The Oscars, The FCC, and The Kidnapping of Chris Pine.

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I want to thank The Academy for inviting me to The Oscars, the Scientific and Technical Awards show, the one you don’t see on TV.

The night celebrated the unsung heroes of the film industry, the engineers, the technicians, the chemists, the programmers, with jokes like:

“Can we have a moment of silence for dialogue editors?”

The entire night was a mini masterclass in the most cutting-edge technological inventions that shape the molecular structure of the movies we love.

Here are three of my favorite Technical Achievement Award-winners:

• Benjamin Graf

Designer and engineer of dxRevive Pro, a tool that restores noisy/unusable on-set dialogue without sacrificing the realism and continuity of the on-set performances.

Potential danger: It uses a neural network trained on ethically sourced data samples, thereby reducing the need for ADR in post-production.

• Pav Grochola and Edmond Boulet-Gilly

Designers and engineers of beautiful 2D hand-drawn animation tools that supercharged the look of Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Their program, Superdraw and Kismet, allowed for detailed linework without the need to draw every frame. Lines actually followed a performance.

Sony’s visually sumptuous explainer video here.

• Justin Webster

For creating Matchbox, a program that tracks picture edit changes and synchronizes them with your sound designers’ sessions. Result: You don’t need to wait for picture lock to start doing sound design.

If you’ve ever edited, this is a huge game-changer.

The Scientific and Technical Oscars ceremony was a wonderful demasking of movie magic in a way that paradoxically made me fall in love with cinema even more.

For more:

Full list of winners here, including three companies that removed lead from squibs.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• FCC opens review of Disney-owned ABC’s broadcast licenses.

• Prime Video develops NASCAR family drama Godspeed.

• Blumhouse Television adapts Shusuke Shizukui’s Japanese thriller Sparks.

• Shubhangi Shekhar directs Indian basketball doc Hoop Like This.

• FilmLA reports LA shoot days are up quarterly but still down YoY.

• Empire Strikes Back Oscar-winning sound mixer Steve Maslow dies at 81.

• Vanessa Kirby & Lewis Pullman star in Kitty Green’s sci-fi feature The Spacesuit.

• Laura Dern replaces Helena Bonham Carter in The White Lotus S4.

• Annecy slate includes Netflix’s Ray Gunn and Alley Cats.

• Cannes Market titles include The Saviors and Sender.

• Oscilloscope picks up Chris Pine’s film The Kidnapping of Arabella.

• Adam Gyngell and Fred Fernandez-Armesto write Netflix’s Black Box.

• Greenwich acquires Sundance-winning drama The Friend’s House Is Here.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit, Tarantino’s first script.
11% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

The FCC has opened an accelerated review of Disney-owned ABC’s broadcast licenses, tied to the recent public controversy surrounding Kimmel’s late-night show comment referring to the first lady as an “expectant widow”.

FCC chairman Brendan Carr has ordered Disney to file within 30 days, despite the station’s renewals originally scheduled for 2028 and 2031.

The now Josh D’Amaro-led Mouse House released a statement signaling its confidence in its compliance with FCC regulations. We’ll see if they bend over or take a stand.

Read our cover story on Kimmel’s return this past fall here.

Tidbits:

Apple loves F1, and Amazon loves NASCAR. The streamer is developing Godspeed, a family racing drama from Underground co-creator Joe Pokaski. Prime already has extensive NASCAR coverage with the series set to follow one of the last family-owned teams in racing, who, after a death on the team, must rally together to protect their legacy and chase a championship. If greenlit, the series begins production early 2027.

Billionaire Barry Diller, who was the head of Paramount Pictures from 1974 to 1984 and the founder/chairperson of the media company IAC, which owns Dotdash Meredith (People, Entertainment, Travel + Leisure) and The Daily Beast, is cutting staff. Under the new brand name “People Incorporated,” 77 IAC roles are expected to be eliminated as the company is “consolidating corporate functions.”

Blumhouse Television acquires the rights to Shusuke Shizukui’s Japanese novel Sparks. Krystal Houghton Ziv (The Purge) will be the writer of this psychological thriller. The original novel that sold over 770K copies follows a serial killer suspect who moves in next door to the home of a judge who freed him two years ago. This isn’t the book’s first adaptation; Fuji TV (major Japanese TV network) already turned it into a critically acclaimed miniseries back in 2016.

Mini Tidbits:

The production company behind Netflix’s You, Alloy Entertainment, has upped Chelsea Kardos (prod. Amazon’s The Probability of Miracles) to VP of TV. Previously, a longtime exec at AMC Networks.

Film and TV production in LA is showing early signs of recovery, though still below the previous year’s numbers, according to FilmLA’s latest report:

Q1 On-Location Shoot Days 2025 → 2026

• TV: 1,353 → 1,215 SD

  • ↓ 10.2%

• Feature Films: 451 → 463 SD

  • ↑ 2.7%

• TV Pilots: 17 → 13 SD

  • ↓ 23.5%

The total shoot days for the quarter are up ↑ 10.7% (5,121 SD) from last quarter (4,625 SD) but ↓ 3.3% YoY (5,295 SD 2025 Q1).

The slight overall dip masks some real movement; film activity is steadily rising while television production remains in flux.

Read the full FilmLA report here.

Steve Maslow, the sound mixer of The Empire Strikes Back, dies at 81. Apart from his Oscar-winning work for the Star Wars title, Maslow has also worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Speed (1994), Dune (1984), and Waterworld (1995).

The man behind He-Man, Roger Sweet, has died at 91. Sweet created the action figure that later spawned into the ‘80s cartoon series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-85) as well as many other iterations, including Amazon and Mattel Films’ live-action version this June.

Renewals:

Netflix’s Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 (Renewed for S2)

Prime Video’s Hazbin Hotel (Renewed for S5)

Trailers:

Apple TV’s Ted Lasso S4

• Trailer

• Cast: Jason Sudeikis

• Release: Aug 5

First Look:

Prime Video’s Sterling Point

• Dir: Megan Park (My Old Ass)

• First Look

• Cast: Ella Rubin, Jay Duplass

• Release: Aug 5

Netflix’s The Last House

• Dir: Louis Leterrier (Now You See Me)

• First Look

• Cast: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura

• Release: Aug 7

Release Date:

Neon’s Animated Feature Ally

• Dir: Bong Joon-ho

• Newly acquired

• Release: Early 2027

Focus Features’ Hot Spot

• Dir: Agnieszka Smoczyńska (The Silent Twins)

• Cast: Noomi Rapace

• Release: Aug 21

Hulu’s Docuseries The Cult of NatureBoy

• Dir: Ben Zand (CEO of Zandland)

• U.S. Release: April 28

• International Release: July 15

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Laura Dern is joining the season four cast of HBO’s The White Lotus, following Helena Bonham Carter’s sudden departure.

Dern has a long history with both HBO (Big Little Lies) and show creator Mike White, with whom she co-created the underrated satirical dramedy Enlightened (2011-13), also for the prestige TV network.

While the Oscar winner has never appeared onscreen in The White Lotus, she did voice Michael Imperioli’s estranged wife in the show’s second season. Dern will take over Bonham Carter’s role (although Mike White is writing something new for her) with filming ongoing in France.

Looks like the Invisible Woman is going to space again.

Vanessa Kirby (Fantastic Four: First Steps) will star in writer/director Kitty Green’s (The Assistant) science fiction feature The Spacesuit. Another Marvel star, Lewis Pullman (Thunderbolts), joins her in the cast.

The film follows an astronaut (Kirby) who is forced to make an impossible decision after her co-pilot (Pullman) causes a disastrous incident days before lift-off.

It would be interesting to see Kirby’s take on a grounded science-fiction role. HanWay Films is the sales rep.

Casting Tidbits:

• Utkarsh Ambudkar

• Susan Wokoma

• Sam Neill

Here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival just revealed its slate for this year. Here are some top projects:

Netflix’s Ray Gunn

• Prod: Skydance Animation

• Dir: Brad Bird (The Incredibles)

• Cast: Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits

• Synopsis: Ray Gunn, the last human private detective, in a futuristic world inhabited by humans and aliens.

Netflix’s Alley Cats

• Wri: Ricky Gervais

• Cast: Ricky Gervais, Kerry Godliman, David Earl

• Synopsis: Follows a group of feral British cats navigating life, companionship, and survival in a disused basement.

Full list of Annecy animations here, including Laika’s Wildwood with Carey Mulligan and Mahershala Ali.

Cannes Market additions:

The Saviors

• Int. Sales Rep: Protagonist Pictures (Int. Sales The Brutalist)

• Dir/Wri: Kevin Hamedani (Junk)

• Cast: Adam Scott (Severance), Danielle Deadwyler (Till), Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine)

• Prod. Co: Amasia Entertainment (Wild Mountain Thyme)

• Premiered at SXSW

Synopsis:

An estranged couple rents out their Airbnb, but soon start to suspect their guests might be plotting something nefarious. As the couple investigates, they rekindle their relationship and discover something stranger than they could have imagined.

Full list of Cannes Market projects here, including SXSW’s Sender starring Rhea Seehorn and Britt Lower.

Mini Tidbits:

Andy Garcia (Ocean’s 11) is back in the director’s chair with Diamond, playing Out of Competition at Cannes. The Veterans (Paper Tigers) have boarded as the sales rep. The cast includes Brendan Fraser, Dustin Hoffman, and Bill Murray.

Canneseries’ Disney+’s Alice and Steve, starring Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement, won Best Series and two other awards. From writer Sophie Goodhart (7 eps Sex Education). First look and more details here. The 2027 Canneseries will be held in February.

Full breakdown on the Gotham TV Awards here:
https://theindustry.co/p/gotham-tv-awards-nominees-2026

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Oscilloscope Laboratories picks up North American Rights to The Kidnapping of Arabella, co-starring Chris Pine in his first Italian-language film.

The film premiered at Venice’s Horizons section last year and is the 2nd film from Italian filmmaker Carolina Cavalli.

Alongside Pine, actress Benedetta Porcaroli (who also starred in Cavalli’s film debut, Amanda) will star as a young misfit named Holly who is convinced she is the wrong version of herself until she meets a 7-year-old who makes her change her mind.

Releasing this summer. Here’s a clip.

Writers Adam Gyngell and Fred Fernandez-Armesto (writers: 1 ep Apple TV+’s Hijack) are writing Netflix’s Black Box.

It’s a remake of the French film, following an audio engineer who specializes in isolating noises in black box recordings of airplane crashes.

Tim Fehlbaum (September 5) will direct. And he must be in dusty, old school media heaven. Check out the trailer for the OG French Black Box.

Tidbits:

Iranian drama The Friend’s House Is Here has been picked up by Greenwich Entertainment. Shot secretly in Tehran, the film follows two young women within Tehran’s underground art scene. It has its world premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance, where it won the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast. Greenwich is aiming to release the film in theaters this fall.

Parasite (2019) production company Barunson E&A is taking the reins of international sales of Indonesian zombie movie Zona Merah: Dead City. Based on a TV show of the same name (trailer) that had more than 34M views in Indonesia, the film follows a factory worker named Maya who races against time to find her missing younger sibling amidst a zombie outbreak.

Mini Tidbits:

• Zombie horror-comedy

• Police detective drama

• HBO + Beta + Canal+

All those mini tidbits and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1957. Daniel Day-Lewis born in London.

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

Tarantino’s Zorro, Amazon’s Dates, and a new wild tale.

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Final Call - Scriptnotes Event.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Sony revives Tarantino’s Django/Zorro film adaptation.

• Paramount asks FCC to approve foreign equity in its WBD acquisition.

• Stacey Sher signs first-look TV deal with MGM Television.

• Laura Lekkos adapts Amazon MGM’s Expiration Dates w/ Emma Roberts.

• Michael Waldron (creator: Chad Powers) renews 20th Television deal.

• Eleventh Hour Films develops environmental legal drama A Barrister for the Earth.

• DGA extends National Executive Director Russell Hollander’s contract to 2029.

• Paapa Essiedu joins Charlize Theron in Amazon MGM’s Tyrant.

• Cole Sprouse joins Kathryn Newton in coming-of-age thriller Hot Year.

• Jason Statham & David Ayer reunite for Miramax’s John Doe at Cannes Market.

• Chris Andrews’ (dir: Bring Them Down) new film is witch-hunt thriller Cavendish.

• Madison Wells hires former 30West co-president Dan Steinman as Pres & COO.

• Magnetic Labs launches private credit fund.

• Damián Szifron (Wild Tales) writes & directs Netflix drama El Sobrino.

• ABC’s High Potential gets Polish remake.

Yesterday’s correct answer: 2012, release date for Battleship.
65% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

An unexpected but undeniably awesome collision of worlds.

Sony Pictures’ Django/Zorro pairs Quentin Tarantino’s freed slave-turned bounty hunter, Django, and the legendary swordsman Zorro together on a shared quest for justice, combining both Django’s signature western violence and Zorro’s more classic swashbuckling heroism.

Academy Award winner Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, L.A. Confidential) is attached to write.

But most interestingly, the film will dive into Zorro’s alter ego, which fits better into the Tarantino universe.

Tarantino stated:

“One of the things that’s usually done in Zorro stories is to imply that the foppish mannerisms of Don Diego [alter ego] are a strategic ruse to lull the villains into a false sense of security and to throw suspicion off Zorro’s real identity. But… the foppish mannerisms aren’t a ruse. They are who Don Diego de la Vega is. And the more years pass and the more he hides behind it, the less it’s an affectation, and the more it is who he’s become.”

Tarantino won’t direct the project, finding yet another loophole to stay within his ten-film limit, but the script is inspired by his own 2014 comic book sequel co-written by Matt Wagner, set several years after the events of Django Unchained (2012).

No director has been named, but here’s their comic Django/Zorro Vol. 1.

Paramount submits a foreign ownership public notice to the FCC detailing the ownership/voting structure of its Middle East financiers:

• Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund

  • 15.1% equity ownership

  • $10bn investment

• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (L’imad)

  • 12.8% equity ownership

• Qatar Investment Authority

  • 10.6% equity ownership

The trio will invest $24bn for a total equity ownership of 38.5%, non-voting shares. Additional investments will take the total foreign ownership to 49.5%.

