Denzel Can Fly
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on Denzel Washington joining the MCU.
In The Industry News: Lionsgate’s Kingdom. Disney+Bear+Alien+Powers. Bob Iger’s potential successor.
Actor Spotlight: Lupita Nyong’o goes for Nolan. Benedict Cumberbatch’s dog. Drew Starkey’s double A24.
Festivals: AFM’s Gladiator spirit animal.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight/International News: Rod Serling documentary. Lena Dunham goes infinite. Hirokazu Kore-eda heads to Netflix.
Let’s go!
Our virtual live event with two-time Oscar nominee Ross Katz (prod: Lost in Translation) on how to make a beautiful film is today at 6pm EST. Details here:
https://theindustry.co/p/ross-katz-live-event-how-to-make
Denzel Washington is reportedly joining Black Panther 3.
This would mark his entrance into the MCU, apparently the film's writer and director Ryan Coogler is writing a part for him.
We don't know the extent of this part, whether it's just a cameo or whether Denzel is joining the MCU and getting powers. With the fictional setting of Wakanda there are all sorts of possibilities for Denzel's character, but I think it would be exciting to see him play a villain.
Denzel for his part said:
“I don’t know how many more films I’m going to make, probably not that many. I want to do things that I haven’t done.”
Being a part of a big superhero epic could be a great time, not to mention the pay is apparently incredible (RDJ is returning for $100 Million). Denzel is not the only Hollywood big name that is reportedly considering suiting up. Ryan Gosling has apparently been in meetings recently, along with Zooey Deschanel, and Keke Palmer also in talks. There is even a rumor that Marvel is trying to handcraft a role for Meryl Streep herself.
With a massive universe of fun and action and the gloved hand of Mickey Mouse shoveling cash into the MCU machine, no wonder stars like Denzel are eager to join, and maybe a bit more A-List star power is just what Marvel needs to project it into its Phase 6.
For More:
Black Panther 1 trailer.
Gladiator 2 trailer.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Lionsgate’s Kingdom. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, distributed by Lionsgate, debuted at #2 at the box office this weekend with $11.1 M. This broke Lionsgate’s losing streak of multiple box office bombs in a row (Borderlands, The Crow, The Killer's Game, White Bird).
Therefore, the studio has extended their first look deal with the film’s production company Kingdom Story Company through 2027.
Brandon Gregory, president and COO of Kingdom Story, who was just named as a partner, stated:
“Over the past decade, Kingdom films have established a unique ability to connect with their audiences in the faith community and beyond through high quality storytelling and exceptional productions.”
With the holiday season rolling in faith-based holiday films have an asymmetric advantage in putting up impressive box office figures, especially when they have high critical reviews, as The Best Christmas Pageant Ever did (RT: 89%).
Louisiana’s Tax $150 M tax credit is in danger of being eliminated. The state’s House of Representatives voted to kill the incentive by a wide margin of 87-12. It will now move to the Senate.
This would be a disaster as film production is already high-tailing it out of the US for cheaper and greener pastures (30% tax incentive Hungary, 25% Bulgaria).
Famous films/series to have benefited from the generous Louisiana incentive are:
Beasts of the Southern Wild
12 Years a Slave
True Detective Season 1
The tax incentives help fuel local jobs and businesses, so this would be a massive loss. Silver lining will be if CA’s new $750 M tax incentive passes.
Amazon shuts down Freevee, their FAST Channel (free, ad-supported) and will absorb it into Prime. It shouldn’t come as a massive surprise. Freevee would often host Amazon Originals, like this year’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, while only offering 1-2 free episodes, in a play to push users to buy subscriptions to Prime.
Not to worry, though, Freevee originals like Bosch: Legacy will remain free.
Netflix continues to be the top dog in streaming. Since mid-May, they’ve boosted their ad-supported users by 75% to 70 Million users. Netflix tells us that 70% of these users watch 10+ hrs/month. They are reporting that this lower-cost tier has driven 50% of new sign-ups in the 12 countries where it is available, with a broader launch coming in 2025.
New Disney+ Trailer gives brief glances at upcoming shows:
Andor Season 2: Cassian has to step up to be a leader.
