AFM's Lone Wolf
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on AFM’s latest and greatest projects.
In The Industry News: IMAX and Roku Q3. Marvel Studios 2025. Warner Bros. Animation gets Strange.
Actor Spotlight: John Krasinski: Jack Ryan. Kelly Macdonald’s Lanterns.
Festivals: Sundance and a turtle vortex.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight The Puffy Chair and The Roofman.
American Film Market (AFM), kicking off next week, is an important launching ground for films. As previously mentioned, over the years, The Terminator, Pulp Fiction, and Slumdog Millionaire were launched or sold at this festival where $1 bn in financing/distribution is closed annually.
Here are four big projects coming to the market:
Lone Wolf (IMDBPro Link)
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Lily Gladstone
Prod: Christine Vachon, Ted Hope
Dir: Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies)
Domestic sales rep: Great Escape, UTA
Synopsis:
A troubled vet (Gladstone) struggling with addiction is recruited by a contractor (Cranston) for a covert plot to assassinate a politician. After learning she's set up to take the fall, she must outwit the agents to protect her son's future.
Vachon and Hope are long time friends and frequent producing partners.
Hammer Down (IMDBPro link)
Cast/producer: Idris Elba
Dir/Wri: Simon Hatt (EP: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
Prod: Charles Roven (Oppenheimer), Madison Weireter (Justice League)
World Sales Rep: Black Bear
Synopsis:
Trucker Mac takes his daughter on a haul where they're pursued by merciless criminals after the valuable cargo. Staying one step ahead, they must deliver it safely.
Hatt, a first time feature director, was James Gunn’s former assistant.
Brides (IMDBPro link)
Cast: Maika Monroe (Longlegs, Watcher, It Follows)
Dir/Wri: Chloe Okuno (Watcher)
Sales Reps: FilmNation Entertainment, UTA
Synopsis:
Set in 1960s Italy, a married couple visits a remote villa owned by a mysterious count. The count takes an interest in the wife, but her feminist ideals disrupt his Eden of vampire brides.
Shooting in Spring 2025.
Pendulum (IMDBPro link)
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Dir/Wri: Mark Heyman (Writer: Black Swan)
Prod: Darren Aronofsky
International Sales Rep: Black Bear
Domestic Sales Rep: UTA, CAA, WME
Synopsis:
A couple, journeys to a retreat in New Mexico seeking healing. Patrick grows skeptical of the retreat's leader as Abigail falls under her influence. They wonder if the group's practices offer genuine healing or conceal a terrifying truth.
Heyman is also a first time director who started as Aronofsky’s assistant. Shoot date March 2025.
Here are three more buzzy films:
Chariot a Kit Harington comedy about a disgraced jockey who tries to re-enter his beloved sport of Horse Racing - with a centaur. Directed by Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine).
The Plastic Men narrated by William Fichtner.
Flavia, a Martin Freeman family film.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
IMAX Q3 revenue slumps but net income increases. We broke down their numbers and how they stacked up against last year:
$239 M global box office
↓ 31%
$91.5 M revenue
↓ 12%
$13.9 M Net Income
↑16%
Also Up from Q2’s $3.6 M
The top earner:
$83 M - Deadpool & Wolverine
↓ from Oppenheimer’s $183 M
Richard Gelfond, IMAX CEO said:
“With an exceptional content pipeline, accelerating system installations, and robust sales activity worldwide, we are very well-positioned to execute and capitalize on the opportunity ahead over the next several years.”
IMAX is projecting a big uptick with Wicked coming out November 22nd.
Roku is popping champagne. They posted better-than-expected Q3 results. Here’s how they stacked up, plus the delta between last year:
$1.06 bn - net revenue
↑16%
$480 M Profit
↑30%
$9 M - net loss
Up from Q2’s $33.95 M - net loss
And up from last years $330 M net loss
32.1 bn - streaming hours
↑ 5.3 bn
85.5 M - streaming households
↑ 2M from Q2
Roku shared:
“Due to our many growth initiatives and focused efforts to diversify ad demand, M&E is a significantly smaller percentage of our overall Platform business now versus the last several years.”
Roku is projected to continue this growth into Q4 and into 2025.
Apple’s The Family Plan gets a sequel. The film, one of Apple’s most popular originals (currently holding the #6 spot) will bring back Mark Wahlberg and the Skydance producing team (including CEO David Ellison).
Here’s the synopsis:
During Christmas in Europe Dan (Wahlberg) has planned the perfect vacation for the Morgans, but his past continues to haunt them in unexpected ways.
Wahlberg stated:
“We can’t wait to collaborate with our partners at Apple and Skydance again on this next chapter for the Morgan family as their European holiday inevitably goes awry.”
