Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
HBO’s Justice, Netflix’s Pause, and Persepolis.
Let’s go!
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I interviewed Kylie Eaton, the Executive Director of the Alliance of Women Directors. Their upcoming intensive, Back to Set, features Paul Feig and Reed Morano as keynote speakers.
They also have great interactive live sessions for pitching, casting, and even episodic television prep.
Check out the full interview with more information here.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
HBO Max develops Gabrielle Union's legal procedural Debbie.
Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington’s Netflix epic pauses over budget.
Peacock’s All Her Fault team adapts home-invasion mystery The Break-In.
Amazon MGM eyes a sequel to Anna Todd romance The Last Sunrise.
Tubi expands its Kevin “KevOnStage” Fredericks partnership.
Lionsgate TV promotes Keith Warren to Head of TV Business Affairs.
Disney launches company-wide creative agency Main Street.
SAG-AFTRA ratifies new AMPTP contract with 91% approval.
Chace Crawford (The Boys) + P.J. Byrne reunite for Amazon’s We Once Were Men.
Sadie Sink leads FX/A24 limited series The Marriage Plot.
Ellen Pompeo stars in Hulu crime dramedy pilot Chicks.
Deborah Kampmeier directs Mariel Hemingway in Mexico-set indie Holy Whore.
FilmNation acquires Gabe Delahaye thriller I’d Like to Speak to Your Manager.
Marjane Satrapi, creator of Persepolis, dies at 56.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Christmas Movie, genre of Schwarzenegger-directed film.
61% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
HBO Max might be making a courthouse version of The Pitt. HBO Max is developing Debbie, a legal drama starring Gabrielle Union (Bad Boys II). The show is being described as an elevated legal drama procedural, following attorney Debbie Powell who is forced to rebuild her career after a spectacular public downfall.
If it’s even a fraction as visceral as The Pitt, it will be spellbinding. The non-stop medical fury of The Pitt is like a ballet set in a hospital. That same energy could re-shape the legal procedural.
HBO Max is doubling down on procedurals after The Pitt garnered 15 nominations and took home 5 Emmys (including Best Drama Series).
Debbie is intended to be a repeatable, affordable, and long-running series. The show will be written by Bradley Bredeweg (Wri: The Fosters) and Matthew Thomas (Wri: Missed Call).
Tidbits:
From kidnapping to robberies. Megan Gallagher (creator: Peacock’s All Her Fault) and Carnival Films (prod co: All Her Fault) are re-teaming for a new female-led mystery series adaptation, The Break-In. Set in the aftermath of a devastating home invasion. A woman, desperate for answers, discovers she may need to start looking closer to home. The playdate gone wrong kidnapping series, All Her Fault, was Peacock’s biggest original launch to date, with the new adaptation expected to follow a similar formula.
Amazon MGM is looking to continue its steamy European summer with a sequel to the forthcoming romance adaptation The Last Sunrise. The film explores finding love amidst personal, medical, and familial obstacles. Announcing a potential sequel prior to its premiere highlights Amazon's continuing attention towards the YA genre. From the author behind the After series, Anna Todd, The Last Sunrise will drop exclusively on Prime Video July 17.
Mini Tidbits:
Netflix is halting production on Antoine Fuqua (dir: Training Day) sixth collab with Denzel Washington, the untitled Hannibal epic. Budget is the main concern. This summer’s shoot in Italy has been put on pause. No word on when production resumes.
Tubi sets its most expansive creator partnership yet, a multi-project slate with Kevin “KevOnStage” Fredericks (Churchy). His latest Tubi mini-series, Safe Space, built a strong following last year, leading the streamer to renew the series for S2.
Lionsgate Television is promoting 12-year veteran Keith Warren (ABC’s The Rookie franchise) to Head of Television Business Affairs. The news comes shortly after the sudden departure of the television group’s Vice Chairman, Sandra Stern.
Amanda Alley becomes Production VP at A/Vantage Pictures (Prod Co: Highest 2 Lowest) after eight years at Skydance.
SAG-AFTRA ratifies new contract with AMPTP. 91% voted “Yes.”
Greenlight:
Starz’s Power sequel Power: Legacy
Wri/EP: Gary Lennon (Power)
Renewal:
Netflix’s Devil May Cry (for S3, final season)
Showrunner: Adi Shankar (Castlevania)
First Look:
Umbrella Entertainment’s Penny Lane Is Dead
Dir/Wri: Mia Kate Russell
Cast: Ben O’Toole
Release: Jul 23
Trailer:
Monument Releasing’s Memory of Princess Mumbi
Dir: Damien Hauser (After the Long Rains)
N.A. premiere at TIFF (2025)
Release: Aug 14
Lionsgate’s Fall 2: Deadpoint
Dir: The Spierig Brothers (Predestination)
Release: Sept 2
Release Dates:
Black Bear’s Jason Statham Stole My Bike
Dir: David Leitch
Cast: Jason Statham
Genre: Action Comedy
Release: Aug 6, 2027
When Liam Neeson went full comedy in The Naked Gun, that may have been enough of a proof of concept to put Statham in a self-referential role.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
From The Boys’ enemies to brothers. The Boys stars Chace Crawford and P.J. Byrne are set to play brothers on a new Amazon series, We Once Were Men.