Release Date: April 22, 2025
The Bear Season 4: The return of the Emmy award winning series.
Release Date: 2025
Skeleton Crew: Goonies but in space!
Release Date: Dec 3rd, 2024
Alien Earth: We get the briefest look at a Xenomorph, and something that looks like a ship’s hallway.
Release Date: 2025
Ironheart: We get a good look at the villain played by Anthony Ramos.
Release Date: June 24, 2025
Daredevil Born Again: A meeting of the minds, Charlie Cox vs Vincent D'onofrio and a tense exchange.
Release Date: March 2025
Chad Powers (Hulu): Starring Glen Powell. This was apparently inspired by Eli Manning going in disguise in his previous show Eli’s Place.
Release Date: 2025
The Handmaid's Tale Final Season:
Release Date: Spring 2025.
Full trailer Disney+ here.
If you are enjoying the newsletter and see its value, please consider supporting the newsletter by becoming a premium subscriber https://theindustry.co/subscribe
A new contender for Disney CEO emerges, Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts. Disney CEO Bob Iger has said it’s his top priority to find a replacement CEO after his 17 non-consecutive years helming Disney.
So what’s Wilson got to do with it?
Disney is looking to expand into video games
Wilson has a prior relationship after trying to sell EA to Disney
Wilson interviewed for a job as head of Disney-owned ESPN
The down sides is Wilson doesn’t have much in the way of experience running a film/TV studio.
It had been previously imagined that the CEO’s successor would be crowned from within side the company:
Co-Chair of Disney Entertainment
Dana Walden
Alan Bergman
Chairperson of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Josh D’Amaro
Chairman ESPN (former president)
Jimmy Pitaro
Iger’s official contract end date is December 31st, 2026. If he actually leaves, it will be the end of an era.
I have a bad feeling about this Part 2: Last week we learned that Simon Kinberg, the man who killed X-Men, was taking on a Star Wars Trilogy under the watchful (meddling) eyes of Kathleen Kenedy. Possibly the most hated person in Star Wars (besides Jar Jar Binks). Now, we are combining that and confirming another rumor from a few months back that Daisy Ridley's Rey Palpatine-Skywalker is going to play a major role in not only this trilogy but several of the projects in development.
Daisy Ridley is a very capable actress, and most of the problems of the later half of Star Wars was in the writing, but it seems incredibly risky to hang a franchise on the shoulders of a deeply divisive character. We won't really know where this is going for years to come, but it looks like Daisy Ridley is Lucasfilms' last hope, and here I am wondering if there is another?
Dish Network’s parent company EchoStar lost big in Q3:
43,000 subscribers lost
5.89 M Dish TV subs
8.03 M total subs
$141.8 M loss in revenue
The recent surge of streaming platforms has accelerated Dish’s losses. On the positive side of their balance sheet, they’ve gained 145,000 subscribers for Sling TV, their streaming service.
Luckily, help may be on the way as DirecTV acquired EchoStar. As part of the deal, DirecTV will assume Echo’s $9.75 bn in debt. This should close at the end of 2025.
It’s a much-needed move, given the big subscriber losses to both companies from 2016 to 2024:
DirecTV
25.5 M → 10 M subscribers
Dish
14 M → 8 M subscribers
Combined, they will have a total of 18 M subs and will be a stronger force against streaming.
Tidbits:
AMC is in early development on a series adaptation of Gothictown, a forthcoming family horror novel from Emily Carpenter (The Weight of Lies) with highly sought-after writer-producer Abby Ajayi on board to write, EP, and serve as showrunner. In a first look deal with the network, Made With Love Media (They Cloned Tyrone) acquired the rights to the book and will be producing. Ajayi received several nominations for her work on Netflix’s Inventing Anna (2022) with the novel behind her next project, Gothictown, hitting shelves everywhere on March 25th, 2025.
Paul Engelen, a renowned British makeup designer, has died at 75. Known for Game of Thrones, Gladiator, and The Phantom Menace, he earned two Emmys and two Oscar nominations. Engelen worked on iconic films including Batman and James Bond. He will be missed. For more check out this very interesting blog about one of Paul's most famous creations, Darth Maul. Link Here
Die Hard with a Bateman. As previously detailed, there is a Die Hard 2-esque Christmas movie, Netflix’s Carry-On with Jason Bateman as the terrorist. Here’s the full trailer.
