Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
George Clooney’s Love, Paramount’s Horror and Lizard Music.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
Just a reminder, I (Gabe Miller), will be hosting a panel at this year’s Woodstock Film Festival this Sunday afternoon. If you’re there stop by and say “hello.”
Here’s a link for more details:
https://woodstockfilmfestival.org/2025-state-of-the-artist
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
George Clooney and Annette Bening will star in In Love.
Amazon MGM’s United Artists picks up Dwayne Johnson and Benny Safdie’s Lizard Music.
FilmNation and SK Global partner on new slate.
Paramount renews its exclusive deal with Walter Hamada’s 18Hz Productions.
Netflix greenlights The Granville Girls, a historical romance series.
FX developing Last Night Was a Movie, a comedy.
Apple and Peacock launch a streaming bundle.
Disney extends Kristina Schake’s contract as comms chief through June 2027.
Eva Victor joins Searchlight’s Behemoth! opposite Pedro Pascal.
Patrick Fischler to guest-star in Apple TV+’s Cape Fear and Hulu’s Paradise S2.
Neon acquires Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers for 2026 release.
Vertical to release Sundance 2025 winner Atropia (Dir: Hailey Gates).
1-2 Special hires Sony Classics alum Jonathan DeMaio as VP of Distribution.
Strand acquires Venice Spotlight’s Calle Malaga.
Quiver Distribution lands Noseeums.
Canal+ acquires 34% stake in French cinema chain UGC.
Sky adapting Frankie Boyle’s novel Meantime into a dark comedy-thriller.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
George Clooney is learning to love again.
He will star opposite Annette Bening in In Love, an adaptation of Amy Bloom’s acclaimed memoir In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, directed by Paul Weitz (About a Boy).
Once building his career on the romantic/romcom genre (see One Fine Day), for a while Clooney had not really been seen in one for decades, even saying at one point that he will not be doing romantic movies anymore.
That was until a brief return in Ticket to Paradise (2022) with Julia Roberts, because the script was written specifically for him and Julia and more reflecting their real-life friendship. Getting technical, this was really more about divorcees becoming friends. But I digress…
He is already getting award buzz for his meta take on his own life with Jay Kelly. So what brought him back?
The film is dark and complex, chronicling a couple’s heartbreaking decision to end life on their own terms sounds like a heavy subversion of the genre and probably tickles Clooney’s more recent desire for complex roles.
Nothing is quite as complicated as love and death.
Currently in production.
From Red One to Lizard Music. Amazon MGM is partnering with Dwayne Johnson again on a new film, Lizard Music, through their United Artists banner.
It’s also re-team also for Johnson and director Benny Safdie. Johnson will play a “Chicken Man”. He described his character as:
“A whimsical and eccentric man called ‘The Chicken Man’ and his best friend is a 70-something-year-old chicken.”
The synopsis is even wilder:
A young boy stumbles upon strange lizard musicians on late-night TV [pictured above], leading him to befriend a peculiar man (Johnson).
Clearly, the two like working with each other. Safdie grabbed a really powerful and human performance out of The Rock in The Smashing Machine. Sadly, I think it hit at a time where people were either a bit Rocked out or it felt a bit too cerebral and quiet for his Jumanji audience.
Tidbits:
Glen Basner’s legendary FilmNation (Anora, Conclave etc.) is partnering with SK Global (prod. Anyone But You) on the latter’s film slate. The first project on the docket is Reykjavik, another dramatic role for Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, Netflix’s A Man in Full) as Ronald Reagan and Mad Men’s Jared Harris as Mikhail Gorbachev in the upcoming historical thriller. Under the new deal, FilmNation will manage international sales and assist in the development of SK Global’s newest features.
