Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Liam Neeson’s Gun, Margot Robbie’s Vengeance and a Killer Tomato.
Let’s go!
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Liam Neeson is funny!
In the new Naked Gun film Neeson steps into the shoes of the late great Leslie Nielsen (Airplane!, Naked Gun 1, 2 ½, 33 ⅓).
Neeson gives a stellar comedic performance by inverting every single “tough guy with a gun” trope, many of which he’s personified over the last couple decades (e.g. Taken).
What I loved is how hard Neeson commits to the bit of being a cop who takes things very literally. Not tilting to any extremes of being overly violent or crazed but instead letting into the absurdity of the situation not faze him in the slightest.
The director Akiva Schaffer (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) shared:
“It’s not that they’re playing it straight; it’s that they’re playing it real… you’re playing it like you’re an actor who is so dumb, they don’t know that what they’re saying is crazy.”
If this type of Liam Neeson comedy sounds familiar, it’s because of a viral skit he did with Ricky Gervais.
Schaffer elaborated:
“It’s all in that clip. [Liam is] playing Liam Neeson in it, but it’s clearly a caricature. That’s an amalgamation of every action movie he’s made for the last 10 years, and he’s playing it so serious and so humorless and saying crazy shit.”
Beyond what he’s saying, I even found Neeson’s physicality hilariously cartoonish, with a standout sequence spoofing Turn Down for What.
We hope that Neeson stretching into the comedy universe serves as a model for other aging action stars like Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise.
For More:
The Naked Gun trailer.
Not Liam Neeson’s first time doing comedy. Watch him in this Ricky Gervais skit.
Or even his second. Watch him in Ted 2 clip. Clearly Seth MacFarlane was impressed, he serves as a producer on The Naked Gun.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Cinemark Q2 revenue hits $941M, up 28% YoY.
Channing Tatum & Charlize Theron star in Dance Parents at Universal.
The Holiday gets TV remake at Apple.
IATSE re-elects Matthew Loeb as President.
HBO cancels And Just Like That…
Scott MacDonough (Annie Hall publicist) dies at 81.
Margot Robbie in talks to produce/star in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
Mark Ruffalo joins Spider-Man: Brand New Day as Hulk.
Netflix’s Voicemails for Isabelle adds Nick Offerman & Lukas Gage.
Michael Peña joins Amazon MGM’s Subversion.
Paul Schrader wraps The Basics of Philosophy starring Jack Huston.
Marlon Wayans narrates Unraveling George doc on Nike exec George Raveling.
Lee Jung-jae leads Prime Video’s new K-romcom Nice to Not Meet You.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Cinemark Theaters Q2 2025 revenue. Here are the gains and losses, compared with a year ago:
$941M revenue
↑28%
$95M net income
↑102%
$232M EBITDA
↑63%
Attendance increased to 58M patrons up 16% from last year and up 57% from last quarter.
This is a great result for Cinemark, which was bolstered by Minecraft, Superman, and Sinners.
Channing puts back on his dancing shoes.
Channing Tatum’s love of dance is once again front and center as he joins Charlize Theron in producing and starring in Dance Parents, a family comedy newly acquired by Universal.
Though he became more of a comedy fixture in recent years it's important to remember Tatum started off as a dancer, starring in the Step Up series, and of course Magic Mike. He and Charlize Theron also delighted viewers with a dance at the 2013 Oscars.
The film is expected to explore the world of competitive youth dance and the crazy parents.
Tidbit:
Nancy Meyers’ successful romcom The Holiday (2006, trailer) is getting a TV remake from Apple almost 20 years after the original fan-favorite film. With a new cast, the show, if greenlit, will follow the same premise: an American woman and an English woman switch houses for the holiday and find love in the process. As of right now Meyers has no involvement.
Finally Gremlins 3: A Gremlins 3 script by Chris Columbus is reportedly on Steven Spielberg’s desk. Warner Bros. is obviously chomping at the bit to bring another one of its prime IP in rotation. There were often rumored reboots but it seems they have just gone the sequel route. Aiming for a 2026 /2027 release. Gremlins 2 was weird.
Jonathan Kaplan, Emmy-nominated ER director and The Accused filmmaker has died at 77. He directed numerous films and TV episodes and was known as a prolific director that took two women to Academy Award nominations Jodie Foster (The Accused) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Love Field).
Mini Tidbits:
Following the US Senate’s vote to cut Public funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting they will close. Their funding made up roughly 15% of the PBS budget (prod co: Ken Burns’ The Civil War, Sesame Street).
The IATSE President Matthew Loeb has been re-elected. Loeb has been president since 2008. And we’ll need him to be tough on AI moving forward.
Kevin Costner’s Horizon films, has settled with the United Costume Corporation, which had sued the production over $350K in unpaid costume fees.
Want to shoot in Santa Monica? The city is launching Film Santa Monica Sept 1st. Bottom line: you’ll no longer be able to go through FilmLA after Aug 31st.
Want to watch South Park on HBO? Binge quickly as it’s leaving tomorrow, August 5th for Paramount+
Submissions are open for the Golden Globes here. Deadline: Oct 31st.
Scott MacDonough (unit publicist: Annie Hall) has passed away at 81. He also served as the unit publicist on Manhattan (1979) and My Dinner with Andre (1981).
