Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Scary Movie’s instigators, Renée Zellweger’s drawing, and a King.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Scary Movie reboot has Anna Faris & Regina Hall reprising their roles.
Ad Council launches production arm with Sugar23.
Emmy-nominated The Equalizer series co-creator Michael Sloan has died.
James Bond logo designer Joe Caroff dies at 103.
Disney greenlights supernatural teen dramedy Coven Academy.
Spike Lee’s Colin Kaepernick ESPN doc-series cancelled.
Paramount+ renews The Madison (S2) & Lioness (S3).
Terence Stamp (Superman II, The Limey) passed away at 87.
Netflix adds Liz Kingsman to the Pride and Prejudice cast.
Two Seasons, Two Strangers wins Locarno.
Renée Zellweger makes directorial debut with hand-drawn short They.
Black Bear may distribute The Rivals of Amziah King starring Matthew McConaughey.
Noah Wyle directs an episode of The Pitt.
Vicky Krieps’ Yakushima’s Illusion sells to 9 territories.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Scary Movie Stars Return: Anna Faris & Regina Hall will be reprising their roles of Cindy & Brenda, respectively. The two played best friends who stumbled through the spoofs and goofs of the first four films.
Paramount and Miramax announced a Scary Movie reboot, reuniting original creators The Wayans brothers for Scary Movie 6. The Wayans had exited after the second film in 2001 over financial disagreements, with Craig Mazin (creator: Chernobyl, The Last of Us) and director David Zucker later taking over. But it looks like they have struck a deal to make their triumphant return.
With the boon of great horror films in the past few years, there will be plenty to spoof:
M3Gan
Smile
Terrifier
Sinners
Shooting starts next year.
And the Oscar goes to… Ad Council Entertainment. That’s right, the non-profit that brought you Smokey the Bear and Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk PSAs is starting a production company. Helping them into their Hollywood foray is Sugar23 (founder: Michael Sugar, Producer of Spotlight).
Their mission is to fill the market gap of Participant (prod co: Spotlight, Roma, An Inconvenient Truth), which shut down abruptly last year. Sugar23 will navigate the industry relationships and shepherd in IP, and Ad Council will use its connections with sponsors for funding.
It’s crazy, but we like Ad Council’s stark storytelling style.
Wondering why Quentin Tarantino passed the baton on directing the sequel to his latest Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, now called The Adventure of Cliff Booth? Or curious why he scrapped his 10th film, The Movie Critic, in pre-production? He reveals all in the latest episode of The Church of Quentin Tarantino podcast.
TLDR: For Cliff Booth, Tarantino wanted a bigger challenge than directing the sequel to his own film. And for The Movie Critic, Tarantino felt that the character wouldn’t be compelling enough for audiences. Tarantino’s next project is a play.
Tidbits:
Emmy-nominated writer-producer Michael Sloan has died. With Richard Lindheim, Sloan co-created the crime show The Equalizer (1985-89) and later wrote a series of spinoff novels in addition to producing the eventual movie franchise. From Columbo to Battlestar Galactica, Sloan’s pen shaped some of television’s most enduring mysteries and dramas, leaving behind a legacy of unforgettable storytelling.
The Man with the Golden Pen. Joe Caroff, who designed the iconic 007 logo, has passed away at 103, a day shy of his 104th birthday. Remarkable work throughout his career, including typography on the posters for Manhattan and West Side Story.
Disney greenlights Coven Academy, a supernatural teen dramedy from Tim Federle (Ferdinand). Set in New Orleans, it follows witches-in-training battling ancient forces. Premieres 2026.
Former MPA Senior VP John Mercurio has been promoted to EVP, global communications at the MPA.
The Spike Lee-directed ESPN doc-series Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick has been cancelled. It was cancelled due to creative differences.
Renewals:
Paramount+’s The Madison (for Season 2)
Creator: Taylor Sheridan
Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer
Paramount+’s Lioness (for Season 3)
Creator: Taylor Sheridan
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Terence Stamp, the original General Zod, has passed away: The Superman II actor was 87. Stamp was an acclaimed British actor known for Billy Budd, The Collector, Superman II, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. His career spanned six decades, from early leading-man roles and later acclaimed character performances like his wonderfully terrifying performance in The Limey.
But probably most prolifically, he is known to star in one of the most infamous movies in cinema history, the original Superman II. It had so much drama and director switching, it will always be the odd duck of the bunch, but Stamp played a compelling villain through it all.
He was a titan of cinema, and he will be missed.
Dan Ziskie has passed away at 80. He played the VP on Netflix’s House of Cards Season 1. The VP whom Kevin Spacey swindles out of the position by convincing him to become the governor of his home state.
Early in the season, Ziskie resigned to the fact that the VP is a position of powerlessness. In fact, he’s much taller than the rest of the cast, but he hangs his head low, which makes a powerful point. Later, we see Ziskie’s jubilation on the campaign trail for his home state. It’s a startling contrast, but one that makes us buy that he would go along with Spacey’s cockamamie plan.
Mini Tidbits:
Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice remake has added Liz Kingsman (F1) to the cast as the introverted Anne Bourgh, otherwise known as the woman Mr. Darcy was “supposed” to marry. Production has just begun.
Cole Sprouse (Riverdale) and Darby Lee-Stack (The Holdovers) will star in Elastic Hearts, Milad Schwartz Avaz’s U.S. debut. The director describes it as an intimate drama. Shooting starts next month.
