Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Hunting for 007, Acquiring a Cliffhanger, and a Rat.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
The next 007 will be an unknown British actor.
Vince Gilligan re-ups with Sony in a 4-year overall deal.
Row K acquires Cliffhanger reboot in 8-figure deal.
Amazon MGM finalizing Fourth Wing series with new showrunner Meredith Averill.
AMC Networks developing Scott Stuber-produced Down by the River.
Veteran TV manager Bob Broder (Cheers, Frasier) has passed away.
Chernin Entertainment promotes David Ready to President of Film.
Millie Bobby Brown to star as gymnast Kerri Strug in Perfect (dir. Gia Coppola).
Jimmi Simpson joins The Walking Dead: Dead City S3.
Jay Ellis boards Mindy Kaling’s Not Suitable for Work.
June Squibb hosts Oxygen’s Killer Grannies.
Jay Van Hoy producing Stephen King’s Rat.
RIP Henry Jaglom (A Safe Place, Tracks), key figure of New Hollywood.
Rebel Wilson directing sophomore feature Girl Group.
Vertical takes North American rights to Ralph Hemecker’s Breed of Greed.
Rodrigo Teixeira joins Michelle Garza Cervera’s Ornamento.
Amazon MGM promotes Annelies Sitvast to Head of Local Originals Benelux.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
The next person to play James Bond may be an unknown British actor.
That seems to be the mandate coming from Amazon + newly minted Bond producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman. They want a fresh face. Late 20s-early 30s.
Further character description harkens back to Bond author Ian Fleming’s 1962 interview with The New Yorker:
“I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument ... when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist, I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard.”
Leading the casting hunt, of course, will be Bond 26 director Denis Villeneuve. We covered what his take on the new Bond could be here: https://theindustry.co/p/bond-finds-director
And he’ll get going on casting as soon as he wraps Dune: Part Three next year.
What’s interesting is that Villeneuve has not had a non-A-list actor lead his films for 15 years. So it’ll be interesting to see who he chooses.
Vince Gilligan keeps breaking bread with Sony. Gilligan has signed a 4-year overall deal with Sony Pictures TV. No surprise, as they’re the studio behind his last three shows:
Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
Better Call Saul (2015-2022)
Pluribus (2025-)
Under the agreement, he will continue to create scripted series.
What’s great for Gilligan is that working with Sony allows him to be distributor agnostic. And his new show Pluribus went to Apple TV+ after a large bidding war and a rare 2-season order.
Pluribus releases on November 7th. Apple TV+ just dropped another cryptic teaser.
Row K picks up the Cliffhanger reboot in a massive 8-figure buy. The film stars Pierce Brosnan and Lily James (first look photo), after the original film’s lead, Sylvester Stallone, dropped out.
If you’re not familiar, Row K has acquired 2 films out of TIFF (Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire and Charlie Harper), more films than any other studio.
Row K is founded by industry vets Christopher Woodrow (EP: Birdman, Hacksaw Ridge, The Long Walk) and Raj Brinder Singh (EP: John Wick, Sing Street).
They’re moving at an exponential rate, and yesterday, they hired a CMO, CRO, and head of distribution/acquisition. 2 out of 3 of those hires worked at IMAX previously, so expect Cliffhanger to hit some IMAX screens when it is released wide in 2026 on 3000 screens.
Tidbits:
Amazon MGM’s highly anticipated series adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling novel Fourth Wing is in final negotiations with Meredith Averill (EP The Good Wife, Wednesday S2) to join as showrunner. Averill will be replacing Breaking Bad writer Moira Walley-Beckett, who was originally named showrunner. From Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society (Creed III), the series has already faced some setbacks after first being acquired by the streamer back in 2023.
AMC Networks is teaming up with former Netflix boss Scott Stuber (prod. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein) to develop Down by the River, a new series based on the non-fiction book of the same name. A mix of conspiracy thriller and a crime procedural, set in Dallas high society, the show best resembles Stuber’s producing work on Patriots Day (2016), which showcased his ability to take a tragedy like the Boston Marathon bombing and translate it into gripping, emotionally resonant storytelling.
A titan of television and behind-the-scenes visionary, Bob Broder has passed away after a battle with cancer. A longtime collaborator of Chuck Lorre, Broder shepherded some of his most popular comedies like Cheers, Frasier, and Two and a Half Men. His legacy will live on in every script, sitcom, and series whose success he helped broker.
Chernin Entertainment (Ford v Ferrari) promotes David Ready to President of Film after being instrumental in building the company’s film slate for over a decade. Ready will focus on Chernin’s first-look feature film deal with Apple TV+ and continue to grow their overall Netflix deal.
Mini Tidbits:
Paul Thomas Anderson is confirmed to have done script rewrites on Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon scripts.
Last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live got 6.3M views. That’s 3.5x higher than his average of 1.77M/episode. Read our full breakdown of the episode: https://theindustry.co/p/the-return-of-the-kimmel
Renewals:
Paramount+’s The Crow Girl (for S2)
Trailers:
Netflix’s In Waves And War
Release: Nov 3
Prod Co: Participant
Apple TV+’s Loot (S3)
Release: Oct 15
Watermelon Picture’s All That’s Left of You
EPs: Javier Bardem & Mark Ruffalo
Jordan’s Oscar entry
Premiere: Sundance/Telluride
Release: Jan 9th
CBS’ Sheriff Country (S1)
Release: Oct 17
Rich Spirit’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
Premiere: Sundance (it was pulled and then reinstated)
Release: Fall
AMC’s Hallow Road & Vincent Must Die (double feature)
Release: Halloween weekend
First Look:
Briarcliff Entertainment’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Dir: Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean)
First look image of a time-traveling Sam Rockwell
Searchlight Pictures’ Sweetsick
Release dates:
Cineverse’s The Things You Kill
Release: Nov 14th
Canada’s Oscar entry
Sony’s Beyond the Spider-Verse
Release: June 18, 2027 (moved 1 week earlier)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Eleven is going for gold.
