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

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

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.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

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

HBO’s Justice, Netflix’s Pause, and Persepolis.

Let’s go!

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

I interviewed Kylie Eaton, the Executive Director of the Alliance of Women Directors. Their upcoming intensive, Back to Set, features Paul Feig and Reed Morano as keynote speakers.

They also have great interactive live sessions for pitching, casting, and even episodic television prep.

Check out the full interview with more information here.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• HBO Max develops Gabrielle Union's legal procedural Debbie.

• Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington’s Netflix epic pauses over budget.

• Peacock’s All Her Fault team adapts home-invasion mystery The Break-In.

• Amazon MGM eyes a sequel to Anna Todd romance The Last Sunrise.

• Tubi expands its Kevin “KevOnStage” Fredericks partnership.

• Lionsgate TV promotes Keith Warren to Head of TV Business Affairs.

• Disney launches company-wide creative agency Main Street.

• SAG-AFTRA ratifies new AMPTP contract with 91% approval.

• Chace Crawford (The Boys) + P.J. Byrne reunite for Amazon’s We Once Were Men.

• Sadie Sink leads FX/A24 limited series The Marriage Plot.

• Ellen Pompeo stars in Hulu crime dramedy pilot Chicks.

• Deborah Kampmeier directs Mariel Hemingway in Mexico-set indie Holy Whore.

• FilmNation acquires Gabe Delahaye thriller I’d Like to Speak to Your Manager.

• Marjane Satrapi, creator of Persepolis, dies at 56.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Christmas Movie, genre of Schwarzenegger-directed film.
61% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

HBO Max might be making a courthouse version of The Pitt. HBO Max is developing Debbie, a legal drama starring Gabrielle Union (Bad Boys II). The show is being described as an elevated legal drama procedural, following attorney Debbie Powell who is forced to rebuild her career after a spectacular public downfall.

If it’s even a fraction as visceral as The Pitt, it will be spellbinding. The non-stop medical fury of The Pitt is like a ballet set in a hospital. That same energy could re-shape the legal procedural.

HBO Max is doubling down on procedurals after The Pitt garnered 15 nominations and took home 5 Emmys (including Best Drama Series).

Debbie is intended to be a repeatable, affordable, and long-running series. The show will be written by Bradley Bredeweg (Wri: The Fosters) and Matthew Thomas (Wri: Missed Call).

Tidbits:

From kidnapping to robberies. Megan Gallagher (creator: Peacock’s All Her Fault) and Carnival Films (prod co: All Her Fault) are re-teaming for a new female-led mystery series adaptation, The Break-In. Set in the aftermath of a devastating home invasion. A woman, desperate for answers, discovers she may need to start looking closer to home. The playdate gone wrong kidnapping series, All Her Fault, was Peacock’s biggest original launch to date, with the new adaptation expected to follow a similar formula.

Amazon MGM is looking to continue its steamy European summer with a sequel to the forthcoming romance adaptation The Last Sunrise. The film explores finding love amidst personal, medical, and familial obstacles. Announcing a potential sequel prior to its premiere highlights Amazon's continuing attention towards the YA genre. From the author behind the After series, Anna Todd, The Last Sunrise will drop exclusively on Prime Video July 17.

Mini Tidbits:

Netflix is halting production on Antoine Fuqua (dir: Training Day) sixth collab with Denzel Washington, the untitled Hannibal epic. Budget is the main concern. This summer’s shoot in Italy has been put on pause. No word on when production resumes.

Tubi sets its most expansive creator partnership yet, a multi-project slate with Kevin “KevOnStage” Fredericks (Churchy). His latest Tubi mini-series, Safe Space, built a strong following last year, leading the streamer to renew the series for S2.

Lionsgate Television is promoting 12-year veteran Keith Warren (ABC’s The Rookie franchise) to Head of Television Business Affairs. The news comes shortly after the sudden departure of the television group’s Vice Chairman, Sandra Stern.

Amanda Alley becomes Production VP at A/Vantage Pictures (Prod Co: Highest 2 Lowest) after eight years at Skydance.

SAG-AFTRA ratifies new contract with AMPTP. 91% voted “Yes.”

Greenlight:

Starz’s Power sequel Power: Legacy

• Wri/EP: Gary Lennon (Power)

Renewal:

Netflix’s Devil May Cry (for S3, final season)

• Showrunner: Adi Shankar (Castlevania)

First Look:

Umbrella Entertainment’s Penny Lane Is Dead

• Poster

• Dir/Wri: Mia Kate Russell

• Cast: Ben O’Toole

• Release: Jul 23

Trailer:

Monument Releasing’s Memory of Princess Mumbi

• Trailer

• Dir: Damien Hauser (After the Long Rains)

• N.A. premiere at TIFF (2025)

• Release: Aug 14

Lionsgate’s Fall 2: Deadpoint

• Trailer

• Dir: The Spierig Brothers (Predestination)

• Release: Sept 2

Release Dates:

Black Bear’s Jason Statham Stole My Bike

• Dir: David Leitch

• Cast: Jason Statham

• Genre: Action Comedy

• Release: Aug 6, 2027

When Liam Neeson went full comedy in The Naked Gun, that may have been enough of a proof of concept to put Statham in a self-referential role.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

From The Boys’ enemies to brothers. The Boys stars Chace Crawford and P.J. Byrne are set to play brothers on a new Amazon series, We Once Were Men.

It is a satirical black comedy about male identity in collapse. Byrne and Crawford will play brothers among a group of men seeking to rediscover their purpose at a radical reclaim retreat.

This casting is darkly comedic and yet so fitting, since The Deep (Chace Crawford) had a long-lasting grudge against Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) in The Boys just because Bourke wouldn’t let him improvise on his movie set. This ultimately resulted in The Deep doing something where Bourke, to say it lightly, ends up on the bottom.

We think Chace and Byrne will both be great at depicting different types of toxicity, the Alpha and the Omega, the overly confident bro and the sad sack. We would love to see the same enemy energy as sibling tension in Amazon’s upcoming series.

She survived the Upside Down, now she’ll try to survive adulthood. Sadie Sink is set to lead the FX limited series The Marriage Plot. Adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name and produced by A24, the coming-of-age romance series is centered on three recent graduates caught in a complicated love triangle.

After years growing up on at Netflix to acclaimed turns in The Whale and multiple Broadway shows, Sink’s post-Stranger Things resume is filling up fast with The Marriage Plot her first short-form television series. There is no word yet on who will play her love interests but safe to say Sink has gained enough star power to headline a show all on her own.

Tidbits:

Grey’s Anatomy’s Ellen Pompeo has found her next TV home at Hulu with the dramedy pilot Chicks. Pompeo will EP and star as Chickie, a woman struggling to get by alongside her estranged sister when their father unexpectedly passes away, leaving them nothing but a legacy of two-bit crime. The project reunites Pompeo with Katie Robbins, the creator of Hulu miniseries Good American Family (2025) where the actress played a mother suspicious of the age of her adopted daughter.

Kelsey Asbille (Yellowstone) joins Amazon MGM’s action film The Kellys, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games franchise). The film follows a disgraced NYC cop whose wife is taken hostage by terrorists, leading him to join forces with the people he fears most: his family. Character details are kept under wraps and Thunder Road (Prod Co: John Wick franchise) will produce the film.

Legal drama pilot Public Interest adds TV regular Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) as an attorney unexpectedly made the president of her law firm. While known for her iconic television matriarchs, Public Interest will be Heaton’s first TV role since her guest spot on Paramount+’s Frasier reboot (2023). A network or streamer is yet to be attached.

Mini Tidbits:

Joshua Jackson joins cast of Apple’s Your Friends & Neighbors. For the third season, the Dawson’s Creek actor will join Michelle Monaghan (The White Lotus) in recurring roles, whether they will be wealthy neighbors or directly involved is unknown.

James Badge Dale (13 Hours), Abigail Cowen (The Ritual), and Edouard Philipponnat (Napoleon) join the cast of psychological thriller The Guide. The film will follow a young woman entering a psilocybin retreat and becomes stuck in a nightmare.

Top Gun: Maverick actor James Handy has died at 81 due to stab wounds. Handy gave a number of strong supporting performances, like the doctor in Logan (2017), the exterminator in the original Jumanji (1995), and a recurring role on ABC’s Alias.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

From aristocrats in New York City’s elite Gilded Age to sex workers in Mexico, indie filmmaker Deborah Kampmeier’s first feature in six years is titled Holy Whore.

Starring the Oscar-nominated Mariel Hemingway (Manhattan), the film will follow “a modern-day courtesan” whose past addictions force her into a healing journey that leads her to become an inspiring sex therapist.

After her Sundance-premiering film Hounddog (2007), Kampmeier spent several years in the TV space directing episodes of shows like HBO’s The Gilded Age and Prime Video’s Outer Range.

Filming on Holy Whore will begin in Mexico this summer.

Tidbits:

Bob Yari’s Magenta Light Studios acquires theatrical rights to Flavia, starring Martin Freeman (Sherlock) and Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes). The film follows an eleven-year-old amateur detective who tries to save her father from being accused of murder. The film was directed by Bharat Nalluri (Dir: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day starring Frances McDormand) and will be released in U.S. theaters on December 4th.

Canada’s Serial Maven Studios (Distribution: Tiger 24) buys international distribution rights of Channel 4’s The Dunblane Tapes (2026, Trailer). The feature documentary explores the aftermath of the 1996 Dunblane School shooting that led to a handgun reform in the UK. It follows three mothers who launched a nationwide campaign to lobby the government to ban the private use of handguns in Britain. The doc aired on Channel 4 and received raves from critics and audiences.

Mini Tidbits:

FilmNation acquires absurdist-thriller I’d Like to Speak to Your Manager for feature development. No info on the plot of Gabe Delahaye’s (Wri: HBO Max’s Close Enough) project. Produced by Craig Gillespie (Dir: Cruella) and his company Fortunate Jack.

Canada’s Shaftesbury (Prod Co: CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries) names Jay Bennett as its SVP, Franchise Strategy & Innovation. Bennett joined the company a decade ago and is most known for producing Backpackers – the first Canadian series to transfer to U.S.

Iranian-French author and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi has died at 56. Best known for her autobiographical illustrated novel Persepolis, an eye-opening story set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it was later adapted into the powerful Oscar-nominated feature film (trailer, 2007). Her timeless words will continue her legacy.

ON THIS DAY

1998. The Truman Show 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

Schwarzenegger’s crime, Lionsgate’s husband, and a Voicemail.

Let’s go!

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

If you’re attending Tribeca Film Festival, check out the premiere tomorrow of Lucy Schulman. The film is written and directed by Ellie Sachs, who also stars. More impressive, it’s her feature debut.

She’s assembled an epic cast with co-stars David Cross, Thomas Mann, Hasan Minhaj, and legendary playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis.

Sachs’ as a director is a master of introspection, wonderfully ironic given that she’s written herself a character that can’t be bothered to self-reflect.

And it is that very painful process of young adulthood maturation that feels like the character Lucy Schulman is a beetle on it’s backside, trying to flip itself over and squirming emotionally all the while. As a director Sachs has created a unique alchemy of New Yorkers whose blend feels like a Brillo Pad for her growth.

There’s a wonderful scene between her and Mann that reminded me of Before Sunset.

Check out our interview with Sachs here. She also breaks down how she got her first feature made.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Arnold Schwarzenegger and Liam Hemsworth star in Amazon MGM’s The Kellys.

• Lionsgate TV adapts psychological thriller Someone Else’s Husband.

• Hulu adapts PI drama Suspect with The Handmaid’s Tale writers.

• Peacock develops legal thriller The Intern with Julia Cohen writing.

• Paradigm hires Michael Kirschner for its Physical Production division.

• Russo Brothers’ AGBO hires execs from Apple, Snap, and Call of Duty studios.

• Netflix greenlights adult animated Big Box store comedy Dealies.

• A24’s Backrooms crosses $100M domestic.

• Sydney Sweeney stars in LuckyChap’s Sleepy Hollow reimagining Hollow.

• Jonathan Groff & Daniel Radcliffe reunite for Vietnam War thriller Trust the Man.

• Leah McKendrick directs Sony’s Shania Twain biopic after Voicemails for Isabelle.

Tuesday’s correct answer: Dawn of the Dead was Zack Snyder’s first film.
64% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Better. Faster. Stronger. Schwarzenegger. Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting back to work; he’s already returning to Conan the Barbarian with director Christopher McQuarrie.

And now he’s starring in The Kellys at Amazon MGM, which, despite their massive push to theatrical, is going straight to streaming.

Schwarzenegger plays a disgraced cop whose wife gets taken by terrorists. And he has to team up with people he fears to get her back.

Oddly, Schwarzenegger is at his best when he’s making unlikely friends. In Terminator 2, he is oddly sympathetic, reprogrammed to help Sarah Connor; he becomes John’s quasi-father figure, giving the film an unexpectedly resonant emotional architecture.

Recently, he was good in Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) in a similar way (clip).

We can’t wait to see what he brings in this role. Liam Hemsworth also stars. And Brad Peyton (Netflix’s Atlas, Rampage) directs.

Three book adaptations:

Lionsgate Television has acquired Someone Else’s Husband, the fifth project currently optioned from author Kimberly McCreight (HBO’s Reconstructing Amelia). The psychological thriller follows a wealthy Park Avenue wife whose life begins to crumble when her husband goes on a “climbing expedition” turned affair and murder. This marks another book adaptation for Lionsgate, not long after acquiring romance-fantasy drama Witch Season by Julia Bianco and YA series The Inheritance Games from Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Hulu is bringing author Scott Turow’s PI drama Suspect to life from The Handmaid’s Tale writers Marissa Jo Cerar and Bruce Miller. Suspect follows Pinky, the PI, who is determined to find evidence that exonerates a female police chief accused of extorting male peers in exchange for promotion. WandaVision director Matt Shakman will direct and produce alongside MGM.

