Daniel Day-Lewis is Back
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on Daniel Day-Lewis’ new film.
In The Industry News, HBO’s double, Amazon’s triple, and Spy Games.
Actor Spotlight: Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl. Millie Bobby Brown’s Electric State. And Ethan Hawke knows too much.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, Clint Eastwood’s 42nd miracle. Mike Judge’s Truckin.
Let’s go!
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Daniel Day-Lewis can’t stay idle.
He had retired from acting in 2017 and went off to do whatever Day-Lewis does (cobbling?) until yesterday when he was unexpectedly seen on the set of Anemone.
That film is the directorial debut of his son Ronan, who co-wrote the script with him.
Here’s the teaser synopsis:
The intricate relationships between fathers, sons and brothers, and the dynamics of familial bonds.
The film co-stars Sean Bean (LOTR/GOT) as an ex-soldier and Samantha Morton (Minority Report).
No other plot details are known.
Day-Lewis has won the Best Actor Oscar three times for performances that have been all consuming:
My Left Foot (1990)
As the constantly overlooked Christy Brown, a man born with cerebral palsy with only the control of his left foot, dedicating himself to writing and art
There Will Be Blood (2008)
As the vile, selfish, but unendingly proud oil man, Daniel Plainview played with a burning passion of a madman
Lincoln (2013)
As the stately, grave President who filled up the room with his gravitas
Day-Lewis has retired from acting twice:
1997 - 2000
2017 - 2024
The catalyst for his last retirement was PT Anderson’s Phantom Thread (2017), where he played a dressmaker with a death wish.
Day-Lewis explained:
“Before making the film, I didn’t know I was going to stop acting. I do know that Paul and I laughed a lot before we made the movie. And then we stopped laughing because we were both overwhelmed by a sense of sadness. That took us by surprise: We didn’t realize what we had given birth to. It was hard to live with. And still is.”
Day-Lewis consumes himself in each performance, burning out his fuel like some sort of celestial object.
In his last interview given right as he retired in 2017, he described this process:
“There is nothing more beautiful in all the arts than something that appears simple. And if you try to do any goddamn thing in your life, you know how impossible it is to achieve that effortless simplicity.”
Day-Lewis is a true artist, and I can’t wait to see if his new role crests the pantheon of his great performances.
Anemone is being produced by Focus Features and Plan B. No release date has been set.
For More:
Click to see a BTS image of Daniel Day-Lewis on the set of his latest movie:
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
HBO is developing a remake of the successful British sitcom Back with Veep writer Simon Blackwell, who also wrote the original 2017 Channel 4 series.
The show stars Peep Show actors David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
Here’s the synopsis of the 2017 series:
Stephen (Mitchell) tried to take over his recently deceased father’s family business, but his plans were foiled by the unexpected return of his estranged foster brother, Andrew (Webb).
The series is currently waiting for a green light.
In other HBO news, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the creators behind Industry, signed a new three-year overall deal beginning January 2025. Industry originally premiered in 2020, with the duo serving as creators, writers, executive producers, and directors, making their directorial debut in the show’s third season (trailer), which came to an end this past weekend.
HBO has also renewed the sex and drug fueled drama for a fourth season.
Disney’s major changes. ABC and Hulu are combining their scripted drama and comedy departments. Simran Sethi will assume the role of president for the combined scripted divisions.
In addition, ABC Signature (High Potential, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy) will close and be combined with 20th Television. The current head of ABC Signature, Tracy Underwood, will exit but maintain her overall producing deal with the studio. Meanwhile, 20th Television president Karey Burke will take over.
Thirty employees were laid off, including Erin Wehrenberg, SVP of Comedy Programming, ABC.
The president of Disney Television Group Craig Erwich stated in a memo:
Today, we are announcing some important organizational changes that will bring our linear and streaming creative teams together and establish a one-stop shop for our creative partners. This is designed to maximize one of our distinct advantages, which is the ability to launch content on both linear and streaming.
Disney recently laid off 300 people from its legal, HR, and Finance team.
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Tidbit:
American Horror Stories, a spinoff of Ryan Murphy’s and Brad Fulchuk’s award-winning anthology series American Horror Story, has just dropped a teaser trailer for its next season, which will feature a different story based around a classic scary trope for each of its stand-alone episodes. Its star-studded cast includes Henry Winkler (Barry), The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli, Victor Garber (Argo), and Disney’s Debby Ryan can all be seen in the new spooky show only on Hulu starting Oct. 15th.
