Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
Amazon’s Heyman, ABC’s suit, and A Foggy Tale.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
David Heyman (prod: Barbie) signs 1st-look film deal at Amazon MGM.
ABC sues the FCC over early station-license reviews.
Cinema United and Cinemark back the Paramount–WBD merger.
Ripley creator Steven Zaillian adapts Ghettoside as a Netflix limited series.
Amazon MGM acquires Anna Todd’s forthcoming romance novel House of Crowns.
Netflix orders weight-loss dating series Weight to Date.
James Monroe Iglehart reprises his role as Genie in Disney’s Hidden Heroes film.
Jason Isaacs joins Netflix’s Henry Cavill–Kevin Hart spy comedy.
A24 and the BBC cast Aoife Hinds in The Ministry of Time.
Jack Reynor leads Amazon MGM’s Reddit-inspired horror film Seasons.
Olivia Colman joins Season 6 of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.
NYFF announces a 2026 Revivals lineup featuring 12 restored films.
Kyle Marvin & Michael Angelo Covino sign a first-look deal w/ Waypoint Ent.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Good Time, messy bail bonds scene.
26% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Barbie producer David Heyman is leaving Warner Bros. for a new home at Amazon MGM Studios, inking a first-look film deal. Despite his three-decade-long partnership with WB, Heyman’s Heyday Films is already ferociously working with Amy Pascal on Amazon’s highly anticipated upcoming 007 reset.
No stranger to big-time franchises, having produced all eight Harry Potter films, Heyman is one of many WB regulars who have switched studios at the end of their contracts due to merger concerns. No word on what this means for the already troubled Barbie 2.
Heyday Films’ new multi-year pact includes unscripted live-action and the animated space.
Disney-owned ABC is suing the FCC, which has opened an early review of its broadcast licenses, tied to the recent public controversy surrounding Kimmel’s late-night show comment referring to the first lady as an “expectant widow”.
The station’s renewals were originally scheduled for 2028 and 2031, and ABC’s lawsuit claims that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s review is violating the First Amendment, saying:
“The Commission’s true purpose: coercing and retaliating against a network that refuses to bow to the Administration’s demands.”
Read ABC’s full lawsuit here.
Read our cover story on Kimmel’s return this past fall here.
The times, they are a-changin’. Cinema United (world’s largest movie theater trade org) is now supporting a PSKY-WBD merger, saying:
“Our industry is familiar with the impact of legacy studio consolidation on moviegoers.”
But:
“We have remained open to tangible and enforceable guardrails…”
Bottom line, Spider-Man and The Odyssey have created a post-COVID box office high, and as long as theater exhibitors don’t have to pay higher studio fees to run movies, they want PSKY and the 12 state AGs to settle.
It’s similar to the argument the DGA and IATSE are making. Cinemark (2nd largest theater chain in the US) is also supporting the merger.
Tidbits:
Steven Zaillian is making another limited series for Netflix, following the success of his Ripley Netflix series starring Andrew Scott. He will be making Ghettoside, based on the 2015 non-fiction book Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America that follows a homicide detective in South LA who investigates the overlooked murder of a young Black man. Zaillian will pen the screenplay along with Richard Price (Wri: The Wire), with whom he wrote the 2016 HBO series The Night Of.
Ahead of its publication date, Amazon MGM Studios has picked up the rights to Anna Todd’s newest romance novel House of Crowns. Set in an elite Swiss boarding school where only royalty send their children, a forbidden love blooms when a poor outsider gets an unexpected scholarship, eventually falling for an untouchable heiress; their romance could destroy everything. While simultaneously penning Amazon’s adaptation of Chloe Walsh’s Boys of Tommen, Elinor Cook has been tapped to also take on House of Crowns, with the streamer clearly trusting in turning the internet’s favorite romance novels into must-watch TV. The project is in early development.
Peacock pushes price hikes:
Ad-Free Premium
$19.99 (↑18%)
Ad-supported Premium
$12.99 (↑18%)
Select
$8.99 (↑13%)
Industry-wide price hikes have helped drive revenue increases across the streaming companies, even as subscriber numbers have often stayed flat. Peacock just had its first profitable quarter, so this will only help.
Contrary to the broke Peter Parker, Tom Holland will make over $100M for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The film just crossed $2bn WW and $800M domestically.
Mini Tidbits:
AMPAS’ Sean Baker
Netflix’s Weight dating
All those and two obits here.
Trailers:
Apple TV’s Slow Horses (S6)
Release: Sept 16
Disney’s Oasis (doc)
Release: Sept 11
Lifetime’s Sole Survivor of Flight 119 and The Ocean Between Them
Release: Sept 19, Sept 26
Release dates:
Warner Bros.’ Digger
Dir: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Star: Tom Cruise
World Premiere: London’s Leicester Square (skipping festivals)
Date: Sept 22nd
Ex Machina Studios’ Paradise Lost
Dir: Roger Avary (co-writer: Pulp Fiction)
AI-Film
Release: March 2027 on 1500+ screens
Ex Machina Studios’ Heaven
Dir: Alex Proyas (I, Robot)
AI-Film
Release: Summer 2027 on 1500+ screens
First look:
Netflix’s East of Eden
Star: Florence Pugh
Release: Oct 6
A24’s Club Kid
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Disney Channel’s Hidden Heroes: A Descendants Story, a film following the descendants of famous Disney sidekicks, has cast James Monroe Iglehart as the iconic Genie from Aladdin.
If you don’t recognize that name, he is the Tony Award-winning actor who originated Genie in Broadway’s Aladdin (2014-2017, 2024). He’s energetic and boisterous, with a chaotic energy that’ll make this film great.
