Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Kate Hudson Reborn, Sony’s Venom-verse, and a new Sinners.
Let’s go!
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I sat down to interview Kate Hudson for her Oscar-nominated Best Actress performance in Focus Features’ Song Sung Blue.
The film is a wonderful combination of kitschy and horrific. And Hudson’s performance hits both notes in equal measure.
She plays a single mom who loves singing on stage, who becomes entranced by Hugh Jackman, a down-on-his-luck single father with a magnetic stage presence.
Hudson shared:
“The through line for me in this movie was that this is an absolute—these people believe in each other when one doesn’t believe in themselves… no matter what.”
Hudson sees Jackman not merely as a cover artist, but as his own musician. And this recognition allows her to overflow with a bubbling warmth and infectious kindness.
But then a tragedy cripples her happiness. And the support system they have for each other flatlines.
Hudson explained:
“It’s like an internal rage and fear within her… this ritual of a new life that I didn’t want and that made me—that’s sort of the beginning of the rage and the shame.”
Watching Hudson exude a sluggishness allows her to rip out all the warm qualities that made her so radiant in the first half of the film.
And that’s her brilliance. She anchors the film with a raw, all-consuming honesty, delivering her most emotionally exposed performance yet.
For More:
Watch our interview with Kate Hudson.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
The DOJ has issued a CID to investigate Netflix’s proposed acquisition of WBD.
Sony’s next Venom film is animated from the Final Destination: Bloodlines directors.
Hulu greenlights Deano (adult animated comedy).
Viola Davis’ Juvee adapts The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer into a fantasy feature.
Anora breakout Mark Eydelshteyn stars in Becoming Capa.
Mia Challis joins CBS historical comedy Regency.
Taylor Schilling leads NBC procedural What the Dead Know.
One Battle After Another dominates BAFTAs with six wins.
Robert Aramayo scores a surprise Best Actor win at BAFTAs.
Yellow Letters wins the Golden Bear (top prize) at Berlinale.
Divide/Conquer picks up horror film Play House by Goat writer Nicolas Curcio.
Subtext acquires Gregg Allman doc Music of My Soul.
Shannon McIntosh partners with UMG UK’s Globe Originals on 3 music-films.
Ann Skelly leads Killing Eve prequel Honey
Netflix Korea launches romcom Messily Ever After.
Yesterday’s correct answer: 3 Michael Arndt wrote the 3rd Toy Story film.
41% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Netflix is now officially being investigated for potentially creating a monopoly by buying Warner Bros.
The Department of Justice has issued a CID (Civil Investigative Demand):
“An antitrust investigation to determine whether there is, has been, or may be a violation of the antitrust laws by conduct, activities, or proposed action of the following nature: the proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. by Netflix Inc, that may substantially lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly.”
The CID isn’t unusual in this kind of case, and even though Netflix may not be a monopoly from the total percent of the market side, it will create less opportunities for filmmakers to sell their projects if one of the major buyers evaporates.
At the same time, Paramount has stated that there is no “statutory impediment” to its acquisition of WBD (they’ve completed the Hart-Scott-Rodino process). So they’ve cleared a small legal hurdle, but it does not mean they’ve gotten DOJ approval.
Today marks the deadline for Paramount to up its bid for WBD.
Sony chooses to go the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse route with Venom.
In a very cool move, Sony has hired Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein (dir: Final Destination: Bloodlines) to direct the new Venom film, which is going to be animated.
No word on plot, but these guys elevated the Final Destination series by mixing their mastery of suspense and tension with some great character depth.
We have no doubt they’ll add some life into this Tom Hardy vs. Tom Hardy shapeshifting alien creature live action trilogy.
Hardy is currently on board to produce.
Tidbits:
Hulu greenlights Deano (Animated Adult Comedy). The series follows an 8-year-old with a tough exterior but a heart of gold living in a condemned house who gets into adventures with his friend from the rich side of town. Joe Brumm (creator: Bluey) will EP. Hulu has had one big adult animated comedy hit, Solar Opposites. So we’re looking forward to seeing what else they can do.
Juvee gets Untamed. Viola Davis’ production company Juvee is adapting the The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer comic book to a fantasy film. The source material follows a strange man who’s made a deal with the devil to collect the souls of the people that killed his family. It seems to fit right into the DNA of projects they like, e.g. The Woman King (2022). The creator Sebastian A. Jones will direct.
Trailers:
Netflix’s I Am Frankelda (just acquired)
Stop Motion
Creators: Arturo and Roy Ambriz
Release: 2026
Disney Channel’s Descendants: Wicked Wonderland
Release dates:
Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 2
Release: Aug 13th, 2027
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Charming Anora breakout actor Mark Eydelshteyn (above) has found his next English-language role.
Becoming Capa is a tale of love and war following the life of war photographers Gerda Taro and Robert Capa from writer-director Charlotte Colbert (She Will).
Eydelshteyn’s role is unknown. But, like the exuberant and unpredictably playful Ivan (scene) he’ll be involved in a whirlwind romance, yet this time, with slightly higher stakes.
Another bachelorette weekend, what could go wrong? Bach Sh*t Crazy, a new comedy slasher announces its cast:
Gillian Bolt (Landman)
Sydney Elizebeth Agudong (Lilo & Stitch)
Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!)
Sydney Cole Alexander (Severance)
The film follows a group of old college friends whose wedding reunion takes a violent turn.
Tidbits:
CBS’ Regency casts newcomer Mia Challis (Outer Banks) as a series regular for the new historical comedy. Like Modern Family but in 19th Century England, the multi-cam sitcom will follow the upper class Tillbrooks as they navigate life and scandal as a family. Challis will play the awkward but innocent youngest daughter with filming just beginning.