Stop what you’re doing and watch this heart-warming four-minute Disney short. It’s about a boy and an octopus. Directed by Taika Waititi.
Intimacy Coordinators Vote “Yes” to Unioninze with SAG-AFTRA.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Potentially one of Hollywood’s most impressive and most underused actresses, Lupita Nyong’o is the latest star to join Christopher Nolan’s next film.
After an unforgettable Oscar-winning breakthrough performance in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013, clip), the Kenyan actress has been a myriad of projects since then from a Tony nominated stage run to big budget films like:
MCU
Black Panther (2018)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Star Wars
Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Nyong’o’s engrossing performance as a mother whose home is invaded by violent doppelgängers in Jordan Peele’s Us (2019), earned her countless nominations and rightfully deserved praise. She returned to the horror genre in this past summer's A Quiet Place (2018) prequel story, A Quiet Place: Day One (trailer) which showed the beginning days of the horrifying apocalyptic invasion seen in the original.
2024 became an even better year for the actress following the September premiere of Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot (trailer), where she voiced the role of a heartwarming robot named Roz in the visually beautiful animated film that would go on to make $300 M worldwide.
Nyong’o joins the previously announced cast of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Zendaya (in what we’re hearing is just a small part/cameo). Details of their roles revealed yet. Nolan’s follow up to his Best Picture winner Oppenheimer (2023) is said to start filming early next year with a July 2026 IMAX release.
Benedict Cumberbatch will star in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming film Wife & Dog, alongside Rosamund Pike and Anthony Hopkins. The movie, set in the world of British aristocracy, marks a thematic return to the style of Ritchie’s The Gentlemen. Benedict Cumberbatch is no stranger to embodying characters with aristocratic tendencies. Most notably he played a spoiled high class man addicted to drugs in Patrick Melrose (2018, trailer)
Cumberbatch also played Henry Sugar in Wes Anderson's adaptation of Ronald Dahl’s short story of the same name. Even in the stylized world he presented himself very proper (trailer).
While don't know anything about his character or really much of the setting we can assume that working with Guy Ritchie will be a winning combination. Filming begins in February 2025 in the UK, with Ritchie writing and producing.
Drew Starkey is the object of Daniel Craig’s desire in Queer. His performance dances on the razor’s edge of titillation, driving Craig mad. Starkey is about to star in another A24 project, Onslaught.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire filmmaker Adam Wingard will direct.
While little has been revealed of the plot Adria Arjona (Hit Man) is said to play a mother who falls back on a particular set of skills in order to protect her loved ones after she runs afoul of a threat that has escaped a secret military base.
Onslaught will begin production in New Mexico later this year.
The highly anticipated second season of Peacock’s Emmy-winning Natasha Lyonne led drama Poker Face is stacked with guest stars.
The newly announced additions are:
Awkwafina (The Farewell)
Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton)
Simon Rex (Red Rocket)
Cliff “Method Man” Smith (Power Book II: Ghost)
The Rian Johnson (Knives Out) series revolves around new mysteries and new characters every episode making it the perfect show for a number of guest appearances. With no official date set, Poker Face season 2 is expected on Hulu spring 2025.
Ben Stiller, after a six-year acting hiatus (although he’s dropped in for the occasional bit role) stars in Nutcrackers.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Work-obsessed Mike (Stiller) must reluctantly travel to rural Ohio to look after his four rambunctious nephews after their parents die in a car accident. What begins as a three-day trip to find foster care turns into weeks of farm-life mayhem — and the realization that he doesn’t need to find them a home, they’ve found one for him.
There’s a familiar exasperation that Stiller exhibits in the trailer that is reminiscent of his earlier roles like Derek Zoolander in Zoolander and Greg Focker in Meet the Parents (2000).
Nutcrackers releases on Hulu November 29th.
Tidbit:
Bridget Jones is back on the market in Peacock's trailer drop for Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, the final film in the rom-com franchise. Almost a decade since the last film, the trailer sees Oscar winner Renée Zellweger reprising her roles as the titular Jones now navigating life after the death of her husband, the lovable Mark Darcy played by Colin Firth. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy will premiere in theaters appropriately the day before Valentine’s Day on Feb. 13th, 2025.
