Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Peacock’s spinoff, Paramount’s Side, and Buffalo Bill.
Let’s go!
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Peacock’s The Paper puts deadlines over dundies.
While there are a lot of skeptical eyes curious about The Office spinoff, the freshly dropped trailer (below) shows that The Paper is its own thing.
The Peacock original is a new workplace comedy set in the offices of the struggling Toledo Truth Teller, a dying local newspaper clinging to relevance in the digital age. (The paper is so bad it ranks lower than toilet seat protectors in the “paper product hierarchy”). What ties it to the cult classic sitcom is that the doc crew who followed Carell/Krasinski/Fischer around for years has found its new subject.
Domhnall Gleeson (About Time, Ex Machina) stars as the straight-man Ned Sampson, the newly hired, idealistic editor-in-chief who is painfully self-aware, listens more than he talks, and is not there to be liked but to fix their dire circumstances. (Which ironically might make him more likable). Less Michael Scott, more Jim Halpert.
Yes, there are annoyed looks to the camera, a cast full of offbeat characters, and even the return of original Office accountant Oscar Martinez (played by Oscar Núñez), yet The Paper feels less like fan service and more like a timely evolution of the mockumentary format. In true 2025 fashion, the show captures a media world where physical publications are struggling, journalism takes a back seat, and the truth is negotiable.
While countless international remakes have simply translated The Office into new languages and settings, most have stuck closely to the original formula:
Stromberg (German Office)
Le Bureau (French Office)
Kontoret (Swedish Office)
El Gerente (Argentina’s Office)
Kancl (Czech Republic’s Office)
What remains to be seen is if The Paper can hold its own in the canon of spinoffs of iconic TV shows like Better Call Saul (Breaking Bad spinoff) or Frasier (Cheers spinoff).
The Paper will premiere only on Peacock on Sept. 4th.
For More:
The Paper trailer.
The original Ricky Gervais UK The Office trailer.
Swedish Office trailer.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Warner Bros. plans to release 12–14 films/year.
WBD’s Studio division up 55%. And streaming profits rise (full breakdown).
Lionsgate's film revenue drops.
Paramount, a Skydance Corporation Executive pay packages revealed.
High Side, starring Timothée Chalamet, is the first Paramount-Skydance greenlight.
Fast and Loose loses Michael Bay. Will Smith stays attached.
Hulu's Phony gets series order (starring two White Lotus actors).
Ramón Rodríguez inks new deal with 20th TV.
Dave Bautista is in final talks to play the villain in Highlander.
Chris Rock’s A24 film adds Topher Grace.
TIFF Primetime announces two Netflix shows.
NYFF Currents will show Radu Jude’s Dracula.
Independent Film Company (IFC) acquires The Plague starring Joel Edgerton.
Samuel Goldwyn picks up John C. Reilly's Buffalo Bill film Heads or Tails?
South Korea’s The Fin premieres at Locarno.
ITV orders Believe Me about John Worboys.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros. is now targeting to release 12-14 films/year after they’ve had 5 films in a row open at over $45M. And more generally dominated at the box office with a string of blockbusters and risky originals that spun gold (Sinners).
Here’s what they’re envisioning each year:
1-2 IP-based tentpoles
1-2 DC Studios
3-4 New Line Cinema (Horror/Comedy)
1-2 WB Animation
A few mid-budget films to make up the balance
Warner Bros. expects to make $2.4bn in studio profit by the end of the year.
Want the full breakdown of WBD Q2 2025 results? And a full breakdown of the Lionsgate Q1 earnings. Click here.
Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, makes its first project pick-up. The Timothée Chalamet/James Mangold (dir: A Complete Unknown) film High Side. It’s a motorcycle heist movie that we covered in depth earlier this week: https://theindustry.co/p/timothee-chalamet-and-a-motorcycle.
Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, sets pay for execs and severance for those exiting. Full breakdown: https://theindustry.co/p/skydances-leadership
David Ellison and co have big plans for the company, but we’re not getting a ton of granularity yet.
First, they’re going to merge Paramount+ and Pluto TV onto the same tech platform. Much like Disney is doing. This will create cost savings, as well as an opportunity for the advertising to command higher pricing with more unified customer data. Plus, expect plenty of uses of AI to create efficiencies, etc.
Read David Ellison's full plan here.