Peacock is developing The Intern, a series adaptation of Michele Campbell’s sexy 2023 thriller novel. From Universal Television, it follows a Harvard Law student put in a tricky position when her brother is arrested, and the only way to save him is to infiltrate the chambers of the most powerful judge in Boston. ABC’s A Million Little Things producer Julia Cohen is penning the adaptation as well as producing alongside State Street Pictures (Big George Foreman).

Tidbits:

Beta Cinema’s British indie The Climb collapses. Inspired by a true story, the film was set to star Cara Delevingne (Club Kid) as a fearless protester who scales Western Europe’s tallest building, but within weeks of pre-production, crews and suppliers were owed over $400K in unpaid wages. The project is currently looking for a new U.S. producer.

Paradigm (Rep: Colman Domingo, Sydney Sweeney) hires agent Michael Kirschner for their Physical Production division. Kirschner has worked in talent management for nearly two decades, repping cinematographers, production designers, and costume designers for music videos.

Mini Tidbit:

Russo Brothers’ AGBO (Prod Co: Everything Everywhere All at Once) hires execs from Apple, Snap, and studios behind Call of Duty games. The new leadership team will oversee marketing, technology, and interactive production for the company.

Netflix greenlights adult animated comedy series Dealies from Green Street Pictures (Prod Co: Netflix’s Scavengers Reign). The show will follow the staff of a Big Box store as the dysfunctional team goes about their not-so-usual days.

A24’s Backrooms hits $100M domestically. Not even in its first full week of release, it is already the top domestic film for A24, beating out Marty Supreme ($96M domestic).

Comcast will invest $8.1bn in a UK Universal theme park, which will be built over the next 5 years. Why the massive investment? These parks have a massive ROI for Comcast with a 31% profit margin.

Wim Wenders (dir: Paris, Texas) has pulled one of his films from circulation, Wrong Move (1975). He has pulled the film until he can consult with the actress Nastassja Kinski (Jane in Paris, Texas) over the filming of her topless scene when she was 13.

Nick Pasqual (How I Met Your Mother) was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison after stabbing his ex-girlfriend.

Trailers:

Apple TV’s Lucky

• EP: Reese Witherspoon, Anya Taylor-Joy

• Trailer

• Cast: Taylor-Joy, Drew Starkey, Annette Bening

• Release: July 15

Ukraine War Documentary Time Machine Maidan

• Trailer

• Release: TBD

The Horror Section’s Ice Cream Man

• Dir/Star: Eli Roth (Hostel)

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 7

Release Dates:

Jordanian crime thriller Boomah

• Premiere: June 12

Shoot Location Changes:

Paramount+’s Tulsa King S5

• Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Martin Starr, Jay Will

• Location: New York

Shoot Wraps:

Paramount Pictures’ Sacrifice (Working Title)

• Dir: Damien Chazelle

• Cast: Cillian Murphy, Daniel Craig

• Shoot Dates: March 17 ~ June 1

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Sydney Sweeney will star in Hollow, the first official film by her newly announced production banner, Honey Trap, alongside Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap (Barbie).

Lindsey Anderson Beer (dir. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines) will direct from her own script, described as a bold reimagining of the 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, told through the perspective of the often-overlooked love interest, Katrina Van Tassel.

Sweeney will play Van Tassel, placing her at the center of both a dangerous mystery and a supernatural love triangle, drawing on her more seductive charm and emotional volatility she brought to Cassie in HBO’s Euphoria with the gothic horror sensibilities she explored in, probably, her best acting role as a remote religious sister in Immaculate (2024).

The project is based on Beer’s debut novel, Hollow, set to hit shelves in fall 2027, with production on the feature film adaptation set to begin shortly after.

After nine months on stage together in Merrily We Roll Along and multiple Tony Awards later, Jonathan Groff is joining Daniel Radcliffe in a thriller feature, Trust the Man.

Their revival of Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed bittersweet musical saw them as lifelong friends whose turbulent relationship was tested over the course of decades. Now, the pair is going about as dark as they could go, set during the Vietnam War. Trust the Man follows an Army intelligence officer tasked with investigating a dangerous, decorated soldier, which later spawns into an unforeseen and uncontrollable connection. It is unclear which roles the actors will play, but production will begin in New Jersey this summer.

Tidbits:

Anna Camp (Scream 7) is set to EP and star in the psychological thriller Serpent. Based on the best-selling novel The Serpent’s Bite by Warren Adler, the film will follow an actress who reluctantly reunites with her family for a week-long trek through the Wyoming wilderness, only to find the trip quickly go sideways.

Jess McLeod (Normal) gets promoted to series regular for AMC’s The Audacity Season 2. The show follows a tech CEO, Duncan (Billy Magnussen), who is engulfed in a scandal sparked by the exploitation of personal data. McLeod plays Harper, Chief Technology Officer of the data-mining startup Hypergnosis.

Matt Rogers, who hosts a podcast with Bowen Yang and is starring in an upcoming Searchlight comedy, has now been cast in Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 2.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS / TECH SECTION

Belgian drama Paris Paris has international sales rights acquired by Vienna-based sales agency Square Eyes (I’m Not Everything I Want to Be). Ahead of its Karlovy Vary Festival premiere, the film follows three strangers living together in an abandoned building in Paris.

Hasbro is launching Sixth Wall, where companies can license verified, brand-approved AI versions of Mr. Potato Head, Megatron, Cobra Commander, Optimus Prime, and Clue characters.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Actress and director Leah McKendrick (Scrambled) is working with Sony Pictures twice in a row for a biopic on country-pop star Shania Twain.

McKendrick will direct Shania from her own script, with the logline kept under wraps, but inspired by the filmmaker’s past in songwriting.

The new project news comes just ahead of the Netflix premiere of McKendrick’s sophomore directorial venture, Voicemails for Isabelle, a Zoey Deutch-led rom-com also from Sony, dropping on the streamer later this month.

Twain will produce alongside McKendrick and Ghostbusters franchise (2021, 2024) executive producer Amie Karp.

Dan Fried’s (EP: The Trial of Alec Baldwin) new production company, Laurel Canyon Pictures, launches with a Jean-Michel Basquiat feature documentary. Jean-Michel, directed by Quinn Whitney Wilson (Lizzo’s creative director), marks the first documentary about the legendary New York artist told primarily through the eyes of Basquiat’s sisters. The company will finance and produce a slate of premium documentaries each year, focusing on filmmaker-driven projects with lasting relevance.

India’s Iroller Media teams up with Norse Key Productions for Europe and U.S. distribution of Indian drama Bicycle Thief. The film follows a Dalit man as he attempts to rebuild his life with a second-hand bicycle. The film is said to pay tribute to Italian neorealist Vittorio De Sica’s classic Bicycle Thieves (1948, Trailer).

ON THIS DAY

1975. Angelina Jolie born in LA.

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

I sat down with Roher, who shared what inspired him to write an action-heist romance about a piano tuner (played by Leo Woodhall):

For Roher, the profession is all about:

“Entropy and atrophy and physics and humidity and the forces of the universe that want to pull a piano out of tune. And it's his job to restore order where the natural cadence is chaos.”

He continued:

“And he exists as this ethereal bridge between the engineering of this instrument, which is 400 years old, 300 years old, and the art and the musician. And without this guy and his technical expertise, there is no music.”

Woodhall is a bit of a dead-end piano tuner whose kryptonite is extreme sensitivity to loud sounds, making it difficult for him to work in NYC.

Roher shared:

“What happens if the thing that you are most passionate about in the world that makes you you goes away and you can’t do it anymore? You know, I’m a filmmaker. What happens if I can’t make films?”

He continued:

“[Woodhall’s character] is sort of post-trauma trying to be okay. And that to me just felt like a very rich thematic landscape to explore.”

Of course, for a film about a piano tuner to be provocative, the person who needs the most tuning is the main character himself. Roher delivers and is a narrative director to watch.

Here is the trailer:

Now in theaters.

I interviewed director John Carney, who is a maestro at melding melancholy musicians into cinematic stories. He’s directed Once (2007), Begin Again (2013), and Flora and Son (2023).

In his latest film, Power Ballad, which played at SXSW, Paul Rudd plays a burned-out former rocker fronting a wedding band who, during a chance meeting, encounters Nick Jonas, who is everything he wishes he was. Jonas’ character lived out Rudd’s character’s dream of playing at Madison Square Garden and becoming a top musician.

However, Jonas has never really been taken seriously. And now, years later, he’s struggling to find a hit.

Carney shared:

“Are you going to see the absurd nature of hanging on to this dream, or are you going to adapt and change and become cool again…”

And Rudd and Jonas both meet at this moment, when they are both hanging onto the dream. And this dual vulnerability leads to a shared and powerful moment: their creation of a beautiful song.

Jonas remarks:

“That’s the best I’ve felt in years.”

What follows is the slow disintegration of one and the massive acceleration of fame for the other.

This twin ballad of the two makes the film propulsive and profound as we see one of their rises and the other's extreme suffering. And their eventual intersection makes it symphonic.

Here’s the trailer:

Releasing everywhere June 5th.

Zack Snyder’s Escape, Sydney Sweeney’s Trap, and a frog.

Let’s go!

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Zack Snyder will write and direct an Escape from New York reimagining.

• Sydney Sweeney’s Honey Trap signs a first-look deal with Sony Pictures.

• Lionsgate TV adapts Julia Bianco’s romantic fantasy novel Witch Season.

• UCP adapts thriller The Fine Art of Lying with Scarlett Johansson’s prod co.

• Former Disney lawyer Jim Kapenstein joins Starz as CLO/CSO.

• Hulu doc exec Kate Bustamante exits after nine years.

• Zoë Kravitz will star in Apple’s Megan Park-directed comedy.

• Holt McCallany stars in serial-killer noir thriller Hyde.

• Jeymes Samuel directs Sega video game adaptation Streets of Rage.

• Anna Kendrick will direct Netflix’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

• Dito Montiel directs a Gene Wilder biopic with rights from Wilder’s estate.

• Vertigo Releasing acquires Emilia Clarke romance Next Life.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Josh Trank was 27 when Chronicle went box office #1.
21% got it correct.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

We’re getting another version of Zack Snyder’s dystopia. Snyder will write and direct a reimagining of John Carpenter’s dystopian cult classic Escape from New York (1981, trailer).

Starring Kurt Russell as the iconic one-eyed antihero Snake Plissken, the original film followed a convicted soldier who is given 22 hours to rescue the captured president from a dystopian Manhattan island that is ruled by a ruthless prison colony.

Details about the plot are under wraps, with StudioCanal developing the project and John Carpenter serving as an EP. The film was a massive hit back in 1981, grossing over $50M with only a $6M budget.

Whatever your feelings are on Snyder, he is a master at creating apocalyptic landscapes. Whether it be the zombie outbreak in Dawn of the Dead (2004), the musty steampunk battlefields of Sucker Punch (2011), or a world destroyed by evil Superman in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021).

Escape from New York has a major grunge factor, which would be beautiful with a little of that Snyder-signature slow motion to amp up the brutal, tribal gang wars of lawless Manhattan.

Tidbit:

Fresh off the series finale of HBO’s Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney’s Honey Trap inks a first-look deal at Sony Pictures (Anyone But You). Looking to expand her producing credits, The Housemaid actress has a lot on her plate, currently working with Sony on the TriStar Pictures remake of Barbarella and will also star and produce their feature adaptation of Madison Lawson’s novel The Registration. Sweeney launched Honey Trap with her longtime collaborator Kaylee McGregor, who will serve as president of production and development.

Book Adaptations:

Lionsgate Television is bringing Julia Bianco’s upcoming romantic fantasy novel Witch Season to life ahead of its end-of-June publication date. From producer Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories (Nine Perfect Strangers) the story follows Katherine Barnes, the rule enforcer of an LA based coven tasked with taking in “unsettled” witches to reform them. Bianco is a frequent collaborator with Made Up Stories, currently in their writer’s room for an unknown project with Fifth Season.

Universal Studio Group’s UCP is adapting thriller novel The Fine Art of Lying into a series with Scarlett Johansson’s These Pictures (Fly Me to the Moon) attached. Alexandra Andrews’ novel follows a woman desperate to reclaim her identity, trying to break into New York’s art world, and she gets suddenly dragged into a murder investigation that makes her reconsider all her choices.

Mini Tidbits:

Jim Kapenstein, the former Deputy General Counsel at Disney, is joining Starz next week as the company’s new chief legal and strategy officer. He spent nearly 30 years at Disney before moving to Starz.

Kate Bustamante, the Senior Manager of Original Documentaries at Hulu, is leaving the company. Bustamante has overseen many award-winning docs like Minding the Gap, Stolen Youth, and Fyre Fraud over her 9-year tenure.

AMPAS announced it is creating an annual Academy Marquee Theater List that recognizes and celebrates 25 of the best U.S. and international theaters, voted on by Academy members. The selections will be made just ahead of the 100th Oscars next year.

Trailers:

Warner Bros’ The End of Oak Street

• Trailer

• Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor

• Release: Aug 14

Netflix’s I Will Find You

• Trailer

• Cast: Sam Worthington, Britt Lower

• Release: July 18

Dustin Brown’s Solidarity

• Trailer

• Prod: Darren Aronofsky

• Release: June 19

Starz’s Outlander: Blood of My Blood S2

• Teaser

• Release: Sept 18

First Look:

James Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow

• First Look at Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor’s war suit

• Release: Jul 2027

Release Dates:

Neon’s Hope

• Dir: Na Hong-jin

• Premiered in competition at Cannes

• N.A. release: Sept 9

BBC’s What It Feels Like for a Girl

• Prod: Hera Pictures (Hamnet)

• Now available on Prime in the US (acquisition)

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Catwoman in a comedy? Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) will star in Apple’s new film directed by Megan Park (My Old Ass).

The untitled project is described as Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy meets Julia Roberts’ Stepmom, following a woman who gets stuck taking care of her boyfriend's kids, whom she didn’t know existed.

Zoë Kravitz has made a name for herself playing fiercely independent and intense characters, from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) to the Fantastic Beasts franchise. She successfully showed her own interpretation of the iconic Catwoman character in The Batman (2022), adding a layer of familial trauma to the mysterious vigilante.

