Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Jeremy Strong’s Breaking Point, Disney+’s Casper, and A24’s Boyfriend.
Let’s go!
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There’s something almost inevitable about Jeremy Strong ending up in a Magnus von Horn (dir: The Girl with the Needle) film.
The Oscar-nominated actor will lead The Passenger, an adaptation of Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz’s 1938 novel of the same name and von Horn’s English-language debut. The story follows a respected businessman who is forced to flee 1938 Berlin as he “drifts from train to train and his identity dissolves.”
While varied in plot, in each of von Horn’s previous three films, he is able to strip his characters to their most vulnerable, exposed selves with an unrelenting psychological intensity unlike that of any other director I’ve seen.
Strong’s character arc on Succession as Kendall Roy, “the eldest boy”, plays as a gradual fall from self-assured heir to a full loss of self, a kind of internal unraveling also present in his Oscar-nominated turn as the manipulative lawyer Roy Cohn in The Apprentice (2024).
The pairing of these two seems like a match made in heaven, both artists who are calmly controlled in the chaos they so carefully create.
FilmNation is launching sales at Cannes.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Disney+ develops darker Casper series EP’d by Steven Spielberg.
FX re-ups first-look deal with Hiro Murai (Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay).
YouTube reports $9.88bn in Q1 ad revenue, up 10.7% YoY.
Netflix lands trio of new projects. Check them out here.
Amazon has discussed rebooting The Apprentice, with Don Jr. floated as host.
Chris Evans joins Chris Pine in crime-thriller My Darling California.
AMC greenlights NASCAR family drama Thunder Road w/ Dennis Quaid.
Bryce Dallas Howard & Aaron Paul star in Blumhouse’s Anything But Ghosts.
Cannes sets career talks with Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchett & Tilda Swinton.
Lorna Tucker begins production on narrative debut Bare w/ Florence Hunt.
Searchlight develops David Permut’s lottery road-trip comedy w/ Keke Palmer.
A24 UK options Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material for television.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Eastman Kodak first winner of the Sci and Tech Awards.
78% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
The friendly ghost is back. Disney+ is making a new series on Casper.
The team is tremendous:
EP: Steven Spielberg
EP/Writers: Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston (EP: Disney+’s Goosebumps)
Dir: Rob Letterman (WB’s Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shark Tale)
Prod Co: Universal Studio Group (their first Disney+ show)
Studio: Disney+
The take is said to be a little darker than the original. Probably not as crazed as Poltergeist (co-written and produced by Spielberg), where the family’s TV becomes a supernatural portal, a Spielbergian nightmare about the TV screen invading the home.
Hiro Murai (Dir: Atlanta and Childish Gambino’s This is America MV) is making big waves in the TV space. His FX first-look deal through his production company Chum Films has been re-upped.
Interesting timing, as Apple TV just released a new horror-comedy series, Widow’s Bay, directed by Murai. While Apple TV got this new Murai project, his TV home still remains in FX.
The split highlights Murai’s growth as a creator, able to place projects across platforms and streamers.
YouTube Q1 2026 results:
$9.88bn ad revenue
↑ 10.7% from last year
340M paid subs (including Google)
12.7% Total TV Usage (Nielsen)
Flat from last quarter
We’re at an interesting inflection point with YouTube and, by proxy, Google. Right now, they haven’t quite mainlined their Gemini AI tools into YouTube, but they’re getting close. We’d love to see a breakdown from these platforms of how much human-generated vs. non-human-generated content is being watched.
Amazon Q1 2026.
Amazon does not release individual numbers for Prime Video. Here is the most relevant figure from their earnings call and the delta from Q1 2025:
$17.2bn - Overall ad services revenue
↑ 24%
Boosted by Prime Video’s ad-supported tier
Their net sales were $181.5bn. $30.3bn profit.
Mini Tidbit:
ESPN and Roku are expanding their partnership with an unexpected third party, The CW. With live sports programming a new part of The CW’s lineup, those events will stream on the ESPN App, while the network’s scripted and unscripted shows will be available the next day on the Roku Channel.
Amazon has had early internal discussions about rebooting The Apprentice. Don Jr.’s name was offered as a possible host.
Trailer:
Universal Pictures’ One Night Only
Dir: Will Gluck (Anyone But You)
Cast: Callum Turner, Monica Barbaro
Release: August 7
HBO Documentary THE A LIST: 15 STORIES FROM ASIAN AND PACIFIC DIASPORAS
Cast: Sandra Oh, Connie Chung, Kumail Nanjiani, Bowen Yang
Release: May 13
First look:
Netflix’s The Whisper Man
Cast: Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, and Robert De Niro
Director: James Ashcroft (Coming Home in the Dark)
Prod co: AGBO
Release: August 28th
Apple TV’s Trying S5
Release: July 8
Netflix’s Ransom Canyon S2
Release: July 23
Welsh Indie feature A Visit to Grandpa’s
Dir: D.J. Caruso (Disturbia)
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Release: TBD
Release Dates:
Indian action-thriller Toxic
Cast: Yash
Release: June 4
Prime Video’s Shakti
Cast: Laxmi Bardewa, Menuka Pradhan
Release: May 22
Run time:
Universal Pictures’ The Odyssey
Dir: Christopher Nolan
Runtime: “shorter than Oppenheimer.”
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Two of Hollywood’s favorite Chrises in one film. Chris Evans is replacing Josh Brolin in crime-thriller My Darling California, written and directed by Elijah Bynum (Magazine Dreams).
This is the first time that Evans will be in a film with Hollywood’s other famous Chris – Chris Pine.