Amazon’s triple:
Amazon, Skydance Television, and CBS Studios are looking to expand the Reacher universe with a new spinoff series that will follow actress Maria Sten’s Frances Neagley. Sten’s Neagley is a fan favorite character, private investigator, and former military colleague of Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson). Show creator Nick Santora’s second season of Reacher (trailer) was the #1 title on Prime Video across all series and movies its opening weekend with its third season currently in production. Santora and Stein’s upcoming untitled project does not yet have a release date.
Shortly after Prime Video greenlit a Reacher spinoff series, the streamer also announced it’s adapting author Elle Kennedy’s popular Off Campus book series into a new show. The series consists of five books, each depicting a different, tumultuous college-aged romance. Her 2015 novel, The Deal, is said to be the focus of the first season.
The breakout star of Netflix’s Outer Banks, Madelyn Cline, and the lead of the CW show Riverdale is headlining a new romantic drama, The Map that Leads to You, from Amazon MGM Studios. A European vacation turns unexpected love connection, the feature is adapted from J.P. Monninger’s 2017 novel of the same name. Led by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström, most notably behind the heartwrenching What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), it is set to direct from a script written by Leslie Bohem (Shut Eye) and Vera Herbet (This is Us).
MGM+’s western drama Billy The Kid has been renewed for a third and final season. While a release date has yet to be announced, the show’s titular actor, Tom Blyth, will be reprising his role in the upcoming final eight-episode run.
Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, creators of Ghosts (CBS Sitcom), are developing In Case of Emergency, a Netflix animated series set in a British hospital. Produced by Big Talk Studios and Blue Zoo Animation, the project is apparently influenced by Family Guy.
It’s official Scream fans! Announced by returning franchise star Neve Campbell and director Kevin Williamson, Scream 7 is premiering worldwide on February 27th, 2026 from Spyglass Media and Paramount.
HBO’s The Franchise - trailer. This slapstick comedy show, centering on a film production going horribly wrong, is less satisfying, especially if you just watched the Saturday Night trailer. Oddly, The Franchise was co-created by Sam Mendes, who is known for his typically quite serious films (1917, Revolutionary Road, Skyfall, Road to Perdition). However, both Skyfall and American Beauty have wry humor.
The Franchise streams October 6th.
DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation have greenlit Dynamic Duo, an animated film about Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, two of a generation of Batman's sidekicks, Robin and later Nightwing. Directed by Arthur Mintz, this team-up movie will use momo animation, a mixture of puppetry, stop motion, and CGI elements.
Check out this cool demo of Momo animation on threads.
Spy games. CAA has sued Range Media Partners for stealing its trade secrets and talent.
Here’s a tidbit of what CAA is alleging in their filing:
“Range is an unlicensed talent agency built on deceit. Seeking a shortcut to success, Range’s initial founder, Peter Micelli (a former CAA literary agent and CAA member), found four highly-paid CAA leaders to act as his accomplices: posing as loyal CAA members, sitting shoulder to shoulder in confidential CAA meetings about clients and business, all while covertly working to benefit Range and themselves, and to harm CAA.”
One of the core arguments is that Range, a management company, is a defacto agency which bars it from certain practices such as A+E Networks acquiring a stake in the company.
Robert Watts, the British producer behind Indiana Jones, died at 86 in East Sussex. Watts worked closely with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, contributing to iconic films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Star Wars, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
New Squid Game Season 2 teaser. Another bunch of tantalization. We’ll all have to wait until the Netflix premiere on Dec. 26.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
The wildly seductive Babygirl (A24), starring Nicole Kidman as a CEO who likes to be told what to do in and out of the bedroom by her intern Harris Dickinson, has just dropped a delicious trailer. The film will be released on Christmas.
It’s a role that Kidman has been playing for the last 30 years, as we detail here: https://theindustry.co/p/nicole-kidman-babygirl-premier
This time, it feels a little different as this power dynamic seduction is Babygirl’s full focus (as opposed to the inciting incident in Eyes Wide Shut). And the stakes feel very high (as opposed to A Family Affair).
We can’t wait for this Christmas present.
The Electric State, starring Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) and Chris Pratt, just released some out-of-this-world images. The Russo Brothers direct with the film slated to release on Netflix in 2025.
Towing the line between speculative sci-fi and old fashioned buddy comedy, here is the Official Synopsis:
An orphaned teenager traverses the American West with a sweet but mysterious robot and an eccentric drifter in search of her younger brother.
Brown will play Michelle, a young woman who is looking for her brother, whom she once believed to be dead (first look image of her in the role).
The 20-year-old shot to stardom in Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things (S4 trailer) as the shaved-head, ego-loving, powerful little Eleven. The long-awaited and much anticipated fifth and final season will premiere on the streamer in 2025.
