Dwayne Johnson’s breakthrough, Neon’s breakout
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Johnson’s breakthrough, Neon’s breakout, and a Griffin.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Dwayne Johnson will star in A24’s psychological thriller Breakthrough.
Alexandra Loewy is named President of Film at Miramax.
HBO wins bidding war for Southern gothic drama Baby Queen.
Kieran Culkin cast in Stanley Tucci’s former role in The Hunger Games: Sunrise.
Jason Momoa is rumored for Legendary’s Street Fighter movie.
Zach Braff returns as J.D. in ABC’s Scrubs reboot.
Neon acquires The Secret Agent at Cannes.
Mubi buys Alpha and Amores Perros 4K restoration.
A Useful Ghost wins Cannes Critics’ Week top prize.
Mike Judge’s Automated Trucking may have found its lead: Jack Quaid.
Rebecca Miller is directing a 5-part Martin Scorsese docuseries for Apple.
Vertical acquires Griffin in Summer.
Ryan Reynolds' Maximum Effort is producing the docuseries The Great Ones.
Sony acquires remake rights to hit French comedy A Little Something Extra.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Dwayne Johnson doubles down with A24. After the upcoming Benny Safdie wrestling divorce movie, The Smashing Machine (trailer), he is also starring in A24’s psychological thriller Breakthrough.
Written by Zeke Goodman (I Know What You Did Last Summer) and set in early-2000s Southern California. Johnson will play a charismatic yet morally ambiguous motivational guru. It’s a great fit, almost a stereotype of his own hyper-positive inspirational brand.
A24 might be Johnson's ticket out of increasingly stale action movies.
Want more on The Rock? Here’s our deep dive on his weird and wild career and his first indie film, circa 2006.
Tidbits:
Alexandra Loewy has been appointed President of Film at Miramax, nearly two decades after she worked as an assistant in the same indie studio. Previously, she served as the president of Working Title Films. Now, Loewy and Miramax are currently working on the second season of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen.
Still not finished writing GOT, George R. R. Martin turns to produce an animated comedy: A Dozen Tough Jobs, an adult animated film reimaging Hercules’ 12 labors in 1920s Mississippi. Joe R. Lansdale (source material: Tubi’s The Thicket) pens the script, with animation by Blue Spirit (The Secret of Kells). There is sentimentality in this; Martin has dedicated it to his late friend, Howard Waldrop.
HBO lands new sought-after drama series Baby Queen from Alex Metcalf (creator: Showtime’s The Loudest Voice starring Russell Crowe). Based on a southern crime fiction book by Ty Landers, the story follows three generations of women who are forced to confront the buried crimes that haunt their Southern legacy. Media Res (The Morning Show) serves as the production company.
Former Paramount and Amazon marketing exec Amy Powell has been brought on as the new president of Vice Studios. At Vice, she will oversee the studio’s creative and commercial strategy, steering global development, production, and partnerships. This big hire will help Vice rebuild after emerging from bankruptcy in 2023.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Josh O’Connor is one charismatic guy.
From heart-pounding passion in Challengers to a subdued zeal in his latest, the recently premiered Cannes Official Selection, The History of Sound.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Two young men (O’Connor and Paul Mescal) during World War 1 set out to record the lives, voices, and music of their American countrymen.
O’Connor’s character has a tightly held obsession with Mescal’s character, expressed through glances he never quite allows to linger.
O’Connor shared:
“They go on this beautiful journey together. It plays into that feeling of nostalgia and regret and loss, but what’s most beautiful about it is this feeling of song and music.”
In a subtle way, the role dovetails with Challengers, which followed a competitive love triangle masked by a love for the sport. While very different films, both show characters pulled apart by both their passion and their love.
With a busy slate ahead, O’Connor’s next film, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, premieres at the festival later this week.
Tidbit:
Fresh off his Oscar win, A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin is set to play flamboyant and smooth-talking TV host Caesar Flickerman in the prequel film The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Culkin will be made all dolled up to portray the younger version of Stanley Tucci’s fan favorite older Flickerman from the original movies (clip). Lionsgate releases in November 2026.
Jason Momoa is rumored to be in talks for Legendary's Street Fighter movie, lots of big, muscly dudes for him to play, but my money is on Blanka. We also have a trailer for his Apple TV show, Chief of War, which follows him as the warrior Ka’iana, who tries to unify the Hawaiian Islands before Western colonization in the late 18th century. Launches August 1st. Trailer here.
Joey King (Hulu’s The Act) is set to star in Practical Magic 2 alongside Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, both of whom will be reprising their witchy roles from the 1998 original. King will play Bullock’s daughter, who discovers the family’s dark secrets and her own magical powers. The sequel has a Sept. 18th, 2026 release date.
PBS Masterpiece will release The Great Escaper, which stars Michael Caine in his final performance. It’s a heart-warming tale about a 90-year-old D-Day veteran who sneaks out of the house to travel to France. Releasing this fall in the US (trailer).