Paramount is also asking the FCC to approve “up to 100% indirect aggregate foreign equity and voting interests in the controlling U.S. parent, Paramount.”

Tidbits:

Stacey Sher (Producer: Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight) signs a first-look deal with MGM Television. Her studio, Shiny Penny Productions (Heretic), will develop and produce television series for Amazon. Sher is already producing Amazon’s upcoming Verity (2026, trailer), starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson. MGM Television, looking to make some Emmys splashes after a non-nomination last season, will benefit from her expertise. Her TV work includes Emmy-nominated Hulu’s Mrs. America and AMC’s Into the Badlands.

Michael Waldron (showrunner: Hulu’s Chad Powers) renews his contract with 20th Television. Under the new deal, Waldron and his company, Anomaly Pictures, will write, develop, direct, and produce new projects for Disney Entertainment Television. He has just wrapped production on Chad Powers S2, also directing four of six episodes. Waldron previously worked as a head writer for Disney+’s fan-favorite Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

Mini Tidbits:

Laura Lekkos (writer: Amazon’s Relationship Goals) will write Amazon’s adaptation of Rebecca Serle’s Expiration Dates, a romantic drama that follows a woman (Emma Roberts) whose relationships are preordained by mysterious notes predicting their end until one man defies her fate.

Eleventh Hour Films (Alex Rider) and Victoria Asare-Archer (writer: Netflix’s Missing You) are developing a new legal drama based on the 2025 book A Barrister For The Earth. The series focuses on a group of people working in the cut-throat world of environmental law.

Directors Guild of America extends National Executive Director Russell Hollander’s contract through 2029. He has served in the role since 2017 and oversees the Guild’s work of protecting the creative rights of directors, working as a chief negotiator between studios and streamers.

Talk about a powerful partnership. Amazon has struck a multi-year podcast deal with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Entertainment. Wondery, Amazon’s recently acquired podcast network, will have exclusive distribution and advertising rights to The Oprah Podcast beginning July.

Marvel’s The Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway dies at 73. Born in 1952, Conway started publishing comics at 16 and started writing full superhero stories for Marvel in 1971. He created the Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, Killer Croc, Ms. Marvel, and the iconic Marvel anti-hero Frank Castle, aka “The Punisher”.

Cancellations:

DC Studios’ The Authority (no longer in development)

Trailers:

Paramount Pictures’ Jackass: Best and Last

• Trailer

• Release: June 26

HBO Max’s House of the Dragon S3

• Trailer

• Cast: Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy

• Release: June 21

Abramorama’s Louder than Guns (doc)

• Trailer

• Release: May 8

Release Dates:

Universal Pictures’ The Catch

• Cast: Emma Stone, Chris Pine

• Release: May 21, 2027

Netflix’s Enola Holmes 3

• Dir: Philip Barantini (Accused)

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

• Release: July 1st

Hulu’s Alice and Steve

• Wri: Sophie Goodhart (Sex Education)

• Cast: Jemaine Clement, Nicola Walker

• Release: June 8

Illumination’s Minions & Monsters

• Dir: Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me franchise)

• Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch

• Premiere: June 21

• U.S. Release: July 1

Shoot Date:

Netflix’s Monsanto

• Dir: John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side)

• Cast: Jonathan Bailey, Laura Dern

• Shooting: April ~ August 2026

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

The new Severus Snape in a culinary thriller. Paapa Essiedu (HBO’s Harry Potter series, I May Destroy You) is starring in Amazon MGM’s thriller Tyrant. He is joining a star-studded cast, alongside Charlize Theron, Julia Garner, and Demi Moore. The film is set to be a Whiplash-esque thriller set within NYC’s elite fine dining scene, directed by David Weil, the longtime writer for Prime Video’s series Hunters. While there is no info on his role, we’d love to see him take on something that contrasts with his upcoming portrayal of Severus Snape this December, perhaps a more vulnerable student rather than the iconic “mean professor”.

Cole Sprouse (Riverdale) joins Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein) and Storm Reid (Missing) in a coming-of-age thriller, Hot Year. Directed by Roxy Sophie Sorkin (daughter of Aaron Sorkin), the film follows two childhood best friends who try to take revenge on an ex-boyfriend, only to fall into a violent incident that they can’t take back. Sprouse has been playing the role of a cynical writer, Jughead Jones, for 7 seasons in CW’s Riverdale, and it would be interesting to see him play a toxic ex-boyfriend. He had great chemistry with Kathryn Newton in Lisa Frankenstein (2024), and we would love to see their brutal adventures continue in this new film.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Market:

Miramax’s John Doe

• Cast: Jason Statham

• Dir: David Ayer (A Working Man, The Beekeeper)

• Writer: Zak Penn (Ready Player One, Free Guy)

• Prod Co/Financier/Sales Rep: Black Bear

Synopsis:

Follows a man with no memory or past who only remembers one face: Eliza. As his identity returns, he discovers he was trained for a mission and is hunted by those who sent him.

Sounds a bit like The Bourne Identity but leaning a little more action-heavy, if that’s possible. This is the third time Miramax/Statham/Black Bear, and Ayer are all working together, previously producing The Beekeeper ($163M WW) and A Working Man ($89M WW).

Full list of Cannes market titles here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Chris Andrews’ sophomore film, Cavendish, takes us into the past with a great cast.

The film is set in 1645 and follows Sophie Thatcher (Heretic), who is accused of witchcraft on her wedding, and who is pursued by a ruthless witchhunter, Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist).

Andrews’ first film, Mubi’s Bring Them Down, starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, had a similar level of pastoral violence. It’s a slow-moving film that somehow contains multitudes about isolation and responsibility (trailer). We can’t wait to see how Andrews showcases this new world.

Selling at Cannes Market. CAA is the domestic sales rep. Cornerstone is international.

Tidbits:

Producer Gigi Pritzker’s Madison Wells (prod co: Hell or High Water) has hired veteran exec Dan Steinman as President and COO. Steinman spent almost a decade as co-president of 30West (I, Tonya) and is joining Madison after a profitable 2025 from projects like Netflix’s Nonnas and Sundance’s short film award winner, Steph Curry’s The Baddest Speechwriter of All. Steinman’s last project before taking on his new role was Lionsgate’s Power Ballad starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas.

Magnetic Labs (Ingrid Goes West), fka 141 Entertainment, is launching a private credit fund. The fund has provided initial investments toward the company’s next film, the true-crime biopic The Leader, starring Vera Farmiga and Tim Blake Nelson, set to premiere at Tribeca this June.

More tidbits here, including a fun directorial debut and a Kraken.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

There’s no international director who taps into the pure, crazed, id-driven primal anger more than Damián Szifron.

Szifron will write and direct Netflix’s El Sobrino.

Synopsis:

An internationally renowned pianist’s world turns upside down when he discovers his nine-year-old nephew possesses a musical talent that could surpass his own.

In 2014, Szifron directed Sony Pictures Classics’ Wild Tales. If you haven’t seen it, drop what you’re doing and watch the first sequence. The guy understands how jealousy and rage can externalize. And El Sobrino seems like the perfect vehicle for exploring how the pianist goes mad.

Yoon Jong-Bin (Dir: The Spy Gone North) is making his next historical political drama, The Generals.

The film will follow real-life historical figures Roh Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan, who were responsible for the Gwangju massacre when they ordered soldiers to open fire at civilians, causing more than 2,000 casualties. Korean big names like Son Suk-ku (My Liberation Notes) and Ha Jung-woo (Along with the Gods franchise) have joined the cast.

It seems like Korea is turning more towards putting their historical events on the big screen, ever since 12.12: The Day (2023) grossed more than $100M worldwide.

Mini Tidbits:

ABC’s High Potential is getting a Polish remake. The original show (trailer) follows a cleaner at the Los Angeles Police Department who unexpectedly gets recruited as a civilian consultant on various crimes. Under the name Genialna M., the remake will go to local channel Polsat and Paramount’s streamer SkyShowtime.

Luis Puenzo, the director behind Argentina’s first Oscar win, The Official Story (1985, trailer), has passed away at 80. The political drama told the personal and national trauma of Argentina’s last military dictatorship, followed by the Jane Fonda-led Old Gringo (1989). The bold filmmaker was not just a trailblazing director but an international success.

ON THIS DAY

1974. Penélope Cruz born in Madrid, Spain.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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Michael B. Jordan’s Battlefield, Mike Cavanagh’s Pay, and a Bull.

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

The Industry just landed in LA for the week, and it’s already been a whirlwind. We went to HBO’s Rooster FYC event and were treated to a great conversation with star Steve Carell and creator Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Ted Lasso). I spoke to Carell afterward, which was super illuminating.

We’re here for a few more FYC events, some meetings, and then we’re off to The Oscars, the Scientific and Technical Awards version.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Michael B. Jordan & Christopher McQuarrie team for a Battlefield film adaptation.

• Comcast’s Mike Cavanagh tops 2025 Hollywood CEO pay with $71.8M.

  • Full breakdown on Studio CEOs’ pay

  • Plus, the Chief Legal Officer, who made more than their CEO

  • Read here

• Charter loses 51K video subs in Q1.

• Jez Butterworth (Mobland) signs five-year NBCUniversal film/TV deal.

• WGA approves four-year AMPTP deal.

• Park Chan-wook lines up Western thriller with Matthew McConaughey.

• Helena Bonham Carter exits The White Lotus S4.

• Cannes Market’s Miss You, Love You pairs Jim Rash with Allison Janney.

• Cannes Immersive Competition highlight: The Black Mirror Experience.

• Lenny Abrahamson (Room) adapts David Nicholls’ You Are Here for the BBC.

• Kino Lorber acquires doc Saved by the Beauty of the World.

• Buffalo 8 picks up Bull Street.

Yesterday’s correct answer: the lottery, Waking Ned Devine, inciting incident.
72% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

A Battlefield film adaptation is on the way. Michael B. Jordan is attached to star with Christopher McQuarrie (Dir: Mission: Impossible franchise), who will write, direct, and produce.

Created by Electronic Arts in 2002, Battlefield is one of the most popular first-person shooter games in the world, with over 15 main, expansion, and spin-off installments over the past two decades. Battlefield 6 (2025) sold more than 7M copies in just three days and was the best-selling game of the year.

Though Hollywood has successfully adapted iconic game franchises into films (Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Warner Bros’ Mortal Kombat series), they are yet to start a big franchise based on a FPS game. While FPS games allow you to be the character, film adaptations of those games often remove the interactive agency from viewers and make the experience more passive. Paramount+’s Halo series (2022) had this problem and was poorly received by fans.

While the dangers are evident, they might just be able to crack the code of FPS games with Christopher McQuarrie, one of the best action directors in Hollywood right now. We hope to see the kind of dynamic action sequences that McQuarrie meticulously crafted in the Mission: Impossible films in Battlefield.

Charter, the leading U.S. pay-TV operator, sees losses slow in Q1 2026:

• 12.5M total video customers

  • ↓51K subs since last quarter

On the positive side, Charter reduced its pay-TV losses by 69.5% year over year, as it lost 167K subs in Q1 2025.

The stock was down 25.5% on Friday (the biggest loss in company history) due to a larger-than-anticipated decline in broadband customers.

Tidbits:

Jez Butterworth (EP/Writer: Paramount+’s Mobland, The Agency) signs a five-year film/TV deal with Universal Entertainment. Butterworth’s contract with Paramount wraps up at the end of 2026, and the new pact with NBCUniversal will commence in January of 2027. Butterworth writing credits include Ford v. Ferrari (2019), Spectre (2015), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), and Sam Mendes’ upcoming The Beatles. It’s another post-Taylor Sheridan example of Universal nabbing TV talent from Paramount.

HBO Documentary films are going into bizarre territory. Production has begun on an untitled doc series exploring the Zizians, a cult made up of young, enigmatic former Silicon Valley tech workers who have been linked to a number of violent crimes across the U.S. Matthew Galkin (One Night in Idaho) will direct, with the series produced by XTR (SXSW’s Caterpillar) and set to debut on HBO Max.

The WGA approved a 4-year deal with the AMPTP this weekend with 90% of members voting yes. Most Minimum Basic Agreement payments will rise by up to 10.9% over 4 years. $321M added to the Health Fund. Stronger AI licensing rights protections around training generative AI. New TV protections on if/come deals, plus better streaming residuals and larger viewership bonuses. Read the full terms here.

Mini Tidbits:

A 26-year-old man in Singapore faces 7 years in prison for leaking Paramount’s The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender.

Andrea Newman steps down as showrunner of NBC’s Chicago Fire, marking the end of her decade-long tenure.

Renewals:

Prime’s Hazbin Hotel (for S5 - final season)

Cancellations:

Prime’s Gen V (canceled after S2)

• The next spinoff, Vought Rising releases in 2027

Trailers:

Paramount+’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S4

• Trailer

• Release: July 23

Prime Video’s Spider-Noir

• Trailer

• Cast: Nicolas Cage, Brendan Gleeson

• Release: May 27

Sony Pictures Classics’ Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

• Trailer

• Cast: Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, John Slattery

• Release: July 10

Documentary Searching for Drug Peace

• Trailer

• Hot Docs Premiere: April 28

PBS’s The Forsytes S2

• Teaser

• Premiere: 2027

First Look:

Netflix’s Scooby-Doo: Origins

• First Look

• Cast: Mckenna Grace, Tanner Hagen, Abby Ryder Fortson

• Synopsis: The Mystery Gang gets together for the first time to solve the mystery surrounding a Great Dane puppy who may be the only witness to a supernatural murder.

• Release: TBD

HBO’s Stuart Fails to Save the Universe

• Big Bang spinoff

• First look photos

• Release: July

Neon’s Fjord

• Dir: Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days)

• First Look

• Cast: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve

• Premiere: Cannes Official Selection

Release Dates:

Universal Pictures’ The Mummy reboot

• Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz

• Release: Oct 15, 2027

Universal Pictures’ Miami Vice ‘85

• Dir: Joseph Kosinski

• Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Austin Butler

• Release Date: May 19, 2028

Animated Feature Return of the Jungle

• Trailer

• Indian Release: May 29

• U.S. Release: TBD

Shoot Dates:

Lionsgate’s From the World of John Wick: Caine

• Dir/Star: Donnie Yen

• Shoot Dates: April 25 ~ June 2026

• Release: TBD

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Director Park Chan-wook’s biggest American movie:

Park Chan-wook’s (Dir: Oldboy, No Other Choice) next project is a western thriller, The Brigands of Rattlecreek, written by S. Craig Zahler (Wri: Dragged Across Concrete).

