Bigger Bets, Slower Bleeds
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Pay Days, Lawsuits, and a Pioneer.
Let’s go!
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Workshop: Did you enjoy Adrien Brody’s performance in The Brutalist?
Learn what it took to define the performance of the decade for the film’s director, Brady Corbet: https://theindustry.co/p/how-to-direct-an-oscar-winning-performance
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Charter slows Q1 2025 losses by 55%.
Comcast CEO pay drops, former Paramount CEO pay jumps.
Tom Hanks to reprise Apple TV+’s Greyhound in WWII Pacific sequel.
Federal judge dismisses Superman copyright lawsuit.
James L. Brooks’ Ella McCay shifts release to December, entering awards season.
Sisu 2 locks November 21 release with Sony’s Screen Gems.
Prime Video picks up viral animated series Helluva Boss for seasons 3 and 4.
VFX pioneer Bruce Logan (2001: A Space Odyssey, Tron) dies at 78.
Meghann Fahy, Julianne Moore, and Milly Alcock lead Netflix’s Sirens.
Jesse Plemons joins Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Emma Mackey cast as the White Witch in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia.
Cannes Investors Circle taps Eliza Hittman and others to pitch new projects.
Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love secures 193 as international sales rep for Cannes.
David Cronenberg’s newest script is Consumed, an adaptation of his only novel.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Charter, the leading U.S. pay-TV operator, sees losses slow in Q1 2025:
12.7M total video customers
↓181K subs since last quarter
Charter reduced its pay TV losses by 55.3% year-over-year, with it losing 405K subs in Q1 2024.
Quarter highlights:
Life Unlimited bundle launch credited with slowing Pay TV losses
Spectrum TV Select now includes ad-supported Max, Disney+, ESPN+, Paramount+, Peacock, and more
Charter slowed its bleeding, but with no exclusive content to anchor them, the erosion may be unstoppable.
Comcast CEO's pay drops, Paramount ex-CEO's pay rises. Here’s how their salaries stack up to other Hollywood CEOs for 2024:
$86.96M, Bob Bakish (ex-CEO Paramount)
↑178% (part of exit package)
$61.9M, Ted Sarandos (Netflix co-CEO)
↑ 24%
$60.3M Greg Peters (Netflix co-CEO)
↑ 50%
$51.9M - David Zaslav (Warner Bros. Discovery)
↑ 4%
$41M - Bog Iger (Disney)
↑ 30%
$40M - Andy Jassy (Amazon)
↑ 37%
$33.9M Brian Roberts (Comcast)
↓4.5%
$22.2M George Cheeks (Paramount co-CEO)
$19.6M Brian Roberts (Paramount co-CEO)
$19.5M Chris McCarthy (Paramount co-CEO)
$18.1M Ari Emanuel (TKO)
↓72%
In addition, Comcast’s President’s salary dropped 4.4% to $28.3M. While TKO’s COO, Mark Shapiro, doubled his compensation to $32M
Shari Redstone, the majority shareholder of Paramount’s parent company, National Amusements, was paid $523K.
Tidbits:
Tom Hanks will return as Captain Krause in a sequel to Greyhound, set to start filming in January 2026 in Sydney. Hanks also wrote the script, with the original director, Aaron Schneider, and producer Gary Goetzman coming on board for the sequel. The story moves from the Atlantic to the Pacific Theater, following Krause’s new WWII mission. No release plans have been announced yet. Original Trailer here. This was a COVID release. And drove many people to the Apple TV+ platform. So it’ll be interesting to see if the Hanks film lights up the big screen.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging Warner Bros.’ Superman copyright in 10 countries, citing a lack of jurisdiction. Mark Peary, nephew of the original Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, argued the estate had cancellation rights overseas. While it doesn't look like this will impact the July release of Gunn's Superman, Peary refiled in New York state court.
Upcoming Releases:
Amazon MGM’s Thomas Crown Affair
Dir: Michael B. Jordan
Cast: Taylor Russell, Jordan
Release date: March 5, 2027
Trailer for the Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway original
20th Century’s Ella McCay
Dir: James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, As Good as it Gets)
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Rebecca Hall, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayo Edebiri
Release date: December 12th
Ella McCay was originally slated for a Sept 19th release, so this puts it in prime awards season territory.
Sony Pictures' Screen Gems Sisu 2
Release date Nov 21st
Trailer for the original, a sleeper hit which made $14M globally
Focus Features’ Black Bag and Universal’s Love Hurts will start streaming on Peacock on May 2 and May 9th, respectively.
Renewal:
Prime Video picks up YouTube animated series Helluva Boss for a season 3 and season 4 renewal. Season 2 YT trailer.
