Kristen Stewart 2.0
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Kristen Stewart 2.0, Stanley Kubrick’s double, and A24 gets sorry.
Let’s go!
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Kristen Stewart outlasts humanity as a smart buoy.
In Bleecker Street’s latest, Love Me (premiere: Sundance), Kristen Stewart plays a buoy who falls in love with Steven Yeun (a satellite) after the world ends.
I sat down with the directors, Sam and Andy Zuchero, to discuss how they decided to use this charming post-apocalyptic setting to dig into definitions of self.
Andy explained:
“Instead of asking, what is it like to be conscious? It's like, “What does it feel like to be lonely?” That is a better question for film and story. And so recalibrating in that way allowed us to tell a pretty heady conceptual movie in a way that hopefully feels really emotional.”
And it is a very emotional story with Stewart stuck in a recursive loop of trying to define who she is.
Her first foray is to adopt the avatar of a vapid influencer. And watching the generally anti-establishment Stewart reckon with this cookie-cutter character role is one of the charms of the film.
Andy explained:
“It’s kind of funny that the Adam and Eve that inherit the earth are two influencers that made us kind of laugh, smile, but also it's true about us.”
By the end of the film, we begin to understand that what these star-crossed digital sensors learn from humanity is simply the art of knowing how to express love versus simulating it.
Sam concluded:
“It feels like the culmination of Western culture is the branded self. And everybody's scared of transforming… and [we] just want to blow that out of the water.”
And Zuchero’s do—turning Earth’s oblivion into a canvas for reinvention.
For More:
Love Me trailer… in the not-too-distant future.
Our interview with Sam and Andy Zuchero, I grill them on how they got Kristen Stewart to star in their first film.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
The estate of Joseph Shuster, the original creator of Superman, is suing Warner Bros. Discovery.
Two derivatives of Kubrick's source material are happening: The Aryan Papers and Traumnovelle.
Netflix’s upcoming survival thriller Apex, starring Charlie Theron, casts Eric Bana.
Jonathan Pryce (Two Popes) will star in Sleeping Lions, a comedy murder mystery.
Amazon MGM Studios holiday comedy The Man with the Bag adds 12 to its cast, including Ken Jeong.
Christopher Nolan continues to expand the cast of his latest film, The Odyssey, adding three more, including Samantha Morton.
Sundance 2025 announced its winners. Hailey Gates's directorial debut, Atropia, won the US Jury Dramatic Prize.
Two films have been pulled from Sundance online, including audience winner Twinless for a leaked scene.
In the third Sundance sale, A24 bought Sorry, Baby for $8M
David Cronenberg’s Cannes 2024 official selection, The Shrouds, gets a wide release date of April 25th.
Mike Leigh is back with another film, Untitled 2025, shooting this year, teaming back with the production companies and distributors behind Hard Truths.
Allyce Ozarski, Emmy-nominated TV producer of FX’s Baskets, passed away at 41.
Chinese animated fantasy sequel Ne Zha 2 has made a whopping $430 M… in 5 days.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
The estate of Joseph Shuster, the original creator of Superman, is suing Warner Bros. Discovery, claiming it lacks rights to release Superman in Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia. Shuster originally sold his copyright in 1938 to DC for a paltry $130 dollars (split between him and his partner).
Obviously maybe the worst deal in history, Graphic novelist Julian Voloj covered the story extensively in the graphic novel The Joe Shuster Story: The Artist Behind Superman.
With such a raw deal, it's no wonder the Estate is trying in any way they can to try and right the deal. However, their claim that in British copyright law, rights are reverted 25 years after Mr Shuster's death will most likely not make it far. However bad the deal was for Mr. Shuster, it looks like Warner's lawyers assure us we should still be seeing Superman in theatres on July 11th.
Double Kubrick. Two derivatives of Kubrick's source material are happening.
The first is an adaptation of Aryan Papers, which is Kubrick’s unshot Holocaust project that was abandoned after Steven Spielberg’s success with Schindler’s List. Luca Guadagnino (dir: Challengers, Call Me By Your Name) has been adapting at Warner Bros. since at least 2020. But it was recently reported last August that it this is his dream project.
