Friday Night Lights’ Apocalypse Now
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Peter Berg’s Mosquito, Apple’s Smoke, and Sam Neill’s monsters.
Let’s go!
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We love it when cosmic forces bring a creative team back together.
The three prime movers of Friday Night Lights are reuniting on a new football film for Netflix, Mosquito Bowl.
They will reprise their roles:
Mosquito Bowl Dir/Prod/Co-Writer: Peter Berg, who directed and wrote the Friday Night Lights film and was creator/writer on Friday Night Lights series
Mosquito Bowl producer: Brian Glazer, who produced the Friday Night Lights film and series
Mosquito Bowl author: Buzz Bissinger, who wrote the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Synopsis:
After Pearl Harbor, four-star college footballers join the Marines. Before facing Okinawa's invasion, they participate in a historic game with legendary players - for many, their final match.
Berg seems to have found his bliss, combining his aptitude for war films (Mile 22, Lone Survivor) with a football film that may touch on some of the same elements that made Friday Night Lights iconic: young men at crossroads, brotherhood forged under pressure, and the holy ache of wanting to matter.
Berg, for his part, migrated to streaming with a first-look Netflix deal after his last three theatrical films failed to recoup:
Mile 22 (2018)
$50M budget
$66.3M worldwide
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
$110 M budget
$121.8 M worldwide
Patriot’s Day (2016)
$45M budget
$52.2M worldwide
He used to rip out films like Hancock, which made $629.4M against a $150M budget.
In revisiting familiar turf, Mosquito Bowl feels like a natural return for Berg, where football and brotherhood have always been sacred.
Bill Skarsgård and Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You) star. No word on a release date.
For More:
Friday Night Lights series trailer… set to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Immigrant Song. Watch here.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Apple TV+ re-teams with Taron Egerton and creator Dennis Lehane for the crime series Smoke.
Jessica Chastain returns to the horror genre with Universal Pictures’ Incidents Around the House.
Lionsgate scores the rights to the upcoming novel Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride.
DreamWorks Animation's upcoming film Forgotten Island sets a Sept 2026 release.
Sam Neill doubles down on monsters, cast in the upcoming Godzilla x Kong film.
Laura Linney joins the half-hour comedy American Classic from MGM+.
Showtime shows off Dexter: Resurrection first look images.
Andy Serkis does what he does best: mo-capping and voicing a wolf in A Lamb’s Stew.
Cannes Director’s Fortnight reveals its 2025 lineup.
Jesse Eisenberg re-teams with A24 for his new community theater musical comedy film.
A24/Apple TV+ series Margo’s Got Money finds its directors.
Mubi acquires Locarno’s Invention (2024).
Lionsgate’s Hurry Up Tomorrow sells to 65 territories.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Apple TV+ re-teams with Black Bird star Taron Egerton and creator Dennis Lehane for their new crime drama series, Smoke.
Synopsis:
Inspired by true events, “Smoke” follows a troubled detective (Jurnee Smollett) and an enigmatic arson investigator (Egerton) as they pursue the trails of two serial arsonists.
This team is a good play for Apple TV+, as Black Bird won them an Emmy for Paul Walter Hauser’s performance as a serial killer. Plus, Egerton is coming off starring in Netflix’s Carry On, the #2 most popular film on the platform of all time with 172M views.
Another familiar Black Bird face joining the team is Greg Kinnear, who will play the police Commander.
Check out the first look image of Egerton rocking a Canon DSLR. Premiering June 27, 2025 on Apple TV+.
After a string of indie films, Jessica Chastain is leading a studio horror. She has signed on to Universal Pictures’ Incidents Around the House, by director Rob Savage (The Boogeyman, Host) from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse.
Logline:
A young girl is targeted by “The Other Mother”, an entity who haunts her family’s house.
Chastain is not new to horror. She starred in the hit Mama (2013), which helped launch the career of It (2017) director Andy Muschietti. They later reunited on It: Chapter Two (2019), her last venture into the horror genre.
Chastain hasn’t been the sole lead of a studio film that’s been given a theatrical release since The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021), which won Chastain an Oscar but only made $2.7M worldwide.
Since then, she’s been involved in indie projects (Neon’s Mothers’ Instinct, Berlin premiering Michel Franco films Dreams and Memory), Netflix films that either don’t get a theatrical release, like The Good Nurse (2022), or ensemble pieces like The 355 and Armageddon Time.
While few details have been disclosed, the upcoming Savage movie’s script is penned by Succession writer Nathan Elston and is based on a novel with the same title by Josh Malerman.
The combination of Atomic Monster, Blumhouse, and Savage is relatively reliable within the genre, so it will be exciting to see Chastain back in a leading role not only as her return to horror but in the largest production we’ve seen her leading in years.
Tidbits:
Lionsgate has just scored the rights to writer Will Leitch’s upcoming novel Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride. The story follows a middle-aged retired cop who only has months to live and, upon discovering the surplus of benefits awarded to his son if he dies in combat, tries to get himself killed in any way he can. In addition to outbidding Sony and Imagine, Lionsgate brought on producer Garrett Basch (What We Do in the Shadows, Interior Chinatown) to work on the upcoming film adaptation.
