Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Wicked, wicked Russell Crowe and a wicked Octavia Spencer.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Wicked: For Good (Pt 2) drops new trailer featuring flying monkeys and a glimpse of the Yellow Brick Road.
Netflix’s Unabom stars Jacob Tremblay, Shailene Woodley, and Russell Crowe.
Nicole Kidman boards murder-mystery Girls and Their Horses for Amazon MGM.
Blumhouse acquires Saw franchise rights in $90M+ deal.
TriStar greenlights sequel to Keke Palmer & SZA’s One of Them Days.
Sophia Stallone to adapt thriller Mindf*ck at Amazon MGM.
FX orders pilot, Disinherited from Peter Gould (co-creator: Better Call Saul).
Concord Originals acquires RKO Pictures (Citizen Kane) and its 5,000-title library.
Netflix picks up horror short The Blanks from author Grady Hendrix.
Mikey Madison circling dual role in A24’s Red Death adaptation.
Octavia Spencer returns for Blumhouse’s Ma 2.
TIFF opening film is the Ryan Reynolds–produced John Candy doc I Like Me.
Maika Monroe’s Tribeca thriller In Cold Light acquired by Saban.
Magnolia Pictures acquires Jeff Buckley doc It’s Never Over.
Blumhouse is adapting the hit ghost-hunting game Phasmophobia.
Utopia acquires SXSW fashion comedy Idiotka.
Popcorn Storm inks first-look deal with Banijay Rights.
Palme d’Or winner Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina dies at 91.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
We’re off to see the Wizard! Wicked: For Good (Pt 2) has dropped a trailer chock-full of flying monkeys and even a glimpse of the yellow brick road.
Based on the trailer, the second part looks to be a bit darker, with Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda “the Good Witch” (Ariana Grande) navigating their tarnished friendship, challenged by their opposing paths.
Wicked: For Good (Pt 2) will release November 21st. That pre-Thanksgiving weekend is popular for these types of sequel releases that earn more than the original:
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
$158 M domestic opening
+$6 M more than the 2012 original
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
$142.8 M domestic opening
+$73.2 M more than the 2008 original
We’re excited to see where Wicked Pt2 lands, as it was the highest-earning film of last year ($756.1M), not including sequels.
Netflix delves into Russell Crowe’s dark mind: Netflix is partnering with MRC (Saltburn) and director Janus Metz (Andor) to tell the story of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski (Jacob Tremblay), and his descent from Harvard genius to domestic terrorist whose mail bombing campaigns killed three.
Shailene Woodley plays the FBI Agent trying to track Kaczynski down. Russell Crowe plays Professor Henry Murray, whose psychological experiments are considered by many to be the reason Kaczynski turned.
Currently in pre-production, Unabom has all of the makings of a major hit.
Nicole Kidman is attached to star and produce a series adaptation of Girls and Their Horses by writer Eliza Jane Brazier with Legendary TV and Amazon MGM Studios.
Official Synopsis:
In an elite California equestrian town, the nouveau-riche Parker family navigates dangerous waters as their daughters pursue competitive riding dreams and uncover a murder.
Jenna Lamia (creator: Netflix’s The Perfect Couple) will serve as showrunner, reuniting with Kidman, also a book-to-TV adaptation, a genre the Australian actress can’t get enough of (e.g. Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, HBO’s The Undoing, and Big Little Lies).
Saw's new house: Blumhouse is set to acquire Twisted Pictures’ stake in the Saw franchise, reuniting James Wan with the IP he co-created for roughly $90M. Lionsgate, still owning 50%, remains a partner moving forward. It's a huge horror franchise, all 10 films, and the merch has grossed over a billion dollars globally, but the most recent film, expected in 2025, has stalled. Maybe Blumhouse can get things back on track, and more people digging into their eyes to get keys or whatever.
Tidbits:
They’re back… hopefully with the rent money. TriStar’s One of Them Days is getting a sequel. Keke Palmer and SZA are reportedly returning, along with director Lawrence Lamont. Palmer and SZA’s chemistry as broke friends scrambling across town was wall-to-wall laughter and film made $51.9M off a $14M budget (trailer) so this is a no-brainer.
In a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios, and Balboa Pictures (Tulsa King), Sophia Stallone is developing a series adaptation of Mindf*ck, based on the psychological thriller by the late S.T. Abby. The story follows a calculating serial killer who avenges her traumatic past by eliminating the men who destroyed her family and walked free.
After forty years at Showtime, programming executive Gary Levine is retiring. Levine oversaw Shameless, Weeds, and Yellowjackets. He was vital in evolving the company from a made-for-TV movie channel to a competitive space for original, quality drama and comedy series.
