Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Wicked Hot Wheels, Lily Gladstone’s Crown, and an eruption.
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Jon M. Chu (Dir: Wicked) is directing Mattel’s latest toy property, Hot Wheels. Warner Bros. will serve as the studio, and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot will produce.
Mattel has been digging deep into its IP treasure trove of projects that would have been marked as absurd cash grabs (e.g., Barney, Polly Pocket, Monster High) had it not been for their wise and commercially successful adaptation, Barbie.
I believe there’s also a good version of Hot Wheels, one akin to the character dynamics that worked so well in Chu’s Wicked.
Chu has a unique ability to create power struggles between outsiders and insiders that are charming and nefarious in equal measure. That’s how the relationship between Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo played out in Wicked. I was locked into the propulsive tension of the intimate narrative, even when the scale became quite large.
This could play well in Hot Wheels.
From the car’s perspective, there is a psychological feeling of inadequacy, knowing that they can never take part in a full-sized car race or even drive down the street. They’re stuck zooming around a living room sofa.
And that tension between fantasy and reality was what ignited the audience's devotion to Barbie.
The global appeal of Hot Wheels lies in how Mattel stokes the wish fulfillment of both children, who imagine the toy cars as real cars, and adults, who connect back to the joys of childhood. And much like in Barbie, the imaginative world is both inadequate and, ultimately, a source of redemptive power. Such that the car (and child) finally embraces their smallness, not as a flaw, but as its defining feature.
If Mattel/Chu/Abrams/WB decided to go down the path of having these toy cars dream up a plan to compete in a full-size car race, we could see Chu navigate into the psychological terrain of feeling like you’re never too small to accomplish your dreams.
The disaster zone for Hot Wheels would be a Need for Speed-esque knock-off where it’s all adrenaline and no soul (e.g., GI: Joe).
I, for one, am hopeful Chu will steer Hot Wheels in the right direction.
For More:
G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Lily Gladstone and Kenneth Branagh join the cast of Michael B. Jordan’s Thomas Crown Affair remake.
Kaz & Ryan Firpo (writers: Marvel’s Eternals) adapt Michael Crichton’s Eruption for Sony.
FX greenlights Movers, a workplace comedy from Reno 911! creators.
Tubi rescues AMC’s Damascus series.
50% of Netflix users watch anime.
Robby Hoffman (Hacks) joins Steve Carell’s untitled campus-set comedy.
Logan Marshall-Green replaces Cosmo Jarvis in Nolan’s The Odyssey.
Billie Lourd joins The Pirate King, starring Robby Riggle.
John Slattery is cast in Netflix’s Vladimir.
Secrets of the Mountain Serpent will debut at the Venice Film Festival.
Karlovy Vary Festival’s Future Future is an AI-inspired sci-fi in crimson.
Agnieszka Holland’s next film, Being There, is a biopic centering on a literary scandal.
The BBC has announced the full cast for Dear England.
Netflix promotes Łukasz Kłuskiewicz to head the CEE region.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Michael B. Jordan and Amazon MGM Studios’ reimagining of the romantic heist thriller The Thomas Crown Affair has just announced a number of A-list talent hopping on board.
Actor-director Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) and the Oscar-nominated Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) are some of the newest additions to join the cast, for now, in undisclosed roles. Black Panther’s Danai Gurira has also been cast, meaning an exciting reunion with Jordan, who is writing, directing, producing, and starring in the remake.
Oscar-winning Oppenheimer producer Charles Roven is also now attached to produce via his Atlas Entertainment banner.
Plot details remain under tight constraints, but both the 1968 original film and the 1999 remake followed a wealthy, thrill-seeking man (Jordan) who chooses to orchestrate a high-stakes robbery just for the thrill of it, only to find himself entangled in a complex chase with a brilliant investigator (Taylor Russell).
For an IP that has already been heavily reworked since its inception, Jordan has compiled a really intriguing group. Production has begun this week in London, with the highly anticipated film set to premiere in theaters on March 5th, 2027.
Screenwriting cousins Kaz & Ryan Firpo partner with Sony to adapt Michael Crichton's last book, Eruption. The Firpo's created a lot of Blacklist buzz with their debut script Ruin, which lead to them writing Marvel's The Eternals along with its director Chloe Zhao.
Synopsis:
A history-making eruption is about to destroy the Big Island of Hawaii. But a secret held for decades by the US military is far more terrifying than any volcano.
Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (dir: Free Solo) have exited as directors.
Interestingly, Crichton (writer: Jurassic Park, Twister, ER) died in 2008, and his widow brought the manuscript to James Patterson, who finished off the book.
Tidbits:
Fox’s Tubi (world’s largest content library) picks up AMC Studios’ Damascus. The six-part series centers on a man’s self-discovery mission into reality-altering technology. AMC canned the series due to budget cuts in 2023. Also, Tubi is growing its ad team. They’ve added Sharon Silverstein (now the SVP, head of U.S. verticals) and Katelyn Kroneman (VP of finance) from Snapchat’s parent company.
The Paramount Global–Skydance merger drags on. Though approved by the SEC and European Commission, the FCC has yet to sign off, triggering an automatic 90-day extension until Oct 5th. If FCC approval isn’t secured by then, Paramount and Skydance can choose to terminate the agreement without any fee. The sign-off seems to be more certain after Paramount settled the Trump/ABC lawsuit.
From the team behind Reno 911!, FX greenlights new workplace comedy Movers with 20th Television. Robert Ben Garant and Cathy Shim co-created the goofy Comedy Central cop series and, in addition to creating this new series, will produce and star. Movers is said to be an improvised comedy revolving around the erratic and codependent lives of a crew of movers.
