Bill Hader's Got a Secret
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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
In The Industry News, The Bill Hader Barry team is back, Amazon’s Robocop, dead or alive! Disney and Paramount’s new loss.
Actor Spotlight: Ben Stiller’s new Dodgeball. From GOT to Michelangelo. Borat’s daughter’s Tinder date.
Festivals: San Sebastian’s Blue Marks.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, Jesse Eisenberg’s big Pain, and Kurasowa and Chaplin go for a redo.
International News, UK Oscar submission, will it be their next The Zone of Interest?
Let’s go!
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Join us today for our live virtual event with former Sundance director John Cooper on How to Get Into Sundance and overall festival strategy: https://theindustry.co/p/final-call-sundance-live-event
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Bill Hader developing another HBO Comedy series with his best friend Duffy Boudreau. The duo, who have been friends since their teenage years in Tulsa, OK, previously collaborated on the Emmy winning HBO series Barry, where Hader starred and Boudreau was a writer and co-executive producer.
Here's the new series’ logline: A woman in a small town has a big secret revealed.
Not a ton to go off of, but Barry was a smash hit, when it was first announced some people got hung up on the premise of a hitman wanting to become an actor, but Hader really carried and proved himself a star fresh out of SNL. Barry continued to twist and turn delivering incredibly funny moments and some real heart breakers.
With this dynamic duo at the helm, whatever they are working on is worth a look. No word yet when that is, but we will surely keep an eye out.
Dead or alive, you're coming with me: Amazon is developing a Robocop TV series, with Peter Ocko (Lodge 49, Pushing Daisies) serving as writer, EP, and showrunner. A busy year for James Wan, who will EP through his Atomic Monster banner, also working on various Universal Monster franchises, including Creature from the Black Lagoon.
You probably know the whole deal with robo-cop. The series centers on a tech conglomerate collaborating with a police department to create a part-man, part-machine enforcer to combat rising crime.
The original 1987 is a certified sci-fi classic, but the 2014 remake was not nearly as beloved.
This is part of MGM's partnership with Amazon, where they mine their IP for everything it's got. Compare the two trailers below.
There is no word yet on a release date, but it's currently being written by Ocko.
Pushing Daisies (2007-2009, trailer) was a fantastic dark comedy that had a bit of sweetness, same for the more recent Lodge 49; maybe a bit of quirk will round off Robocop's more stilted edges and breathe some new life in a multi-decade-old franchise.
A robo-copmedy?
Tidbits:
We all knew this was coming.
As a way to boost its subscriber count, Disney+ is now requiring subscribers to pay an additional fee for outside the home or “extra member add-ons” in order to access the service. This news comes after the streamer previously announced an increase in its overall monthly payment starting next month.
“Basic” Subscription will go up from $8 to $10 USD
Commercial-free will go up from $14 to $16 USD
Billed Annually will go up from $140 to $160 USD
Disney and other streamers are following the lead of Netflix, which launched its paid password-sharing program last year.
Disney cuts 300. Here are the departments:
Corporate operations
Legal
HR
Finance and communications
Disney stated:
“We continually evaluate ways to invest in our businesses and more effectively manage our resources and costs to fuel the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney… As part of this ongoing optimization work, we have been reviewing the cost structure for our corporate-level functions and have determined there are ways for them to operate more efficiently.”
Disney has been in its own whirlwind of layoffs with it cutting 14% of it’s Pixar staff back in the early summer. Staffing shortages like these have lead to Inside Out 2 being described as hellish for some employees.
With all the cost savings and cost gains from increased subscriptions Disney can finally splash that cash on an expensive Golden Globes and Oscars race, including pushing Hugh Jackman for best supporting actor for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Paramount continues layoffs, with another 66 employees leaving. These are from the NY office. Here’s more on hundreds that were laid off earlier this week: https://theindustry.co/p/sinner
Having worked under the company for the past eight years, Universal Studio Group just named Jonder Ho as new Senior Vice President of Business Affairs. His new responsibilities include working as a direct liaison with stakeholders and negotiating above-the-line job deals for the studio group specifically focusing on productions like Hacks and Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist which premiered its first season earlier this month.
Long term exec of BBC Studios, Andre Renaud, is making the switch over to Warner Bros International Television Production. The long-serving industry veteran will officially join in November as Global VP of Finished and Format Sales and Revenue Generation. Following Renaud’s departure after seven years, BBC Studios has not yet announced/found his replacement.
