Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A24’s Room, FX’s Blood, and a dog series.
Let’s go!
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20-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons knows his audiences.
He not only tapped into a Gen Z audience but also a wider demographic, giving A24 its biggest opening weekend of all time with $118M globally.
Funny as it may sound, Backrooms is a nostalgia piece for the teens who are astonished that the creepy short video they saw on Parsons’ YouTube channel as kids is now a feature film. In fact, when I was in the theater, half the audience was under 21.
The Gen Z audience grew up with online group storytelling. Their interaction wasn’t as passive consumers, but active creators of the universes themselves.
The original Backrooms concept began as an image post on 4chan that users collectively expanded into an entire universe, similar to Creepypastas and SCP Foundation short stories on the internet.
Parsons capitalized on this. He started a conversation with the Backrooms fanbase faster than anyone else, even taking notes from his YouTube comment section. Over time, his interpretation became the new “canon” of Backrooms and racked up 220M+ views on his channel.
With this feature, Parsons gave loyal fans what they wanted, weaving in lore-specific details like the Async company. But he also expanded his YouTube vision to a larger audience, casting actors in their 30s and 40s to bring in an older demographic and grounding the Backrooms mythology in a mature emotional metaphor of repressed grief. For instance, both lead characters in the film are people trying to run away from a trauma in their past.
Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse was a production company on the film, is inspired by Parsons and also Curry Barker (dir: Obsession), stating:
“They’re a new kind of movie. They’re made by non-traditional directors, directors who really honed their skills as creators online.”
Backrooms and many other digital creators have huge fan bases. They were just waiting for Hollywood to meet them inside the worlds they had already built online.
For More:
A24’s Backrooms trailer here.
What is this new liminal horror space? Read our breakdown.
We will likely see forthcoming announcements for A24’s Backrooms 2.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Chernin Entertainment boards buzzy rom-com spec One Month Mark.
FX develops neo-noir western series That Texas Blood.
Terrifier creator Damien Leone sets Lionsgate horror film Tortures of the Damned.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman join Disney+ sailing docuseries.
Oscar-winning Star Wars editor Marcia Lucas dies at 80.
Euphoria has ended after 3 seasons.
Sarah Snook leads limited-series reimagining of Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Gabourey Sidibe stars in thriller Rose Moon.
Jimmy O. Yang joins Netflix casino drama The Roman.
Neon’s Cannes title Hope sells to 200 territories.
Fatherland, Coward, and other Cannes titles sell internationally.
Jorge R. Gutierrez exits Amazon’s AI animated series Punky Duck.
Amores Perros gets a TV adaptation from AF Films.
Friday’s top answer: 42% have seen The Shawshank Redemption 1-3 times.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Chernin Entertainment (Planet of the Apes) has boarded One Month Mark, the rom-com spec script everybody wants their hands on.
From writer, director, and actress Sophie Fleur de Bruijn (wri: Apple TV’s upcoming Early Action), the film will follow two individuals: she has never made it past a month in a relationship, and he has never gone longer than a month without one.
An incredibly secretive project, the sale is an especially big deal for Chernin, who hasn’t worked in the romantic comedy space since 2016 with the Zac Efron and Aubrey Plaza-led Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.
The few eyes who have read the script have deemed it one of the best romcoms in years.
Tidbits:
The creator of the Terrifier franchise is going to Hollywood. Damien Leone (Dir: Terrifier franchise) will write and direct a horror feature, Tortures of the Damned, for Lionsgate after finishing Terrifier 4. The plot details are unknown, but it is reported that the film will have a way bigger budget than the Terrifier movies – the third installment was shot with $2M but garnered $89.2M worldwide. Sam Raimi (Dir: Evil Dead) and his company, Ghost House, are attached to produce the project.
A Neo-Noir Western from FX. FX is developing a drama series, That Texas Blood, with Jim Mickle (Showrunner: Netflix’s Sweet Tooth) and E.L. Katz (Dir: Netflix’s Small Crimes). Based on an Image Comics series of the same name, the show will follow Sheriff Joe Bob Coates of Ambrose County, Texas, as a local man returns home following the sudden disappearance of his brother. Mickle and Katz will write and EP, with Mickle also directing the show from 20th Television.
Mini Tidbits:
Deadpool and Wolverine are going sailing. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman join Disney+’s new docuseries about the duo’s sailing team. Coming from Reynolds’ production company, Maximum Effort, the show will follow the team across a global racing season, sailing 50-foot catamarans in close-to-shore courses.
Marcia Lucas, ex-wife of George Lucas and editor of the original Star Wars (1977), dies at 80. Her most famous works include Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), and Return of the Jedi (1983).
Trailers:
HBO’s House of the Dragon S3
Release: June 21
Netflix’s Mating Season
Cast: Zach Woods, Nick Kroll
Release: May 22
Release Dates:
A24’s Onslaught
Dir: Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong)
Cast: Adria Arjona
Release: September 4
Kiri and Lou Go Raaa! (New Zealand’s stop-motion feature)
Cast: Jemaine Clement, Olivia Tennet
Premiere: June 24 (Annecy)
Paramount’s K-Pop: The Debut
Cast: Ji-young Yoo, Eric Nam, Yoo Ji-tae
Release: Feb 26, 2027
Paramount+’s Wild Cherry
Prod Co: BBC
Release: June 24
Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote vs. Acme.