It’s hard to imagine how she will play a silly role, but we got a glimpse of her wacked out, drugged up comedic timing in her guest appearance on HBO’s The Studio, and we would love to see her in a looser role that lets her play against her cool onscreen persona.

Produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap and FilmNation, the film found a home at Apple after a competitive bidding war with Amazon.

Tidbits:

Holt McCallany is back at hunting down serial killers. Holt McCallany (Netflix’s Mindhunter) stars in noir thriller Hyde. The film will follow Detective Grimes (McCallany), an investigator who dives into the deepest corners of a failing city to hunt down a serial killer. McCallany had a rugged weight to his performance, playing the veteran police officer Bill Tench in David Fincher’s series Mindhunter. We hope to see his charisma as he hunts down his next serial killer.

Mini Tidbits:

Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) returns to the video game thriller Stream 2: Sudden Death. Stream (2024, trailer) follows a family who enters a deadly game of life and death, chased down by four deranged killers. Curry briefly appeared in the first installment but will play a much bigger role in the sequel.

Katey Sagal (Futurama) joins the untitled Apple TV comedy starring Elizabeth Banks. The show will follow Heidi (Banks) as she sets out to secure a lively second act for herself and her kids, until she finds herself coordinating her father’s retirement sexcapade. Sagal will play Mavis, who is Heidi’s dad’s new girlfriend.

Pretty Little Liars actress Sasha Pieterse is taking a big step with her next leading role, taking on the titular Rosemary, a psychological thriller from the perspective of President JFK’s sister. Forced to undergo a lobotomy at just 23, Rosemary’s tragic story has long lived in the shadows of her famous family and their political dynasty.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Jeymes Samuel (Dir: The Book of Clarence, produced by Jay-Z) is directing the film adaptation of Sega’s classic video game Streets of Rage. The original 1991 game follows three vigilantes who wage war against the ruthless criminal syndicate that has overtaken their city.

Ever since their initial release, Streets of Rage has been one of the most successful beat-’em-up series in gaming, with the recent installment selling over 2.5M copies worldwide.

Samuel did an amazing job blending stoner-comedy with ancient Jerusalem in his breakthrough, The Book of Clarence. But he showed a real mastery of the filmic form in Netflix’s The Harder They Fall. He blends music, action, and camera movement, which is the closest I’ve seen to rivaling Tarantino (trailer).

Pat Casey and Josh Miller (Wri: Sonic the Hedgehog) will pen the screenplay for Streets of Rage. This could be his biggest film yet.

Anna Kendrick is back at Netflix in the director’s chair for the highly anticipated feature adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling 2017 novel follows an aging legendary actress who, through her tell-all biography, reveals the ruthless glamor, sacrifices of fame, and the pain of forbidden love through her experiences in the golden age of Hollywood.

Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour (2023), was not just a dating game show gone wrong, but a thriller that sharply examined the danger hidden beneath charm and control. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo similarly looks at what happens when the image the world falls in love with bears little resemblance to the person underneath.

Kendrick, having the potential to be just as strong behind the camera as in front of it, marks an exciting new development.

Some heartbreak, lots of laughs, and even more curls. The late, great Gene Wilder is getting a biopic from director Dito Montiel (Boulevard). Securing the life rights from Wilder’s Estate, the biopic will trace the beloved Young Frankenstein actor’s entire career, going back to the years before he became one of cinema’s most recognizable faces, when he was just a shy theater actor.

Montiel’s Sundance premiering crime dramedy A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) followed a young RDJ returning to his childhood neighborhood in Astoria when his father falls ill, forcing him to revisit the painful memories of the version of himself he left behind.

From the absolute comedic gold that is Blazing Saddles (1974) to the wonderfully eccentric Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Wilder became synonymous with a theatrical type of comedy, but beneath his wild eyes and perfect timing, there was a melancholic softness, even sadness, that made his performances feel that much richer than straightforward comedy. Montiel could bring that duality to life, consistently drawn to wounded characters looking to find the humor and the humanity in even the loneliest among us.

Mini Tidbits:

Gary Dauberman (Wri: It) is developing a film adaptation of Yellowjacket Summer, a horror short story from Robert R. McCammon. The film will follow a mother and her children who become stranded in a Georgia town overrun by yellowjackets. Daniel Kraus (Co-Wri: Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water) will adapt the screenplay for a feature.

Documentary+ acquires rights to A Man With Sole: The Impact of Kenneth Cole. The feature doc follows legendary designer Kenneth Cole’s creative savviness and social advocacy.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Vertigo Releasing has acquired Next Life, the romance feature starring Emilia Clarke and Édgar Ramírez, for the U.K. and Ireland, ahead of its premiere at Tribeca. Set in London’s jazz scene, Clarke plays an aspiring singer who embarks on two alternate realities, forcing her to reconsider life and love.

India’s Impact Films (Indian Distr: Parasite) acquires All of a Sudden by Hamaguchi Ryusuke (Dir: Drive My Car), Sheep in the Box by Kore-eda Hirokazu (Dir: Shoplifters), and Parallel Tales by Asghar Farhadi (Dir: A Separation).

BBC’s Director of Comedy Commissioning Jon Petrie is leaving for Hat Trick Productions (Prod Co: Derry Girls). Petrie has served as the head of comedy at the BBC for the past five years, overseeing Amandaland and Small Prophets.

ON THIS DAY

1989. Dead Poets Society premieres in the US.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

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

A24’s Room, FX’s Blood, and a dog series.

Let’s go!

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

20-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons knows his audiences.

He not only tapped into a Gen Z audience but also a wider demographic, giving A24 its biggest opening weekend of all time with $118M globally.

Funny as it may sound, Backrooms is a nostalgia piece for the teens who are astonished that the creepy short video they saw on Parsons’ YouTube channel as kids is now a feature film. In fact, when I was in the theater, half the audience was under 21.

The Gen Z audience grew up with online group storytelling. Their interaction wasn’t as passive consumers, but active creators of the universes themselves.

The original Backrooms concept began as an image post on 4chan that users collectively expanded into an entire universe, similar to Creepypastas and SCP Foundation short stories on the internet.

Parsons capitalized on this. He started a conversation with the Backrooms fanbase faster than anyone else, even taking notes from his YouTube comment section. Over time, his interpretation became the new “canon” of Backrooms and racked up 220M+ views on his channel.

With this feature, Parsons gave loyal fans what they wanted, weaving in lore-specific details like the Async company. But he also expanded his YouTube vision to a larger audience, casting actors in their 30s and 40s to bring in an older demographic and grounding the Backrooms mythology in a mature emotional metaphor of repressed grief. For instance, both lead characters in the film are people trying to run away from a trauma in their past.

Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse was a production company on the film, is inspired by Parsons and also Curry Barker (dir: Obsession), stating:

“They’re a new kind of movie. They’re made by non-traditional directors, directors who really honed their skills as creators online.”

Backrooms and many other digital creators have huge fan bases. They were just waiting for Hollywood to meet them inside the worlds they had already built online.

For More:

A24’s Backrooms trailer here.

What is this new liminal horror space? Read our breakdown.

We will likely see forthcoming announcements for A24’s Backrooms 2.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Chernin Entertainment boards buzzy rom-com spec One Month Mark.

• FX develops neo-noir western series That Texas Blood.

• Terrifier creator Damien Leone sets Lionsgate horror film Tortures of the Damned.

• Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman join Disney+ sailing docuseries.

• Oscar-winning Star Wars editor Marcia Lucas dies at 80.

• Euphoria has ended after 3 seasons.

• Sarah Snook leads limited-series reimagining of Hitchcock’s The Birds.

• Gabourey Sidibe stars in thriller Rose Moon.

• Jimmy O. Yang joins Netflix casino drama The Roman.

• Neon’s Cannes title Hope sells to 200 territories.

• Fatherland, Coward, and other Cannes titles sell internationally.

• Jorge R. Gutierrez exits Amazon’s AI animated series Punky Duck.

• Amores Perros gets a TV adaptation from AF Films.

Friday’s top answer: 42% have seen The Shawshank Redemption 1-3 times.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Chernin Entertainment (Planet of the Apes) has boarded One Month Mark, the rom-com spec script everybody wants their hands on.

From writer, director, and actress Sophie Fleur de Bruijn (wri: Apple TV’s upcoming Early Action), the film will follow two individuals: she has never made it past a month in a relationship, and he has never gone longer than a month without one.

An incredibly secretive project, the sale is an especially big deal for Chernin, who hasn’t worked in the romantic comedy space since 2016 with the Zac Efron and Aubrey Plaza-led Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.

The few eyes who have read the script have deemed it one of the best romcoms in years.

Tidbits:

The creator of the Terrifier franchise is going to Hollywood. Damien Leone (Dir: Terrifier franchise) will write and direct a horror feature, Tortures of the Damned, for Lionsgate after finishing Terrifier 4. The plot details are unknown, but it is reported that the film will have a way bigger budget than the Terrifier movies – the third installment was shot with $2M but garnered $89.2M worldwide. Sam Raimi (Dir: Evil Dead) and his company, Ghost House, are attached to produce the project.

A Neo-Noir Western from FX. FX is developing a drama series, That Texas Blood, with Jim Mickle (Showrunner: Netflix’s Sweet Tooth) and E.L. Katz (Dir: Netflix’s Small Crimes). Based on an Image Comics series of the same name, the show will follow Sheriff Joe Bob Coates of Ambrose County, Texas, as a local man returns home following the sudden disappearance of his brother. Mickle and Katz will write and EP, with Mickle also directing the show from 20th Television.

Mini Tidbits:

Deadpool and Wolverine are going sailing. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman join Disney+’s new docuseries about the duo’s sailing team. Coming from Reynolds’ production company, Maximum Effort, the show will follow the team across a global racing season, sailing 50-foot catamarans in close-to-shore courses.

Marcia Lucas, ex-wife of George Lucas and editor of the original Star Wars (1977), dies at 80. Her most famous works include Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), and Return of the Jedi (1983).

Trailers:

HBO’s House of the Dragon S3

• Trailer

• Release: June 21

Netflix’s Mating Season

• Trailer

• Cast: Zach Woods, Nick Kroll

• Release: May 22

Release Dates:

A24’s Onslaught

• Dir: Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong)

• Cast: Adria Arjona

• Release: September 4

Kiri and Lou Go Raaa! (New Zealand’s stop-motion feature)

• Cast: Jemaine Clement, Olivia Tennet

• Premiere: June 24 (Annecy)

Paramount’s K-Pop: The Debut

• Cast: Ji-young Yoo, Eric Nam, Yoo Ji-tae

• Release: Feb 26, 2027

Paramount+’s Wild Cherry

• Prod Co: BBC

• Release: June 24

Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote vs. Acme.

• Prod: James Gunn

• Cast: Will Forte, John Cena

• Release: Aug 28 - now with help from Legion M

Orion Pictures’ Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

• Cast: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli

• Release: Sept. 25

Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie: Squared

• Dir: Jared Hess

• Cast: Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Kirsten Dunst, Danielle Brooks

• Release: July 23, 2027

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Logan Roy may have been scary, but nothing compares to the twisted world of Alfred Hitchcock.

Succession’s Sarah Snook is set to star in a limited series take on Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). “A present-day reimagining”, Snook will play Myra Massey, a traveling magistrate returning to her Alaskan hometown for a routine death hearing, only to discover the brutalized body of a childhood friend. As she investigates, nature turns on her, and death lurks in the skies.

Where Snook’s Emmy-winning role as Shiv Roy lived in glass offices and was defined by her emotional repression and weaponized conversations, Myra is in a world of silence, the wilderness, and psychological dread, a place somehow darker than the infamous media conglomerate Waystar Royco.

The Bodega Bay-set original film followed a wealthy socialite turned damsel in distress, while the series version sees its lead rescuing themself, driving the mystery rather than just surviving it, which is much more Snook’s speed anyway.

Universal International Studios has been working on the project for over a year, with Snook the perfect person to live up to the name and bridge Hitchcock’s legacy with a modern audience. David Heyman (Heyday) is producing.

Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) is starring in Rose Moon.

Synopsis:

A probation officer (Sidibe) whose affair with a parolee spirals into obsession, placing her career at risk.

If Sidibe is able to dig into the ferocity of her dark desires, this will be gold. Her performance as the titular character in Precious was an explosive combo of massive dreams curtailed by vicious emotional and physical abuse. But her ability to overcome was wonderfully endearing.

Jimmy O. Yang vs. Oscar Isaac in Vegas. Yang will star in Netflix’s The Roman, a Vegas casino series, EP’d by Scorsese and created by Ocean’s Thirteen writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

The eight-episode drama will focus on the president of the hottest hotel/casino on the Strip (Isaac), with back-door negotiations and high-stakes power plays. Yang will play his nemesis.

This is a massive get for Yang, who typically plays on the more nerdy, bumbling side (to great comedic effect). We can’t wait to see him become a villain.

Mini Tidbits:

Michael Bergin and Kelly Packard know the Baywatch beach better than anyone. The upcoming Fox reboot has added more original cast members with Bergin and Packard returning to play lifeguards Jack “J.D.” Darius and April Giminski, respectively. Premiering early 2027.

Kelly Curtis, best known for sharing the screen with her older sister Jamie Lee, has passed away at 69. The two worked together on Trading Places (1983) and Freaky Friday (2003), but Kelly really stood out in the long-running spinoff series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Neon has sold its Cannes film Hope to 200 territories. Focus Features, Sony, and Mubi have all grabbed pieces of worldwide rights.

Mubi takes Latin America, Italy, and 5 other territories. Focus grabs France, Benelux, and South Africa. Sony takes Portugal and 4 other territories.

Read more about our POV on the film here:
https://theindustry.co/p/hope

Mini Tidbits:

Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Everytime gets North American distribution with 1-2 Special (Urchin). Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner’s Everytime is a meditative drama on grief and how it is able to bring people together.

A trio of Mubi Cannes films sells to international territories via The Match Factory. More details here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Remember last week, Amazon MGM launched a trio of AI animated series? Well, director Jorge R. Gutierrez, who was slated to direct Punky Duck, has dropped out.

