James Cameron is Meta
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on James Cameron’s New Frontier.
In The Industry News: Netflix is Primeval, Warner Bros. panics carefully. MGM+’s The Institute.
Actor Spotlight: David Oyelowo goes surreal. Diane Kruger’s seduction.
Festivals and Resources: Invisible Nation premieres on Gathr. Scripts for Blitz and The Bikeriders.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight / International News: Tom Tykwer's The Light. Greenwich Entertainment’s Bonjour Tristesse. Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Let’s go!
James Cameron is getting Meta.
He just signed a multi-year deal with Meta (Facebook/Oculus parent company) under his production company Lightstorm (Avatar, Titanic, Terminator).
Cameron has been at the forefront of film tech for decades. With Avatar (2009), Cameron pioneered 3D camera and motion-capture technology. Titanic (1997) evolved new ways to create digital water. The Terminator (1984) revolutionized visual effects with groundbreaking CGI.
So it holds some weight when he says he’s been impressed with what he’s seeing at Meta, stating:
“Recently, Boz [Andrew Bosworth, Meta CTO and Head of Reality Labs] showed me some of Meta’s advanced tech. I was amazed by its transformational potential and power, and what it means for content creators globally. I’m convinced we’re at a true, historic inflection point.”
Their goal is to make top-tier 3D content more accessible—both for creators to produce and for people to enjoy at home and on the go.
And this is a real issue, even during the boom of VR tech in 2016 (shout out to Chris Milk, “ultimate empathy machine.”). The issue has always been content. That’s because its economics are really bad. The ROI on a typical piece of VR content is 1.1x. That’s because production is expensive. Think Doug Liamn’s Invisible or Eliza McNitt’s Darren Aronofsky EP’d Spheres. On the flip side, a good VR game could bring in 20x. And the manufacturers (Samsung, Oculus, HTC) were always interested in putting more money into the headset development than the content.
Is Cameron’s deal Meta’s reaction to Apple partnering with Edward Berger (Dir: Conclave) on his immersive piece Submerged (trailer)?
Who knows, the art form is beautiful and immersive, and the visuals are only getting better. So, as long as the platforms open their wallet and James Cameron builds it, the people will come.
For More:
Doug Liman's Invisible VR trailer.
Spheres VR trailer.
Reggie Watts in VR trailer.
THE INDUSTRY - TLDR
Netflix launches a new mini-series, American Primeval, from director Peter Berg (Deepwater Horizon, Hancock). This is part of his first-look deal with Netflix.
Warner Bros. has acquired Sam Esmail's (dir: Leave the World Behind) upcoming film Panic Carefully. Starring Julia Roberts and now Elizabeth Olsen.
HBO’s new Harry Potter series starts shooting next year with an air date of 2026 or 2027.
First look at MGM+’s newest Stephen King adaptation, The Institute.
David Oyelowo (MLK in Selma) is in an Apple TV+ surrealist comedy, Government Cheese.
Diane Kruger (Inglorious Basterds) is in The Seduction (Merteuil), a new reimagined Max series based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons).
Invisible Nation is now streaming on Gathr.
Tom Tykwer's (dir: Run Lola Run) new film, The Light, is opening at the Berlin Film Festival.
Kirill Serebrennikov (dir: Cannes official selection Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie, starring Ben Whishaw) has a new film Love Story About Photography.
Becoming Led Zeppelin, a documentary about the legendary rock band, is coming exclusively to IMAX.
Greenwich Entertainment (Close to You, Coup!, The Critic) acquires Bonjour Tristesse, starring Chloë Sevigny. The film premiered at TIFF.
Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP) has picked up the remake rights to Family Therapy (Jamais sans mon psy).
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Peter Berg’s new Netflix project is the TV mini-series American Primeval. This is part of Berg’s first-look deal with Netflix, which gave us the $95 M straight to streaming Spenser Confidential (2020) starring Mark Wahlberg.
Berg, for his part, migrated to streaming after his last three theatrical films failed to recoup:
Mile 22 (2018)
$50 M budget
$66.3 M worldwide
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
$110 M budget
$121.8 M worldwide
Patriot’s Day (2016)
$45 M budget
$52.2 M worldwide
He used to rip out films like Hancock, which made $629.4 M against a $150 M budget. The economics for a straight original, non-IP, non-sequel, non-superhero action film has waned, although David Ayer’s The Beekeeper (2024) was a welcome exception, buzzing to a respectable $152.7 M from a $40 M budget.
