, he was SVP, Global Distribution and Business Development at Paramount.

Scott Nemes is leaving AGBO (Prod Co: Everything Everywhere All at Once) to launch his own production company. He joined AGBO as President of Television in 2022.

Trailers:

Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning

• Trailer

• Cast: Mikey Madison, Jeremy Strong, Jeremy Allen White

• Release: Oct 9

Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex

• Trailer

• Cast: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Charli XCX

• Premiered: Sundance

• Release: Jul 31

Green Day’s Nimrods

• Trailer

• Dir/Wri: Lee Kirk (dir. The Office)

• Release: Aug 14

CNN’s The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door

• Trailer

• Release: Jul 12

Re-Releases:

Reagan (2024)

• Cast: Dennis Quaid

• Trailer

• Re-Release: Jul 4 (For America’s 250th Anniversary)

Michael Mann’s Manhunter (1986)

• 4K Final Cut (original trailer)

• Re-Release: Jul 24

Release dates:

Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary

• Streaming Release: Jun 18 on MGM+

FX and Hulu’s The Shards

• E.P: Ryan Murphy

• Release: Aug 5

Crunchyroll’s Solo Leveling S3

• Release: Sometime 2027

Noah Wyle (Dr. Robby) is the most problematic of all - click here for more info.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Miles Teller (Whiplash) is back to being an apprentice. Teller joins the new thriller Copperhead, directed by John Swab (Dir: King Ivory starring Ben Foster). The film follows a veteran detective who is forced to team up with a young federal agent to unravel the hidden foes in their elite task force in West Texas. Black Label Media (Prod Co: Die My Love) is producing the film alongside Teller’s Lime Tree Productions and Swab’s Milk Boy.

Teller thrives as a mentee who gets brutalized, from the bloody knuckles in Whiplash (2014) to the rocket fuel in his blood for Top Gun: Maverick (2022). And Swab’s cinema is brutal (here’s our interview w/ him and Melissa Leo for King Ivory).

Teller's youthful charm should help balance the miasma of darkness that is pervasive in Swab’s work.

Tidbits:

Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso) joins Amazon MGM Studios’ romantic comedy feature Hello & Paris. Already cast are Javier Bardem, Kate Hudson, and Steve Zahn. The film is said to follow an enemies-to-lovers story. After breaking out as the cocky soccer star on Apple’s Ted Lasso, Dunster is now just coming off the delightful first season of another Bill Lawrence comedy, HBO’s Rooster, where he played an equally rough-around-the-edges character. Maybe he’ll finally play someone likable in Hello & Paris, which is currently in production.

The Mark Ruffalo-led HBO series Task is bringing on Edgar Ramírez for its upcoming second season. The Emilia Pérez actor will play a devoted family man and loyal DEA second in command to Ruffalo’s priest turned FBI agent Tom Brandis. Coming off his Tribeca premiering romance film Next Life, this will be his first recurring TV role since his guest appearance in 2023 on Peacock’s Dr. Death. Production is expected to begin soon on Task.

Hugh Laurie and Joe Alwyn (Hamnet) join MGM+’s John le Carré adaptation 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. Laurie plays Control, the commander of British secret intelligence, The Circus. Alwyn plays Jim Prideaux, a Circus veteran.

Mini Tidbits:

Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise) joins Amazon MGM’s action film The Kellys. The film follows a disgraced NYC cop who teams up with his family to save his wife, who is taken hostage by terrorists. Davis joins an ensemble cast that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Liam Hemsworth.

Titus Welliver (Bosch series) joins the animation adaptation of Get Jiro!, a graphic novel written by star chef Anthony Bourdain. The film is set in a dystopian near-future where master chefs rule like the mafia and follows an ex-Yakuza who kills anyone who disrespects his sushi.

Fox’s Baywatch has added John Beckwith to its cast shortly after his Song Sung Blue role as Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. He’ll take on Julian, a sophisticated Ph.D. student who’s part of an ocean research team brought in to help Baywatch.

Noah Wyle (Dr. Robby) is the most problematic of all - click here for more info.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Veteran German producer and the former Constantin Film chief Martin Moszkowicz has been named the new president of the Zurich Film Festival. From the Oscar-nominated September 5 to the Resident Evil franchise, Moszkowicz has worked on more than 300 global film and television projects. The Zurich Film Festival will run for 10 days beginning Sept 24.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Three-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter Oliver Stone is back with a new film titled White Lies.

His first narrative feature since 2016’s Snowden follows a man repeating the same mistakes he saw in his own parents’ failed marriage. On a quest for freedom, he meets a woman when he least expects it, who changes the course of his life.

The project reunites Stone with both Willem Dafoe, who unforgettably starred in his Vietnam War masterpiece Platoon (1986), and Michael Douglas, who won his Oscar as the ruthless Gordon Gekko in his crime thriller Wall Street (1987).

Rather than taking on another sprawling political scandal or brutal war epic, White Lies is a meditative drama on family dynamics and rediscovering your purpose.

