Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Cameron Diaz’s Duty, Jeff Shell’s Separation, and a Barracuda.
Let’s go!
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Cameron Diaz is reporting for troop duty.
TriStar Pictures is developing a sequel to the cult comedy Troop Beverly Hills with Diaz set to star.
The original 1989 film saw Shelley Long as the hilarious but tone deaf socialite Phyllis, who seizes the opportunity to lead her daughter’s Girl Scout troop in an effort to remain close to her child amid a messy divorce.
After more than a decade away from acting, Diaz made her return in Netflix’s low-stakes action film Back in Action (2025), but her newly reported role seems much more fitting for the Bad Teacher actress, who has a long history of campy comedies under her belt.
From There’s Something About Mary (1998) to the ensemble chaos of The Other Woman (2014), Diaz consistently plays women who are both glamorous and in on the joke. Her effortless balance of humor, style, and warmth makes her a great successor to Shelley Long, equipped to handle the playful, sometimes absurd camp of Troop Beverly Hills.
It’s going to be pretty difficult to recreate the wacky magic of the original, but at least it is in good hands with Veep actress turned writer-director Clea DuVall (dir: Happiest Season) helming.
For More:
Troop Beverly Hills (1989, trailer)
Our full breakdown on Diaz’s return to acting.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Paramount Skydance let go of President Jeff Shell.
Disney is cutting 1,000 jobs, largely in marketing.
Lee Sung Jin (creator: Beef) signs a new multi-year Netflix deal.
Chris Hemsworth & Idris Elba return for Netflix’s Extraction 3.
Mubi lands new financing from IPR.VC.
The WGA and AMPTP 4-year deal includes $321M for the Health Fund.
Arnaud Desplechin’s The Thing That Hurts casts J.K. Simmons & Felicity Jones.
Peter Dinklage joins Alien: Earth Season 2.
Uma Thurman returns for Dexter: Resurrection Season 2.
Neil Burger’s (dir: Limitless) new film is Barracuda, w/ Anthony Mackie.
Vertical acquires The Magic Faraway Tree with Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy.
Shudder picks up three Overlook titles.
Indie horror game Home Safety Hotline is getting a film adaptation.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Harris Dickinson, star: Sony’s The Beatles & A24’s Babygirl.
76% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
A gambling man. Paramount Skydance’s President Jeff Shell has exited.
This comes after dueling lawsuits between Shell, former CEO of NBCUniversal, and Robert James “R.J.” Cipriani (AP on Jason Statham’s Wild Card).
Cipriani sued Shell for $150M, alleging that Shell baited him into thinking that he would help him produce the English-language version of Roku’s Serenata De Las Estrellas. Shell then countersued.
The larger issue was that it seems Shell shared financial details about Paramount deals (UFC, South Park) with Cipriani before they closed, which Shell now says is completely false.
Paramount’s hand was forced, as they didn’t want the media heat or scrutiny, as their acquisition of WBD still needs the approval of the US DOJ and regulators in Europe.
Read Paramount’s full statement on the matter here.
Disney is firing close to 1000 people. Most are marketing, as Disney is consolidating. Everyone in the Experiences seems safe because that division, with 185K employees, 12 parks, and 57 hotels, made 3x the profit on lower revenue than the Entertainment segment with Avatar 3 and Zootopia 2.
60% of Disney’s company-wide profit comes just from the Experiences division, as does 80% of the company’s value. Bad news for everyone else at the company.
This is new CEO Josh D’Amaro’s first major staff cut.
Get angry. Get crazy. Destroy some stuff. Beef creator Lee Sung Jin re-ups his multi-year deal with Netflix. The partnership, overseen by Netflix’s Head of US-Canada Scripted Series Jinny Howe, spans scripted series and feature films.
Beef’s complex revenge relationship saga was a picture-perfect execution of a dual protagonist narrative that felt both well-balanced and emotionally out of control in the best possible way.
We can’t wait for Season 2, dropping April 16th (trailer).
Time for some nonstop action oners. Chris Hemsworth will reprise his role as mercenary Tyler Rake for Netflix’s Extraction 3. Sam Hargrave, the director of the previous two installments, is back to direct, with Idris Elba and Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson).
Extraction (135.7M views) and Extraction 2 (129.3M views and counting) are two of Netflix’s most popular English films.
We can expect yet another thrilling extraction mission by Rake and his team. Russo Brothers’ AGBO is the production company.
Mubi pulls in financing from Finnish film fund IPR.VC (financier for: A24 and XYZ Films) to de-risk projects. The new co-financing deal will see them partner on projects like Fatherland (dir: Cold War’s Pawel Pawlikowski) and Let Love In (dir: Felix Van Groeningen), as well as more films in the future.
Mubi is in an interesting spot. Last year, they were valued at $1bn after closing $100M from Sequoia Capital. But their big Cannes buy of $23M+ for Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, plus an expensive FYC campaign, only pulled in $11.9M and didn’t receive any Oscar nomination.
We’re glad Mubi is finding more capital so they can keep making great films.
Four book adaptations from the following studios:
Warner Bros.