The cast is star-studded:

• Matthew McConaughey

• Austin Butler

• Pedro Pascal

• Tang Wei (Decision to Leave)

The film will follow a sheriff and a doctor in a frontier town that is terrorized by a gang that uses a thunderstorm to rob its residents.

Park’s direction and S. Craig Zahler’s writing are characterized by unflinching violence that isn’t for the shock factor, but has a narrative elegance that enhances the emotional arc of the story.

Park often showed his love towards the Western genre in many interviews, especially the 1974 Neo-Western film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, directed by Sam Peckinpah (trailer) – so we can expect a gritty grindhouse-meets-arthouse film from the Korean director. We would love to see Park’s obsessive yet beautiful take on the Western genre.

The project is part of the Cannes Market. Legendary’s 193 (Die, My Love) will serve as the sales rep.

Mini Tidbits:

Only four days into filming, Helena Bonham Carter is checking out of The White Lotus season four. The two-time Oscar nominee’s casting was not only one of the first announced, but, arguably, the biggest name in the lengthy ensemble. Her role will be rewritten and recast as production continues in France.

Ellen DeGeneres is swimming back to the booth, making her return as the lovable Dory in a new untitled Pixar short. Production begins shortly, with no plot details announced.

Five new guest stars join Reasonable Doubt. La La Anthony (MTV’s Total Request Live), Rutina Wesley (HBO’s True Blood), Taylor Polidore Williams (The CW’s All American: Homecoming), DeVaughn Nixon (The Bodyguard), and Alexxis Lemire (Syfy’s Truth or Dare) to guest star in Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt S4. The show follows a criminal defense lawyer at an LA law firm as she navigates difficult cases.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Market:

Miss You, Love You

• Int. Sales Rep: Architect (I Don’t Understand You)

• Dir/Wri: Jim Rash (dir. The Way, Way Back)

• Cast: Allison Janney, Bonnie Hunt, Andrew Rannells (A Simple Favor)

• Prod. Co: Madison Wells (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)

Synopsis:

A widow plans husband’s funeral. Estranged son sends an assistant instead of coming himself. Widow grieves with a stranger.

Cannes keeps VR alive with its selection. Three projects stuck out:

Playing with Fire produced by Atlas V (Gloomy Eyes starring Colin Farrell, Notes on Blindness). Those guys are the best in the business, and we can’t wait to see this new work.

Cannes also has The Pirate Queen: No Safe Waters, voiced by Lucy Liu, and Banijay Live’s The Black Mirror Experience.

Full Cannes Immersive Competition selection here.

Two of the bigger titles at Canneseries, an annual TV festival:

Docuseries The Deal with Iran

• Trailer

Docuseries Harvest

• Trailer

Mini Tidbit:

Beijing sales company Rediance (Memoria) has boarded Into the Jaws of the Ogre ahead of its premiere in the ACID sidebar at Cannes. The debut documentary feature from Iranian-French director Mahsa Karampour, it tells the story of her reunion with her once lively brother who now lives in exile in New York.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Lenny Abrahamson (dir. Room) is set to helm a TV series adaptation of David Nicholls’ novel You Are Here, a sweet love story for the BBC.

The novel follows two lonely, middle-aged divorcees who unexpectedly cross paths on a long-distance walking trail and share a deeply meaningful bond over the course of ten days and 200 miles.

The Irish director previously worked with BBC on Normal People (2020), based on the novel that put bestselling author Sally Rooney on the map. The cult-beloved series launched the careers of both Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

Abrahamson is amazing at contrasting love with isolation. Room was a gut-wrenching extreme example of this. But You Are Here, set against the soggy landscapes of the English countryside, could allow the maddening physical isolation to catalyze the romance of these two divorcees.

Paired with Nicholls, whose Netflix adaptation One Day turned a chance-meeting romance between twenty-somethings into a global hit, You Are Here could find a similarly large audience.

Tidbits:

Kino Lorber is cashing in on prestige documentaries, securing the North American rights to Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. Following up their Oscar win for Mr. Nobody Against Putin, the distributor’s new film will look at the life of the late, world-famous, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Kino will release the film in July only in select New York theaters, followed by a VOD release.

Buffalo 8 acquires the North American distribution to Bull Street, starring Loretta Devine (Waiting to Exhale) and Oscar-winning Amy Madigan (Weapons). The film follows a small-town lawyer who goes up against an Ivy League attorney when her family’s claim to their longtime home is challenged. The film is written and directed by first-time feature director Lynn Dow and is aiming for a summer 2026 release.

Tidbits:

• Movistar Plus+’s exiting CEO

• Former Netflix exec launches prod co

• Sweden’s Shadow of Guilt

All those tidbits and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1976. Sally Hawkins born in London, England.

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

Sony’s Swear, Warner’s Wish, and a fish.

Let’s go!

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

The Industry is doing a virtual live event with John August, the co-host of Scriptnotes: How to Build a Screenwriting Career. More info here:
https://theindustry.co/p/event-how-to-build-a-screenwriting

Kirk Jones, the writer and director of Waking Ned Devine and Nanny McPhee, has directed the most powerful film of his career, Sony Pictures Classics’ I Swear.

I sat down with Jones, who shared what resonated with him the first time he met the subject of his biopic, John Davidson:

“[Davidson] said, ‘My life has been the most potent mix of humor and emotion and tragedy that you can ever imagine.’ And I thought, ok, I’m in.”

I Swear follows Davidson, who develops Tourette’s, which manifests in uncontrollable, loud, filthy, and sometimes very funny ways. And Jones has wisely structured the film around this, such that we’re never sure if we’re going to see a scene in which Davidson is accepted or rejected. And that often has a beautiful, but always tense, effect.

Jones also chose to capture large sections of the film by boxing in Davidson with locked-down frames.

He explained:

“I knew that we were about to go on this emotional journey where people really had to be in tune with their own emotions to work out whether they should be laughing or crying. I felt the very best way to do that was to try and present images which felt as realistic as possible.”

It’s a choice that accentuated the terror core to I Swear: that Davidson needs to not look to others to see how they react to him, but find the grace to accept who he is.

The film is releasing today in theaters in the US.

For More:

Full interview with Kirk Jones, plus the very red band trailer.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• WBD shareholders approve Paramount acquisition but reject Zaslav’s payout.

• Amazon MGM nears $30M deal on Javier Bardem & Kate Hudson’s Hello & Paris.

• Peacock hits 46M subscribers, streamer losses grow to $423M.

  • Full Q1 2026 breakdown here.

• Netflix authorizes $25B share buyback.

• Focus Features boards Curry Barker’s horror, Anything But Ghosts w/ Aaron Paul.

• Scarlett Johansson produces Netflix’s The Nanny Diaries series adaptation.

• Hulu buys bodyguard-princess romantic thriller Close Protection.

• California awards $50M tax credits to The Simpsons 2, DreamWorks, and Disney.

• Oscar-winning Godfather Part II production designer Dean Tavoularis dies at 93.

• Elizabeth Banks leads Apple comedy from Will Trent writer Liz Heldens.

• Franka Potente joins Apple sci-fi thriller Liminal w/ Vanessa Kirby.

• Maggie Gyllenhaal named Venice Film Festival Jury President.

• Studiocanal backs Bill Condon musical The Road Home starring Cynthia Erivo.

• Alex Proyas uses AI for the metaverse-afterlife film Heaven.

• Roadside Attractions acquires Casper Kelly's Sundance horror film, Buddy.

• Quiver picks up Willem Dafoe Locarno drama The Birthday Party.

• ITV casts Andrea Riseborough in lunar thriller First Woman.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Colossal, Neon’s 1st film.
44% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

99% of Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted to greenlight its acquisition by Paramount.

Of course, Paramount Skydance Warner Bros. Discovery cannot form until it receives the approval of the US DOJ and regulators in Europe, who are becoming increasingly concerned by the $24bn investment from the Middle East to fund Paramount’s acquisition. States like CA can also block the deal. Read more about the deal here.

82% of shareholders agreed on one more thing: to not honor WBD CEO David Zaslav’s $887M golden parachute payday. Although this is also non-binding and unlikely to affect the board’s compensation. Read our breakdown on the full amounts for all the execs here.

At the same time, the Petition Letter to stop the merger has grown to 4200+ names. Robert De Niro and Sofia Coppola are the latest to sign.

Amazon MGM Studios is just about to close a $30M deal for Hello & Paris, a romantic comedy starring Javier Bardem and Kate Hudson.

The premise reads like a reimagined Sleepless in Seattle, following the love connection between an independent landscape artist and a troubled novelist who began a long-distance relationship after an unexpected first meeting in Paris.

Bardem hasn’t done a real rom-com since Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008, trailer). Whereas Hudson, a seasoned actress in the romcom space, is just coming off her Oscar-nominated role in Song Sung Blue.

Filming will begin later this month.

Tidbits:

Netflix is doubling down on itself. The streamer has authorized a $25bn share buyback (8-K filing). The buyback program was announced with the streamer’s stock being down more than 16% over the past six months in an effort to reinstate confidence in Wall Street after the scrapped Warner Bros. bid.

Focus Features just announced that they have boarded Curry Barker’s (Obsession) new horror film, Anything But Ghosts, starring Aaron Paul. Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, Spooky Pictures (Late Night with the Devil), and Divide/Conquer (Heart Eyes) are producing the film. The production just wrapped. No word on plot. Barker has exploded in the horror space since Focus bought Obsession for $15M at TIFF. Read more about why he’s a go-to name in horror.

It has been nearly 20 years since Scarlett Johansson’s time as Nanny in The Nanny Diaries (2007). Now, the actress will EP Netflix’s series adaptation of the bestselling novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. From Bridgerton to The Queen’s Gambit, Netflix has a long history of successful book-to-series adaptations, with this one in good hands with Sex and the City writer Jenny Bicks attached. Johansson will produce with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television under their overall deal.

Hulu buys the rights to romantic thriller Close Protection from producers Dean Georgaris (prod. Life of Pi) and John Fox (prod. Dolomite Is My Name). The pair have collaborated on NBC’s Quantum Leap as well as another pilot, Key Witness. Close Protection is about an American bodyguard protecting a British princess.

Chad Feehan (creator: Lawman: Bass Reeves), the current showrunner of Paramount+’s Dutton Ranch, is exiting after Season 1 has finished.

Mini Tidbits:

• CA tax credit bolsters animation

• Netflix’s Glory Days

• Bob Iger’s new role

All those mini tidbits and more here.

Cancellations:

Peacock’s Clueless TV series (no longer in development)

Trailers:

Prime Video’s Off-Campus

• Trailer

• Release: May 13

Apple TV’s Star City

• Studio: Sony

• Trailer

• Release: May 29

Janus Films’ Romería

• Premiere: Cannes (Official Selection 2025)

• Trailer

• Release: June 26

Paramount+’s The Chi S8

• Trailer

• Release: May 22

Release Dates:

Lionsgate’s Power Ballad

• Dir: John Carney

• Cast: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas

• Trailer

• Limited Release: May 29

• U.S. Release: June 5

Indie sci-fi thriller April X

• Cast: Connor Storrie, Lilly Krug

• Trailer

• Synopsis: In a post-Soviet, cyberpunk near-future, Bax investigates the disappearance of his sibling, April.

• Release: September

Universal Pictures’ Murder, She Wrote

• Dir: Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect)

• Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis

• Release: February 4, 2028

Shoot Dates:

FilmNation Entertainment’s King Snake

• Dir: Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter)

• Cast: Margaret Qualley, Drew Starkey, and Michael Shannon

• Shoot Dates: April ~ June

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Elizabeth Banks is enjoying the small screen. The Hunger Games actress is joining the Apple family in a new untitled comedy from Will Trent writer Liz Heldens.

Synopsis:

Fresh off a messy divorce, Heidi (Banks) sets out to secure a lively second act for herself and her kids. But when she stumbles into coordinating her father’s retirement community sex dates, Heidi is forced into an unlikely alliance with his girlfriend’s perpetually single son.

In 2025, Banks starred in the Prime Video series The Better Sister, another chaotic premise, playing a struggling alcoholic and ex-wife to her estranged sister’s dead husband.

On a lighter note, but just as offbeat, she can currently be seen in perfect chemistry alongside Matthew Macfadyen in the Peacock comedy series The Miniature Wife (trailer). A mix of The Incredible Shrinking Woman and The Roses, she plays the wife of a narcissistic scientist who shrinks her down on “accident” to six inches tall.

Banks’ next TV venture will start shooting in LA later this year.

Mini Tidbits:

Franka Potente (Run Lola Run, The Bourne franchise) has joined Apple’s sci-fi thriller film Liminal. Based on a graphic novel, the story is set in a world where a tenth of the population suddenly gains telepathic powers. Vanessa Kirby, Tom Pelphrey (Ozark), and Tracy Letts (A House of Dynamite) also star. It’s a sci-fi premise that does not involve AI robots taking over, so consider me intrigued.

Sean McEwen’s (Dir: American Outlaws) indie dramedy Turnbuckle finishes production. The cast is star-studded: Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild), Kate Beckinsale (Underworld), Terrence Howard (Iron Man 2), and Cara Delevingne (Suicide Squad) will star in the film. Described as a darkly comic southern story about a small-town criminal facing impossible tasks to see his son.

Hulu’s TV adaptation of Count My Lies casts Grey’s Anatomy’s Sophia Bush in a series regular role. Bush will play a stylish NYC architect and mother, joining Shailene Woodley, Lindsay Lohan, and Kit Harington. Based on Sophie Stava’s bestselling novel Count My Lies, filming is underway.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes news:

• Cannes Directors’ Fortnight adds Bruno Dumont’s Red Rocks

• Cannes Market launches

  • Studiocanal’s Bill Condon musical

  • Alex Proyas (Dir: I, Robot), AI film Heaven

Deep Dives on those tidbits and more here.