Kubrick also abandoned the film not just because Spielberg was a friend (the two would spend hours talking on the phone) but because Aryan Papers was said to be so dark that portraying the atrocities accurately would have been too horrifying to commit to celluloid.
The second Kubrick project is Traumnovelle, based on the source material for Eyes Wide Shut. While not a straight Kubrick adaption, all you need to do is watch the trailer and chart all the moments that are in the Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman sex Odyssey. The film, directed by Florian Frerichs, just nabbed an international sales agent for EFM in Berlin. The film opened the 31st Oldenburg Film Festival.
New release date:
Cineverse’s Toxic Avenger
Release date: August 29
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Netflix’s upcoming survival thriller Apex (cast: Charlize Theron, Carry On’s Taron Egerton) adds Eric Bana to the cast.
Official Logline:
A grieving woman seeks solace in the wilderness, only to find herself ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a serial killer.
Bana is strengthening his relationship with Netflix in the upcoming limited series Untamed, a murder mystery where Bana stars as the special agent assigned to uncover the grizzly murder.
Bana, of course, played the original Hulk in Ang Lee’s Hulk (2006); he gave humanity to Bruce Banner and the big green guy. But the greatest Bana performance to date has been his masterfully psychotically unhinged breakout role, Mark "Chopper" Read, based on an actual underground criminal of the same name in Chopper (2000 - 20th-anniversary trailer).
Described as Free Solo meets Silence of the Lambs, Apex is written by The Purge story editor Jeremy Robbins and directed by Baltasar Kormákur (dir: 2 Guns).
No word on when Apex will drop, but stay tuned!
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Tidbits:
Jonathan Pryce (Two Popes) and Nick Mohammed star in Sleeping Lions, a comedy murder mystery directed by Mat Whitecross. A modern adaptation of An English Murder follows a dying earl whose family gathering turns deadly. The film will shoot in the UK this year.
Amazon MGM Studios holiday comedy The Man with the Bag starring Arnold Schwarzenegger adds 12 to its cast, including:
Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
Ken Jeong (The Hangover franchise)
Kyle Mooney (SNL)
Adrian Martinez (Severance)
Karren Karaguilan (Anora)
Currently filming The Man with the Bag is expected by the 2025 holiday season.
Christopher Nolan is famous for his impressive ensemble casts, with his next film, The Odyssey, no exception. Following the news of Elliot Page (Juno) and Benny Safdie (Oppenheimer) joining the cast, the newest additions include:
Himesh Patel (Yesterday)
Bill Irwin (Interstellar)
Samantha Morton (Minority Report)
The Odyssey is set to begin filming later this month, slated for a theatrical premiere on Jul. 17th, 2026.
FESTIVALS
Sundance 2025 announced its winners. Here’s who came out on top:
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Dir/Wri: Hailey Gates (Actress: Uncut Gems)
Star: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner
Prod: Luca Guadagnino (dir: Challengers, Call Me By Your Name)
Synopsis:
When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.
Sundance stated:
“For its singular directing, writing, and vision, this timely and timeless first feature was both hilarious and damning in its portrayal of the theater of war. Its biting criticism of American imperialism and boundary-pushing storytelling led all three of the jurors to unanimously award the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic.”
I personally would have loved to see the satire be more biting and the horrors of war explored more deeply, but I did love how it navigated worlds of fiction and reality.
U.S. Documentary Competition
Dir: Brittany Shyne (additional camera: American Factory)
Synopsis:
An exploration of Black generational farmers in the American South reveals the fragility of legacy and the significance of owning land.
Sundance stated:
“A new voice with something powerful, rich, and poignant to say. From its directing, cinematography, and dreamlike immersion, this film takes us deep inside an essentially overlooked pocket of our country, whose residents struggle to hold onto their heritage as their way of life has come under threat.”
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)
World Cinema Documentary Competition
Audience Awards
Taking the Sundance Audience award was Twinless (U.S. Dramatic Competition). It is an astonishing depiction of codependency.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Two young men meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bromance.
James Sweeney wrote, directed, and co-starred.
Andre is an Idiot took the audience award for US Documentary.