Southern crime novel The Kingdoms of Savannah (2022) by George Dawes Green is being adapted into a series with Dynamic Television. The gothic Georgia set murder mystery will have its pilot script written by Sheri Holman (George & Tammy, Palm Royale) who will also serve as showrunner and executive producer.
SAG-AFTRA will try to unionionizde intimacy coordinators. Read their official statement here.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Ben Stiller Returns to play Pickleball: Stiller's return to acting rounds out a great cast in the pickleball-focused comedy The Dink. Jake Johnson (New Girl) stars as a washed-up tennis pro, who is forced to break a personal vow and play pickleball to save a struggling club and earn his father’s respect.
The other ensemble includes actual tennis pro-Andy Roddick, Ed Harris, Mary Steenburgen, and Stiller in a not-yet-announced role.
It's hard to not hear Stiller and sports comedy and not immediately think of his unhinged turn as White Goodman, the head of the Globo-gym purple cobras.
This, along with the upcoming holiday comedy Nutcrackers, will be the first time Stiller has acted since 2017's Meyerowitz Stories. His last big starring role was the underrated Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), and since then, he has become an incredibly active and versatile producer and director, his most recent hit being Severance.
Go through memory lane:
Josh Greenbaum, of the recently released Will & Harper is directing. The Dink starts shooting this November.
It has been interesting seeing a more analytical and even highbrow side of Stiller, but it should be fun to see him let loose in a movie about Pickleball.
Charles Dance to star in BBC-PBS’ upcoming docu-drama as Michelangelo in Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty.
The BBC stated:
“The show will reveal an unfamiliar side to the Renaissance.”
Raphael and Leonardo DaVinci have not yet been cast but will be featured as the series will explore an era of violence and politics that also birthed some of the world’s greatest art.
From his villainous run as the clever and manipulative Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones (scene) to his Emmy-nominated work on seasons 3 and 4 of Netflix’s The Crown (scene) as Lord Mountbatten, Dance is fully equipped to take on a big persona and beyond just his striking resemblance, he’ll play this part well.
Tidbit:
I think Amazon can do better. They’ve released two trailers in the past 24 hours that look like network TV/Film… not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Cross
A procedural with a pinch of Se7en
Release date: Nov 14
Canary Black
Actually a movie but might as well be a run-of-the-mill network CIA series
Release date: Oct 24
Some say the era of prestige TV is in its twilight years, but both of these are cut to look like a million other shows. For the level of production value in each, I want to be surprised, delighted, perhaps even repulsed by a complex psychotic character, but I fear a media diet of films and shows like these are what clocks in the high viewing hours on streaming and collectively keeps us hypnotized.
Brian Tee, who plays Nicole Kidman’s husband in Amazon’s Expats, is now in Kathryn Bigelow's (dir: The Hurt Locker) new movie.
Here’s the synopsis:
The White House’s real-time response efforts to an incoming ballistic missile attack on American soil.
No word on Tee’s character but he excels in Expats.
In a pivotal scene he painfully reassures Kidman that it was his fault after she lost their son. The architecture of how he holds himself on screen is magnetizing (clip). The ultimate falling on your own sword.
Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee (Past Lives, Gemini), Tracey Letts, and Laura Ingraham (Lady in the Lake) have also been cast in Bigelow's untitled Netflix film.
Borat’s daughter goes on a Tinder date. The Oscar-nominated Maria Bakalova (Borat 2, The Apprentice) stars with Zach Cherry (Severance) in All Night Wrong.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Gary and Ell (a married man with an inferiority complex, and a grieving young widow - respectively) meet on a blind date only to wind up stealing a killer's car along with a dead body and $40,000.
Both actors have an immense capacity to play heartbroken and desperate so this should be a really fun match.
Pre-production is kicking off this fall.
It seems everyday we get a little more insight into Netflix’s upcoming Peaky Blinders movie with another high-profile talent, English actor Tim Roth joining the cast. A common player on Tarantino sets (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, The Hateful Eight), Roth’s catalog of work aligns really well with the gang crime series where he will share the screen with recently announced Peaky newcomers Reebecca Ferguson (Dune) and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) as well as the series lead/antihero Tommy Shelby played by Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) who is be reprising his role for the film.
