Johnny Depp and a Maple Syrup Heist
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on AFM’s next Pulp Fiction.
In The Industry News: David Fincher and the Art of Adaptation.
Actor Spotlight: Margo Martindale’s time to shine. Colman Domingo’s Madness. Brian Cox is Santa.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight: A24’s The Land of Nod and Visit Films’ Witness.
Let’s go!
American Film Market (AFM), kicking off next week, is an important launching ground for films. Over the years, The Terminator, Pulp Fiction, and Slumdog Millionaire were launched or sold at this festival where $1 bn in financing or distribution is closed annually.
Here are four big projects coming to the market:
Cast: Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz
Dir: Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer)
Writer: Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War)
Prod: Thunder Road (John Wick)
EP: 30 West (The Crow, Triangle of Sadness)
Studio/International Sales Rep: Lionsgate
Synopsis:
A cruise ship bartender who meets a mysterious day drinker — only for both of them to find themselves entangled in a criminal underbelly, and connected in unexpected ways.
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Gael García Bernal
Dir/Writer: Sarah Adina Smith (Birds of Paradise, Buster's Mal Heart)
Prod: Mynette Louie (The Tale, Gemini)
Domestic Sales: 2AM/WME Independent
International Sales: Upgrade
Synopsis:
At an Indian luxury resort, an heiress accused of a white-collar crime hides away with her husband indulge in pleasures, oblivious to a crisis outside. When they venture beyond the gates, they face the consequences of their denial.
Cast: Clive Owen
Dir/Co-writer: Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters)
Sales Rep: International Film Trust (Cell)
Synopsis:
Police lieutenant Krützfeld (Owen) faces a moral test when a Jewish man is wrongly accused, sparking orders to attack Jewish neighborhoods. As chaos erupts, the lieutenant must decide between following orders or protecting the innocent.
The Housekeeper
Cast: Uma Thurman, Anthony Hopkins
Dir: Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal)
Production Company: Embankment Films
Domestic Sales: CAA Media Finance
Synopsis:
Set in the mystic, brooding landscape of Cornwall, England, where Danni, housekeeper at Manderville Hall, owned by widower Lord DeWithers who falls prey to the glance of a young and beautiful visitor, the novelist Daphne Du Maurier.
AFM kicks off on November 5th.
Here are three more buzzy films:
Jeremy Piven’s The Performance (trailer) is launching international sales at AFM.
Painter (IMDBPro link), written by Derek Kolstad (John Wick, Nobody) is coming to AFM courtesy of FilmNation starring Jack Reacher’s Alan Ritchson.
Everybody Digs Bill Evans, a story about a jazz pianist starring Bill Pullman and Laurie Metcalf is launching through CAA Media Finance.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
David Fincher and the Art of Adaptation. Fincher is confirmed to be developing a US-based Squid Game series. This would be adapted from the mega-popular Korean-language Squid Game (2021) series that conquered the Netflix algorithm and launched a global phenomenon, with a second season due out in December (trailer).
Fincher is no stranger to adapting foreign language work, he adapted The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) from the 2005 Swedish book by Stieg Larsson. Although it had already become a worldwide bestseller and a popular foreign language film. His latest film The Killer (2023), was adapted from the French comic book series.
There is a darkness to Fincher’s cinema that sits well outside traditional Hollywood norms. His attraction to source material outside the states tracks with these aesthetic interests.
Squid Game is said to be his next project, which he will focus his attention on in 2025. Although there is a chance he may squeeze in a movie.
Tidbits:
Jumanji 3 will be released in 2026. Another sequel was inevitable as Columbia Pictures faired very well on first two films:
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
$962 M worldwide gross
$90 M budget
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
$801 M worldwide gross
$130 M budget
Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black will all return.
TV Show Cancellation:
Channel 4’s The Gathering
New series trailer:
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Beloved Character actress Margo Martindale gets her day in the Syrup. Not just known for a funny callback on Bojack, Martindale (Million Dollar Baby, August: Osage County) will be starring in The Sticky a maple syrup mob heist series alongside Chris Diamantopoulos (Silicon Valley three comma guy), with Jamie Lee Curtis guest starring.
Inspired by the real 2012 heist of $18 million in maple syrup. She plays real life Ruth Landry, a maple syrup farmer who turns to crime to save her threatened livelihood, joining forces with a mobster and a security guard for a high-stakes heist on Quebec’s maple syrup reserves.
Martindale has been in countless TV shows and movies, her break-out performance in George Miller’s Lorenzo's Oil (1992) as a grieving mother was described as operatic.
Clint Eastwood specifically requested her for Million Dollar Baby (2004). Here’s a great clip of Margo telling a story about her audition for the film.
Also very versed in humor when she got the job on the series Justified as a moonshiner matriarch and later accepted the Emmy she joked:
“A Southern woman who deals drugs? I'll do this for free.”
Looking at The Sticky trailer, it's almost hard to believe this heist is based on a true story you’ll have to see it to believe it, I guess. Either way its great to see Martindale as the lead in a big series after so many years. Well justified!
All six episodes will drop on December 6th on Prime.
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Tidbit:
Colman Domingo’s Madness. We don’t know much about Domingo’s new Netflix series, The Madness. The trailer is vague flashes of liminal spaces. Here’s the synopsis: After a media pundit stumbles upon a dead body deep in the Poconos woods, he finds himself framed for the murder of a notorious white supremacist. The series will stream on November 17th.
Jeremy Allen White is The Boss. Here’s a first-look image of White in his upcoming role as Bruce Springsteen in Deliver Me From Nowhere. More info on the project here: The film is currently shooting and expected to arrive sometime in 2025.
