Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Disney’s Gaston, Janus Films’ Resurrection, and Josh Brolin’s Horse Power.
Let’s go!
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Bi Gan’s Resurrection (Winner: Special Prize at Cannes) is a masterpiece.
The film is a cinematic venture into the delicate relationship between cinema and dreams.
I sat down with Gan, whose last film, Long Day’s Journey into Night (2018), is most remembered for a 59-minute 3D long take.
Gan’s Resurrection, now in theaters, is equally stunning. His lead character moves through distinct sequences emulating the filmic styles of 100 years of cinema:
Silent Era
German Expressionism
Film Noir
1970s Art Cinema
Early 2000s Digital Cinema
Gan [via a translator] shared why he chose to capture the final 2000s era movement with a euphoric 30-minute long-take:
“It is the most real things that you can experience in real time… that particular long take feels very dreamy.”
In each successive movement of the film, the character is resurrected into a more dreamy (e.g., favorable fate), from getting stabbed in the ear (noir) to the unbridled joys of racing through the streets with a lover (digital cinema).
Gan continued:
“Film is the closest and the most, proximity-wise, [medium that] sort of situates itself between the boundary of how people dream and how they deal with reality.”
He shared, in what I’m really hoping was not a mistranslation, that if aliens come to earth and want to understand how people dream, they should just go to the cinema.
Gan’s recommendation is to use your time to improve your fate and gain clarity about how you live your life.
Very much in line with how he thinks you should watch his film:
“Revisit this film in the future, and maybe because of the time as you progress and mature and having even more experience and other knowledge or context, then you will be able to use the keys I already provide as well in this film to open even deeper.”
Gan’s Resurrection, like the best dream, lingers.
It is currently in theaters.
For More:
Trailer for Resurrection + full interview with Bi Gan and a deep dive into cinema, dreams, and his thoughts on VR: https://theindustry.co/p/bi-gan-interview-director-resurrection
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Nick Reiner is in custody for the murder of his parents, Michele and Rob Reiner.
Disney is developing a live-action Gaston spinoff, written by David Callaham.
Netflix adapts the video game Kingmakers as a feature via Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps.
AMC is developing a Point Break series set 35 years after Kathryn Bigelow’s film.
Kerry Ehrin (showrunner: The Morning Show) signs overall deal w/ Sony Pics TV.
Kurt Sutter is developing a noir crime drama at MGM+.
Netflix’s Pagans adds Drew Goddard and Sarah Esberg as EPs.
Instacart comms chief Dani Dudeck joins Netflix as CCO.
AMC Networks promotes Kathryn Brenner and Stephen Cox to SVPs of Publicity.
Josh Brolin will narrate IMAX doc Horse Power.
Australian actress Rachael Carpani dies at 45.
Sundance selects 54 shorts from 11,480 submissions.
Janus Films acquires Joan of Arc from Hlynur Pálmason for North America.
Mediapro General Director Laura Fernández Espeso exits after less than a year.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Nick Reiner is being held in custody for the murder of his parents, Michele and Rob Reiner. The legendary filmmaker and his wife were killed in their home on Sunday in LA.
Nick is currently being held without bail, and an official statement is coming from the L.A. County District Attorney this morning.
Our hearts go out to the family during this difficult time.
Read our Rob Reiner obit here: https://theindustry.co/p/rob-reiner-rip. He was a master of storytelling in every genre.
Broad shoulders, a boundless ego, and zero self-awareness, Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston is getting his own live-action spinoff film.
Love him or hate him, the comedically arrogant Disney villain is finally getting his chance in the spotlight (just as he would want), with the plot and how closely it’ll relate to the original 1991 film currently unknown.
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) writer David Callaham is penning the script, with no director officially attached yet.
Disney live-action films have done everything from flop like the $200M grossing Snow White to being a box office sensation like the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, which made $1.3bn worldwide.
For the sake of Gaston’s self-image, hopefully it goes like the latter.
