Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Amazon’s AI, Netflix’s Girl, and the real tiger kings.
Let’s go!
Today’s cover story contains a spoiler for Season 1 of The Boys.
Something big happened at Amazon’s upfront this week.
Alan Moss, VP of Global Ads, declared that Amazon will use:
“AI technology to analyze both viewing content and advertising creative in order to select the right advertisers and the right message to appear during a pause.”
He continued:
“The technology then auto-generates hyper-relevant ad copy to make ads feel like natural extensions of what viewers are watching.”
Envision this scenario:
Joaquin Phoenix, dead set on rescuing the mayor’s daughter from an illegal brothel in Amazon’s You Were Never Really Here, goes to the hardware store to buy a hammer (pictured above) to bash in the brains of anyone who might get in his way. You pause the screen, and suddenly you’re greeted with an ad for Amazon’s “8 oz Hammer, Pink.”
Or this…
Prime’s The Boys Season 1 finale ends with Butcher having the god-awful realization that his wife has mothered a child with his greatest enemy. Cut to a wideshot of the quartet on a beautiful suburban lawn with a sprinkler. You pause the show and see a promo for “Eden Lawn & Garden Metal Oscillating Water Sprinkler for Yard.”
Perhaps Amazon Prime will be sensitive to where they deploy these AI pause ads. Already, 88% of US Prime Video viewers shop on Amazon.
In network TV, much pain was given to designing scene climaxes or cliffhangers right before commercial breaks to allow a sense of narrative tension to either release or linger.
In this era, where multi-screen viewing is almost commonplace, people watch shows while scrolling their phones, but that is their option to do so.
Let’s hope that with these AI ads, creators can opt out of these ads or at least monitor them.
For More:
Amazon series announcements:
Fallout renewed for Season 3
Beast Games renewed for Season 2 and 3
Creed spinoff series, Delphi, about young boxers. EP: Michael B. Jordan.
Barbershop TV series with original cult hit co-writer Marshall Todd and Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat producing.
Trailer for Michael Showalter’s (dir: The Idea of You) Oh. What. Fun. starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
Plus a first look photo of Nicolas Cage in full Spider gear for Amazon's gritty elsewhere spinoff Spider-Noir.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Netflix's Madonna biopic limited series is boarded by producer Shawn Levy.
Austin Butler stars in City on Fire, directed by Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic).
Skydance drops $2M on sci-fi short story Drift.
Tubi boosts viewership 18%.
Fox orders Alzheimer’s hitman drama Memory of a Killer with Patrick Dempsey.
Zoe Kravitz joins How to Rob a Bank alongside Nicholas Hoult.
Jude Law and Andrew Garfield to play Siegfried & Roy in Apple’s Wild Things.
Jennifer Garner to star in sci-fi hostage drama Zygote.
Lena Dunham returns to TV with Too Much, a romantic dramedy.
Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, picked up by Neon.
Joe Wright’s Mussolini: Son of the Century lands at Mubi.
Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision launches a new management division.
Utopia nabs Megalopolis BTS doc.
SXSW winner Fantasy Life acquired by Greenwich Entertainment.
France’s Pathé takes on 20% investment from logistics billionaire Rodolphe Saadé.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
After years of failed attempts to make a biopic about her life, Madonna is now developing a limited series for Netflix with producer Shawn Levy.
Originally a Universal-backed film with Julia Garner set to star, the project stalled despite multiple script drafts from Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson, with Madonna eventually writing her own version. While no writer is currently attached, the series—tentatively titled Who’s That Girl—is in early development and aims to chronicle Madonna’s rise as a pop sensation.
It looks like Madonna ceded creative control to make this happen. Even though Levy is getting tons of projects thrown his way after Deadpool 3, we hope this sees the light of day.
Tidbits:
The upcoming adaptation of City On Fire, the best-selling crime novel from Don Winslow, is now set to star Austin Butler with Matt Ross (dir. Captain Fantastic) attached to helm the feature. A modern retelling of classic Greek tragedies, the story focuses on two criminal empires, the Irish and the Italian, fighting for control of New England. Butler is also producing with Heyday Films (Harry Potter) and Sony’s 3000 Pictures.
After a grueling auction, Skydance gets a major win, scoring the short story Drift, a sci-fi epic written by Ben Queen (Cars 2) and Jason Shuman (Half Brothers). Described as Gravity meets Arrival, the project sold for around $2M with director and writer Andy Muschietti (It, The Electric State) attached to direct.
