Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
Lionsgate’s Ninja, Sony’s Dolly, and Ashes.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Destin Daniel Cretton directs Lionsgate’s live-action Naruto; Charles Melton in talks.
Sony’s 3000 Pictures acquires summer bestseller Dolly All the Time.
Colman Domingo stars in + produces thriller series Netflix’s The Headlands House.
Netflix and AMC team on spy drama Bannerman, written by Shane Black.
Owen Cooper in talks for Ridley Scott’s Treasure Island.
Netflix greenlights Jessica Simpson doc.
Charter Communications closes acquisition of Cox Communications.
Steven Yeun leads Netflix supernatural drama Pagans.
Dave Bautista confirmed to play Kratos in Prime’s God of War series.
Watermelon Pictures acquires Diego Luna’s Cannes drama Ashes.
Martin Scorsese EPs Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Dead Eyes, Tom Hanks podcast.
24% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
That is the ninja way! Destin Daniel Cretton (Dir: Spider-Man: Brand New Day) will direct Lionsgate’s live-action film adaptation of Naruto.
Charles Melton (Netflix’s Beef S2) is in talks to play the Ninja teacher Kakashi in the movie. Based on Masashi Kishimoto’s world-famous manga, Naruto follows a young ninja named Naruto Uzumaki who wants to be the Hokage (Leader) of the Hidden Leaf Village.
The brand of Naruto has generated over $20bn ever since its release in 1999, with 220 episodes of TV and 11 films under its belt.
The uniqueness of Naruto’s fight scenes comes from its mix of fistfighting with mystical elements. If there is one director in Hollywood who knows how to combine martial arts action with superpowers, it has to be Cretton. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings showcased some of the best hand-to-hand combat scenes in Marvel, while Spider-Man: Brand New Day perfectly blended Spidey’s superhuman powers with his melee.
If he could recreate the intricate choreography of Spider-Man for Naruto, then we know that we are in for a visual treat for this film. Think of adding Marvel’s Repulsor Beam action but with fireballs of pure energy to Spider-Man.
Tidbits:
Colman Domingo is trading one Netflix hit for another, joining The Headlands House, a thriller limited series from Yellowjackets writer Cameron B. Dupont. The series finds a married couple’s dream home turned into a real-life nightmare soon after discovering the previous residents were brutally murdered on the property. We can picture Domingo’s disappointed face so clearly. From AMC Studios, Domingo will produce alongside his partner Raúl via their Edith Productions, alongside PKM Productions (USA’s The Rainmaker).
Netflix and AMC are co-producing a drama series, Bannerman, based on John R. Maxim’s Paul Bannerman novels. The show will follow Paul Bannerman, a spy who convinces the most deadly assassins in the world to quit their espionage, giving them a chance to live normal lives in the quiet suburbs of Connecticut. Kind of sounds like the prequel to the “former assassin living a normal life gets brought into killing again genre” (e.g., John Wick, Normal, Universal’s Love Hurts). Shane Black (Dir: The Nice Guys) and Craig Silverstein (Wri: Percy Jackson and the Olympians) will write the pilot. This is the two studios’ first collaboration.
Sony’s 3000 Pictures (Where the Crawdads Sing) has nabbed the rights to bestselling summer novel Dolly All the Time with Gemma Burgess (wri: Red, White & Royal Wedding) attached to adapt the screenplay. The story follows Dolly Brick, who has spent her entire life fixing problems other people leave behind. Now at 39, she returns to Rhode Island with her son for the summer, determined to keep her father from losing his home.
Ridley Scott’s Treasure Island from Sony is coalescing. Owen Cooper (scary as hell kid in Adolescence) is in talks for the cast. And that tracks, as Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne is writing the script. This will be a darker, psychological tale than the previous dozen film incarnations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel. Hugh Jackman is Blackbeard.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns (wri: 1917, Last Night in Soho) is penning Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean 6, which is intended to star Margot Robbie and Johnny Depp.