That’s a big deal given Gutierrez helmed 20th Century’s The Book of Life, Nickelodeon’s El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera and Netflix’s Maya and the Three.

Alice Rohrwacher’s (La Chimera) buzzy feature adaptation, Three Incestuous Sisters, has not only officially begun production but has also been confirmed as a black-and-white silent film.

Evoke Entertainment (prod co: Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie) scores a $35M production financing credit facility.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Amores Perros is getting a TV series. Yes, the original screenplay for the classic Iñárritu film (his directorial debut!) has been picked up by Spain-based AF Films (prod co: Sorry, Baby).

No word on how they’re expanding the film, but the original is a monumental achievement in cinema history. Here’s an excerpt from the ‘01 NY Times review:

“While ’Pulp Fiction’ was a brilliant meditation on all things pop, ’Amores Perros’ is weightier. The characters are more complex; the three stories all tackle themes of love and redemption.”

Interest in this film is high. Last year, it played at Cannes Classics, and afterward, Mubi picked up the worldwide rights for the 4K restoration.

Modern Family star Sofia Vergara’s production company, LatinWe, is also working on the series adaptation.

Mini Tidbit:

Big window. No whammies. The Korean Ministry of Culture and its film council is in talks to try to get a 6-month exclusive window for films before they go to streaming. If this passes, it would be a beacon for all countries to follow.

ON THIS DAY

1926. Marilyn Monroe born in Los Angeles.

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

The film follows two couples (Josh Gad + Ashley Park & Alexandra Daddario + Daveed Diggs) who get trapped in a secluded cabin during a New Year’s blizzard. And although that seems like a horror setup, it’s a relationship drama that takes on an element of the horrific when Gad and Daddario realize their spouses have done the unspeakable.

Gad shared his takeaway from the film:

“You have to bury the past and mourn it and let go of it and find a new beginning like a phoenix out of the ashes.”

It’s quite an enlightened perspective, something it takes the characters a long time to reach.

Kirkpatrick shared:

“It's about the mask that we present to our partners. And if you're people who were together for a long time, who did not reintroduce themselves to each other and drifted like this… so we're watching the schism between the truth and what they're saying is the truth. That's the movie.”

As the film evolves, it becomes about how much we’re willing to damage our self-worth to prop up our relationships and how, only by being vulnerable, can we begin again.

During the interview Gad gave a deep dive into his methodologies and what he’s learned from his years as a prolific voice actor (Frozen, Pixels, Zootopia 2).

Kirkpatrick also breaks down her biggest challenges on this film, which was her directorial debut, including a very tricky tree.

Here is the trailer:

Now available on VOD.

HBO’s Angel Heart, Paramount’s Midnight Library, and Moriarty.

Let’s go!

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

The Brooklyn Film Festival kicks off today. Here’s our full interview with the festival director + breakdown of all the hidden gems:
https://theindustry.co/p/the-brooklyn-film-festival-lineup

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Zac Efron stars in HBO/A24’s Angel Heart series from Zach Baylin.

• Paramount buys Florence Pugh fantasy drama The Midnight Library for $36M.

• Chris Hemsworth develops narrative feature around Tatts Finke Desert Race.

• Netflix wins murder thriller series The Long Now.

• North Road lands family-horror drama Sunken Meadow.

• Karen Gillan joins Apple’s Shrinking for Season 4.

• Kevin Bacon boards 20th Century Studios’ rom-com Beach Read.

• Tony Shalhoub cast in CBS’s Einstein.

• Greenwich Entertainment acquires Berlinale prize winner Queen at Sea.

• Alice Rohrwacher teams with Our Films on adaptation The Baron in the Trees.

• Janus Films picks up Cannes Jury Prize winner The Dreamed Adventure.

• Fremantle and Archery Pictures develop Sherlock-adjacent Moriarty series.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Cedric Diggory, Robert Pattinson’s Harry Potter character.
73% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Zac Efron, Angel or Devil? In an interesting turn, Zac Efron, who played a wrestler in A24’s The Iron Claw, may now be reviving one of Mickey “The Wrestler” Rourke’s most iconic roles: Harry Angel in Angel Heart.

If you haven’t seen Angel Heart, it involves a washed-up private investigator (Rourke) who is contacted by a mysterious man (Robert De Niro). Trailer.

In The Iron Claw, Efron proved he can believably go to the end of his wits, so we’re interested to see what he does with it.

HBO and A24 are collaborating on the series from Zach Baylin (creator: Black Rabbit) and Jonathan van Tulleken (dir: Shōgun).

Paramount picks up North American + other rights for The Midnight Library starring Florence Pugh for $36M. The fantasy drama is a “love letter to life” from Lion director Garth Davis.

In a truly beautiful synopsis, Pugh will play a woman who finds herself in a library between life and death, given the chance to experience all the potential lives she could have lived.

The Midnight Library is being distributed by StudioCanal in the U.K., France, Germany, and six other territories, w/ Paramount handling the rest of the world.

Why did they pay such an eye-watering sum? Well, the model is already proven with StudioCanal/A24’s We Live in Time, starring Pugh, also as a woman caught between life and death, made $58.7M worldwide. Paramount wants a piece of the action.

Chris Hemsworth’s F1… in the desert. Chris Hemsworth and his production company, Wild State Media Company, are developing a narrative feature around the Tatts Finke Desert Race – Australia’s most extreme desert motorsport event.

Hemsworth has set an exclusive partnership with the race organization to produce multiple projects surrounding the two-day race. After watching Brad Pitt tear through the Mexican desert in the Baja 1000 sequence in F1 (2025), we got a glimpse of just how cinematic off-road racing can be.

Add that danger to Hemsworth’s racing-film charisma from Rush (2013), and this already sounds like a ride worth taking.

Tidbits:

In a competitive bidding war, Netflix has won The Long Now, a series from Mad Men writer and producer Semi Chellas. Taking place during just seven hours, the thriller series will follow a man racing against time in an attempt to solve his own murder with the help of his estranged ex. Through their first-look deal with the streamer, Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films will produce alongside Chellas.

North Road Television Studios (Backrooms) scores big, landing Sunken Meadow, a drama pilot from writer Mac Smullen (dir. documentary short Children of the Moon). Described as being within the horror genre and rooted in a dynamic family drama, all other plot details are being kept under wraps. Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap is in talks to also board as a producer, potentially making this sale even bigger for the relative newcomer Smullen.

Mini Tidbit:

Netflix animators have voted to ratify their first union contract with The Animation Guild, with 89% in favor.

Trailers:

CW’s All American S8

• Trailer

• Release: June 22

The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes

• Clip

• Greek Coming-of-Age Film

• SXSW London Premiere: June 6

Apple TV’s Sugar S2

• Trailer

• Cast: Colin Farrell

• Release: June 19

Netflix’s In the Hand of Dante

• Dir: Julian Schnabel

• Trailer

• Cast: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich

• Release: June 24

State of Firsts (doc)

• Trailer

• Cast: Sarah McBride

• Release: June 12

Mubi’s Fatherland

• Trailer

• Cast: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler

Netflix’s I Am Frankelda (animation)

• Trailer

• Release: June 12

First Look:

Netflix’s On Behalf of My Son

• First Look

• Release: TBD

Release Dates:

Lionsgate’s John Rambo

• Dir: Jalmari Helander (Sisu franchise)

• Cast: Noah Centineo, David Harbour, James Franco

• Release: June 4, 2027

Shoot dates:

A24’s Scapegoat

• Dir: Ari Aster

• Cast: Scarlett Johansson

• Shoot Dates: November 2026 ~ TBD

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Guardians of the Galaxy actress Karen Gillan is heading back to the small screen, set to join Apple’s Shrinking for its fourth season. The entire main cast, including Jason Segel, Harrison Ford and Michael Urie, will return for the fourth season that’ll feature a time jump and an entirely new storyline.

While Gillan has spent most of her career in feature films, she notably broke out with her fan-favorite turn as the Doctor’s companion Amy Pond, on BBC’s Doctor Who.

Her next TV role in the Bill Lawrence dramedy is currently unknown.

Kevin Bacon joins the cast of 20th Century Studios’ rom-com Beach Read. Based on a NYT bestseller of the same name, the film follows a romance novelist who suffers from writer’s block while grieving her father’s death. During her Lake Michigan beach house getaway, an unexpected reunion with an old college writing nemesis reignites her spark.

Phoebe Dynevor (Fair Play) and Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus) star in the film as the leads. No info on Bacon’s role, but his suave charisma has always made him a natural fit for romantic comedies, with memorable appearances in Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011).

It would be interesting to see him as Walt Andrews, the deceased father of the romance writer who was keeping a dark secret from his family.

Tidbits:

Tony Shalhoub (Monk) joins CBS’s upcoming series, Einstein as a guest star. The show follows Lewis Einstein (Matthew Gray Gubler) – the great-grandson of Albert Einstein – who ends up helping a local police detective solve her cases. This role will reunite Shalhoub with the EP of comedy-drama Monk, Andy Breckman. Shalhoub will play Jack Einstein, Lewis Einstein’s father and the grandson of Albert Einstein.

Casting tidbits:

• Mika Abdalla

• Mary McDonnell

• Zsa Zsa Zemeckis

• Paul Sparks

All those casting tidbits here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Greenwich Entertainment has just picked up North American rights for:

• Queen at Sea

  • Cast: Juliette Binoche

  • Dir/Wri: Lance Hammer (Ballast)

  • Prod. Co: The Bureau (A Little Chaos)

Synopsis:

As advanced dementia erodes an older woman’s ability to communicate her inner life, her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests, navigating love and the fragile boundaries between care, protection, and autonomy.

The film won Berlin’s Silver Bear Jury Prize as well as Best Supporting Actor for Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall. Releasing later this year.

It has been a big week for Our Films. Shortly after their Cannes Best Director-winning Fatherland (dir. Paweł Pawlikowski), producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli’s Our Films banner is joining forces with the La Chimera and The Wonders director Alice Rohrwacher on her feature film The Baron in the Trees.

Adapted from the 1957 novel of the same name, the award-winning story follows a young boy who is bullied so badly by his older sister that he decides to climb a tree and never set foot on the ground again.

Rohrwacher’s films always feel handmade, mixing realism and folklore. The Baron in the Trees is just right for her filmmaking style; she is capable of making any setting feel really immersive and a little magical.

Our Films and Rohrwacher will begin production after the latter wraps on her highly anticipated current feature adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s novel The Three Incestuous Sisters.

Tidbits:

Janus Films has obtained the North American rights to Cannes’ Jury Prize-winning The Dreamed Adventure. Part crime saga, part meditative drama, the film comes from German filmmaker Valeska Grisebach (Western) and follows an archaeologist who travels back to her dangerous hometown in the border region of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.

National Geographic buys BBC’s docudrama Titanic Sinks Tonight, following the final hours of the tragic maritime disaster. It will recreate the dramatic elements of the sinking of the Titanic using actors from Northern Ireland and combine it with documentary interviews. The BBC miniseries was a major hit for BBC Two during its premiere in December 2025. Sony Pictures Television said it was the most-watched doc of 2025-26 so far. Nat Geo will launch the series in the U.S. on June 22.

Tony Award-winning Hollywood legend Nathan Lane is getting a feature doc on his life, career, and legacy from filmmaker Matthew Miele (Always at the Carlyle). With three Emmy awards and 25 Broadway productions under his belt, the doc will trace Lane’s extensive body of work on the stage and screen with appearances from famous friends like Matthew Broderick, Jean Smart, and Mel Brooks. It hasn’t been long since Miele’s last star-focused doc, Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion (2024), which is now on HBO.

Starboard Entertainment acquires Wardcliffe, a pandemic thriller starring Joel McKinnon Miller (Brooklyn Nine-Nine). Based on real events, the film follows a tense relationship between a father and a son who are quarantined together during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes, but a new series is in the works, shifting the spotlight to his greatest adversary, James Moriarty.

From Fremantle and Archery Pictures (Operation Mincemeat), the modernized crime series will follow Moriarty as a respected professor of criminal psychology by day and the architect behind an infamous criminal enterprise by night. From Ralph Fiennes to Andrew Scott in the hit BBC drama Sherlock, a number of high-profile British names have portrayed the brilliant, but ruthless, evil genius with all eyes on who will be cast to lead the new take.

With the villain at the center, the series promises a more twisted take on the Sherlock Holmes universe, with writers Chris Cornwell (A Discovery of Witches) and Oliver Lansley (Where’s Wanda?) on board.

Production has not yet begun on Moriarty (working title).

Mini Tidbit:

India’s Impact Films (Indian Distribution: The Zone of Interest) acquired both Cannes Palme d’Or winner Fjord and Grand Prix winner Minotaur – before the festival ever opened. The wins give Impact Films its third Palme d’Or acquisition, having handled the Indian distribution for Parasite (2019) and Triangle of Sadness (2022).

ON THIS DAY

1958. Annette Bening born in Topeka, 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

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

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

• Brooklyn Film Festival Actor Spotlight, highlighting the top talent at the festival.

• Brooklyn Film Festival Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, showcasing first and second-time filmmakers.

• Brooklyn Film Festival International News, showing the top international filmmakers at Brooklyn.

All titles are linked to the Brooklyn Film Festival’s website, which has first look photos and trailers.

Enjoy!

Brooklyn Film Festival brings together hidden gems from around the globe. They’re playing films from larger international film festivals like:

• Berlinale

• Sundance

• SXSW

As well as films from smaller regional festivals that have yet to screen in the US and in NYC.

The most interesting film I saw on the line-up was Tony Odyssey, which looks like a cross between the films of Spike Lee and Buñuel.

Synopsis:

After robbing the bar where he works, Tony and his best friend Ivy steal a hallucinogenic drug that sends them on a surreal Brazilian odyssey—where crime, faith, and illusion collide in a search for God.

I couldn’t stop looking at the trailer.

