Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Michael B. Jordan’s Crown Affair, James Cameron’s concert film, and a young villain.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Taylor Russell exits Michael B. Jordan’s The Thomas Crown Affair mid-production.
Billie Eilish teams with James Cameron for a 3D concert film.
Tina Fey will produce Universal’s John Proctor Is the Villain film.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse delayed to Summer 2027.
Vincent Lindon stars as Jean Valjean in Studiocanal’s Les Misérables.
Crystal Lake casts Callum Vinson as young Jason Voorhees.
Utkarsh Ambudkar (Ghosts) leads motel gangster drama Patel.
Apple + A+E crime drama casts Poorna Jagannathan (Deli Boys).
Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist (The Way We Were), dies at 99.
Venice Jury adds Fernanda Torres and Mohammad Rasoulof.
Harris Dickinson’s Urchin acquired by Picturehouse for UK/Ireland.
Comic-Con teases new John Carter animated adaptation.
Black Bear launches U.S. distribution arm.
NK 370 tells the story of India’s first Formula One driver.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Michael B. Jordan’s next directorial venture, The Thomas Crown Affair, from Amazon and MGM Studios, loses its leading lady in Taylor Russell, who had been set to star alongside Jordan.
The role is pivotal to the film, which Rene Russo previously played in the 1999 Pierce Brosnan adaptation, and Faye Dunaway in the 1968 film with Steve McQueen. This heavily sought-after role would have been a huge get for Russell so early on in her career. The film is in mid-production. And “creative differences” were cited as the reason for the exit.
There are a few historic examples of actors being replaced mid-shoot, with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly being replaced by Michael J. Fox, in what turned into an iconic, franchise-starting performance.
Sometimes, though, it can lead to a creative disaster, as is what happened with The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) starring Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, and Ron Perlman. Rob Morrow exited on day 2 of shooting because of on-set chaos, and was replaced by David Thewlis (Harry Potter 3, Naked). That film was a critical and commercial failure.
We hope for the best for the third rendition of The Thomas Crown Affair.
An unlikely team-up: Billie Eilish is collaborating with Oscar-winning director James Cameron on a concert film. The project is being filmed during her four-night Co-op Live residency (UK's largest entertainment arena). It will be filmed in 3D.
Cameron, the man behind Avatar, is one of the most innovative directors when it comes to IMAX and 3D. Combined with Eilish's music, which is technically brilliant (her production on Bad Guy is nuts), this could end up being an incredible duet of two tech-obsessed artists, in perfect harmony.
Peacock raises its prices:
Ad-Tier
$7.99 → $10.99
38% increase
Q1 2024 price: $5.99
Ad-Free
$13.99 → $16.99
21% increase
Q1 2024 price: $11.99
For the extra price, Peacock users will get to see the NBA (the deal cost NBCU $2.45bn for NBA/WNBA rights for 11 years).
The NBC streaming platform is continually losing money each quarter (-$215M Q1 2025).
Tidbits:
Just 45 days after the premiere, Warner Bros.’ Superman will fly to VOD on August 26th. Compare this to the longer windows for successful Disney films like 90 days for Thunderbolts*, although the films that bomb receive far less, like 53 days for Snow White.
James Stark Bennett, a TV executive for CBS and Disney, has passed away at 78. He was best known for developing the popular two thumbs up (or down!) movie reviewing TV program Siskel and Ebert, as the SVP of Disney’s Buena Vista TV Productions.
First look video. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock shooting Warner Bros.’ Practical Magic 2.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has been delayed to June 25, 2027.
Trailers:
Universal’s Nobody 2
Star: Bob Odenkirk, Sharon Stone, Christopher Lloyd
Release: Aug 15
Vertigo’s Four Letters of Love
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne
Release: July 25th
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Universal partners with Tina Fey, who is producing a film adaptation of the Tony-nominated play, John Proctor Is the Villain. The Broadway play centers on a group of small-town high school students who explore feminism and power dynamics through their study of The Crucible (plot: John Proctor is tried for witchcraft at the Salem Witch Trials).
Fey usually aligned herself with women's empowerment stories with a slightly cynical take that ends on a sweet note.
She famously scripted the high school satire Mean Girls, not to mention her show-within-a-show, The Girlie Show, on 30 Rock.
Currently early in development.
Vincent Lindon is an angel. Lindon, who was marvelous in Titane, will play the lead in Studiocanal’s adaptation of the post-revolutionary epic Les Misérables, which has just started production.
Lindon plays Jean Valjean, a former convict who becomes an industrialist. After a singular act of mercy, he dedicates himself to uplifting the oppressed, staying steadfast to his virtues.
We love Lindon for this, as he has a profound ability to overcome any ill-will or morally questionable acts by another and see the goodness in their heart. That’s exactly what he did in Titane as the quasi-father to Alexia (Agathe Rousselle).
From Ghosts to Shakespeare. Utkarsh Ambudkar, the star of CBS’s long-running series Ghosts, the hardest job on TV, will star in Patel. Patel is inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set in an Indian-American owned motel:
“A deadpan gangster tragedy… a dark, bloody clown piece that’s a nod to immigrant ambition.”
No word on who Ambudkar will play, but he’s got an amazing ability in Ghosts to tune out a maddening amount of noise from those around him.
Kal Penn will also star, along with Danny Pudi (Community) as an EP.