As Stranger Things finally comes to a close, Millie Bobby Brown is in final talks to portray American Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug in the new biopic Perfect.
This would be a major undertaking for the Enola Holmes (2020) actress, who is tasked with portraying both the physical and emotional demands of such an iconic athlete whose defining moment came through grit, injury, and global pressure (Strug’s winning vault). This is a sharp departure from the fantasy roles she’s become known for.
Off-screen, Brown has similarly dealt with an exorbitant level of scrutiny and expectation, having carried the weight of a cultural phenomenon like Stranger Things on her shoulders from such a young age.
Gia Coppola (The Last Showgirl) is on board to direct with Brown’s home away from home, Netflix, in negotiations to land the package. Filming is set to start on Perfect next spring.
Tidbits:
“No good deed goes unpunished.” The final trailer has just dropped for Wicked: For Good, giving us our longest look yet at Dorothy and the gang. Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba seethes with defiance, while Ariana Grande’s Glinda dazzles with deceptive sweetness, and their once-sisterly trust is now fueled by betrayal and the unforgiving magic of Oz. Wicked: For Good premieres in theaters on Nov. 21st.
Jimmi Simpson and a Dead City. Simpson, who has transformed from a breakout role as a McPoyle in It’s Always Sunny to the suave savant/madman in Apple TV+’s Dark Matter, will co-star in The Walking Dead: Dead City (S3). No word on role, but he joins Walking Dead regular cast Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
June Squibb is a killer grannie. The 95-year-old, recent star of Scarlett Johansson’s debut Eleanor the Great, has lined up a new gig: Hosting Oxygen’s True Crime series Killer Grannies. We couldn’t think of anything more perfect. She has a bit of a mean streak (trailer).
Donald Blythe plays Francis Underwood. Reed Birney, the actor who stars as the very passive folksy politician Donald Blythe on House of Cards, stars in Outrage. He’ll play a “brash” political pundit who is kidnapped and must decipher who he wronged or die trying. Sounds like a great role for him after this puny act of self-sacrifice on House of Cards (clip).
More casting news for:
Paramount’s K-pop musical
Prime’s Every Year After
Mindy Kaling's new series
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
The Film Collaborative (sales rep: Matt Smith’s Mapplethorpe) has just picked up 10s Across The Borders. The film is playing next at the Busan International Film Festival. It follows four trailblazers of the underground ballroom scenes in Thailand (trailer).
Filmax (Spanish Distributor: Nightcrawler, Million Dollar Baby) picked up international sales rights for Mouths of Sky. The series is premiering at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Synopsis:
After her expulsion from the police, Nerea García’s quiet life in Bilbao is disrupted when a ritually murdered woman is found. Her former boss seeks her help, forcing her to face past ghosts and city corruption.
Australia’s Scrublands: Silver series from Stan has sold to 9 territories, including BBC for the UK and AMC in Spain and Portugal. It’s got a very true crime vibe (trailer).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Jay Van Hoy is back. Jay, one of the best indie producers of the 2010s (The Witch, The Lighthouse, Beginners, American Honey), is producing the Stephen King novella Rat.
Synopsis:
A frustrated writer named Drew Larson. With an acclaimed short story to his credit who turns to academia because each time he’s got a good book idea, something terrible happens.
This definitely aligns with some of the more twisted horror films that Jay produced for Robert Eggers back in the day.
Jay has been off the map the last few years, but is coming back strong with the production of the independent crime-thriller 52nd State. Reed Hastings, co-founder and former CEO of Netflix, is EPing.
Rat is directed by Isaac Ezban (2018’s Parallel). We’re excited to have him back on the scene!
RIP Henry Jaglom.
The iconic filmmaker made his directorial debut with A Safe Place (1971), starring Jack Nicholson and Orson Welles (trailer). But before that, he was a critical part of the new wave of young Hollywood directors in the ‘60s.
A Hollywood history book centered on that time period, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, describes him:
“Jaglom, who had traveled west from New York in 1965, became fast friends with Jack Nicholson... Jaglom favored long scarves dramatically flung over his shoulder, as well as extravagant, floppy hats. He also befriended Orson Welles, a vast, damaged vessel adrift in a hostile sea, perennially in search of a safe harbor.”
Jaglom’s sophomore feature was Tracks (1976), which starred Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell.
He continued to be a foundational filmmaker for more than 50 years and will be greatly missed. My deepest condolences to his daughter and my college classmate, Sabrina.
Tidbits:
Rebel Wilson is gearing up to direct her sophomore feature, Girl Group. Wilson will also star as a pop diva who’s been kicked out of her own group, forced to do what she can to make a comeback. Wilson’s directorial debut the Toronto title The Deb (2024) has remained unreleased for over a year now because of legal disputes with her new film being produced by Live Nation Studios (A Star is Born) and Future Artists Entertainment (Poker Face). Production is currently underway on Girl Group in the UK.
Vertical has secured North American distribution rights to Breed of Greed…
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