Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Universal’s Bon Jovi, Paramount’s Gangster and a Souffleur.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Universal is developing a Bon Jovi biopic.
James Wan will direct Paramount’s remake of The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil.
Oprah Winfrey and H.E.R. are producing 20th Century dance drama Major.
Hulu is developing yacht-rock comedy Double or Nothing.
20th Television re-ups New Girl creator Liz Meriwether’s multi-year overall deal.
Matt Reeves & his company are making a WWII film about Moscow Conference.
Disney names Thomas Mazloum as head of its Experiences division.
Gael García Bernal will star in Netflix’s In the Valley of Shadows.
Tim Blake Nelson joins Paramount’s The Rescue, from director Potsy Ponciroli.
Kathryn Hahn will play Mother Gothel in Disney’s live-action Tangled.
Joe Alwyn joins Tomas Alfredson’s Seance on a Wet Afternoon.
Keith David co-stars in NBC’s untitled private-investigator comedy pilot.
Magenta Light Studios picks up James McAvoy’s dir debut California Schemin’.
Kino Lorber acquires North American rights to The Souffleur w/ Willem Dafoe.
David Duchovny is co-writing and starring in the comedy Soapbox.
Imagine Documentaries is developing a Whoopi Goldberg doc.
Abramorama has acquired NA rights to Tribeca doc Just Sing.
NBCUniversal has promoted Gus O’Brien to pres of international networks.
Yesterday’s correct answer: The Expendables first Stallone & Schwarzenegger film.
64% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
First Springsteen and now Bon Jovi, you’re welcome New Jerseyans.
Universal Pictures’ (Straight Outta Compton) newest biopic is about the formative years of Bon Jovi, a band that shot from humble beginnings to selling out stadiums and landing in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. From “Livin’ on a Prayer” to “Bed of Roses”, the studio will have full access to the band’s musical library.
While there is no director yet attached, emerging writer Cody Brotter, who did the rewrites for Doug Liman’s upcoming thriller Killing Satoshi as well as another untitled musical-themed biopic for Mike Judge, will pen the Bon Jovi script.
James Wan is back with a gangster thriller.
Wan is directing the American remake of Korean gangster thriller film The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (2019, trailer) for Paramount. Don Lee (Eternals, Train to Busan) who starred in the original movie is also attached to star in the remake. The original follows a police officer who reluctantly teams up with a gangster in order to hunt down a psycho serial killer on the loose.
With Wan directing, the remake could bring a darker, twisted vision to the crime thriller, amplifying the horror elements of a relentless serial killer chase.
Oprah Winfrey and musical prodigy H.E.R. are producing choreographer Jamal Sims’ (Step Up, Vanilla Sky) feature directorial debut Major, from 20th Century Studios.
The dance drama will center around a prima ballerina who, against her parents’ wishes, rediscovers herself on an HBCU majorette squad determined to bring the struggling team back to life. He is fresh off choreographing Disney’s production of The Lion King 30th Anniversary at the Hollywood Bowl.
Sims will now bring his insight into the struggle behind masterful movement to the big screen for the first time.
Tidbits:
Matt Reeves is making a WWII movie about the Moscow Meeting. Reeves and his production company 6th & Idaho is developing a film about the 1942 Moscow Conference when Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met during a dire phase of World War II. Matt Reeves is experienced at depicting the world on the brink of collapse from directing the Planet of the Apes franchise (trailer). So perhaps he’ll tinge this political thriller with apocalyptic imagery.
20th Century is dying for Liz Meriwether. They’ve signed a multi-year overall deal with Meriwether (creator: Dying for Sex, New Girl). No word on the exact figure but her 2019 4-year deal was said to be in the 8-figures. Meriwether’s last show FX’s Dying for Sex hooks into the duality of life. The life force derived from sexual pleasure and the emotional pain of death. Read our full breakdown on the Emmy-winning series here.
A Yacht Rocker comedy from Hulu. Written by Theodore Bressman (Sausage Party: Foodtopia) and Neel Shah (Nobody Wants This), Double or Nothing will follow a has-been yacht rocker who teams up with a young rapper for a second shot in the limelight. 20th Television is the studio.