Filming on White Lies took place all over Thailand and Rome, with production officially wrapping this week.

Not long after helming last summer’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, filmmaker Matt Shakman is set to direct A24 and Paramount+’s legal thriller series Discretion.

Starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning, the series follows a young associate who uncovers dangerous secrets hidden behind a wall of NDAs at her powerful law firm.

Long before entering the Marvel universe with the Emmy-nominated WandaVision, Shakman was a veteran TV director behind episodes of heavy hitters like Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and Succession, making Discretion a welcome return to the prestige drama short format that built his career.

Production will begin later this year.

Mini Tidbits:

Santa Monica-based SK Global (Crazy Rich Asians) is giving one of its executives a major promotion. Less than two years after joining the studio, former SVP Elizabeth Haggard is the new Executive Vice President and Head of Film, set to lead oversight on SK’s entire narrative slate.

Rodrigo Teixeira (Prod: 2025 Oscar winner I’m Still Here) joins the team of sci-fi drama Bodies of Summer. Based on a novel of the same name, the film follows a man resurrected after 100 years as he seeks out his aging son, who rejects eternal life.

Rupert Everett (Shrek 2) joins ABC’s Australian crime drama Fortitude Valley. The plot is under wraps, but the show will be a six-part crime thriller set in Brisbane that explores the themes of family and corruption. Everett stars alongside Hunter Page-Lochard (Reckless) and Kat Stewart (Offspring).

Doctor Who will break its annual tradition with no Christmas Special this year.

ON THIS DAY

1982. E.T. 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

Paramount’s Shows, Maika Monroe’s It Follows and A Talent.

Let’s go!

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

The Industry is hosting a panel at Tribeca today at 1 pm: Taste Is the Strategy: How Bold Films Get Chosen, Shaped, and Made.

Full details here: https://theindustry.co/p/tribeca-and-the-industry-how-bold

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Paramount–Warner Bros. faces UK regulatory review, projects 40 shows by 2030.

• Blue Marble Pictures (Pachinko) signs first-look TV deal w/ Fifth Season.

• Disney+ launches spooky teen series The Doomies.

• The DGA reaches a tentative four-year deal with the AMPTP.

• Devon Hammonds is named Head of Nonfiction at Sony Pictures TV.

• Oscar-winning costume designer Albert Wolsky dies at 95.

• Lesley Manville joins Brett Goldstein’s Prime Video romance dramedy Escorted.

• Toni Collette joins Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Netflix AI thriller.

• Naomi Ackie nears a role opposite Maika Monroe in the It Follows sequel.

• Gus Van Sant circles a Hoyt Richards cult drama starring Nicholas Galitzine.

• Bleecker Street picks up Anton Corbijn’s drama A Talent for Murder.

• Vertical acquires Zach Braff’s Tribeca opioid drama Clean Hands.

• GKIDS lands U.S. rights to prison-set animation The Last Blossom.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Robert Downey Jr. was not in Hook.
63% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

A few updates in the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery saga. First, Paramount is now under investigation by the UK’s regulatory board. A ruling is expected by August 7th, either approving the merger or continuing the investigation. Warner Bros. shareholders will get 25 cents/share/quarter if the transaction doesn’t close after Sept. 30th.

Meanwhile, Paramount is maintaining that the $6bn in efficiencies it expects to achieve through the merger will be reinvested in content, stating:

“Paramount TV has about 30 shows in different levels of production right now, with the goal of producing 40 by 2030. When combined with Warner Bros.’ television studios, that output will increase to around 170 shows.”

Either way, they’re gearing up for one massive legal battle, not just with the UK but also California. So Paramount has brought in Shuwanza Goff (former: Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs) as its VP of US Gov Affairs.

Tidbits:

Pachinko producer Theresa Kang’s Blue Marble Pictures has struck a multi-year first-look television deal with Fifth Season (The Night Manager). After launching in 2020, Blue Marble is coming off a five-year overall deal with Apple that helped the studio make a name for itself in the television space. Alongside Fifth Season, their next project is the upcoming James Marsden-led Apple crime drama Disavowed.

Disney+ is all in on a scary summer. The Doomies is a new animated series following two ordinary teenagers who accidentally open a portal to evil, sending terrifying creatures into their quiet coastal town. From the Oscar-nominated Xilam Animation (I Lost My Body), the 22-episode season premiere date is June 26.

Mini Tidbits:

DGA strikes a tentative 4-year deal with the AMPTP. It is now being sent to the 19,500 members for approval.

Devon Hammonds steps up as the head of nonfiction at Sony Pictures Television. Hammonds joined the company when Industrial Media was acquired by Sony in 2022, and was previously the EVP of Business Development & Strategy.

Iconic costume designer and Academy Award winner Albert Wolsky dies at 95. His work in films like All That Jazz (1979), Bugsy (1991), and the musical film Grease (1978) earned him two Oscar wins and five nominations.