The story will take place in a secret training facility where descendants of sidekicks are challenged to join heroes as their partners. Darren Criss is also cast as Jiminy Cricket.
Jason Isaacs and Justine Lupe (Willa in Succession) have been cast in a Netflix spy-action comedy starring Henry Cavill and Kevin Hart.
The film follows two rival spies who meet at a Lamaze class. With their wives becoming fast friends, the two undercover agents must find a way to become partners and fathers at the same time.
Directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels franchise) and produced by Shawn Levy.
Casting tidbits:
Aoife Hinds
Jack Reynor (Lee Cronin’s The Mummy)
Olivia Colman
All those casting tidbits and more here.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Old films never die. NYFF’s 2026 Revivals lineup sets 12 features and two short programs pulled straight from the vaults, spanning six decades and eight countries.
Here are our favorites, including the one above, restored by Martin Scorsese.
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States and serves primarily as a place for upcoming horror, sci-fi, and fantasy filmmakers to showcase their work. Here are some of the most notable films that we found this year:
Lionsgate’s Beware Boiúna
Dir: Mike P. Nelson
Release: Oct 2
Synopsis:
Deep in the Amazon rainforest along the Curuçá River, a routine humanitarian medical mission turns into a desperate struggle for survival when the group’s presence awakens the “Boiúna”—a colossal, ancient mythical serpent determined to reclaim its domain.
M+’s 5 MORE MINUTES
Synopsis:
A couple in crisis spends a rural weekend in a secluded country house. An agent shows them the house and gives them the keys. Before they leave, something extraordinary happens: the world enters a time loop.
Full list here.
Tidbits:
The Film Independent Spirit Awards have announced two new categories for 2027: Best International First Feature and a Digital Creator Award. The latter will receive a $25,000 grant, with Berlinale now a qualifying festival for entries. The 42nd Annual Spirit Awards will take place Mar. 6, 2027.
DOC NYC will honor documentary filmmakers Alex Gibney (Dir: Taxi to the Dark Side), JT Takagi (Sound Mixer: PBS’ American Masters), Stephen Maing (DP: Hulu’s Crime + Punishment), and Raney Aronson-Rath (Prod: 20 Days in Mariupol) for its upcoming 17th edition this November.
SXSW adds a podcast festival. It runs March 17-20.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Wri/Dir/Actor/Producing duo Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino get an investor. If you’re not familiar with these two, they’re the rascal filmmakers behind Neon’s Splitsville (our interview) and Sony Pictures Classics’ The Climb (2019).
Their production company Watch This Ready now has a first-look deal with financier/producer Waypoint Entertainment (Project Hail Mary, Sentimental Value).
The first film under this deal is The Pull, which centers on a mom deep in the world of high-value sports card hustling. The story is based on Marvin’s idea, and he will direct.
Sounds like a zannier Uncut Gems.
Mini Tidbits:
Brooklyn-based Story Syndicate (Netflix’s Maternal Instinct) is promoting Jon Bardin to president of Doc and Unscripted. The company has been expanding recently, previously hiring veteran producer Robin Schwartz as Head of Scripted. Bardin has been with the company since its start in 2019.
Quiver Distribution (Daisy Ridley’s The Cleaner) picks up US rights for Maya & Samar. It’s an NC-17 lesbian love story that sees a journalist, Maya, fall into a torrid romantic relationship with an Afghani stripper named Samar. Of course, Samar’s lifestyle is a major taboo, and that’s the source of conflict (trailer). Directed by Anita Doron (co-wri: Animated, Oscar-nominated film, The Breadwinner). Releasing on VOD Sept 4.
Briarcliff picks up North American rights for Ash and Crayons, a vérité-animated doc about seven Ukrainian children who demonstrate resilience while facing injuries and forcible deportation. Releasing Nov 20.
British filmmaker and documentarian John Irvin (Ghost Story) has passed away at 86. From the brutal battlefield of Hamburger Hill (1987) to the shadowy world of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) in his miniseries for the BBC, the BAFTA-nominated director never shied away from difficult, weighty material, in a career that spanned over 30 films across five decades.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Thelma, but in Mandarin. That’s not a misprint: the charming Sundance film, Magnolia’s Thelma (trailer), which features 93-year-old June Squibb as a grandma who retaliates after being swindled from her savings, is getting a Mandarin-language remake.
Stars Collective (prod co: Neon’s The Monkey) has taken the rights, and the new film will be titled Grandma, Please. The company’s CEO, Peter Luo, is writing the adapted screenplay.
Shooting late 2027.
A24 and Neon’s go-to Canadian distribution powerhouse, Elevation Pictures (Backrooms, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value) is losing its co-president, Laurie May. She’s been with the company since its inception 13 years ago and is stepping down, having led some of the biggest indies ever. Recently, its release of Backrooms cleared $14.8M in Canada.
Screen Australia’s new study crowns Bluey the most valuable cultural export and most recognized international title. The adorable children’s program was the most-streamed show in the U.S. in 2025, while Australia’s broader screen and games industry contributed a shiny $7.9bn to the economy.
Taiwan selects A Foggy Tale for its official submission for the Oscars for Best International Film. Synopsis: In 1953, a teenage girl embarks on a perilous journey to Taipei to reclaim her brother’s remains. Trailer. Taiwan’s last Oscar win was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
Teona Strugar Mitevska (dir: Venice 2025’s Mother starring Noomi Rapace as Mother Teresa) is making a sequel to her breakout film, God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya (2019).
BAFTA-nominated producer Nicolas Altmayer (Young & Beautiful, Summer of 85) has died in a car crash.
ON THIS DAY
1977. Groucho Marx dies at 86.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co