BROOKLYN ACTOR SPOTLIGHT:

In A Mosquito In The Ear, Jake Lacy (The White Lotus) gets himself into another loaded relationship drama about economic imbalance. In The White Lotus, Lacy played a privileged man who could check out of the relationship with Alexandra Daddario. In this film he plays a father who adopts a 4-year-old Indian girl who doesn’t want to leave her home behind.

Synopsis:

Andrew and Daniela travel to Goa, India, to meet their newly adopted 4-year-old daughter, Sarvari, and bring her back to the US. However, their world begins to crumble when Sarvari refuses to leave the orphanage that she calls home behind.

We look forward to seeing Lacy playing at the edge of his comfort zone. That’s where he becomes really profound.

Lukas Haas (Witness, Brick, Inception) co-stars in Crystal Cross.

Synopsis:

Two unlikely companions are on a doomed but beautiful road trip across America. Dotty, a Christian singer in trouble, believes she’s received a sign from God when she meets James, a man who looks strikingly like Jesus.

Haas doesn’t play either, yet he shifts their relationship in an interesting way.

Jessica Alba is also EPing Valentina.

Synopsis:

A series of bureaucratic mishaps plagues Valentina as she tries to tackle a simple to-do list at the El Paso-Juarez border.

The film is a hybrid doc/live-action, which may have attracted Alba to champion the project.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Helena Ganjalyan and Bartosz Szpak direct a taut and unsettling film, Glorious Summer, which premiered at SXSW in 2025.

Synopsis:

A sun-drenched Renaissance palace. Three women exist in an airy state of suspension, a liminal, responsibility-free bubble, where summer never ends. An enigmatic system fulfills all their needs - providing food, entertainment and a daily routine focused on wellness affirmations.

It’s surreal, angular and enigmatic. Trailer.

Josh Peters (prod: Didi, Josephine EP: The Last Showgirl) is producing a film at the BK film festival, which premiered at Sundance, If I Go Will They Miss Me.

Synopsis:

Twelve-year-old Lil Ant struggles to connect with his father when he begins to see surreal, almost spectral visions of boys drifting around his neighborhood. Their presence reveals a link between father and son, laying bare the threads that bind family, legacy, and place

Based on the 2022 short (video) won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

Nick Butler’s film Lunar Sway looks like Paris, Texas, with a Brooklyn vibe.

Synopsis:

Cliff is a young man looking for love in all the wrong places in a small desert town. When his birth mother, Marg, arrives unexpectedly they start to connect. But her secrets soon catch up with them.

There’s the longing western wide shots, the unspoken truth, and the reconnection to family. The neon-drenched night (trailer).

Mini Tidbits:

And a doc that really hits MÀQUINA about a father and son on a road trip where the dad’s alcoholism leads them to a psychedelic-assisted addiction treatment in Colorado. The trailer (above link) shows us a pretty raw vision for their relationship.

We love high school follow-up docs. From Iron Maidens to Prime’s Crime 101. And now we have Rocket Girl, which plays like the doc version of October Sky. What attracts people to these types of films?

There’s something harrowing about the animation in Your Attention Please. Maybe because it so abstractly and poignantly reflects the doom loop destructive, vacuum-like quality of social media. Featuring an interview with Tristan Harris (Center for Humane Technology).

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Two projects that caught our attention:

Nuclear Boy

Synopsis:

The lonely 17-year-old outcast AIKE (Guus Blanken) craves attention and finds it online where he conducts dangerous chemistry experiments. Hoping to pull Aike out of his internet bubble, his mother (Jelka van Houten), a hardworking nurse,

1001 Frames (Premiere - Berlinale Panorama 2025)

Synopsis:

In the studio of a well-known director, female actors audition for the role of Scheherazade in “A Thousand and One Nights”. But the women gradually realize that the director has more in mind than just casting the leading role.

See the full list of 2026 Brooklyn films here.

Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.

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Robert Pattinson’s Time, Alan Ritchson’s Reach, and Cheese.

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Robert Pattinson doesn’t mind wading into slippery moral territory.

He’s now taking on the role of Chris Hansen, most famous for hosting Dateline’s To Catch a Predator (2004-2007) series, which outed child predators live on TV.

The dicey morality of that show was recently explored in Paramount+’s doc Predators (2025), which ultimately showed how these accused child predators were ensnared by a TV show designed for drama at the expense of their mental and physical health. At one point, the doc shows us a man caught by Hansen, who, instead of surrendering to the authorities, ends his own life.

We love this role for Pattinson because it allows him to play in both territories in which he excels: the slimy self-confident protagonist, as demonstrated so well in Tenet (2020) and Good Time (2017), while also delving into the more twisted ethical territory that his recent films occupy.

Recently, he starred in A24’s The Drama, where he must reckon with the newfound information that his soon-to-be wife (Zendaya) has a past so twisted it may be beyond repair. Previously, Pattinson was paired with Jennifer Lawrence in Mubi’s Die My Love (2025), where he was confounded by her violent postpartum depression, moving from an equally wild partner to a disenchanted caretaker.

To see Pattinson move from self-confident to morally corrupt is a beautiful arc that bridges the emotional territory of his iconic performances. We can’t wait to see what he delivers.

For More:

A24’s Primetime trailer.

Paramount+’s Predators trailer.

A 6-minute quasi-trailer for Dateline’s original To Catch a Predator show.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Alan Ritchson signs three-year first-look TV deal with Amazon MGM Studios.

• David E. Kelley adapts book Nightshade as HBO Max series Welcome to Catalina.

• Amazon MGM sets Michael Bublé and Drew Scott hockey docuseries.

• Matthew Perry’s former assistant gets 3.5 years in prison.

• Curry Barker (dir: Obsession) fields eight-figure offers for his next original film.

• Ted Danson cast as Elizabeth Banks’ father in Apple’s new comedy series.

• Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie casts Willa Dunn as Nellie Oleson.

• Amazon MGM greenlights three AI series.

• Tribeca premieres AI-produced feature Dreams of Violets.

• Mk2 picks up sci-fi feature Two Sleepy People.

• Greenwich Entertainment acquires Plan B’s micro-budget film Olmo.

• Willa acquires Take Me Home, which premiered at Sundance.

• Obscured Releasing picks up cheese-competition doc The Big Cheese.

• AF México acquires remake rights to Italian hit Follemente.

Yesterday’s correct answer: 2002, the year Focus Features was founded.
42% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Alan Ritchson (Reacher) signs a three-year first-look TV deal with Amazon MGM Studios. Under the new deal, Ritchson and his production company, Dancing Skeleton, will develop new projects for Prime Video.

Ritchson has been building an ongoing relationship with Amazon MGM as the titular character Jack Reacher for 3 seasons in Prime Video’s Reacher, with the fourth season set to premiere later this year. Season 3 of the show garnered more than 54M global viewers in its first 19 days of release, setting a record for the most-watched returning season of television on Prime Video.

Ritchson is also a producer and a star in two Amazon MGM films, the Christmas movie The Man With the Bag starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and an untitled Vietnam War film.

Prime’s biggest series all seem to tilt toward action from The Boys, to The Rings of Power to Fallout to Reacher, so doubling down on Ritchson is smart business.

Tidbits:

Big Little Lies and L.A. Law creator David E. Kelley is adapting bestseller Nightshade into a series inspired by yet another Michael Connelly crime novel for HBO Max. Titled Welcome To Catalina, the series is centered on an exiled former country sheriff whose slow-moving, quiet work on Catalina Island is interrupted when a lifeless body is found in the harbor. The development news comes amid filming for the fifth and final season of Kelley and Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer.

Amazon MGM Studios recruits Grammy-winning artist Michael Bublé and Property Brothers’ reality realtor Drew Scott for the docuseries Hometown Giants. The six-part series will follow the two stars as new part-owners of their childhood’s local hockey team, the Vancouver Giants. In similar Welcome to Wrexham fashion, the docuseries will explore its two dedicated star owners and a team overflowing with potential, this time set in the competitive world of Canadian junior hockey.

Matthew Perry’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison (he faced up to 15 years). Iwamasa stopped seeing Perry in his callous pursuit of profit. Read more about Perry’s incredible life and battle with addiction here: https://theindustry.co/p/matthew-perry-sylvester-stallone-a-cactus

Mini Tidbit:

Curry Barker (Dir: Obsession) is getting 8-figure offers for his next movie that he hasn’t even pitched yet. Studios have gone as far as offering $10M for Barker’s next original film. And that tracks as Obsession has already made $80M on a $1M budget.

The Jim Henson Company, formerly known as Muppets, Inc., hires Shirley Bowers as VP of Global Distribution.

Private investment firm Advaya Capital completes a deal to buy Box Office Data firm Comscore Movies. They paid $70M.

Byron Allen closes major purchase: 52% of BuzzFeed for $120M. He will become the majority shareholder and the CEO.

Howard Storm, the director of legendary sitcoms of the 70s and the 80s, dies at 94. Storm’s extraordinary career included ABC’s Mork & Mindy, which was Robin Williams’ big break, as well as episodes of Full House, Rhoda, ALF, and Valerie.

Renewals:

Prime Video’s The Rings of Power (renewed for S4)

• Filming: 2027

Toho’s cult anime Dorohedoro (renewed for S3)

Trailers:

Sony Pictures Classics’ Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

• Trailer

• Cast: Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, John Slattery

• Release: July 10

Prime Video’s Groundswell

• Trailer

• Cast: Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson

• Release: June 5

Mubi’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

• Dir: Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow)

• Trailer

• Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson

• Release: Aug 7

Universal Pictures’ Disclosure Day

• Dir: Steven Spielberg

• Trailer

• Release: June 12

Action Thriller Citizen Vigilante

• Dir: Uwe Boll

• Trailer

• Cast: Armie Hammer

• Release: June 19

Netflix’s Enola Holmes 3

• Trailer

• Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Louis Partridge, Himesh Patel, Henry Cavill

• Release: July 1

Tandem Pictures’ Test

• Trailer

• Release: TBD

Disney+’s X-Men ‘97 S2

• Trailer

• Release: July 1

First Look:

HBO’s The White Lotus S4

• First Look at Cannes scene

• Cast: Chloe Bennet, Ben Kingsley, Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan, Laura Dern, Charlie Davis

Apple’s Last Seen

• First look

• Release: Sept 19

Release Dates:

Penny Lane’s Owl doc Wild Inside

• Cast: Flaco, the Eagle-Owl

• U.S. Premiere: July 29

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Ted Danson is beginning to learn his way around a retirement community. Apple TV’s next comedy series cast the Cheers actor to play divorcée Elizabeth Banks’ father, whose retirement sexcapades get in the way of her second act for herself and her kids.

In the recently renewed Netflix comedy A Man on the Inside, Danson plays a retired professor who goes undercover at a retirement community as a favor for a private investigator.

The untitled Apple series has not yet begun production.

Mini Tidbits:

Adam Godley (Elliot in Breaking Bad) has Conviction. Godley joins the cast of Hulu’s Conviction, a legal drama starring Elisabeth Moss from creator David Shore (House). No word on Godley’s role, but he had a fragile stiffness as the billionaire in Breaking Bad that was iconic.

It wouldn’t be Laura Ingalls Wilder’s story if a pestering Nellie Oleson wasn’t over her shoulder. The second season of Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie reboot casts Willa Dunn (Only Murders in the Building) as Nellie, the spoiled playground bully who, beneath her mean-girl persona, yearns for true friendship. S1 premieres on Netflix this July.

A$AP Rocky, who’s had quite a year acting in a pair of A24 films (Highest 2 Lowest and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), is getting Tribeca X’s Filmmaker of the Year Award.

Two obits:

Charles Cioffi, best known for his performance as Tom Cruise’s dad in All the Right Moves (1983) and Lt. Vic Androzzi in the original Shaft (1971), dies at 90. He also made appearances in TV shows like Days of Our Lives, The A-Team, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, and Hawaii Five-0.

French actor Pierre Deny (Tomorrow Is Ours), known for his role on Netflix’s Emily in Paris, has died at 69 from his battle with ALS. Deny appeared as the scene-stealing fashion boss Louis de Léon, a recurring antagonist in the drama’s third and fourth seasons.

TECH SECTION

AI film is flooding the zone. Today, three big announcements:

First, Amazon MGM and Amazon Web Services greenlit 3x AI series, including Cupcake & Friends from BuzzFeed Studios. Full details here.

Second, the Tribeca Film Festival is premiering the first fully AI-produced feature, Dreams of Violets (trailer), EP’d by Tom Rogers (former Pres: NBC Cable).

Third, Artlist, the stock footage site, is serving as the production company on an AI horror film, Terrarium, produced by Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity).

Luckily, if any of these end up on YouTube, they’ll be labeled as AI creations.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Mk2’s Iron Lung play. French sales rep mk2 (which had 7 films at Cannes, including Grand Prix winner Minotaur), just picked up European rights for Two Sleepy People.

Synopsis:

Two office colleagues become spouses each night, only to return as strangers when morning comes.

It’s almost like a dream-like version of Groundhog Day by way of Severance. Incredibly, the film was made for $100K by digital creators Baron Ryan (2.9M TikTok followers) and Caroline Grossman (294K IG followers).

We’ve been seeing massive success for digital creators turned filmmakers recently:

• Iron Lung

  • Dir: Markiplier (38.6M YT subs)

  • $40.9M domestic total

  • $50M worldwide

  • $3-4M budget

• Club Kid

  • Dir: Jordan Fistman (823K IG followers)

  • Sold to A24 at Cannes for $17M

• Backrooms

  • Dir: Kane Parsons (3.1M YT subs)

  • A24 film that is tracking to open at $40M

We wish mk2 the best of luck for this sci-fi mind-bender.

Three acquisitions:

Plan B’s first micro-budget film Olmo just got picked up by Greenwich Entertainment for North American rights. When the film premiered at TIFF we did a deep-dive interview with the director, Fernando Eimbcke (​Duck Season​) and Plan B co-president Jeremy Kleiner: https://theindustry.co/p/plan-b-a-gem

Olmo premieres August 7.