Bruce Logan, known for his legendary VFX work, had died at 78. His credits include:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Special Photographic Effects
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Second Unit Photography (miniature and optical effects unit)
Tron (1982)
DP
His daughter stated:
Before CGI ruled the screen, there were visionaries who lit the future by hand. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Tron, my dad didn’t just work on movies—he made magic.”
He will be missed.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Set to Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”, a trailer has dropped for Netflix’s newest dark comedy, Sirens, led by Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus). Alongside Julianne Moore and House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock, a confused and disheveled Fahy is seen desperate to save her entranced younger sister (Alcock) from the fanatical grip of her socialite boss (Moore) in what appears to be a cult-like resort.
Told over the course of one explosive weekend, the show is described as an incisive, sexy, and darkly funny exploration of women, power, and class.
Fahy’s most recent theatrical run in The Blumhouse thriller Drop (trailer) saw her character targeted by a controlling and manipulative authoritative threat, forcing her under high stakes to save the lives of her loved ones. Even in her breakout role in the Sicily-set second season of The White Lotus (scene), Fahy refused to change herself for others' approval, and her character showcased a real self-resilience, even if it was discreet. She should do well in Sirens.
Watch the eerie trailer ahead of Sirens’ May 22nd drop only on Netflix.
Lionsgate is slowly announcing more of its cast for prequel film The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, with the Oscar-nominated Jesse Plemons the newest addition. Last year’s Cannes Best Actor winner (Kinds of Kindness), Plemons, will play the mysterious Plutarch Heavensbee, tasked with filling some big shoes left behind by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played the part in the last three movies of the original franchise.
The two actors actually worked together over a decade ago in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (2012), where Plemons starred as Hoffman’s son.
Beyond just their striking physical resemblance, Plemons’ has proven his versatility as an actor demonstrated through a range of roles with one of his first as the misunderstood and complex meth cook Todd in Breaking Bad (scene) a great example of his very capable ability to pull off an involuted and manipulative young man like Plutarch.
Lionsgate is expected to continue to announce its main cast members before filming this summer begins, expected to premiere Nov. 20th, 2026.
The White Witch has been found.
Sex Education’s Emma Mackey is officially joining Greta Gerwig’s upcoming adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix.
The English actress previously collaborated with Gerwig as the Physicist Barbie in the billion-dollar-grossing Barbie (2023, scenes). As the primary antagonist of the fantasy story, the White Witch turns her enemies into statues, plunging all of Narnia into an eternal winter. This role will be a pretty big undertaking for Mackey, who has yet to take on any sort of villainous character as fabled as the White Witch.
Casting is still in the early stages. Aiming for a 2026 premiere.
Tidbits:
Reminders of Him, one of the next film adaptations in the Colleen Hoover cinematic universe, has found its co-star in White Lotus’ Nicholas Duvernay to star opposite Maika Monroe (Longlegs) and Tyriq Withers (Tell Me Lies). Duvernay will play a bartender who gives Monroe a job after she gets out of prison. He was solid as the son of one of the show’s recurring characters, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell). He had a beautiful reverence for his mother and a rare ability to capture genialness without losing an ounce of strength. Reminders of Him will premiere on Valentine’s Day 2026.
Bill Camp (Zero Day), Rachel Hilson (Duster), Tyler Lofton (The Sky Is Everywhere), and Rory Scovel (Your Cordially Invited) have joined Judgment Day, an Amazon MGM courtroom comedy starring Will Ferrell and Zac Efron about a young ex-convict taking a reality TV courtroom hostage. Directed by Nicholas Stoller. We don't know exact roles, but seeing that this will be a hostage situation in a courtroom, could this be part of our jury?
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York starring John Turturro has picked up some great cast: Steve Buscemi, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law). Synopsis: Harry (Turturro), a career pickpocket, is forced into a desperate, high-stakes race against time through the streets of his city. No word on who Buscemi, Esposito and Maslany will play, but it sounds like a fun one. The grittier, the better for our taste. Currently in production in NYC from Rian Johnson’s T-Street and Dir/Wri: Noah Segan (Actor: Looper, Knives Out).
Mini Tidbits:
Suits LA adds some Community. In the upcoming episode of NBC’s legal drama Suits LA, Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley in Community) will play herself. Brown brought a tremendous amount of nurturing yet bombastic energy to Community, which also premiered on NBC. We look forward to seeing her when the episode airs May 4th.
Simona Tabasco (White Lotus, clip) has joined the cast of the horror-thriller Corporate Retreat, directed by Aaron Fisher and produced by Uri Singer. Starring alongside Alan Ruck, Ashton Sanders, and Rosanna Arquette, Tabasco will help bring to life a story about a corporate getaway gone violently wrong. Filming begins in June.
Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) has joined Pendulum, the feature directorial debut of Black Swan and The Boogeyman scribe Mark Heyman, produced by Darren Aronofsky.
