Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Schwarzenegger’s crime, Lionsgate’s husband, and a Voicemail.
Let’s go!
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If you’re attending Tribeca Film Festival, check out the premiere tomorrow of Lucy Schulman. The film is written and directed by Ellie Sachs, who also stars. More impressive, it’s her feature debut.
She’s assembled an epic cast with co-stars David Cross, Thomas Mann, Hasan Minhaj, and legendary playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis.
Sachs’ as a director is a master of introspection, wonderfully ironic given that she’s written herself a character that can’t be bothered to self-reflect.
And it is that very painful process of young adulthood maturation that feels like the character Lucy Schulman is a beetle on it’s backside, trying to flip itself over and squirming emotionally all the while. As a director Sachs has created a unique alchemy of New Yorkers whose blend feels like a Brillo Pad for her growth.
There’s a wonderful scene between her and Mann that reminded me of Before Sunset.
Check out our interview with Sachs here. She also breaks down how she got her first feature made.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Liam Hemsworth star in Amazon MGM’s The Kellys.
Lionsgate TV adapts psychological thriller Someone Else’s Husband.
Hulu adapts PI drama Suspect with The Handmaid’s Tale writers.
Peacock develops legal thriller The Intern with Julia Cohen writing.
Paradigm hires Michael Kirschner for its Physical Production division.
Russo Brothers’ AGBO hires execs from Apple, Snap, and Call of Duty studios.
Netflix greenlights adult animated Big Box store comedy Dealies.
A24’s Backrooms crosses $100M domestic.
Sydney Sweeney stars in LuckyChap’s Sleepy Hollow reimagining Hollow.
Jonathan Groff & Daniel Radcliffe reunite for Vietnam War thriller Trust the Man.
Leah McKendrick directs Sony’s Shania Twain biopic after Voicemails for Isabelle.
Tuesday’s correct answer: Dawn of the Dead was Zack Snyder’s first film.
64% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Better. Faster. Stronger. Schwarzenegger. Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting back to work; he’s already returning to Conan the Barbarian with director Christopher McQuarrie.
And now he’s starring in The Kellys at Amazon MGM, which, despite their massive push to theatrical, is going straight to streaming.
Schwarzenegger plays a disgraced cop whose wife gets taken by terrorists. And he has to team up with people he fears to get her back.
Oddly, Schwarzenegger is at his best when he’s making unlikely friends. In Terminator 2, he is oddly sympathetic, reprogrammed to help Sarah Connor; he becomes John’s quasi-father figure, giving the film an unexpectedly resonant emotional architecture.
Recently, he was good in Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) in a similar way (clip).
We can’t wait to see what he brings in this role. Liam Hemsworth also stars. And Brad Peyton (Netflix’s Atlas, Rampage) directs.
Three book adaptations:
Lionsgate Television has acquired Someone Else’s Husband, the fifth project currently optioned from author Kimberly McCreight (HBO’s Reconstructing Amelia). The psychological thriller follows a wealthy Park Avenue wife whose life begins to crumble when her husband goes on a “climbing expedition” turned affair and murder. This marks another book adaptation for Lionsgate, not long after acquiring romance-fantasy drama Witch Season by Julia Bianco and YA series The Inheritance Games from Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
Hulu is bringing author Scott Turow’s PI drama Suspect to life from The Handmaid’s Tale writers Marissa Jo Cerar and Bruce Miller. Suspect follows Pinky, the PI, who is determined to find evidence that exonerates a female police chief accused of extorting male peers in exchange for promotion. WandaVision director Matt Shakman will direct and produce alongside MGM.
Peacock is developing The Intern, a series adaptation of Michele Campbell’s sexy 2023 thriller novel. From Universal Television, it follows a Harvard Law student put in a tricky position when her brother is arrested, and the only way to save him is to infiltrate the chambers of the most powerful judge in Boston. ABC’s A Million Little Things producer Julia Cohen is penning the adaptation as well as producing alongside State Street Pictures (Big George Foreman).
Tidbits:
Beta Cinema’s British indie The Climb collapses. Inspired by a true story, the film was set to star Cara Delevingne (Club Kid) as a fearless protester who scales Western Europe’s tallest building, but within weeks of pre-production, crews and suppliers were owed over $400K in unpaid wages. The project is currently looking for a new U.S. producer.
Paradigm (Rep: Colman Domingo, Sydney Sweeney) hires agent Michael Kirschner for their Physical Production division. Kirschner has worked in talent management for nearly two decades, repping cinematographers, production designers, and costume designers for music videos.
Mini Tidbit:
Russo Brothers’ AGBO (Prod Co: Everything Everywhere All at Once) hires execs from Apple, Snap, and studios behind Call of Duty games. The new leadership team will oversee marketing, technology, and interactive production for the company.
Netflix greenlights adult animated comedy series Dealies from Green Street Pictures (Prod Co: Netflix’s Scavengers Reign). The show will follow the staff of a Big Box store as the dysfunctional team goes about their not-so-usual days.
A24’s Backrooms hits $100M domestically. Not even in its first full week of release, it is already the top domestic film for A24, beating out Marty Supreme ($96M domestic).
