Lionsgate's Monopoly Money
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Lionsgate, Jamie Foxx and red hair.
Let’s go!
Join our How to Sell Your Film to Netflix Workshop:
https://theindustry.co/p/how-to-sell-your-film-to-netflix
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Lionsgate’s Monopoly movie finds writers in Game Night’s (2018) John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.
Miramax has landed I Can See You're Angry, an R-rated comedy from BoulderLight Pictures (Barbarian).
Searchlight’s bloody hit Ready or Not is getting a sequel with Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein).
YouTube introduces a “Lite” tier to compete with the streamers.
Max is currently developing a screw-ball romcom Skinny Dip.
Warner Bros. launches the first 5 minutes of Mickey 17.
Jamie Foxx inks a first look deal with Fox.
Last of Us Season 2 adds Joe Pantoliano (Memento).
Avatar’s Sam Worthington is set to star in Netflix’s new limited series I Will Find You.
Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building adds Keegan-Michael Key.
Nicolas Cage is a rootin, tootin cowboy in Lionsgate’s Gunslingers.
The producer of the soulful American Honey (2016) started an AI company.
Closer Media (Ezra) has hired a president, Jonathan King (EP: Spotlight).
Film Movement has acquired Pedro Martin-Calero’s horror debut The Wailing.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Making Monopoly Money. A monopoly movie is on the way. And what better partners than Barbie production company LuckyChap and Hasbro, with Lionsgate distributing. They have just brought on board two writers whose films have grossed over $1bn at the box office, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who share credits on:
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
The Flash (2023)
Before they pass go, and collect much more than $200 for this payday, the duo co-wrote and directed Game Night (2018) starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, which revolves around a couple that loves board game night, and a friend that takes it too far (trailer).
I’d love to see this version of Monopoly that centers around a greedy real estate mogul whose snatching up properties with Willem Dafoe playing the greedy Monopoly Man.
But maybe they’d be taking too much of a chance.
In a competitive battle for rights, Miramax has landed I Can See You're Angry, a new R-rated comedy from writer Brandon Cohen (The Escort) and producer BoulderLight Pictures (Barbarian). While the plot details have not been disclosed, the high-quality comedy is described to be in the vein of Wedding Crashers (2005) and There’s Something About Mary (1998). Miramax and BoulderLight have already started a growing relationship as both companies are involved in the remake of the alien invasion horror film The Faculty.
The team behind the 2019 Searchlight’s bloody hit Ready or Not is getting together for a sequel with actress Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein) and Radio Silence. Newton will be joining returning star Samara Weaving, the original directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpon and Tyler Gillett, and original scribes Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, who are all back working on the sequel. Despite controversial reviews, Ready or Not has become a cult favorite within the horror community, grossing $58 M at the worldwide box office on just a $6 M budget.
YouTube introduces a “Lite” tier to compete with the streamers:
$7.99/month - YouTube Lite
$7.99/month - Netflix
$9.99/month- Disney+
$9.99/ month-Max
$14.99/month ($2.99 to remove ads) Prime
YouTube hit 125 M music and premium subscribers and hopes to lure more as it lowers prices. As a monthly TV viewing platform, YouTube dominates with a 10.8% audience share, 25% more than Netflix. And more than double Disney.
Tidbits:
History Channel loves alliteration. They have a trio of new docuseries with some stars:
Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny
Hazardous History with Henry Winkler
History’s Deadliest with Ving Rhames (shouldn’t this Violence with Ving)
I would have gone with History’s Violence with Ving Rhames. For now Duchovny gets back to finding the truth out there on April 4th.
Max is currently in development on a Carl Hiaasen adaptation of his screw-ball romcom novel Skinny Dip with Ted Lasso (2020-23) and Shrinking creator Bill Lawrence onboard furthering his loyal relationship with the streamer. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis best known for creating ABC’s Once Upon a Time (2011-18) are attached to write for Skinny Dip.
Mini Tidbits:
Sky has acquired Jesse Armstrong’s upcoming HBO movie about four billionaire friends amid a financial crisis, starring Steve Carell. Written and directed by Armstrong, it airs this spring with Sky’s exclusive rights. More about the project here:
https://theindustry.co/p/steve-carells-succession
As Technicolor begins to close shop, its gaming unit (Mass Effect & Hogwarts: Legacy) will be sold to Transperfect, a videogame testing and support team, but still retain its name. Sad times for a company that has a long storied history.
Disney cuts 200. Here’s what departments were hit:
ABC News
Disney (program planning and scheduling departments)
Read more about it here.
The Emmys have announced their official date for 2025. They will air on September 14th on CBS.
New Trailers/New Release dates:
Mickey 17 (Warner Bros.)
Release Date: March 7th
Happy Gilmore 2 (Netflix)
Release Date: July 25th
Bambi: The Reckoning (ITN Distribution)
Come for the trailer, stay for the CGI deer
Release date: Summer 2025
The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 (Max)
Release date: March 9th
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Foxx sticks with Fox. Jamie Foxx has inked a first look deal with Fox Entertainment Studios for comedy, drama and animated shows in the scripted and unscripted space. He will develop and produce.
Fox recently conducted a funny yet profound examination of his own death on Netflix’s What Had Happened Was..., but in terms of his work with Fox, it’s pretty sparse.
He does owe the network a lot, he got his start on the sketch comedy series In Living Color (1990 - 1994) alongside Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans.