Prod: James Gunn
Cast: Will Forte, John Cena
Release: Aug 28 - now with help from Legion M
Orion Pictures’ Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Cast: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli
Release: Sept. 25
Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie: Squared
Dir: Jared Hess
Cast: Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Kirsten Dunst, Danielle Brooks
Release: July 23, 2027
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Logan Roy may have been scary, but nothing compares to the twisted world of Alfred Hitchcock.
Succession’s Sarah Snook is set to star in a limited series take on Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). “A present-day reimagining”, Snook will play Myra Massey, a traveling magistrate returning to her Alaskan hometown for a routine death hearing, only to discover the brutalized body of a childhood friend. As she investigates, nature turns on her, and death lurks in the skies.
Where Snook’s Emmy-winning role as Shiv Roy lived in glass offices and was defined by her emotional repression and weaponized conversations, Myra is in a world of silence, the wilderness, and psychological dread, a place somehow darker than the infamous media conglomerate Waystar Royco.
The Bodega Bay-set original film followed a wealthy socialite turned damsel in distress, while the series version sees its lead rescuing themself, driving the mystery rather than just surviving it, which is much more Snook’s speed anyway.
Universal International Studios has been working on the project for over a year, with Snook the perfect person to live up to the name and bridge Hitchcock’s legacy with a modern audience. David Heyman (Heyday) is producing.
Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) is starring in Rose Moon.
Synopsis:
A probation officer (Sidibe) whose affair with a parolee spirals into obsession, placing her career at risk.
If Sidibe is able to dig into the ferocity of her dark desires, this will be gold. Her performance as the titular character in Precious was an explosive combo of massive dreams curtailed by vicious emotional and physical abuse. But her ability to overcome was wonderfully endearing.
Jimmy O. Yang vs. Oscar Isaac in Vegas. Yang will star in Netflix’s The Roman, a Vegas casino series, EP’d by Scorsese and created by Ocean’s Thirteen writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien.
The eight-episode drama will focus on the president of the hottest hotel/casino on the Strip (Isaac), with back-door negotiations and high-stakes power plays. Yang will play his nemesis.
This is a massive get for Yang, who typically plays on the more nerdy, bumbling side (to great comedic effect). We can’t wait to see him become a villain.
Mini Tidbits:
Michael Bergin and Kelly Packard know the Baywatch beach better than anyone. The upcoming Fox reboot has added more original cast members with Bergin and Packard returning to play lifeguards Jack “J.D.” Darius and April Giminski, respectively. Premiering early 2027.
Kelly Curtis, best known for sharing the screen with her older sister Jamie Lee, has passed away at 69. The two worked together on Trading Places (1983) and Freaky Friday (2003), but Kelly really stood out in the long-running spinoff series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Neon has sold its Cannes film Hope to 200 territories. Focus Features, Sony, and Mubi have all grabbed pieces of worldwide rights.
Mubi takes Latin America, Italy, and 5 other territories. Focus grabs France, Benelux, and South Africa. Sony takes Portugal and 4 other territories.
Read more about our POV on the film here:
https://theindustry.co/p/hope
Mini Tidbits:
Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Everytime gets North American distribution with 1-2 Special (Urchin). Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner’s Everytime is a meditative drama on grief and how it is able to bring people together.
A trio of Mubi Cannes films sells to international territories via The Match Factory. More details here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Remember last week, Amazon MGM launched a trio of AI animated series? Well, director Jorge R. Gutierrez, who was slated to direct Punky Duck, has dropped out.
That’s a big deal given Gutierrez helmed 20th Century’s The Book of Life, Nickelodeon’s El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera and Netflix’s Maya and the Three.
Alice Rohrwacher’s (La Chimera) buzzy feature adaptation, Three Incestuous Sisters, has not only officially begun production but has also been confirmed as a black-and-white silent film.
Evoke Entertainment (prod co: Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie) scores a $35M production financing credit facility.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Amores Perros is getting a TV series. Yes, the original screenplay for the classic Iñárritu film (his directorial debut!) has been picked up by Spain-based AF Films (prod co: Sorry, Baby).
No word on how they’re expanding the film, but the original is a monumental achievement in cinema history. Here’s an excerpt from the ‘01 NY Times review:
“While ’Pulp Fiction’ was a brilliant meditation on all things pop, ’Amores Perros’ is weightier. The characters are more complex; the three stories all tackle themes of love and redemption.”
Interest in this film is high. Last year, it played at Cannes Classics, and afterward, Mubi picked up the worldwide rights for the 4K restoration.
Modern Family star Sofia Vergara’s production company, LatinWe, is also working on the series adaptation.
Mini Tidbit:
Big window. No whammies. The Korean Ministry of Culture and its film council is in talks to try to get a 6-month exclusive window for films before they go to streaming. If this passes, it would be a beacon for all countries to follow.
ON THIS DAY
1926. Marilyn Monroe born in Los Angeles.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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