In The Electric State, Pratt stars as Keats, a veteran of war who became a long-haul trucker, engaged in a smuggling operation with one of his former enemies - a construction machine named Herman (voiced by fellow Marvel actor Anthony Mackie). First look image of him in the role.
Originally adapted from Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag’s 2018 novel, of the same name, the robot uprising adventure film seems within both the Russo brothers and their two lead’s range but also a potentially fun film for the time in between time more long-term projects.
Billy Crystal is not known for supernatural horror. But now he is diving head first into the genre leading Apple TV+’s Before.
Here’s the official synopsis:
After tragically losing his wife to suicide, child psychiatrist Eli Adler encounters a troubled young boy who seems to have a haunting connection to Eli's past.
The trailer skips the cookie-cutter pre-suicide world and just tosses you into Crystal’s depression and grief made manifest by a sinister child.
This is a bit darker fair than we would expect from one of the kings of comedy. Known much more for his turns in romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally (1989, still), and Forget Paris (1995, poster), not to mention the voice of Mike Wazowski in Disney's Monsters Inc. series (2001, the little green eyeball guy). Though the spooky supernatural element may be a bit out of character, Crystal has already had experience playing a shrink before, to mob boss De Niro in:
Though he is a master of harnessing his own neuroticism and channeling it into humor, it will be interesting to see how Crystal deals with the less funny topic of grief.
Before releases on Apple TV+ on October 25th.
Tidbits:
John Amos, known for his roles in Good Times and Roots, passed away at 84 on August 21, 2024. A beloved actor, Amos left a lasting legacy in television and film. He will be missed.
Ethan Hawke knows too much. He stars in a pilot that FX is now turning into a series.
Here’s the current synopsis:
Tulsa noir about a guy (Hawke) who knows too much.
The creator is Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), who also just won a MacArthur Genius grant. The series co-stars Keith David, Tim Blake Nelson, Tracy Letts, and Kyle Maclachlan.
No word on production dates for the series.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
After watching a deluge of trailers each day, I’m rarely impressed. But Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 trailer was genuinely hypnotic.
The story follows Nicholas Hoult, who accidentally hits a deer while drunk driving one night. Smash cut to a year later, and he gets jury duty for a case about a man killing his gf one year ago. Hoult begins to suspect that he may have something to do with the killing.
That’s as much as the trailer gives away, and there’s a high-pitched tension and one overexposed shot that was enthralling.
All this points to the fact that at age 94, director Clint Eastwood still has it. The film, his 42nd, will premiere at AFI (closing night film). The film stars Toni Collette, Nicholas Hoult, and Kiefer Sutherland.
Warner Bros. is releasing in November.
Mike Judge’s long-awaited film Automated Trucking is set to begin production in November, with Alec Berg co-producing alongside Picturestart. Judge will direct, the comedy follows a young engineer who must prove the viability of his fully automated trucking system by driving cross-country with a seasoned trucker to present his invention to the International Truckers expo.
Judges’ last feature was over 14 years ago:
Extract (2009) Trailer
Other Judge Features are classics in their own way:
No planned release date for Automated Trucking just yet but the script is currently being written by Rob Turbovsky and Matteo Borghese, based on an original idea from Judge and Berg.
Tidbit:
Director John Crowley (We Live in Time, Goldfinch, Brooklyn) is developing Five with TriStar Pictures.
Here’s the official synopsis for the psychological thriller:
A two-hander and is said to center on a recent widow who becomes obsessed with the actress of a one-woman show.
Crowley’s latest film, A24’s We Live in Time, stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield (trailer).
MSNBC aquired Errol Morris's powerful documentary Seperated.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Family separations traced through explosive interviews with whistleblowing officials and artful narrative vignettes tracing one migrant family’s plight. Together, they reveal that the cruelty at the heart of this policy was its very purpose. Against this backdrop— with hundreds of families still separated years later.
The film played out of competition at Venice. It will release theatrically October 4th. Here’s an official clip.
Sony Pictures Worldwide acquires Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, for Asia, Africa, Latin America, France, Scandinavia, Greece and more. The film won the Special Jury Prize for the ensemble cast at the San Sebastian Film Festival and was also just picked up for North American distribution by Roadside Attractions.
No word yet on the release date.
Music by John Williams documentary (dir: Laurent Bouzereau) will open the AFI Fest on October 23, 2024, celebrating the legendary composer’s career. After a limited theatrical run, it debuts on Disney+ on November 1, 2024.
The trailer is a shot of nostalgia featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
ON THIS DAY
1957. The Bridge on the River Kwai, directed by David Lean, is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1958).
See you Thursday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.