Willa (dist: The Voice of Hind Rajab) acquired rights to the Sundance premiering Take Me Home, Liz Sargent’s feature debut. The film follows Korean adoptee Anna who while caring for her aging parents experiences in their Florida suburb experiences a sweltering heat wave that changes everything. Willa is planning a fall theatrical run.

Indie distributor Obscured Releasing (Endless Cookie) has picked up North American rights to The Big Cheese. The film follows an underdog American team that competes for first place at France’s Cheese Olympics. It plays like a heartfelt cheese version of those old Food Network chocolate sculpture competitions (trailer). Releasing in August.

International tidbits:

• AF México’s remake

• Warp Films (Prod Co: Netflix’s Adolescence) new hire

• All3Media exec retires

All those tidbits and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1976. Taxi Driver wins the Palme d'Or.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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Focus Features’ Obsession, Cooper Hoffman’s TV and Quaid goes West.

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THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Focus Features’ Obsession jumps 39% in its second weekend.

• Patrick Paolini named Tegna CEO.

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

• Skywild Pictures options Tom Ryan’s adult mystery The Treasure Hunters Club.

• Crave options Penelope Douglas’ dark romance Five Brothers after Heated Rivalry.

• Cooper Hoffman makes TV debut in Hulu drama pilot Durango.

• Cuba Gooding Jr. boards Hong Kong-Philippine action thriller Lotus.

• Brian Geraghty joins Matt Ross’ crime thriller Kockroach.

• Ray Mendoza casts Sam Worthington and Jack Quaid in Blood on the Promontory.

• Osmosis Global acquires documentary Stan Lee: The Final Years.

• Veep writers Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci set to pen Paddington 4.

• WestEnd Films secures global deals for Maisie Williams thriller Ignition.

• Netflix launches first Brazilian medical drama Med starring Clara Moneke.

Last correct answer: Marty first film to win Palme d’Or.
14% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Focus Features’ Obsession pays off big time. The film, which they acquired for $15M out of TIFF, in what was a major strategy shift took a massive 39% week 2 INCREASE at the box office this past weekend.

This is almost unheard of, only matched by Sound of Freedom (2023).

For a horror film, it tops the genre’s previous top three’s smallest week 2 drops in the 2020s:

• Sinners (2025)

  • 6% week 2 drop

  • $48M opening

  • $45M 2nd weekend

  • $280M domestic total

  • $370.3M worldwide

• Get Out (2017)

  • 15% week 2 drop

  • $33.4M opening

  • $176.2M domestic total

  • $255.8M worldwide

• Smile (2022)

  • 18% week 2 drop

  • $22.6M opening

  • $105.9M domestic total

  • $217.4M worldwide

This puts director Curry Barker in a rare category of horror directors, one that is already seeing him take on iconic IP like A24’s new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. He may be the next Zach Cregger, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, or Jordan Peele.

Tidbits:

The Oscar-winning costume designer, Albert Wolsky, has died at 95. From the gritty, Bob Fosse-inspired dancewear in All That Jazz (1979) to the iconic, skin-tight pants and leather jackets in Grease (1978), Wolsky’s versatile career spanned five decades, reaching far beyond the movie musical to acclaimed dramas like Sophie’s Choice (1983) and Revolutionary Road (2008). His costumes became as memorable as the performances themselves, and he will be very missed.

Patrick Paolini is the new CEO of Tegna (value: $3.2bn, with 64 local stations). Right now a judge has blocked the Nexstar-Tegna merger while antitrust issues are reviewed. And for good reason, Nexstar’s value is $6.3bn with 200 local stations. If approved by the FCC, the combined companies would own 80% of local stations across the US.

Keep This to Yourself author Tom Ryan’s The Treasure Hunters Club is being optioned for a series by Toronto’s Skywild Pictures (Our Little Secret). Ryan’s first detour from YA to an adult murder mystery that sees three strangers who come together in a remote seaside town to uncover lost pirate treasure. Ryan’s Our Little Secret and The Affinities are also being adapted.

Canada’s Crave, the streaming service behind Heated Rivalry, has optioned its next series adaptation of dark romance Five Brothers from author Penelope Douglas. The story follows one woman who discovers the steamy secrets of the mysterious five Jaeger brothers.

Renewal:

CBC’s Saint-Pierre (Renewed for S3)

Trailer:

Netflix’s Calabasas Confidential

• Trailer

• Release: May 29

Premiere Date:

Paramount+’s All the Queen’s Men S5

• Premiere Date: June 10

Paramount+’s Ruthless S6

• Wri: Tyler Perry

• Cast: Melissa L. Williams, Matt Cedeño, Lenny Thomas, Yvonne Senat Jones

• Premiere Date: June 30

Christopher Nolan: Grand Designs

• Nolan retrospective at TIFF showing all his films on 35mm and 70mm

• Dates: July 8-Aug. 20

• Trailer

Netflix’s Sacrifice (just acquired)

• Premiere: TIFF 2025

• Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans, Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel

• Release Date: TBD

Netflix also recently scooped another less-than-stellar reviewed festival film with an A-list cast, In the Hand of Dante (Premiere: Venice).

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Cooper Hoffman is headed to Hulu. The Long Walk actor is making his television debut in the drama pilot Durango, from writer Eliza Clark (FX’s Y: The Last Man), 20th Television, and Media Res.

A love story following two Gen Z drifters on the run from the cops after a string of terribly impulsive decisions, Hoffman will play Mikey, a street-savvy former snowboarding legend who not only falls for the new girl in town but is brought into all the trouble she brings.

We’ve seen Hoffman portray a young man caught somewhere between charm and their own self-destruction before, like in his breakout role in the Best Picture-nominated Licorice Pizza (2021), as the fast-talking, overly ambitious hustling teenager Gary Valentine. These two limerence-stricken, reckless young men feel close to the same kind of unpredictable chaos Hoffman plays really well with.

There is no word yet on who else will star in Durango.

Tidbits:

Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) boards Hong Kong-Philippine action thriller Lotus. No detail on the plot, but the production will run from September through October in Manila. It has been a while since Gooding Jr. has been in an action thriller role, but he may have a spark of the intensity and grit he showed earlier in his career with Judgment Night (1993, trailer).

Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) joins the cast of Matt Ross’ (Dir: Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen) thriller Kockroach. Based on William Lashner’s novel of the same name, the film follows an outsider who rises through New York’s criminal underworld. Geraghty joins a star-studded cast including Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, and Rachel Sennott.

Mini Tidbit:

Kate Mansi is exiting ABC’s General Hospital. After three years in the role of Kristina Corinthos Davis and even directing two episodes of the show, she has made the decision to leave the show at the end of her current contract.

Apple TV’s Off Weeks casts Tony Award nominee Tom Francis (Broadway’s Sunset Blvd.) to star as Richard Gere’s son in the new limited series. The drama follows Ben Stiller’s stressed divorcee character who begins to fall for a woman (Jessica Chastain) during the off weeks where he doesn’t have his children.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Ray Mendoza (Co-dir: A24’s Warfare) has found his troops.

He has cast Sam Worthington, Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard), and Jack Quaid in his western drama, Blood on the Promontory. The film follows five convicts shackled together by foot as they try to escape through the mountains following a train robbery.

In Warfare, Mendoza took 20+ actors, some of whom seemed most at ease with lighter films (Will Poulter, Kit Connor, etc.), and turned them into more grounded, precise fighting machines. And then dragged them through hell to test their mettle.

No word on the exact roles for Worthington, Courtney, and Quaid. But the casting of Quaid here is exciting, given that Quaid is trying to further cement himself as an action hero post-The Boys with Novocaine. If Mendoza captures that same level of raw realism and camaraderie he brought to Warfare, this transforms Quaid, giving him a level of machismo intensity vs. his usual skittishness.

The Final Years of a Marvel Legend. Osmosis Global (Distributor: We Will Dance Again) acquires the rights to the documentary Stan Lee: The Final Years, which tells the tumultuous story of Lee’s final years.

Told through his longtime assistant Jon Bolerjack, the feature doc is a wild portrait of how Lee was taken advantage of in his last years by various people who wanted to take control of his care and his estate. Using footage Bolerjack shot before Lee’s death in 2018, the film raised nearly $85,000 on Kickstarter when it was announced in March 2025.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The writing masterminds behind HBO’s Veep, Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci, are set to pen the highly anticipated Paddington 4.

Besides feeling like a warm hug for 120 minutes, the franchise has grossed over $800M worldwide. Featuring a large ensemble cast of English greats like Hugh Bonneville and Julie Walters, endlessly lovable and critically untouchable, Paddington has become one of the most beloved family IPs around.

Blackwell and Iannucci both share a specific dry sense of European humor that, paired with Paddington’s signature slapstick and sincerity, would make them a strong fit for the franchise.

StudioCanal announced the next installment at CinemaCon last month, with no word yet on what Paddington’s next adventure will be.

Tidbit:

WestEnd Films (sales rep: Green Room) has secured multiple global deals for the Cannes-launched thriller Ignition, starring Maisie Williams (GoT). Some of the sales include Signature Entertainment (Couture) for the U.K. and Twelve Oaks (Palm Springs) in Spain. Sharing the screen with BAFTA nominee Rory Kinnear (No Time to Die), the film follows Williams as a woman unwittingly drawn into a terrifying terrorist plot.

Mini Tidbits:

Accent Aigu Entertainment (Prod Co: Heated Rivalry) undergoes structural changes. Company co-founders Jacob Tierney (Showrunner: Heated Rivalry) will switch his role to Chief Creative Officer, and Brendan Brady (Producer: Heated Rivalry) will take on the role of CEO.

Netflix is launching its first Brazilian medical drama, Med. Clara Moneke (Vai na Fé) will star in the series, which will follow a groucp of young doctors working in a busy university hospital. Netflix recently opened a new Brazil HQ this January.

Park Seo-ham (Our Universe) and Kim Ji-yeon (The Haunted Palace) to lead a Rakuten Viki series, Dive Into You. The series will follow a woman who is thrown back in time after a near-fatal incident and finds herself body-swapped with her twin brother. The fantasy romcom will be produced by Dexter Pictures (Prod Co: Head Over Heels) and Rakuten Viki.

ON THIS DAY

2005. Madagascar 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

Cannes’ Coward, Warner’s Winner and an Iron Boy.

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

As the Cannes festival draws to a close, I’m headed back to NYC early to catch Daniel Radcliffe in his final performance of Every Brilliant Thing

So, without further ado, here’s my biggest takeaway from the festival.

Filmmakers love telling stories about artists, and it’s not a bad thing.

In 3 of the official selection films, the main character is a filmmaker:

• Sony Pictures Classics’ Bitter Christmas - Dir: Pedro Almodóvar

• Gentle Monster - Star: Léa Seydoux (her character’s husband is a documentarian)

• The Beloved - Star: Javier Bardem

If you expand that out to artists, you include 6 more official selection films:

• Neon’s The Unknown (photographer)

• Neon’s All of a Sudden (theater director)

• The Man I Love (performance artist)

• Garance (actress)

• Fatherland (writer)

• Parallel Tales (novelist)

That’s 40% of the Official Selection of artists.

Plus, shout out to Mubi’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (which opened Un Certain Regard), which also had the main character as a filmmaker.

The most glorious example is All of a Sudden, directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) - deep dive on why it’s my favorite film of the festival here.

But I’ve just seen one of the final films to premiere in Cannes’ Official Selection, Coward, which sees live performance art used as an escapist cure to the horrors of war. The characters in the film use it as a linchpin for their own relationship. And whether that romance is its own escapist fantasy is the question at the heart of the film.

More From Cannes:

La Bola Negra from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, also, in Competition, is the new Palme d’Or frontrunner. The film has a great lead cast of Glenn Close, Penélope Cruz, and Julio Torres.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Bill Lawrence and Warner Bros. TV adapt alien-abduction romance novel.

• Kerry Washington stars in and EPs Hulu thriller series What Remains.

• Lionsgate reports $906M Q4 revenue, with film division revenue up 23%.

• Courtney A. Kemp signs exclusive Apple TV overall deal.

• Julianne Moore leads Higher Ground’s untitled Netflix mother-daughter comedy.

• Kyle Gallner reunites w/ Strange Darling director JT Mollner for Sony horror.

• Sadie Soverall joins Brady Corbet’s occult epic The Origin of the World.

• Harry Melling joins HBO’s Task Season 2 as a hot-headed DEA agent.

• Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning wins Directors’ Fortnight award.

• Sony Pictures Classics picks up Cannes animated title Iron Boy.

• 20th Century adapts Choose Your Own Adventure w/ Radio Silence directing.

• Supriya Pathak Kapur makes directorial debut w/ Toronto Market title Our Story.

• LuckyChap’s Irish famine thriller Bad Bridgets lands at Netflix.

Yesterday’s correct answer: 2 Night at the Museum films feature Rami Malek.
49% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Book Adaptations:

Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence and Warner Bros. Television are adapting Steven Rowley’s novel Take Me With You into a series. Lawrence is coming off HBO’s touching and hilarious dramedy Rooster. Rowley’s freshly published story follows a longtime couple whose stagnant relationship is thrown into chaos when one of them is seemingly abducted by aliens, taking the Bill Lawrence TV universe into sci-fi territory for the first time.

Hulu is moving forward on a series adaptation of thriller What Remains, with Kerry Washington on board to star and EP. The story follows a detective and a devoted wife who is reeling from the guilt of killing a disturbed man in the line of duty. In her post-Scandal TV career, Washington has appeared in numerous book adaptations, consistently playing women haunted by the choices they were forced to make. From Imperfect Women to Little Fires Everywhere.

2026 is looking up for Lionsgate. Here are the Q4 2026 numbers, plus the change from last year:

• $906M total revenue

  • ↑ 4.7%

• $651.9M total film division revenue

  • ↑ 23%

• $30.5M total TV division revenue

  • ↓ 25%

• $70.2M profit

  • Up from $3.6M loss

Thanks to their strong IP library and well-performing titles, Lionsgate’s next quarter only sees more growth, beginning with Michael on track to pass $300M domestically this weekend and become the first biopic to gross $1bn worldwide.