Here’s the scoop:
Andre, a brilliant idiot, is dying because he didn’t get a colonoscopy. His sobering diagnosis, complete irreverence, and insatiable curiosity, send him on an unexpected journey learning how to die happily and ridiculously without losing his sense of humor.
Thanks to director Anthony Benna for meeting this subject with humor. And to boot, Joshua Altman, the producer, is a director on Showtime’s scintillating Couple's Therapy.
Get the full list of Sundance winners here.
Sundance also announced 2026 festival dates: Jan. 22nd – Feb. 1st 2026. This will be the final year it remains in Park City.
For More:
Sundance has pulled two films from its online platform:
Twinless
Reason: sex scene leaked online
Reason: clips leaked online
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A24 closes the third Sundance sale for Sorry, Baby for $8M from comedian, writer, and director Eva Victor. Victor stars in the film (her directorial debut) alongside Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) and Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice).
Official Logline:
Something bad happened to Agnes (Victor). But life goes on - for everyone around her, at least.
Sorry, Baby was one of the biggest gems of the festival, depicting the aftermath of sexual assault with striking naturalism, vulnerability, and grace, winning Sundance’s Waldo Salt Award for Screenwriting. The film was fought for by several studios and ultimately went to A24.
There is no word yet on an official release date, but we’re expecting a fall release.
Finally, David Cronenberg’s Cannes 2024 official selection, The Shrouds, gets a release date. Sideshow and Janus are co-distributing.
Here’s their joint statement:
“This is Cronenberg at his wittiest, most personal and romantic in this thought-provoking thriller with knockout performances from Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger.”
Cronenberg is the king of body horror cinema. His psychological portraiture of degradation burns into your cerebrum:
Recently, he came back to form with Crimes of the Future, which premiered at Cannes in 2022.
Here’s the official synopsis of The Shrouds:
Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower, builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.
Cronenberg stated that the film was inspired by the passing of his wife, Carolyn Cronenberg, who had worked as his frequent collaborator.
The Shrouds will star Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, and Guy Pearce.
Check out the new teaser trailer here.
It is set for a limited release in NY and LA on April 18th before a wide release on April 25th.
Mike Leigh is back with another film, Untitled 2025, shooting this year.
He’s teaming up with the same folks from Hard Truths:
Prod Company: Bleecker Street (US distributor)
Prod Company: StudioCanal UK (UK Distributor)
Prod Company: Cornerstone Films (Sales Rep)
Prod Company: Film4
Equity Financier: Desmar
Producer: Georgina Lowe (Hard Truths, Mr. Turner)
We deeply loved Hard Truths and took it a little personally when it didn’t come up for any Oscars. Here’s our cover story on the film:
https://theindustry.co/p/fyc-its-time-to-consider-hard-truths
Allyce Ozarski, Emmy-nominated TV producer, passed away at 41. She worked on I Love That for You, Baskets, SMILF, and upcoming projects from Vince Gilligan and Will Ferrell. Raised in Poway, she transitioned from rug sales to TV. She co-founded Funny Adjacent Productions She was also an EP on The L Word: Generation Q.
Just looking at the massive catalog of fantastic TV she had a hand in, conveys only a fraction of the loss. We personally were big fans of the oddly charming Baskets, which was an off-kilter FX show starring Zach Galifianakis as an increasingly frustrated and depressed clown.
Baskets trailer.
She will be missed.
The Chinese New Year started off with an unheard-of level of enthusiasm, with a record-breaking five days for IMAX. Enlight’s animated fantasy sequel, Ne Zha 2 (trailer), as of yesterday, has made a whopping RMB $3 B ($430 M).
Official Synopsis:
After the catastrophe, although the souls of Nezha and Aobing were saved, their bodies would soon be shattered, Taiyi Zhenren planned to use the seven-colored lotus to rebuild their bodies.
Both the box office revenue and moviegoer count (35 M) surpassed the previous record set by The Battle at Lake Changjin ($310 M) in 2021 for the Spring festival. The No.2 spot was held by Detective Chinatown 1900, making RMB $2B ($251 M) as of Sunday.
To put this in perspective, the highest-grossing film in its opening five days this year in the US was Deadpool & Wolverine, making $211 M.
ON THIS DAY
1960. La Dolce Vita premieres in Italy.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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