Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Paramount’s Shows, Maika Monroe’s It Follows and A Talent.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
The Industry is hosting a panel at Tribeca today at 1 pm: Taste Is the Strategy: How Bold Films Get Chosen, Shaped, and Made.
Full details here: https://theindustry.co/p/tribeca-and-the-industry-how-bold
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Paramount–Warner Bros. faces UK regulatory review, projects 40 shows by 2030.
Blue Marble Pictures (Pachinko) signs first-look TV deal w/ Fifth Season.
Disney+ launches spooky teen series The Doomies.
The DGA reaches a tentative four-year deal with the AMPTP.
Devon Hammonds is named Head of Nonfiction at Sony Pictures TV.
Oscar-winning costume designer Albert Wolsky dies at 95.
Lesley Manville joins Brett Goldstein’s Prime Video romance dramedy Escorted.
Toni Collette joins Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Netflix AI thriller.
Naomi Ackie nears a role opposite Maika Monroe in the It Follows sequel.
Gus Van Sant circles a Hoyt Richards cult drama starring Nicholas Galitzine.
Bleecker Street picks up Anton Corbijn’s drama A Talent for Murder.
Vertical acquires Zach Braff’s Tribeca opioid drama Clean Hands.
GKIDS lands U.S. rights to prison-set animation The Last Blossom.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Robert Downey Jr. was not in Hook.
63% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
A few updates in the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery saga. First, Paramount is now under investigation by the UK’s regulatory board. A ruling is expected by August 7th, either approving the merger or continuing the investigation. Warner Bros. shareholders will get 25 cents/share/quarter if the transaction doesn’t close after Sept. 30th.
Meanwhile, Paramount is maintaining that the $6bn in efficiencies it expects to achieve through the merger will be reinvested in content, stating:
“Paramount TV has about 30 shows in different levels of production right now, with the goal of producing 40 by 2030. When combined with Warner Bros.’ television studios, that output will increase to around 170 shows.”
Either way, they’re gearing up for one massive legal battle, not just with the UK but also California. So Paramount has brought in Shuwanza Goff (former: Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs) as its VP of US Gov Affairs.
Tidbits:
Pachinko producer Theresa Kang’s Blue Marble Pictures has struck a multi-year first-look television deal with Fifth Season (The Night Manager). After launching in 2020, Blue Marble is coming off a five-year overall deal with Apple that helped the studio make a name for itself in the television space. Alongside Fifth Season, their next project is the upcoming James Marsden-led Apple crime drama Disavowed.
Disney+ is all in on a scary summer. The Doomies is a new animated series following two ordinary teenagers who accidentally open a portal to evil, sending terrifying creatures into their quiet coastal town. From the Oscar-nominated Xilam Animation (I Lost My Body), the 22-episode season premiere date is June 26.
Mini Tidbits:
DGA strikes a tentative 4-year deal with the AMPTP. It is now being sent to the 19,500 members for approval.
Devon Hammonds steps up as the head of nonfiction at Sony Pictures Television. Hammonds joined the company when Industrial Media was acquired by Sony in 2022, and was previously the EVP of Business Development & Strategy.
Iconic costume designer and Academy Award winner Albert Wolsky dies at 95. His work in films like All That Jazz (1979), Bugsy (1991), and the musical film Grease (1978) earned him two Oscar wins and five nominations.
Renewals:
Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants (for S18, S19)
Nickelodeon’s The Patrick Star Show (for S6, S7)
Cancellations:
Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (canceled after Season 3)
Trailers:
20th Century’s Whalefall
Cast: Josh Brolin, Austin Abrams
Release: Oct 16
Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel series Elle
Cast: Lexi Minetree
Release: July 1
Warner Bros,’ The Cat in the Hat
Cast: Bill Hader, Giancarlo Esposito
Release: Nov 6
Neon’s Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Release: Oct 16
Biographical drama Killing Castro
Cast: Al Pacino, Diego Boneta
Tribeca Premiere: June 9
HBO’s documentary Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story
Release: June 30
First Look:
Netflix’s Lupin Part 4
Release Date:
FX’s Adults S2
Release: Aug 27
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Shortly after landing her first Tony Award win, Lesley Manville is trading the stage for the small screen for Prime Video’s Escorted. The romance dramedy series follows Denny, a divorced dad who accidentally becomes a male escort played by Brett Goldstein.
Manville will play the mother of Denny, while described as “a force of nature”, that could mean anything from the sweet and selfless woman she played in her BritBox sitcom Mum (2016-19) to the rough, intimidating matriarch she portrayed in the western Let Him Go (2020). Escorted is slated for a 2027 premiere on Prime.
Toni Collette joins director Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Netflix AI thriller from T-Street Productions. No word on plot but Collette joins Rachel McAdams, Joel Edgerton, and Jeff Daniels.
Collette’s previous T-Street Production was Knives Out (2019) where she played a lifestyle guru with a boho-California accent – perfectly blending her intense persona with satirical comedy. Her total screentime for that film was only 10 minutes and 15 seconds, yet her character was one of the most memorable roles in a film that has Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ana de Armas.
