James Bond plays Judi Dench
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Pierce Brosnan’s Spy, Sony’s Legends, and Berlinale Cologne.
Let’s go!
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Pierce Brosnan is back in the spy business.
He will play the head of an intelligence agency in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming Black Bag, led by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as married spies, in what appears to be a psychologically complex take on Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Brosnan’s image of Bond has largely evaporated from the public consciousness.
The actor, who held down the role from ‘95 - ‘02, was eclipsed by Daniel Craig’s last incarnation, a post-9/11 Bond, whose vulnerability, combined with remorse for his past actions, set him apart from previous iterations of 007.
Brosnan himself described his on-screen presence as Bond as superficial:
“It was a very hard one to grasp the meaning of, for me. The violence was never real, the brute force of the man was never palpable. It was quite tame, and the characterisation didn’t have a follow-through of reality, it was surface.”
So while Craig, after playing Bond, has had a renaissance (Queer, Knives Out), Brosnan has been languishing playing either simulacra of Bond (The November Man) or stereotypical dads (Mama Mia!).
Luckily, Soderbergh recognized something greater within him.
What stands out in the Black Bag trailer is how much Brosnan’s chief of intelligence shares shades of Judi Dench’s iconic performance as M, the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. Brosnan’s new character displays something his old Bond never did: the weight and wisdom of missions gone wrong.
It seems sitting across from Dame Judi Dench all those years, has manifested within Brosnan something deeper and more nuanced. We can’t wait to see him in Black Bag.
Focus Features releases theatrically on March 14th, 2025.
For More:
Black Bag trailer.
Brosnan’s Bond and Dench’s M first scene: Bean counter vs. dinosaur.
Why was Daniel Craig perfect casting for James Bond? It has to do with Jason Bourne:
https://theindustry.co/p/how-jason-bourne-changed-cinema
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Sony’s Karate Kids: Legends unites multiple generations of the franchise, starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso (The OG Karate Kid) alongside Jackie Chan.
Marvel Studios executive Nate Moore is set to leave the company in mid-March 2025.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the highly anticipated conclusion to the animated trilogy, was just announced to be directed by Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson.
Two of Disney/Pixar’s Elemental writers, John Hoberg and Kat Likkel, will adapt a new animated film, Christmas Forever.
Oscar shortlist here.
Renewals: Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey, Prime’s Secret Level.
Emilia Clarke finds herself in love against a backdrop of the modern London jazz scene in Next Life from writer-director Drake Doremus (dir. Like Crazy).
Catherine Hardwicke's (dir: Twilight) new film is based on the novel If You Could See Me Now and will star Ansel Elgort.
Berlinale will premiere films by Michel Gondry, Ira Sachs and Ido Fluk (Dir: The Ticket).
The screenplays for A Different Man and Moana 2 are here.
Rotterdam International Film Festival drops some big names for their program talks: Cate Blanchett, Guy Maddin (Dir: Rumours), and Lol Crawley (DP: The Brutalist).
CAA and YouTube partner to help tamp down AI’s rampant plundering of celebrity likenesses.
Bleecker Street announces its 2025 slate, including Hard Truths, Wedding Banquet, and Love Me (starring Kristen Stewart as a buoy).
Isen Robbins (Prod: Tesla, Blue Caprice) has just hired Megan Freels Johnston as Head of Development for his company Intrinsic Value.
A24 is producing a TV drama about Liverpool FC’s rise under legendary manager Bill Shankly.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Karate Kids: Legends is the perfect title for Sony’s reflective entry in this series, uniting multiple generations of the franchise, starring Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso alongside Jackie Chan, reprising his role as Mr. Han from the 2010 Karate Kid film.
There is definitely a targeted attack at the audience's heartstrings to see Mr. Miyagi's (the late Pat Morita) house, but this nostalgia gets a pass because, like much of this reboot starting with Cobra Kai, it has been done with love and honor given to the original series.
There are countless examples of how something like this could be milked and fall flat, but this culmination of ideas and ideals is absolutely earned, and it's very exciting to see how a slow-burn return can be done right. This movie continues the legacy of Karate Kid in the best way possible.
Sony’s last entry into the franchise, The Karate Kid (2010), was a major hit, earning $359 M worldwide off a $40 M budget. So, Sony may be lined up for a big win.
Karate Kid: Legends arrives in theaters on May 30, following the conclusion of Cobra Kai’s final season in February.