Paramount has renewed its exclusive, multi-year production deal with Walter Hamada’s 18Hz Productions. Known for EPing The Conjuring, It, and The Batman, Hamada will continue focusing on horror, producing several low-to-mid-budget films annually. The renewal coincides with the trailer debut for 18Hz’s Primate, getting some buzz online. Trailer here. In the next couple of months, Paramount has Scream 7 premiering a month after Primate, and then in June, the return of Scary Movie, it looks like they are really trying to carve a niche in horror on all fronts.
Not the Gilmore Girls, The Granville Girls. Netflix’s new historical romance series is officially greenlit from showrunner Adriana Maggs (dir. Sundance’s Grown Up Movie Star). The eight-episode show follows the fictional Granville Hotel’s newest hire who while forming great female friendships is also dangerously tempted to break her job’s forbidden rule of getting close to the men. From a period romance with Bridgerton to a western love story in Ransom Canyon, the streamer seems like the right pick for The Granville Girls. Based on Cat Cahill’s Gilbert Girls novels, filming will take place in the Canadian Rockies.
FX is developing Last Night Was a Movie, a high-concept comedy series from the viral sketch group Almost Friday. It’s a powerhouse of collaborators joining the sketch group of Tyler Falbo, Billy Langdon, Liam Cullagh, Chet Collins, Eilise Patton, and Will Angus. But with production being handled by Boulderlight Pictures (Weapons), and showrun by American Vandal creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault. Almost Friday has always had their sketches stand above the rest with some great cinematic composition and some really clever twists. I love this one.
Apple and Peacock are launching a streaming bundle, a growing necessity in the ever-evolving streamer landscape. Starting Monday for $14.99 a month, subscribers can mix ad-supported or ad-free Peacock tiers with Apple TV, this deal definitely leans heavily on Apple, but good to see people are getting a bit more for their bucks. These combined services need all the boost they can get. Peacock had 41M subs as of Q2 2025, with Apple TV+ having an estimated 45M. Compare that to Netflix’s 300M+ subs.
Mini Tidbits:
Netflix will debut Marines, a four-part docuseries following the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. The series plans to focus on the intense training, camaraderie, and emotional challenges faced by young Marines. Premiering November 11. Watch the trailer.
Disney has locked in Kristina Schake as its communications chief through June 2027 extending her contract by two years. She’ll steer the company’s messaging specifically during the upcoming CEO transition.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s CNN is launching a streaming service. This will cover their website and their live-streaming. Price: $6.99/month. Launching Oct 28th.
It is almost Lifetime’s favorite time of year. The network has 12 holiday movies on their upcoming slate including Christmas Everyday led by “The Boy is Mine” singer Brandy Norwood and her daughter Sy’rai in her acting debut.
Trailers for upcoming films:
Apple TV+’s Come See Me in the Good Light (doc)
Premiere: Sundance
Release: Nov 14
Apple TV+’s The Palme Royale (S2)
Release: Nov 12
Sony Pictures Classics + Fathom Events’ Merrily We Roll Along
Filmed version of the Broadway show
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff
Release: Dec 5
HBO’s The Seduction
French series
Release: Nov 14
Music Box Films’ Zodiac Killer Project
Premiere: SXSW
Winner: Sundance’s Innovator Award
Release: Nov 21
Orphan
Dir: László Nemes (Son of Saul)
Premiere: Venice
The Age of Disclosure (UFO doc)
Premiere: SXSW
Release: Nov 21
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner: Sundance Jury Prize (doc)
NYC release: Nov 21
Vertical’s Stone Cold Fox
Cast: Krysten Ritter, Kiefer Sutherland
Release: Nov 7
Caterpillar (doc)
Premiere: SXSW
Neon’s The Secret Agent
Winner: Cannes, Best Actor, Best Director
Release: Nov 26
Netflix’s The Beast in Me
Cast: Claire Danes
Release: Nov 13
Oscilloscope’s Natchez
Winner: Tribeca Film Festival Best Doc
NYC Release: Jan 30
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Eva Victor goes from baby to Behemoth! After giving a beautifully subtle performance in the indie drama Sorry, Baby (trailer), Victor is set to join Searchlight’s Behemoth! opposite Pedro Pascal and David Harbour.