Comcast will invest $8.1bn in a UK Universal theme park, which will be built over the next 5 years. Why the massive investment? These parks have a massive ROI for Comcast with a 31% profit margin.
Wim Wenders (dir: Paris, Texas) has pulled one of his films from circulation, Wrong Move (1975). He has pulled the film until he can consult with the actress Nastassja Kinski (Jane in Paris, Texas) over the filming of her topless scene when she was 13.
Nick Pasqual (How I Met Your Mother) was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison after stabbing his ex-girlfriend.
Trailers:
Apple TV’s Lucky
EP: Reese Witherspoon, Anya Taylor-Joy
Cast: Taylor-Joy, Drew Starkey, Annette Bening
Release: July 15
Ukraine War Documentary Time Machine Maidan
Release: TBD
The Horror Section’s Ice Cream Man
Dir/Star: Eli Roth (Hostel)
Release: Aug 7
Release Dates:
Jordanian crime thriller Boomah
Premiere: June 12
Shoot Location Changes:
Paramount+’s Tulsa King S5
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Martin Starr, Jay Will
Location: New York
Shoot Wraps:
Paramount Pictures’ Sacrifice (Working Title)
Dir: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Daniel Craig
Shoot Dates: March 17 ~ June 1
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Sydney Sweeney will star in Hollow, the first official film by her newly announced production banner, Honey Trap, alongside Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap (Barbie).
Lindsey Anderson Beer (dir. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines) will direct from her own script, described as a bold reimagining of the 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, told through the perspective of the often-overlooked love interest, Katrina Van Tassel.
Sweeney will play Van Tassel, placing her at the center of both a dangerous mystery and a supernatural love triangle, drawing on her more seductive charm and emotional volatility she brought to Cassie in HBO’s Euphoria with the gothic horror sensibilities she explored in, probably, her best acting role as a remote religious sister in Immaculate (2024).
The project is based on Beer’s debut novel, Hollow, set to hit shelves in fall 2027, with production on the feature film adaptation set to begin shortly after.
After nine months on stage together in Merrily We Roll Along and multiple Tony Awards later, Jonathan Groff is joining Daniel Radcliffe in a thriller feature, Trust the Man.
Their revival of Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed bittersweet musical saw them as lifelong friends whose turbulent relationship was tested over the course of decades. Now, the pair is going about as dark as they could go, set during the Vietnam War. Trust the Man follows an Army intelligence officer tasked with investigating a dangerous, decorated soldier, which later spawns into an unforeseen and uncontrollable connection. It is unclear which roles the actors will play, but production will begin in New Jersey this summer.
Tidbits:
Anna Camp (Scream 7) is set to EP and star in the psychological thriller Serpent. Based on the best-selling novel The Serpent’s Bite by Warren Adler, the film will follow an actress who reluctantly reunites with her family for a week-long trek through the Wyoming wilderness, only to find the trip quickly go sideways.
Jess McLeod (Normal) gets promoted to series regular for AMC’s The Audacity Season 2. The show follows a tech CEO, Duncan (Billy Magnussen), who is engulfed in a scandal sparked by the exploitation of personal data. McLeod plays Harper, Chief Technology Officer of the data-mining startup Hypergnosis.
Matt Rogers, who hosts a podcast with Bowen Yang and is starring in an upcoming Searchlight comedy, has now been cast in Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 2.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS / TECH SECTION
Belgian drama Paris Paris has international sales rights acquired by Vienna-based sales agency Square Eyes (I’m Not Everything I Want to Be). Ahead of its Karlovy Vary Festival premiere, the film follows three strangers living together in an abandoned building in Paris.
Hasbro is launching Sixth Wall, where companies can license verified, brand-approved AI versions of Mr. Potato Head, Megatron, Cobra Commander, Optimus Prime, and Clue characters.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Actress and director Leah McKendrick (Scrambled) is working with Sony Pictures twice in a row for a biopic on country-pop star Shania Twain.
McKendrick will direct Shania from her own script, with the logline kept under wraps, but inspired by the filmmaker’s past in songwriting.
The new project news comes just ahead of the Netflix premiere of McKendrick’s sophomore directorial venture, Voicemails for Isabelle, a Zoey Deutch-led rom-com also from Sony, dropping on the streamer later this month.
Twain will produce alongside McKendrick and Ghostbusters franchise (2021, 2024) executive producer Amie Karp.
Dan Fried’s (EP: The Trial of Alec Baldwin) new production company, Laurel Canyon Pictures, launches with a Jean-Michel Basquiat feature documentary. Jean-Michel, directed by Quinn Whitney Wilson (Lizzo’s creative director), marks the first documentary about the legendary New York artist told primarily through the eyes of Basquiat’s sisters. The company will finance and produce a slate of premium documentaries each year, focusing on filmmaker-driven projects with lasting relevance.
India’s Iroller Media teams up with Norse Key Productions for Europe and U.S. distribution of Indian drama Bicycle Thief. The film follows a Dalit man as he attempts to rebuild his life with a second-hand bicycle. The film is said to pay tribute to Italian neorealist Vittorio De Sica’s classic Bicycle Thieves (1948, Trailer).
ON THIS DAY
1975. Angelina Jolie born in LA.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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