FESTIVALS
San Sebastian Industry Awards have been announced. WIP Europa Industry Award and the WIP Europa Award went to Blue Marks.
Here’s the official synopsis:
After going through a break up, Rose moves in with her older brother Sam to his tiny flat in Berlin. The siblings share a close bond. One day, Rose learns of rape allegations against Sam. At first, she is unable to see her brother as a possible perpetrator. When she finally understands that the accusations are true, she is caught in a loyalty conflict, torn between her role as a sister and her identity as a woman. In the end, she must find a way to deal with Sam's guilt and its consequences.
The Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum Best Project Award and the Dale! Award for Latin American-European development award went to The Two Landscapes.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Mercedes, an upper-middle-class woman who officiates in the church as Minister of the Holy Communion in a town where conversions to Evangelism are changing deeply rooted customs and rituals. When her landlord dies, Mercedes is forced to stay with Cecilia, the dead man’s girlfriend, in her home deep in the mountains of Córdoba. The arrival of Brenda, the late man’s unrecognized daughter, will upset the lives of both women.
For the full list of winners go here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Kieran Culkin is a real pain. He stars with Jesse Eisenberg in the upcoming film A Real Pain (dir/writer: Eisenberg).
Here’s the official synopsis:
Two cousins travel to Poland after their grandmother's death to see where they came from and end up joining a Holocaust tour.
There’s a level of nuance in the cousin's relationship that elevates this well beyond the typical road film. The trailer is hilarious and heartfelt, which is a rare combination to truly get right.
Searchlight Pictures thought so, too; they bought the film out of Sundance for $10 M. Culkin called out his chemistry with Eisenberg as:
“Brilliant spontaneity.”
Eisenberg’s directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World (2022, trailer) had equally nuanced performances but none of the narrative energy that Culkin brings.
Culkin has had a career renaissance after he brilliantly took on the childishly slimy Roman Roy (clip), for which he won an Emmy.
The film will release this Fall.
There have been countless directors who have expressed their regrets or "keep you up at night” type thoughts over past work. Yet, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa joins the small few to actually take a second go at a previous project, with his French-language remake of his 1998 (trailer) thriller Serpent’s Path (2024, trailer) competing in the 72nd San Sebastiàn International Film Festival this month.
2024 Synopsis:
A mysterious woman teams up with a man whose daughter was killed and who is now seeking revenge. Together they kidnap members of an organization and torture them to find out what really happened.
Why not redo something of yours if there is a belief that it can be done better?
Charlie Chaplin certainly did so when he filmed the same (section of a) movie twice. A boxing sequence:
Look how much more flare and stylization Chaplin finds in his second attempt!
Tidbits:
Andy Kaufman doc Thank You Very Much, has been acquired by Drafthouse Films. It won Venice’s Classics Award for Best Documentary last year. Slated for release in early 2025.
RaMell Ross (Dir: Nickel Boys) signs with WME.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Four countries have made their selections for Best International Feature for the Oscars: UK, Argentina, Jordan, and Switzerland.
Here’s the breakdown:
Santosh (UK)
Premiere: Cannes Un Certain Regard
Distributer: Metrograph
Trailer brutal Indian caste crime drama
Synopsis:
Newly widowed Santosh inherits her husband's job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a girl's body is found, she's pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
The 2023 International Feature Oscar winner was the UK’s The Zone of Interest.
Kill the Jockey (Argentina)
Premiere: Venice Film Festival, TIFF
Hilariously stilted trailer
Here’s the synopsis:
Remo's self-destructive behavior overshadows his talent. Abril, an upcoming jockey is pregnant by Remo and has to decide between child or continuing to race. They both race for Sirena, an businessman who saved Remo's life in the past.
My Sweet Land (Jordan)
Premiere: Sheffield Doc Fest
Synopsis:
For 11-year-old Vrej, life in his homeland, Artsakh is like a paradise, but when war starts again, can he carry a nation's hopes on his young shoulders?
Reinas (Switzerland)
Premiere: Sundance, Berlin (winner: Best Feature Film Generation)
Amazingly exuberant trailer
Synopsis:
Two teenage sisters are about to leave their country forever when they unexpectedly reconnect with an absent father. This relationship will both amplify and ease their pain of change.
ON THIS DAY
2006. The Departed premieres in New York City.
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.