It is a satirical black comedy about male identity in collapse. Byrne and Crawford will play brothers among a group of men seeking to rediscover their purpose at a radical reclaim retreat.
This casting is darkly comedic and yet so fitting, since The Deep (Chace Crawford) had a long-lasting grudge against Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) in The Boys just because Bourke wouldn’t let him improvise on his movie set. This ultimately resulted in The Deep doing something where Bourke, to say it lightly, ends up on the bottom.
We think Chace and Byrne will both be great at depicting different types of toxicity, the Alpha and the Omega, the overly confident bro and the sad sack. We would love to see the same enemy energy as sibling tension in Amazon’s upcoming series.
She survived the Upside Down, now she’ll try to survive adulthood. Sadie Sink is set to lead the FX limited series The Marriage Plot. Adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name and produced by A24, the coming-of-age romance series is centered on three recent graduates caught in a complicated love triangle.
After years growing up on at Netflix to acclaimed turns in The Whale and multiple Broadway shows, Sink’s post-Stranger Things resume is filling up fast with The Marriage Plot her first short-form television series. There is no word yet on who will play her love interests but safe to say Sink has gained enough star power to headline a show all on her own.
Tidbits:
Grey’s Anatomy’s Ellen Pompeo has found her next TV home at Hulu with the dramedy pilot Chicks. Pompeo will EP and star as Chickie, a woman struggling to get by alongside her estranged sister when their father unexpectedly passes away, leaving them nothing but a legacy of two-bit crime. The project reunites Pompeo with Katie Robbins, the creator of Hulu miniseries Good American Family (2025) where the actress played a mother suspicious of the age of her adopted daughter.
Kelsey Asbille (Yellowstone) joins Amazon MGM’s action film The Kellys, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games franchise). The film follows a disgraced NYC cop whose wife is taken hostage by terrorists, leading him to join forces with the people he fears most: his family. Character details are kept under wraps and Thunder Road (Prod Co: John Wick franchise) will produce the film.
Legal drama pilot Public Interest adds TV regular Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) as an attorney unexpectedly made the president of her law firm. While known for her iconic television matriarchs, Public Interest will be Heaton’s first TV role since her guest spot on Paramount+’s Frasier reboot (2023). A network or streamer is yet to be attached.
Mini Tidbits:
Joshua Jackson joins cast of Apple’s Your Friends & Neighbors. For the third season, the Dawson’s Creek actor will join Michelle Monaghan (The White Lotus) in recurring roles, whether they will be wealthy neighbors or directly involved is unknown.
James Badge Dale (13 Hours), Abigail Cowen (The Ritual), and Edouard Philipponnat (Napoleon) join the cast of psychological thriller The Guide. The film will follow a young woman entering a psilocybin retreat and becomes stuck in a nightmare.
Top Gun: Maverick actor James Handy has died at 81 due to stab wounds. Handy gave a number of strong supporting performances, like the doctor in Logan (2017), the exterminator in the original Jumanji (1995), and a recurring role on ABC’s Alias.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
From aristocrats in New York City’s elite Gilded Age to sex workers in Mexico, indie filmmaker Deborah Kampmeier’s first feature in six years is titled Holy Whore.
Starring the Oscar-nominated Mariel Hemingway (Manhattan), the film will follow “a modern-day courtesan” whose past addictions force her into a healing journey that leads her to become an inspiring sex therapist.
After her Sundance-premiering film Hounddog (2007), Kampmeier spent several years in the TV space directing episodes of shows like HBO’s The Gilded Age and Prime Video’s Outer Range.
Filming on Holy Whore will begin in Mexico this summer.
Tidbits:
Bob Yari’s Magenta Light Studios acquires theatrical rights to Flavia, starring Martin Freeman (Sherlock) and Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes). The film follows an eleven-year-old amateur detective who tries to save her father from being accused of murder. The film was directed by Bharat Nalluri (Dir: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day starring Frances McDormand) and will be released in U.S. theaters on December 4th.
Canada’s Serial Maven Studios (Distribution: Tiger 24) buys international distribution rights of Channel 4’s The Dunblane Tapes (2026, Trailer). The feature documentary explores the aftermath of the 1996 Dunblane School shooting that led to a handgun reform in the UK. It follows three mothers who launched a nationwide campaign to lobby the government to ban the private use of handguns in Britain. The doc aired on Channel 4 and received raves from critics and audiences.
Mini Tidbits:
FilmNation acquires absurdist-thriller I’d Like to Speak to Your Manager for feature development. No info on the plot of Gabe Delahaye’s (Wri: HBO Max’s Close Enough) project. Produced by Craig Gillespie (Dir: Cruella) and his company Fortunate Jack.
Canada’s Shaftesbury (Prod Co: CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries) names Jay Bennett as its SVP, Franchise Strategy & Innovation. Bennett joined the company a decade ago and is most known for producing Backpackers – the first Canadian series to transfer to U.S.
Iranian-French author and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi has died at 56. Best known for her autobiographical illustrated novel Persepolis, an eye-opening story set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it was later adapted into the powerful Oscar-nominated feature film (trailer, 2007). Her timeless words will continue her legacy.
ON THIS DAY
1998. The Truman Show is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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