Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
Richard Gadd’s statement, Ridley Scott’s circus, Peter Dinklage goes west, Harmony Korine’s baby face and your eyes.
Let’s go!
BABY REINDEER’S RENAISSANCE
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Baby Reindeer’s writer/creator/star Richard Gadd excels at ripping out his heart.
He laid bare his personal trauma in the Netflix series, which resonated so deeply with audiences that it has climbed to the streamer’s #10 most popular show of all time.
Now, his latest project, Lions, is being co-produced by HBO and BBC.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Ruben turns up at his estranged brother Niall’s wedding, acting as a catalyst for a revival of the last 40 years of their relationship.
The series is said to cover the highs and lows of the brothers’ relationship, from them meeting as teenagers to their falling out as adults. Answering the question: What does it mean to be a man?
While there’s a vagueness about the concept, Gadd will be in familiar territory exploring how bad blood in the past stains the present.
Gadd’s process is painfully personal, as he detailed in his director’s statement for the gut-wrenching 4th episode of Baby Reindeer, where he is [spoiler] by a successful member of the industry:
He continued:
If Gadd can harness that rawness for Lion, it will etch his name into the annals of TV history.
Production is set to start soon.
For More:
Baby Reindeer trailer.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
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Mel Gibson directs Mark Wahlberg in a Blacklist script. Flight Risk is Gibson’s first feature since Hacksaw Ridge (2016).
Here’s the official synopsis:
An Air Marshal transporting a fugitive across the Alaskan wilderness via a small plane finds herself trapped when she suspects their pilot (Wahlberg) is not who he says he is.
Gibson’s work is singular for his protagonists’s heroism in the face of impossible risk, like in Hacksaw Ridge (2016), which follows a soldier in WW2 who refuses to fire a gun. Or Braveheart (1995), where a man takes on a king’s army.
In the new trailer, Mark Wahlberg looks like a total psycho in the most over-the-top and delicious way possible.
It’s nice to see Gibson refresh the on-flight drama.
Lionsgate releasing October 18th.
Chris McKay, known for directing The Tomorrow War, The Lego Batman Movie, will direct the film adaptation of Brynne Weaver’s bestselling serial killer romance, Butcher & Blackbird. The novel, the first in Weaver’s “Ruinous Love” trilogy, became a NY Times bestseller and a BookTok favorite, with over 1M copies sold globally.
Here is the logline:
“Butcher & Blackbird” follows two competing killers who target other serial killers and develop an unlikely bond that deepens into a potential romance.
No screenwriter is attached. The production company is Lyrical Media (Mother Couch) and Ryder Picture Company (Dumb Money).
AMC and AMC+ have ordered a new series set in present-day Silicon Valley, created by Jonathan Glatzer (producer/writer: Better Call Saul, Succession.)
The not-yet-titled show will explore the fallout between a tech CEO and his performance psychologist, sparking a scandal over personal data exploitation.
It will be interesting to see Glatzer’s dark vision unfold in the relatively squeaky clean Tech world.
Glatzer spoke his grounded approach:
No word on when this will kick off, but if it captures the tech world with the same meticulous detail as Succession did for the corporate world, we might be looking at another major hit.
Tidbit:
Michael Showalter signs a first-look film deal with Amazon MGM Studios. He’s recently been on a roll, directing two projects with the studio:
- Oh. What. Fun
- Forthcoming holiday comedy
- Starring: Felicity Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Dominic Sessa
- The Idea of You
- Starring: Anne Hathaway
- Amazon’s #1 comedy debut of all time
Showalter inked the deal with Jordana Mollick his partner at their production company Semi-Formal Productions.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower director Stephen Chbosky is developing a feature adaption of the YA romance novel A Thousand Boy Kisses with Netflix.
Chbosky is very familiar with book-to-film adaptations most notable work is the beautifully touching but heartbreaking Logan Lerman-led The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) (trailer), similar to Tillie Cole’s A Thousand Boy Kisses in that they both deal with themes of teen betrayal, first loves, grief, and heartbreak.
Ridley Scott is developing a feature film, O, about Cirque de Soleil’s longest-running show for the newly launched Cirque du Soleil STUDIO, a content studio. It will be run by Susan Levison, previously head of WWE studios with experience as VP, Alternative Programming at CBS Television Studios.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
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A slayer of not just vampires but now serial killers? Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame is set to star in a guest role in the upcoming Dexter prequel, Showtime’s Dexter: Original Sin.
In her exciting return to the world of crime fighting and intense detective work, Gellar will portray Tanya Martin, the CSI Chief at the Miami Metro Police Department, who is also Dexter Morgan’s new boss. The prequel will follow a young Dexter on his transition into an avenging serial killer.
