Ben Stiller’s Big Bet
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Ben Stiller’s Band, Paul Giamatti’s Soul and an Unfinished Film.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Ben Stiller is set to star in and EP, The Band, a dramedy in development at HBO from the co-creators of Search Party.
Titus Welliver (Bosch in Prime’s Bosch) has signed a new first-look series deal with Amazon MGM.
Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to Thomas Ray’s 2023 novella Silencer, which is being adapted to the big screen by Ben Jacoby (The First Omen)
Euphoria Season 3 is officially underway, with production dropping a first look image.
Paul Giamatti excels at playing plain people; in his new film, he will encounter the paranormal.
Barry Keoghan is set to co-star in Butterfly Jam, the first English-language feature from director Kantemir Balagov.
With great momentum, Netflix is looking to expand its Korean content slate with Show Business starring Squid Game’s Gong Yoo.
The cast of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey just keeps growing. Latest additions: Jesse Garcia (Flamin’ Hot) and Will Yun Lee (The Good Doctor).
Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe (Amazon MGM Studios/Mattel) adds Morena Baccarin as The Sorceress.
Netflix’s kidnapping thriller Animals adds Kerry Washington and Steven Yeun.
Wild Game launches at EFM. It stars Miles Teller and Casey Affleck.
Some new additions to EFM: Angelina Jolie’s Couture and Malcolm McDowell’s Dog & Bull. Full breakdown here.
Fernando Meirelles (dir: City of God) teams back up with his DP Cesar Charlone (DP: City of God) for a limited series El Abuso.
Shudder acquires Sundance’s The Ugly Stepsister and Berlin’s Reflection in a Dead Diamond.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Stiller's getting the band back together: Ben Stiller is set to star in and EP The Band, a dramedy in development at HBO from Search Party co-creators Sarah Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers. The show follows Stiller’s character, Oscar, a disgraced music industry mogul who must form a new act to save his career and reputation.
Stiller always seems to find the comedy in the underdog, he also has a surprising musical past, before he became an actor he was the drummer in the fringe post-punk outfit Capitol Punishment, a band whose record Roadkill has gone on to be considered very influential and innovative for it's time.
If it moves forward, this will be Stiller’s first ongoing TV acting role since Arrested Development. This compounding with Severance season 2 already getting great buzz and a smattering of future roles including the Dodgeball remake, it looks like Stiller has fully returned from his hiatus and is ready to get back into the public eye.
One of Amazon MGM Studios biggest and most loyal stars Titus Welliver (Bosch in Prime’s Bosch), has signed a new first-look series deal, kicking off with an untitled series.
Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon, said:
“His portrayal of Harry Bosch has defined a generation of crime drama, bringing unparalleled depth and authenticity to the role.”
Bosch became Prime Video’s first drama hit and remains the streamer’s longest-running series, spanning seven seasons. Welliver also toplines Bosch: Legacy, a spinoff series, which is set to debut its third and final season on Mar 27th (teaser trailer).
Amazon MGM Studios will work around Welliver’s acting schedule for the crime drama should it go forward.
Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to Thomas Ray’s 2023 novella Silencer, which is being adapted to the big screen by The First Omen writer Ben Jacoby.
Official Synopsis:
A CIA field agent is sent to bring in the ultimate CIA target who’s been out in the cold for decades. An operative who dates back to the dark times of MK Ultra, the target is a silencer — someone who can read minds, and wipe them from a distance, making him impossible to find or catch.
NeoText Corporation, the publisher of the novella, will produce. It sounds like a more modern take on Scanners (1981), and we’re very into this.
Tidbits:
After over two years since its last season aired and many delays, Euphoria fans were losing hope they would ever get new episodes of the racy HBO teen drama. Season 3 of Euphoria is now officially underway with production dropping a first look image of Emmy winner Zendaya reprising her lead role, seen here.
After the Academy has done its due diligence, they have established the final nominations for Best Picture. These include additional Best Picture Oscar nominations for Jacques Audiard (Dir: Emilia Pérez), Brady Corbet (Dir: The Brutalist), and Coralie Fargeat (Dir: The Substance).
Avatar: Fire and Ash shares a quick look at its new setting, the disaster struck Mangkwan Clan. First look here. Releasing December 19, 2025.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Paul Giamatti excels at playing plain people.
He ingrained his name in cinema history by crafting pitch-perfect curmudgeons in Sideways (2004) and The Holdovers (2023).
But there is another side of Giamatti, where he takes advantage of his character actor looks and enters paranormal realms.
To this end, he is set to star as the late Art Bell, a DJ who hosted a 5-hour nightly paranormal radio show where callers would share stories of UFO abduction, time travel experiences, and bigfoot sightings.