Hulu
Prime Video
Mini Tidbits:
WGA deal
Avatar’s future
Paramount gets into publishing
And J.J. Abrams
All those mini tidbits and more here.
Trailers:
Lionsgate’s Michael
Release: April 24
Peacock’s M.I.A
Release: May 7
Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures
Cast: Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, Alfred Molina (as an Octopus)
Release: May 8
Apple TV’s Criminal Record (S2)
Release: April 22
SkyShowtime’s The Trio
Release: June 1
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Uma Thurman will return in Dexter: Resurrection S2.
In the first season, Thurman played Charley, a former Special Ops officer who was the right-hand woman of Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage), the main antagonist of the series.
Thurman will star alongside Brian Cox, who will be playing a serial killer dubbed “New York Ripper.” And wow! His first serial killer role since he played Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter (1986).
Though the synopsis of season 2 is under wraps, we may see Thurman side with Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) following her fallout with Prater after discovering his betrayal in the last season.
French filmmaker and Cannes regular Arnaud Desplechin’s The Thing That Hurts names its international ensemble cast:
J.K. Simmons
Felicity Jones (Train Dreams)
Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire)
Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City)
Each will play a patient gathered together in Paris, after their therapist’s sudden passing. The dramedy explores the unexpected connections that emerge in the wake of loss and the lasting imprint one life can leave on so many.
With Schwartzman on board, it’s perhaps no surprise that Wes Anderson is also involved, set to EP. Filming this week in Paris.
Mini Tidbits:
Peter Dinklage joins FX’s Alien: Earth S2 as a regular. No info on his role, but perhaps we’ll see him as a higher-ranking figure within the warring corporations of Alien: Earth, similar to his cunning yet intimidating performance as Dean Casca Highbottom in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023).
Just as season three of Apple TV’s Shrinking comes to a close, Harrison Ford will return as the stubborn Dr. Paul for the show’s fourth season.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Limitless director Neil Burger’s next project is the high-octane thriller Barracuda, starring Anthony Mackie and Deadpool & Wolverine’s Dafne Keen.
The film follows a man (Mackie) with a rough past who is pulled back into a world of violence when he attempts to rescue a kidnapped teenager (Keen) in a Mexican nightclub, igniting a relentless cross-border chase.
Burger’s distinct eye separates his films from standard genre fare, whether it’s the sleek symmetry of The Illusionist’s period tableaux or the nonstop camera work during the train attack in Insurgent (2015, scene), his visuals play as much of a role in the story as his characters. It will be exciting to see how Burger shapes a full-on action thriller.
Production on Barracuda is underway in New Mexico.
Six big indie film pickups:
Strand takes Berlinale’s Trial of Hein
Shudder takes Parasomnia, Goody, Goody, and New Group
Vertical picks up The Magic Faraway Tree starring Andrew Garfield
Abramorama picks up American Agitators
Tidbits:
Indie horror game Home Safety Hotline is getting a film adaptation. Spooky Pictures (production co: Late Night With the Devil) and Image Nation (production co: Hokum) have partnered up to bring this indie hit onto the big screen. Michael Matthews (Love and Monsters) is attached to direct. The film will follow an unemployed loner who takes a job as a phone operator at a home security company, only to realize that his job is protecting the customers from monsters.
The Boston International Film Festival will open with the new sci-fi drama Milarepa, starring Harvey Keitel as a guru. Official synopsis: A post-apocalyptic world. Nature overpowered technology. The 12-year-old girl, Mila, is wrecked by the killing of her father. Mila starts a journey to redeem herself from her evil actions. Mila happens on a timeless island where Keitel serves as a spiritual guide. Sounds fun!
Mini Tidbits:
Steven Soderbergh always has a lot of projects in his black bag. His newest could be Ascenso, on the Spanish-American War starring Wagner Moura. Not much detail yet on this, as no funding is locked.
Sebiye Behtiyar (Preparation for the Next Life) and Sonja O’Hara (Snare) will star in director Zachary Allad’s horror feature debut, The Scorpion. The film follows a young woman who accepts a job at a cosmetics lab that has replaced animal testing with willing human participants.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Allu Arjun (Pushpa: The Rise) and director Atlee (Jawan) team up for a large-scale fantasy action film Raaka. Arjun won the Indian National Film Award for best actor for his performance in Pushpa: The Rise (2021), which soon became a global hit franchise with the sequel grossing more than $194M globally. Indian cinema continues to gain traction internationally, with Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026) earning $26.2M domestically and $150.9M worldwide, the highest-ever domestic total for a Hindi film.
Vitrine Filmes (Brazil dist. The Secret Agent) is producing Sirens, the newest film from Alexandra Latishev Salazar (Medea), ahead of its pitch at IFF Panama’s international showcase. Continuing her focus on female stories, Sirens is centered on a widowed woman who discovers an estuary that transforms her into a half-crocodile creature.
Canada is going back to the beginning. Inspired by the country’s first-ever feature-length film, Evangeline (1914), a new movie of the same name is being developed by Ocean Playground Productions and Sight Unseen director Brent Crowell. The story follows a woman on a decades-long journey across North America in search of her deported fiancé.
ON THIS DAY
1976. All the President's Men is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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