Will Smith and Michael Bay split over the film Fast and Loose: Sorry to those looking to nostalgia bomb their past collaboration on the Bad Boys franchise.
Though it's now looking for a director, the film follows a man with no memory who discovers he’s been living dual lives as a crime kingpin and undercover CIA agent.
Now Bay can put his full heart into the entire collapse of civilization… I mean his Skibidi toilet franchise.
Hulu’s gives series order to Phony, starring two White Lotus actors (Connie Britton and Sam Nivola). The Dir/Wri is Nick Paley (Writer: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On).
Synopsis:
After waking up from a freak car accident, Sonny discovers that his mother has been replaced by an impostor.
Although Britton and Nivola were part of different seasons on White Lotus, we could see their inseparable chemistry in a flash. Nivola had a wild co-dependent and anti-co-dependent relationship with his siblings in White Lotus S3.
Tidbits:
Eddie Murphy will star in Imagine Entertainment’s Playas Ball, an action comedy about the undead directed by Kyle Newacheck (Happy Gilmore 2). Imagine is known for prestige dramas (Thirteen Lives, American Gangster, Friday Night Lights). But Eddie Murphy is bringing them back into comedy; the two have a long, storied history, including Tower Heist, The Nutty Professor, and Bowfinger.
Following the success of 20th Television’s Will Trent, its lead actor and EP, Ramón Rodríguez, has signed off on a new multi-year deal with the studio. Rodríguez will develop and produce TV across cable and streaming for Disney Entertainment Television platforms. The ABC and Hulu series not only sees Rodríguez as the titular star, but in addition to producing, will direct several episodes in its upcoming fourth season.
Comcast’s NBCUniversal spinoff company, Versant, has brought on Erin Calhoun, former Paramount TV communications exec, as SVP of Entertainment, Sports Communications. MLB exec Steve Arocho rounds out the Versant communications team as the new VP of Corporate Communications.
BecksN’Brats Films has acquired TV rights to Sariah Wilson’s Ancient Greece romantasy novel A Tribute of Fire. It's the first of three books, so we could see a few seasons in the future.
Disney Jr. is teaming up again with Marvel to launch a brand-new preschool series, Marvel Avengers: Mightiest Friends. Now, kids can fall in love with the world of Marvel straight out of the womb. Airing in 2027.
ABC’s first comedy pilot order of the year is Do You Want Kids?, a single-camera sitcom from CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star and creator Rachel Bloom. The sitcom follows a husband and wife, who in one universe have a baby and in another do not.
Kim Taylor-Coleman (casting director: Highest 2 Lowest, BlacKkKlansman) will serve as the Academy Foundation president. Lynette Howell Taylor (newly elected president of the AMPAS, Producer A Star is Born) will now also join the Academy Museum Board of Trustees. Check out the full list of Academy Officers here.
Derrick Kardos, acclaimed graphic designer on films like Black Swan and The Departed, died at 53. His artistry was unmatched.
Peacock’s Love Island USA hits #1 on Nielsen’s streaming charts for the first time with 1.9bn minutes watched in a week.
Trailers:
Prime’s The Runarounds series
Release: Sept 1
Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club
Dir: Chris Columbus (Home Alone)
Cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley
Release: Aug 28th
Prime’s 007: Road to a Million (S2)
Host: Brian Cox
Release: Aug 22nd
First Look:
Netflix’s A House of Dynamite
Dir: Kathryn Bigelow
Cancellations:
Disney+’s Goosebumps (cancelled after S2)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Dave Bautista is in final discussions to play the ruthless immortal villain in Amazon MGM Studios’ Highlander reboot.
The part is pretty wild. Originated by Clancy Brown (most recently appearing as the other crime boss in HBO’s The Penguin). There’s a sick, dead-eyed perversion in his original portrayal of the villain (clip).
Bautista thrives in these types of twisted hyperbolic manifestations of evil (remember him in the eye-popping scene in Bond?!).
If Bautista comes on board, he’ll star opposite Russell Crowe and Henry Cavill.
Eva Longoria has been cast as Maia Reficco’s (Do Revenge) protective mother in The Last Sunrise, Amazon MGM’s film adaptation of author Anna Todd’s bestselling young romance novel.
This marks another project in a series of collaborations with Longoria and Amazon, who stars in the just dropped Eddie Murphy comedy The Pickup.