Mini Tidbits:
The new head of Disney’s experience division is Thomas Mazloum. Remember this is the division that had a Q1 2026 revenue, $10.0bn (record high) with a $3.3bn profit.
CAA pays John Musero (Wri: The Newsroom) $500K settlement. Musero had sued them after his name surfaces on a blacklist of underperforming writers.
The Chernin Group’s senior exec Billy Parks is named the new head of Fox Creator Studios. In the newly created division, Parks will develop and publish new IP.
Renewal:
PBS Masterpiece’s The Forsytes (for S3)
Cancellation:
FX’s Untitled Witness Protection pilot
Cast: Allison Brie
Trailer:
Picturehouse’s Our Hero, Balthazar
Cast: Asa Butterfield
Release: Mar 27th
Disney+’s The Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary special
Release: Mar 24
Netflix’s Man on Fire
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Bobby Cannavale
Release: Apr 30
Cinephil Docs’ The Life We Leave
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Gael García Bernal will star in Netflix’s In the Valley of Shadows. Based on a H.G. Wells story The Country of the Blind, the film follows a mountaineer who discovers a community of blind people. Bernal is the arrogant outsider who believes in his superiority until a romance allows him to adapt to the Valley’s culture.
Bernal is sensational at playing outsiders trying to navigate new worlds with distinct moral codes like in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004, trailer). He also doesn’t mind leaning into sci-fi, and was recently in TIFF’s ethereal Another End (2024).
The film was shot in Colombia and will be directed by Sebastián Cordero (Europa Report).
Hahn knows best.
Disney has confirmed that Kathryn Hahn (The Studio) will play the wicked Mother Gothel in the highly-anticipated live-action Tangled film. Hahn’s wickedly playful musical charm was on full display in Marvel’s Disney+ spinoff show Agatha All Along (2024, trailer), making her casting feel like a natural fit and one fans are already celebrating.
The live-action Tangled is set for a 2027 premiere.
Tidbits:
Keith David cast in Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creators Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici’s new single-camera sitcom given a pilot order from NBC. Not too different from their previous series, the untitled project is a workplace comedy set in the world of private investigators. David will play the tough, old-world boss and will star across from Jake Johnson’s PI.
Tim Blake Nelson teams back up with director Potsy Ponciroli (Old Henry). Nelson has just been cast in Paramount’s The Rescue headed up by Ponciroli. Lead by Brandon Sklenar the film follows a rodeo cowboy and his dog search for his missing daughter. Josh Lucas and Josh Duhamel have also been cast. Release: Jan 29, 2027.
Grey’s Anatomy’s Kate Walsh is saying goodbye to Seattle and hello to 19th-century England. Walsh is joining CBS’ multi-cam comedy The Tillbrooks (fka Regency) from Warner Bros. Television. A period take on a family sitcom, Walsh will play the stubborn and highly theatrical matriarch of the Tillbrooks.
Director Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)’s Seance on a Wet Afternoon adds Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist) to the cast. Based on Mark McShane’s 1961 suspense novel, the project stars Rachel Weisz (Disobedience) and Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) leading the cast. Adolescence writer Jack Thorne wrote the screenplay, with filming finally ongoing in the UK.
Mini Tidbits:
Fire Country’s Paola Núñez is joining the fifth season of AMC’s Dark Winds. The thriller series reunites the actress with Zahn McClarnon who both starred on AMC’s short-lived western series The Son. In the new drama, Núñez will play a lead investigator for the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Emmy and Grammy winner Blair Underwood (In Treatment) joins S3 of Fox’s Doc. He plays an uber genius who is charming as hell. It’ll be a battle of wills and wits against Molly Parker’s character.
FESTIVALS
International pick ups:
The Loneliest Man in Town
Int. Sales Rep: Be For Films (Love Me Tender)
Sold to 12 international territories
Spain: Avalon (Father Mother Sister Brother)
France: KMBO (The Ritual)
Japan: Mimosa Films (Silent Friend)
Dir(s): Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (Venice title Vera)
Premiered at Berlin
Synopsis:
When blues musician Al Cook’s memory-filled apartment faces demolition, an old dream emerges from his isolated life.