Mini Tidbit:
Netflix recently revealed at Anime Expo that 50% of global users watch anime. No wonder they are doubling down on their own output, announcing Cyberpunk Edgerunners Season 2, among many others, including a variety of simulcasts.
Scarlett Johansson is now the top-grossing actor ever, passing previous record holder Samuel L. Jackson, largely due to Marvel films. Her overall gross has surpassed $15.8bn. Expect to see her in a million things in the next couple of years.
Trailers:
Neon’s marketing team is in full force with the new Together trailer, which sees a disconnected married couple, Dave Franco and Alison Brie, literally reconnected. Release date July 30.
Netflix’s My Life With the Walter Boys (Season 2) trailer. Release date: Aug 28th. Netflix’s Alice in Borderland (Season 3) trailer. Release date: Sept 25th.
Universal’s Jaws 50th Anniversary IMAX trailer. These re-releases are blowing up at the box office. This weekend, Spinal Tap made over $1M, 41 years after it was released, and Paramount’s 10-year Interstellar re-release made $3.3M in its opening weekend. Let’s see if Jaws still has a bite. Release date: Aug 29th.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Robby Hoffman (Hacks) has joined the Steve Carell-led untitled campus-set comedy from Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses as a recurring guest star. The series explores the complex relationship between a writer and his daughter.
This has been a big year for Robby after a major role acknowledgment in Hacks Season 4 and now signing on to work with a comedy legend like Carell. HBO is also showing her a lot of love, greenlighting "Unentitled," a comedy series she will write and star in. It follows a standup comedian navigating through life, something which Hoffman is familiar with, being a standup comedian herself. Both of these projects are entering production this year.
Tidbit:
Odyssey minus Jarvis. Shōgun's Cosmo Jarvis has exited Nolan’s The Odyssey. He will be replaced by Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus, The Invitation), who, like Jarvis, excels at portraying men with a rugged exterior and a vulnerable interior, often having to navigate survival in hostile situations. The specific role Marshall-Green is taking over in The Odyssey has not yet been disclosed.
Noah Taylor’s life unravels. In the upcoming indie Trash TV, Taylor plays a cynical host 4000 episodes deep into his talk show. We like Taylor for this, who you might remember delivered the exposition in Edge of Tomorrow as the very on-edge scientist (“has Tom Cruise seen any visions” clip). Directed by first-time feature director Danny Lee.
Brian Altemus plays a neurologist in training in NBC’s Brilliant Minds. The show stars Zachary Quito as a Neurologist inspired by the real-life Oliver Sacks. Altemus had an unforgettable scene in The Time Traveler’s Wife, which explores one of the “perks” of being a time traveler… NSFW clip.
Billie Lourd (Carrie Fisher's daughter), Matt Barr, and Elizabeth Tulloch have joined the comedy-drama The Pirate King, starring Rob Riggle and Jordana Brewster. Riggle draws upon his own military background to play a Marine veteran battling PTSD who finds solace and community through a pirate reenactment group. Filming is underway in Virginia Beach, with Lourd also producing.
John Slattery (Mad Men), Jessica Henwick (Glass Onion), and Ellen Robertson (Mickey 17) join the ensemble for Netflix’s limited series Vladimir, starring Rachel Weisz. Based on Julia May Jonas’s novel, the eight-episode thriller will follow a woman who becomes obsessed with her charismatic new colleague, Vladimir. Currently in production.
Period action-thriller The Butler adds newcomer Molly McCann (The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping) co-starring alongside Jean Reno (Ronin) and Tom Hollander (Pride & Prejudice) with Tom Edmunds (Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back) directing and writing the feature.
Abigail Spencer (Suits) joins the new Fox medical comedy Best Medicine as the lead opposite Josh Charles (The Good Wife). Based on the British series Doc Martin, Spencer will play a small-town school teacher similar to her breakout role in Mad Men (scenes). Josh Segarra (Sirens) also joins.
FESTIVALS
Secret of a Mountain Serpent will premiere at the Venice Film Festival through Venice’s Biennale College Cinema, which helps fund low-budget productions up to $250K.
Synopsis:
A teacher whose husband is away fighting in the Kargil War. Her life becomes disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger.
Berlin’s Teddy Award-winner for best prize for queer cinema Lesbian Space Princess, finds UK/Irish distribution with Peccadillo Pictures (UK/Irish distributor for BFI’s Sebastian).
Synopsis:
A space princess is thrust out of her sheltered life and into a galactic quest to save her bounty hunter ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens.
Best trailer line- “I’m too hot to die.”
In the Karlovy Vary Festival’s ever-continuing rain of cinematic gems, we have Future Future. The film feels like it’s dripped from the inkwell of Philip K. Dick about a future where everything is slowly turning red.
Here’s the full synopsis:
In a rainy near future Brazilian city, an amnesic man embarks on a tragic and absurd journey to find where he truly belongs after using an AI device created to help people with a strange neurological syndrome.
The trailer has a whisper of Gaspar Noé.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL FILM
Oscar-nominated director Agnieszka Holland (Mr. Jones) has turned her lens onto the Polish-American author Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird), who died by suicide after his novel Being There was accused of being plagiarized.
What you’re missing…
How Holland’s cinema sets her up for this new film.
Oscar-winning filmmakers’ trailer for their latest Sundance film.
Black Mirror/Dr. Who actress stars in a new BBC drama.
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