Marvel Studios executive Nate Moore is set to leave the company in mid-March 2025. Moore, a key team member since 2010, will remain with Marvel through the release of Captain America: Brave New World in March and will produce Black Panther 3. He was an EP on the Disney+ Show Falcon and Winter Soldier and helped develop the script for Guardians of the Galaxy.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the highly anticipated conclusion to the animated trilogy, was just announced to be directed by Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson. Both are veterans of the Spider-Verse franchise, with Persichetti co-directing the Oscar-winning Into the Spider-Verse and Thompson transitioning from production designer to co-director on Across the Spider-Verse. Originally slated for March 2024, the release date remains unset amid Hollywood strike-related delays. Creative duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller are still set to produce and write.
Tidbits:
Two of Disney/Pixar’s Elemental writers, John Hoberg and Kat Likkel, will adapt Christmas Forever, Alloy Entertainment's first animated feature, based on Elysa Koplovitz Dutton’s children's book.
CBS has ordered Zarna, a multi-cam comedy pilot starring Zarna Garg (A Nice Indian Boy). Co-written with Darlene Hunt and produced by Mindy Kaling and Kevin Hart. The series would explore an immigrant mother chasing her American dream.
Filmmaker James Wan (dir. The Conjuring) and his Atomic Monster production company (Peacock’s Teacup) have acquired the rights to Pacific Drive, a 2024 award-winning indie driving and survival video game that is now being adapted into a TV series.
Oscar Shortlist here:
https://theindustry.co/p/oscars-2024-shortlist
One notable omission from The Best International Film was Mexico’s Sujo, which won Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize.
Also, even though we missed seeing The Substance up for a VFX Oscar, it was nice to see A24’s Civil War in that category. Maybe the academy voters will buck the trend two years in a row and award the winner to the film with the smallest VFX team.
Nomination voting opens on Jan 8th.
Renewals:
Prime’s Secret Level (Season 2)
Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey (Season 2)
Cancellations:
FX’s The Old Man (done after 2 seasons)
Netflix’s Girls5eva (done after 3 seasons)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Emilia Clarke finds herself in love against a backdrop of the modern London jazz scene in Next Life from writer-director Drake Doremus (dir. Like Crazy). The Game of Thrones actress will be starring opposite Edgar Ramirez (Emilia Perez) and Jack Farthing (Spencer). The romance film is being produced by LA and London-based production company 42 (The Silent Twins), Mutressa (Love is Strange), and the European company Fetisoff Illusion.
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Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke is adapting Cecelia Alhern’s 2005 novel If You Could See Me Now and will mark the film return of West Side Story (2021) and Baby Driver (2017) actor Ansel Elgort. The novel follows a young girl whose mother suddenly disappears, leaving her to be comforted by her invisible and imaginary friend, a boy who appears throughout her life when she needs someone most.
Camila Morrone (Daisy Jones and the Six) and Adam DiMarco (White Lotus) are joining the Netflix series Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, created by Haley Z. Boston and produced by the Duffer brothers.
Spanish cinema has lost a shining star as Marisa Paredes dies at 78. She appeared in many Pedro Almodóvar films, including:
High Heels (1991)
All About My Mother (1999)
The Skin I Live In (2011)
She will be missed.
FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES
Read Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man (A24) screenplay here:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy
Schimberg directs. Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson star. Also, read Moans 2, plus 26 more Oscar-hopeful scripts, at the same link above.
The Berlin Film Festival announced its Program in the Special, Panorama and Generation categories. The festival is under new leadership, with this being Tricia Tuttle’s first year as festival director; it will be particularly tough after the government cut $1 M euros in funding and the festival lost its major sponsor, Uber.
Nevertheless, there are some great projects premiering:
Michel Gondry (dir: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has an animated film, Maya, Give Me a Title.
Synopsis: Michel Gondry’s stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.
Here’s a heartwarming first look photo.
Jan-Ole Gerster, who served on the post-production team for Good Bye Lenin! (2003) is directing Islands:
Synopsis: Tom, a tennis pro washed up on a holiday island. Now he's the coach at a hotel resort, hitting countless balls over the net to tourists. When he crosses paths with a particular tourist family, it seems he's found an escape of his own.
World premiering in Berlinale Special.
Ido Fluk (Dir: The Ticket) has his new film, Köln 75, world premiering:
The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organise the greatest solo concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.
Produced by Sol Bondy (prod: The Tale, The Holy Spider), who has worked with Fluk’s previous producing partners before (Oren Moverman, Lawrence Inglee).