Andy Garcia joins Anthony Hopkins and Michele Morrone in Maserati: The Brothers, a biopic about the founders of Maserati. Garcia plays Mr. Rossini, a central figure in the brothers' story. Directed by Bobby Moresco (Producer: Crash, Million Dollar Baby) and produced by Andrea Iervolino (Michael Mann’s Ferrari), filming starts soon in Italy.
Brian Cox stars as a Santa in Netflix’s animated film That Christmas, directed by Simon Otto (Head Animator: How to Train Your Dragon) and based on Richard Curtis’s children’s book trilogy. The story follows a series of unexpected holiday mishaps and Santa dealing with holiday chaos. With a stacked ensemble cast including Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, and Bill Nighy. Seems like a jolly ol’ time for the family.
Here’s Cox’s Santa voice cued up from the trailer. We’ll stick around for his outtakes which we hope are a little more in the vein of his angry barreling from Succession.
That Christmas debuts on December 4, 2024.
Sorry to Bother You’s director Boots Riley has assembled quite the ensemble for his upcoming Neon film, I Love Boosters.
While plot details are being mostly kept under wraps here is the official logline:
The film follows a group of shoplifters who take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven.
The previously announced actors are led by some big names and rising stars with Nope’s Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice), LaKeith Stanfield (The Book of Clarence), and The Substance’s Demi Moore, joined by:
Eiza González (Baby Driver)
Poppy Liu (Hacks)
Taylour Paige (Zola)
Will Poulter (The Bear)
Production is said to begin next month.
Justin Long is In Memoriam. Here’s the official synopsis:
Veteran actor (Marc Maron) is obsessed with securing a spot in the Oscars' "In Memoriam" montage after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.
In Memoriam, a dark but funny look at ego, humility, and legacy, will be directed by Rob Burnett and produced by Invention Studios. The film also stars, Talia Ryder, Lily Gladstone, Sharon Stone, and Judy Greer. It is shooting in LA.
The full star-studded cast of Gregg Araki’s provocative thriller, I Want Your Sex, has been announced. The Mysterious Skin (2004) director’s cast is led by actress/director Oliva Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling) making her return to in front of the camera alongside Saturday Night’s Cooper Hoffman.
The new additions include:
Daveed Diggs (Hamilton)
Mason Gooding (Scream)
Chase Sui Wonders (Bodies Bodies Bodies)
Margaret Cho (All that We Love)
Johnny Knoxville (Jackass)
Singer Charli XCX
Official logline:
Elliot (Hoffman) lands a job for Erika Tracy (Wilde) as her sexual muse.
From Black Bear Pictures, Araki is directing from a script he wrote with production wrapping up in LA.
William H. Macy joins The Running Man. He’s one of a half dozen actors that have been cast in the last few weeks, including Michael Cera, Emilia Jones (Coda), Lee Pace, Josh Brolin, Katy O'Brian, and Karl Glusman. Release date: Nov 21st, 2025. Director: Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Hot Fuzz).
Nick Offerman plays Elle Fanning’s dad in Margo’s Got Money Troubles. This is an A24/Apple TV+ project with Nicole Kidman. Find out more details here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
A staple of the underground NY cinema scene and Andy Warhol’s right hand man in the 60s and 70s, legendary filmmaker Paul Morrissey has passed away at 86 years old.
The Flesh (1968, trailer) director was instrumental in experimental film and a truly innovative storyteller that was often described as the backbone and real force behind Warhol’s cult like directorial status having worked on films with him like Trash (1970, trailer), Women in Revolt (1971), Heat (1972), and Blood for Dracula (1974).
Following his long and controversial partnership with Warhol, Morrissey moved to LA from the east coast and made a Sherlock Holmes parody story, The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002), much later directing his most recent and last film, the romantic drama, News from Nowhere (2010). A hugely underrated name in Hollywood, never getting the credit he deserved, whose legacy will continue to have a lasting impact on filmmaking.
Greenwich Entertainment has secured North American rights to Paola Cortellesi's directorial debut, the Italian box-office hit There's Still Tomorrow. The Italian drama premiered at the Rome Film Festival and swept their awards (Jury Prize, Audience Award, Best First Feature). It has also achieved remarkable success in Italy, becoming the 5th highest-performing film of all time with $40 M in revenue.
The film’s synopsis reads:
Trying to escape from the culturally stifling Italian post-war society, Delia plots an act of rebellion against her violent husband.
Edward Arentz, Greenwich co-president stated:
“Cortellesi has created a meticulously detailed patriarchal nightmare world women once had little recourse from and manages to find mordant comedy, heartbreaking drama and fragile optimism. We’re excited to bring this terrifically accomplished and emotionally engaging filmmaking to North American audiences.”
The trailer looks intriguing. Set for 2025 release.
Tidbits:
Horror filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball, creator of the micro-budget hit Skinamarink, is partnering with A24 on his new horror feature, The Land of Nod. Plot details remain undisclosed. Produced by Josh Safdie, Elijah Wood, and others, the film is set for global release. With that many producers, you may be astounded to learn that like Skinnamarink's previous $15 K that went on to make $2 M at the box office, this new project will also be a micro-budget. Can Kyle strike horror gold twice?
Visit Films is getting a Witness. The Indie distributor who was the Sales Rep for Primer (2005), It Follows (2014) and Good One (2024) is distributing Can I Get a Witness, which premiered at TIFF.
Synopsis:
Introspective live-action and animated feature set in the near future when technology and travel are almost completely banned, and nobody is allowed to live past age 50.
Sandra Oh stars. Ann Marie Fleming, the Canadian animation auteur, is the director.
No word on the release date.
ON THIS DAY
1971. Winona Ryder born in Winona, Minnesota.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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