Gaston song (animated)
Gaston song (live action)
Netflix is a Kingmaker. The streamer is adapting a pitch for a feature adaptation of the new video game Kingmakers. This is via Shawn Levy’s (Dir: Deadpool and Wolverine) first look film deal with Netflix through his prod co 21 Laps.
This is going to be a mega big-budget fun one. The trailer for the video game shows a player going back to medieval times and killing knights in shining armor by mowing them down with a truck. That’s the type of over-the-top comedic action that Levy is so good at.
Written by Christopher MacBride (co-writer of John Cusack’s 2024 film Decoded). The IP was co-developed with Story Kitchen (prod co: Netflix’s animated Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft).
Tidbits:
The iconic waves of the 90s are crashing onto the small screen. AMC is developing a series remake of the adrenaline-soaked, surf-driven cult classic film Point Break (1991, trailer). The series is supposedly set 35 years after director Kathryn Bigelow’s original film, now centered on a new wild heist gang. There is no word on whether any of the original (still living) actors who made up the thrill-seeking outlaws, the “Ex-Presidents,” will have any involvement in the series. Picked up by AMC in a highly competitive situation, David Kalstein (Amazon’s Butterfly) is writing the series.
Writer-producer Kerry Ehrin (creator of The Morning Show) is moving over to Sony Pictures Television, signing an overall deal. Ehrin is no stranger to good television; beyond Apple’s award-winning The Morning Show, she co-created A+E’s Bates Motel (2013-17) and earlier worked as a main writer on NBC’s Friday Night Lights (2006-11) and Parenthood (2010-15). Ehrin will develop a new series for SPT through her Bad Attitude Entertainment.
Mini Tidbits:
MGM+ is developing a period noir drama from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. Set in 50s LA, the untitled series will follow a private investigator exploring the not-so-glamorous underworld of Hollywood. Sutter is producing, writing, and serving as showrunner, looking to play nicely with MGM’s other period crime drama, The Westies.
Netflix’s Pagans, a high-profile supernatural drama series, adds The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard and his producing partner Sarah Esberg (EP: Moonlight) as EPs via Goddard Textiles (Daredevil). After getting a straight-to-series order back in September, Pagans is still in its preproduction stage.
Instacart’s Dani Dudeck is brought on to Netflix as the new chief communications officer to lead the streamer’s PR efforts. The hire comes amid Netflix’s industry-changing attempt to acquire Warner Bros, with Dudeck set to take on her new position early January.
AMC Networks promotes communications execs Kathryn Brenner and Stephen Cox to SVPs of Publicity. For the network’s brands like AMC+, Acorn TV, and more, the duo will lead talent relations strategies focused on the publicity of original projects.
Cancellations:
Netflix’s Boots (after S1)
Trailers:
Netflix’s Stranger Things (S5 - Volume 2)
Release: Dec 25th, 5pm PT
Magnolia Picture’s Normal
Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler
Trailer - Odenkirk goes on a bloody revenge rampage
Release: April 17
Peacock’s Ponies
Cast: Emilia Clarke
Release: Jan 15
Pathé’s De Gaulle
Charles De Gaulle Biopic
Release: June 10th
Release dates:
Prime’s Fallout (S2)
Release: Dec 16th (one day early)
Warner Bros.’ One Battle After Another
HBO Max release: Dec 19
Prime’s Follow My Voice (Sigue Mi Voz)
Release: Jan 2
Trafalgar Releasing’s The Optimist
Cast: Stephen Lang & Elsie Fisher
Release: Mar 2026
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Josh Brolin narrates IMAX Horse Power, a doc on horses. We like Brolin’s voice for this. Not just because he’s been in No Country and True Grit, but there’s a relaxed gruff to his voice that feels eternal.
This hails from Plimsoll Productions (Netflix’s Night on Earth).
A24 and Hulu’s drama series, The Spot, adds some series regulars to its cast, joining Claire Danes and Ewan McGregor:
Daveed Diggs (Hamilton)
Macon Blair (Blue Ruin)
Michael Patrick Thornton (Apple TV+’s The Savant)
All character details are unknown. The series follows a mother who begins to suspect she may be responsible for the death of a child in a hit-and-run.