Renewals:

Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants (for S18, S19)
Nickelodeon’s The Patrick Star Show (for S6, S7)

Cancellations:

Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (canceled after Season 3)

Trailers:

20th Century’s Whalefall

• Cast: Josh Brolin, Austin Abrams

• Trailer

• Release: Oct 16

Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel series Elle

• Cast: Lexi Minetree

• Trailer

• Release: July 1

Warner Bros,’ The Cat in the Hat

• Cast: Bill Hader, Giancarlo Esposito

• Trailer

• Release: Nov 6

Neon’s Once Upon a Time in Harlem

• Trailer

• Release: Oct 16

Biographical drama Killing Castro

• Cast: Al Pacino, Diego Boneta

• Clips

• Tribeca Premiere: June 9

HBO’s documentary Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story

• Trailer

• Release: June 30

First Look:

Netflix’s Lupin Part 4

• First Look

Release Date:

FX’s Adults S2

• Release: Aug 27

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Shortly after landing her first Tony Award win, Lesley Manville is trading the stage for the small screen for Prime Video’s Escorted. The romance dramedy series follows Denny, a divorced dad who accidentally becomes a male escort played by Brett Goldstein.

Manville will play the mother of Denny, while described as “a force of nature”, that could mean anything from the sweet and selfless woman she played in her BritBox sitcom Mum (2016-19) to the rough, intimidating matriarch she portrayed in the western Let Him Go (2020). Escorted is slated for a 2027 premiere on Prime.

Toni Collette joins director Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Netflix AI thriller from T-Street Productions. No word on plot but Collette joins Rachel McAdams, Joel Edgerton, and Jeff Daniels.

Collette’s previous T-Street Production was Knives Out (2019) where she played a lifestyle guru with a boho-California accent – perfectly blending her intense persona with satirical comedy. Her total screentime for that film was only 10 minutes and 15 seconds, yet her character was one of the most memorable roles in a film that has Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ana de Armas.

Naomi Ackie (Mickey 17) in final talks to join Maika Monroe (Longlegs) in the It Follows (2015, trailer) sequel. The original film follows Jay (Monroe), who gets haunted by an unstoppable supernatural entity after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter.

No info on Ackie’s role, but her performance in Netflix’s The End of the F*ing World season 2 as a vengeful outsider who seeks revenge for the death of her lover was chilling. We think she’d be perfect in a psychological horror film.

Actor updates:

• Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt

• Actors reunite from The Sandlot

• Anthony Guidera obit

Full details here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Sundance Labs announces ten new projects. Here are a few that stood out for us:

• Electric Homies

  • Wri/Dir: Roberto Fatal

Synopsis:

Ria, a Two-Spirit social worker, rejoices when they get the opportunity to upload their dying sister’s consciousness into a new digital utopia. But as thousands more upload and their barrio begins to disappear, Ria and the community must confront the true cost of this technological miracle.

• Brown Baby

  • Co-Writer: Himesh Patel (Yesterday)

Synopsis:

A mixed-race couple’s marriage begins to crack when their young daughter’s reaction to a doll exposes the truths they’ve spent years avoiding.

• Attachment (a.k.a. Bluey Is the Warmest Color)

  • Dir/Wri: Joanna Rothkopf (Senior Wri: Last Week Tonight)

Synopsis:

A mother becomes dangerously obsessed with a wildly popular children’s entertainer in this arch erotic thriller. It’s Fatal Attraction meets All Fours meets Ms. Rachel. Somehow.

Full slate here.

Charades has secured a number of international distributors for the Cannes Best Screenplay winner, A Man of His Time, from French filmmaker Emmanuel Marre. The true story follows his great-grandmother, who worked for the Vichy regime during WWII, a troubling chapter in Marre’s own family history. The drama was sold to Switzerland, Spain, and 9 other territories.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Gus Van Sant is in talks to direct a new feature, and it’s right up his alley. Starring Nicholas Galitzine (Masters of the Universe) as the successful male supermodel Hoyt Richards, who, while balancing global fashion fame, was involved in a cult that took millions of dollars from him.

Coming off his Venice-premiering crime thriller Dead Man’s Wire, based on a real 1977 hostage crisis, Van Sant is drawn to not just outsiders but conflicted figures living double lives. From the hustling Mike Waters desperately searching for connection in My Own Private Idaho (1991) to the real struggles of openly gay politician Harvey Milk in Milk (2008), some of Van Sant’s most acclaimed works have looked at people caught between their public identities and their own private demons.

Richards’ story, a man living as one of the world’s most recognizable faces while secretly entangled in an abusive cult, feels like the type of character-driven drama Van Sant could really sink his teeth into.

Bleecker Street has picked up Anton Corbijn’s (Dir: A Most Wanted Man) first narrative feature in 11 years, A Talent for Murder.

The cast is led by Helen Mirren, Olivia Cooke (House of the Dragon) and Alden Ehrenreich (Fair Play).