The 83rd Venice Film Festival has named Maggie Gyllenhaal as this year’s Jury President. Following in the footsteps of talent like Alexander Payne and Isabelle Huppert, Gyllenhaal, as she builds up her directing portfolio, seems like a good person to represent, as her debut, The Lost Daughter (2021), won the coveted best screenplay award at Venice.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Children’s TV, unicorns, and bloodshed. Roadside Attractions acquires U.S. rights for horror film Buddy, directed by Casper Kelly (Dir: Adult Swim’s Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell).

The film is about a girl who must escape a kids’ television show while being hunted down by a humanoid unicorn. Buddy was well-received by audiences in the Midnight section of 2026’s Sundance Film Festival and SXSW and will have a theatrical run starting September 4th.

The cast is also star-studded: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon, and Patton Oswalt.

Just like Late Night with the Devil (2023) utilized the format of a late-night show to tell its horrifying story, Kelly excels at turning children’s TV and a humanoid unicorn into a nightmare.

ITV thriller series First Woman casts Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough and Adolescence’s Ashley Walters.

The show is set to follow Riseborough as the first woman set to walk on the moon, who reportedly goes missing into the deep lunar night. The six-part series marks Riseborough’s return to TV after starring in the HBO miniseries The Regime (2024).

ITV Studios’ Mammoth Screen (PBS’ The Forsytes) and Germany’s ZDF (Sentimental Value) are attached as co-producers.

Tidbit:

Quiver Distribution (The Cleaner) acquires North American rights to The Birthday Party. The Greek feature, which premiered at Locarno, stars Willem Dafoe and centers on a 1970s Mediterranean tycoon who throws a lavish birthday party for his daughter and sole heiress on his exclusive private island. Releasing June 5th.

Mini Tidbits:

• Watermelon Pictures’ acquisition

• Greg Vrotsos’ feature debut

• Canal+’s Kim, the Diamond, and the Grandpa Robbers

All those tidbits and more here.

ON THIS DAY

1942. Barbra Streisand born in Brooklyn, NYC.

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

A Paper Tiger, Bruckheimer’s Odyssey, and a Suspect.

Let’s go!

The Cannes Film Festival has announced 16 more films. Here’s the breakdown:

Paper Tiger

• Dir/Wri: James Gray

• Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller, and Adam Driver

• In Competition (2nd American film)

• Prod Co: RT Features (Ad Astra, The Lighthouse)

Synopsis:

Two brothers pursue the American Dream but get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme that terrorizes their family, testing their bond as betrayal becomes possible.

Neon just picked up this film, making it their 7th at the Festival.

Victorian Psycho

• Cast: Maika Monroe, Jason Isaacs

• Dir: Zachary Wigon (Sanctuary, starring Qualley)

• Prod: Dan Kagan (Longlegs)

• Financier/International Sales Rep: Anton

• Distributor: Bleecker Street

Synopsis:

In 1858, psychopathic governess Winifred Notty (Qualley) arrives at isolated Ensor House to teach the children. As employees mysteriously vanish, the owners grow suspicious of her true motives hidden beneath her disturbing nature.

Releasing Sept 15th.

Tidbits:

Judith Godrèche (the actress who leaves Kyle and marries Mike in The Climb) directs A Girl’s Story (Mémoire de fille) about a woman who travels back in time to her first night with a man. Playing in Un Certain Regard.

Best Sci-fi synopsis from Titanic Ocean, playing in Un Certain Regard: In the scintillating teenage universe of a special boarding school that trains teenage girls into professional mermaids, 17-year-old Akame will find her siren voice, discover first love, and experience a metamorphosis.

Un Certain Regard closing film is Ulysse by Laetitia Masson (French director who recently helped adapt Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague).

For more:

Full list of new films here.

Or check out our full Cannes Breakdown, including the new films, one starring Gael García Bernal returning to sci-fi. Plus, Prime sneaks in a film. Here.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Benedict Cumberbatch stars & produces A24 UK Vatican heist series White Smoke.

• Jerry Bruckheimer adapts viral album musical Epic into animated Odyssey feature.

• HBO lands Sundance dramedy Miss You, Love You starring Allison Janney.

• Naomi Watts stars as ballerina Margot Fonteyn in romantic drama Margot & Rudi.

• Justin Long & Rob Perlman join zombie comedy Hellhound w/ Sam Rockwell.

• Connor Storie eyes Melissa McCarthy thriller Turpentine from Craig Zobel.

• Parker Posey hosts mob-themed reality competition series.

• Ralph Fiennes & Viggo Mortensen lead Cannes market title Embers.

• Bleecker Street’s thriller When Darkness Loves Us picks up sales rep Cornerstone.

• Nellie Reed signs overall TV deal with A24.

• Magnolia acquires U.S. rights to SXSW Midnighter winner Never After Dark.

• Alex Morsanutto wraps debut feature Dark Skulls.

• Kevin McKidd leads ITV thriller series The Only Suspect.

Yesterday’s correct answer: A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, A24’s 1st film.
18% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Trading spells for smoke signals. Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in and produce A24 UK’s series adaptation of White Smoke, the upcoming heist novel from Nick Brucker. Set during a papal conclave, the story follows a group of duplicitous thieves plotting to steal the Vatican’s most priceless treasures.

Cumberbatch seems made for this role. He’s not in Conclave, but his ultra-cerebral nature in Sherlock seems like he could be the brains of any operation.

White Smoke will be publishing in 2027, but A24 and Cumberbatch + his production banner, SunnyMarch (We Live in Time), won the rights.

The Odyssey… animated. Jerry Bruckheimer is making an animated musical film of Homer’s The Odyssey. Created by Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Jorge Rivera-Herrans, Epic is a nine-part series of album musicals that follows Odysseus’ journey to Ithaca.

Beginning as a senior thesis at the University of Notre Dame, Epic gained a massive following when Rivera-Herrans started uploading his creative endeavors on TikTok. Now, the series has a whopping 4bn total global streams as of April 2026.

With Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey hitting theaters in July, it seems like Homer from 2,000 years ago is the hottest writer in Hollywood right now. We don’t know what the film is going to look like as of now, but we can definitely expect a sung-through musical with grand orchestral strings, quite similar to Les Misérables (2012), where they used songs instead of traditional dialogue to tell the story.

Tidbit:

Not long after its secret screening at Sundance, Miss You, Love You has found its home at HBO. Starring a wonderfully entertaining pair in Oscar-winner Allison Janney and Girls’ Andrew Rannells, the film follows a grieving widow who is forced to plan her husband’s funeral not with her son, but with his personal assistant. Written and directed by Community actor Jim Rash, it is a story about unexpected bonds, the importance of laughter, and healing alongside a stranger set to debut as an HBO Original on May 29th.

Trailers:

Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote vs. ACME

• Prod: James Gunn

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 28

Warner Bros.’ Clayface

• Wri: Mike Flanagan

• Dir: James Watkins (Speak No Evil)

• Trailer

• Cast: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie

• Budget: $40M

• Release: Oct 23

Universal Pictures’ Disclosure Day

• Trailer now w/ aliens!

• Release: June 12

IFC’s Saccharine

• Trailer

• Release: May 22

Netflix’s Mexico 86

• Trailer

• Cast: Diego Luna

• Release: June 5

AMC+’s The Vampire Lestat

• Trailer

• Cast: Sam Reid

• Release: June 7

Neon’s Leviticus

• Trailer

• Release: June 19

First Look:

Netflix’s Kylie doc series

• First Look

• Cast: Kylie Minogue

• Release TBD

Release Dates:

Universal Pictures’ Miami Vice ‘85

• Dir: Joseph Kosinski

• Confirmed Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Austin Butler

• Release: August 6, 2027

Focus Features’ The Uprising

• Dir: Paul Greengrass

• Cast: Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell

• Prod Co: Blumhouse Productions

• Release: September 11, 2027

Paramount’s Heart Eyes 2

• Dir: Josh Ruben

• Release: Feb. 11, 2028

California Schemin’

• Dir: James McAvoy

• Release: Oct 2

Netflix’s Heartstopper Forever

• Cast: Kit Connor, Joe Locke

• Send-off movie for Netflix series Heartstopper

• Release: Jul 17

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

FX’s Love Story’s Naomi Watts is reinventing herself while returning to her roots. Watts is set to star as legendary prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn in Margot & Rudi.

From director Anthony Fabian (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris), the romantic drama marks a full circle moment for the Mulholland Drive (2001) star, who spent many years training in dance before turning to acting.

Fonteyn had a long career as the face of The Royal Ballet, with the 60s-set film exploring the explosive chemistry, on and off stage, between her and Rudolf Nureyev, her much younger dance partner for over two decades.

From surviving a massive tsunami in The Impossible (2012) to being swung around by CGI in King Kong (2005), Watts is no stranger to kinetic roles, but taking on one of ballet’s most iconic figures demands a delicate physicality that is a great challenge.

She stars alongside Richard E. Grant and Ukrainian ballet dancer Alexandr Trush as Nureyev. The film is in pre-production.

Tidbit:

Let’s all go to hell! Justin Long and Rob Perlman are cast in Hellhound. The film already stars Marisa Tomei and Sam Rockwell from producer Joseph Restaino (Pig). Synopsis: A small-town vet joins forces with his ex-wife and her cop boyfriend to stop the President from destroying NYC during a zombie outbreak. Shooting later this summer in NY.

Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storie is teaming with a legend. Storie is in talks to join Melissa McCarthy in Turpentine, a thriller feature from The Penguin director Craig Zobel, where he is expected to play a deadbeat son who steals from his parents to pay off a debt to a looming bookie. The casting has not yet been confirmed, but it seems like the perfect project to not only show off his range but also an opportunity for him to build on his momentum.

Parker Posey is saying bye to the White Lotus and hello to reality TV. Posey will host The Mob, a Traitors-style competition show that drops celebrities into a mob-inspired power game where an all-powerful “Don” determines who gets “whacked”.

Casting Tidbits:

• Titus Welliver

• Desmond Harrington

• Vas Saranga

All these casting tidbits and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Market adds:

Embers

• Int. Sales Rep: Embankment Films (The Father)

• Dir: István Szabó (Mephisto)

• Wri: Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons)

• Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Viggo Mortensen

• Prod. Comp: Bell Media (Heated Rivalry)

Synopsis:

Henrik and Konrad were inseparable friends once. They reconnect decades after Konrad’s mysterious disappearance, uncovering the secret that tore them apart and the woman at the center of it.

Cornerstone (Pillion) boards as international sales rep for:

When Darkness Loves Us

• Dir: James Ashcroft (The Rule of Jenny Pen)

• Cast: Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Marlon Williams (Sweet Tooth)

• U.S. Dist: Bleecker Street Media

Synopsis:

When a pregnant young woman becomes trapped in an underground cave system, she must learn to survive in a world totally devoid of light. But she discovers true darkness within herself when she emerges 15 years later.

Mini Tidbits:

• Payal Kapadia, now president of Cannes Critics Week

• Studio TF1

• Camille Delamarre’s The Godforsaken Sea

All those tidbits and more here.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Nellie Reed signs an overall TV deal with A24. This is through Reed’s new prod co Short Stack Productions.

A24 is getting way more involved in TV recently, from their collab with Apple, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, to their first unscripted series with HBO, Neighbors.

Reed’s work history gives an idea of what might be next:

• Story Syndicate, Head of TV (2023-2026)

  • Court limited series w/ Jack Thorne (creator: Adolescence)

• Color Force, SVP (2016 - 2023)

  • FX’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace

• Free Association (Channing Tatum’s company), VP of TV (2014-2016)

  • Comrade Detective (2017)

Reed seems to like making prestige projects adjacent to the true crime space. We’ll see if she branches out or doubles down for A24.

Magnolia Pictures acquires the U.S. rights to Dave Boyle’s Japanese horror film Never After Dark.

The film follows a Japanese traveling psychic who battles a powerful entity at a remote house. It gained critical buzz and won the SXSW Audience Award in the Midnighter section, and is a thrilling ride that nods to Japanese and South Korean horror films like Ringu (1998) and A Tale of Two Sisters (2003).

It stars Moeka Hoshi (Shōgun), Kento Kaku (House of Ninjas), and Mutsuo Yoshioka (Chime) in an all-Japanese cast.

Magnolia Pictures is planning a fall theatrical release.

Tidbit:

Alex Morsanutto has just wrapped his debut feature, Dark Skulls. I recently got to see some first-look photos, and there’s a rawness to the imagery that conjures up memories of watching The Revenant or reading Blood Meridian. Morsanutto first AD’d the Oscar-nominated A Lien (2024) and produced SXSW Best Short Trapped and Scent of Pho.

Mini Tidbits:

The Illinois film/TV commission will add 5% to their tax credit if you are a “certified green production.” The current incentive is 35% for qualified IL spending.

The Isolate Thief, starring Joe Pantoliano and Sean Bean, gets picked up by Radial Entertainment as the worldwide sales rep. The film is a period western from director John Suits (3022) and prod co Hideout Pictures (Old Henry).

ITV casts former Grey’s Anatomy actor Kevin McKidd to headline The Only Suspect, a thriller series produced by Fremantle’s Red Planet Pictures (BBC’s Beyond Paradise). McKidd will play Alex, a man whose troubled youth, defined by reckless decisions and buried secrets, comes back to haunt him thirty years later.

ON THIS DAY

1990. Dev Patel born in London, England.

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 Chainsaw, Universal’s Summer, and Turpentine.

Let’s go!

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

A24’s reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre brings on director Curry Barker.

This is the signal that a brand-new voice in horror has not just arrived, but has been anointed to royalty.

Barker’s sophomore feature was TIFF 2025’s fan-favorite horror, Obsession, which Focus Features picked up for $14M.

While it wasn’t Focus’s typical prestige fare (think Conclave, The Holdovers, Tár) and has a mostly unknown cast, the acquisition tracks with Donna Langley’s (Chairperson: NBCU, parent company Focus Features) wise words:

“I’m seeing a shift in horror. Auteur directors are turning to horror. Not horror as we came to know it in the past decade. It’s the weirder the better.”