North to Paradise (Viaje al país de los blancos)
Int. Sales Rep: Latido Films (The Platform)
Dir: Dani Sancho (debut)
Prod. Comp: Atresmedia Cine (Mummies)
Dist: A Contracorriente Films (The Intouchables)
Synopsis:
Follows a 14-year-old Ghanaian boy who leaves his village for Europe. After a perilous journey across Africa, he arrives in Barcelona where he meets Montse, a woman who takes him in.
Mini Tidbit:
Footloose and feeling Loggins. Musical doc Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart from six-time Tony-winning producer Dori Berinstein (Best Musical: Thoroughly Modern Millie) is headed to the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Behind soundtracks like Top Gun and Footloose, the film will follow Loggins’ storied career.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
James McAvoy’s directorial debut California Schemin’, is picked up by Magenta Light Studios (Strange Darling). Based on the true story of a Scottish hip-hop hoax. The film, inspired by Gavin Bain’s autobiography, follows two Scottish friends who conned the music industry by pretending to be an American rap duo, bagging a record deal and appearing on MTV until their scam unraveled.
The real joy in this film is seeing a Scottish and English actor (Seamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley) rap in an American accent.
In theaters later this year. Trailer.
Kino Lorber picks up North American rights for The Souffleur starring Willem Dafoe. The film premiered at Venice’s Orizzonti section and is directed by Gastón Solnicki.
Synopsis:
Lucius Glantz (Dafoe), a veteran hotel manager in Vienna, fights to save his beloved establishment from a scheming realtor’s plan to demolish it, leading to a clash of wills that even affects the hotel’s renowned soufflé recipe.
No word on release date.
David Duchovny’s Soapbox.
Duchovny is co-writing and starring in the new comedy, Soapbox which follows an aging soap opera star who finds himself caught in the absurdities of today’s culture wars. Duchovny actually teamed up with Max Barbakow on the script, whose time travel film Palm Springs was hilarious and well studied in time travel tropes.
We look forward to seeing what sort of absurdist but grounded reality they’ve created together. Jimmi Simpson also joins the cast.
Tidbits:
A Whoopi Goldberg doc is happening. From Imagine Documentaries (Music by John Williams) and Message Pictures (Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor) the film will be based on the Oscar winner’s memoir Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and Me told through her own words and archival tapes. Geeta Gandbhir, who is currently nominated for two Academy Awards for her NYFF premiering gripping true crime doc The Perfect Neighbor and the doc short The Devil Is Busy will direct the untitled Whoopi Goldberg film.
The New York-based Abramorama (‘Till Kingdom Come) has secured North American theatrical rights to Just Sing, a doc set in a real life Pitch Perfect-esque competition. The a cappella coming of age doc originally premiered at Tribeca with Abramorama a good home seeing as they notably distributed the Beatles film Yellow Submarine (1968) and the musical doc Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It (2024). Just Sing - Trailer.
Producers Jon Wroblewski (Tribeca’s Our Hero, Balthazar) and Christian Sosa (The Long Game) have launched new indie production banner Roosevelt Film Lab. The unveiling comes just before the SXSW premieres of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s meta horror Family Home and John Valley’s psychological horror American Dollhouse that mark the first projects for the new company.
Mini Tidbit:
Camila Agustini (Venice director award-winning Manas) will write the Brazilian film Diamonds Are Forever. The film will follow a young gay man who is a boxer by day and a drag queen by night.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
NBCUniversal has upped Gus O’Brien to president of international networks and DTC. Former Latin America managing director, in his promoted position he’ll oversee over 110 territories replacing the current incumbent Ken Bettsteller who held the position for over seven years. The move signals NBCUniversal’s efforts to grow their international streaming strategies.
The Mediapro Studio is losing Ran Tellem, the head of international development. Since its launch in 2019, Tellem was hugely influential in elevating the company from a local operation to one of the leading international production companies in Latin America and worldwide.
ON THIS DAY
1931. F. W. Murnau dies at 42.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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