DreamWorks Animation's upcoming film Forgotten Island, directed by Joel Crawford (Puss in Boots) and Januel Mercado, is set to release on September 25, 2026. The animated adventure film will be distributed by Universal Pictures and is currently in production. Plot details are currently under wraps.
Mini Tidbits:
Sony's Christian market-focused Affirm Films is releasing On Fire, inspired by the life of John O’Leary, a man who recovered from a near-death circumstance with impossible odds. William H Macy is set to star. Directed by Sean McNamara (Reagan). Releasing on October 10th. Affirm Film’s last big release, The Forge, cleaned up at the box office with $40.4M worldwide.
The animation studio behind Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects, Bandera Entertainment, has promoted Jacey Bradley to VP. Bradley has been with Bandera since it launched in 2019 and will continue to have a key role in the development and production of their diverse slate of animated series.
New shows/seasons trailers:
Max’s And Just Like That... (Season 3) trailer
Release date: May 29th
History’s Kevin Costner’s The West trailer
Release date: Memorial Day
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Sam Neill finds a way: Neill just can't seem to stay away from big, scaly monsters, be it his triumphant return to the Jurassic World franchise a few years ago or his next venture into the Godzilla x Kong monster verse.
Sam Neill has joined the cast of Legendary’s next theatrical Monsterverse film, directed by Grant Sputore and written by Dave Callaham. He’ll star alongside Dan Stevens, who reprises his role from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, as a new cast of non-monster characters face an apocalyptic threat alongside.
Neill recently starred in Peacock’s limited series Apples Never Fall. He also has a bit of a storied career with these monster movies, one of his first big roles being in the '90s cult horror film In the Mouth of Madness. -Clip
The Monsterverse, launched in 2014, has grossed over $2.5bn. Godzilla x Kong 3 will hit theaters March 29th, 2027.
Laura Linney is an American Classic. She will join The Disclaimer’s Kevin Kline, in a new half-hour comedy American Classic from MGM+.
The eight-episode series follows a narcissistic Broadway star named Richard Bean (Kline), who returns to his hometown after suffering a spectacular public meltdown. Bean comes home to see his family-run theater uprooted into a low-rent dinner theater run by his brother Jon and his wife (Linney).
Linney’s character’s first love was not her husband but, of course, the brother Richard Bean (Kline).
This should force a marvelous love triangle. And we love seeing Linney caught between two warring passions like in Ozark. In that series, she grapples with the need to protect her children and the need to support the family, which eventually drags her down into druglord territory with her husband, Marty.
Production kicks off American Classic kicks off New Jersey this summer.
Tidbits
Showtime's original follow-up series, Dexter: Resurrection, is dropping some haunting first-look images.
Other cast include: Krysten Ritter, Uma Thurman, John Lithgow, David Dastmalchian, and Neil Patrick Harris. Emmy nominee Clyde Phillips (Dexter, Nurse Jackie) serves as showrunner and EP. The series is set to premiere this summer on Paramount+.
Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building has had a revolving door of A-list guest stars, with Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart/Lady Bird) as the newest addition tapped for a recurring role in its fifth season. New cast includes Renée Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, Keegan-Michael Key. Storylines for the next season are being kept under wraps, with production already in progress.
Cyclops actor James Marsden joins Season 2 of Apple TV+’s Your Friends and Neighbors as a series regular. Fresh off Paradise and Jury Duty, Marsden’s charm fits perfectly in Apple’s suburban noir.
Andy Serkis does what he does best, mo-capping and voicing a wolf in A Lamb’s Stew, a CG-animated French short joining a cast of T’Nia Miller and newcomer Iris Onyejiuwa.
Trouble brews in paradise in the new Four Seasons trailer which follows couples:
Tina Fey and Will Forte
Steve Carell and Kerri Kenney-Silver
Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani
The trailer, in some ways, plays with who will actually end up divorced. All three couples have their problems, but Steve Carell's midlife crisis wins out in the end. Streaming May 1 on Netflix.
FESTIVALS
Cannes Director’s Fortnight reveals its 2025 lineup. This noncompetition section serves as an independent sidebar at the Cannes, dedicated to showcasing the most singular forms of contemporary cinema.
Here are the standouts:
With a double Palme d’Or winning team:
Dir/Co-Writer: Robin Campillo (writer/editor, Palme d’Or winner The Class)
Co-Writer: Laurent Cantet (dir: The Class)
Prod: Marie-Ange Luciani (Anatomy of a Fall)
Sales Rep: Mk2
Synopsis:
Follows a 16-year-old boy who defies his bourgeois family's expectations by starting a masonry apprenticeship where he meets a charismatic Ukrainian colleague who shakes up his world.
First look photo.
Dir: Eva Victor
Prod: Oscar-winners Adele Romanski and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
Distributor: A24
Synopsis:
Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on - for everyone around her, at least.