While Obsession has not yet been released (it’s out May 15th), A24 has already granted Barker the keys to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.

It’s a big endorsement as the IP has had a string of unsuccessful reboot attempts:

• Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

  • Bombed by the critics

• Leatherface (2017)

  • Straight to VOD

• Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

  • Poorly received by fans

Barker’s Obsession adds new dimensions of terror to being love-bombed. Perhaps this A24 version will dig into the psychology of Leatherface’s own obsession with killing. Not an origin story, but something that elevates him back into a film horror icon.

For more:

Obsession trailer.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) trailer.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Terence and Rachel Winter are developing an adult animated hotel series.

• Rachel Shukert (The 'Burbs) signs overall deal with Universal Studio Group’s UCP.

• Amazon MGM is adapting Miles High Club for TV.

• Peacock is developing family drama Summer People from Emily Goldwyn.

• Melissa McCarthy in talks to star in Craig Zobel’s thriller Turpentine for T-Street.

• Kumail Nanjiani joins indie sci-fi thriller Green Bank, directed by Josh Ruben.

• Jesse Garcia cast in HBO Max police drama American Blue.

• Naomi Ackie wraps thriller-drama To Make Ends Meat selling at Cannes market.

• Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has joined Hulu drama Southern Bastards as a guest star.

• Liza Colón-Zayas cast in Halle Berry’s Paris-set erotic thriller, Fleur.

• Tribeca’s TV lineup includes HBO docs and an Amazon series.

• Neon is expanding Sam Evenson’s short Mora into a feature.

• FilmLA is introducing reduced-cost permits for low-impact shoots in LA.

• Prime sells Anna Kendrick & J.K. Simmons action series Embassy to 6 territories.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Germany, Sandra Bullock’s country of dual citizenship.
52% got it right.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Animation from The Sopranos writer. Emmy-winner Terence Winter (Wri. of HBO’s The Sopranos) and his wife Rachel Winter (Producer: Dallas Buyers Club) are developing an adult animated show called Nouvelle.

Inspired by Jacob Tomsky’s memoir Heads in Beds, the show follows staff, guests, and owners of a New York luxury hotel. The pilot will be about the death of a famous politician after an encounter with a sex worker at the hotel.

The duo described the show as a modern Upstairs/Downstairs (critically acclaimed 70s U.K. drama about social class clash, trailer), which will juxtapose the fantasy of the high-life in New York City with the reality of the have-nots.

It would be interesting to see Winter’s realistic dialogue and depiction of the cruel world of crime seep into an animation about class struggle.

Three More Book Adaptations:

• Universal Studio Group

• Amazon MGM Studios

• Hollywood Ventures Group

Breakdown here.

Tidbits:

Peacock is developing family drama Summer People, from Emily Goldwyn (prod. Emily in Paris), Bill Krebs (prod. Good Girls), and Universal Television. The story follows three wealthy families and their nannies as a summer getaway is upended by a shocking death.

Celebrity Jeopardy, Pop Culture Jeopardy, and now ESPN Jeopardy are moving forward at Disney+ and Hulu. Monday Night Football broadcaster Joe Buck will host the newest sports-focused edition of Jeopardy.

Final verdict. Village Roadshow will pay $57M to Warner Bros., money it owes after withholding its share of the Matrix Resurrections budget due to a COVID dispute. Read more about Village Roadshow’s Bankruptcy and Why It’s Important to the Film Industry.

Mini tidbits:

The Drama (2026) becomes A24’s fifth biggest hit with $100M worldwide.

Netflix may soon own the Radford Studios, which served as CBS’s studio for many years.

Trailers:

New Line Cinema’s Evil Dead Burn

• Trailer

• Release: Jul 10

Apple TV’s Silo S3

• Trailer

• Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Tim Robbins

• Release: Jul 3

Oscilloscope’s The Python Hunt (doc)

• Trailer

• Release: May 8

Netflix’s Worst Ex Ever S2

• True-crime docuseries

• Prod co: Blumhouse

• Trailer

• Release Date: May 6, 2026

Hacked

• Trailer

• Cast: Chandler Riggs, Owen Atlas

• VOD Release Date: June 2

J-Pop Idol Anime Jinsei

• Trailer

• Release Date: June 12

First look:

A Blue Butterfly

• First look

• Dir: C. J. Obasi (Mami Wata)

• U.S. Release: TBD

Release date:

Investigation Discovery’s The Many Lives of Benjamin Kyle

• Trailer

• Release Dates: May 25, 2026

Shoot date:

Woody Allen’s Untitled Madrid Film

• Cast: TBD

• Shoot Dates: October 5 ~ December 31, 2026

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

The Penguin director Craig Zobel’s newest muse may be Melissa McCarthy.

The two-time Oscar nominee is in talks to star in thriller feature Turpentine, set to follow a deadbeat son who hires friends to rob his own mom (McCarthy) and dad to pay off a bookie, which, to be expected, does not go according to plan.

A master of comedy, the Bridesmaids star very rarely ventures into dramatic territory, with one of her only turns widely regarded as one of her best performances, showcasing unexpected emotional depth and great nuance in the role of literary forger Lee Israel in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, trailer).

Going back to the beginning of her career, McCarthy played Lauren Graham’s scene-stealing sidekick Sookie in the Amy Sherman-Palladino series Gilmore Girls, a part that was generally silly but also allowed for moments of genuine vulnerability and personal hardship as she navigates motherhood.

McCarthy has proven her talent stretches far beyond comedy, so a project from Zobel, produced by Rian Johnson’s T-Street, feels like it could really work.

Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals) joins independent sci-fi thriller Green Bank.

The film will follow an infant sleep-trainer, Sloan (Tatiana Maslany), who begins to realize that the parents of the child might be hiding a dark secret. The world is a town with a “quiet zone” that limits electronic transmissions because scientific research is being conducted in the area.

This is the first time Nanjiani is a part of a horror-thriller film. Yet it is hard to picture his deadpan humor and nerdy persona in the film; it would be interesting to see him as a scientist trying to figure out what is really happening in the small town of Green Bank.

Josh Ruben (Dir: Heart Eyes) is set to direct the film.

Tidbits:

New Hulu drama Southern Bastards casts Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Origin) in a guest-starring role. Ellis-Taylor will play Vernetta, a fiercely protective mother whose daughter draws her back to her hometown. The role feels well-suited to Ellis-Taylor, who portrayed a devoted grandmother in Nickel Boys (2024), and not long before, Oracene Price, the nurturing mother of tennis legends in King Richard (2021). The series is currently in pre-production.

A big detour from her lovable role on The Bear, Liza Colón-Zayas is joining the erotic thriller Fleur alongside Halle Berry. It follows Berry as a housewife who flees America and reinvents herself in Paris as an upscale escort and dominatrix. Colón-Zayas broke through as the sweet and adorably dedicated line chef Tina Marrero on Hulu’s cooking drama The Bear, a role that not only became a fan favorite but earned her an Emmy award. Filming is ongoing in Paris.

More Casting Tidbits:

• Jesse Garcia (Narcos: Mexico)

• Naomi Ackie (Sorry Baby)

• Orville “Shaggy” Burrell

All those casting tidbits and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes 2026 poster above. With the full breakdown on the significance here.

The Tribeca Festival has unveiled its TV lineup:

HBO:

Two docuseries from The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) writers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow.

• Not A Very Good Murderer

• The Palladino Files

There are also shows from Prime, Hulu, and more. Check out the rest of our breakdown here.

Tidbits:

The Playmaker (Sew Torn) boards international sales for Lieblingsfilm’s Horse on a Stick, a family adventure about competitive hobby horsing. The film is set for a Cannes Market debut.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Neon taps first-time feature director Sam Evenson to adapt his short film Mora (2025) into a full-length feature. Evenson will write and direct.

The film will center around an artist who tries to make a name for himself in the AI space by locating the source of a mysterious woman who keeps popping up in AI-generated images of death and dismemberment.

Evenson has a long career as a VFX artist, with credits including Dune: Part Two (2024) and Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). And what he’s done with Mora is very scary and well-directed. It’s a great mix of techno-horror and body-horror (full short).

Roy Lee (Prod: Weapons) and Steven Schneider (Prod: The Long Walk) will produce alongside Neon.

We are excited to see what Evenson can do on a larger scale.

Tidbits:

Ketchup Entertainment (Prod Co: Looney Tunes’ The Day the Earth Blew Up) enters a distribution partnership with V10 Entertainment (a media company). V10 will sell the pay-1 window rights and downstream rights to Ketchup’s movies, including Coyote vs. Acme (2026). Ketchup bought the Looney Tunes feature from Warner Bros in a high-profile deal, and it will get a U.S. theatrical release on August 28. Ketchup Entertainment team-up with V10 will allow them to bring their slate to the global market.

Bring back the ‘90s Slasher films. The Horror Collective (horror film distribution label) acquired the worldwide rights to 213 Bones (2025, trailer). Set in 1993, the film follows a group of college students who are targeted by a serial killer, and it is up to them to reveal the identity of the slasher before they become the next victims.

The Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons-led action series Embassy has been sold to six territories by Prime Video. From AGC Television (MGM+’s Vanished), the streamer landed rights to the six-part series in the UK, Ireland, Canada, France, Australia, and New Zealand, scheduled to premiere next year. The geopolitical thriller sees Kendrick as a sharp diplomat who can either protect the U.S. Ambassador (Simmons) or complete a critical mission when mercenaries storm the embassy. Filming has just begun in London.

Mini Tidbits:

FilmLA will soon offer reduced-cost filming permits for local shoots as the city continues to try to lure back production. These rates will be available for “low impact” shoots, specifically pilots, which usually have smaller crews and budgets.

Andy Warhol’s lesser-known friend Richard Bernstein is the subject of a new doc, Gloss and Grit: The Man Who Made Art Pop.

More indie/international tidbits:

• 800 Pound Gorilla

• Elisabeth Murdoch’s Sister Group

• South Korea’s worldwide box office

All those tidbits and more here.

ON THIS DAY

2012. Veep premieres on HBO.

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:

Warner Bros.’ Magic, Sean Baker’s Pay, and Will’s Union.

Let’s go!

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

Hollywood is rewriting its old spells for a new generation.

Warner Bros. has dropped the first teaser for Practical Magic 2, reuniting Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the loveless Owens sisters.

The original 1998 film was silly and romantic, until it wasn’t, as the pair navigates a family curse that brings misfortune to any man they love.

Practical Magic 2 introduces Joey King (Hulu’s The Act) and Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams as their daughters, a new generation of witches.

The sequel fits into a broader industry trend of revisiting older IP with a multigenerational twist. Sometimes they work, like in Freakier Friday (2025), which saw Lindsay Lohan, now a mother, just as involved in the flip-flop chaos as she was in the original circa ‘03.

And sometimes they feel like nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), which struggled to recapture the same cultural spark. Chasing a younger audience by introducing Jenna Ortega, it trades in the original’s wacky, inventive spirit, sidelining its most iconic characters like Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara.

A story with the ability to connect across generations is no easy feat, especially when it’s building on something already beloved. These sequels need to satisfy longtime fans while inviting in new ones, proving there’s a reason the story continues at all.

But these sequels have an advantage: they come preloaded with emotional history. Because we already know and care about the parents, the new generation feels less like an introduction and more like an extension, allowing the story’s conflicts to grow more layered.

As Practical Magic 2 continues this trend, its success may hinge on whether it can balance the younger generation, making room for a new kind of magic.

Practical Magic 2 hits theaters everywhere September 18th.

For More:

Practical Magic 2 - Trailer
Practical Magic (1998) - Trailer

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Sean Baker’s Ti Amo! has landed at Warner Bros.’ Clockwork label in a $22M deal.

• Netflix has picked up Jaume Collet-Serra’s war thriller Play Dead.

• Sony Pictures is developing the Grady Hendrix adaptation Ankle Snatcher.

• Tom Hooper will direct Netflix’s Nineteen Steps.

• Fifth Season wins rights to Gabriel Bergmoser thriller High Rise.

• Warner Bros.’ I Am Legend 2 sets Steven Caple Jr. to direct.

• Tommy Lee Jones and Ice Cube star together in crime thriller Outside Man.

• Bill Nighy stars in the narrative adaptation of Ibelin.

• Jason Isaacs joins Netflix’s live-action Gundam movie.

• Oscilloscope acquires Sundance’s Union County starring Will Poulter.

• Canal+ series The Sentinels sells to BBC.

• Disney+ signs multi-year co-development pact w/ Japanese prod company.

• Amazon hires Oliver Jones as Senior Commissioner for UK scripted division.

Yesterday’s correct answer: Twin Peaks, quote “the owls are not what they seem.”
58% voted for it.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Sean Baker finally gets his payday. Following his Best Picture Oscar win for Anora, where he picked up 4x Oscars, his next film has been bought by Warner Bros.’ new specialty label Clockwork for $22M.

$10M+ of that will be for the budget. The rest will be split between Baker and FilmNation, the prod co.

That’s an epic result for the king of indie cinema, who shot an early feature, Tangerine (2015), on an iPhone.

Ti Amo! is in the style of those 60s/70s Italian sex comedies. Script is not finalized, and the cast has not been set.

Jaume Collet-Serra (Dir: Carry-On) is on a roll with Netflix. They’ve picked up his latest film:

Play Dead

• Cast: Noah Jupe (Hamnet), Matthias Schweighöfer (Oppenheimer)

• Prod. Co: Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures (Don’t Breathe)

Synopsis:

Follows an Allied soldier who, after an ambush, must play dead to survive the night while surrounded by Nazis.

This is the first war film for Collet-Serra. And the B&W first look photo makes it seem like they’re going for something prestigious like Schindler’s List. However, Collet-Serra and Raimi are masters of on-screen tension and set-piece entertainment. So despite the grave synopsis and image, we’re expecting this to be fairly fun.

Here comes the Boogeyman. Ben Leonberg (Dir: IFC’s Good Boy) is set to direct Sony Pictures’ horror feature Ankle Snatcher. Based on a short story by NY Times bestselling horror writer Grady Hendrix, the film will follow a man haunted by his mother’s murder by the boogeyman under his bed.