No shoot date has been set. Here’s the trailer for the original.
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Marvel Studios Plans for a big 2025:
Disney+ flaunts all of the new shows/films coming to its platform in a new trailer. Some long awaited, and some brand new surprises, let's break it all down:
https://theindustry.co/p/marvel-studios-2025
Rose Byrne’s production company, Dollhouse Pictures, is partnering up with popular Australian author Anh Do to adapt her novel Wolf Girl for the big screen. The collaboration includes Foundation Media Pictures also producing alongside Byrne and her label with casting for the children’s adventure story expected to start soon. A best selling series in Australia, The Wolf Girl collection of books will be available in U.S. markets March of 2025.
First introduced in the early 90s, Emily the Strange is making her big screen debut in an animated full-length feature from Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions (Cloverfield).
Emily the Strange began as just an image in her signature black, red, and white originally drawn and created by artist Rob Reger, however overtime her universe has completely expanded into books, comics, games, and more celebrating all that is weird and different both in the world and within ourselves. Pamela Ribon, the writer behind animated powerhouses like Moana (2016), Nimona (2023), and, who could forget, the Oscar nominated short My Year of Dicks (2022) is penning the Emily the Strange screenplay.
Run! More videogame adaptations are coming: Lionsgate is adapting the popular horror game Outlast for film, with Roy Lee producing and J.T. Petty writing the script. The story follows journalist Miles Upshur exploring a psychiatric hospital's dark secrets. Known for intense survival horror, Outlast’s atmosphere is revered among gamers and perfected the chase sequence.
Makeready, the production company behind Sundance winner A Thousand and One (2023), [SEE THIS FILM IF YOU HAVEN’T!) is extending its overall deal by three years with Fifth Season and now Topic Studios has joined in on the action. In the new joint venture, Makready will back production with financing and development funds to create top quality content for television.
The latest film under the deal has been Killer Heat, the Joseph Gordon-Levitt led mystery movie that put up big viewing numbers for Amazon Prime Video from its premiere last month. Topic Studios’ next project is the Searchlight drama A Real Pain with Jesse Eisenberg directing and starring Succession’s Kieran Culkin premiering in theaters everywhere this weekend. The Fifth Season upcoming slate includes the Paul Rudd led comedy Friendship acquired by A24 out of TIFF currently seeking theatrical distribution.
Producer Chris Long (The Beekeeper) has launched Longshot Productions with backing from Griffin Capital's Kevin Shields, aiming to produce films and TV series with A-list talent, including upcoming projects with Jason Statham like Levon Cade and a Beekeeper sequel which will shoot next year.
Mini Tidbit:
UTA is cutting roughly 10 agents.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
“This business isn’t about trust, it’s about intelligence.”
The Jack Ryan universe is expanding with the man behind the titular role, John Krasinski, reprising his role in a feature length film now in development.
The Amazon Prime Video original series, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (2018-2023) (S1 trailer) was insanely popular for both the network as one of its most watched shows and with audiences who craved a high quality, fast-paced action story which through the course of its four seasons majorly delivered.
Given the praise that followed its series finale last year, I’d say it’s a pretty intelligent decision to go forward with this beloved character with a formula that has already proven to be successful.
The Office alum has taken a bit of a backseat from acting, priortizing writing and directing, making his feature debut with the creepy post-apocalyptic horror film, A Quiet Place (2018, trailer) as well as its sequel in 2020. Krasinski, a man of many talents, most recently wrote, produced, directed, and starred in IF (trailer), a widely creative family fantasy film for Paramount Pictures that premiered in theaters this past May.
While the literary hero has been depicted on screen several times before:
Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Harrison Ford in Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Chris Pine in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
Krasinski’s portrayal has been described as the most “well-rounded” Ryan, using his natural charisma we’ve seen from the actor on and off camera as well as a believable dry sense of humor that brings a lightness to an overall dark story.
The return of everyone's favorite CIA analyst is said to be an extension of the show, with Andrew Bernstein an EP and former director on its second season attached to direct the film.
Plot details are being kept secret for now, but you can stream all four seasons of the Emmy nominated series on Amazon Prime Video now.
Kelly Macdonald has joined the cast of HBO and DC Studios' Lanterns, a superhero crime series with a True Detective tone, focusing on Green Lanterns Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as they investigate a murder in the American. Macdonald will portray Sheriff Kerry, a devoted, no-nonsense character whose resilience is tested as her community's secrets begin to emerge.
Macdonald’s most notable roles include:
Boardwalk Empire
No Country for Old Men
Trainspotting
A very seasoned actress, her brief scene in No Country was gentle and haunting at the same time.
