Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Ben Stiller’s Reboot, Netflix’s Carry-On, and a dub.
Let’s go!
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Night at the Museum reboot.
It’s happening.
Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps (prod co: Deadpool & Wolverine, Stranger Things) is producing. As you may remember, Levy directed the first three films in the series. He’s brought on writer Tripper Clancy (Die Hart, Stuber) to pen the script, an ideal choice as Clancy excels at turning wimps into unlikely action heroes.
It’s becoming a Hollywood golden rule that any decade-plus-old series that grosses over $1bn will get a reboot (e.g., Meet the Parents, Matrix, Transformers, Jurassic Park).
The original Night of the Museum trilogy pulled in $1.35bn:
Night at the Museum (2006)
$250.8M domestic
$574.5M worldwide
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)
$177.2M domestic
$413.1M worldwide
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)
$113.7M domestic
$363.2M worldwide
Levy’s original trio excelled at delivering hard on spectacle and cashing in on Ben Stiller’s 2000-era “an everyman in an extraordinary situation” quality.
And a decade later, Levy is continuing to make these types of films, just smarter. He’s better at calibrating humor, action, and emotional stakes, like in Deadpool & Wolverine, where Ryan Reynolds gets to go nuts but never loses that heartfelt quality.
This reboot is, of course, a cash-in, but also a test case to see whether nostalgic yet generic comedy/action series can evolve into something sharper, funnier, and more emotionally layered the second time around.
For More:
Relive the magic of the Ben Stiller classic in Night at the Museum (2006) trailer.
The latest iteration of this IP was the Levy-produced Disney+’s animated Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again (2022, trailer).
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Jaume Collet-Serra (dir: Carry On) signs overall film deal with Netflix.
HBO Max greenlights Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, a Big Bang Theory spinoff.
United Artists acquires Fantasy Camp after multi-studio bidding war.
Amazon MGM hires Charlie Coleman as Head of International Theatrical Marketing.
HBO Max cancels Duster after one season.
Rain Reign reunites Clueless stars Paul Rudd and Jeremy Sisto.
Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s AI satire casts Yuri Borisov.
Netflix’s Roommates assembles Natasha Lyonne, Nick Kroll, and Sarah Sherman.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will open BFI London.
Greta Lee makes her directorial debut with horror The Eyes Are the Best Part for Searchlight.
Ne Zha 2 gets an English dub from A24 with Michelle Yeoh.
Last Days (dir. Justin Lin) acquired by Vertical.
Glenn Close’s The Summer Book acquired by Music Box Films.
France’s CNC and UK’s BFI sign film & TV cooperation agreement.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Netflix hands Jaume Collet-Serra (Dir: Netflix’s Carry On) the keys to the kingdom. The director has signed an overall film deal with Netflix. That’s major praise as only a select few have deals like this: David Fincher, The Duffer Brothers, and Jenji Kohan (creator: Orange is the New Black). We loved Collet-Serra’s Carry-On, which played like a Jason Bateman version of Die Hard (full cover story: https://theindustry.co/p/jason-bateman-die-hard). It ranks as Netflix’s #2 movie of all time with 172M views.
Next up for Collet-Serra is a new thriller, An Innocent Girl. Logline: When a young and ambitious woman is seduced by a high-powered D.C. couple, she’s drawn into a dangerous world of sex, power, and murder. Collet-Serra has a keen eye for psychological thrillers, keeping the tension very intimate after honing it on big-budget productions like Black Adam and Jungle Cruise.
Bazinga to the future!
HBO Max has officially greenlit The Big Bang spinoff, Stuart Fails To Save the Universe, a sci-fi series set in the future after the events of the original 12-season-spanning show.
Synopsis:
Comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki), accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon.
Big Bang co-creator Bill Prady and Avengers writer Zak Penn revealed that SFTSTU is using CGI to:
“Incorporate some of the world of science fiction, fantasy into a comedy”
No word if the original Big Bang cast will make an appearance, but regardless, this is exciting news for the franchise’s cult following.
Tidbits:
Amazon MGM Studios' United Artists and Scott Stuber have acquired Fantasy Camp, a high-concept comedy from Nicholas Thomas, after a multi-studio bidding war. Nate Bargatze (stand-up comedian) is expected to star and produce. The story follows friends at Dwyane Wade’s Miami basketball camp as they try to relive their basketball-based dreams. United Artists seems to be casting a wide net with their current projects delving into horror, action thrillers, and now comedies.
Warner Bros. alum Charlie Coleman has been hired as Head of International Theatrical Marketing for Amazon MGM Studios. During his tenure at Warner Bros., he led the marketing campaigns for Barbie, Elvis, Dune, and The Batman. He starts at Amazon next month.
SpongeBob swashbuckles those pants in the new trailer for his latest film. It focuses on a trip to the underworld with the Flying Dutchman, now voiced by Mark Hamill. The animation looks squeaky clean and there are a whole variety of ass shots in the trailer which kind of surprised me. Still probably good for kids, it's out this Christmas.
Mini Tidbit:
Bicoastal PR and consulting firm Wolf Kasteler has promoted Allie Jenkins from the agency’s LA office and Chelsea Hayes from NY to new SVPs. Actors like Jon Hamm, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ted Danson, and more make up their roster.
Emmy-nominated TV writer Dave Flebotte has died at 65. He’s worked on sitcoms like The Bernie Mac Show and saw great success with dramas like Boardwalk Empire, Desperate Housewives, and his last gig, Paramount+’s Tulsa King.