Official Logline:

A mysterious young man from a New York publisher is sent to Switzerland to persuade the renowned writer Patricia Highsmith to write one final installment of the Ripley anthology.

Corbijn, a noted photographer-turned-director, is known for such acclaimed films as:

• Control (2007)

  • a noir docu period drama

  • trailer

• The American (2010)

  • a spy thriller starring George Clooney

  • trailer

• A Most Wanted Man (2014)

  • a true crime feature with Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final roles

  • trailer

There have been many incarnations of Ripley films throughout the years, so we’re excited to see how Corbijn’s vision unfolds. Releasing this fall.

Tidbits:

Vertical picks up North American rights to Clean Hands. The Tribeca film starring Zach Braff, who embraces his dark side. 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 Studios’ A Good Person (trailer), which centered on Morgan Freeman’s son being killed in a car accident right before his wedding day.

GKIDS (U.S. Distribution: Spirited Away) acquires the U.S. rights to the international animation film The Last Blossom (trailer), directed by Baku Kinoshita (Dir: Odd Taxi anime series). The film follows a former yakuza, Akutsu, serving life in prison, who reminisces about his life with his only companion in his cell, a smart-mouthed flower growing out of a can. The film premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2025 and will screen as part of North America’s Japanese film festival JAPAN CUTS on June 3rd.

Horror film Jimmy and Stiggs (2024, trailer) is getting an Argentine spin-off. The original film follows a filmmaker who starts to prepare for an impending extraterrestrial attack in his estranged friend’s apartment. The spin-off will follow new characters facing the same alien threats in Argentina. Directed by Sebastián De Caro (Dir: The Marriage App) and releasing through Eli Roth’s The Horror Section.

Mini Tidbits:

HBO Max content will be provided through Prime Video in New Zealand. The service will debut next week on June 16 ahead of the release of Season 3 of House of the Dragon, accessible to those without Amazon subscriptions.

UK’s Elysian Film Group (UK Distribution: The Boy and the Heron) is now entering the insolvency process. The company launched in 2020 with backing from CAA, but the company will no longer be trading due to outstanding debts.

ON THIS DAY

1895. Hattie McDaniel born in Wichita, Kansas.

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

We met them in The Sandlot, and now they are Dugout Dads. Patrick Renna is set to star and produce a new series about an idealistic dad who volunteers to coach his kid’s Little League team, only to discover the parents are more unruly than the ten-year-olds. While not directly related to the cult classic 1993 film, several of the original cast members will return in new roles for Dugout Dads.

Anthony Guidera, an actor known for his roles in The Godfather Part III (1990) and Species (1995), has died at 65. Guidera made his film debut as a bodyguard in Francis Ford Coppola’s sequel and later appeared in titles including The Rock (1996), Armageddon (1998), and L.A. Dicks (2005).

Hugh Jackman’s Pirate, Elisabeth Moss’ Fantasy, and a Rubber Hut.

Let’s go!

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

While we wait for Johnny Depp and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Pirates of the Caribbean sequel to materialize at Disney, a new pirate project is on the horizon:

Treasure Island starring Hugh Jackman as Long John Silver, directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Jack Thorne (Adolescence).

That triple threat will likely birth a darker, more psychological tale than the previous dozen film incarnations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel.

This film follows a young boy who uncovers a map to buried treasure and embarks on a perilous sea voyage, only to find himself in a deadly battle of wits with the pirate Long John Silver.

With Thorne writing, we know this young boy will endure a painful maturation process by pretending to be adult in the only way he knows how: violence. This is endemic in the boys in Thorne’s Adolescence and his recent adaptation of Lord of the Flies.

Historically, there have been many incarnations of the role of Long John Silver, from Orson Welles’ cynical pirate to Charlton Heston’s brawny buccaneer to Anthony Quinn’s German space pirate.

Hugh Jackman could give a more stylized and silly performance; we saw this type of enormous energy burn bright in Song Sung Blue. Or he could be a more sullen pirate, a la Logan (2017), whose tendencies toward self-destruction would perhaps prove to the young boy that survival is no substitute for manhood.

Whatever way it goes, and whatever studio takes this, the triple dynamic of Jackman, Scott, and Thorne has a wild alchemy.

For More:

Into the mind of Jack Thorne? Here’s our Lord of the Flies interview with him.

Hugh Jackman as a pirate? He previously played Blackbeard in Warner Bros.’ Pan (2015), as a crazed dictator (clip).

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Phil Lord and Christopher Miller produce Universal’s high school sci-fi comedy.

• Universal TV adapts Catherine Adel West’s thriller Strangers Behind Closed Doors.

• Elisabeth Moss stars in and produces Emma Straub adaptation American Fantasy.

• ABC develops Isabella Maldonado crime novel A Forgotten Kill.

• Amazon MGM develops a live-action Jem and the Holograms adaptation.

• Heather Tilert is promoted to VP of Kids & Family Series at Netflix.