One idea for Fox: this 1.5hr super cut of his best sketches on In Living Color. The first sketch is absolutely mystical.
If you are enjoying the newsletter and see its value, please consider supporting the newsletter by becoming a premium subscriber https://theindustry.co/subscribe
The Last of Us Season 2, adds Joe Pantoliano, the Memento star as Eugene, a character who in the game was only really fleshed out through some logs and stories. But season 2 will dedicate an entire episode to fleshing out his story and how he came to settle in Jackson. A similar tactic season 1 did with its Nick Offerman-centric episode 3, which netted him an Emmy.
Last of Us season 2 will premiere on HBO April 13th. Teaser here.
Avatar’s Sam Worthington is set to star in Netflix’s new limited series I Will Find You based on Harlan Coben’s bestselling novel of the same name. In the eight-episode series Worthington will play David Burroughs, an innocent father serving a life sentence for the murder of his own son, a crime he did not commit. The author co-created the series adaptation with Robert Hull (prod. God Friended Me) who will act as showrunner.
Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) joins Charlie Day and Allison Williams in Kill Me, Jimmy (Day), who wakes up after an apparent suicide attempt but doubts he did it. With 911 operator Margot (Williams), he investigates whether someone tried to kill him.
Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building has had a revolving door of A list guest stars, with Keegan-Michael Key as the newest addition tapped for a recurring role in its fifth season. New characters and storylines for the next season are being kept under wraps with production beginning in New York this week.
Mini tidbits:
Nicolas Cage is a rootin, tootin cowboy in Lionsgate’s Gunslingers (trailer). Also starring Heather Graham. It looks like their talents are underutilized.
Matthew Modine joins Legendary’s next Monsterverse film: The Stranger Things and Married to the Mob actor has joined director Grant Sputore's next iteration of the King Kong, Godzilla universe in an undisclosed role.
TECH SECTION
It lost all its soul. That’s the first thing I thought when I watched this preview of The Woman with Red Hair, the first AI feature film from Staircase Studios AI, founded by Pouya Shahbazian (prod: American Honey, Divergent).
The BTS + first five minutes tries to lean hard on a “human approach”, with hiring union actors. But the side by side comparisons of a human actor and an AI character (as seen above) loses all the poetry of human emotion. The complexity of her facial expressions is just erased.
Their goal is to pump out low-budget projects at studio quality, roughly 10-12/year. I don’t have an appetite for this. An AI will never produce a film like Shahbazian’s American Honey (2016), which is rich, layered, messy and partially shot on celluloid (trailer).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Billionaire goes indie. Closer Media (created by Chinese real estate billionaire Zhang Xin) behind Bleecker Street’s charming film Ezra (2023) and the wild The Monk and the Gun (2023), which played at TIFF and Telluride, has hired a president, Jonathan King. He has EP’d two Best Picture winners, amongst some other incredible credits:
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) - Producer
Greenbook (2018) - EP
Roma (2018) - EP
Spotlight (2015) - EP
A Most Violent Land (2014) - EP
Lincoln (2012) - EP
Xin stated:
“As we continue to broaden our footprint in the independent film world, I am excited to work with Jonathan, who brings the experience and skill necessary to propel us into this next phase.”
Closer Media has a big year ahead, with two films at Sundance this year: Justin Lin’s Last Days (read our Sundance cover story) and the doc Middletown (2025).
Hamilton’s Jonathan Groff and Deadpool actor Karan Soni lead a heartwarming romcom of colliding cultures in A Nice Indian Boy. The new trailer sees Groff’s Jay, a white man who was adopted and raised by Indian parents, meeting his boyfriend Naveen’s (Soni) “super liberal” Indian family who are taken aback when they realize they missed the memo on the whole adopted part. Of course, tensions are immediately heightened and silly chaos ensues. With comedic misunderstandings and emotional revelations, the awkward but endearing movie is directed by The Resident co-creator Roshan Sethi. A Nice Indian Boy first premiered at last year’s SXSW and will be hitting theaters April 4th.
Tidits:
Film Movement has acquired U.S. distribution rights for Pedro Martin-Calero’s horror debut The Wailing (El llanto), set for a 2025 release. Featuring a haunting, non-linear narrative, the film follows three women terrorized by an unseen entity linked by eerie wailing. The Spain-Argentina co-production won Martin-Calero the San Sebastian Silver Shell for Best Director. Trailer here.
A biopic titled Forever and Ever, Amen about country music legend Randy Travis is in development, directed by Andrew Hyatt. Announced at the Grand Ole Opry with performances from Travis' friends, the film will feature three actors portraying Travis at different stages of his life, including country star Clay Walker in his 40s and 50s. Casting is underway for younger actors.
Oh Canada! Sarah Timlick is now the head of Amazon’s MGM’s theatrical distribution in Canada. The country makes up for a decent chunk of the box office:
$897.7 M - 2023
$674 M - 2022
And pre-pandemic it was closer to $1 bn. Timlick hails from Elevation Pictures where she served as Director of Sales Distribution and Development for Possessor (2020) and BlackBerry (2023).
A cultural revolution in the Dominican Republic is captured by the SXSW doc 42nd St. From the trailer, we can hear hisses of inspiration from City of God, the music, the energy, the violence. Check out the 42nd St. trailer for yourself.
ON THIS DAY
1947. Rob Reiner (dir: When Harry Met Sally), born in the Bronx.
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co