Netflix’s series adaptation of Unaccustomed Earth has signed on a new director, Ritesh Batra (dir. The Lunchbox). Based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories, Batra is replacing Nisha Ganatra (Freakier Friday), who exited due to scheduling conflicts.
The resort that inspired Dirty Dancing, Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hill, is getting a scripted series from SNL writer Alan Zweibel. It will explore how it became more than a resort but a stage for the greatest entertainers of a generation.
Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary trailer hit 400M views in a week. That’s a record for an original film.
Dune: Part Three first production photo.
Cancellations:
HBO Max’s Duster (Cancelled after 1 season)
Trailers:
Lionsgate TV’s The Hunting Wives
Release date: July 21 (on Netflix)
Peacock’s Twisted Metal (Season 2)
Cast: Anthony Mackie
Release date: July 31st
Kino Lorber’s Souleymane's Story
Cannes Prize: Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, Best Actor Award
Release date: Aug 1
Netflix’s Wednesday (Season 2)
Cast: Jenna Ortega
Release Date: August 6th (Part 1)
Netflix’s Long Story Short
Creator: Raphael Bob-Waksberg (Bojack Horseman)
Release date: Aug 22nd
Apple TV+’s The Morning Show
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Marion Cotillard
Release date: September 17
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
“I’m not a prude, just highly selective.”
Paul Rudd and his Clueless co-star Jeremy Sisto reunite for a new project, Rain Reign, a feature adaptation of the bestselling novel by Ann M. Martin (The Baby-Sitters Club). The story follows a neurodivergent 12-year-old girl raised by her volatile single father (Sisto), who is forced to abandon her daily routines when a superstorm devastates their town and her beloved dog, Rain, goes missing. With the support of her uncle (Rudd), Rose embarks on a determined search.
The feature debut of Erika Burke Rossa, who directed from her own script, has just wrapped production.
Yura Borisov is confirmed to co-star in Amazon MGM’s Artificial. The project is coalescing rapidly:
Dir: Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Queer)
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), and Borisov (Anora)
Prod Co: Heyday Films (Harry Potter, Barbie, Wonka)
Prod: Jennifer Fox (We Need to Talk About Kevin)
This film follows OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during the tumultuous days when he is fired and then rehired. Seems similar to Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs.
Multiple actors have been cast in:
Apple’s feature adaptation, Being Heumann
Netflix’s new ensemble comedy Roommates
Amazon MGM’s You Deserve Each Other,
Alonso Ruizpalacios’ (La Cocina) Hulu pilot
Full breakdown here: https://theindustry.co/p/apple-netflix-amazon-alonso
Mini Tidbit:
CBS’ Blue Bloods spinoff Boston Blue has cast Mika Amonsen (Thanksgiving) to play a young Sean Regan, a role previously played by Andrew Terraciano for its 14-season run. Amonsen’s Reagan has relocated to Boston and is committed to pursuing his family’s legacy, with the show focusing on the father and son duo.
New dramatic thriller Quiet Storm toplined by Vanessa Hudgens (Bad Boys: Ride or Die) has wrapped production in Vancouver. The film takes place in the summer of 1969 and delves into women’s liberation and the Black Power movement.
The last famous Vine star, Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor, is joining Shamier Anderson in Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story, a satirical 2026 miniseries about the 1988 Olympic doping scandal. He was a real-life college-level sprinter, so he is bringing something other than just followers.
Walton Goggins plays a sofa? In the new animated film Harry and the Mutant Mid-Century Furniture, Goggins has been cast in an undisclosed voice role. The film is set in 1962. Atomic weapons testing has gone haywire, and now mid-century furniture is coming to life.
FESTIVALS
Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will open BFI London. The film will likely premiere at TIFF. The first film premiered there, and it was a hoot. The after party, less so with Craig looking like he was forced to be there.
Cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner
Release Date: Dec 12th
Netflix/Rian Johnson (dir) team has been tight-lipped about the plot.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Greta Lee isn’t afraid… The Past Lives actress is giving directing a go. She is writing and directing an adaptation of the psychological horror novel The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim with Searchlight Pictures.
“A terrifying tale of misogyny, Asian fetishization and cannibalism,”
The novel follows a struggling college freshman who develops an obsession with eating human eyes.
Sounds not only terrifying but a huge deviation from the work we’ve seen from Lee.
Her nuanced and intimate performance in her breakout film Past Lives (2023, trailer) and her stone-faced successful character in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, while different from each other, are nowhere near resembling anything as dark as The Eyes Are The Best Part.
There have been no casting announcements, and it is unclear if Lee will star, yet it is undoubtedly an ambitious directorial debut.
A24 + $2bn… Ne Zha 2, which is the highest-grossing animated film of all time (beating Inside Out 2), is getting an English dub version from A24.
Now, English-speaking audiences get to see what all of the fuss over this Chinese blockbuster is about! Michelle Yeoh has signed on to voice one of the lead roles.
Ne Zha 2 has already grossed $2.11bn, the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time. We have seen recently with Oscar-winning Boy and The Heron (and all Ghibli films) that these animated adaptations, which spring for major voice-over talent, have usually worked out well. As China becomes more of a powerhouse in animation, we might be seeing more of these than we think.
The trailer looks beautiful, full of action, and pretty funny. Arriving in August.
Acquisition trio:
Glenn Close finds a higher sense of purpose in The Summer Book, which was just acquired by…
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