Full breakdown here.

Mini Tidbits:

Courtney A. Kemp (Showrunner: Starz’s Power) signs an Overall Deal with Apple TV. Under the new deal, Kemp and her company End of Episode will develop and create a series exclusively for Apple TV. Kemp has a long streak of success in television, including an Emmy nomination for her writing in CBS’s The Good Wife and her new series, Netflix’s Nemesis, which garnered more than 7M viewers in its opening week.

She’s been to Paris, to Rome, to Greece, and now we’ll be saying goodbye to Emily in Paris officially ending with its upcoming sixth season on Netflix.

Trailers:

Bleecker Street’s Victorian Psycho

• Trailer

• Cast: Maika Monroe

• Premiere: Cannes Un Certain Regard

HBO’s Earth, Wind & Fire

• Trailer

• Dir: Questlove (Summer of Soul…)

• This year’s opening night film at Tribeca

First Look:

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil

• Poster 1

• Poster 2

• Release: Sept 18

Constantin Film’s Into the Deep Blue

• First Look

• Cast: Damian Hardung (Maxton Hall), Sara Waisglass (Ginny & Georgia)

• North.five.six is handling worldwide sales at Cannes

Release Dates:

Lionsgate’s Day Drinker

• Cast: Johnny Depp, Madelyn Cline, Penélope Cruz

• Dir: Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer)

• Release: Mar 26, 2027

Lionsgate’s The Resurrection of the Christ

• Dir: Mel Gibson

• Release Date: May 6, 2027 (Ascension Day)

The Resurrection of the Christ Part Two

• Release: May 25, 2028

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Julianne Moore is back as a panicking mother.

Julianne Moore will star in Netflix’s untitled comedy film, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s company Higher Ground. The film is being described as a multi-generational story in the same vein as Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), following a paranoid mother (Moore) whose daughter receives a cross-country promotion, forcing her to try to find a romantic partner to make her stay.

While Moore has frequently played mother characters, her roles are much deeper than they look. In May December (2023), she played a mother who was previously a sex offender who had sex with a 13-year-old. In When You Finish Saving the World (2022), she played a highly controlling mother who had a contentious relationship with her son.

We would love to see her panic and control in something lighter.

Tidbits:

A Strange Darling reunion. Actor Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling, Smile) is attached to director JT Mollner’s next horror, Sony Pictures’ Skeletons, from producer J.J. Abrams. Joining Oscar winner Brie Larson, the film is told from the perspective of a young boy who slowly begins to discover his parents are hiding a disturbing secret. Mollner likes to play with perspective, in his psychological thriller Strange Darling (2023), where Gallner played “the Demon”, a masochistic, eerie figure whose performance only became richer and more compelling as the film revealed who he truly was. Skeletons feels like a strong follow-up for both the director and Gallner.

Brady Corbet’s buzzy new epic The Origin of the World casts English actress Sadie Soverall (Every Year After) who joins its A-list headliners Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, and Selena Gomez. Soverall played the posh girlfriend to Jacob Elordi’s character in Saltburn. The film is about “American mysticism and the history of the occult,” with shooting beginning this September.

Harry Melling (Pillion) joins the cast of HBO’s Task S2. The show follows a reluctant task force FBI chief who hunts down a group of thieves in a Philadelphia suburb. Melling will play a hot-headed DEA agent working for Eddie Barnes (Mahershala Ali), directly going up against FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo). Melling has made a reputation for melancholy, serene roles through his performances in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) and Pillion (2025). We are excited to see Melling go up against Mark Ruffalo.

Casting Tidbits:

• Dev Patel

• Amita Rao

• Jason Alexander

All those tidbits and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

The BAFTA-nominated indie director Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning has won the audience award at Cannes for Directors’ Fortnight. The film follows five childhood friends who have all hit 30 and are faced with the realities of their lives. The script is adapted by Irish playwright and Small Things Like These (2024) scribe Enda Walsh. Developed by BBC Film, Barnard’s longtime producing partner Tracy O’Riordan of Moonspun Films is also behind this feature.

Two Cannes US distributor pickups:

La Gradiva

• Dist: 1-2 Special (A Poet) for North America

• Dir: Marine Atlan (cinematographer The Girl in the Snow)

• Winner of best film at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week

Synopsis:

A group of high school students sets off on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii. They are seized by a sense of vertigo. They allow themselves to be overwhelmed by desire and anger, until they surrender completely.

Iron Boy

• Dir: Louis Clichy (animator on WALL•E)

• Premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes

• Dist: Sony Pictures Classics for North and Latin America, India, and Southeast Asia

Synopsis:

Christophe, a 10-year-old boy with balance issues navigates life in an orthopedic brace while his struggling family farm faces modernization. Torn between independence and mending ties with his distant father, he weighs his future.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

We’re letting the audience choose how the movie ends. 20th Century Studios is making a film adaptation of Choose Your Own Adventure with Radio Silence (Prod Co: Ready or Not franchise). Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Dirs: Ready or Not) are set to direct the script written by Tom Bissell (Wri: Andor).

Choose Your Own Adventure was a hit literary series of “gamebooks” in the late 20th century, in which readers could decide how the story ends.

That just seems like a cozy fit. The first Ready or Not film has a card drawing sequence early on that determines the random fate of all the characters much akin to these books.

There have been many efforts to experiment with this “active” storytelling, most notably with Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) that allowed its viewers to select how the main character would act in each narrative crossroad. We don’t yet know how Radio Silence will implement the key element of Choose Your Own Adventure to the screen. How will they pull it off?!

Indian actor Supriya Pathak Kapur makes her directorial debut with the loosely biographical film Our Story. The film will follow three women across three generations of the Pathak Kapur family. The script was co-written with her daughter Sanah Kapur. Our Story hits the TIFF Market in September.

LuckyChap’s Irish thriller Bad Bridgets has made its way to Netflix. Starring CODA’s Emilia Jones and Irish actress Alison Oliver (Saltburn), the drama is set in famine-ravaged 19th century Ireland following two sisters’ perilous journey to New York and the mayhem that awaits them there. From BAFTA-winning director Rich Peppiatt (Kneecap) the film is expected to drop on the streamer mid 2027.

New Indonesian drama Gasigogi finds its director in Miracle in Cell No.7 filmmaker Lee Hwan-kyung. The film is an intimate father and son story made for audiences to “understand the silence of their parents before it’s too late.” From Falcon Pictures (Indonesia dist. Sentimental Value), filming will begin this summer.

ON THIS DAY

2011. The Tree of Life wins the Palme d’Or.

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

Rami Malek’s Love, Michael Bay’s Fury, and Skyward.

Let’s go!

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

Rami Malek blew me away in The Man I Love. This is the Ira Sachs film that debuted at Cannes last night.

He plays Jimmy, a star in the local NYC 1980s musical theater scene. The entire performance reminded me of this Blade Runner quote:

“The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”

Malek has warped his entire physicality for this role. The film opens with him trying to get into a comfortable reading position in bed. And the way he twists and contorts his body communicates not just his queerness but also that this is not an easy world for him to find comfort.

The trick of the film is that we open with him on a high note; he’s in fine form, commanding a room with his lively over-the-top imitations (John Wayne, women, and a granny - clip below).

But we know something is lurking, as Malek’s boyfriend, played by Tom Sturridge, knows that this creative mania can only last so long.

Watching Malek later lose his grip on reality in a way we haven’t quite witnessed is startling. He pushes so hard to keep his identity as a performer, but it’s as if he’s shown up to the wrong play; the cue mismatches betray that he’s losing his mind.

Malek has always been good at this type of work. His breakout, of course, was Mr. Robot, where he became disconnected from reality as a sort of technological paranoia that turned out to be true.

In The Man I Love, this turn is more tragic and more profound.

For More:

Clip of Malek in the film.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Universal taps Michael Bay for military rescue thriller Operation Epic Fury.

• Ryan Condal extends exclusive HBO deal through 2029.

• David Fincher’s Cliff Booth Netflix movie gets two-week global IMAX run.

• Matt Damon eyed to replace Ryan Gosling in Daniels’ Universal sci-fi comedy.

• Renate Reinsve joins Mia Hansen-Løve’s biopic If Love Should Die.

• Quinta Brunson develops Betty Boop feature w/ Fleischer Studios.

• Ciarán Hinds joins Amazon motorcycle racing drama Isle of Man.

• Nicholas Braun cast in Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down.

• Leos Carax sets dystopian Jenna Ortega feature Lily May B.

• Tomorrow Studios adapts Brandon Sanderson sci-fi novel Skyward.

• Media Res promotes Christina Malach to President of Scripted Series.

• BBC develops new Hercule Poirot series for late 2027.

Yesterday’s correct answer: 4 actors played Jobs (Kutcher, Fassbender, Wyle, Long).
45% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

The newest Michael Bay big-budget movie is a heroic true story ripped straight from the headlines. The director is set to helm a Universal Pictures film based on the high-risk U.S. military rescue mission “Operation Epic Fury” that was planned to save two American pilots after their jet was shot down in Iran.

The film is perfectly tailored to the Pearl Harbor director’s sensibilities. Bay is commonly associated with hyper-patriotic military spectacle, oversized action, and sensory-overload heroism; the movie’s plot will follow the upcoming book by Mitchell Zuckoff hitting shelves next year.

Bay’s last collaboration with Universal was for the high-stakes Jake Gyllenhaal-led Ambulance (2022), with his newest military epic in the works as part of the Bay’s production deal with the studio.

Tidbit:

Ryan Condal (Wri/Showrunner: HBO’s House of the Dragon) renews his exclusive deal with HBO through 2029. Condal served as a co-showrunner for the first season of HBO’s hit show and has been the only showrunner for the past 2 seasons. The series has garnered more than 25M average cross-platform viewers per episode. Seems like HBO is believing in Condal to expand their Game of Thrones universe, with Condal EPing A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as well.

Mini Tidbit:

Cliff Booth in IMAX. Netflix has announced that David Fincher’s Cliff Booth movie will get a two-week global IMAX run beginning Thanksgiving week before premiering on the streamer Dec. 23.

The owners of the Lord of the Rings IP, Embracer Group, are putting the rights of the LOTR and Tomb Raider franchises under a newly formed Fellowship Entertainment in Stockholm.

Renewals:

Apple TV’s Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars for S2

• E.P: Gordon Ramsay’s Studio Ramsay

Trailers:

Netflix’s Little Brother

• Trailer

• Cast: John Cena, Eric André

• Dir: Matt Spicer (Ingrid Goes West)

• Release: June 26

First look:

Onward and Sideways

• First Look

• Cast: Laura Linney, Rhys Ifans (House of the Dragon)

• Dir: John Madden (Shakespeare in Love)

• U.K. Dist: BBC One

Release dates:

Blood Moon Rite 8

• Vietnamese comedy

• Release: May 22nd

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Matt Damon is going to get goofy.

The Everything Everywhere All at Once directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s newest film, described as a “fun sci-fi action comedy” from Universal Pictures, is now eyeing Damon to replace Ryan Gosling.

Prior to Damon, Jack Black was also named for the part, and while I wouldn’t initially put these three in the same category, they’re each capable of elevated performances rooted in comedy, still filled with the depth and complexity the Daniels look for.

Set across both the ‘80s and the present day, The Daniels said the film involves “global warming, time travel, and a possible superhero angle.” Speaking with Daniel Kwan at SXSW, he told me it was actually an anti-time-travel movie.

Production is expected to begin this summer in LA and premiere Nov 2027.

Renate Reinsve is quietly becoming the actress everyone wants to work with.

Fresh off her Oscar nomination for leading Joachim Trier’s beautiful Sentimental Value, Reinsve is teaming up with acclaimed French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve for If Love Should Die, a biopic about pioneering feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft.

Set on the eve of the French Revolution, the film will focus on the final 12 years of Wollstonecraft’s life and her journey to becoming one of the Enlightenment’s most radical thinkers.

The film continues Hansen-Løve’s pattern of ambitious but self-destructive women (Goodbye First Love), a dynamic that quite seamlessly aligns with the roles Reinsve likes to take on. Drawn to romanticizing messy women, she has a knack for making her characters feel honest.

Reinsve’s next film is A24’s Backrooms, which is already tracking a massive opening weekend.

If Love Should Die will pick up cameras this summer in Europe, with MUBI attached to produce and co-finance.

Boop! Quinta Brunson is set to star as the iconic Betty Boop in a feature film she is developing with her banner Fifth Chance Productions, Fleischer Studios, and Mark Fleischer, grandson of Betty Boop creator Max Fleischer.

Brunson’s ABC comedy Abbott Elementary practically revived the modern mockumentary genre, solidifying the Emmy winner as not only a sharp writer but one of Hollywood’s funniest leading ladies. Brunson has a natural ability to make optimism feel funny instead of naive, possessing a bubbly warmth that completely embodies who Betty Boop is.

Tidbits:

Oscar-nominated Belfast actor Ciarán Hinds is the newest addition to Amazon Studios' Isle of Man, a drama following an iconic motorcycle race starring Channing Tatum and Eve Hewson. A commanding character, from Game of Thrones to There Will Be Blood, Hinds has a gritty, weathered demeanor in every role he takes on, so while character details are being kept under wraps, he feels perfectly suited for a grounded racing drama. Production is beginning this week.

The anticipated 13th season of American Horror Story has just added to its ensemble with two returnees. John Carroll Lynch (Ballard) and Mat Fraser (Gangs of London) both starred in the series’ Freak Show back in 2015 and will now be joining franchise regulars Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, and Jessica Lange for the next installment.

Nicholas Braun has been cast in The Entertainment System Is Down from Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund. His highly anticipated nightmare airplane film with an already stacked cast (Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst).

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Vaneast Pictures’ romantic period film, Prisoners of Paradise, gets North American distribution with Vantage Media (The Poet). The film stars Ellie Bamber (Nocturnal Animals) as a young woman sent to live under her uncle's guardianship, who finds unexpected love with a local laborer. Vantage has set the film for an August release.