Trailers:
Apple TV+’s KPopped
Docu series doc about Spice Girl and Kesha collabbing with KPop groups
Release: August 29
Cancellations:
HBO’s And Just Like That … (cancelled after Season 3)
Sex and the City sequel series
Netflix’s FUBAR (cancelled after Season 2)
Star: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Release dates:
20th/Imagine’s Whalefall
Dir: Brian Duffield (Hulu’s No One Will Save You)
Cast: Austin Abrams (Wolfs) Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas)
Follows a diver (Abrams) trapped inside a whale
Release: October 16, 2026
Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part III
Dir: John Krasinski
Release: July 2027
Deep Dive on A Quiet Place films box office performance
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
From Barbie to Fifty Foot Woman. Margot Robbie is in early discussions to star in and produce (through LuckyChap) Tim Burton’s adaption of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) with Gillian Flynn (writer: Gone Girl) for Warner Bros.
Details are thin, but the trailer for the original has Burton’s name all over it. But what’s more interesting is this character adds to Robbie’s oeuvre of playing roles that are mythological yet become very human.
In the trailer the 50ft woman is described as:
“Incredibly huge, with incredible desires for love and vengeance.”
A description for Robbie’s Barbie might have been:
“Incredibly plastic, with incredible desires for love...”
Robbie excels at becoming undone by an environment that doesn’t match up to what she feels inside. And this disorientation is the magnetizing pull that makes her a superstar.
It’ll be interesting to see her as a stock standard villain transmute into something more human.
Mark Ruffalo Hulks out in the new Spider-Man movie.
Ruffalo will be reprising his character of Bruce Banner / Hulk in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Due to weird licensing with Universal, the Incredible Hulk is unable to star in his own films for Marvel, but he makes a hell of an appearance in Thor: Ragnarok (clip). His teaming up with science bro Peter Parker could lead to some fun adventures. However, this kind of puts the nail in the coffin for a more grounded street-level Spider-Man movie.
For more check out the new spidey suit Sony & Marvel teased.
Stephen Colbert got a new show!: But not like that, as the long time late night host is still reeling from the shady Redstone-Skydance cancellation that lead for him to lose his job, he at least has a role on CBS crime comedy Elsbeth.
Colbert has long wanted to be a corpse on the show and it looks like he will finally get his wish, playing a deceased late night host. The irony is dripping and multi-layered.
Season 2 of Elsbeth trailer.
Tidbits:
Netflix’s rom-com Voicemails for Isabelle, starring Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson, has added Nick Offerman, Lukas Gage, Harry Shum Jr., Ciara Bravo, and others to its cast. Written and directed by Leah McKendrick, the film follows a grieving woman whose voicemails to her late sister are mistakenly received by a stranger. Romantic comedies are making a little comeback recently with theatrical runs of A24's The Materialists among others, love may in fact be in the air but this time it feels a bit more grounded.
Michael Peña will join Chris Hemsworth and Lily James in Subversion, Amazon MGM’s submarine-set action thriller directed by Patrick Vollrath. Hemsworth plays a disgraced naval commander forced to smuggle illegal cargo, pursued by James’ Coast Guard officer. Though Peña’s role remains undisclosed, he is a bright light in the Marvel’s Ant Man, a genuinely funny guy that always brings a nice (coked-up) levity even in serious roles. Clip.
Mini Tidbits:
Peacock’s Five-Star Weekend adaptation adds Roberta Colindrez (Sundance film Cassandro) and Henry Eikenberry (Lisa Frankenstein) to its cast. The Jennifer Garner led drama follows a famed food influencer who during a crisis hosts a weekend at her Nantucket home.
CBS’ Emmy nominated legal drama Matlock casts Justina Machado (Netflix’s One Day at a Time) in a recurring role for its second season. Machado will play Eva, a smart and formidable attorney in Matlock’s second season premiering next week.
Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Star Trek Discovery) joins Tracy Spiridakos in USA Network’s Anna Pigeon, a crime drama set in a national park. He will play the FBI agent Spiridakos’ park ranger teams up with to solve a murder.
Netflix’s western saga Ransom Canyon has expanded on Casey W. Johnson’s character into a series regular role for its upcoming second season. The For All Mankind actor’s Kit Russell, the paternal brother to Garrett Wareing’s Lucas, will play a much bigger role in the drama as production picks up this fall.
Emmy and Golden Globe nominated 80s star, Loni Anderson, has passed away. She was best known as the quick and clever receptionist, Jennifer Marlowe (clip), on the CBS multi-cam sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The Spanish-language surrealist film, Cielo, from filmmaker Alberto Sciamma (Killer Tongue) showcases his picturesque eye and directorial voice steeped in magical realism and visual poetry.
The film follows imaginative Santa, a young indigenous girl who embarks on a brutal yet humorous Odyssean journey to bring her mother to a distant sea and into eternal paradise.
Cielo screened last month at Fantasia Festival winning the Audience Award and Best Cinematography and with one watch of the trailer it is clear how deserving it is of those accolades.
Tidbits:
Paul Schrader’s new film is The Basics of Philosophy, starring Jack Huston (Day of the Fight), centers on “an intellectual university philosophy professor.” It is said to be similar in style to First Reformed and The Card Counter. E.g., a man takes matters into his own hands, enduring the physically heavy repercussions of his sins. It just wrapped. Click here for first look photo.
Marlon Wayans portrayed Nike exec George Raveling in Air (clip) and will now narrate the doc, Unraveling George. The doc centers on Raveling who was Nike's global basketball sports marketing director (who signed Jordan). Ben Affleck and Michael Jordan are interviewed in the film.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes teases its upcoming remake with a silly Apple spoof. A spokesperson praises the utility of Organic Intelligence, until it surely all goes wrong. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence arrives this halloween.
The face of Netflix’s Squid Game, Lee Jung-jae will lead Nice to Not Meet You, Prime Video’s new Korean romcom series set within the entertainment industry. Sharing the screen opposite The Glory actress Lim Ji-yeon, Jung-jae will play a typecast actor yearning for a fresh start.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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