• Hulu greenlights Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion sequel for 2027.

• Lauren LaVera (Terrifier franchise) leads new horror-thriller Red Wedding.

• Paul Walter Hauser and Michael Peña join Craig Zobel thriller Turpentine.

• Michael Imperioli joins Grace Van Patten comedy Rubber Hut.

• SXSW’s Son of a Bikram gets film and TV adaptations.

• Focus Features’ Obsession becomes the top-grossing festival acquisition.

• BBC and BritBox cast Edward Bluemel as young Hercule Poirot in Hercule.

Yesterday’s correct answer: State of Play - Jason Bateman and David Harbour film.
53% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

The next project from the Project Hail Mary (2026) duo is a high school comedy. Phil Lord and Chris Miller are producing a high-concept comedy film for Universal. The project is I Promise We’re Cool, a high school comedy with a sci-fi twist.

This is great because there could have been an entire alternative-universe movie in Project Hail Mary (2026) about Gosling as a burned-out high school teacher. Or maybe that’s just Half Nelson (2006).

Either way, Lord and Miller know how to do a high school comedy right – their depiction of a modern high school in 21 Jump Street was hilarious.

Charlie Hall (The Sex Lives of College Girls) is writing the script, and Max Tzannes (Dir: Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project) is on board to direct the film.

Three book adaptations:

Universal Television (The Gilded Age) scoops up twisty thriller novel Strangers Behind Closed Doors from Catherine Adel West ahead of its publication. After a woman vanishes from Chicago’s most exclusive hotel, a detective discovers the case is just a tiny part of something far bigger than anyone could’ve imagined. Filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee (Harlem) will direct, and LaToya Morgan (The Walking Dead) is on board to produce through her first-look deal with UTV.

Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) is starring in a film adaptation of Emma Straub’s NYT bestseller American Fantasy. The film follows Annie, a recently divorced woman who boards a cruise, only to find all five members of her favorite 90s boy band. The book was optioned by Moss and Lindsey McManus’ (Producer: AppleTV’s Shining Girls) production company Love & Squalor Pictures. After years of visceral and tense performances in The Invisible Man (2020) and The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-2025), we’re excited for Moss to do something lighter.

A series adaptation of the crime novel A Forgotten Kill is in development from ABC, based on Isabella Maldonado’s novel, on a mismatched task force whose clashing styles and unexpected chemistry give them a major leg up in solving crimes for the NYPD. EP’d by Justin Hartley’s Change Up Productions (NBC’s This Is Us), whose biggest project is the Hartley-led CBS series Tracker, another book adaptation that similarly focuses on a different crime-heavy mystery every episode.

Tidbits:

Amazon MGM Studios is developing a live-action adaptation of the iconic 1980s animated series Jem and the Holograms (Theme). The original show followed a small-town teenager who suddenly becomes a global pop star by using a holographic robot her father secretly created. The 1988 finale was the most-watched syndicated kids’ program throughout the 1990s.

A new prod co, Pasta & Tacos Productions, has launched. They’ve produced SXSW’s Chili Finger starring Judy Greer and Bryan Cranston and almost half a dozen new projects. Co-founded by Bri Hennessey (Former: Manager of Scripted TV at Village Roadshow).

Heather Tilert, the Director of Preschool Series at Netflix, has been promoted to VP of Kids & Family Series.

Richard Mettler, the film editor of Anthropoid (2016) starring Cillian Murphy and Desert Warrior (2025), dies at 56. He began his career editing music videos for Beyoncé and Drake.

Greenlit:

Hulu’s Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion sequel

• Dir: Tim Federle (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series)

• Cast: Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Alan Cumming

• Release: 2027

Trailers:

Hulu’s They Fight

• Trailer

• Cast: André Holland, Wendell Pierce

• Release: July 17

Prime Video’s Manchester City soccer docu-series

• Teaser

AMC’s The Walking Dead: Dead City S3

• Cast: Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

• Trailer

• Release: July 26

Hulu’s The Bear S5

• Trailer

• Release: June 25

20th Century Studios’ The Dog Stars

• Dir: Ridley Scott

• Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 28

Prime Video’s Ride or Die

• Cast: Hannah Waddingham, Octavia Spencer

• Trailer

• Release: July 15

Disney+’s and Hulu’s Adventure Time: Side Quests

• Trailer

• Release: June 29

First look:

Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast

• First Look

• Cast: Brad Pitt

• Release: September 25

Netflix’s Lupin Part 4

• First Look

• Cast: Omar Sy

• Release: Oct 23

CBS’ Marshals S2

• First Look

• Cast: Luke Grimes, Logan Marshall-Green

Netflix’s Scooby-Doo: Origins

• First Look

• Cast: McKenna Grace

Release Dates:

Prime Video’s Karuppu

• Trailer

• Worldwide Box Office: $35M

• U.S. Release: June 12

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Lauren LaVera is the Final Girl. LaVera, most known for playing the final girl Sienna Shaw in The Terrifier franchise, will star in a new horror-thriller, Red Wedding.