Cannes Market addition:

Controllers

• Int. Sales Rep: Myriad Pictures (This Tempting Madness)

• Prod: Cassian Elwes with Elevated Films (Dead Man’s Wire)

Synopsis:

Follows two sisters isolated on a remote farm after an outbreak, raised to fear Controllers who can manipulate through touch, whose world unravels when a stranger arrives.

Full list of Cannes market films here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

French filmmaker Leos Carax’s next feature, Lily May B is an end-of-the-world, dream-like drama with Jenna Ortega to star.

Synopsis:

Follows a little girl, a young woman, and a young boy, each holding a heavy secret, who meet in a dystopian world and ride a motorcycle through empty cities and forests, searching for their identities.

The synopsis has me giddy. If you’ve seen The Lovers on the Bridge (1991) or Holy Motors (2012), you know that Carax can inject a dark surrealism into seemingly normal settings. This is a wild inversion; he’s actually going to start with a dystopia. No question, this will lead to us seeing the many parallels to our world. I can’t wait to see his interpretation of this.

I believe the best film of the 2010s was his magnum opus, the Cannes premiering Holy Motors (2012, trailer). It takes Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage” to its oddest and most maximalist dimensions.

Filming on Lily May B begins next spring.

The producers behind Netflix’s One Piece, Tomorrow Studios, are set to adapt Skyward, the bestselling sci-fi novel from author Brandon Sanderson. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. creator Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen will write the pilot of the adventure story centered on a dangerous planet where mysterious alien forces threaten humanity.

The Morning Show’s Media Res has just promoted Christina Malach to President of Scripted Series. Joining in 2023 as SVP of Development, Malach has overseen the development of Netflix’s Enigma Variations and her most recent venture, the hit Peacock miniseries The Miniature Wife. She will take on her new role within the indie studio’s leadership team immediately.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

BBC is in the works on a Hercule Poirot series. This is the famed detective from the Agatha Christie novels. Three or more seasons are already in the works with an initial release date of late 2027. Mammoth Screen (And Then There Were None) serves as the prod co.

Yves Montmayeur (Dir: The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Maddin, Best Documentary Winner for 2015 Venice Film Festival) is making Twist & Shoot Mister Suzuki, a documentary examining the life of Japanese cult filmmaker Suzuki Seijun (Dir: Branded to Kill)

Beach House Pictures (Singaporean Film Company) announces two new documentaries, Panda School and Secret Weapons of China’s First Emperor. Panda School follows a cohort of giant panda cubs at a conservation facility in China, narrated by comedian and actor Jimmy O. Yang (Interior Chinatown). Secret Weapons of China’s First Emperor follows how Qin Shi Huang, the emperor of Qin China, rose to power using military innovations.

ON THIS DAY

1990. Wild at Heart wins the Palme d’Or.

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

Apple’s Got Money Troubles, Warner Bros.’ Rattles, and a Bishop.

Let’s go!

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

I sat down with Eva Anderson, the writer, EP, and co-showrunner on Apple TV+’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles.

The series follows Elle Fanning as a college student whose path to becoming a writer gets derailed as she encounters major money troubles and turns to OnlyFans modeling.

Anderson shared how her show resists easy cliches:

“This is never going to be a show about somebody who’s like a superstar OnlyFans model. That’s not mostly because I don’t think Margo cares about that. She doesn’t want to get super rich. She just wants to like be a weird, creative freak and get by…”

While the opening of the series centers on how her artistic passion becomes a trap, there are larger forces at work. Not just artistic expression, but genetic as well.

Anderson explained:

“If you don’t get the full formula, some of her decisions can seem kind of nuts and unrelatable. But once you’re like, oh, this is her mom (Michelle Pfeiffer). Oh, and this is her dad (Nick Offerman). Okay. I feel like she kind of clicks into place in a way that makes Elle’s performance completely make sense.”

And while Fanning is to a degree bound to biological mirroring, we watch in wonder as she forges a better life for her child.

For More:

Full interview with Eva Anderson + trailer.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Warner Bros.’ Clockwork lands Park Chan-wook’s Brigands of Rattlecreek.

• Netflix taps Philip Barantini to remake Steve McQueen’s The Getaway.

• John Ottman sets Billy Joel biopic Billy & Me.

• Netflix signs creative partnership w/ Super Mario Bros. directors.

• Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions develops series adaptation of 4MK novels.

• Warner Bros. moves forward on Rick and Morty movie.

• Warner Bros. production EVP Kevin McCormick exits studio role.

• ABC orders Texas-set Grey’s Anatomy spinoff.

• Rhea Seehorn joins Gavin O’Connor’s homeless prodigy drama Running.

• Snoop Dogg stars in boxing drama The Faith of Long Beach.

• Michael Chiklis joins Amazon MGM culinary thriller Tyrant.

• Francesca Scorsese joins S2 of Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

• Jennifer Beals joins Amazon thriller series Bishop, w/ Joel Kinnaman starring.

• Briarcliff Entertainment acquires SXSW comedy Drag (prod: Danny DeVito).

• Alfonso Herrera signs directing and EP deal with Sony Pictures Television.

I’ve just gotten out of Cannes official selection Minotaur, from Andrey Zvyagintsev, who wrote and directed Leviathan (Cannes, Best Screenplay, 2014). It is a taught, astonishing tale of a man trying to protect two kingdoms: home and company. Hanging over the entire thing is a blind sense of duty blanketing everything, that adds a wonderful absurdism. It is one of the stronger films at this year’s festival.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Pusher - Nicolas Winding Refn’s first feature.
54% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

While sitting comfortably as the President of the Cannes jury, director Park Chan-wook’s upcoming western, Brigands of Rattlecreek, has sold to Warner Bros. specialty label Clockwork for North America.

The buzzy film boasts a star-studded lineup of Matthew McConaughey, Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal, and Chinese actor Tang Wei (Decision to Leave), following a small-town sheriff and a doctor seeking revenge on a wild group of bandits. A master of both melodramatic violence and darkly poetic storytelling, it will be fascinating to see the western genre through the eyes of The Handmaiden director.

Clockwork’s only other project is the (also high-profile) follow-up feature from Anora helmer, Sean Baker’s Ti Amo!

Filming on Brigands of Rattlecreek is expected to start early in 2027.

Netflix’s Getaway. Philip Barantini (Dir: Netflix’s Adolescence) is remaking Steve McQueen's classic action film The Getaway (1972, trailer) for Netflix. The original film follows a paroled bank robber and his loyal wife who must outrun both corrupt lawmen and dangerous hitmen as they flee their way to cross the border into Mexico with a satchel of stolen cash. Peter Craig (Wri: The Batman) will write the script and produce the film.

The level of craftsmanship in Netflix’s Adolescence for their intricate police sequences has awed millions of viewers all over the world. While we followed the police in the series, we would love to see a version where the audience follows bank robbers as they try to escape from the police and hitmen. The reversal could result in something more morally chaotic – a ride we would love to join on.

Billy and Me, but hold the Billy. Oscar-winning editor John Ottman (Bohemian Rhapsody) is set to direct a biopic exploring the formative years of New York legend and “Piano Man” singer Billy Joel. The film is set to be told through the eyes of his first manager, Irwin Mazur, spanning the late ‘60s until Joel signed his breakout Columbia Records deal in 1972.

Joel, however, is not on board. The singer has publicly pushed back against the project, with his representative stating that the filmmakers:

“Do not possess Billy Joel’s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required.”

The film follows last year’s Tribeca opening night documentary, HBO’s And So It Goes (trailer), a two-part exploration with exclusive interviews with the singer and an extensive look at his six-decade-long career.

Tidbits:

The TV screen can no longer contain the chaos. Warner Bros. is moving forward on a Rick and Morty movie with one of the show’s key directors, Jacob Hair, attached to helm the feature-length project. Hair has directed some of the series’ most beloved episodes (“The Vat of Acid Episode”, “Rickmurai Jack”), becoming one of the strongest creatives behind the scifi madness alongside show creator Dan Harmon. The news comes ahead of the Emmy-winning show’s ninth season launching on Adult Swim next weekend.

Netflix signs creative partnership with Super Mario Bros. directors, Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath. The deal will see the duo develop both animated series and films for Netflix. Jelenic and Horvath have a long resume in directing animated films. They gained attention for their creative animation in Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go! and its spinoff film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018). They recently reached a multi-million dollar success with The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026), which earned more than $2bn worldwide.

Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions is developing a series adaptation of J.D. Barker’s 4MK thriller series. Barker’s novel follows Detective Sam Porter as he hunts the Four Monkey Killer, a serial murderer who has been terrorizing the city for years. The show will draw from Barker’s original trilogy (The Fourth Monkey, The Fifth to Die, The Sixth Wicked Child) as well as the recently announced prequel trilogy. Channing Powell (Showrunner: Tales of the Walking Dead) will showrun, write, and EP the show alongside Stallone.

Mini Tidbits:

Veteran Warner Bros. EVP of Production Kevin McCormick (Saturday Night Fever) is leaving the studio to take on a producer deal on the lot. His first project is the WB reboot of The Bodyguard, along with a number of studio-to-stage adaptations like Crazy Rich Asians and A Star Is Born.

Grey’s Anatomy in Texas. ABC just ordered a spinoff of its hit series Grey’s Anatomy, co-created by the original series’ creator, Shonda Rhimes. The show is being described as an edgy drama about a team at a rural West Texas medical center. Meg Marinis (Showrunner: Grey’s Anatomy) and Ellen Pompeo (EP: Grey’s Anatomy) will also EP the new series.

Head of the Television Literary Department Felicia Prinz is leaving LA-based talent agency Verve to be a partner at Range Studios (The Lincoln Lawyer). Some clients joining Prinz include Ransom Canyon show creator April Blair and The Bold Type creator Sarah Watson. Prinz is set to be replaced at Verve by TV talent agent Chris Noriega.

Trailers:

Paramount+’s The Agency

• Trailer

• Cast: Michael Fassbender, Jodie Turner-Smith

• Release: June 21

Starz’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan S5

• Trailer

• Release: June 12

HBO’S Bring Me the Beauties

• Trailer

• Docuseries on male supermodel Hoyt Richards

• Release: June 1

Comedy Central’s South Park S29

• Teaser

• Release: Sept 16

Production Dates:

20th Century Studios’ King Conan

• Dir: Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible)

• Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Conan the Barbarian)

• Shooting: 2027

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Rhea Seehorn has found her next Apple project. Not long after taking home a Golden Globe for leading Vince Gilligan’s ambitious Apple sci-fi series Pluribus, Seehorn has joined the cast of Running.

From director Gavin O’Connor (The Accountant), the film follows a homeless high school prodigy attempting to use his gifts for greatness as he runs away from his family and his past.

While Seehorn’s part is unknown, there’s a creative DNA here similar to her breakout role as Kim Wexler on Gilligan’s Better Call Saul. Smart and sure of herself, Wexler was able to let her guard down around the lovable but skeevy Saul, recognizing both his destructive impulses and undeniable talent. That same dynamic, empathy in the face of inconspicuous potential, would fit well in Running, with Seehorn as a patient character able to see past flaws and understand what someone could become.

Tidbits:

Snoop Dogg stars in boxing drama The Faith of Long Beach, alongside Brandon Perea (Nope). Written and directed by Eric Amadio (Snowfall), the film follows a street fighter raised in a Long Beach group home who tries to find a career in professional boxing. No info on Snoop’s role yet, but we would love to see him as a mentor figure for this struggling boxer. Snoop Dogg has played a washed-up NFL superstar sentenced to community service coaching a youth football group in Prime Video’s The Underdoggs (Trailer). We hope to see the same playful yet sincere energy in this new drama.

Amazon casting tidbits:

• Michael Chiklis

• Francesca Scorsese

• Jennifer Beals

All three here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Three films join the Cannes Market, including one starring Melissa Leo. More details on those films + the rest of the movies at the Market here.

Cinetic is having a busy couple of weeks. The New York-based Cinetic Media (Fjord) has worldwide sales rights to Freefall, a documentary following two of the world’s “most celebrated aerial daredevils”. The doc marks a reunion between Cinetic and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story’s Passion Pictures.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Briarcliff Entertainment’s newest pickup is very Briarcliff (The Apprentice). The studio has acquired distribution rights to SXSW heist thriller-comedy Drag starring Lizzy Caplan, John Stamos, and Lucy DeVito (Leaves of Grass).

Blending crime with comedy chaos, it’s the exact type of edgy, mid-budget adult genre fare that most would pass on, but the studio has built its brand around.

The feature directorial debut of Disney Channel actor Raviv Ullman (Phil of the Future), the film follows two estranged sisters who attempt a simple home burglary that spirals into a nightmarish ordeal and a race to escape, unpacking endless layers of sibling rivalry. It’s absurdist then nightmarish and we totally dug it when we saw the premiere at SXSW.

We even interviewed producer Danny DeVito and daughter Lucy about the film. Check that out here.

Mini Tidbits:

Indie distributor Sox Entertainment (Judy Justice) has picked up the rights to Stronger Than You Think, a documentary telling the inspiring story of Paralympic swimmer Ali Truwit. The film will look closely at the 2024 Paris Games, where Truwit won two silver medals less than a year after losing half her leg in a shark attack.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Romanian filmmaker Constantin Popescu (Dir: Pororoca) is directing the first two features in a new franchise, Birds of the Soul. The film will be set in the Carpathian Mountains in 1917, following a remote village haunted by wartime paranoia and supernatural forces. The new franchise will be launched by Just Entertainment (Distributor: Inspector Gadget) and AiMation.

The premise strongly reminds us of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), a historical film set during wartime, but it blends mythical elements into its story. Popescu is well-known for bringing a certain level of realism and atmosphere to his work, and we are looking forward to seeing how he will collide the very real terrors of war with the supernatural.

Mini Tidbit:

Ozark actor Alfonso Herrera has signed on to a behind-the-camera deal with Sony Pictures Television to direct and executive produce future series. With an extensive background in both English and Spanish-language TV, Herrera will have a focus on building up the Latin American slate for SPT.

ON THIS DAY

1908. James Stewart born in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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