New pilot, Disinherited:
Wri/Dir/EP: Peter Gould (co-creator Better Call Saul)
Network: FX
EP: Rian Johnson’s T-Street
Synopsis: An unexpected inheritance thrusts a pair of scrappy sisters into a world of generational wealth and long-buried crimes.
Writer-producer Tony Saint (Apple TV’s Tehran) is working on King’s Ransom, a new action-thriller series based on an original idea from Chris Peppe (editor: Flash). King’s Ransom is set at an elite Swiss boarding school where the students, born to ultra-powerful and highly wealthy families, are taken hostage. Saint is writing the pilot and serving as showrunner.
Warner Bros. Discovery lays off less than 100 people across linear channels, including:
TNT
TBS
CNN
WBD’s linear profits are down this quarter by 15%.
Concord Originals (prod co: Richard Linklater’s upcoming Blue Moon) has just bought RKO (Classic film studio: Citizen Kane, King Kong, It’s a Wonderful Life). Concord gains access to 5,000 titles. Imagine a remake of Citizen Kane and you’ll go running for your sled.
Netflix has acquired Grady Hendrix’s horror-thriller short story The Blanks for a film adaptation, with Sean Levy's 21 Laps producing. The story follows a family on vacation on Jeckle Island until things take a turn for the worse.
Mini Tidbits:
Will Ferrell is adapting his Netflix Eurovision film for Broadway.
Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach will debut on Broadway in Dog Day Afternoon.
AMC partners with Runaway AI to help them with marketing and VFX pre-viz. Lionsgate was the first studio to partner with Runaway AI, with the Vice chairman recently sharing that they’re using the tech to reduce the cost of expensive scenes, such as 10,000 soldiers in a snowstorm.
Gerard Johnstone (M3GAN) will direct Mattel’s live-action Monster High. Few directors understand childhood fear better.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Mikey Madison, is in talks to star in a re-imagining of The Masque of the Red Death (4 pg story here), an ominous Edgar Allan Poe story from A24 and Charlie Polinger (Dir: 2025 Cannes selection The Plague).
The Anora actress has been taking her time deciding on her next role.
Red Death would see Madison playing dual roles: long-lost twin sisters set against the backdrop of a deadly plague and decaying aristocracy. Red Death echoes Anora’s themes of dealing with the unfortunate reality of socioeconomic classes and sexual power imbalances.
Red Death is set to shoot at the end of this year or early next 2026.
Milo Callaghan is The Rainmaker. The young actor stars in the John Grisham TV adaptation for USA Network as series lead, Rudy Baylor. The role of the young lawyer scraping by to fight corporate greed was originally played by Matt Damon in Francis Ford Coppola’s original film (1997). Callaghan, who has appeared in FBI and Dr. Who, will star across from John Slattery, the series antagonist.
The new trailer shows his attitude chiseled out of stone, able to take lacerating emotional punches with high confidence and gravitas well beyond his years (trailer). The Lionsgate and Blumhouse series releases on August 15th.
Tidbit:
Blumhouse is officially making Ma 2, with Octavia Spencer reprising her role as Ma, playing perfectly on the "cool” adult that lets kids drink at her house until things start getting weird, obsessive, and bloody. The original grossed $60M on a $5M budget, and recently went viral on Netflix, which led to an easy greenlight. Original trailer here. Michael Showalter (The Idea of You) is in talks to direct.
John Malkovich plays a French butler. The actor will make his French language film debut in Mr. Blake at Your Service. He’s charming and awkward like always, but now in French (trailer).
The third and final season of Prime Video’s popular YA series The Summer I Turned Pretty (teaser trailer) adds Kristen Connolly along with six others to its cast as series regulars. Connolly is next starring in Ethan Coen’s Honey, Don’t, but we also loved her as the idol-worshipping yet quintessentially skeptical aide in House of Cards. The 11-episode seasons will kick off only on Prime on Jul. 16th.
The creator of the popular Starz series Power, Courtney A. Kemp, casts Mark Feurstein (Power, Royal Pains) for her new Netflix crime show Nemesis in a recurring role. Feuerstein will play a high-profile attorney willing to toe the ethical line for his clients.
Emily Hampshire joins Marvel’s Vision series for Disney+ as AI system E.D.I.T.H. She joins an ensemble of other actors inhabiting human versions of previous AI. Paul Bettany himself voiced Tony Stark's AI Jarvis before that AI became Vision. It's kind of hard to explain for those non-Marvel heads, but it definitely signals that Visionquest could end up exploring some interesting ideas.
There have been some new cast announcements for the Prison Break spinoff from filmmaker (and original creator) Elgin James, Hulu, and 20th Television.
