Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
David Fincher’s Document, Amazon MGM’s Field, and Running.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
More than 1,000 filmmakers sign a letter opposing Paramount-WBD merger.
Amazon MGM is developing Playing the Field, a soccer comedy series.
Roblox hit 99 Nights in the Forest is being adapted into a feature film.
Robert Rodriguez will direct the original Paramount Animation Christmas movie.
Talia Ryder lands a major breakout role in Prime’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith (S2).
Nick Jonas has joined Netflix’s untitled Ari Sandel rom-com.
Jonathan Pryce has been cast in the ITV drama Mavis Eccleston.
Apple’s Running casts Brian Tyree Henry.
Cannes Critics’ Week has unveiled its lineup.
Dave Boyle will direct Paramount’s 18Hz’s untitled sci-fi horror feature.
Neon has promoted Joey Monteiro & Alex Altschuler as it expands its marketing.
Mubi has acquired its first Mexican title with Files (Moscas).
Friday’s correct answer: Willem Dafoe did not play Nosferatu.
34% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
David Fincher. Denis Villeneuve. Yorgos Lanthimos. Joaquin Phoenix. Kristen Stewart. Are part of over 1000 filmmakers and actors across the film industry who signed a letter opposing the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
Their biggest concerns are:
Consolidation of the media landscape, e.g. fewer projects getting made
Fewer studio buyers
Fewer jobs
Fewer choices for the audience
Read the full letter here.
Paramount has responded that their new company will:
“Greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers.”
Purely, on a film creativity side, Warner Bros. had an incredible 2025 with a bold bet on original films.
Paramount’s 2026 slate of 15 films includes 7 sequels (Scream 7, Jack Ryan: Ghost War, Jackass: Best and Last, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, Avatar: Aang The Last Airbender, Focker In-Law, and The Angry Birds Movie 3).
Tidbits:
Amazon MGM Studios is developing Playing the Field, a comedy series based on the sports romance novel Cleat Cute. With this pickup, Amazon is leaning into both the global frenzy surrounding this year’s World Cup and its strong track record of book-to-screen adaptations like the fantasy series The Wheel of Time or popular YA romance The Summer I Turned Pretty. Writer Sarah Tapscott, known for New Girl and The Sex Lives of College Girls, is on board as showrunner with Playing the Field set to follow the messy, exciting lives of four professional women soccer players in New Orleans.
Mini Tidbits:
A Roblox horror movie. 20th Century Studios is developing 99 Nights in the Forest, one of the most popular Roblox games, into a feature film. 99 Nights in the Forest is an action-survival game where players must endure 99 nights in a haunted forest. It garnered nearly 26bn lifetime visits and reached an all-time peak player count of 14.2M.
Robert Rodriguez’s Christmas movie? Paramount Animation brings on Rodriguez to write, produce, and direct an original Christmas film, The Naughty List. It combines holiday themes with a modern, next-gen approach. Rodriguez is no stranger to making family-friendly films, having directed films in the Spy Kids franchise.
Trailblazing puppeteer Sid Krofft (Land of the Lost, NBC’s H.R. Pufnstuf) has passed away at 96. Alongside his brother, Marty, the imaginative pair created a number of classic kids’ shows merging the era’s psychedelic style with Saturday morning cartoons. He’ll now be reunited with his brother.
Renewals:
ABC’s Will Trent (for S5)
ABC’s The Rookie (for S9)
Peacock’s The Burbs (for S2)
Trailers:
Netflix’s Nemesis (series)
Co-Creator: Courtney A. Kemp (Starz’s Power)
Release: May 14
Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie (series)
Release: July 9
Netflix’s The Boroughs (series)
Cast: Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman
Release: May 21
Ice Cream Man
Dir: Eli Roth
Release: August 7th
Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping
Release Nov 20
“Go out there and make them remember you.”
Franchise director Francis Lawrence returns for the prequel film, which not only offers a look at younger versions of the beloved characters from previous installments but also introduces a more unfamiliar, retro aesthetic in contrast to the cold, industrial look of the original tetralogy. It’s bursting with color!
Release date:
Neon’s A Place in Hell
Dir: Chloe Domont (Fair Play)
Cast: Michelle Williams, Andrew Scott, and Daisy Edgar-Jones
Release: Dec 25th
Variance Films’ O Horizon
Cast: Maria Bakalova (The Apprentice) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck)
BBC’s Twenty Twenty Six
US release on Tubi: May 1
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Talia Ryder finally gets her big break moment. She has just been cast as Mrs. Smith in Prime’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 2.
If you don’t know Ryder’s work, just watch The American; she goes full Black Swan. It’s like Whiplash for ballet, and Ryder is on point, flexing herself to her physical and mental limits in the pursuit of perfection (trailer).
The actress has been making a name for herself ever since her feature debut in Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020). Since then, she’s been in:
Dumb Money (2023)
Trepidatious but inspired college student
Little Death (2024)
Suicidal yet lively LA warrior hipster who goes through hell twice over
With this role, she’ll get to play something slicker, which is a fun change for her, but also will bring a tremendous amount of depth. Mr. Smith is Mark Eydelshteyn (Anora). Wild pair!
