Fight Club Date Night
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Edward Norton, Bill Hader, and Lynne Ramsay.
Let’s go!
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Workshop: How to Direct an Oscar-Winning Performance
https://theindustry.co/p/how-to-direct-an-oscar-winning-performance
We love watching warring couples.
From Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) to Carnage (2011), the delight of these films is to see couples break each other's polished facades to reveal their primal, animalistic selves.
Next in this genre is Olivia Wilde’s The Invite.
The team is amazing:
Dir: Wilde
Cast: Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton, and Wilde
Co-writer: Rashida Jones
Co-Writer: Will McCormack (Toy Story 4)
Prod: David Permut (Twinless, Hacksaw Ridge)
Prod Company/Sales Rep: FilmNation (Anora, Conclave)
Prod Company: AnnaPurna (Sausage Party, The Master)
The film is based on Cesc Gay's film, Sentimental (2020), which has the following synopsis:
A couple who spend most of their time arguing invite their upstairs neighbours for dinner, despite the fact that they are disrupted by the noise they make while having sex.
Olivia Wilde is adept at dissecting the illusion of romantic harmony.
In her sophomore film, Don’t Worry Darling (2022), she critiqued how love and societal expectations can mask manipulation and oppression, in the context of a seemingly perfect marriage.
We can’t wait to see how Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz (the arguing older couple) war it out with Rogen and Wilde, where breaking each other down might be the only path to rebuilding love.
No word on release date, but the film just scored $2M in CA tax credits and will be shot over 21 days.
For More:
Sentimental trailer.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
IMAX Q1 revenue increases, led by Ne Zha 2.
Apple wins bidding war for Foster the Snowman.
Fifth Season promotes Sheridan Thayer and hires Netflix alum Lauren Deitch.
Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw undergoes major layoffs.
Netflix adapts The Age of Innocence and Unaccustomed Earth for TV.
Lionsgate-Starz split gets final shareholder greenlight.
Universal expands its deal with Snoop Dogg and his Death Row Pictures.
David Leitch sets his next Universal action project, Fight.
Bill Hader develops a Jonestown cult series for HBO and may even play Jim Jones.
Antonio Banderas and Dominic Sessa to star in A24’s Tony, a biopic on Anthony Bourdain.
Jon Hamm leads MGM+’s American Hostage, reprising his podcast role as a journalist in crisis.
Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson joins the Cannes official selection.
Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, to premiere in Un Certain Regard.
Nicolas Winding Refn returns with Her Private Hell, starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton.
Stay Gold Features (Honey Boy) secures $10M in funding.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
IMAX Q1 2025 revenue increases. We broke down their numbers and how they stacked up against last year:
$298M global box office
↑ 12%
$87M revenue
↑ 10%
$8M Net Income
↑52%
The top earner:
$164M from Ne Zha 2 (55% of total global box office)
Best film since Oppenheimer’s $183M
Richard Gelfond, IMAX CEO said:
“With a record-breaking Chinese New Year and strong alternative content lineup more than offsetting a slow start to the Hollywood slate.”
IMAX expects to deliver a record box office of more than $1.2 billion in 2025, along with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 40%.
Apple is in the holiday spirit. The studio came out on top in a bidding battle for Foster the Snowman, a high-concept Christmas movie with “a hero like Paddington, humor like Elf, and heart like It’s A Wonderful Life.” The project comes from writers Peter Huyck (Veep, The Studio) and Jono Matt (Weird Waters), who already have a growing relationship with Apple because of their current involvement in Seth Rogen’s new satire series The Studio.
Logline:
A childless couple take an accelerated journey through every parenting milestone when they’re forced to adopt an adorable snowman, whose whole magical life will play out in just 72 hours.
Apple beat out both Netflix and Amazon MGM paying $1.6 M for the rights, which makes Foster the Snowman an exceptionally large deal for a holiday flick. It is expected to be ready by Christmas 2026 with hopes of a theatrical run.
Mini Tidbits:
David Fincher’s film set in the universe of Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is now called The Continuing Adventures of Cliff Booth. Brad Pitt will reprise his role, but with a slightly different vocation: a Hollywood studio fixer. Shooting should kick off in July.
Good Guy Predator: Predator: Badlands, the latest chapter in the iconic sci-fi franchise, has finally released a teaser that gives a bit more on the world and the hunter's strange role as protagonist. Directed by Prey's Dan Trachtenberg, the film follows Thia (Fanning) as she unexpectedly allies with an outcast Predator to battle a powerful shared enemy. Hitting theaters Nov. 7 via 20th Century Studios. Teaser here.