Anthony Hopkins is getting biblical. He leads the new film Mary. Official synopsis: A coming-of-age biblical epic in which Mary is shunned following a miraculous conception and forced into hiding. When King Herod (Hopkins) ignites a murderous pursuit for her newborn baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph go on the run — bound together by fate and driven by courage — to save his life at all costs. Here’s the trailer. Hopkins is wonderfully theatrical as the quasi-mad king. Releasing on Netflix on December 6th.
Taron Egerton joins Charlize Theron in Apex, a Netflix thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur. Theron plays a rock climber targeted by Egerton’s psychopath in the wild. The film has been described as Free Solo meets Silence of the Lambs. We don't yet have production or release date details, but watch this space.
FESTIVALS
The Last Druid, starring Russel Crowe, rules AFM. The market may be over, but this project whose spirit animal is Gladiator, locked down some great international deals:
Dir: Will Eubank (Kristen Stewart’s Underwater)
Domestic Sales Rep: Range Media Partners and CAA
Buyer: Amazon Studios for UK & Ireland, Australia/New Zealand, and Canada
Buyer: Vertical Distribution for Eastern Europe
Terms: 7-figure deals
Plus many more territories
Synopsis:
An Emperor discovers a secluded Druid stronghold in the mountains of Caledonia. A peaceful Celtic elder (Crowe) must take up arms to protect his family and people from annihilation.
Filming begins next year.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, an authorized documentary about The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling.
Produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and directed by Jonah Tulis (Neon’s GameStop: Rise of the Players) the doc will track the life and work of Serling, who created the most imaginative, haunting, and culturally significant science fiction series of all time.
I’ve watched every episode, and my personal favorite is…
Appian Way stated:
“Equipped with a vast and extensive collection of archival footage, we hope to capture the essence of a man who used The Twilight Zone so poignantly to drive social and political change.”
The film will be narrated by Serling himself, who was featured in almost every episode of The Twilight Zone, as the narrator. The camera would dolly or whip pan to him standing in a corner, adjacent to the on-screen action and delivering a monologue that, syllable by syllable, laid bare the very psychology of human foibles. Picture this…
The doc is currently shooting Twilight Zone-esque sequences to spice things up. I can’t wait for this one.
Girls’ star and creator Lena Dunham joins forces with Apple and A24 to adapt Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, based on a Michael Lewis book following the scandal surrounding FTX hedge fund founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Shortly after being founded in 2019, FTX became one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world until billions of dollars were discovered to be missing, and its founder was convicted of various charges of money laundering and fraud.
Since the finale of her HBO true to life acclaimed dramedy series Girls which ran for six seasons (2012-2017), Dunham has worked extensively behind the camera. Continuing her relationship with HBO, she directed the pilot episode of Industry, recently renewed for a fourth season.
Dunham will be penning the script for the upcoming adaptation of Going Infinite and her upcoming ten episode comedy she also co-created and wrote, Too Much is said to be dropping on Netflix by the end of the year.
Tidbit:
Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) and Billy Bryk are set to reimagine the 1999 horror-comedy Idle Hands for Sony Pictures, with Jason Reitman (Dir: Saturday Night) as producer. Idle Hands (1999) is about a stoner dude whose hand becomes uncontrollable, leading him on a rampage of killing and sexual delight (trailer). Wolfhard and Bryk directed the TIFF film Hell of a Summer, being released by Neon next year.
Actors are hopping on board to EP Oscar-hopeful shorts:
Chlorophyll which played in competition at Karlovy Vary Film Festival has the greenest trailer I’ve ever seen. It’s a coming-of-age story about a girl who finds herself ensnared and enchanted by nature.
Palme d’O winner Hirokazu Kore-eda (dir: Shoplifters) dropped a trailer for his new Netflix series Asura. The title sequence is reminiscent of Japanese pop art while also being very original.
ON THIS DAY
1940. Walt Disney's Fantasia premieres at the Broadway Theatre, NYC.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram | X
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co