Bill Murray Sugar Daddy
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Bill Murray’s Epiphany. Miles Teller’s cycles and an ice queen.
Let’s go!
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We love Bill Murray.
We love him even more when he accidentally finds love, like in Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers, and Groundhog Day.
So we’re quite titillated by his next project, Epiphany.
Here’s the synopsis:
A broke fashionista heiress (Kristen Wiig) races against time to marry rich and save herself from financial ruin. Her quest leads her to an unusual billionaire math savant (Murray) who might be the answer to her problems.
The film is directed by Max Barbakow (Palm Springs), so I’m hopeful that this will have some unique temporal story element linked to Murray’s mathematical abilities (multiverse romance, perhaps?).
What was so great about Barbakow’s Palm Springs is that it is well-studied in the mechanisms that made Groundhog Day successful. Palm Springs starts at the first act turning point of Groundhog Day when Murray dives into the corporeal pleasures of his time loop (diner smorgasbords and sex). In addition, ingeniously, Palm Springs introduces a second person into the time loop, making it a deeper referendum on finding meaning in relationships.
But even if Epiphany doesn’t have a measure of time loop magic, the powerhouse of Wiig and Murray promises to be a genuinely good time… and sometimes that’s all we want at the movies.
The film is headed to EFM with CAA and Range repping domestic and Rocket Science repping international.
For more:
For a deep dive into Groundhog Day and Palm Springs, check out our Brief History of Time Travel Films essay:
https://theindustry.co/p/a-brief-history-of-time-travel-films
Bill Murray will next be seen in Bleecker Street’s charming The Friend (trailer).
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
TV screens have surpassed mobile as the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.
Bradley Cooper is set to direct, produce, and act in the Hollywood comedy Is This Thing On?, while also serving as the B camera operator.
Wes Anderson’s latest, The Phoenician Scheme, will be released by Focus Features in May.
Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed Netflix’s Carry On (star Jason Bateman), has lined up his next project, Play Dead.
Vertical acquired U.S. and UK/IRE rights to Guns Up, an action comedy starring Kevin James.
UTA Promotes 114 agents.
Miles Teller is set to play Gino Bartali, the Italian cycler who won the Tour de France and saved lives during WW2, in the new film by the directors of Nyad.
Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage joins the murderous cast of Michael C. Hall and Uma Thurman in Dexter: Resurrection.
Amy Adams joins Apple TV+’s Cape Fear series alongside Javier Bardem.
Sean Bean joins MGM+’s Robin Hood series as the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Berlin Film Festival dropped a lot of trailers for their competition lineup, including the heart-pounding Late Shift.
The Beloved launches at EFM. It is a Spanish-language production that stars Javier Bardem.
Some new additions to EFM are Jason Statham’s new action film and Dave Bautista in a dystopian sci-fi. Full breakdown of EFM’s top projects here.
A24’s Friendship drops its first trailer. The film stars Paul Rudd as a mean friend.
Film Movement has acquired rights to Paying for It, a racy comedy following an introverted cartoonist who starts sleeping with sex workers.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Bradley Cooper has acted his way into roles beyond the camera. Cooper is set to direct, produce, and act in the Hollywood comedy Is This Thing On?, while also serving as the B camera operator, marking his first time operating a camera on one of his films.
He co-wrote the script with Will Arnett, who stars in the movie alongside Laura Dern. The film will follow Cooper’s character as an understudy for all roles in a play called The 13 Disciples.
To prepare for the role, Cooper recently joined a camera operators' union and has prepped on various smaller projects with production set to begin in two weeks.
Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Phoenician Scheme, will be released by Focus Features in May. It stars Benicio Del Toro, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johannson, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Michael Cera.
Here’s more info:
https://theindustry.co/p/wes-andersons-phoenician-scheme
From Carry On to Play Dead. Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed Netflix’s Carry On (star Jason Bateman), has lined up his next project, Play Dead.
There’s nothing much of a synopsis, just: Don’t Breathe meets 1917.
But Collet-Serra excelled at putting us into the high-wire tension of a TSA agent in Carry On. The film caught fire on Netflix, with 164.8 M views, and Jason Bateman hit his stride as a courier for terrorists.
Play Dead will be produced by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures and BoulderLight Pictures (Barbarian, Companion). Shooting kicks off in May.
UTA Promotes 114 agents. Here’s a breakdown of the film departments:
2 Indie Film agents (including Dante DeSario, who reps Francis Galluppi, dir of the upcoming Evil Dead film)
3 Motion Picture Lit agents (including Stella Ginsberg, who reps Paolo Sorrentino)
4 Talent agents (including TJ Doolan, who reps David Cross and Ed Helms)
Full list here.
Tidbits:
Netflix’s highly anticipated adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo just got a new director Maggie Betts (The Burial). From Taylor Jenkins Reid’s viral 2017 novel, Betts will also co-write the screenplay with Little Fires Everywhere (2020) screenwriter Liz Tigelaar. While there is much speculation, casting has yet to be announced.
Vertical acquired U.S. and UK/IRE rights to Guns Up, an action comedy starring Kevin James. Directed by Edward Drake (Apex), it follows an ex-cop turned mob henchman escaping danger. Releases summer 2025.
TV screens have surpassed mobile as the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
The Biker was a Spy. Okay, that’s not the name of Miles Teller’s new movie, but it should be.