Ki-ki-ki Ma-ma-ma: Peacock has found its newest (soon to be) undead murderer behind the hockey mask. Crystal Lake, the Friday the 13th prequel, has cast Callum Vinson as young Jason Voorhees.
Vinson was excellent as Amanda Seyfried’s son in Peacock’s Long Bright River, who has the makings of a savant, but is also deeply troubled after he’s abandoned by his father. In the show, we feel Vinson could dip into darkness any second.
Vinson will join Linda Cardellini, who plays his mother, a pivotal figure in his life and the catalyst to his killing sprees.
Currently in production with eight episodes planned.
Tidbits:
Apple and A+E Studios’ upcoming untitled crime series casts Poorna Jagannathan (Riz Ahmed’s mom in The Night Of and Auntie Lucky Deli Boys) in a series regular role. Jagannathan will play an FBI agent who draws on an ex-soldier’s (Liev Schreiber) expertise while hunting a serial killer (Stephen Graham). Production kicking off this summer in Pittsburgh.
Adrianne Palicki (Perkins in John Wick) will star in Remote, a work-from-home horror thriller from Found Footage 3D’s Steven DeGennaro. The project will be multimedia and at least in part take place on Zoom. Playing a woman isolated in a trailer, she witnesses a webcam-streamed murder and must outsmart the killer. The film has just wrapped production.
Five Obits:
Kate Beckinsale’s mother, a Star Wars star, and Keanu Reeves’ on-screen father:
https://theindustry.co/p/kate-beckinsales-mom-keanu-reeves
FESTIVALS
Sure, let's take another crack at John Carter of Mars. Michael Kogge, the estate holder of the John Carter novel and IP, is planning to announce a new animated adaptation of the story at Comic Con.
We will have to wait till then to hear more of his plan, but it would be wise to remember that to this day, Disney's 2012 adaptation is considered one of the biggest movie flops in the entirety of cinema history… so no pressure.
Venice Film Festival adds to its jury:
Fernanda Torres
Actress: I’m Still Here, which premiered at Venice last year
Mohammad Rasoulof
Dir: The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Cristian Mungiu
Dir: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Zhao Tao
Actress: Caught by the Tides
Stéphane Brizé
Dir: Another World
Maura Delpero
Dir: Vermiglio
Official Selection dropping on Tuesday.
Harris Dickinson’s Cannes directorial debut, Urchin, is picked up by Picturehouse Entertainment (Porcelain War) for UK/Irish distribution.
Urchin follows an unhoused man, Mike, who struggles in a world where empathy is lacking, yet desperately longs for it at every turn.
The respect Dickinson pays to the character of Mike, to show his imperfections instead of painting him as a saint, shows his talent for showcasing human stories.
Releasing Oct 3rd. Clip.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Black Bear (prod co/financier: Sing Sing) will now distribute films in the US.
They’re going to release 12/year. That’s as many as Amazon committed to by 2026. So the plans are ambitious.
But Black Bear is a bit of a kingmaker, backing a few filmmakers that have burgeoned. Take Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley when Black Bear invested in the nick of time in their film, Sing Sing. Clint went on to direct another Black Bear production, Train Dreams, which sold to Netflix in the high teen millions and is poised to become one of their top Oscar films.
When the Black Bear first started, they were backing films by Eli Roth (Knock Knock), Rebecca Miller (Maggie’s Plan), and Dee Rees (Mudbound).
Their US theatrical slate will be comprised of:
Genre movies
Filmmaker-driven indies
Action films (they produced Jason Statham’s A Working Man)
Black Bear already distributes in the UK and Canada, so they should have an easier time jumping in. Leading up to this effort is CAA’s Benjamin Kramer, who was instrumental in helping put together the financing and sales on Mudbound, Sing Sing, and The Brutalist.
Best of luck to Black Bear CEO Teddy Schwarzman and the team!
Tidbits:
Sean Krajewski, a partner in the production company Rabbits Black (Liev Schreiber’s Across the River and Into the Trees), is leaving the company. The prod co is also a backer of Lone Wolf, starring Bryan Cranston and Lily Gladstone, which was unable to pay the crew for the final two weeks of production. We hope the film finds success and that the crew is paid promptly.
Oscar-winning lyricist Alan Bergman, half of a legendary songwriting duo with his late wife Marilyn, has died at 99. Together, they penned classics like “The Way We Were” and “Windmills of Your Mind,” earning 16 Oscar nominations. Most recently Windmills of Your Mind was used in a poignant scene in the latest Emmy-nominated season of Severance. They both will be missed.
Martin Izquierdo (Puppeter: 22 Jump Street) has passed away at 99. Izquierdo is best known for designing elaborate costumes, especially angel wings, and his work appeared in everything from Victoria’s Secret fashion shows to the iconic scene in Angels in America (play and film version) where a literal angel appears. Just look at the magnitude (clip).
Michael Naizu makes his feature directorial debut with Bound For Glory. The film, which he co-directs and co-stars in, centers on a mixed-race, working-class couple. Janel Parrish (Pretty Little Liars) co-stars.
India wants a bit of its own F1 magic: Mahesh Narayanan will direct NK 370, a Tamil-language biopic on Narain Karthikeyan, India’s first Formula One driver. The film explores Karthikeyan’s underdog journey from racing rookie to global racing stardom. Produced by Blue Marble Films, casting is expected to be announced soon.
ON THIS DAY
1951. Robin Williams is born in Chicago.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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