Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Bond’s Villain, Netflix’s Point, and hoops.
Let’s go!
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Daniel Craig is playing the villain.
In his ever-expanding universe of post-Bond roles, Craig will likely take on Shakespeare’s Othello–again.
He is rumored to star as the canonically jealous, seethingly spiteful Iago, a role he portrayed on stage in 2016 (above), which The NY Times review laid bare:
“Though he retains a hearty bluffness, [Craig] is also unusually chameleonic, subtly altering his speech and affect to be what other people expect him (and think they need him) to be… lend[ing] Iago a disarming, virile charm, through which only we can glimpse the contempt and the calculation.”
And that’s at the heart of the play, his jealousy for the titular Othello, who wins a military promotion over him, setting a rip tide of manipulation and carnage.
For an actor whose on-screen persona has been categorically branded as a hero, although his portrayal of Bond is riddled with scars, it will be wild to see him play an archetypal villain.
But what is wonderful about his portrayal of Iago in the play is the authority by which he brings us into his corrupt world.
We root for him.
And I can’t wait to see him live long enough to become the villain.
The new film will be produced by Eon’s Barbara Broccoli (e.g., the producer behind the Bond dynasty). Locked into the cast are Rachel Brosnahan, Cynthia Erivo, and David Oyelowo (reprising his role of Othello and also directing).
For More:
The film secured financing in Qatar, which has recently struck a trio of deals with Sony, Miramax, and Neon: https://theindustry.co/p/sony-miramax-neon-and-qatar
Daniel Craig’s Bond villains:
Javier Bardem in Skyfall (rat scene)
Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale (what a bluff)
Christoph Waltz in Spectre (don’t play the video)
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Qatar continues its film-investment push, striking deals with Sony, Miramax, & Neon.
Netflix teams Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Saulnier for A24’s Trigger Point series.
Paramount delays Trey Parker & Matt Stone’s untitled comedy.
TriStar wins Dean Fleischer Camp’s supernatural Jane Austen–era romance.
Macro TV Studios president Jamila Hunter exits.
Cult icon Udo Kier (My Own Private Idaho) dies at 81.
Kenneth Branagh voices the goblin in A24’s raunchy buddy comedy Goblin.
Noah Centineo circling lead opposite Sydney Sweeney in Legendary’s Gundam.
Sofia Vergara joins dark comedy Thumb.
Sam Mendes casts Harry Lloyd as Beatles producer George Martin.
IDFA crowns A Fox Under a Pink Moon as Best Film, Tallinn Black Nights awards Grand Prix and Audience Award to The Good Daughter.
Disney’s Andscape short Hoops, Hopes, & Dreams premieres Jan 19 on Hulu.
Cohen Media Group acquires Cannes Official Selection Eagles of the Republic
Breaking Glass Pictures takes U.S. rights to Italy’s Oscar submission Familia.
Ukraine launches €50M cultural fund and 30% rebate.
U.K. film & HETV spend falls 18% to £5.5B year-to-date.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Netflix doubles down on Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Saulnier with A24’s Trigger Point series.
Here’s the synopsis:
Follows a group of former Tier One Special Forces operators who sell their elite skills to the criminal underworld behind the front of a private military contracting firm and the FBI agent who’s hunting for them.
Sounds fairly rote until you factor in that Joel Edgerton will play one of the special forces operators. We love it when Edgerton goes bad, like in Dark Matter. He just played a rugged philosopher with a ton of heart in Train Dreams, which Netflix is pushing for Oscars.
Jeremy Saulnier is attached to direct. His last film was Netflix’s Rebel Ridge, which turned out to be a massive hit, netting 31.2M views in a week. It’s a revenge action story with the heart of a samurai film, with methodical character work done by Aaron Pierre (trailer). We look forward to watching him go hard for Trigger Point.
From creator/showrunner Harrison Query (writer: Prime’s Heads of State). Joe Hipps (former head of TV at Fifth Season) will EP.