ABC spinoff 9-1-1: Nashville adds three actors as recurring cast for its first season:
Gregory Alan Williams (The Righteous Gemstones)
MacKenzie Porter (Hell on Wheels)
Tim Matheson (Virgin River)
The offshoot show will have a similar premise, following heroic first responders in Nashville this time.
Cherished General Hospital actor, Tristan Rogers, has sadly passed away after a battle with cancer. The treasured daytime legend brought to life the suave and charismatic Robert Scorpio, often nicknamed the “Aussie James Bond”.
FESTIVALS
Locarno Film Festival winners:
Golden Leopard (Top Prize):
Two Seasons, Two Strangers
Dir/Wri: Sho Miyake (All the Long Nights)
International Sales Rep: Bitters End (La Chimera, Perfect Days)
Synopsis:
In summer, Nagisa and Natsuo meet seaside exchanging distant looks and clumsy words in the rainy ocean. In winter, screenwriter Li arrives at a snowy village meeting Benzo at his guesthouse. Despite disconnected talks they embark together.
Launched at Cannes Market.
Jury Prize/Best Performance:
White Snail
Dir/Wri: Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter
Cast: Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov
Synopsis:
Masha (Imbro), a model pursuing her dream job in China, and Misha (Senkov), a painter working in a morgue, form a profound, tragic relationship.
Best Director:
Tales of the Wounded Land
Dir/Wri: Abbas Fahdel
Synopsis:
An intimate chronicle of the war that devastated South Lebanon, leaving behind scorched land and a wounded community struggling to rebuild and find a semblance of peace.
Swatch First Feature Award:
Blue Heron
Dir/Wri: Sophy Romvari
Playing next at TIFF
Synopsis:
A family of six settles into their new home on Vancouver Island as internal dynamics are slowly revealed through the eyes of the youngest child.
Mini Tidbits:
Beta Film (worldwide sales rep/German distributor: Starz’s The Couple Next Door) has acquired Komar, a Bosnian TV series by showrunner Timur Makarevic. It premiered at last year’s Sarajevo Film Festival.
Yakushima’s Illusion, starring Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), which premiered at Locarno, has sold to 9 territories, including Japan.
Renée Zellweger is making her directorial debut with a cute little hand-drawn short called They. The short satirizes online toxicity and polarization following a dog and his owner as they navigate through a negative, grumbling town. It made its debut at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Can’t find a distributor? Do it yourself! That’s the tack Black Bear (prod co/financier: Sing Sing, sales rep: Longlegs, UK distributor: Conclave) will take for SXSW’s most popular film, The Rivals of Amziah King. They financed the film and served as the sales rep, but had been unable to find a distributor. Surprisingly, it stars Matthew McConaughey.
Synopsis:
Kateri loses her mother, leaves foster care. Reunites with former foster parent Amziah who mentors her, revealing hidden skills. Faces devastating situation, relies on newfound strength to seek justice.
At the Q&A, McConaughey applauded the director Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night) for turning down easy money jobs and sticking to his vision, which is said to be bathed in sunlight and contain musical numbers.
No word on when Black Bear will distribute. But the company recently committed to releasing 12 films/year. That’s as many as Amazon committed to by 2026.
Netflix is majorly stepping up its Mexican slate, greenlighting six upcoming feature films.
Andor’s Diego Luna will EP and star in Mexico ‘86, a true story that looks at Mexico’s bold and audacious bid to host the 1986 World Cup. The film will be directed by Gabriel Ripstein, who was behind the Berlin thriller 600 Miles (2015).
From Albert Nobbs (2011), director Rodrigo García, The Follies, set in Mexico City during a single day, follows six women, each dealing with their own social pressures, whose paths unexpectedly cross.
Among the lineup is one feature doc, Un Hijo Propio (A Son of One’s Own), which tells the story of a woman so desperate to become a mother that she fakes a pregnancy, unleashing a full-on media scandal that shakes the whole country.
Noah Wyle anchors The Pitt, and now he’s taking the reins behind the camera. In addition to starring, writing, and producing, Wyle will now direct an episode for the hit medical drama’s highly anticipated second season.
Wyle has previously directed shows he stars/acts in: 1 episode of TNT’s Falling Skies (2011–2015), 5 episodes of TNT’s The Librarians (2014–2018), and 5 episodes of Freevee’s Leverage: Redemption (2021-).
Tidbits:
Stuntman Ronnie Rondell Jr., famed for daring film stunts and Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here cover, has died at 88. His stunt career spanned decades, and he took part in many films, including Speed and Lethal Weapon.
Joel DeMott, a pioneering cinéma-vérité filmmaker, has passed away at 78. She most notably co-directed the raw coming-of-age documentary Seventeen that was originally pulled from a PBS broadcast for being too controversial. Luckily, it found another audience, winning the Grand Jury Prize for docs at Sundance in 1985.
European distributor Norse Key Studios has secured global rights to Harry King TV’s (True Sherlock) new format, Curiosity. Set in a British emporium, the program will see a range of celebrity guests perusing and buying eclectic gifts and collectibles. It is being developed as one of the first acquisitions for Harry King Unscripted.
Banijay Americas’ (The Office) expansion and new partnership, A Fábrica Mexico & U.S. Hispanic, has brought on producer, writer, and exec Santiago Zapata for Scripted VP. Founded to push more scripted content for Latin America and U.S. Hispanic markets, Zapata will oversee all scripted production.
ON THIS DAY
1936. Robert Redford born in Santa Monica, California.
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
I can’t wait for scary movie!!!