We don’t know the full plot of the film or the tonal direction, but Giamatti has a tremendous ability to ground paranormal stories:
Cold Souls (2009)
Giamatti loses his soul after it gets extracted—he plays the part with harrowing realism.
I Think We're Alone Now
A cheery post-apocalyptic survivor who has normalized the strangeness around him.
Lady in the Water (2006)
A sad superintendent who discovers a nymph.
Paul Giamatti has always had a steady hand, grounding the absurd with weary realism.
As radio host Art Bell, Giamatti will serve as the gatekeeper to the unknown—but will the filmmakers pull him deeper into the eerie mysteries his callers obsess over or keep him safely behind the mic, contending with his inner turmoil?
Amazon, Warner Bros., and many other buyers are circling this pitch from horror, thriller, and comedy studio Radio Silence (Abigail, Scream).
For More:
Art Bell talks to time travelers on his radio program.
Paul Giamatti has never sold his soul, but he has stored it! Cold Souls (2009) trailer.
I’d love to see Giamatti in a feature version of The Twilight Zone’s Time Enough at Last.
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Barry's Butterfly Jam: Barry Keoghan is set to co-star in Butterfly Jam, the first English-language feature from Russian director Kantemir Balagov (Dir: Beanpole - winner best film Cannes Un Certain Regard), alongside Riley Keough.
The film is set in New Jersey’s Circassian community and follows a teenager balancing life between his family's struggling diner and his aspirations to become a professional wrestler.
Barry has quickly ascended to one of Hollywood's go to young actors, his varied mastery of off kilter characters pairs well with his clear devotion to the craft.
He was heartbreaking in The Banshees of Inisherin, arguably the role that broke him out, but he has really carved out a niche for characters that conceal their true feelings inside of a thorny exterior, playing a tattooed-up father in Bird trying to help his daughter not make the same mistakes he made, to a full-blown psychopath in Saltburn keeping all of his marks and the audience guessing till the very end.
Barry Keoghan has transcended beyond being a “one to watch..” His constant expertise with craft has elevated his performances, always leaving the audience expecting greatness. Butterfly Jam seems like another winning combo.
Tidbits:
With great momentum, Netflix is looking to expand its Korean content slate with Show Business (working title) starring Squid Game’s Gong Yoo alongside Korean actress Song Hye-Kyo, fresh off her turn in Lunar New Year release Dark Nuns. Show Business will be set against the backdrop of South Korea’s 1960s entertainment industry. Netflix has yet to announce a premiere date for the series.
The cast of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey just keeps growing… Jesse Garcia (Flamin’ Hot) and Will Yun Lee (The Good Doctor) join the Oppenheimer (2023) director’s highly anticipated mythic action epic alongside a cast of Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Thero, and many more. Filming for Universal’s The Odyssey has already begun and will premiere in theaters Jul. 17th, 2026.
Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe (Amazon MGM Studios/Mattel) adds Morena Baccarin as The Sorceress (drawing) and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Fisto (drawing). Both are compatriots and members of Masters of the Universe who join the round table of Castle Greyskull led by He-man himself, Prince Eric. The growing cast includes Allison Brie (Evil-lyn), Jared Leto (Skeletor), and Idris Elba (Man-at-Arms). The film looks like it's going to be a fun time celebrating its wacky origins. Masters of the Universe premieres June 5, 2026.
Netflix’s kidnapping thriller Animals, with Ben Affleck set to direct and star, adds Scandal’s Kerry Washington and Beef’s Steven Yeun to join the Gone Girl actor and Gillian Anderson (The Crown). Following Affleck as a mayoral candidate, Washington as his wife, Anderson playing a fixer, and Yeun, the candidate’s campaign manager as they deal with the sudden kidnapping of the high-profile political couple’s son. Between the strong cast and Affleck’s solid track record in the director’s chair (Argo, Air) Animals has a lot of potential ahead of its April start date.
FESTIVALS
There’s one project headed to EFM that caught my attention:
Wild Game
Cast: Miles Teller and Casey Affleck
Dir/Writer: Jason Hall (American Sniper)
Prod: Fred Berger (La La Land) and Brian Kavanaugh Jones (The Bikeriders)
Here’s the synopsis:
A Fish and Game officer's (Affleck) life takes a dark turn when a confrontation with an elusive poacher (Teller) escalates into violence, igniting an intense pursuit for retribution across the wilderness.
This seems like an old-school tale of justice, tailor made for Teller and Affleck. CAA, UTA, and Range are co-repping domestic sales at EFM.
Here’s our running list of the latest and greatest projects at EFM. Some new additions are Angelina Jolie’s Couture and Malcolm McDowell’s Dog and Bull.
https://theindustry.co/p/bad-boys-old-pals
Tidbits:
World sales outfit Cinephil has boarded Under the Flags, the Sun ahead of its world premiere in Berlinale’s Panorama sections as one of the only documentaries. From first time director Juanjo Pereira, the film depicts the fall of Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Strossener’s 35-year-long rule completely compiled of archival footage. Trailer.