Lanterns is looking cooler by the minute, the off tone idea confounded a lot of fans when it was first announced by James Gunn, but this really seems to be shaping up to be a much more grounded world, and fun twist on the crime procedural.
Tidbits:
The TIFF wrestling drama Unstoppable, from Amazon MGM Studios, has a stacked cast:
Stars: Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight) and Jennifer Lopez
Co-stars: Michael Peña, Don Cheadle, Bobby Cannavale
This film marks the directorial debut of William Goldenberg, the veteran editor who won an Oscar for his work on Argo, the Best Picture winner from Ben Affleck, who happens to be the producer.
Here’s the ultra inspiring trailer. Hitting Prime Jan 16th.
Billy Zane is Marlon Brando in Waltzing With Brando. The resemblance is uncanny:
Official synopsis:
Movie star Marlon Brando recruits a Los Angeles architect to built the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on a small, uninhabitable island in Tahiti.
Zane, a fellow midwestern like Brando, is not afraid of a little transformation as he did previously in his role as the superhero The Phantom in The Phantom (1996).
The film is launching at the Torino film festival on November 22nd.
Armie Hammer is returning to acting in a Western.
FESTIVALS
Sundance and Sandbox Films set grants for 15 documentary projects. Prior grant recipients include Nocturnes, Oscar-nominated Fire of Love and All Light, Everywhere.
Here are our three favorites from this year:
Artificial Clouds (Chile)
Dir: Josefina Buschmann
Producer: Daniela Camino
Synopsis: The ecological impact of artificial intelligence through a journey from mineral extraction to electronic ruins in Chile.
Spaceman in Kongo (Democratic Republic of the Congo, U.K., Germany, U.S.A.)
Dir: Maisha Maene
Synopsis: Two young rocket engineers, propelled by the memory of African dreamers and a resilient belief in their homeland, work on building the first Congolese Space Program.
The Vortex of Extinction (North Macedonia, U.S.A.)
Dir: Ljubomir Stefanov (Honeyland)
Prod: Maya E. Rudolph (Shirkers)
Synopsis: After discovering a turtle population gripped by a pattern of mysteriously savage, sexually charged destruction, a young ecologist becomes the first to map a “vortex of extinction” playing out in a wild population — and descends into an ethical and existential spiral that transcends species.
The fund is increasing its granting to $500,000 annually.
It’s rare that my breath gets taken away looking at a movie, much less a trailer. But the film Black Ox, shot in 70mm (the first ever in Japan) and premiering in Tokyo International Film Festival has done just that. We’ll keep a close eye on this one and let you know when it’s available in the US.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
More than a decade since his last turn in the director’s chair, Jay Duplass makes his return with a star studded cast for See You When I See You.
The family drama is inspired by Cayton-Holland’s acclaimed 2018 memoir Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir, which explored the deep rooted impact his younger sister Lydia’s suicide had on him and his family.
Currently in production in Atlanta the cast is compiled of:
David Duchovny (Californication)
Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth)
Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart)
Hope Davis (Succession)
Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Ariela Barer (How to Blow Up a Pipeline)
Duplass has been a huge player in indie film and television throughout his career having directed, acted, and produced with his company, Duplass Borthers Productions, alongside his filmmaking brother Mark (The Morning Show). Duplass made his directorial debut with The Puffy Chair (2005, trailer), a quick and clever roadtrip relationship dramedy that was a breakout hit at Sundance 2005 and would go on to win the coveted Audience Award at SXSW as well as many other accolades that year.
Written by both him and his brother, his last directed feature was the hilarious and wacky sports comedy The Do-Deca-Pentathalon (2012, trailer) which would grow his status as a hugely reliable indie director.
Working with Astute Films, the director described his healing upcoming project as:
“The kind of deeply personal dramatic comedy that I grew up on, that made me want to become a filmmaker in the first place.”
While this is exciting news for the hardcore film buffs out there, it is currently unknown when or where we’ll be able to see See You When I See You.
Tidbit:
Dir: Derek Cianfrance’s (Blue Valentine) latest Roofman will release Oct 3 2025.
Miramax will distribute domestically and internationally, with Paramount helping.
Here’s a breakdown of the film:
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Channing Tatum, Peter Dinklage
Production Company: Limelight (Palm Springs)
Official synopsis:
The story of the rooftop robber, Jeffrey Manchester, and his time evading capture.
Read our cover story on the project, a return to form for Cianfrance: https://theindustry.co/p/blue-valentine-to-toys-r-us
ON THIS DAY
1961. Peter Jackson born in Wellington, New Zealand.
That’s all for the week. We’re off for Halloween. We’ll see you Monday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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