Max has joined the streaming industry's password-sharing crackdown, now trying to dissuade sharing by allowing subscribers to add one non-household member for $7.99/month. The move follows similar efforts by Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu to boost profitability. Unfortunately, as investor pressure grows, streamers are tightening access, reversing earlier leniency aimed at maximizing audience growth.
Universal cements its partnership with Snoop Dogg (they’re producing his biopic) as NBCUniversal inks a multi-year deal with his company, Death Row Pictures, expanding their collaboration across film and TV.
David Leitch (dir: Fall Guy, Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde) has lined up his next directing project. Universal just bought the spec script Fight, written by Nathaniel Halpern (FX’s Legion) from Leitch’s company, 87North. No word on plot. But expect a lot of action.
Shareholders vote to approve the Lionsgate Studios and Starz split by the end of April.
Release dates:
Netflix’s Wednesday (Season 2)
Pt 1 release date: Aug 6
Pt 2 release date: Sept 3
Netflix’s The Old Guard
Cast: Charlize Theron, Henry Golding, Uma Thurman, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
First look photo of Theron with a battle axe
Release date: July 2nd
Netflix’s She the People
Dir/Co-Writer: Tyler Perry
Pt 1 release date: May 22
Pt 2 release date: Aug 14
Universal’s Italianna
Cast: Halle Bailey & Regé-Jean Page
Release date: April 10, 2026
Sony Pictures Classics’ Oh, Hi
Premiere: Sundance
Release date: July 25
Netflix renewed Sweet Magnolias for a 5th season.
Miramax is developing shows/limited series based on some of their legacy IP:
Gangs of New York (TV series directed by Scorsese)
Chocolat (French-language TV series)
The English Patient (BBC series)
Fifth Season’s hires. Monkeypaw’s layoffs. Netflix’s Daniel Day-Lewis adaptation:
https://theindustry.co/p/fifth-season-monkeypaw-netflix
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Bill Hader leads a cult.
He is developing a series on Jonestown with Daniel Zelman (co-creator: Bloodline). Zelman and Hader are EPing, co-writing, and co-showrunning.
Hader may be playing Jim Jones, the cult leader. This would be an incredible role for the actor who demonstrated an immense range as the sympathetic hitman in HBO’s Barry, who takes up acting. We can see him having a manic charisma with a glint in his eye that something is very, very wrong.
Don’t know much about Jonestown? Check out Hulu’s recent documentary on the cult (trailer).
Antonio Banderas joins Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) for A24’s Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony.
No word on who Banderas will play. But a young Bourdain will be played by Sessa.
Sessa has a dark cynicism that is beyond his age, as demonstrated in his breakout performance, The Holdovers. This seems like a perfect fit for Bourdain, whose own cynicism was the endless source of his creative hunger.
The film has just kicked off production.
Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, written by Billy Ray (writer: 1st Hunger Games), finds its first cast:
Joseph Zada playing a young Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy)
Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Abernathy’s boyfriend
Zada plays a maniacal bad boy in Invisible Boys (trailer), which works well as Harrelson’s Abernathy has a dark sense of humor and even darker trauma, making him more often than not overtly cynical.
Release Date: Nov 20, 2026.
Tidbits:
Amazon MGM has consolidated all the biggest talent from their shows into one film, Heads of State. John Cena (Ricky Stanicky, Jackpot!) stars as the US President and Idris Elba plays the Prime Minister, whose plane gets hijacked. They fight through enemy territory with the help of Jack Quaid (The Boys) and Priyanka Chopra (Citadel). The personalities in the trailer are as big as the explosions. Premiering on Prime, July 2nd.
A face and voice for Radio: Emmy winner Jon Hamm will star in and EP American Hostage, a new anthology series greenlit at MGM+. Based on the hit podcast of the same name. The eight-episode season will follow 1970s Indianapolis reporter Fred Heckman (Hamm), who’s pulled into a real-life hostage crisis live on air. Hamm reprises his original voice role and joins an A-list production team. Filming begins this fall in Canada.