The film follows a teenager and her stepmother who are kidnapped to a remote location. They begin to realize that their kidnappers are not the real threat when a murderous couple arrives and starts killing them off one by one.

LaVera managed to escape Art the Clown in Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3. Let’s see if she can keep up her survival streak as the final girl.

Tidbits:

From one tight-knit Italian community to the next, Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) is among the new cast additions for Rubber Hut. The film follows an entrepreneurial ex-Pan Am stewardess (Grace Van Patten) who opens a drive-thru condom kiosk in her conservative, Catholic town. Imperioli could easily fall into either a disappointed Italian father or a creepy Italian customer. Only time will tell with production currently underway in Rhode Island.

Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones) has joined the cast of the Agatha Christie film Eleven Missing Days. Starring alongside Vincent Cassel and Felicity Jones, the noir mystery will look at the real-life disappearance of the famed author. While Allen’s role remains a mystery, hopefully, this world of secrets and deceit treats him kinder than Westeros. Filming will begin later this week in the UK.

Paul Walter Hauser and Michael Peña join thriller feature Turpentine, alongside Melissa McCarthy and Connor Storrie (Heated Rivalry). The film will follow a son who hires friends to rob his own parents to pay off a bookie. Craig Zobel (HBO’s The Penguin) will direct the feature with Rian Johnson’s production company, T-Street, to produce.

Mini Tidbits:

Kelsey Grammer (Cheers) joins the cast of the dog rescue film Ethan Almighty. Based on a true story, the film follows Ethan, an abused dog left for dead, whose miraculous recovery gained the attention of millions of people around America, even bringing legislative change in Kentucky. Grammer will play the governor of Kentucky.

Nicky Whelan (Hall Pass) joins Amazon MGM’s Honeymoon with Harry, starring Kevin Costner and Jake Gyllenhaal. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, the film will follow a rough-around-the-edges man (Gyllenhaal) who is forced to go on a trip with his fiancée’s overprotective father (Costner).

Danny Pino (FX’s Mayans M.C.) joins the cast of MGM+’s The Magnificent Seven as master manipulator Santiago “Santi” Vega.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

SXSW Special Jury Award-winning short Son of a Bikram (2026, trailer) is getting a film and TV series adaptation. Marginal MediaWorks (Prod: The Rose: Come Back to Me) is developing the longer-form treatment. The original short follows a hot yoga practitioner, Raag, whose life spirals into chaos when he learns that his hero, a yoga guru named Bikram, is his father.

Focus Features’ Obsession is now the top-grossing film acquired at a festival. It has hit $225.5M globally, besting Lionsgate’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004, $222.4M WW). Although with inflation, Fahrenheit 9/11 would be at $400M.

Ari Aster wrote a prequel script to his breakout film Hereditary (2018), but says that he doesn’t have any plans to shoot it as of now.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The BBC’s six-part series Hercule has found its titular sleuth in Killing Eve’s Edward Bluemel. The British actor will take on Agatha Christie’s legendary detective, Hercule Poirot, an iconic role played by dozens of actors from Kenneth Branagh to Albert Finney, who scored an Oscar nomination for his portrayal. The BBC’s new iteration is an origin story of sorts, following Poirot’s earliest cases in London. BritBox has joined Hercule as a co-producer that will stream the series in the U.S.

Two-time César Award nominee Vincent Garenq (Dir: Guilty) is making a film based on the true story of the decapitation of Samuel Paty. Forsaken will follow Paty, a 47-year-old French middle school teacher who was murdered in 2020 by an Islamic extremist after a student lied about a civics lesson he taught.

Netflix is making a Korean drama series Paper Man starring Park Hae-soo (Squid Game) and Claudia Kim (Avengers: Age of Ultron), following Cha Myung-jo, a meek worker who accidentally falls into a life of crime when he produces counterfeit banknotes. Coming to Netflix later this year.

ON THIS DAY

1961 Michael J. Fox born in Edmonton, Alberta.

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

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

Superman’s Spy, Paramount’s Games, and a Zombie.

Let’s go!

Jason Bateman and David Harbour play two sad dads whose fate intertwines as a weather reporter and his sign language interpreter.

The show navigates their dual infatuations, butting up against their middle-aged inertia.

It’s a murder mystery, a bromance gone wrong, and a midlife-crisis noir.

Click here for more info.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Henry Cavill and Kevin Hart team for Netflix’s untitled spy-action comedy.

• Paramount Skydance launches Paramount Games Studio as a core content pillar.

• James Mangold returns to Cop Land with a Paramount+ series adaptation.

• Jay Hoag replaces Reed Hastings as Netflix’s board chairman.

• Jafar Panahi is sentenced to prison in Iran over It Was Just an Accident.

• Amazon taps Justin Dudek to lead unscripted/doc production.

• Hulu develops The Cable Guy pilot with Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.