In Ira Sachs, we trust. His documentary Peter Hujar’s Day will have an international premiere at Berlinale following its world premiere at Sundance.
Here’s the synopsis:
A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.
Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall play the artists. So, thinking this is going to be heavy on recreation, leaning into Sachs’s wonderfully intimate style.
Sachs won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance back in 2005 with Forty Shades of Blue. Since then, he has released Sundance favorites Little Men (2016) and Passages (2023).
Genre comes to Berlin with Honey Bunch. Here’s the synopsis:
When Diana wakes from a coma with memory loss, she and her husband seek experimental treatments at a remote facility. As the procedures intensify, their marriage is put to the test and Diana begins to question her husband's true motives.
The first look still is an eerie painting.
The fact that XYZ Films (Blackberry, Mandy) is the Sales rep is a good sign.
Naima Abed, who EP’d Call Me By Your Name and Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs, produced Dreams in Nightmares (2024), which has its international premiere at Berlinale.
Check out the full Berlinale Special, Panorama, and Generation Program here. It kicks off on February 13 and runs through February 23.
Rotterdam International Film Festival drops some big names for their program talks:
Cate Blanchett and Guy Maddin (Dir: Rumours)
Lol Crawley (DP: The Brutalist)
Alex Ross Perry (Dir: Queen of Earth)
The festival will run from Jan 30 - Feb 9th. Here’s the full schedule, including their Tiger and Big Screen films.
Tidbits:
SXSW promotes Hugh Forrest to President. He currently serves as co-president and Chief programming manager.
TECH SECTION
CAA and YouTube become bedfellows. And maybe that’s a good thing? The two have partnered to help tamp down AI’s rampant plundering of celebrity likenesses.
We’ve covered how this has been devastating for Scarlett Johansson and others:
https://theindustry.co/p/scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-gpt
Ironically, YouTube is also building AI tools fueling this problem, just like Meta:
https://theindustry.co/p/netflixs-wins-amazons-exodus
But today, YouTube stated that they’re collaborating with CAA to help:
“Refine our product before releasing it to a wider group of creators and artists. CAA’s clients’ direct experience with digital replicas in the evolving landscape of AI will be critical in shaping a tool that responsibly empowers and protects creators and the broader YouTube community.”
So, just like YouTube scans for copyright violations, hopefully, their scans for digital replicas will be able to one day make it to all non-celebrity people to make sure we can all maintain control of our likeness. The dystopian realities of having control over someone else’s image could be as dark as revenge porn or as crippling as toppling nations.
We hope the institutions move responsibly and ethically to quell this problem.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Bleecker Street’s 2025 slate. Bleecker Street is releasing one of my favorite films I saw at NYFF next year, Hard Truths, which featured a wonderfully cantankerous performance by Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Here’s what they have on their line-up for next year:
Hard Truths - Jan 10th
Love Me - Jan 31st
Premiere: Sundance 2024
Cast: Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun
Synopsis: A postapocalyptic romance in which a buoy (Stewart) and a satellite (Yeun) meet online and fall in love after the end of human civilization.
I was lucky to see this at Sundance and thought it was a beautifully absurdist and powerfully intimate film!
The Friend - March 21
Premiere: TIFF
Cast: Bill Murray and Naomi Watts
Synopsis: Follows a story of love, friendship, grief and healing, about a writer who adopts a Great Dane that belonged to a late friend and mentor.
The Wedding Banquet - April 18th
Premiere: Sundance 2025
Cast: Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone
It is a remake of Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet (1993). Produced by the legendary James Schamus, former CEO of Focus Features and producer of the original Wedding Banquet (1993).
Killer’s on the dance floor first look.
Relay - Q2
Premiere: TIFF
Dir: Hell or High Water’s David Mackenzie),
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Sam Worthington, and Lily James.
Isen Robbins (Prod: Tesla, Blue Caprice) has just hired Megan Freels Johnston as Head of Development for his company Intrinsic Value.
Next up for Intrinsic Value is Queen of the Ring (trailer), which tells the story of a 1930s female boxer. Looks like a strong showing, as the company tends to do well with indie films set 100 years ago.
A24 gets frankly about Mr. Shankly: A24 is producing a TV drama about Liverpool FC’s rise under legendary manager Bill Shankly, written by Jack Thorne. Set in the 1960s, the series explores Shankly’s transformative leadership, Liverpool’s soccer triumphs, and the city’s cultural evolution.
ON THIS DAY
1968. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang premieres in NYC.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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