Good Boy was last year’s supernatural horror hit, a take on the haunted-house story from the POV of the family dog. They didn’t use any dialogue, yet it had a few of the most tense sequences of all of 2025’s horror films. We’re curious how Leonberg will play with POV in this new film.

Two book adaptations:

• Netflix from director Tom Hooper

• Fifth Season’s Die Hard

Click here for full info.

Tidbit:

Warner Bros.’ I Am Legend 2 locks director Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II). The first film was Smith’s 7th-highest-grossing of all time ($585M worldwide) and the only one other than Hancock that doesn’t have a sequel. We like Caple Jr. for this, as he already worked with Michael B. Jordan, who will star alongside Smith in I Am Legend 2.

Mini Tidbit:

HBO’s The Pitt closed strong. The season two finale became the series’ most-watched episode with 9.7M viewers.

Trailers:

Searchlight’s Super Troopers 3

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 7

Rogue Trooper (elevated animated feature)

• Dir: Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code)

• Trailer

Release dates:

A24’s Elden Ring

• Wri/Dir: Alex Garland (Civil War)

• Cast: Kit Connor, Ben Whishaw, Cailee Spaeny

• Budget: $100M+

• Currently in production

• Release: March 3, 2028

Apple TV’s The Savant

• Cast: Jessica Chastain

• Release: July 2026

• Previous release date, Sept 2025 cancelled

• Trailer

Awards date:

Critics Choice Awards 2027

• Date: Jan 3, 2027

Shoot dates:

Man of Tomorrow

• Dir: James Gunn

• Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult

• First look of the set teasing Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) in prison

• Shoot Dates: April 17 ~ Aug 21, 2026

First look:

Netflix’s Wednesday (S3)

• Jenna Ortega first look

Aldeas, the Final Dream of Pope Francis (feature doc)

• Prod: Martin Scorsese

• First look

• Vatican Private Screening: April 21, 2026

• U.S. Release: TBD

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Two worlds collide in the best way. Tommy Lee Jones and Ice Cube are teaming up for Outside Man, pairing a grizzled Western icon with Cube’s effortlessly cool, street-smart presence. While it’s an odd match on paper, that contrast is exactly the hook.

From director Brian Helgeland (A Knight’s Tale), the crime thriller follows an ex-mob enforcer (Cube) recently released from prison, who finds work under a former Texas Ranger (Jones). The two form an unlikely friendship that gets put in jeopardy when the men’s past threatens to catch up with them.

Jones, like in No Country for Old Men (2007) and The Fugitive (1993), has built a career playing men with a strong moral code, while Cube often plays characters that challenge authority. It’s a dynamic I believe could feel both old-school and refreshingly offbeat, two no-nonsense men forced to meet somewhere in the middle.

Bill Nighy is in. Anthony Hopkins is out. This is for Ibelin, based on the Sundance doc Ibelin, which centered on Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25.

Nighy will likely play his father, who thought his son had been lonely and isolated until he started receiving messages from online friends around the world. Doc trailer.

The team is amazing with director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), cast: Toni Collette, Stephen Graham, and Charlie Plummer. The production companies are Vendôme Pictures (CODA) and Pathé. Currently shooting in Oslo.

Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus, Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise) joins the cast of Netflix’s Gundam Movie, starring Sydney Sweeney.

No info on his role in this live-action adaptation of the iconic Japanese mecha-epic, but we hope to see him on the side of Zeon – the villainous space-humans out to destroy Earth. Perhaps he will play M’Quve – the evil commander of a mining facility known for his ruthlessness and unsympathetic punishments.

Mini Tidbits:

Elisabeth Moss, after reprising her The Handmaid’s Tale role in Hulu’s spinoff series The Testaments, successfully petitioned to compete in this year’s guest actress category. While she previously won for the same role, the TV Academy approved her entry since it is a different series.

Soap veteran Patrick Muldoon, known for his roles in Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place, has died at 57. He spent most of his career on the small screen but can be seen leading action-thriller Dirty Hands (trailer), premiering this week in select theaters.

Casting Tidbits:

• Ed Helms

• Ryan Phillippe (Crash)

• Austin Amelio

All those casting tidbits and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes’ Annecy Animation Showcase 2026 will feature 5 films. Here’s one we found interesting:

Dog My Cats!

• 2D Animation

• Dir: Alain Gagnol (A Cat in Paris)

• First Look (0:20 ~ 0:30)

Full details on all Annecy projects here.

Sales ahead of Cannes Market:

Complex Texas

• Int. Sales rep/Prod. Comp: VMI Worldwide (sales: Goodfellas)

• Dir: Jared Cohn (Hold Your Breath)

• Cast: Kevin Dillon (Entourage), Cam Gigandet (Twilight), Danielle Vasinova (The Madison)

Synopsis:

Follows three low-level criminals who accidentally pull off a $300M heist and find themselves stranded in a small West Texas town where every desperate resident is willing to trade their morals and lives for the fortune.

Also…

Cannes’ Market’s The Unlucky starring Ludi Lin (Mortal Kombat) is picked up by Media Move (Sales Rep: The Lure).

Double Freedom (premiere: Cannes Directors’ Fortnight) picked up by Luxbox (Magellan). Full breakdown of Fortnight films here: https://theindustry.co/p/cannes-directors-fortnight

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Oscilloscope picks up Sundance film, Union County. The film stars Will Poulter, who goes dramatic again, following A24’s Warfare.

Poulter plays Cody Parsons, assigned to a county-mandated drug court program amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio (first look).

This is a big win for first-time director Adam Meeks, with whom I used to play soccer.

Theatrical release summer/fall 2026.

Canal+’s The Sentinels series sells to the BBC. It centers on Gabriel, a wounded soldier who gets souped up with some sort of secret serum that turns him into a super soldier.

Of course, it’s French, so while there’s plenty of action, there’s the moral reckoning that this serum makes him less human (trailer).

The 8-part series has already launched in 30 countries. The BBC will air it on iPlayer later this year.

Disney+ makes multi-year co-development pact with Japanese Production Company The Seven (owned by Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, a major media conglomerate in Japan).

The Seven has been behind HBO’s Song of the Samurai and owns its own studio space, a dedicated high-end sound stage, and an in-house VFX team. It had previously made a similar deal with Netflix, and this could signal more Japan-based projects from Disney+.

A Zimbabwean Superhero. Razorman will be adapted into a live-action feature film, based on a graphic novel series by Bill Masuku. The Zimbabwean superhero is a young mechanic in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, where he battles a crime syndicate using his wit and makeshift weapons.

Mini Tidbits:

• Stan Lee series

• Lionsgate Play

• Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s (Dir: The Birthday Party starring Willem Dafoe)

All those indie and international news tidbits here.

ON THIS DAY

1989. World premiere of Field of Dreams in Dubuque, Iowa.

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 adaptation of Millie Bobby Brown’s debut novel, Nineteen Steps, brings on Tom Hopper (The King’s Speech) to direct for Netflix. This will mark Hopper’s return to feature filmmaking for the first time in seven years since Cats (2019), which stalled a run of prestige dramas for the director. The historical fiction novel is inspired by Brown’s grandmother’s own experience in war-torn London while navigating a new romance with an American airman. Nineteen Steps is in the earliest stages of development.

Described as Die Hard meets The Raid, Fifth Season has won the rights to High Rise, a thriller based on the bestselling book from Gabriel Bergmoser. The author will pen the adaptation that follows an ex-cop forced to fight his way through a crime-ridden city alongside his estranged daughter, who wants nothing to do with him. Patrick Hughes is attached to direct, reuniting with War Machine’s Hidden Pictures as the project heads into development.

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

Amazon’s Fern, Hulu’s Spark, and Up.

Let’s go!

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Amazon MGM & Marielle Heller develop a live-action FernGully film.

• A judge has temporarily blocked the Nexstar-Tegna merger.

• The Obamas’ Higher Ground is going independent after the Netflix deal ends.

• Hulu is developing fantasy romance series Spark of the Everflame.

• Netflix is adapting Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two Ways.

• Alec Baldwin will face a civil trial over Rust shooting.

• John Powell will score Illumination’s Minions & Monsters.

• Kathryn Newton returns as Cassie Lang in Avengers: Doomsday.

• David Harbour joins John Rambo as Major Trautman.

• Li Jun Li joins HBO’s The Last of Us S3.

• Leïla Bekhti will preside over Cannes’ Un Certain Regard jury.

• Reginald Hudlin is developing a live-action The Phantom TV series.

• HBO Max Australia has acquired Mark Gatiss’ crime series Bookish.

• Asif Kapadia will direct 70 Up, the final chapter of the landmark Up docuseries.

Yesterday’s top answer: The Odyssey, top CinemaCon film.
43% voted for it.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Amazon MGM Studios and director Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) are working on a live-action version of the cult ‘90s animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992, trailer).

A fantastical world remembered for its eco-friendly messaging, the story followed a band of fairies who accidentally shrank a logger to their miniature size. The original had a stellar voice cast headlined by Robin Williams, Tim Curry, and Christian Slater.

There’s something very wholesome about Heller’s filmmaking that seems to align with FernGully. But beyond that, she embraces idiosyncratic characters in a way that makes the zany often feel sublime. Her FernGully at its best could have us all in rapture.

No word yet on casting or the plot of the new film.

Tidbit:

Stop! U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley has ordered a temporary injunction on the Nexstar-Tegna merger while antitrust issues are reviewed. And for good reason, Nexstar’s value is $6.3bn with 200 local stations, and Tegna’s value is $3.2bn, with 64 local stations. If approved by the FCC, the combined companies would own 80% of local stations across the US.

Obama’s going independent. Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, will become an indie production company when its first-look deal with Netflix ends this year. This will allow them to work with more studios. Higher Ground’s top films include the Oscar-nominated doc American Factory (2019) and the features Rustin (2023) and Leave the World Behind (2023).

Wicked’s music for Minions. John Powell (composer: How to Train Your Dragon, Wicked) will score Illumination’s Minions & Monsters, the third spin-off of the Minions animated franchise. Powell’s music is known for epic orchestral compositions and energy-packed harmonies. His work Test Drive is one of the most iconic songs from the animated feature How to Train Your Dragon. The new film is about Minions acting in Hollywood, so we’ll get a real Hollywood score!

Two Adaptations:

Hulu is developing Spark of the Everflame, a bestselling romance novel and the first in The Kindred’s Curse Saga series. Hulu’s Death and Other Details co-creator Hedi Cole McAdams will write and EP the slow-burning, enemies-to-lovers story centered on a human healer living in a magical world in desperate need of a rebellion. While the series is in development, the final book in the series, Burn of the Everflame, will drop this fall.

Outlander showrunner Matthew B. Roberts is penning Netflix’s series adaptation of The Book of Two Ways from My Sister’s Keeper author Jodi Picoult. Her books often ask morally complex questions of her characters, with her 2020 novel revolving around a woman who, after surviving a plane crash, sees two divergent paths for her future. The newest Picoult adaptation will be produced by Sony Pictures Television, where Roberts has an overall deal.

Mini Tidbits:

Alec Baldwin may be heading back to court. A judge ordered a civil trial against Baldwin to move forward over the Rust tragedy. Although it would not result in prison time, the October case would likely see Baldwin testify. The case is brought by gaffer Serge Svetnoy, who was the closest to Halyna Hutchins when she was tragically killed.

Veteran talent agent Sylvia Gold, who repped stars like Susan Lucci and Tony Danza, has died. Her career began in the mid-60s, where she worked with some of television’s biggest stars. Spending over four decades at ICM, she became one of the agency’s most respected and enduring figures.

Trailers:

Abrorama’s Louder Than Guns

• Dir: Doug Pray (HBO Max’s Love, Lizzo)

• Trailer

• Release: May 8

Freestyle Digital Media’s Jaunt

• Trailer

• Digital release: April 21

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Ant-Girl returns. Kathryn Newton (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) returns in Avengers: Doomsday as Cassie Lang, the daughter of Scott Lang a.k.a. Ant-Man (Paul Rudd).

Last appearing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) in the MCU, Newton will be back with the World’s Mightiest Heroes to face Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.).

This opens a lot of doors to what might be happening in Marvel’s biggest film.

One might expect to see her team up with the new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) to form the Young Avengers, teased by the “leaked” concept artwork. One might even guess the storyline from Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #8, where Doctor Doom brutally murders Cassie Lang, causing Ant-Man to become thirsty for revenge.

It will be exciting to see what the Russo Brothers have in store for this young superhero.

David Harbour joins the Rambo prequel, John Rambo, playing Major Trautman, Rambo’s commanding officer in First Blood (1982).

The film will feature Rambo (Noah Centineo) in his earlier days, before the events of the first movie, as he fights his way through the jungles of Vietnam. We will get to see the events that caused Rambo’s PTSD and what fueled his rage against the brutal deputies in the original film.

Harbour is familiar with playing a father figure who understands a troubled youngster with a traumatic past. His performance in Netflix’s Stranger Things as Hopper showed a wise yet firm guiding figure (clip) for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and we are excited to see how he can make Trautman’s relationship come to life with John Rambo.

I’ve heard from a good source that the footage is looking outstanding.

Li Jun Li (Sinners) joins HBO’s The Last of Us S3.

Li will play Miriam, who is part of the “Seraphites” – fanatic cult followers in the apocalyptic world of the series. Her character is the mother of Yara (Michelle Mao) and Lev (Kyriana Kratter), who will play major roles in Abby Anderson’s (played by Kaitlyn Dever) story, which will be the primary focus of the final season of The Last of Us.

We saw what Li was capable of in the showdown between the survivors and the vampires in Sinners, a performance characterized by extreme intensity and rawness. We would love to see her play a fanatic cult member.

Tidbits:

Tywin Lannister in Gotham. Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) is in talks to join Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II. Speculations say Dance will play Charles Dent, the father of Harvey Dent (Sebastian Stan) a.k.a. Two-Face. We all remember how much of a terrifying father Dance was as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones. His power and dominance over his family (clip) were the driving forces behind the House Lannister through the earlier seasons of the show.

Ethan Embry (Scream 7) joins Prime Video’s thriller series Cross S3. Based on the characters created by James Patterson, the series follows Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge), a homicide detective in Washington, D.C. Embry will play Frederick, a sobriety coach known for tough-love leadership.