John Cooper heads west. Former Sundance director (and king of Park City gossip) is now the artistic director of the True West Film Center. Taking place in California’s North Bay, the crowing jewel of the programming is the True West Film Festival. No doubt Cooper will make it sing; in his time at Sundance, he started the short-film program, giving directors like Wes Anderson and Damien Chazelle their first industry exposure. He also created a section called Next, dedicated to micro-budget films which launched Sean Baker’s (Dir: Anora) career. We wish him the best of luck at his new endeavor.
Oh, and he spilled all the beans on how to get into Sundance. Check out his workshop here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
City of God’s Prison Break. The director behind one of the great foreign films of this century, Fernando Meirelles (dir: City of God), is teaming back up with his DP Cesar Charlone (DP: City of God) for a limited series El Abuso.
Here’s the synopsis:
The dramatic 1971 jailbreak of 101 political prisoners from the Tupamaros, a legendary urban guerilla group. Among the escapees was Pepe Mújica, who later became President of Uruguay.
Post City of God, Meirelles has directed Two Popes. I accidentally ended up walking into his master class at TIFF (woe is me, right?), and he talked about how even though the budget for Two Popes was $40 M, he wanted to shoot it like it was made for $5 M. Meaning that despite them having these lavish locations he was very happy to keep the majority of his film in tight close-ups.
He is a deliberate filmmaker and it’ll be interesting to see if he applies his kinetic approach to filmmaking for this project a la City of God, or goes to the more stoic and deliberate.
Enzo Vogrincic (Society of the Snow) will star. No word on release date.
The Ugly Stepsister, a Cinderella-inspired horror film by Emilie Blichfeldt, emerged as a major hit at Sundance, quickly securing global distribution through Memento International. Shudder acquired rights for North America, the U.K., and Australia-New Zealand before its Park City premiere. It's a twisted inversion of the well-known fairy tale that follows ugly stepsister Elvira as she goes to greater and gorier methods to win the prince's heart. The Ugly Stepsister will premiere at Berlinale 2025. Trailer here.
Shudder has acquired Reflection in a Dead Diamond, the latest supernatural crime film by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, for exclusive release in 2025. The film follows a former spy haunted by his past. Shudder picked up rights in North America, the U.K. Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand ahead of the film’s Berlin Festival debut. Trailer here.
Tidbits:
Veteran historical filmmaker Ken Burns’ The American Revolution is headed for the London TV Screenings with PBS distribution. The epic factual series about the formation of the US is just the newest project in a long history between Burns and PBS (The Civil War, The Vietnam War, and last year’s Leonardo da Vinci). PBS will present a first look at the new series at its screening on Feb. 26th.
Russian Arc. Victoria. And now Bury the Devil. Ever since Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), the long-take film has been a feat of filmmaking and storytelling ingenuity. Enter Bury the Devil, a UK film that Blue Finch Films (Oddity) has just nabbed worldwide sales rights for. The film centers on a nurse who must spend the night with a dementia patient who harbors supernatural evils.
Director Adam O’Brien stated:
“This film depicts the most harrowing 90 minutes of our protagonist’s life, and I felt that the most visceral way to really feel this was to do a single-shot film.”
Here’s the intense poster.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Christian-based production and distribution company Angel Studios (Sound of Freedom) is expanding internationally with a second round of global distribution partnerships with multiple output deals, including:
Saje Distribution (France)
Kinostar (Germany)
Rialto (Australia, New Zealand)
Crystalsky (Philippines)
Shaw (Singapore)
Skyline Entertainment (Sri Lanka)
This news comes just a week after they signed a distribution deal with Jova for the UK and Ireland.
Paris-based Haut et Court and London-based Good Chaos have secured the film rights to French film critic Cécile Mury’s debut novel Paris-Hollywood, a love story between a French journalist and an American movie star.
Good Chaos’ last project of note was the satirical drama Triangle of Sadness (Palme d’Or, 2022), currently in post-production on Edward Berger’s The Ballad of a Small Player with Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. Haut et Court’s acclaimed past catalog includes The Class (Palme d’Or, 2008) and The Lobster (Jury Prize, Cannes 2015).
Paris-Hollywood seems to be in very good hands ahead of its April publication.
Tidbit:
Film Movement released the trailer for An Unfinished Film which played at Cannes and TIFF. It is a wild story of a director who after ten years, re-assembles his crew to finish his feature film, only to be put under lockdown for COVID…in Wuhan. There’s a hyper-real sensation to the flicker-fast editing that montages the director through certain urban landscapes.
In theaters March 14th. Here’s the trailer.
ON THIS DAY
2018. Burt Reynolds passed away at age 82.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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