Meryl Streep’s Devil, Ben Stiller’s Bliss

Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

Severance Season 2, Kevin Costner’s muddied horizon, Andrew Garfield is in time, Devil Wears Prada 2, and an auction.

Let’s go!

(Moving forward from this week, every Thursday’s edition will include a new section called Exec Moves & Signed Talent)

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SEVERANCE SEASON 2

Severance. Apple TV+.

The teaser for Season 2 of Severence just dropped. 

The first season, directed by Ben Stiller, is one of the best TV shows of the 2020s.

Stiller, who is directing five episodes of this new season, has had one of the most dramatic career shifts in Hollywood.

He ignited the screen with his pitch-perfect 90s-2000s comedy, playing zany, heartfelt, childishly innocent characters like in Zoolander, Meet the Fockers and Night at the Museum before transitioning to more serious roles by 2017 (The Meyerowitz Stories, Brad’s Status).​

And then he shifted to directing TV.

First, with Showtimes’ Escape at Dannemora (2018), a gritty prison escape drama starring Paul Dano and Benicio Del Toro and then six episodes of Apple TV+’s acclaimed Severance (2022), about a man who has his work and home memories surgically separated.

Stiller discussed his fascination with the show’s premise:

“They don't know they're kind of living this life and, you know, speaking in this sort of rhythm and making these workplace comedy jokes, but they don't know who they are or where they are or why they're there… that's kind of like, you know, life.”

The auto-pilot workplace dystopia feels like an apt metaphor for Stiller cranking out facsimile blockbuster entertainment.

Here’s the (light) Season 2 synopsis:

Mark (Adam Scott) and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.​​

It remains to be seen if Stiller will rekindle his taste for acting or if he will continue to push himself to direct increasingly higher-concept projects.

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