For the second time, Paramount pushes the release of an original comedy with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and producer Kendrick Lamar. It moved from July 4, 2025, to March 20, 2026, and is now undated.
Synopsis:
Centers on a young Black man who is interning as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum and discovers that his white girlfriend’s ancestors once owned his.
Paramount then co-CEO Brian Robbins stated:
“This script is one of the funniest, craziest, and most original scripts we’ve ever read, and it’s certain to create some fireworks....”
We can’t wait.
Tidbits:
Sony’s TriStar has won a heated bidding war for Dean Fleischer Camp (Lilo and Stitch)’s untitled supernatural romance. Set in the Jane Austen era, it will follow star-crossed lovers confronted by a supernatural twist. Camp will write, direct, and produce with his Marcel the Shell with Shoes On team. Camp has a way of blending CGI and VFX creations seamlessly in his worlds, we could see some form of Pride & Prejudice meets a monster movie.
Macro Television Studios (Apple’s Government Cheese) president Jamila Hunter is leaving the company after just under two years. A former Disney exec, Hunter’s contract is up at the end of the year and was not renewed, with no replacement set to take her place. Meanwhile, the studio has also brought in several new executives, signaling a broader shake-up.
Mini Tidbits:
Culver City has approved a $500K film incentive program to revive local production. The city aims to attract new shoots, support students, and small projects.
Carl Ciarfalio has died at 72. A veteran stuntman and actor who worked across hundreds of film and TV projects with directors and actors from Tom Cruise (MI:2) to Tarantino (Kill Bill). He later served as Stuntmen’s Association president and helped create the Emmy for Outstanding Stunt Coordination.
Cancellations:
Netflix’s Too Much (cancelled after S1)
Creator Lena Dunham
Trailers:
Fox’s Memory of a Killer
Star: Patrick Dempsey, Michael Imperioli
Release: Jan 26
First look:
Focus Features’ Werwulf
Unauthorized set images of Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp in Robert Eggers’ film
Poster:
Searchlight’s The Testament of Ann Lee
Poster - reminds me of EEAAO
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
One of Germany’s most eccentric character actors, Udo Kier, has passed away at 81.
One of Andy Warhol’s most loyal collaborators (like in Flesh for Frankenstein), Kier was known for stealing every scene he was a part of, with a career spanning over six decades. He mesmerized audiences as the sinister Count Dracula in Blood for Dracula (1974, trailer) and brought haunting intensity to Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991, scene), cementing his reputation as a fearless, avant-garde performer.
In his last project, the Cannes-winning The Secret Agent, Kier plays a Jewish Holocaust survivor mistaken as a Nazi fugitive, a powerfully tragic performance proving that even with minimal screen time, Kier can always dominate a scene.
A true chameleonic actor and icon of cult and arthouse cinema, Kier leaves behind an inimitable legacy.
Tidbits:
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) has signed on to voice the titular goblin in A24’s Goblin, a raunchy buddy comedy about a human befriending a goblin (charmingly played by a real-life puppet). Branagh’s Irish brogue would absolutely sound incredible coming from a mangy goblin. Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is circling the human lead, but Branagh’s involvement remains the project’s most surprising, high-caliber element so far.
Noah Centineo (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) is in talks to join Sydney Sweeney in Jim Mickle’s (Sweet Tooth) live-action Gundam for Legendary. The anime adaptation of the popular mecha series will apparently focus on two star-crossed lovers from different warring factions. Centineo, now filming Paramount’s Street Fighter (2026), would take the male lead with Sweeney starring opposite.
Sofia Vergara’s new film feels much darker than your typical Modern Family bit. The Emmy-nominated actress is the newest to join Thumb, a dark comedy film from director Daina Oniunas-Pusić (Rhonna & Donna). The movie centers on a lonely teenager who receives a severed thumb in the mail, sparking a wildly unpredictable journey. Joining the female ensemble of Milly Alcock (Supergirl), Awkwafina (The Bad Guys), and Kate McKinnon (Barbie), Vergara is sure to bring her undeniable charm to add some humor to the film’s offbeat premise. Production on Thumb began last week in New York.
Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films cast Harry Lloyd as producer George Martin, sometimes called the 5th Beatle. Lloyd had a massive impact on all the Beatles’ music compositions, especially the lush string parts in later years. The films shoot through 2026 and will be released together in 2028.
More than two decades after playing Peter and Wendy in Universal’s 2003 adaptation (clips), Jeremy Sumpter and Rachel Hurd-Wood are reuniting for romcom Strawberry Roan. The directorial debut of Sumpter, his road trip film, follows a young couple embarking on a journey that’ll change their lives for the better.
Ron Howard’s Alone at Dawn adds:
Jonathan Ajayi (Alien: Earth)
Austin Amelio (Fear the Walking Dead)
Jon Bass (She-Hulk)
Rohan Campbell (The Monkey)
Henry Garrett (Zero Dark Thirty)
Sam Nelson Harris (X Ambassadors)
Ben Weinswig (Ben’s Sister)
They join Adam Driver and Anne Hathaway in the military drama about Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman, adapted from the 2019 book and produced by Imagine Entertainment.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
The world’s biggest doc festival, IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), just announced its winners:
Best Film in the International Competition:
A Fox Under a Pink Moon
It’s an incredible portrait of a talented Afghan artist, whose sculptures take on the form of demons, and who tries to escape her country
IDFA stated:
“Amid exile and domestic violence, to bloom despite repression, and to find solace through creation. A self-portrait that witnesses the growth of an Afghan artist whose work will continue to resonate.”
The Kartli Kingdom won Best Directing. Check out the trailer here.
Full list of award winners here.
The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has, for the first time, awarded the Grand Prix and Audience Award to the same film:
The Good Daughter
Synopsis:
After her parents split up, Carmela and her mom move in with grandma. Her artist father’s influence leads all three women to explore their inner selves and forge new paths forward.
China Sea won Critics’ Pick. It looks immersive and well photographed. Trailer.
Full breakdown of winners here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Hoops, Hopes, & Dreams is a short film from Disney’s Andscape (prod co: The Man in My Basement). It centers on the power of Basketball to unite people around political movements.
Now that sounds fairly lofty. But the best parts of the short are first-hand stories of folks who first met Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama (apparently he’s an epic leftie) on the basketball court and went on to become their trusted advisors.
Many times, these pick-up games were used as strategies to relate to the community, which would then allow them to open up a conversation and spread their message.
The film premiered at Sundance and was produced by Michael Latt, the Netflix staffer and Annapurna Pictures consultant, who tragically died two years ago.
Hoops, Hopes, & Dreams will premiere on Hulu on January 19, 2026, under the Andscape Films banner.
Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic has been acquired for a 2026 U.S. theatrical release by Cohen Media Group (Franz). After premiering at Cannes in the official selection and screening globally.
Logline: Completing his Cairo Trilogy, the film follows a famous Egyptian actor pulled into political manipulation and a dangerous affair.
Trailer here. Releasing early 2026.
Tidbits:
Internet personality turned star of HBO’s I Love L.A., Jordan Firstman, is making his feature directorial debut with Club Kid from Topic Studios (Splittsville). Set in New York City, the film follows a washed-up party promoter forced to take care of the son he didn’t know he had. In addition to himself, Firstman has recruited Cara Delevingne (Suicide Squad) and Diego Calva (On Swift Horses) to star in the film, which has just wrapped production.
Philadelphia-based indie distributor Breaking Glass Pictures (Unexpected) won the U.S. rights to Familia (trailer), Italy’s submission for the best international feature category for the 2026 Oscars. A 2024 award-winning Venice title, the film deals with facing toxic family dynamics, life-changing betrayal, and seeking redemption. The indie distributor is planning a theatrical release sometime next year.
Mini Tidbit:
Broad multimedia rights to The Complete Idiot’s Guide series have been secured by Amasia Entertainment (Universal’s upcoming The Green Hornet and Kato).
Yes…
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