Berg, if nothing else, is consistent. His action is compelling even if the storyline is thin. But that’s not really what we’re tuning in for. Here’s the trailer for American Primeval, which follows the very violent birth of the American West. Streaming Jan 9th.
Warner Bros. has acquired Sam Esmail's upcoming film Panic Carefully. Described as a paranoid thriller, it will star Julia Roberts and now Elizabeth Olsen. Esmail's last film was Leave the World Behind. Its depiction of society crumbling was pretty compelling, garnering over 143 M views on Netflix. Here’s the scene that took the internet by storm (clip).
Production on Panic Carefully will begin in 2025.
32,000 kids auditioned for HBO’s new Harry Potter: HBO has announced that the highly anticipated Harry Potter series will begin filming at Leavesden Studios this summer.
Along with the fun factoid that 32,000 plus kids auditioned for the three main roles of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine, Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and EP Mark Mylod recently spoke about their vision of sticking closer to the book’s 1990s roots and talked a bit about keeping certain characters more book accurate such as Snape (rumored to be played by Paapa Essiedu) will be 31 like he was in the books.
There was also a discussion of showing a bit more of the teachers' lives in general. The multiseason-long epic has a lot of ground to cover and can take its time, but hopefully, it will be more day-to-day like the books were.
Speaking of time, sadly, it was also recently announced that HBO had bumped back the project airing date for the first season from 2026 to 2027. While many millennial fans will surely be bummed out that they will be pushing 40 before they see HBO's interpretation, this is a vast world, and it looks like they are really going to take their time and flesh it out.
MGM+ gave a first look at the newest Stephen King adaptation, The Institute, an upcoming thriller series based on the horror author’s 2019 novel. The NY Times bestseller has been described as the most riveting and unforgettable story of kids confronting evil since It. The full trailer for The Institute was played at an MGM+ panel yesterday by director/EP Jack Bender and creator/EP Benjamin Cavell. The latter revealed that this story is directly connected to King’s universe as the children in the story all have “versions of ‘The Shine’,” the psychic abilities famously possessed by Danny Torrance in The Shining. Bender has directed several episodes of beloved shows like Lost and Game of Thrones, and previously worked with King on Mr. Mercedes (2017-2019).
An official premiere date has yet to be set for the streamer.
Renewals:
Max’s Like Water For Chocolate (Season 2)
Trailer for S1, starring Salma Hayek
S2 Trailer:
Paramount+’s 1923
Trailer starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren
Tidbit:
50 Cent launched a channel on Roku, curated from 20K Lionsgate titles. It’s all action all the time (50 Cent intro). Launching Dec 10th.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
David Oyelowo is in an Apple TV+ surrealist comedy, Government Cheese. The actor might not be on everyone’s radar. But he played Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma (2015) with a tortured sense of conviction and is currently starring in two hit TV shows, Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Paramount+ trailer) and Silo (Apple TV+ trailer). For a quick dose of his acting, check out his heart-wrenching silent performance, suffering through voicemails in this trailer for The After.
Created by Paul Hunter and Aeysha Carr, Government Cheese 10-episode series follows the Chambers family in 1969 San Fernando Valley as they navigate life’s chaos after Hampton Chambers (Oyelowo) returns from prison.
Oyelowo is definitely thought of more as a serious actor, so seeing him in a comedy, much less one with such a strange tilt, will be very interesting. Apple is cornering the market on strange, quirky vintage dread (Hello Tomorrow!)
First look photos abound:
Is David Oyelowo flying or leaping?
What is behind Simone Missick in that pool?
The most surreal pole vault.
The first look photos show a suburban idyllic life thrown into chaos.
This teaser creates more questions than answers, but you get to see a bit of the surrealist take Government Cheese is going for.
Streaming on Apple + April 16th.
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Diane Kruger (Inglorious Basterds) and Anamaria Vartolomei (Happening) star in The Seduction (Merteuil), a new reimagined Max series based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons).
Official Synopsis:
To be the hero of your own story, you sometimes have to be the villain in others. Marquise de Merteuil, betrayed by Valmont, embarks on a daring journey to become Paris’ leading courtesan.
Kruger has another adaptation of Little Disasters, a drama series premiering on Paramount+ early next year.
The Seduction will launch in the latter half of 2025 with filming continuing in France until the end of the month.