Fox's free streaming service, Tubi, has boosted its viewership by 18%. More info on their strategy and latest statistics here: https://theindustry.co/p/tubi-q1-2025
New Series:
NBC’s The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins
Status: Greenlit
Cast: Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe
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Fox’s Memory of a Killer
Status: Series order
Star: Patrick Dempsey
Logline: A hitman who develops Alzheimer’s
Trailer for Liam Neeson’s Memory, which shares the same source material
Renewal:
CBS’ Beyond the Gates (for Season 2)
Netflix’s Lupin (for Season 4)
Mini Tidbits:
Pixar’s upcoming film Elio has a $300M budget, as much of it was re-shot with a new director after extensive rewrites shifted the tone from somber to more comedic. This would make it the most expensive Pixar film, well above Inside Out 2’s $200M.
Apple TV+ has ordered Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars, an eight-part docuseries from Gordon Ramsay, following chefs battling for Michelin recognition.
Peacock sets September premiere for The Paper, a new mockumentary from The Office creators. Domhnall Gleeson stars in Greg Daniels' new series about a struggling Ohio newspaper. Oscar Nuñez reprises his role as Oscar Martinez. The first look shows Gleeson giving a rousing speech.
New Line filed arbitration against Kevin Costner’s Horizon series, alleging it failed to repay co-financing debt after City National Bank demanded full repayment.
AMC announced that it will be cutting ticket prices on Wednesday by 50% as a way to get moviegoers back into theaters.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Jude Law and Andrew Garfield will star as Siegfried and Roy in Wild Things, a new Apple TV+ limited series based on the streamer’s original podcast.
The eight-episode drama explores the famed illusionists’ rise in Las Vegas, their personal and professional complexities, and the mystery surrounding their final tragic performance.
This dynamic duo appears to have the perfect contrast aside from both being very funny. Law has a brooding wit, and Garfield just has this unending sweetness. Throw some wigs on them and put them in the cage.
Currently in production.
Thoughts and Prayers, the debut feature from emerging writer-director Nitzan Bachar “NB” Mager announces a stellar group of actors for the dark comedy made up of
Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring)
Molly Ringwald (Brats)
Bill Camp (Zero Day)
Currently in post-production, Thoughts and Prayers follows a teenage girl who decides to stage a musical reenactment of a tragedy that took place at her high school 10 years ago.
Tidbits:
Lena Dunham (creator: Girls) is back in the TV game. Her new series, Too Much, explores the life of a mid-30s New Yorker (Megan Stalter) who moves to London after a bad breakup, only to get tangled in a situationship. Dunham has a profound way to infuse the minutiae of relationship drama with deep, painful truths. Dunham does not star in the series, although she serves as creator, writer, and director, but clearly there’s a cameo from this first look photo. Plus, a favorite actor from Girls returns (first look photo).
Kal Penn is a chess master. The new thriller Contra takes us into a world of a lethal underground circuit where chess matches have life and death stakes where a kingpin rules the chess and crime worlds. Sounds like Chess Club Fight Club. No word on who Penn will play, but we loved him in House (clip), as the doctor taking the moral high ground against Hugh Laurie.
Alias’ Jennifer Garner is starring in Zygote, a sci-fi drama based on a futuristic short story by art director Alyssa Hill. From The Last Showgirl’s Pinky Promise and Linden Productions (Is God Is), the film follows an elite crisis negotiator who is sent from Earth to an International Space Station to try and save a number of hostages.
Mini Tidbits:
Zoe Kravitz (The Batman) has joined Nicholas Hoult and Pete Davidson in Amazon MGM Studios’ How to Rob a Bank, directed by David Leitch (Bullet Train). This is a reunion of sorts, both starred opposite each other in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Apple TV’s upcoming series remake of Cape Fear rounds out its cast with three new additions. Lily Collias (Good One), Malia Pyles (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin), and Joe Anders (East of Eden) join big names like Javier Bardem and Amy Adams.
FESTIVALS
Cannes Market additions. Click here for new projects starring Angelina Jolie, Jeremy Allen White, and Sydney Sweeney: https://theindustry.co/p/cannes-market-2025
We’ve lost track of how many projects Tim Roth is in at the Cannes Market (4?). So it checks out that one of his projects would sell. Seven Snipers has been sold to Germany and 11 other territories. The film follows a retired sniper in hiding on an Australian ranch who must reunite her elite kill squad when a vengeful warlord threatens her daughter.