The film will show how a single crime weaves together the lives of different people in Los Angeles in 1980, from a famous TV host down to two small-time crooks. Both Evans and Pine have major charisma, so maybe they’ll be the TV hosts, which would be fun.
Also starring Jessica Chastain, Mikey Madison, Charles Melton (Beef S2), and Don Cheadle.
Big congrats to Bynum after his heart-rushing Sundance stunner, Magazine Dreams, got bought by Searchlight, then dumped due to Jonathan Majors’ involvement.
Tidbits:
Dennis Quaid is headed to the race track. Yesterday, we wrote about Amazon developing a new NASCAR-centered show, and now AMC is following in their footsteps with the greenlight of Thunder Road. Quaid will play a towering figure in his family’s racing empire whose legacy runs as deep as the Southern country roots that shaped them.
Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) joins indie drama Hal. Directed by Mark Williams (Dir: Blacklight starring Liam Neeson), the cast includes Alexander Ludwig (Vikings) and Emma Roberts. The film is inspired by the true story behind the founding of the humanitarian organization Convoy of Hope. No info on Patrick’s role.
Apple TV’s The Morning Show has expanded their newsroom by adding Jeff Wilbusch (Something Very Bad is Going to Happen) in a recurring role in its fifth season. He will play the stern head of Protective Services for the news division.
Bryce Dallas Howard is getting spooky alongside Aaron Paul in the new feature Anything But Ghosts from writer-director Curry Barker (Obsession). From horror titans Blumhouse and Roy Lee’s (Barbarian) Spooky Pictures, the plot follows two phony paranormal investigators who encounter some real spirits. Sounds like my sophomore year at college.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
This year’s Cannes Film Festival will feature three onstage conversations from industry greats Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchett, and Tilda Swinton. The Lord of the Rings director will receive an honorary Palme d’Or, with Blanchett, a former Jury president (2018), and Swinton, an almost twenty-year regular at the festival, will each discuss their careers.
Cannes Market:
Foxfinder
Int. Sales Rep: Cornerstone Films (Sting), Logical Pictures Group (Revenge)
Dir: Aoife McArdle (Severance)
Cast: Tessa Thompson (Creed), Owen Cooper (Adolescence), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear)
Prod. Comp: Elation Pictures (The Damned), Rabbit Track Pictures (Rogue Agent)
Synopsis:
The lives of Jude and Sam, a grieving couple clinging to routine and survival, are upended when William, a coldly devout government “foxfinder,” arrives at their struggling farm with a mission to root out the designated enemy – the fox. As paranoia festers and absurd regulations tighten their grip, suspicion replaces love, and truth itself begins to warp.
Nice Fish
Int. Sales Rep: Palisades Park Pictures (The Magic Faraway Tree)
Dir/Wri: Mark Rylance (directorial debut)
Cast: Michelle Williams, Jim Lichtscheidl (A Serious Man), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)
Prod. Comp: Shakespeare Road Productions
Also, check out this trio of Cannes market horrors, plus a doc on Vanilla Ice.
TECH SECTION
In some glorious irony, a film about the fall of man is being made using a tool that could lead to the destruction of humanity. That is Paradise Lost, with Roger Avary (co-writer: Pulp Fiction) directing. K5 is selling at the Cannes Market. AI will be used in a way that doesn’t affect the performance.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Making a pivot from documentary filmmaking, Lorna Tucker’s Bare is not just her narrative feature debut but a deeply personal project.
Starring Bridgerton breakout Florence Hunt alongside Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) and Colin Firth, the film is based on the British filmmaker’s own memoir of the same name.
The coming of age story follows a young runaway (Hunt) who finds her tribe and simultaneously reclaims her sense of self.
Tucker’s previous documentaries, like the Sundance title Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (2018) and her advocacy for homelessness film Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son (2024), spotlight marginalized lives, humble beginnings, and the resilience required to navigate them. Tucker’s own experience as a former addict on the streets of London has long informed her work, but will now be at the forefront in Bare.
Production has started in London.
David Permut is having a renaissance. His latest film, Lottery, is in development at Searchlight.
Headlined by a fun pairing. The Peanut Butter Falcon’s Zack Gottsagen plays a man with Down syndrome once again on the run, but this time after winning the lottery and with his charming new friend, played by Keke Palmer (I Love Boosters), by his side.
The new road trip comedy will begin production shortly.
Permut is responsible for producing the biggest film out of Sundance this year, Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, which A24 picked up for $10M+. Permut also produced Twinless and Sian Heder’s (CODA) new movie, Being Heumann.
Previously, he produced Hacksaw Ridge and Face/Off.
Mini Tidbits:
A24 UK is looking for Boyfriend Material. The studio has optioned the TV rights to Alexis Hall’s viral 2022 novel that follows two messy, but polar opposite twentysomethings whose humorous enemies-to-lovers connection turns into a heartfelt romance. The book is the first in the trilogy preceding Husband Material and Father Material.
Canal+ is riding on the Heated Rivalry wave. Canal+ Distribution is bringing the Viu Originals Boys’ Love catalog to the U.S. The Thai slate includes The Rebound (2024), 4 Minutes (2024), and Shadow (2023). Originating in Japan, Boy’s Love or “BL” centers on male romantic relationships and has evolved into a major cross-Asian genre over the past two decades.
Mini Tidbit:
Shudder’s Hallowarrior
Electric’s O Horizon
BBC’s The Northumbria Mysteries
All those indie/international tidbits and more here.
ON THIS DAY
2004. Mean Girls is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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