Ray McKinnon (Mayans M.C.)
Margo Martindale (The Americans)
Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy)
Set within the same universe as the original FOX series (2005-09), production will begin next week in West Virginia.
FESTIVALS
TIFF’s opening film is John Candy: I Like Me, a documentary directed by Colin Hanks (All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records) and produced by Ryan Reynolds. The film explores the life of actor and comedian John Candy (Uncle Buck), offering a candid portrait of his career, struggles, and his comedic genius. Honoring his legacy with a hometown debut Sept. 4th before it streams on Prime this fall.
Saban Films (Knox Goes Away) picks up Tribeca Spotlight Narrative In Cold Light. Maika Monroe (Longlegs) stars as a woman fresh out of prison who attempts to reclaim her drug operation but must run for her life when she witnesses a crime.
Cannes Director’s Forgnight title Miroirs No.3 gets picked up for US distribution from 1-2 Special. Directed by Christian Petzold (Barbara), it follows a young musician whose boyfriend tragically dies in a car crash. Metograph was originally going to distribute this, but it has changed hands.
Cannes Premiere (out-of-competition) film The Love That Remains sells to 9 territories, including Switzerland (clip).
Cannes Critics Week film Nino sells to 7 territories, including Canada. The film won the audience and rising star awards (trailer). Feels like a new-age Ikiru.
Karlovy Vary Film Festival premieres the liminal, vibrant Armenian film, Thus Spoke the Wind (trailer).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
All young lovers know why: Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil). The documentary will explore the life of the ethereal-voiced musician who sadly died in 1997 at the age of 30. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with Buckley’s inner circle, the film explores his life, artistry, and tragic death with a focus on his incredibly prolific debut album Grace. Hits theaters August 8 before premiering on HBO this winter.
Jeff Buckley's music was a one of a kind beautiful talent.
Blumhouse is adapting Phasmophobia, everyone's favorite horror co-op ghost hunting video game that exploded in popularity during COVID and sold over 23M copies since its 2020 release. Co-produced by Atomic Monster and Kinetic Games, the game shone with its life-sim approach to ghost-catching and led to some great scares. It's easy to see that it translates well to film.
Tidbit:
Utopia has secured North American distribution rights for Idiotka, a fashion comedy that made its debut at SXSW 2025. Starring Anna Baryshnikov (Love Lies Bleeding) the film is set in the world of West Hollywood's Russian district during a reality Fashion Runway type competition show.
Final Destination’s Shout! Studios acquired Just Breathe, a crime thriller feature starring Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling) for North American rights. Follows Gellner’s character, a recently freed man trying to reunite with the love of his life, only to find her in a relationship with his parole officer. Releasing later this year.
Kino Lorber has picked up Shari & Lamb Chop, a doc about children’s TV star Shari Lewis and her puppet who appeared in various PBS programming throughout the 90s. In theaters July 18th.
Quiver Distribution has acquired North American rights to Saint Clare, a mystery-thriller starring Bella Thorne (The Babysitter). Directed by Mitzi Peirone and co-written with American Psycho’s Guinevere Turner, the film follows a troubled woman guided by haunting voices into a killing spree. Hits select theaters and on demand starting July 18.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence, the surprising sequel to the cult classic, has been announced for a limited theatrical Halloween release. Returning cast, with a plot that somehow combines AI fears with the titular Tomatoes. Original Trailer here.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Popcorn Storm! Tom Harper (Dir: Peaky Blinders) production company Popcorn Storm has struck a first-look distribution deal with Banijay Rights, the European production giant behind Peaky Blinders and MasterChef. Harper will also develop new scripted series for Banijay UK.
UK distributor LightBulb Film Distribution (Hundreds of Beavers, We're All Going to the World's Fair) has picked up three films that premiered at Sundance:
Touch Me
Dead Lover
Obex
These are all highly visual genre films, very much the style of what LightBulb had distributed before.
On the same day Cannes screened his classic film Chronicle of the Years of Fire, director Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina died at 91. The first Arab and African director to win the Cannes Palme d’Or, Lakhdar-Hamina’s films often involved political commentary and the Algerian war. His last film, the cinematic war drama, Twilight of Shadows (trailer), was Algeria’s official entry to the 2016 Oscars.
Studiocanal is shutting down Red Production Company, a U.K.-based outfit behind shows like Happy Valley (2014-23) and HBO Max’s It’s a Sin. Originally acquired in 2013 due to Studiocanal’s attempt to move into the television space, Red’s president, Patrick Schweitzer, stepped down just last week. The company delivered the first in-house international series, Paris Has Fallen, which broke record ratings on Canal+.
ON THIS DAY
1998. The Truman Show is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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