Victor has appeared in several smaller projects like FX’s The Characters and Hulu’s Difficult People, yet her moment in the spotlight was undoubtedly her directorial debut Sorry, Baby. Victor also starred in the film as a literature professor navigating the aftermath of a traumatic event. The film’s non-linear narrative and Victor’s nuanced portrayal delves into the complexities of recovery, blending dark humor with emotional depth resulting in a really raw and brutally honest performance, one of my personal acting MVPs of the year.
While I wouldn’t be surprised if she continued pursuing indie projects, it will be interesting to see how the actress navigates a role within an ensemble in a much bigger production especially where she doesn’t have all the creative control.
Right now, little is known of Behemoth! besides it being about someone who plays the cello, but with Searchlight, Andor’s Tony Gilroy and strong star power and talent in its cast this may be one to look out for.
Patrick Fischler, the iconic character actor who made our skin shiver in Mulholland Drive (clip), has bagged two guest-starring roles:
Apple TV+’s Cape Fear
Hulu’s Paradise (S2)
No word on his characters in each, but more recently, he’s been in Netflix’s Fair Play and American Fiction.
The ever-growing The Boys prequel Vought Rising adds:
Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time)
Romi Shraiter (Ginny & Georgia)
Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica)
David Hewlett (The Shape of Water)
Set in the 1950s, it explores Vought’s origins outlined by The Boys’ Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles)’s early exploits, and Stormfront (Aya Cash)’s rise as Clara Vought.
Tidbits:
Tenoch Huerta (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Richard Cabral (Mayans M.C.) have joined Eleven Days, the true story-based prison hostage thriller directed by Peter Landesman and led by Diego Luna (Andor). This is a bit of a reunion, both of these men have shared the screen with Luna before. Huerta in Narcos: Mexico and Cabral starred with Luna in 2016’s Blood Father. Currently in production.
Ed Williams, best known as the quirky lab scientist Ted Olson in Police Squad! and The Naked Gun films, has died at 98. A longtime broadcasting teacher turned actor, Williams began his entertainment career in radio and theater before teaching at L.A. City College for nearly three decades. His second act began in the early 1980s when the Zucker brothers cast him in Police Squad!, a role he reprised through three Naked Gun films. Clip. He will be missed.
Ozark’s Marc Menchaca is the newest cast addition to the Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch (working title) that follows Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser) on their new ranch. Menchaca will play a former convict trying to rebuild his life as a cowboy. The role seems to mirror his character arc in Ozark. The father of Wyatt, he moves from gruff hillbilly to more thoughtful man. Dutton Ranch will drop on Paramount+ sometime in 2026.
Mini Tidbits:
Emily in Paris’ Ashley Park stars opposite Taylor John Smith (Warfare) in Basic, an indie comedy based on the award winning SXSW short. Unlike her character in the Netflix series, Park is far less confident in Basic with her boyfriend (Smith) stolen from right under her nose.
PJ Byrne (Green Book), Toby Kebbell (For All Mankind), Tracy Letts, and Jay Duplass join Peter Farrelly and MGM’s I Play Rocky, chronicling Sylvester Stallone’s battle to star in Rocky. Currently in production.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Neon grabs Steven Soderbergh’s new film The Christophers and will be releasing sometime in 2026.
The cast is a very interesting mix of old and new talent:
Ian McKellen
Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You)
James Corden
Synopsis:
Estranged children of a once-famous artist who hire a forger to complete his unfinished works so they can be discovered and sold after his death.
It’s got flavors of Soderbergh’s patented Ocean’s 11 film. But also a hint of meditation on a family being haunted by the dead, reflected more literally in his most recent film, Presence, which Neon released in January.
2025 Sundance winner Atropia finally gets picked up for distribution. Vertical has taken US rights and is eyeing a December release.
