Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Jerry Bruckheimer, G.I. Joe and Alice Rohrwacher’s cinematic universe.
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I sat down to interview industry titan Jerry Bruckheimer, the prolific film producer behind F1: The Movie, the Brad Pitt-led racing epic from Apple.
F1 is nominated for four Academy Awards:
Best Picture
Best Sound
Best Visual Effects
Best Film Editing
Few producers have shaped blockbuster filmmaking like Jerry Bruckheimer, whose name has become synonymous with spectacle, adrenaline-fueled storytelling, and box office dominance.
He’s produced:
Bad Boys franchise
Heat, Heat 2 (2027)
Pirates of the Caribbean franchise
Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick
As we spoke, Bruckheimer credited Apple with truly believing in his project’s scale:
“They gave us the theatrical release we wanted… Actually shooting at the tracks, not using blue screen… Cars going 220 mph with enhanced Apple iPhone cameras… It took a lot more energy and time than what a normal movie would do.”
But the reason why audiences flock to a Bruckheimer film isn’t just the major set pieces.
He shared:
“The personal journey is the action. So whether the personal journey is in American Gigolo [one of his first films] with that character or with our lead in Flashdance, it’s Jennifer Beals. They’re all journeys, characters weaving through the plot.”
In F1, there’s actually a deeper human story about overcoming one’s own delusions.
Pitt, midway through the film, away from the track, during a quiet conversation on the balcony with Kerry Condon, opens up about his devastating crash when he was young. He lost more than just money and fame; he lost himself.
F1’s real journey is about how the death of ego allows Pitt’s character to rediscover his sense of purpose. And the balancing of this with the all out adrenaline-fueled racing makes it a great film.
For More:
Our interview with Jerry Bruckheimer.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
One Battle After Another wins PGA.
Sinners wins the Actor Awards ensemble prize.
WGA West has canceled the WGA Awards.
Paramount is developing 1–2 new G.I. Joe films.
Studio Lambert and Netflix are adapting Monopoly into a reality competition.
Hulu is adapting Japanese fantasy-comedy Rebooting as Last Second Chance.
The FCC approved Charter’s $34.5bn acquisition of Cox.
Josh O’Connor, Dakota Johnson, Saoirse Ronan, and Jessie Buckley will star in Three Incestuous Sisters.
Sony Pictures Classics picks up Sundance’s Gail Daugherty & the Celebrity Sex Pass.
PBS Distribution picked up U.S. rights to Trespasses and I Fought the Law.
British feature Found will star Lucian Msamati and Paul Kaye.
Netflix picks up Fish, Fists and Ambergris.
Friday’s correct answer: 9 times Warner Bros. has been sold since it was founded.
38% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
One Battle After Another won the top award at the Producers Guild of America (PGA).
That got me thinking about how many times these awards (including DGA and Critics Choice) have predicted the Best Picture winners at the Oscars over the past decade plus:
5 out of 11 times for the DGA
8 out of 11 times for the PGA
7 out of the last 11 times for the Critics Choice
This trio of wins puts One Battle After Another as the frontrunner for the Oscars, as there is a significant crossover between the PGA/DGA voting bodies and Academy voters.
More importantly, when all three voting bodies align, as happened with Oppenheimer, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nomadland, The Shape of Water, and Anora, the film went on to win the Best Picture Oscar.
However, Sinners just won the Actor Awards (previously: SAG Awards). Their top award has aligned with the Oscar Best Picture 7 out of 11 times. So there is a chance for a potential upset.
Michael B. Jordan also won Best Actor for Sinners. Jesse Buckley continues her sweep, winning Best Actress for Hamnet. We’re also glad to see Michelle Williams win for Actress in a TV Movie or Limited Series for FX’s Dying for Sex.
Full list of winners here. Or check out Seth Rogen’s tear-inducing tribute to Catherine O’Hara.
Today, at 8:30am EST, Paramount will have an investor call (listen here) to detail their plans, goals, and dreams for their acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which happened late Thursday (pending intense scrutiny by lawmakers).
For now, we know a few things:
Paramount will create 239.38M class B shares at $16.02/share ($47bn)
Merger timeline to close: 6 - 18 months
If the deal doesn’t close WBD gets $7bn
Here’s the full breakdown of the acquisition thus far (pre-call):
https://theindustry.co/p/paramount-wins-warner-bros
Paramount Skydance launches 1-2 new G.I. Joe films. This checks out, as when the two companies were separate, they collaborated on the first two in the franchise, which grossed $675M WW on a combined budget of $305M. They’re not great pieces of art, but they have been graced by many artists. Jon M. Chu directed the second film, and Jonathan Pryce and Channing Tatum acted in both.
Paramount has two scripts being written, the first by Max Landis (wri: Chronicle, Netflix’s Bright) and the second by Danny McBride, who helped pen The Righteous Gemstones. These are going to be two very divergent takes, so we’ll see which wins the G.I. Joe rough and tumble challenge.
Tidbits:
All3Media’s Studio Lambert has officially passed go. In a competitive bidding war, The Traitors producer has secured Netflix’s Monopoly set to be adapted into the streamer’s newest binge-worthy reality series. Netflix won the rights to the legendary board game from Hasbro last year, with the new competition show being the fourth collaboration between Lambert and the streamer (The Circle, Dance 100, and Surviving Paradise). My fantasy is we get Barbara from Shark Tank to face off against Ryan Serhant from Million Dollar Listing and have them play a game of monopoly. But if they lose, they have to give the other one of their properties.