The Last Sunrise will begin filming later this month.
Multiple cast additions:
The Boys 1950s-set murder mystery prequel Vought Rising has added more to its cast in undisclosed roles:
Mason Dye (Stranger Things)
Kiki Layne (The Old Guard 2)
Though The Boys will be ending soon, it's exciting to hear the world will live on.
3 big celebrity adds to drug comedy Toad:
Howie Mandel (Host: Deal or No Deal)
Bobby Lee (Mad TV)
Caroline Rhea (Sabrina the Teenage Witch)
Logline: Two hapless friends ingest psychedelic toad venom, sparking a bizarre desert adventure.
Mini Tidbits:
Fox’s upcoming hitman series Memory of a Killer has added two series regulars set to join Patrick Dempsey as the aforementioned hitman. Yellowjackets’ Peter Gadiot will play a local police detective, and Daniel David Stewart (Reacher) will play the son-in-law of Dempsey’s Angelo.
Cuba Gooding Jr. plays a tough Texas judge in the modern-day western The Madness of Judge Jeremiah Doherty. The film centers on Gooding Jr.’s character, a judge, who tracks down a cartel after they kidnap his wife.
Jack Champion (that one human guy in Avatar 2) joins Julia Hart’s Netflix comedy Don’t Say Good Luck, starring Sunny Sandler, Melanie Lynskey, Steve Buscemi, and more. It looks like a high school musical comedy with a big helping of drama.
Chris Rock’s untitled new A24 film adds Topher Grace to its ensemble. The That '70s Show actor’s role is undisclosed, with the film set to follow a gifted actress who gets a chance at a career comeback. It is in early production.
Jon Miyahara, the actor behind the mostly mute but sassy Brett in NBC’s Superstore (clip), has passed away at 83.
FESTIVALS
TIFF goes hard on TV series. In their Primetime line-up, they’re premiering some shows that caught my eye:
The Lowdown
Creator/EP/Wri/Dir: Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs)
Star/EP: Ethan Hawke
Network: FX
Premiere Date: September 23
Synopsis:
The story of a man who knows too much.
Wayward
Creator/Showrunner: Mae Martin (Netflix’s Feel Good)
Star: Toni Collette, Mae Martin
Network: Netflix
Premiere Date: September 25
Teaser - full David Lynch vibes
Synopsis:
A bucolic but sinister town explores the insidious intricacies of the troubled teen industry, and the eternal struggle of the next generation.
Black Rabbit
Creator/Showrunner: Zach Baylin (Writer: King Richard, The Order) and Kate Susman (EP: The Order)
Star: Jude Law, Jason Bateman, Odessa Young
Network: Netflix
Premiere Date: September 18
Synopsis:
When the owner of a New York City hotspot allows his turbulent brother back in his life, he opens the door to escalating dangers that threaten to bring down everything he's built.
A few more that caught my eye:
Max’s first Italian-scripted original Portobello, a series from Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio (Good Morning, Night). The new drama will tell the story of Italian TV host Enzo Tortora, who was a victim of one of Italy’s most notorious travesties of justice.
We’re also excited for Sameer Nair’s Gandhi. Don’t know who Nair is? Well, he’s responsible for much of the top TV in India, including the Indian version of The Office.
Fremantle has Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League with interviews from Steph Curry and Obama.
BBC Studios’ Reunion is about a deaf guy who commits a horrible crime but is let into a much-changed world.
Full line-up here.
NYFF Currents section highlights:
Radu Jude’s Dracula
Cannes Acid’s Drunken Noodles
Trương Minh Quý’s Hair, Paper, Water…
and a Lord of the Flies-esque film.
Full lineup here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Charlie Polinger’s horror film The Plague, starring Joel Edgerton, was just bought by Independent Film Company (formerly IFC).
Synopsis:
A socially awkward tween endures the ruthless hierarchy at a water polo camp, his anxiety spiraling into psychological turmoil over the summer.
Edgerton plays the maniacal camp counselor to great effect. The film premiered at Cannes at Un Certain Regard.
I got absorbed into Polinger’s SXSW short film Fuck Me, Richard, which is a magnetizing long-distance romance that transforms into a very specific type of horror film. There’s no blood or guts, but I was devastated by the twist (full short).
Samuel Goldwyn just got US rights for Heads or Tails? which stars John C. Reilly as Buffalo Bill.
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