Mini Tidbits:
Shrinking’s Luke Tennie has joined the upcoming sophomore season of The Pitt. He plays the lovable but quick-tempered ex-combat veteran on the Apple dramedy series, and will play a fourth-year resident who works the night shift at the trauma center in The Pitt when it returns early Jan.
Netflix’s live-action Assassin’s Creed series has cast Zachary Hart as a series regular. Based on the Ubisoft video game series about a secret sect of assassins throughout world history. Big step up for Hart, who has only been in single episodes of Apple TV’s Slow Horses and Masters of the Air.
We like Geraldine Viswanathan in almost everything we see. In SPC’s Oh, Hi! She plays Molly Gordon’s bombastic but level-headed friend. She is now joining Amy Poehler in Peacock’s new comedy series, Dig. She plays one of the women returning to the Italian archaeological dig. From Parks and Rec creator Mike Schur.
Obits:
Soap opera legend Anthony Geary (General Hospital) has passed away at 78. Geary won eight Daytime Emmy awards for his beloved role as Luke Spencer (scene) on ABC’s General Hospital, whose iconic wedding was the highest-rated soap opera episode of all time. The daytime television world lost a staple in its history.
Australian actress Rachael Carpani (Home and Away) has unexpectedly passed away at 45. The soap actress was best known for her leading 8-year spanning work in McLeod’s Daughters (2001-09, scene), but had also appeared in American productions like NCIS: Los Angeles and Ben Affleck’s The Way Back (2020).
FESTIVALS
Sundance has selected 54 short films for its lineup, out of 11,480 submissions. That’s less than half of a percentage point acceptance rate.
Here are some highlights:
Albatross. This hails from the writer/director team Gerardo Coello Escalante and Amandine Thomas, whose previous two shorts (Susana and Viaje de Negocios) also premiered at Sundance. Triple crown situation.
The Baddest Speechwriter of All was co-directed and produced by Ben Proudfoot (Two-time short doc Oscar winner for The Last Repair Shop, A Concerto Is a Conversation) and Stephen Curry. This short centers on Martin Luther King Jr.’s 93-year-old lawyer & speechwriter.
Plus the short Candy Bar from Joel Edgerton’s brother Nash.
We love the synopsis:
A young girl thinks a man in the candy bar line looks like her dad.
Here are some with a really fun synopsis:
Balloon Animals
Dir/Wri: Anna Baumgarten
Synopsis:
Two grocery store employees have an unexpected, helium-fueled encounter with a late-night customer.
The Oracle
Dir/Wri: JJ Adler (former editor: The Onion)
Synopsis:
When an atheist psychiatrist hypnotizes his con artist patient, a message from his long-dead twin emerges. It could be the perfect con, or it could be proof that reality is far stranger than he would like to admit.
¡PIKA!
Dir/Prod: Alex Fischman Cárdenas
Synopsis:
A man wakes up with an unbearable itch. Anxious to find a cure, he embarks on a nightmarish odyssey in search of relief.
Luigi
Dir/Prod: Liza Mandelup (dir: SXSW feature doc Caterpillar)
Synopsis:
When Luigi Mangione is charged with murder, he becomes the subject of fevered obsession. Through letters, fantasies, and conspiracies, strangers turn Luigi into a cultural sensation and a canvas for their rage, desire, and misplaced hope.
Full list of all Sundance shorts here.
Tidbit:
Erik Hemmendorff (prod: Triangle of Sadness) has a new psycho thriller series A Phone Rings in the Middle of the Night. It centers on a man who decides to get back at his bullies. Pitching at Göteborg TV Series in Development. More on all the Göteborg series here.
Screenplays:
Read Focus Features’ Yorgos Lanthimos-directed Bugonia, screenplay written by Will Tracy, and Paramount’s Roofman, written by Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn.
Plus five more prospective Oscar scripts:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy-dbf
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Janus Films picks up Joan of Arc, the Icelandic version of the Tom Hanks film…
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