Nicole Kidman Undone

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

Pixar jumps for joy, Ryan Coogler’s vicious circle, Will Forte’s seasons Neuromancer’s assassin and how to come alive.

Let’s go!

NICOLE KIDMAN UNDONE

Nicole Kidman’s filmography is awash with romances with younger men.

A Family Affair, which just premiered on Netflix, is her most recent.

Kidman plays a decorated writer in the throws of a creative blockage whose passions are re-awakened upon a surprise romantic encounter with her daughter’s boss (Zac Efron).

While this current film is lighter, her most compelling on-screen romantic roles feature dark fantasies with younger men.

In Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Kidman is married to Tom Cruise but finds herself undone by her desire to sleep with a young naval officer with whom she shared a single glance.

In To Die For (1995), she strikes up a sexual relationship with a young Joaquin Phoenix in order to manipulate him for a crime.

And in Birth (2004), Kidman develops a deep-rooted attraction to a ten-year-old boy who claims to be her dead husband, and the two share a bath.

Kidman stated:

Kidman’s ability to push herself to the edge of human psychology is consistently magnetizing.

In A Family Affair, the stakes are much less grandiose, but there’s a great moment where Kidman, in the evening after the fanfare of being caught in bed with Efron has subsided, slinks up to her daughter and offers her whole heart:

It’s wonderfully raw in a way that only Kidman can deliver.

A Family Affair is currently streaming on Netflix.

For More:

A Family Affair works great when it doesn’t take itself too seriously (​trailer​).

There’s nothing quite like Birth (2004) ​trailer​.

Eyes Wide Shut Kidman fantasy ​scene​.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Inside Out 2 continues to lead the 2024 Box Office with a joyous $57.4 M domestic 3rd weekend, ​putting it over $1 bn​.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Inside Out 2 (Pixar)
  • $469 M domestic
  • $1.04 bn Global
  • $200 M budget + $100 M + marketing
  • Fastest animated film to hit $1 bn
  • 8th best 3rd weekend of all time
  • Tracking to be the biggest Pixar film of all time
  • ​Trailer​

Inside Out 2 crushed expectations and topped Inside Out 1’s box office opening ($90 M) by a major margin. Inside Out 1 ended with a $859 M global theatrical gross.

Here’s the domestic breakdown for some of the other films we’ve been tracking:

• $53 M A Quiet Place: Day One (Paramount)
  • $98.5 M Global
  • $67 M budget
  • Opened higher than A Quiet Place (2018, $50 M) and A Quiet Place Part II (2021, $47.5 M)
  • ​Trailer​
• $11 M Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (Warner Bros.)
  • $100 M budget
  • Underperformed
  • Costner partially self-financed and put up the money for marketing
  • Top performing theaters were in Utah, Texas, and Arizona
  • ​Trailer​
• $1.5 M Kinds of Kindness (Searchlight)
  • $2 M domestic total
  • First weekend of wider release (490 screens)
  • ​Trailer​
• $1.3 M Thelma (Magnolia)
  • $5.1 M domestic total
  • ​Trailer​

June Squibb, the 94-year-old star of Thelma, also voiced Nostalgia in Inside Out 2, making her the highest-grossing actress of the weekend for the 2nd week in a row.

The box office outperformed the 2023 box office for the third weekend in a row, up by 18%.

The Last Bastion of video rental just went bankrupt. Gather around, and let us tell you a tale. Long ago (they called it the 90s), before the arrival of streaming, there was a place called Blockbuster, a mecha of video rental, strange videogames, and endless wanderings. When people no longer needed to get their movies physically, Blockbusters across the nation closed their doors forever, but ever resilient, the second-best DVD rental stood its ground. The lone Redbox soldier kept its post in front of CVS and inside grocery stores, full of DVDs one could rent and return (assumedly) at a later date.

While the world changed around it, Redbox stayed the course silently in the background. Now sadly, Redbox is on its last stand. Citing financial distress, its owner, another 90’s relic Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment, has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The financial distress has been constant since CSFTSE bought Redbox in 2022… right before the writer’s strike. Reporting losses of an eye-watering $636.6 M in 2023, up from $111.2 M the previous year. The strikes hit them very hard, and now only time will tell if this is the end for CSFTSE and Redbox as they begin the process of navigating bankruptcy.

Ryan Coogler (Dir: Black Panther) and Proximity Media stay busy. They currently have two projects:

• A Vicious Circle
  • Producer: Coogler (Proximity Media Banner)
  • Writer: Mattson Tomlin (Project Power)
  • Studio: Universal

Logline:

A Vicious Cycle is about assassins from the future hunting each other through time. Described as John Wick meets Looper.