• Victoria Pedretti shines in Tribeca postpartum drama The Last Day.

• IFC and Shudder acquire Alex Goyette’s dog horror feature Breeder.

• Kino Lorber takes U.S. rights to doc Black Zombie.

• Criterion Channel picks up The Aggressives and its 25-year-later follow-up.

Yesterday’s correct answer: The Pit and the Pendulum, Poe's short story.
95% got it correct.

Bateman, Harbour & Linda Cardellini are up to no good - click here for more info.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Man of Steel and Hart. Henry Cavill will star alongside Kevin Hart in a Netflix spy-action comedy. Based on a short story by Sean Lewis (Author: King Spawn), the film follows two rival spies who meet at a Lamaze class. With their wives becoming fast friends, the two undercover agents must find a way to become partners and fathers at the same time. Directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels franchise) and produced by Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine).

We’ve seen Cavill play a spy multiple times, from his stylized performance in Argylle (2024) to a brutal CIA assassin in Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018). He has the charisma, the charm, and the build for a lethal secret agent. Kevin Hart is also no foreigner to espionage. He played a high school athlete-turned-boring accountant who gets dragged into being a spy by a formerly bullied high school friend (Dwayne Johnson) in the action comedy Central Intelligence (2016).

So we can expect a collision between the suave James Bond-esque action of Henry Cavill and the fish-out-of-water comedy of Kevin Hart (Big-and-Small duo clip).

Two cases are percolating as PSKY gets ready to close its acquisition of WBD.

First, Delaware’s Magistrate Judge Christian Wright is demanding that the previous leadership of Paramount (e.g., Shari Redstone’s Paramount) hand over all emails, texts, and internal comms that lead to the acquisition by Skydance. The case is brought by investors like the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Retirement Fund, claiming Redstone’s deal with Skydance cheated them out of money.

Meanwhile, a multi-state Attorney General-led lawsuit is being constructed to block the Paramount - WBD merger.

Only time will tell if any of it makes a material difference in stopping these colossal forces from combining. Full breakdown of the deal here: https://theindustry.co/p/paramount-wins-warner-bros

At the same time, Paramount is tapping into gaming with Paramount Games Studio, a merger of their two existing game studios: Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media.

Paramount is naming the new gaming studio their “core pillar” of content strategy.

So why is Paramount doing this? The global AAA games market is valued around $197bn in 2025 revenue (vs. the film industry’s $113bn). One of the most successful AAA titles, Red Dead Redemption 2, had a budget of around $500M and generated an estimated $5bn in revenue and sold over 85M copies globally (vs. Avatar’s $2.92bn on a $387M budget).

With the strength of Paramount’s IP, the gaming studio has the potential to be a major branch of their content.

The company has named Tony Driscoll, the creator of Fortnite’s Creator Ecosystem and Economy at Epic Games, as the President of Paramount Games Studio.

Tidbits:

James Mangold is heading back to his roots with Paramount+ greenlighting a series take on his Miramax movie Cop Land (1997). Joining Paramount+’s current land of lands, MobLand and Landman, the new series will reimagine the sleepy New Jersey town populated by corrupt NYPD officers. The film version starred current Paramount+ royalty Sylvester Stallone alongside Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta, with the show version having big shoes to fill as it begins casting. Mangold will direct from a script co-written by him and Robert Levine (The Old Man).

From almost being ousted last year, Jay Hoag (founder of TCV, early investor: Netflix, Facebook, Airbnb) becomes Netflix’s board chairman. Hoag is replacing Reed Hastings (Netflix co-founder and ex-CEO), who has stepped down. Full details here. Netflix also doubled down on their “no theatrical” stance. With Film Chief Dan Lin stating, “There is a group of filmmakers who still want theatrical. Those are filmmakers that we’ve accepted we just won’t work with.”

Mini Tidbits:

Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to 1 year in prison by the Iranian government for his Palme d’Or-winning film It Was Just an Accident (2025). He will also have a 2-year travel ban. He’s a hero for what he’s doing.

Amazon’s Jenn Levy (EP: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) tasks Justin Dudek (Prod: Bear Grylls: Face the Wild) to lead all of its unscripted and doc series production teams.

Christopher Nolan’s biggest epic yet was also AMC’s highest-ever advance PLF ticket sale since 2022 for a major studio movie. Standard The Odyssey tickets will go on sale later this summer, before its premiere in theaters everywhere on July 17.