Nina L. Diaz, president of content for Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios stated:
The New York actress has been working since she was four years old, starting to gain major mainstream attention for her work in 90s films like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Cruel Intentions (1999) (Gellar’s Best Lines), and her famous portrayal of the spunky teen Daphne in the live-action Scooby-Doo films.
Gellar is a veteran of TV, theater, and screen with a Daytime Emmy Award (for her portrayal of Kendall Hart in ABC’S All My Children), among other accolades. She, of course, is best known for her work in all 7 seasons as the titular Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 1 trailer).
Production on Dexter: Original Sin begins this July in Miami.
Apple TV+ has found its lead in French actress Mélanie Laurent to star in A L’ombre des Forêts, a six-part thriller.
Here is the official synopsis:
Franck (Benoît Magimel) and his long-time friends spend their weekends hunting together, but one Sunday encounter another group who start targeting them without explanation.
When one of their party is shot, Franck’s friends strike back. Barely managing to escape, the four friends decide to keep the event a secret. Franck tries to go back to his life as usual alongside his wife Krystel (Laurent), but in the next few days he starts to feel like he and his friends are being watched, or worse, tracked, by hunters who are now hell-bent on revenge.
While Laurent is an extremely established actress in the French film industry, internationally, she is best known for her roles in:
- Inglorious Bastards (2009)
- Plays a French Jewish cinema proprietor in Quentin Tarantino’s heavily nominated war film
- Scene
- Now You See Me (2013)
- Was “The Rookie” in the American caper heist film
- Scene
- 6 Underground (2019)
- Acted opposite Ryan Reynolds in Michael Bay’s vigilante action thriller
- Trailer
Her breakthrough role, however, came in the 2006 drama film Don’t Worry, I’m Fine, for which she won the César Award for Most Promising Actress.
There are not any officially released production dates scheduled for A L’ombre des Forêts, yet the streamer has a large slate of European scripted series coming up like Where’s Wanda?, the first German original on the platform, and Women in Blue, a Spanish language crime drama premiering this summer.
Tidbit:
Peter Dinklage: from Westeros to Western! Dinklage stars as a fierce bounty hunter in the upcoming western, The Thicket.
Here’s some first-look photos:
Tubi Films is releasing The Thicket in theaters on September 6th.
FESTIVALS
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Mubi purchases Portuguese director Miguel Gomes’ romance epic Grand Tour, which won Best Director at Cannes for distribution in North America + UK and other territories. It is a visceral film that takes the audience on a tour of Southeast Asia under the pretense that we are following a failing romance, showing that time both changes everything and changes nothing (trailer).
Sundance’s My Old Ass drops a trailer. The film, produced by Margot Robbie and starring Aubrey Plaza, was bought for $15 M out of Sundance by Amazon. It centers on Elliott Labrant, who has been advised by her future self (Aubrey Plaza) not to fall in love and is sure she can do so after being given the advice. That is until she meets the boy her older self warned her about (trailer).
It’s wonderfully poignant and heartfelt.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
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Harmony Korine is not afraid to get in your face. From his insane, nightmarish Die Antwoord music videos to his dangerous slow-motion Spring Breakers (trailer) to his latest infrared, AGGRO DR1FT, an official selection at TIFF, Venice and NYFF and being distributed in strip clubs (trailer).
He has two new projects lined up:
The Trap (anime). Logline: Ex-con seeks revenge against former partner, now a famous rapper, after release from prison. E.g. Hip-Hop Oldboy.
Baby Invasion. Logline: a surreal, home invasion thriller, filmed as a first-person shooter, swaps the assailants’ faces with those of babies.
Korine is still firing on all his in-your-face, no fucks given cylinders.
Veteran Spanish filmmaker Victor Erice has returned for his first solo directorial feature in 30 years, Close Your Eyes, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was named one of the Best Films of the Year by Cahiers du Cinema.
Set in contemporary Madrid, the film follows aging filmmaker Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo), who is called upon to recount his memories of working on his final and still unfinished film titled “The Farewell Gaze.”
There is a profound sense of emptiness, longing, and nostalgia all wrapped up in a sem-autobiographic narrative that approaches the sublime (trailer).
Erice is 83 years old with his most famous film, The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) (trailer) not only over fifty years old but is still regarded as one of the greatest Spanish films ever made.
Close Your Eyes premieres Aug. 23rd in theaters everywhere.
ON THIS DAY
1996. A remake of The Nutty Professor, starring Eddie Murphy, opens in theaters in the USA.
That’s all for the week. See you Monday!
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Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