Hulu is working on Last Second Chance, a series adaptation of the Japanese comedy fantasy series Rebooting. With Corey Nickerson (EP of Black-ish) on board to write the adaptation. The story follows a woman who is given a real second chance at life and is determined to change her ways and prevent her shocking murder. Rideback (prod. It: Welcome to Derry) is producing alongside 20th Television.
WGA West has canceled the WGA Awards. This is because WGA West’s employees are striking against the guild itself. They’re trying to unionize, which may also hinder negotiations between WGA West and its writer members as their contract with the studios expires on May 1, with discussions beginning March 16th.
Mini Tidbit:
The FCC has approved Charter Communications’ $34.5bn acquisition of Cox Communications, now the nation’s largest cable and broadband provider. The mega-merge will take the Cox name and expand cable and internet services nationwide.
Trailer:
Think of England
Dir: BAFTA-nominated director Richard Hawkins (wri: Paul Greengrass’s The Theory of Flight)
Scream Movie 6
Marlon Wayans bootlegged trailer
First look:
Prime’s God of War (live-action series)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Josh O’Connor is becoming the face of Alice Rohrwacher’s cinematic universe.
For her next project, the Italian director finds her four leads in O’Connor, Dakota Johnson, Saoirse Ronan, and current Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley in a loose adaptation of the bestselling novel Three Incestuous Sisters.
While the film’s plot is being kept under wraps the book, told through black and white illustrations and short captions, follows three sisters who live in total isolation when a lighthouse keeper (O’Connor) intensely disrupts their independence.
With La Chimera (2023, trailer), O’Connor emerged as the perfect Rohrwacher protagonist, a ghostlike observer, the film’s emotional anchor, an archaeologist turned grave robber. In Three Incestuous Sisters, his character is going to be much more active. Instead of being consumed by the past, his presence will excite and disturb these sisters’ lives.
Production is set to begin in April.
Mini Tidbits:
Apple TV’s upcoming spy thriller Safe Houses casts Taken actor Leland Orser as a series regular. The series is set in the aftermath of the murder of a high-ranking CIA officer. Orser will play a senator and the brother to the high-profile new widow.
High School Musical alum Ashley Tisdale is joining CBS’s upcoming multi-camera comedy You’re Only Young Twice. After marrying young and raising a child together, newly divorced empty nesters Emily (Tisdale) and Alex must figure out dating, co-parenting, and whether love deserves a second chance.
The Peacock and A24 series Superfakes casts Dustin Nguyen (21 Jump Street) alongside Lucy Liu. Nguyen will play a shifty gangster who is a major boss of the dangerous Chinatown crime underworld. The series comes from Beef writer Alice Ju and is produced by the Safdie brothers.
TECH SECTION
We loved what Jason Blum said at the PGAs:
“We’re living at this time where machines are very confident that they can pick what will work, that algorithms can tell us everything we’ve ever watched and what we should watch next, and AI can tell us what to stream in the mood we’re in next Tuesday. But what machines can’t do? If you would ask an algorithm a few months ago to predict a low-budget gay hockey romance with zero known stars, I promise you the algorithm would have been like, ‘Do not make that show.’ But that’s why Heated Rivalry needed us. It needed producers.”
Yes!
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Sony Pictures Classics picks up global rights to Sundance’s Gail Daugherty and the Celebrity Sex Pass.
It was the silliest movie I saw at Sundance, but that in no way implies that it’s anything short of incredible. It’s a zany journey into an absurdist fantasy of having a free pass to sleep with a celebrity.
And the outright zaniness of both the filmmaking style and the acting just makes it delightful at every twist and turn, from a narrator that’s a mailman, to John Slattery playing a sad sack version of himself, to Jon Hamm pretty much just playing Jon Hamm.
Every bit of it is delightfully bonkers. No word on release date.
Tidbits:
Grey’s Anatomy writer Felicia Pride’s Honey Chile Entertainment (Look Back at It) has acquired the rights to viral romance trilogy The Greene Sisters for a three-film picture deal. Each book follows one of three accomplished sisters navigating career, family, and love, with Pride producing and adapting the first film.
PBS Distribution gets the U.S. rights to two All3Media series from the London TV Screenings. The romance 70s set Trespasses is led by Emmy winner Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) and tells a forbidden love story. The drama I Fought the Law is based on the real-life story of a mother fighting to bring her daughter’s killer to justice.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Asian distributor Mockingbird Pictures scores Fish, Fists and Ambergris (Long Diên Huong) a Netflix streaming deal and a global theatrical rollout. The film follows two penniless brothers who, just as their luck begins to change, get involved in a dangerous chase. This film will launch on the streamer this week. To my taste, the film seems more violent than funny. Here’s the trailer.
UK’s Ringside Studios (Apple TV+’s Liaison) regains control by completing a management buyout from France’s TF1 (Surface) who previously held a majority stake. The French producer was hugely impactful in Ringside’s 2020 launch.
British film Found will be led by Conclave’s Lucian Msamati and Game of Thrones’ Paul Kaye. The feature marks the directorial debut of actor-turned-director Kalungi Ssebandeke (Doctor Who) directing from a script he wrote. Set in a southern English town, it follows a troubled man who is accused of a murder he didn’t commit. Found is currently in development.
ON THIS DAY
1933. King Kong premieres at Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in NYC.
Written by Gabriel Miller and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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