Naomi Ackie (Mickey 17) in final talks to join Maika Monroe (Longlegs) in the It Follows (2015, trailer) sequel. The original film follows Jay (Monroe), who gets haunted by an unstoppable supernatural entity after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter.
No info on Ackie’s role, but her performance in Netflix’s The End of the F*ing World season 2 as a vengeful outsider who seeks revenge for the death of her lover was chilling. We think she’d be perfect in a psychological horror film.
Actor updates:
Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt
Actors reunite from The Sandlot
Anthony Guidera obit
Full details here.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Sundance Labs announces ten new projects. Here are a few that stood out for us:
Electric Homies
Wri/Dir: Roberto Fatal
Synopsis:
Ria, a Two-Spirit social worker, rejoices when they get the opportunity to upload their dying sister’s consciousness into a new digital utopia. But as thousands more upload and their barrio begins to disappear, Ria and the community must confront the true cost of this technological miracle.
Brown Baby
Co-Writer: Himesh Patel (Yesterday)
Synopsis:
A mixed-race couple’s marriage begins to crack when their young daughter’s reaction to a doll exposes the truths they’ve spent years avoiding.
Attachment (a.k.a. Bluey Is the Warmest Color)
Dir/Wri: Joanna Rothkopf (Senior Wri: Last Week Tonight)
Synopsis:
A mother becomes dangerously obsessed with a wildly popular children’s entertainer in this arch erotic thriller. It’s Fatal Attraction meets All Fours meets Ms. Rachel. Somehow.
Full slate here.
Charades has secured a number of international distributors for the Cannes Best Screenplay winner, A Man of His Time, from French filmmaker Emmanuel Marre. The true story follows his great-grandmother, who worked for the Vichy regime during WWII, a troubling chapter in Marre’s own family history. The drama was sold to Switzerland, Spain, and 9 other territories.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Gus Van Sant is in talks to direct a new feature, and it’s right up his alley. Starring Nicholas Galitzine (Masters of the Universe) as the successful male supermodel Hoyt Richards, who, while balancing global fashion fame, was involved in a cult that took millions of dollars from him.
Coming off his Venice-premiering crime thriller Dead Man’s Wire, based on a real 1977 hostage crisis, Van Sant is drawn to not just outsiders but conflicted figures living double lives. From the hustling Mike Waters desperately searching for connection in My Own Private Idaho (1991) to the real struggles of openly gay politician Harvey Milk in Milk (2008), some of Van Sant’s most acclaimed works have looked at people caught between their public identities and their own private demons.
Richards’ story, a man living as one of the world’s most recognizable faces while secretly entangled in an abusive cult, feels like the type of character-driven drama Van Sant could really sink his teeth into.
Bleecker Street has picked up Anton Corbijn’s (Dir: A Most Wanted Man) first narrative feature in 11 years, A Talent for Murder.
The cast is led by Helen Mirren, Olivia Cooke (House of the Dragon) and Alden Ehrenreich (Fair Play).
Official Logline:
A mysterious young man from a New York publisher is sent to Switzerland to persuade the renowned writer Patricia Highsmith to write one final installment of the Ripley anthology.
Corbijn, a noted photographer-turned-director, is known for such acclaimed films as:
The American (2010)
a spy thriller starring George Clooney
A Most Wanted Man (2014)
a true crime feature with Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final roles
There have been many incarnations of Ripley films throughout the years, so we’re excited to see how Corbijn’s vision unfolds. Releasing this fall.
Tidbits:
Vertical picks up North American rights to Clean Hands. The Tribeca film starring Zach Braff, who embraces his dark side. Braff plays a narcotics officer grappling with his 19-year-old daughter’s worsening opioid addiction. It’s not the first time Braff has delved into much darker material. While not as an actor, he directed the Amazon MGM Studios’ A Good Person (trailer), which centered on Morgan Freeman’s son being killed in a car accident right before his wedding day.
GKIDS (U.S. Distribution: Spirited Away) acquires the U.S. rights to the international animation film The Last Blossom (trailer), directed by Baku Kinoshita (Dir: Odd Taxi anime series). The film follows a former yakuza, Akutsu, serving life in prison, who reminisces about his life with his only companion in his cell, a smart-mouthed flower growing out of a can. The film premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2025 and will screen as part of North America’s Japanese film festival JAPAN CUTS on June 3rd.
Horror film Jimmy and Stiggs (2024, trailer) is getting an Argentine spin-off. The original film follows a filmmaker who starts to prepare for an impending extraterrestrial attack in his estranged friend’s apartment. The spin-off will follow new characters facing the same alien threats in Argentina. Directed by Sebastián De Caro (Dir: The Marriage App) and releasing through Eli Roth’s The Horror Section.
Mini Tidbits:
HBO Max content will be provided through Prime Video in New Zealand. The service will debut next week on June 16 ahead of the release of Season 3 of House of the Dragon, accessible to those without Amazon subscriptions.
UK’s Elysian Film Group (UK Distribution: The Boy and the Heron) is now entering the insolvency process. The company launched in 2020 with backing from CAA, but the company will no longer be trading due to outstanding debts.
ON THIS DAY
1895. Hattie McDaniel born in Wichita, Kansas.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co