Production is kicking off in LA.
In between albums, Nick Jonas (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) has really been buffing up his acting resume.
Jonas is joining Netflix’s upcoming untitled romcom from The DUFF director Ari Sandel. The film follows a perpetual bachelor whose carefree life is turned upside down when he suddenly inherits his cousin’s baby. Things take even more of a turn when the child’s godmother shows up, because nothing says romance like a custody battle.
His casting comes not long after the SXSW premiere of Lionsgate’s Power Ballad, where he played a version of himself with great abandon.
The new untitled film is in pre-production.
Tidbits:
Two-time Tony winner and Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes) has been cast in the ITV drama Mavis Eccleston opposite Downton Abbey’s Penelope Wilton in the titular role. A modern Romeo and Juliet with a true crime twist, Pryce will play the terminally ill husband and disappointed father who makes a suicide pact with his wife, with his subsequent death leading to her unexpected murder trial. As Prince Philip in the final two seasons of The Crown, he certainly had a strained marriage, but nothing quite this bad.
Apple is keeping Brian Tyree Henry (Dope Thief, Causeway) close, reuniting with the actor for Running, a new underdog sports drama from director Gavin O’Connor (The Accountant). While Henry’s role remains under wraps, Running centers on (you guessed it) a running prodigy who uses his talent to outrun a troubled home life.
Casting Tidbits:
Erin Kellyman (28 Years Later)
Richard Harmon (Final Destination Bloodlines)
Josh Charles (Best Medicine)
Read here.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Cannes Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la Critique) drops its selection. The parallel selection of the Cannes Film Festival focuses on first and second-time feature directors.
There are seven competition films, including a few that caught our eye:
Dua
Dir: Blerta Basholli (Hive)
Synopsis:
Prishtina, Kosovo, late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her peers and within her changing body.
If you haven’t seen Hive, it’s a must.
In Waves (opening film)
Dir: Phuong Mai Nguyen
EP: David Levine (Nickel Boys)
Sales Rep: CAA
Synopsis:
AJ, meets Kristen in high school. Kristen is passionate about surfing. AJ, Kristen’s life starts falling apart, shattered by illness.
Check out the full selection here.
Club Kid, playing at Un Certain Regard, gets sales reps. UTA comes on for domestic, while Charades picks up international.
Also, here’s the Cannes Acid selection.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
East will meet the west in Dave Boyle’s new horror film. Dave Boyle (Surrogate Valentine) will direct Paramount’s 18Hz’s untitled sci-fi horror feature.
The film will be produced by Walter Hamada, the former president of Warner Bros’ DC Films, who served as an executive producer on popular horror films like The Conjuring (2013) and It (2017) while at New Line Cinema.
No info has been provided on the plot of the film, but Boyle’s latest SXSW hit, Never After Dark, gives us a hint. The film follows a Japanese traveling psychic who battles a powerful entity at a remote house. It gained critical buzz and won the Audience Award in the Midnighter section, and is a thrilling ride that nods to Japanese and South Korean horror films like Ringu (1998) and A Tale of Two Sisters (2003).
We hope to see the blend of Asian horror tropes and sci-fi madness in this new film.
Tidbits:
Neon’s already stellar marketing department sees some hires and promotions. Previous EVP Joey Monteiro has been named the new President of Worldwide Marketing. Alex Altschuler, who left A24 for Neon back in 2023, will be the President of Media. After a staggering 18 Academy Award nominations across four films, next up on Neon’s slate is the ensemble comedy I Love Boosters and the much-anticipated Adam Scott-led horror Hokum.
Weapons… part 2? Zach Cregger (Weapons) will produce a dark comedy feature, Little One. The film centers on a sudden change in a child’s behavior that threatens to tear a perfect family apart – a logline quite similar to Cregger’s breakout hit Weapons. The film will be directed by Cregger’s friend Alex Kavutskiy.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Mubi has secured its first Mexican title, Files (Moscas), with Latin American rights.
From writer-director Fernando Eimbcke (dir. Cannes’ title Duck Season), the film follows a bitter, lonely woman who rents out a room in her large complex to make ends meet. When her tenant secretly sneaks in his nine-year-old son, the woman develops an unexpected deep bond with him, changing her life.
Files is set to open the Guadalajara Film Festival later this week with a theatrical release in Mexico and the rest of Latin America in the second half of 2026.
Sadly, his film Olmo from Plan B has not found a distributor. Read our interview with him here.
Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) and Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) join the cast of BBC/MGM+’s series Legacy of Spies.
Based on John le Carré’s beloved book of the same name, the series will follow George Smiley (Matthew Macfadyen) and his espionage during the Cold War.
Stevens will play Bill Haydon, a brilliant insider of the British spy organization Circus, and Kammerer will play Hans-Dieter Mundt, a deadly Stasi enforcer.
International Tidbits:
Asia Media Alliance Group’s slate
Beta Film’s deal
CrossBorder Films launches
50th Hong Kong International Film Festival winner
Mario Adorf RIP
Read here.
ON THIS DAY
1940. Julie Christie, born in Chukua, Assam, India.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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