Music Video for Film:

Pixar’s Toy Story 5

• “I Knew It, I Knew You” by Taylor Swift

• Film release: June 19

First Look:

Netflix’s 3D animation Ghostbusters: Night Shift

• EP: Dan Aykroyd

• First Look Logo

• Release: 2027

Release Dates:

Damai Entertainment’s Dear You

• Chinese Box Office: $223M

• Chinese Release: April 30

• International Release: June 18

• U.S. Release: TBD

Paramount+’s Lioness S3

• Showrunner: Taylor Sheridan

• Cast: Zoë Saldaña, Nicole Kidman

• Release: August 2

YouTube’s animation Fred Has Problems

• Producer: Steve Dildarian (HBO’s The Life & Times of Tim)

• Trailer

• Release: July 1

Paramount+’s Among Us

• Animated series

• Cast: Yvette Nicole Brown, Elijah Wood

• Trailer

• Release: June 5

Bateman, Harbour & Linda Cardellini are up to no good - click here for more info.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

New Girl? No, The Cable Guy! New Girl actors Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. are attached to star and EP a comedy pilot inspired by Ben Stiller’s cult classic comedy for Hulu.

The duo will star as versions of the original 1996 film’s leads, with Johnson as the boundaryless cableman Chip Douglass (played by Jim Carrey) and Wayans Jr. as his long-suffering neighbor Steven Stephens (played by Matthew Broderick).

Wayans Jr. and Johnson spent years perfecting their comedic chemistry on Fox’s New Girl, a rapport that should serve them well stepping into another mismatched friendship. The pilot also marks Sony TV’s return to Hulu for the first time in six years (Woke).

Tidbits:

You’s Victoria Pedretti is taking on her most emotional role yet in the Tribeca premiering The Last Day. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, the film continues Pedretti’s streak of psychologically layered performances as she devastatingly plays a young mother navigating the grueling space of postpartum depression. Pedretti stars alongside Oscar-winning Alicia Vikander and Oscar-nominated Wagner Moura; the film is actively looking for U.S. distribution.

Staple British television actor Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has died at 72. Whether guiding Buffy Summers as her sweet surrogate father figure, Rupert Giles, or as the smarmy billionaire on Ted Lasso, one of the show’s only unlikable characters, Head has a reliably captivating screen presence, capable of stealing any scene without ever seeming to try. Though the fan favorite Giles remained his signature role.

Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls), Patti LuPone (Agatha All Along), and Dan Bucatinsky (Scandal) join the cast of indie comedy August. The film follows a young, gay New Yorker (Nick Borenstein) who investigates the sudden death of his beloved therapist (Graham). The film has been selected for the 2026 Inside Out Toronto International Finance Forum and will be presented by Netflix.

The next John Wick spinoff, Caine, adds British actor Bill Nighy to its cast. The film will follow the titular blind assassin played by martial arts master and director Donnie Yen, and while Nighy’s role is unknown, we would love to see him channel another freaky villain like his terrifying Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Production is ongoing in Budapest.

Patrick Godfrey, most known for his role as Leonardo da Vinci in Ever After (1998), dies at 93. He also played Marius’ grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand, in Les Misérables (2012).

Bateman, Harbour & Linda Cardellini are up to no good - click here for more info.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Tribeca Festival Lisboa extends to 2028. Tribeca has renewed their partnership with Impresa Group (largest media conglomerate in Portugal). Their Portuguese indie film showcase will run for another three years, with their third edition kicking off Dec 9th - 13th 2026.

The general manager of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, Shivani Pandya Malhotra, is exiting her role after five years.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

IFC nabs another dog horror. IFC (Distribution: Good Boy) and Shudder acquire Alex Goyette’s debut feature Breeder. The film follows a broke college student who gets lured by an eccentric poodle breeder to a remote ranch. It seems like the two companies want to continue their canine horror genre success — they distributed Good Boy (2025) together last year and earned $8.8M worldwide with only a $70,000 budget. Breeder world premiered a few days ago at Tribeca and will have its theatrical run this fall.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker B.J. Golnick is making the leap into narrative storytelling with Brine, a Civil War-era supernatural thriller. Best known for directing the History Channel’s hit docuseries Hunting Hitler (2015-20), Golnick’s narrative film debut falls in line with his history-centered catalog, set to follow a family of Confederate deserters on the run who disappear into the mysterious Georgia marshlands.

Talk about a win for the new doc, Black Zombie. Kino Lorber takes US rights for the new doc. The feature-length directorial debut of Maya Annik Bedward, the doc unearths the origins of a fictional famous zombie. It premiered at SXSW and counts Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash as EP.

Before Mean Girls had a burn book, The Aggressives had a camera. The Criterion Channel has picked up the groundbreaking documentary The Aggressives (2005) over two decades since it first premiered at SXSW, along with its follow-up Beyond the Aggressives: 25 Years Later (2013). The films give an intimate look at the lives of trans men of color living in NYC, now available to stream.

Mini Tidbits:

Blue Fox Entertainment (Distribution: StudioCanal’s The Wolf and the Lion) acquires two iPic Theater locations in Westwood Village, Los Angeles, and Manhattan’s Fulton Market.

Joanna Klein (EP: CBS’ Matlock) joins Nina Tassler as SVP at Kismet Creative Group, a company with an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. Klein was the SVP of Scripted Series at Lifetime Television and The CW.

ON THIS DAY

1984. Ghostbusters premieres.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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