• ​California Bear​
  • Producer: Coogler (Proximity Media Banner)
  • Writer: Gary Lennon (Power), Duane Swierczynski (novelist)
  • Studio: 20th Century Studios

Logline:

Four unlikely vigilantes whose decision to take justice into their own hands pits them against the villain behind California’s coldest murder case.

Coogler is working on an untitled supernatural zombie movie back with Michael B. Jordan, set for a spring 2025 release, and Tomlin is signed on to co-write The Batman Part II with director Matt Reeves.

Tidbits:

Private Equity firm TPG is returning to the talent business after selling its stake in CAA. The private equity firm is ​launching​ a new (not yet named) company focused on talent management representation and related sectors.

Apple TV+, after 2 seasons, cancels whimsical comedy, The Big Door Prize from Schitt’s Creek writer David West Read. Despite positive reviews, the novel adaptation, led by Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids), ended its second and final season on June 12 after premiering last year (​trailer​).

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Will Forte checks into the ​Four Seasons​. Forte will be joining the series, which is co-created by and starring Tina Fey alongside Steve Carell.

The Four Seasons series is based on ​Alan Alda​’s 1981 film, whose synopsis is as follows:

Three couples vacation together every season. After one divorce, feelings of betrayal and more spawn criticisms of one another, but the things that keep them together are stronger than those which might pull them apart (​trailer​).

Forte previously worked with Fey on SNL (2002-2010) and went on to star on FX’s Last Man on Earth. He has also had a very voice-over-heavy career (Rick and Morty, Bob’s Burgers).

Other works:

• Nebraska (2013)
  • Plays Bruce Dern and June Squibb’s son (​clip​)
• Booksmart (2019)
  • A crestfallen father (​clip​)
• SNL – Macgruber Meets Mcgyver
  • ​Clip​

Forte is a very funny man, but he brings a groundedness to his roles that lets him fit in nicely in any situation. Four Seasons will begin filming sometime soon this year.

Tidbit:

Apple TV+’s Neuromancer completes its cast with ​Briana Middleton​, who plays a confident con artist in A24’s Sharper (​trailer​).

Official synopsis:

A damaged, top-rung super-hacker named Case (Callum Turner) who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high stakes crime with his partner Molly (Middleton), a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes, aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets.

FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES

Life Rights in Scripted Film Projects class by Volunteer Lawyers of the Arts. This class is tailored for filmmakers aiming to authentically depict real people in scripted films. They will delve into the concept of “life rights” and discuss their necessity.

Additionally, they will examine a sample life rights agreement, ensuring attendees gain a comprehensive understanding of the key rights and obligations within such contracts.

The class is July 22nd. 5 – 6 pm. Sign up ​here​.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

South African director Jaco Bouwer will direct the Sci-Fi Thriller, Orion starring Andrew McCarthy (Brats), Drew Van Acker (Last Survivors), and Debby Ryan (Shortcomings).

Official Synopsis:

The film centers around a heated interrogation between a U.S. Intelligence expert tasked to help an amnesiac astronaut recover his memory in order to determine “who” or “what” killed the rest of the crew before they crash landed back on Earth.

Bouwer has dealt with mysterious entities before as his debut feature film Gaia (2021) followed an injured forest ranger who, upon being saved by two off-the-grid survivalists, is met with an eerie and unknown nature-bound threat.

Distributed by Neon/Decal, Gaia won the highly competitive cinematography award at its world premiere at SXSW and went on to win four South African Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

You can watch the eerie Gaia trailer ​here​.

Bouwer’s last project was Spinners (2023), a thriller limited series for Canal+/Showmax.

His upcoming film, Orion has just wrapped production in New York.

Bud S. Smith was a Sorcerer. The Academy Nominated editor has just passed away at age 88. He edited one of the single most tense, heart-pounding scenes in cinema history. The torrential ​bridge crossing scene​ in Sorcerer (1977). It’s a masterpiece in itself. He also edited The Karate Kid (1984) and co-edited The Excorcist, credited with cutting the ​opening scene​. He will be missed.

Norman Mailer documentary yells out for us to come alive. Here’s a soundbite from the trailer:

How to Come Alive With Norman Mailer is organized around Mailer’s seven principles of coming alive.

​The trailer​ shows the war waging inside this great American writer.

The film is currently in theaters.

ON THIS DAY

1991. Terminator 2: Judgement Day, directed by James Cameron, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong, premieres at Century City, California.

See you tomorrow.

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Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.

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Editor: ​Gabriel Miller​.