A24 picked this up at Sundance for $8M. Alongside Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) and Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice), Victor also stars in her feature directorial debut.
Dir: Christian Petzold (Barbara)
Distributer: Metrograph
Synopsis:
A young music student's life takes an unexpected turn when her boyfriend tragically dies in a car crash, forcing her to reshape her path forward.
Also, Peak Everything from Universal Language producer Sylvain Corbeil was just picked up by Indie Sales (sales rep: Last Swim).
Full list here.
Tidbits:
The Annecy Festival has a work in progress festival showcasing a few gems:
Warner Bros. Cat in the Hat adaptation
Chicken for Linda! director’s follow-up, Carmen. We love the animation style
An animator on Pixar’s WALL-E (2008) and Up directs Fallen, about a farmer’s son with balance problems
Check them all out here.
Giona A. Nazzaro will remain Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival through 2028.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Award-winning actor turned award-winning director Jesse Eisenberg’s next venture behind the camera is a musical movie with A24. The studio previously backed his first film, When You Finish Saving the World (2022, trailer).
His directorial debut starred Julianne Moore as a desperate mother, with the Oscar-winning actress now leading his newest untitled feature alongside Paul Giamatti. The upcoming film follows a shy woman (Moore) who is unexpectedly cast in a community theater musical production, going to extremes as she loses herself in the role.
Bottoms’ Havana Rose Liu, The Little Mermaid’s Halle Bailey, and Broadway’s Bernadette Peters are all newly announced cast members. Fruit Tree is also involved in his next feature, which he worked on with the director of his Oscar-winning film A Real Pain (2024, trailer).
Eisenberg continues to add to his list of skills; in addition to writing and directing, he also wrote the original music and lyrics for the film’s musical with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton) and Anora’s cinematographer Drew Daniels. We like that all his films center on the rewards and the terror of people stretching themselves beyond what is emotionally comfortable.
The A24 and Fruit Tree Eisenberg film has started production this past month.
Margo’s Got Directors. The Apple TV+ series Margo’s Got Money (prod co: A24) starring Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffe, and Nick Offerman has found:
Dearbhla Walsh (Fargo) - dir: pilot + 3 eps
Kate Herron (The Last of Us) - dir: 2 eps
Alice Seabright (Sex Education) dir: 2 eps
David E. Kelley (Presumed Innocent, Big Little Lies) is the creator.
Here’s the official synopsis for the new series based on the bestselling book:
The young mother (Fanning) finds herself struggling to make ends meet. When her estranged father offers help, she starts an OnlyFans account using his advice from pro wrestling. Though successful, she wonders if internet fame comes at too high a cost.
No word yet on who Kidman will play.
Tidbits:
Prime Video has a taste for murder: In a ten-title deal that reads like a case file from Scotland Yard, Prime Video has nabbed a trove of chilling British true-crime tales from distributor Sphere Abacus. From the blood-stained legacy of the Kray twins to the tragic missteps in Joanna Yeates’ murder investigation, these docs promise twisted motives, false leads, and killers hiding in plain sight.
Mubi acquires Invention (2024). The film, which won Best Performance at Locarno, centers on a daughter who received a patent in her father’s will for an electromagnetic healing device. It explores various modalities of healing (trailer). The film will be available on Mubi this summer after a brief theatrical release at Metrograph this weekend.
New “southern gothic thriller” Salvation has been acquired by ITN for North American distribution. Starring The Thin Red Line’s Thomas Jane and Scream’s Skeet Ulrich, the film follows a foster child who is sent to live with a couple in rural Tennessee, where things soon enough take a dark and demonic twist. There is no word yet on when Salvation will premiere.
NYT’s bestselling author Laura Lippman’s crime series is getting the small screen treatment. Tomorrow Studios (The Better Sister, One Piece) has acquired rights to the nine-part series that follows Baltimore native Tess Monaghan, a private investigator and now iconic crime-solving character. Lippman will co-write the series with screenwriter Megan Abbott (Beware the Woman).
The Weeknd’s feature film lead debut in Lionsgate’s Hurry Up Tomorrow has lined up some international buyers with the psychological thriller launching in over 65 global markets. The “I Can’t Feel My Face” singer, aka Abel Tesfaye, stars alongside Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan in the film, which follows an insomniac musician whose world is turned upside-down when he meets a mysterious singer. Hurry Up Tomorrow will open in theaters in the US on May 16th.
Mini Tidbits:
The Untold series returns May 6 with Shooting Guards, a sports doc chronicling NBA stars Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton’s infamous locker room gun incident and its aftermath. Streaming now. Trailer here.
Waxman, a new horror film from writer-director Thomas J. Churchill, has begun filming in Los Angeles. Frank Stallone (Rambo: First Blood) and Jon Abrahams (Scary Movie) lead the cast.
Getting that inspiring feeling from Neon's TIFF-winner Life of Chuck trailer.
ON THIS DAY
1889. Charlie Chaplin born in London.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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