Zach Braff is back on Scrubs. This reboot from ABC will see Braff reprising his role as J.D. He showed a surprising range in the original (clip), but it has been hard for him to shake that ever-present shadow of twee. Braff has always had a lot of unappreciated acting chops, and we’re excited to see him back, Eagle!
FESTIVALS
Neon makes the second big buy of Cannes, grabbing The Secret Agent for North American rights (clip).
The film stars Wagner Moura (Civil War), who also serves as a producer. Directed and written by Kleber Mendonça Filho (Dir: Cannes Official Selections: Bacurau (2019) and Aquarius (2016).
But the bigger news…
Neon brought down the house with the premiere of Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value. It was an astonishing, evocative film and now a prime contender for the Palme d’Or.
And this would track as Neon has taken the Palme d’Or 5 times in a row.
They hope to notch another Palme d’Or/Oscar Best Picture win following their hot streak with Anora.
Mubi makes two new acquisitions at Cannes. First, they picked up Alpha (trailer), grabbing distribution rights for Latin America, India, and 21 other territories, not including the US (distributor: Neon) or the UK (distributor: Curzon). The project is directed by Julia Ducournau (Palme d’Or winner Titane). They also scooped up worldwide rights to Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 25th anniversary 4K Amores Perros restoration, which played at Cannes Classics.
Mubi is on a roll after their $24M pick up of Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love, cemented them as a frontrunner at the Oscars (cover story breakdown).
Other Cannes pickups:
Eli Roth’s The Ice Cream Man sells to 13 territories, including Latin America. This follows it being picked up by StudioCanal’s new genre label Sixth Dimension.
Cannes Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la Critique) reveals its top prize. The top prize winner shares a lot of DNA with Antonioni’s Red Desert. Full winners list here: https://theindustry.co/p/cannes-critics-week-winners
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Darren Aronofsky's glossy grit. Aronofsky, who isn’t afraid to show us the underbelly of society (Requiem for a Dream, Pi, The Whale), just launched a trailer for his hyper-propulsive crime thriller, Caught Stealing, starring Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, and Matt Smith. The film follows Butler, a former baseball player, who navigates the criminal world of 90s NYC.
Despite being a bit on the dangerous side, the world that Austin is thrown into seems very, very fun (trailer). That’s not too far outside the ballpark from the opening scenes of Requiem for a Dream, where two drug-crossed lovers (Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly) revel in their own hijinks.
What concerns me about Caught Stealing is that it’s missing Aronofsky's patented grief and despair, which explode his stories of urban struggle into modern tragedies.
But I’m still pumped to see Caught Stealing when Sony releases it on August 29th.
Mike Judge’s long-awaited film Automated Trucking may have found its lead: Jack Quaid. 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. Quaid as a tech-savvy nerd trying to disrupt the trucking space? It writes itself, and with this being Judge’s return to the big screen after a 14-year hiatus, this looks like a 10-4 good to go, yeehaw. Starts pre-pro in November.
Judges’ last feature was over 14 years ago:
Extract (2009) Trailer
Other Judge features are classics in their own way:
Tidbit:
A definitive Martin Scorsese docuseries. Rebecca Miller (Dir: She Came To Me) will direct Mr. Scorsese for Apple TV+.
Miller stated:
“His work and life are so vast and so compelling that the piece evolved from one to five parts over a five-year period.”
Expect exclusive interviews from Daniel Day-Lewis (Miller’s spouse), Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Thelma Schoonmaker (Scorsese’s editor). Plus, never-before-seen BTS footage from Scorsese’s personal archives.
Mini Tidbits:
Vertical has acquired North American rights to Griffin in Summer, Nicholas Colia’s award-winning (Tribeca) debut comedy. The film follows a 14-year-old playwright prodigy as he finds a new muse, his new neighbor. After sweeping Tribeca and earning an Indie Spirit nomination, it will launch in theaters this summer.
The Ballad of Judas Priest: Sony Music Vision will release The Ballad of Judas Priest, a new documentary chronicling the legendary metal band’s 50-year journey. Co-directed by Sam Dunn and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello in his debut. The film will feature interviews and never-before-seen footage.
Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort is producing The Great Ones, a five-part docuseries chronicling the Edmonton Oilers’ 1980s Hockey dynasty. Overall, they have won 5 Stanley Cups, the doc will feature rare footage and exclusive interviews. Set to premiere on Super Channel in winter 2027.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Sony Pictures nabs remake rights for A Little Something Extra, a French comedy about a group of thieves who hide out after a robbery in a secluded summer camp for disabled adults (trailer).
They took remake rights for the following languages:
English
Spanish
Portuguese
Arabic
And the following countries/territories:
U.S.
Spain
Latin America
Middle East
Release dates are TBD, but the French film grossed $95M, and we see this as a bit of a throwback to a Dumb and Dumber style comedy. Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey/Adam Sandler would be the dream cast for the robbers.
Mini Tidbit:
The U.S. and Mexico have forged a unique distribution deal between The Walt Disney Co. and Televisa Univision. The deal will see networks like Univision, UniMás, TUDN, and Galavisión launching on Hulu.
ON THIS DAY
2011. The Tree of Life wins the Palme d'Or.
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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