Mini Tidbit:
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
Amazon’s leak
Netflix’s Jessica Simpson
All those tidbits and more here.
Renewals:
Prime’s Sterling Point (for S2)
Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai (for S3, final season)
Trailers:
Prime’s The Terminal List (S2)
Star: Chris Pratt
Release: Oct 21
Paramount+’s Golden Axe
Release: Sept 16
Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story
Creator: Ryan Murphy
Release: Sept 17
Magnolia’s Never After Dark
Release: Sept 25
Netflix’s Tribeca 25
Doc on Robert De Niro founding Tribeca Festival in the wake of 9/11
Streaming release: Sept 11
Grasshopper Film’s Chronovisor
Release: Sept 4
First look:
Netflix’s Bad Day
Cast: Cameron Diaz
Release: Dec 11
Apple TV’s Stick S2
Cast: Owen Wilson, Rhea Seehorn
Release: Nov 4
Netflix’s The Hunting Wives (S2)
Release: Nov 26
Release date:
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s Margie Claus
Star: Melissa McCarthy (Margie), Jim Gaffigan (Santa)
Release: Nov 12, 2027
Paramount+’s Yellowjackets (S4)
Release: Nov 20
Netflix’s 14th
Dir: Ava DuVernay
Premiere: NYFF
Release: Dec 4
Blue Harbor’s Orion
Sci-Fi Thriller
Dir: South Africa’s Best Picture winner Jaco Bouwer (Neon’s Gaia)
Sales Rep: Hyde Park International (99 Homes, The Baltimorons)
US Release: Fall
Shoot dates:
Untitled Woody Allen-directed film
Shooting in Madrid Oct 5
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Steven Yeun will star in Netflix’s supernatural drama Pagans. It hails from Joshua Zetumer (creator: FX’s Say Nothing).
The series follows a widower (Yeun) raising two children, one of whom has a peculiar nature that gives way to a sinister mystery.
We can imagine his daughter having supernatural abilities that trigger Yeun’s rage. Of course, Yeun is no stranger to harnessing deep wells of anger that boil over. That was his role in Beef S1, getting continually escalated into madness by Ali Wong.
Tidbits:
Ron Perlman joins Amazon MGM Studios’ horror film Seasons, directed by Drew Hancock (Dir: Companion). Based on a viral Reddit short story, it follows a husband and wife who buy their dream ranch, only to discover the property is haunted by ancient spirits that can only be stopped with disturbing rituals. Lily James and Jack Reynor also star.
Mini Tidbits:
Universal’s Untitled Snoop Dogg Biopic directed by Craig Brewer (Song Sung Blue) brings in Myles Bullock to play Dr. Dre. He’s got a calming intensity, recently co-starring in Sundance’s If I Go Will They Miss Me.
From The Three Comma Club to The Pitt. Chris Diamantopoulos, who played the comically over-the-top tech investor in HBO’s Silicon Valley (best of clip), is now joining The Pitt S3. He will play the Chief Medical Officer of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.
Lukas Gage (The White Lotus) joins the cast of Pumping Black. Starring alongside Natalie Portman, the psychological thriller is set in the cutthroat, adrenaline-fueled world of professional cycling. No word on Gage’s role, but he’s not afraid to get a little bloody; just check him out in Companion.
Remember the loving husband who’s really a piece of shit in Ready or Not (2019)? Well, that actor, Mark O’Brien, is starring in Soma, a sci-fi drama about a father (O’Brien) who goes to great lengths to help his son speak. Like a sci-fi Lorenzo’s Oil, perhaps. Shooting in Estonia.
Dennis Haysbert (Far from Heaven/Allstate spokesman) is cast in psychological horror film Deify.