Obits:

French actress and four-time César award winner Nathalie Baye (Downton Abbey: A New Era) has passed away. She is perhaps most recognizable as the elegant yet disillusioned mother to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Frank Abagnale Jr. in the Steven Spielberg classic Catch Me If You Can (2002), one of the few American films that brought her widespread international attention.

Another French actress, Nadia Farès (The Crimson Rivers), has shockingly died at just 57 years old. The 2000s French police thriller marked a major breakthrough for Farès, who played dual roles alongside Vincent Cassel and Jean Reno.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

French actress and Cannes regular Leïla Bekhti (A Prophet) has been named the President of this year’s Cannes jury for the auteur-driven section, Un Certain Regard.

Un Certain Regard Jury 2026:

• President: Leïla Bekhti

• Angèle Diabang (dir: Une si longue lettre, 2025)

• Khaled Mouzanar (composer Capernaum, 2018)

• Laura Samani (dir: Small Body, 2021)

• Thomas Cailley (dir: The Animal Kingdom, 2023)

Cannes Un Certain Regard opens with Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma from Mubi.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The Phantom is coming. Reginald Hudlin (Producer: Candy Cane Lane starring Eddie Murphy) is making a live-action TV series of The Phantom.

Based on the comic strip created by Lee Falk that started over 90 years ago, The Phantom is credited as the first costumed hero that predated Batman or Superman. It is worth noting that The Phantom is a human hero with no superpowers who relies purely on physical strength and intellect to defeat his foes.

Hudlin will direct and produce the TV series with King Features (the premier worldwide distributor of comics like Popeye and Beetle Bailey).

HBO Max Australia acquires crime series Bookish starring and written by Sherlock scribe Mark Gatiss ahead of its second season.

Set in 1940s London, a book sleuth (Gatiss) assists the police on their toughest cases while keeping his sexuality a secret.

The cozy mystery continues to build global momentum with sales now surpassing 100 territories. Beyond HBO Max, Beta Film (Amrum) has just sold the drama to Sky New Zealand and BBC Brit for Africa.

Mini Tidbit:

Christophe Pinard-Legry becomes the CEO of Canal+ Europe. He has also joined Canal+’s board alongside David Mignot, the CEO of Canal+ Africa. Pinard-Legry has been working at the company for over 9 years now, starting as a Commercial Director at Canal+ France. His new role will have him coordinate all of Canal+’s activities around Europe for its 18M subscribers.

Asif Kapadia (Dir: A24’s Amy) will finish the final chapter of the groundbreaking British docuseries Up. First starting with 7 Up in 1964, the films captured the lives of 10 boys and girls in England, all aged 7 at the time. Now, the final installment of the docuseries will be named 70 Up, with participants looking back on their lives and reflecting on their triumphs and tribulations.

He’s back. Don Mancini (writer of Child’s Play) announced that a new Chucky movie is in the works. The feature will be a continuation of Cult of Chucky (2017) and Chucky (Syfy series).

ON THIS DAY

1949. Jessica Lange born in Cloquet, Minnesota.

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

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

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

Let’s go!

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

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

• 45-day theatrical window

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

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

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

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

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

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

• World War Z

• Transformers

• Star Trek

• Paranormal Activity

Plus some other IP in development:

• The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil

• Possession

  • Dir: Parker Finn (Smile)

• Call of Duty

  • Dir: Peter Berg

  • Releasing: June 30th, 2028

He officially announced:

• Top Gun 3

  • Star: Tom Cruise

  • Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer

• Untitled Damien Chazelle’s film

  • Star: Daniel Craig

• Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow

  • Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones

  • Dir: Siân Heder (CODA)

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

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

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

The most impressive things shown:

Mr. Irrelevant

• Cast: David Corenswet and Michael Shannon

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

Heart of the Beast

• Dir: David Ayer

• Prod: Damian Chazelle

• Star: Brad Pitt

• Release 2026

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

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

Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol

• Dir: Ti West

• Star: Johnny Depp

• Release: Nov 13th

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

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

And last but not least, there was Disney.

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

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

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

Releasing Oct. 16th.

Other announcements:

Disney’s Hexed

• Voice cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Rashida Jones

• Release: November 25

20th Century’s The Dog Stars

• Dir: Ridley Scott

• Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 28

Pixar’s Gatto

• Animated character: Black Cat

• Release: March 5th, 2027

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

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

• Release: Feb 5, 2027

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

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

• Former Netflix CEO Reed Hastings steps down.

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

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

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

• Roku surpasses 100M streaming households worldwide.

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

• Visions du Réel spotlights Swiss docs, including Heat.

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

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

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

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

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

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

• $12.25 bn revenue

  • ↑ 16%

• $5.2bn profit

  • ↑ 86% ($2.9 bn Q1 2025)

Projections:

• $12.57 bn Q2 projected revenue

  • ↑ 13 %

• $50.7 bn full-year revenue

  • vs. $45.18 bn (2025 total)

• $3 bn ad revenue by end of 2026

  • ↑ 100% from 2025

Netflix’s biggest Q1 titles:

• Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

• Alan Ritchson’s War Machine

• Bridgerton (S4)

• His & Hers

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

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

An impossible rescue mission.

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

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

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

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

Tidbits:

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

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

Mini Tidbits:

• Roku

• QVC

• Rocky at 50

All those mini tidbits and more, here.

Renewals:

NBC’s Law & Order: SVU (for S28)

PBS Masterpiece’s Maigret (for S2)

Cancelations:

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

Trailers:

Prime Video’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War

• Dir: Andrew Bernstein (Ozark)

• Star: John Krasinski

• Trailer

• Release: May 20, 2026

Parallel Tales

• Dir: Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)

• Cast: Isabelle Huppert

• Trailer

• Premiere: Cannes Film Festival

• French Release: May 14, 2026

Paramount+’s SkyMed S4

• Trailer

• Release: May 21, 2026

Release Dates:

CW’s All American S8 (final season)

• Cast: Michael Evans Behling, Greta Onieogou

• Release: Jul 13, 2026

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

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

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

Here’s the synopsis:

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

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

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

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

Michael Bay and Brad Fuller will produce the film.

Casting Tidbits:

• Kyle Gallner (Smile)

• Joey Pollari

• Mean Girls

• Disney+’s Wizards Beyond Waverly Place

All those and more here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

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

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

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

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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

Mini Tidbits:

• XYZ Films exec leaves

• Graham Norton’s new show

• Ella McCay goes to France

Read all those and more here.

ON THIS DAY

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

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

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

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

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

The Last Day

• Dir: Rachel Rose (first feature)

• Cast: Alicia Vikander, Wagner Moura

• Prod Co: Killer Films

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

Synopsis:

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

The Accompanist

• Dir/Wri: Zach Woods (debut film)

• Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Susan Sarandon

• Producer: Carlos Zozaya (Gasoline Rainbow)

• Section: Spotlight Narrative

Synopsis:

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

In Memoriam

• Dir: Rob Burnett (The Fundamentals of Caring)

• Genre: dramedy

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

Synopsis:

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

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

Death Boom

• Prod: Eli Roth, Leonardo DiCaprio

• In Tribeca’s Escape from New York section

Synopsis:

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

Roth hosts, so Death Boom has a macabre tinge.

Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

THE TRIBECA INDUSTRY NEWS

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

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

Followed by a rocking live performance after the screening.

HBO will also world premiere:

• Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story

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

• The Lion Queen

Here are the other studios showcasing films:

Netflix - 2 films

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

Synopsis:

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

The film premiered at Venice.

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

Synopsis:

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

Paramount’s Republic Pictures - 1 film

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

Synopsis:

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

Disney - 2 films

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

Synopsis:

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

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

Synopsis:

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

Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

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

TRIBECA ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

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

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

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

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

The story:

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

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

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

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

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

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

TECH SECTION

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

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

Synopsis:

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

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

Synopsis:

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

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

Synopsis:

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

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

TRIBECA INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

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

Odyssey

Synopsis:

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

Playing POTUS

Synopsis:

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

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

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

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

Act One

Synopsis:

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

Tribeca actor turned director tidbits:

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

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRIBECA INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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

Synopsis:

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

Another film that caught my attention…

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

Synopsis:

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

Directed by Rodrigue Jean.

This one sounds heavy but powerful:

I Spy with My Little Eye

Synopsis:

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

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

See the full list of 2026 Tribeca films here.

Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.

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

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

Let’s go!

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

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

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

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

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

• Roku is launching original doc series Gamechangers.

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

• Matt LeBlanc will lead CBS crime drama Flint.

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

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

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

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

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

• HBO Max is launching in India through JioHotstar.

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

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

Renewals:

MGM+’s From (for S5)

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

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

Cancellation:

Peacock’s Copenhagen Test (canceled after S1)

Trailers:

Prime Video’s Good Omens

• Dir: Rachel Talalay (Doctor Who)

• Cast: Michael Sheen, David Tennant

• Trailer

• Release: May 13, 2026

Apple TV’s Unconditional

• Trailer

• Release: May 8, 2026

AMC and Shudder’s The Terror: Devil in Silver

• (S3 of AMC’s The Terror Anthology)

• EP: Dan Stevens, Ridley Scott

• Cast: Dan Stevens, Judith Light

• Trailer

• Release: May 7, 2026

DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island

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

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

• Trailer

• Release: Sep 25, 2026

As Deep as the Grave

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

• Trailer

• Release: TBD

First look:

2026 French Zorro (series)

• Cast: Jean Dujardin (Zorro)

• First Look Clip 1, Clip 2

• Release: June 30, 2026

BBC’s Ludwig S2 (series)

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

• First Look

• Release: TBD

20th Century Studios’ The Dog Stars

• Dir: Ridley Scott

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

• First Look

• Release: June 30, 2026

Release date:

Peacock’s MIA (pilot)

• Release: May 7, 2026

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

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

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

Filming will begin in LA next month.

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

Cannes Market:

Love and War

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

• Dir: Lisa Mulcahy (Lies We Tell)

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

Synopsis:

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

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

Mini Tidbit:

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

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

TECH SECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

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

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

Tidbits:

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

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

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

ON THIS DAY

1889. Charlie Chaplin born in London, England.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

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

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

Let’s go!

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

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

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

• New Jersey production is surging, up 45%.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Juan Devis is the new president of Film Independent.

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

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

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

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

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

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

Tidbits:

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

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

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

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

Renewals:

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

Trailers:

Paramount’s Passenger

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

• Trailer

• Release: May 22

The Mountain

• EP: Taika Waititi

• Premiere: TIFF Centerpiece

• Trailer

• Release: April 24

Stolen Kingdom (doc)

• Topic: Million-dollar Disney World theft

• Trailer

• Release: May 21

Colony

• Dir: Yeon Sang-ho

• Premiere: Cannes Midnight section

• Trailer

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

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

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

• Amanda Seyfried

• Rachel Zegler

• Tramell Tillman (Severance)

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

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

Synopsis:

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

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

Tidbit:

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

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

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

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

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

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

Cannes Market:

Bitcoin

• Dir: Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow)

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

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

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

Tidbit:

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

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

• Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017)

• Paul Dano’s Wildlife (2018)

• Jonah Hill’s Mid90s (2018)

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

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

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

Tidbit:

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

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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

Synopsis:

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

Trailer.

Tidbits:

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

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

ON THIS DAY

2012. Girls premieres on HBO.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

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

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

Let’s go!

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Apple’s Running casts Brian Tyree Henry.

• Cannes Critics’ Week has unveiled its lineup.

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

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

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

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

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

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

Their biggest concerns are:

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

• Fewer studio buyers

• Fewer jobs

• Fewer choices for the audience

Read the full letter here.

Paramount has responded that their new company will:

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

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

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

Tidbits:

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

Renewals:

ABC’s Will Trent (for S5)

ABC’s The Rookie (for S9)

Peacock’s The Burbs (for S2)

Trailers:

Netflix’s Nemesis (series)

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

• Trailer

• Release: May 14

Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie (series)

• Trailer

• Release: July 9

Netflix’s The Boroughs (series)

• Cast: Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman

• Trailer

• Release: May 21

Ice Cream Man

• Dir: Eli Roth

• Trailer

• Release: August 7th

Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

• Trailer

• Release Nov 20

“Go out there and make them remember you.”

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

Release date:

Neon’s A Place in Hell

• Dir: Chloe Domont (Fair Play)

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

• Release: Dec 25th

Variance Films’ O Horizon

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

BBC’s Twenty Twenty Six

• US release on Tubi: May 1

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

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

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

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

• Dumb Money (2023)

  • Trepidatious but inspired college student

• ​Little Death​ (2024)

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

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

Production is kicking off in LA.

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

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

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

The new untitled film is in pre-production.

Tidbits:

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

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

Casting Tidbits:

• Erin Kellyman (28 Years Later)

• Richard Harmon (Final Destination Bloodlines)

• Josh Charles (Best Medicine)

Read here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

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

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

Dua

• Dir: Blerta Basholli (Hive)

Synopsis:

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

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

In Waves (opening film)

• Dir: Phuong Mai Nguyen

• EP: David Levine (Nickel Boys)

• Sales Rep: CAA

Synopsis:

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

Check out the full selection here.

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

Also, here’s the Cannes Acid selection.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

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

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

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

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

Tidbits:

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

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

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

International Tidbits:

• Asia Media Alliance Group’s slate

• Beta Film’s deal

• CrossBorder Films launches

• 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival winner

• Mario Adorf RIP

Read here.

ON THIS DAY

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

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

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

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

Let’s go!

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

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

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

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

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

Zhu shared:

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

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

She explained:

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

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

For More:

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

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

• Paramount Skydance reworks its WBD deal financing.

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

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

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

• Disney has set a new communications structure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Appian Way boards SXSW doc Snow Leopard Sisters.

• Jon Watts produces Manuel Figueroa’s feature debut.

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

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

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

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

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

  • $15bn to cover WBD’s bridge facility

  • $39bn new debt

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

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

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

Get the full details here.

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

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

Non-Paramount Tidbits:

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

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

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

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

Book Adaptations from:

• Amazon MGM

• Warner Bros. Animation

Full breakdown here.