Die Hard. Try Bride Hard. The summer action comedy sees a Pitch Perfect reunion with Anna Camp as the eponymous bride and Australian actress Rebel Wilson as the maid of honor, who happens to be a secret agent and inevitably finds her job getting in the way of the celebration. Con Air (1997) director Simon West is helming the genre-bending film, with the recently released trailer showing anything but your typical wedding weekend. Bride Hard is playing in theaters beginning on June 20th.
Mini Tidbit:
Paul Ben-Victor joins HBO’s Lanterns as Antaan, a vengeance-driven alien opposing the law. He will star alongside Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre in DC's long hyped Green Lantern-inspired murder mystery series.
FESTIVALS
We’re wildly excited that Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love will be premiering at Cannes in the Official Selection. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Full project details here:
https://theindustry.co/p/we-need-to-talk-about-lynne-ramsay
It was one of two films added to the official selection. The other is Saeed Roustaee’s Mother and Child.
Two other big films will also premiere at the festival:
The Chronology of Water
Dir/co-writer: Kristen Stewart (directorial debut)
Cast: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch
Prod Co: Ridley Scott’s Scott Free
Synopsis: memoir adaptation about the author’s bisexuality and addiction issues
Section: Un Certain Regard
Honey Don’t
Dir: Ethan Coen
Cast: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day
Studio: Focus Features
Section: Midnight Screenings
Release date: Aug. 22
This is Coen’s 2nd B-movie in his trilogy.
Love Me Tender
Dir: Anna Cazenave Cambet
Cast: Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread)
Synopsis:
Clémence (Krieps), a lawyer, leaves her marriage to embrace her true self. Her ex-husband fights for custody of their son Paul, manipulating him. As their relationship deteriorates, Clémence struggles to maintain her maternal bond.
Full Cannes additions here.
Full Cannes 2025 breakdown.
Annecy International Animation Festival is bringing out the studio big guns. Warner Bros., Netflix, and DreamWorks have announced several major animation projects.
First look photos + film details:
https://theindustry.co/p/annecy-2025
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Nicolas Winding Refn (dir: Drive) is taking us straight to hell. He is directing his first feature in almost a decade, Her Private Hell.
No plot details available, but it’s going to be filled with, in Refn’s words:
“A lot of glitter and lot of sex and violence.”
Just the way we like it.
Neon is the production company and distributor. Sophie Thatcher (Companion, Heretic) and Charles Melton (May December) star.
We love Refn, but sometimes his desire for bombastic, neon-drenched imagery comes at the expense of story (Neon Demon, Only God Forgives). But if he’s able to nail the edit in a way that keeps us aligned with following the main character into the dark (Drive, Bronson), we’ll buy a ticket. Hell, we’ll do it anyway to see what he comes up with.
No word on release date.
Daniela Taplin Lundberg’s Stay Gold Features (Harriet, Honey Boy, Under the Silver Lake) has secured $10M in funding from private investors, going towards development and production for both future film and TV projects. The company’s upcoming slate of projects includes a feature adaptation of the graphic novel Tumor from Black Mirror director Will Bridges and a historical biopic drama led by Andrew Garfield titled Black Lion. This new chunk of funding comes shortly after the company received another $10M back in February.
Tidbits:
The owls are not what they seem. If you understand, you’ll be excited to know Mubi is streaming Twin Peaks (Season 1, 2, and The Return) on June 13th. RIP, David Lynch. 35th anniversary trailer.
Oscar-nominated director Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons) will helm a TV adaptation of The Anarchy, William Dalrymple’s bestseller on the East India Company’s rise.
We hate to say it, but HBO has the best docs about deceased performers. Their Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind is heartbreaking. Their Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is troubling. Their new two-part documentary Pee-wee as Himself, which premiered at Sundance, promises the same intensity. It shows Paul Reubens away from his persona. Directed by Matt Wolf, the film blends candid interviews, rare footage, and celebrity insights to reveal Reubens’ personal struggles, artistic roots, and cultural impact. Premieres May 23. Trailer here.
Haunting in Connecticut writers Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe are adapting H.P. Lovecraft’s Herbert West: Reanimator into a contemporary horror film. The short story tells the story of a mad scientist, Herbert West, who discovers a solution that can bring the dead back to life. Woodlake Entertainment is financing the project, the first of several elevated genre films.
Mini Tidbit:
Shudder has renewed The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula and its spinoff Titans for new seasons, greenlit a holiday special, and signed a multi-project deal with the drag duo.
ON THIS DAY
1992. Jack Quaid is born in LA.
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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