Confirmed: Dave Bautista will play Kratos in Prime’s God of War drama series. Details here.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Sundance Institute Episodic Intensive picks ten 2026 fellows. Our favorites:
Nobody’s Horses
Creator: Courtney Graham (2nd AC: Frankenstein, The Shape of Water)
Synopsis:
After 122 wild horses mysteriously die on a military base, a disgraced veterinarian is pulled into an impossible mission: Rescue the remaining herds before the NATO Games.
Graham has worked on many Guillermo del Toro sets, so we’re excited to see her filmic style.
The 51st State
Creator: Alejandra López
Synopsis:
In the not-too-distant future, where Puerto Rico has become the 51st U.S. state, we follow the first Puerto Rican senator, tasked with containing a resistance group on the island who wants revolution and secession.
Full list of Sundance Episodic projects here.
TIFF Market adds:
Drifter
Int. Sales Rights: The Syndicate (Pose)
Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Kate Beckinsale
Dir: Randall Emmett (prod: The Irishman)
Synopsis:
Interim police chief Wendy Ford arrests a mysterious drifter, then faces a deadly assault on her station by mercenaries posing as FBI agents. She must ally with the stranger to uncover why they want her prisoner freed.
Mini Tidbits:
MetFilm Sales (Last Breath doc) picks up worldwide rights to Boatbuilders (Dir: Luke Lorentzen, Sundance’s 2023 U.S. Doc Best Director). The film is world premiering in Venice’s Open Section.
Visit Films’ Skintown, starring Jack Rowan and Chris Walley, wins Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking at Edinburgh Film Festival. First Clip.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Watermelon Pictures picks up North American rights to Ashes directed by actor Diego Luna. The film, his fifth feature as a director, premiered at Cannes in the Premiere section. It stars Cannes Best Actress winner Anna Díaz (La Cocina), who plays a woman plagued by the death of her younger brother. The film becomes surreal and political. It’s based on this book. No word on release date; next playing at TIFF.
Here’s the trailer.
Martin Scorsese EPs long-time pal Paul Schrader’s new film The Basics of Philosophy.
Premiering at Venice, it has a stacked cast with Jack Huston, Bill Pullman, and Karl Glusman. I think it’ll play like a more visceral After the Hunt, following Huston as a repressed philosophy professor who descends into guilt and spiritual reckoning.
It’s something Schrader has excelled in, with his recent films The Card Counter and Oh, Canada. Obviously, Scorsese/Schrader’s best collab was on Taxi Driver.
Richard L. Anderson (Sound Editor: Raiders of the Lost Ark) is writing and directing a horror feature, Wekiwa.
The film follows a struggling showman whose last-ditch Florida island resort shoot turns deadly when a documentary crew uncovers a monster under the lagoon. Billy Zane (Titanic) stars.
Coming from a sound editor background, we can surely expect intricate sound design from Anderson – similar to the immense horror of A24’s Undertone, which utilized careful sound editing as its main source of scare.
Tidbits:
Mubi picks up Latin America streaming rights to mystery drama The Meltdown following its premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard and screening at San Sebastián. Set at a remote ski resort in post-dictatorship Chile, the film is the follow-up to director Manuela Martelli’s acclaimed Cannes title Chile ‘76 (2022).
A web series so beloved they’re making it into a movie. Thirteen years since its finale, Felicia Day’s The Guild (clip) reunion film has just made history as the highest crowdfunded movie ever, raising nearly $5.8M through a Kickstarter campaign. Her online series loosely followed Day’s life, and the film is set to take place at a Renaissance Fair, bringing back fan-favorite characters.
Congrats to Charlie Olsky and Emilie Spiegel, who are now the co-heads of Cinetic Marketing. We’ve worked with both of these guys, and they’re fantastic. Courtney Ott, who previously led Cinetic Marketing, has exited.
Mini Tidbit:
Nordic studio and distributor Nordisk Film, which releases A24 films in the region, has brought on Eva Jakobsen (co-producer: Thelma, Mother, Couch).
ON THIS DAY
1942. Bambi is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong (AI policy: AI is not used to generate our content).
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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