Teller is set to play Gino Bartali in Bartali, the Italian cycler who won the Tour de France multiple times… and helped save Jewish lives during WW2 by not only harboring a family in his home but also using his fame to carry secret documents into enemy lines.
There will be a raw athletic quality to the film, as the directors are E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo, Nyad).
And Teller loves to get put through the wringer. It’s where he made his name, in Whiplash, by putting his body and heart through torment to achieve greatness in the name of becoming a great jazz musician.
Teller’s prep for Top Gun 2 became legendary when he revealed he broke out in hives because he had jet fuel in his bloodstream (clip).
Always ready to push himself to the extremes, this should be a good show of force. And a historical epic directed by Chin and Vasarhelyi, who notched a double Oscar nom for Jodie Foster and Annette Bening in Nyad, means Teller’s chances of getting his first Oscar nomination are within reach.
North.five.six. (The Surfer) serves as the production company as does Dreambridge Films (Nic Cage’s Joe). CAA is launching the package at EFM.
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Tidbits:
Amy Adams joins Apple TV+’s Cape Fear series. Here’s the synopsis:
A storm is coming for happily married attorneys Anna (Adams) and Tom Bowden when Max Cady (Javier Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison.
Here’s our full examination of the project and Bardem taking on the iconic Robert DeNiro role:
https://theindustry.co/p/javier-bardems-fear
Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage joins the murderous cast of Michael C. Hall and Uma Thurman in Dexter: Resurrection, a present-day series following up Dexter: New Blood, the 2021 revival that aired for one season. The award-winning actor will have a series regular role, playing Leon Prater, a billionaire venture capitalist, who behind his polished exterior lies dark intrigue, seems like the type of complex character that Dinklage would really thrive with. Currently in production in New York, Dexter: Resurrection is set to premiere this summer on Paramount+ with Showtime.
The Evil Dead director Sam Raimi is making his long-awaited return to horror with Send Help, a survival thriller for 20th Century Studios. It will now star Golden Globe nominee Dennis Haysbert (Far from Heaven/Allstate spokesman). Staring alongside Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) and Dylan O’Brien (Twinless), Haysbert has experience in the high-intensity genre like in the Michael Mann classic heist film Heat (1995) and in the survival action comedy Welcome to the Jungle (2013). Expected to have a theatrical release there is no word yet on Haysbert’s role in Send Help which is currently in production.
Sean Bean joins MGM+’s Robin Hood series as the Sheriff of Nottingham, starring alongside Jack Patten’s Robin Hood. John Glenn serves as showrunner, with Jonathan English directing. Lionsgate produces the 10-episode series, premiering globally on MGM+ in 2025.
Matthew Rhys (FX’s The Americans) leads Widow’s Bay, Apple TV+’s eerie New England-set series about a skeptical mayor confronting his town’s superstitions. Hiro Murai (Atlanta) directs; Katie Dippold (co-producer/writer: Parks and Rec) showruns.
FESTIVALS
Berlin Film Festival has just dropped a lot of trailers for its full competition lineup, including the heart-pounding Late Shift (poster above).
Plus, at the same link, a first look at Marion Cotillard as the ice queen.
There’s one new project headed to EFM that caught my attention:
The Beloved
Cast: Javier Bardem
Dir/Writer: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, The Beasts (2022)
Worldwide sales rep: Goodfellas
Synopsis:
Acclaimed director reunites with estranged daughter, an unsuccessful actress, to shoot a film together, confronting their strained relationship and unresolved past issues that neither wants to address directly.
It’ll be nice to see Bardem return to a strong Spanish-language pic.
Here’s our running list of the latest and greatest projects at EFM. Some new additions are Jason Statham’s new action film, Dave Bautista’s dystopian sci-fi, and a new role for Aaron Paul.
https://theindustry.co/p/bad-boys-old-pals
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
With nothing but great reviews from its screening at TIFF, two standout comedic actors, Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, leading the cast, and a trailer that’s both off-putting and intriguing, Friendship has become one of my most anticipated 2025 films.
Click here for the very dark and very funny trailer:
https://theindustry.co/p/friendship-a24
After a positive reception at TIFF, indie distributor Film Movement has acquired rights to Paying for It, a racy comedy following an introverted cartoonist who starts sleeping with sex workers. Partially an autobiographical film, Paying for It is an adaptation of Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown’s best-selling 2011 graphic novel directed by his real romantic partner, Sook-Yin Lee (Year of the Carnivore). Film Movement is looking to give Paying for It a 2025 theatrical release.
The Black List + Cassian Elwes Independent Screenwriting Fellow is Natalie Baseman. Her upcoming film is Good Auntie about a stand-up comic who does everything she can to get out of fulfilling her dying sister's last wish. Tanbark Pictures (Sydney Sweeney’s Reality) is in development on the project. We wish her the best with the film!
Gravitas Ventures will release Grassland, a drama EP’d by Common. Directed by William Bermudez and Sam Friedman, it follows a Latina mother running a marijuana business amid the 2008 recession. There is not an exact date, but it is aiming for a release in April.
Brooklyn distributor Dekanalog (Sweet Dreams) has released a trailer for Blue Sun Palace. The film won Cannes Critics Week.
For more on the film plus, info on New Regency’s new partnership in Europe, a SXSW film’s new distribution, and BBC’s activity in India, click here:
https://theindustry.co/p/cannes-blue-sun-palace
ON THIS DAY
1993. Groundhog Day opens across the US.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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