Tidbit:
Hallucinogenic horror film Black Noise is to be led by Games of Thrones actor Aidan Gillen and Peaky Blinders actress Kate Phillips. Simon Blake (Still) will be directing and producing with his Blunt Pictures. Fellow producer Colette Delaney-Smith describes the film as:
“Haunting, deeply unsettling story that turns into something ominous and disquieting until its savage and carnal climax.”
Production is beginning in Suffolk and London this month.
FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES
Invisible Nation is now streaming on Gathr (4 days only) with a Q&A. Here’s a synopsis:
Taiwan's first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, centers this portrait of the constantly colonized island, as it struggles to preserve its hard-won democracy, autonomy and freedom from fear of authoritarian aggression.
It’s a powerful and timely documentary flush with cinematic texture that pairs intimate close-ups of the president of Taiwan, with long-lensed wide shots of her citizens, hungry to maintain their freedom.
Check out the film here. Through Monday, December 9th!
Remember that live event we did with Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden? The kickass directors of The Black Sea made their film by rejecting the traditional Hollywood funding model, putting in their own cash, and jetting off to Bolivia to make an improved film with a ton of heart.
Read more about their punk approach in this interview.
Read Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders screenplay here:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy
Nichols directs. Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy star.
Also, read Steve McQueen’s Blitz screenplay at the same link above.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Tom Tykwer's (dir: Run Lola Run) new film, The Light, is opening at the Berlin Film Festival.
Here’s the logline:
A family faces collapse as they deal with modern issues, searching for new beginnings in a troubled world.
Tykwer stated:
“I’m over the moon to open next year’s Berlinale with Das Licht (The Light)... The Berlinale is the festival of my life. The city is my destiny. This film is my longing.”
Tykwer has created a strong resume of films from the furiously-paced, bold, fractured narrative of Run Lola Run (trailer), which is a rare time travel film that successfully explores chaos theory, as I break out in my essay:
https://theindustry.co/p/a-brief-history-of-time-travel-films
His other movies have been less well-received.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006, trailer)
The International (2009, trailer)
Cloud Atlas (directed w/ the Wachowski’s)
A Hologram for the King (2016, trailer)
Tykwer often meditates on new facets of technology, be that 18th-century perfume, modern-day holograms, or futuristic genetic engineering, all culminating in films that employ radically stylized narrative structures.
Although the logline for The Light is paper-thin, a new film from Tykwer is titillating.
Kirill Serebrennikov (dir: Cannes official selection Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie, starring Ben Whishaw) has a new film Love Story About Photography.
Serebrennikov stated:
“Let’s say this original script is about my admiration for photography, about the genius of photography as an art [and about] the love of two photographers.”
It will be his first French-language film.
And if you didn’t catch Limonov at Cannes Ben Whishaw is wildly radical and unhinged in the new trailer.
Greenwich Entertainment (Close to You, Coup!, The Critic) acquires Bonjour Tristesse. The film premiered at TIFF and co-stars Chloë Sevigny.
Synopsis:
Follows Cécile a young woman spending the summer in a villa in the south of France with her widowed father Raymond and his latest love interest, Elsa. Theirs is a lived-in compatibility a world of ease and languor.
Becoming Led Zeppelin, a documentary about the legendary rock band, is coming exclusively to IMAX. Directed by Bernard MacMahon, the film dives into the band’s origins and early rise, featuring rare footage and performances from Led Zeppelin’s initial tours. Described as a "hybrid docu-concert,” the documentary includes commentary from Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham, marking this as the first officially sanctioned film on the group.
Painstaking effort has been taken to restore various 55-year-old media for the IMAX format.
The trailer shows off some beautiful concert shots, and when shown on an IMAX screen, it will absolutely make you feel like you are right up there with the band. The film premiered as a work-in-progress at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, where it received praise for its extraordinary footage. The final product will be sure to take any fan on a stairway to heaven when it arrives exclusively in IMAX on February 7, 2025.
Tidbit:
Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP) has picked up the remake rights to Family Therapy (Jamais sans mon psy), a family comedy from French director Arnaud Lemort. SPIP is developing localized versions of the 2024 movie with Paris-based distributor Newen Connect, having sold Family Therapy in over 30 markets with large theatrical presences worldwide.
ON THIS DAY
2002. Adaptation premieres.
That’s all for the week. See you Monday.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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