Actress Taylor Schilling (Poker Face) is set to lead NBC’s What the Dead Know, a crime procedural from Wolf Entertainment (Law & Order). While her breakout character in Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black served a year and a half behind bars, Schilling will now tackle crime from the other side working as a death Investigator in NYC.
Mini Tidbits:
David Suchet is set to host a new documentary, Mysteries on the Nile, twenty years after playing Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Exploring Egyptian secrets living along the river, it is headed to the London TV Screenings.
More familiar faces are returning for ABC’s Scrubs reboot. Shrinking’s Christa Miller and The Middle’s Neil Flynn will be reprising their roles as the sarcastic Jordan and The Janitor joining the large ensemble. The first two episodes drop this Wednesday only on ABC.
Emma Mackey has dropped out of the first Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give) feature in over a decade. This one hails from Warner Bros. with Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson, Kieran Culkin and Jude Law still cast.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
BAFTA winners were announced this weekend. And One Battle After Another took home a massive six awards for:
Best Film
Best Director
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Editing
Best Cinematography
Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn)
The most surprising win was for Best Actor for Robert Aramayo. He gave a terrific performance in Kirk Jones’ (dir: Waking Ned Devine) powerful biopic, I Swear, following Tourette’s Syndrome campaigner John Davidson.
Aramayo played Davidson, who is targeted as insane by his peers, living with a condition few have ever witnessed, as he attempts to live a ‘normal’ life against all the odds (trailer).
UK also had some love for Sinners was three wins: Best Screenplay, Best Score and Wunmi Mosaku for Supporting Actress.
The BAFTAs and the Oscars have only aligned twice in the last ten years for Best Picture (Nomadland, Oppenheimer).
See all the winners here.
Berlin 2025 Winners:
Golden Bear (Top Prize)
Yellow Letters
Dir: Ilker Çatak (dir: SPC’s The Teacher’s Lounge)
Synopsis:
Life is good for Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Turkey, until an incident at their play’s premiere. Suddenly targeted by the state and struggling to balance their ideals with life’s necessities, their marriage is pushed to a breaking point.
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize (2nd Place)
Kurtuluş (Salvation)
Dir: Emin Alper
Synopsis:
A sheikh faces a territorial dispute when a rival tribe returns to reclaim their ancestral land. He and his brother clash over how to handle the escalating conflict following a period of regional violence.
Silver Bear Jury Prize (3rd place)
Queen at Sea
Cast: Juliette Binoche
Int. Sales Rep: The Match Factory (The Substance)
Dir/Wri: Lance Hammer (Ballast)
Prod. Co: The Bureau (A Little Chaos)
Synopsis:
As advanced dementia erodes an older woman’s ability to communicate her inner life, her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests, navigating love and the fragile boundaries between care, protection and autonomy.
Best Director went to Grant Gee for Everybody Digs Bill Evans.
Best Acting went to Sandra Hüller for A24’s Rose.
Sadly, the top films at Berlin rarely break into the U.S. Since 2010, there has only been one film that has gained critical acclaim stateside: A Separation, winning the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and even getting an Academy Best Screenplay nomination.
Although last year’s Best Acting went to Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (now Oscar-nominated) but it had already been acquired by A24 and premiered at Sundance.
Full list of winners here.
Mini Tidbit:
One Berlin film snags a sales rep:
Dog Legs (Patas de perro)
Int. Sales Rep: Epicentre Films (Cannes title A Poet)
Dir: Matias Rojas Valencia (A Place Called Dignity)
Cast: Alfredo Castro (The Count)
Premiere: Berlin
Synopsis:
A lonely man who adopts a child born with the legs of a dog. His efforts to integrate the child into society unleash an escalation of violence by those who treat the man as a lunatic and the child as a monster.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Divide/Conquer (Heart Eyes) has picked up the horror film Play House.
Synopsis:
While renovating a dilapidated house to win back his ex, a young man discovers VHS tapes of an unaired TV show in the basement. But as the show’s dark history surfaces, it seeps into his life, threatening his last chance at reconciliation.
Look, could this be a mix of Goosebumps, Barbarian, and Videodrome? Unlikely but Divide/Conquer has a really nice record with collabing with Blumhouse on projects like Freaky, Black Phone 2, M3GAN, and Totally Killer.
The new film hails from director/writer Nicolas Curcio who is literally one of the writers on Sony’s GOAT which just went #1 at the Box Office. So he’s having a good week. Currently filming in LA.
Rambling Man gets some subtext. Music of My Soul, a doc on The Allman Brothers’ Gregg Allman gets picked up by Subtext for North America rights.
The film is directed by James Keach who played Jesse James in The Long Riders (1980) and Warden in Walk the Line (2005).
Releasing this summer.
Mini Tidbits:
The Statue of Liberty is getting her time in the spotlight! From the producers behind France’s The Intouchables, Quad Cinémas, Lady Liberty will look at both the creation and the creator of the historic piece, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a visionary artist who helped make the deal with America happen.
Pat Swinney Kaufman has stepped down as NYC’s Media and Entertainment Commissioner. This news was inevitable as Rafael Espinal, who many New York filmmakers know as the Head of the Freelancers Union, has just taken on the role.
Daniel Talbott (wri: ABC’s The Conners) is launching a prod co, Orphan Andy Films. He’ll focus on queer cinema, with his first project the doc Welcome to Tool Shed.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
McIntosh Films’ Shannon McIntosh (The Hateful Eight, The Adventures of Cliff Booth) has partnered with Universal Music Group U.K. ‘s Globe Originals for a trio of music-driven features.
Dusty vs Dusty
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