Cannes short film to feature. Korean-Canadian filmmaker Lloyd Lee Choi’s feature-length debut Lucky Lu has landed French distribution with KMBO (Sleeping Giant) just before its Cannes world premiere as part of the Directors’ Fortnight. Lucky Lu is a 48-hour journey around NY when a delivery driver’s main source of income - his bike - is stolen. The film expands on Choi’s live-action short Same Old (2022, trailer), which premiered at Cannes.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Neon grabs Palme d’Or winning director Cristian Mungiu’s new film Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan & Renate Reinsve. The 5-time Palme d’Or winning studio took North American, UK, Australian, and NZ rights.
Synopsis:
An immigrant Romanian family living in Norway is subject to an investigation and faces the scrutiny of the local judicial system.
Fjord will be a departure for Mungiu, as this will be his first English-language film. Not familiar with his work? Check out the Palme d’Or winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days was brutal, a wise Romanian dictatorship abortion drama (2007, trailer ). Production on Fjord just wrapped in Norway with a 2026 release slated.
Mubi has acquired Joe Wright’s (dir: Atonement) period drama Mussolini: Son of the Century for North America and several other global territories in a multi-territory deal with Fremantle. Starring Luca Marinelli as the fascist leader, the eight-part series explores Benito Mussolini’s volatile rise to power, adapted from Antonio Scurati’s bestselling novel, and premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
SpectreVision (Mandy, Rabbit Trap) expands with a new management division. The prod company headed up by Elijah Wood and Lawrence Inglee (prod: Swiss Army Man) has enlisted Antonio D’Intino, who previously served as a manager at Circle of Confusion, and Christina Campagnola, previously lit agent at Imagine Artist Management. This gels with their DNA as a genre talent incubator.
Tidbits:
1-2 Special is making a name for itself. The new US theatrical distributor has secured substantial backing from a group of private investors led by Alex Lo’s Cinema Inutile (Rebuilding), among others. 1-2 Special is expected to be especially active at Cannes.
Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Fantasy Life, the SXSW Audience Award-winning debut feature from Matthew Shear. Co-starring Amanda Peet, the dramedy follows a former paralegal turned babysitter, navigating mental illness and family chaos. The ensemble includes Judd Hirsch, Alessandro Nivola, and Bob Balaban.
Vertical has picked up North American rights to We Bury the Dead, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Daisy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites. Directed by Zak Hilditch (1922), the film follows Ava (Ridley) as she joins a body retrieval unit in Tasmania after a U.S. military experiment causes mass deaths, only to find some corpses reanimating. The film premiered at SXSW. A 2026 release is expected.
Mini Tidbits:
Utopia acquires a Megalopolis BTS doc from director Mike Figgis (dir: Leaving Las Vegas). We can’t wait to see this, as the stories of what happened on Francis Ford Coppola’s set are wild.
Richard Linklater’s new film Blue Moon, from Sony Pictures Classics, starring Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley, will be in limited release on Oct. 17th and a wide release on Oct. 24th.
LA-based indie film studio, XYZ Films, has promoted Pip Ngo to EVP of Sales and Acquisitions, as well as Alex Williams to Director of Acquisitions and Development. The pair will work together to acquire projects while driving sales in English-speaking territories.
Is this the poster for the future Palme d’Or winner?
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
New Peacock series with Matthew Macfadyen and Elizabeth Banks, The Miniature Wife, has been acquired by Sony Pictures Television (SPT) to take it global. Created by Boardwalk Empire’s Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner, the series is described as a high-concept comedy that examines the power imbalances between spouses who battle each other for supremacy.
France’s biggest and oldest production and distribution company, Pathé, has agreed to a strategic partnership with Billionaire logistics tycoon Rodolphe Saadé, taking a 20% stake in the company. The investment news comes just before the start of Cannes, where Pathé will be in full force beginning night one with the musical Leave One Day.
Second Chance, which premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, is a gorgeous B&W fiction film on a heartbroken mountain woman. It is meditative and transportive (trailer). In theaters June 13th.
Psychological survival horror, The Wastelands, is a new film from Icelandic director Erlingur Thoroddsen (Rift, Kuldi) with Sagafilm. A haunting story about guilt and survival, the script was written by Thoroddsen, and the casting process is currently underway.
ON THIS DAY
1986. Lena Dunham born in NYC.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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