Details:
Dir/Wri: Hailey Gates (Actress: Uncut Gems)
Star: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner
Prod: Luca Guadagnino (dir: Challengers, Call Me By Your Name)
Synopsis:
When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.
I caught the film at Sundance and personally would have loved to see the satire be more biting and the horrors of war explored more deeply, but I did love how it navigated worlds of fiction and reality.
Tidbits:
1-2 Special’s (Urchin, Rose of Nevada) sphere of influence keeps growing. The distributor just brought on a new VP of Distribution, Jonathan DeMaio. He worked at Sony Pictures Classics for 11 years, most recently as their Director of Sales. He helped with distribution for Whiplash, Son of Saul, Call Me By Your Name, and most recently I’m Still Here.
Strand has acquired North American distribution rights for Venice Spotlight’s Calle Málaga. The film follows an aged Spanish woman (evocative first look still) in Tangier who resists her daughter’s decision to sell her home. Sol Bondy (producer: Holy Spider, Köln 75, and Co-P: The Secret Agent) co-produces.
Quiver Distribution (Cleaner) has secured North American rights to Noseeums, the feature debut of Austin-based filmmaker Raven DeShay Carter. Shot in Florida, the socially charged Southern Gothic horror follows Ember (a Black college student) who faces supernatural retribution tied to the historic loss of Black land ownership. The film will next screen at the Atlanta HorrorFest, Santa Fe International Film Festival, and Ethereal HorrorFest in Austin.
Sin City actress Jaime King is expanding her creative reach behind the camera as producer of Neon Candy, an indie neo-western film backed by Perlino Pictures, fka Yeehaw Films (The Sinners). Neon Candy is a dream-like road trip story turned thriller, currently in its early stages of production.
Trevor Noah (The Daily Show)’s prod co Day Zero, and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Foolish Club Studios are producing a soccer/football (like with your foot) documentary on Kansas City teen refugees uniting as Global FC to compete in the USA Cup.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Canal+ is making strategic moves to expand its financial footprint.
The company has acquired a 34% stake in massive French cinema chain UGC, with plans for full ownership post-2028. Additionally, they announced a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to broaden its investor base in Africa. The deal with the Euro giant greatly positions Canal+ for stronger global growth and market influence now having access to UGC’s extensive content library as well as their theaters.
Sky is nearing a deal to adapt Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle’s debut novel Meantime into a TV series. Described as Withnail and I meets James Bond, the Glasgow-set dark comedy-thriller follows Valium addict Felix McAveety investigating his friend’s murder, uncovering a bizarre world of politics, AI, and cults. Sounds fun!
Italy-based Summerside Media (Anna) has acquired world sales to How to Shout, a Finnish psychological thriller. Russian actress Alina Tomnikov (Amazon’s Bloodaxe) is leading the film with no word yet on if she is teaching people how to shout or is the one learning.
ON THIS DAY
1918. Rita Hayworth born in NYC.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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Jonathan DeMaio's move from Sony Pictures Classics to 1-2 Special is really interesting timing. He's leaving right after helping I'm Still Here become Sony Classics' second Best International Feature Oscar winner (after A Fantastic Woman in 2018), which speaks to the distributor's presige positioning in the awards circuit. His 11-year tenure saw him work on some genuinely great films - Whiplash remains one of the best music films ever made, and Call Me By Your Name was a cultural moment. The Merrily We Roll Along release through Sony Classics + Fathom Events is smart - filming Broadway shows for theatrical distribution taps into live theater audiences who can't always get to NYC, and Radcliffe/Groff have serious fan bases. It's the kind of specialty theatrical play that requires exactly the expertise DeMaio built at Sony Classics. Meanwhile, 1-2 Special getting more aggressive with their distribution arm after Urchin and Rose of Nevada shows they're trying to scale from festival acquisitions into a real competitor in the arthouse space.