Executive Shifts:

• Disney

• Anonymous Content

• Noah Hawley’s 26 Keys

Full details here.

Renewals:

HBO’s Rooster (for S2)

• Star: Steve Carell

Trailers:

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

• Dir: Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard)

• Cast: Jon Bernthal

• Trailer

• Disney+ release: May 12

Lionsgate’s Mutiny

• Cast: Jason Statham

• Trailer

• Release: Aug 21

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

• Trailer

• Release: April 28

First look:

Netflix’s Ray Gunn

• Dir: Brad Bird (The Incredibles)

• Cast: Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson

• Prod Co: Skydance Animation

• First look

Release dates:

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

• Release: Oct 9

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Synopsis:

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

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

Tidbits:

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

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

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

Mini Casting Tidbits:

• Tom Pelphrey

• Tyga

• Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine)

• Rachel Sennott

Full breakdown of their new roles here.

FESTIVALS AND DOCS

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

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

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

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

Mini Tidbits:

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

ON THIS DAY

1929. Max von Sydow born in Lund, Sweden.

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

Editor: Gabriel Miller.

Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram

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

Here is the synopsis:

A cam girl navigates a toxic client relationship while reconnecting with her estranged, dying father, exploring complex relationships and family dynamics.

It’s a wildly impressive feature debut, and I was curious to see how Katrina navigated directing and acting.

Zhu shared:

“You have to use two different parts of your brain. When you’re acting it feels like you almost have to turn off the critical thinking part of your brain, you have to be so present that your mind is almost like vacant. I feel that with acting. And with directing it feels like it’s the opposite, where you have to be so tapped in and tuned in.”

Here is the trailer:

Utopia is releasing theatrically on April 10th.

Normally, when you see lineups, it is a long list. What we have done is broken it up into categories:

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

• Cannes Industry News, which breaks out top distributors.

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

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

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

Enjoy!

Everyone is looking to Cannes this year.

Last year’s Cannes Official Selections garnered a strong 19 Oscar-nominations, including 2 Best Picture nominations (Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent), and one win for Best International Film (Sentimental Value). Although this was nowhere close to the previous year’s 31 Oscar nominations, including a Best Picture win for Palme d’Or winner Anora.

Perhaps the films will take a larger bite out of the worldwide box office? Last year’s official selection grossed $110.1M ($20.7M domestic). Again, down from last year’s by over 50% with Cannes 2024’s $250M ($57.4M domestic). For reference, the highest-grossing Palme d’Or film of all time is Parasite (2019) with $263M worldwide.

Here are the highest profile projects rolling into Cannes official selection this year, perhaps destined for awards/high box office returns:

Paper Tiger

• Dir/Wri: James Gray

• Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller, and Adam Driver

• Prod Co: RT Features (Ad Astra, The Lighthouse)

• Distributor: Neon (their 6th film at the festival)

Synopsis:

Two brothers pursue the American Dream but get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme that terrorizes their family, testing their bond as betrayal becomes possible.

The Man I Love

• Dir/Wri: Ira Sachs

• Co-Writer: Mauricio Zacharias

• Cast: Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach

• First look

Synopsis:

In 1980s NYC, an artist experiences a precious window between sickness and mortality - a time when beauty and love remain within reach.

The Unknown

• Dir/Wri: Arthur Harari (Oscar + Palme d’or-winning co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall)

• Cast: Léa Seydoux

• Distributor: Neon

• First look at Seydoux

Synopsis:

Photographer David Zimmerman rarely leaves home until friends bring him to a wild party. He becomes fixated on a mysterious woman and follows her. By dawn, his life transforms-he awakens in her body.

Parallel Tales

• Dir/Wri: Asghar Farhadi (2x Oscar winner for A Separation and The Salesman)

• Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, Catherine Deneuve

• Prod Co: Anonymous Content

• Trailer

Synopsis:

Showcases interconnected narratives exploring the November 2015 Paris attacks.

Hope

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

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

• Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

• Worldwide Sales Rep: UTA

• Mind-bending poster

Synopsis:

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

Fatherland

• Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War - Best Director Award at Cannes)

• Star: Sandra Hüller

• Producer: Edward Berger (Conclave)

• Distributor: Mubi

Synopsis:

Explores Thomas Mann’s post-war German life, his family’s stand against Nazi rule and their journey into exile.

Poster.

Fjord

• Dir/Wri: Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or winner for: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days)

• Cast: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value)

• Distributor: Neon

Synopsis:

An immigrant Romanian family living in Norway is subject to an investigation and faces the scrutiny of the local judicial system

The following film was not announced: James Gray’s Paper Tiger, starring Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller, and Adam Driver (the filmmaker is dealing with a contract issue, and Cannes hopes to announce the film soon). And we’re still hopeful Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard will make it in.

Congrats to all the filmmakers.

THE CANNES INDUSTRY NEWS

Both indie and studio distributors were more tepid this year at Cannes. Notably, A24 and Focus Features don’t have a single film. And Apple is the only major studio with a project.

Here’s a breakdown:

Neon -7 films

• 5x Official Selection (Paper Tigers, Fjord, The Unknown, All of a Sudden directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) and Sheep in the Box directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Palme d’Or winner: Shoplifters).

Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box synopsis:

In the near future, a couple takes in a state-of-the-art humanoid into their home as their son.

Poster. Kore-eda’s cinema is flush with improvised families that make tiny, ruinous moral choices. This should be great.

Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, synopsis:

Two scholars exchange letters about chance and risk. As the philosopher falls ill, their academic correspondence evolves into intimate discussions about mortality and a deeper connection forms between them.

Poster. If you’ve seen Drive My Car, you know where deep meandering conversations lead. Starring Virginie Efira (Benedetta).

• 1x Out of Competition (Her Private Hell, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton).

Synopsis:

A hypnotic, unhinged thriller with an original story promising plenty of glamour, sex, and violence.

First look image of Thatcher.

• 1x Director’s Fornight - Once Upon A Time in Harlem is from New York’s own David Greaves, the son of the late great William Greaves (dir. Symbiopsychotaciplasm: Take One), and premiered at Sundance.

Neon has won 6 Palme d’Or awards in a row.

Mubi - 4 films

• 2x Official Selection - Fatherland and Minotaur directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan).

• 1x Out of Competition (Refn’s Her Private Hell for U.K., Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Latin America)

• 1x Un Certain Regard (opening film) - Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma - this is Jane Schoenbrun’s third feature. It stars Gillian Anderson, Hannah Einbinder, Zach Cherry, and Eva Victor.

Synopsis:

A queer director making a slasher franchise sequel becomes obsessed with casting the original film's 'final girl,' leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos.

Here is the trailer.

Sony Pictures Classics - 1 film

• 1x Official Selection - Bitter Christmas directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Synopsis:

A woman being abandoned by her partner during Christmas time.

Trailer. It’s bright, frenetic, colorful, dramatic, and blistering. Just like how we want our Almodóvar films.

Apple TV - 1 film

• 1x Cannes Première (out of competition) - Propeller One-Way Night Coach directed and written by John Travolta

Synopsis:

Based on Travolta's 1997 book. Follows young aviation enthusiast Jeff and his mother on a cross-country flight to Hollywood that transforms into a life-changing journey filled with unexpected moments.

First look photo.

Prime - 1 film

• 1x Cannes Première (out of competition) - Groundswell (doc) about climate change, species loss, and soil loss. with Narrators Demi Moore and Jason Momoa.

Arte France Cinéma - 2 films

• 2x Official Selection (A Woman’s Life, The Dreamed Adventure)

The Dreamed Adventure Synopsis:

A woman who agrees to a deal to help an old acquaintance. She follows the hero on his adventure and enters dangerous territory, where she is then confronted with her own desire.

Fifth Season (Severance) co-finances Ron Howard doc Avedon on famed photographer Richard Avedon. It will play in the Special Screenings section.

Bleecker Street has 1 film in the festival in Un Certain Regard, Victorian Psycho starring Maikia Monroe and Jason Isaacs. Releasing Sept 15.

Mk2, legendary sales agent and production company, has 5x films in competition: Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love, Minotaur (Sales Rep, Prod Co), Gentle Monster (Sales Rep), Nagi Notes, and The Birthday Party from Lea Mysius (co-writer on Emilia Pérez) - first look.

Thematically, a couple of films in competition explore the same experience or event from different perspectives. La Bola Negra (being gay), Parallel Tales (the 2015 Paris attacks) - cinematic unity is a great way to promote global unity.

CANNES ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Double Javier Bardem. Coming to the Croisette this year, we’re getting two Bardem performances. One starring role and one cameo.

Bardem stars in The Beloved (In Competition) by Rodrigo Sorogoyen (The Beasts).

Synopsis:

Acclaimed director reunites with estranged daughter, an unsuccessful actress, to shoot a film together, confronting their strained relationship and unresolved past issues that neither wants to address directly.

It’s not often anymore that we get a Bardem film that’s pure relationship drama. But this is where he excels, digging into that psychological itch to blow up every morsel of connection.

Apparently, he has a fun cameo in La Bola Negra from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. Also, In Competition, this film has a great lead cast of Glenn Close, Penélope Cruz, and Julio Torres.

Synopsis:

Explores what it means to be gay throughout different eras, focusing on "three existences" that are connected through themes of sexuality, desire, pain, and inheritance.

We’re hoping the focus will be on Close, Cruz, and Torres. That’s a great trio.

Palme d’Or winner Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color) is back at Cannes, starring in Another Day (Garance).

Synopsis:

Garance (Exarchopoulos) is a young actress but not a star. She manages things as best she can, finding fuel and comfort in alcohol. As she embarks for an eight-year journey of life changes, she drinks more and more. Until death seems to loom.

Exarchopoulos has a beautiful ability to burn herself out on screen. We can feel a unique physical and emotional exhaustion permeating from her every pore. And that’s what makes her so watchable. This should be riveting.

StudioCanal just boarded as co-producer. They will also be the international sales rep.

First look image.

She will also co-star in Mariage au goût d’orange, playing out of Competition in Cannes Premiére.

Double Léa Seydoux. The queen of arthouse indie cinema has two films in competition:

Gentle Monster, synopsis:

Renowned pianist relocates with her family to the countryside, where she uncovers a life-shattering truth that forces her to confront the complexities of love, trust, and deception.

First look.

The Unknown

Synopsis:

Photographer David Zimmerman rarely leaves home until friends bring him to a wild party. He becomes fixated on a mysterious woman and follows her. By dawn, his life transforms-he awakens in her body.

Seydoux is one of the most capable actresses of her generation. And we know she’ll give these characters the flair and the fire they deserve. While also digging into the deep well of despair that she demonstrates so beautifully in the final moments of The Beast (2023).

Anatomy of a Fall star Swann Arlaud is back with an In Competition film, A Man Of His Time (Notre Salut).

Synopsis:

In 1940, Henri Marre arrives in Vichy with his political manuscript, which he intends to publish to make a name for himself in the new regime and help save France – and himself – from collapse.

Arlaud’s gravitas, which can tip into vulnerability, should give this historical film flair. Charades has just acquired sales rights.

Mini Tidbits:

Double Marion Cotillard. She stars in Karma, playing out of competition. She plays Jeanne, who tries to rebuild her life with a man who knows nothing of her troubled past. But when her six-year-old godson disappears, Cotillard becomes the main suspect. She also stars in Roma Elastica, playing in the Midnight section. The story revolves around an actress who is going to shoot her latest film in Rome in the 1980s. The brilliant Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) also co-stars. It’s no secret Cotillard is best when things around her fall apart. And both these speak to that strength.

Weird Woody Harrelson is coming back to Cannes! Studiocanal’s Full Phil by director Quentin Dupieux (Rubber) is playing at the Midnight Section. Kristen Stewart and Emma Mackey (Barbie) also star. It’s an absurdist comedy set in Paris. Harrelson plays a wealthy American reconnecting with his daughter (Stewart) amid bizarre mishaps during their stay (First Look). Harrelson already co-starred in one Palme d’Or-winning film, Triangle of Sadness, as the drunkard, solipsistic yacht captain (clip).

Gael García Bernal returns to sci-fi. He stars in The End of It cenetering on a near-future world where aging can be cured and death is now optional. Claire (Rebecca Hall) a former provocative artist approaching her 250th birthday, decides she’s had enough – she wants to die. From writer/director Maria Martinez Bayona (debut film), BBC Film and Mediarpro (Midnight in Paris, The New Pope). Playing out of Competition in Cannes Premiére. García Bernal was last in Another End, with a similarly sci-fi premise.

CANNES INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

The director of A24’s Close (2023, trailer), Lukas Dhont's new film, Coward, is in the Official Selection.

Synopsis:

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

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

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

In his own words:

“A film about love and death, creation and destruction. A film about survival and how, sometimes, even in darkness, something beautiful manages to grow.”

No distributor as of yet.

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, who directed Magnolia’s Anaïs in Love (2021) has her next film, A Woman's Life, premiering in Competition

Synopsis:

Gabrielle (Léa Drucker), a fifty-year-old surgeon, is questioning herself about love, desire, aging, all against the backdrop of a hospital crisis, when a novelist arrives to watch her work for a book she's writing.

That synopsis sounds heavy, but Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs in Love had a light breeziness to it that allowed the seedy undertones to seep in more easily (trailer). A similar tactic in A Woman’s Life will help make it less fatalistic.

Arte France Cinéma serves as the production company.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell is breezing into Cannes out of Competition. In Refn’s words, the film will have:

“A lot of glitter and lot of sex and violence.”

We love Refn, but sometimes his desire for bombastic, neon-drenched imagery comes at the expense of story (Neon Demon, Only God Forgives). But if he’s able to nail the edit in a way that keeps us aligned with following the main character into the dark (Drive, Bronson), we’ll buy a ticket.

Hell, we’ll do it anyway to see what he comes up with.

Andy Garcia (Ocean’s 11) is back in the director’s chair with Diamond, playing Out of Competition.

The cast he’s pulled together is sensational:

• Brendan Fraser

• Dustin Hoffman

• Bill Murray

• Vicky Krieps

• Rosemarie DeWitt

• Danny Huston