FESTIVALS
Eliza Hittman (dir: Never Rarely Sometimes Always) and Sebastián Lelio (dir: Florence Paugh’s The Wonder) are amongst a group of 10 directors selected for the VIP Marche du Film’s Investors Circle initiative. They will pitch their latest projects to a group of elite investors at Cannes. No project details have been revealed. But the budgets range from €3M- €9M.
Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, an official selection of Cannes 2025, has just secured an international sales rep, 193 (Toxic Avenger). These guys haven’t been around for long, but CEO/founder Patrick Wachsberger has. He produced Coda (2021) and Mr. and Mr. Smith (2005), serving as Chairman of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, overseeing films in the Hunger Games and John Wick series.
Die, My Love stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Full project details here:
https://theindustry.co/p/we-need-to-talk-about-lynne-ramsay
Canneseries, the TV competition held in Cannes from April 24 to 29, has had its first sale for Nepobaby. It was picked up by Be.tv (Belgium) and RÚV (Iceland). Henriette Steenstrup serves as co-showrunner and co-star. The series centers on a 25-year-old woman who learns that she is the daughter of one of the richest shipping tycoons in Norway, who has just passed away. But the inheritance she gets comes with a surprise: she has four siblings she never knew about.
It pays to be in Spike Lee’s film classes. He just boarded as an EP on his NYU student, Joecar Hanna’s, short Talk to Me, which is premiering in the Cannes Cinefondation (for college students). It centers on an unhappily married person who finds solace in music. His previous short film Deliver Me (2023) premiered at SXSW and centered a billionaire clone married to themselves (trailer).
Twilight Of The Warriors sweeps the Hong Kong Film Awards. It’s got action, drugs, style, and a tinge of gritty dystopia. What’s not to love trailer.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
David Cronenberg’s next script is Consumed.
The script is based on his book of the same name, which follows two photojournalists, lovers and competitors, who get caught up in the sensationalism and depravity of their profession, like taking photos of an unlicensed surgeon wanted by Interpol for organ trafficking. But their lives change forever when they track down a French philosopher’s lover who has been found dead and mutilated in her Paris apartment.
This is classic Cronenberg territory, the perversion of the body, both reducing every orifice to its most primal components and then somehow reconfiguring it to adapt to the most depraved appetites of the modern world. Guess which Cronenberg trailer?
Paramount+’s Halo TV series director Roel Reiné has boarded drama film American Smuggler.
Synopsis:
A CIA agent (Dennis Haysbert) leads the pursuit of a Memphis drug lord with Mexican cartel ties. Elite forces work to dismantle a narcotics network, uncovering secrets of Craig Petties relationship with the Beltran Leyvea Cartel . The kingpin's reign of terror ends with a life sentence.
There’s a grittiness to this that feels like the bread and butter for Reiné who makes a lot of genre action films like Classified (2024) starring Aaron Eckhart, and Netflix’s Fistful of Vengeance (2022).
Tidbits:
David Dastmalchian will make his directorial debut with The Boulet Brothers’ Holiday of Horrors, an anthology special set to premiere on AMC and Shudder. Reuniting with the Boulet Brothers after their Halfway-to-Halloween collaboration, Dastmalchian brings his Good Fiend Films team to the project, expanding the duo’s new multi-project deal with Shudder.
Regular Show's Master mind finally breaks into live action: Music Box Films’ Doppelgänger Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to AJ Goes to the Dog Park, the debut feature from Regular Show writer Toby Jones. Shot in Fargo, North Dakota, the surreal comedy stars A.J. Thompson and premiered at Fantastic Fest. Theatrical release is set for July 25, with home entertainment to follow.
Frank Zappa’s long-lost 1974 rehearsal concert, Cheaper Than Cheep, will finally be released May 9 via Zappa Records/UMe. Directed by Ahmet Zappa, the film captures a lively two-hour performance at the Mothers of Invention’s Sunset Blvd. rehearsal hall. Trailer here.
Sean Baker’s next film is about a sex worker. No surprise, as humanistic depictions of sex workers have run throughout his work. He is currently location scouting and hopes to shoot in the fall.
International Tidbits:
Just ahead of Cannesseries, Wild Bunch TV (Medici), the television sales and acquisition division of the pan-European banner, has boarded two new shows, The Clan Olimpia and Single Bells. The Clan Olimpia is a six-part prestige crime drama series set in early 2000s Spain when drug trafficking was at an all-time high. Single Bells, a romantic Christmas comedy, is also joining Wild Bunch TV’s international sales roster.
After predominantly filming its first season in the UK, Netflix’s 3 Body Problem (trailer)is moving to Hungary. According to the Hungarian National Film Office, production on both seasons two and three of the sci-fi time-jumping series is set to begin this July.
ON THIS DAY
1974. Penélope Cruz born in Madrid, Spain.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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