Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Miramax’s Musical Monster, Amazon’s big layoffs, and Rio.
Let’s go!
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Thank you to Sony, who invited The Industry and 20 other publications to a private meet-and-greet on the Sony lot with Jacob Elordi.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Miramax developing animated Monster Mash musical.
David Gordon Green to direct Miramax’s Supermax.
Paramount expands $7.7bn UFC deal into Latin America.
Amazon lays off 14,000, including senior execs.
Fifth Season trims around 20 staff.
John Williams is reteaming with Spielberg to compose his untitled UFO film.
Netflix developing Dangerous Liaisons UK adaptation.
Ronan Farrow & HBO developing doc on a Tennessee predator.
Sam Hargrave (Extraction) in talks to direct Apple’s Last Flight Out adaptation.
Sydney Sweeney to star in Apple’s That Man From Rio directed by Justin Lin.
Claire Foy joins Danny Boyle’s Ink opposite Guy Pearce.
Olivia Wilde joins Pedro Pascal in Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! (Searchlight).
Ray Romano joins Running Point S2 (Netflix).
Dennis Quaid headlines A Dog’s Perfect Christmas (Netflix).
Gotham Awards 2025: Neon 11 noms; Mubi 9; A24 9.
Venice’s The Voice of Hind Rajab picked up by Willa.
Matt Copson is adapting opera Last Days (Mubi / AF Films / LUMA).
Lionsgate acquires The Furious from TIFF Midnight Madness.
Netflix is developing a Spanish-language version of The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
It’s the monster mash!
Miramax is developing an animated feature based on Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s 1962 novelty song Monster Mash, often called the Biggest Halloween Song of All Time. CEO Jonathan Glickman is envisioning a family-friendly musical that mirrors the song’s mad scientist and monster mashup. It has a certain vibe previously captured by Adam Sandler’s Hotel Transylvania.
It could be a great family Halloween movie; regardless, Miramax is hoping it will be a graveyard smash.
Another Miramax project…
David Gordon Green (The Righteous Gemstones) has signed on to direct Supermax, a high-concept action thriller that Miramax is fast-tracking for a spring production start.
Written by David Weil and David J. Rosen (Hunters, Invasion), the film follows two FBI agents investigating a murder inside the world’s most secure prison.
Supermax reunites Green with Rosen after their collaboration on the upcoming Apple TV series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed. Green has a few other projects in development, currently finishing Amazon’s Scarpetta with Jamie Lee Curtis and working on a sports movie with Don Johnson (Miami Vice).
David Ellison and Ari Emanuel’s $7.7bn UFC deal expands into Latin America.
You may remember that Ellison inked a $7.7bn deal with Ari Emanuel’s TKO Group (parent company: UFC and WWE). Terms included Paramount+ as the exclusive streamer for US-based UFC events for 7 years. They are now expanding this deal to cover Latin America and Australia.
This lines up with Paramount’s plans to go after international rights in each of the 210 countries when they’re available. They’ll get an exclusive 30-day negotiating window.
Layoffs breakdown.
Amazon - 14,000 layoffs (over-reported yesterday as 30K), including:
Donna Rosenstein, Head of Casting
Nathan Kitada, Sr. Creative Executive, Tentpole & Universe Development
Liz Cohen, Senior Development Executive
Pricilla Light, Senior Creative Executive (YA & Comedy Series)
Meggie Choi, Drama Series Executive
Fifth Season - fewer than 20 layoffs (10% of staff).
Spielberg solved the problem of talking to aliens 48 years ago in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. As he was finishing the script, Spielberg got it in his head that the aliens communicate:
“By imitating notes that the ship sends… but I didn’t know what those notes were… Johnny figured it out.”
That’s Johnny as in John Williams, who is teaming back up with Spielberg on Spielberg’s Untitled UFO Film.
Tidbits:
CNN’s All Access streaming tier launches Tuesday, featuring never-before-streamed Anthony Bourdain content, including Prime Cuts, a Parts Unknown companion series blending interviews, reflections, and unseen footage. The collection also includes every Parts Unknown episode and Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain. A legacy well worth diving into.
Netflix has commissioned a UK adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons from Mood creator Nicôle Lecky, Creative Engine (Yellowjackets), and Fifth Season (The Morning Show). The series is said to be a modern retelling of the dark romance set in present-day London and is currently in early development.
Disney’s former Global Film Production Head, Sean Bailey, is launching B5 Studios and will serve as its CEO. Backed by Redbird, which has invested in production companies like All3Media and Ben Affleck’s Artists Equity, B5 has a number of projects in partnership with Meta in the works.
Ronan Farrow and HBO Documentary Films are developing an untitled doc with Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato about Tennessee serial predator Sean Williams, exposing police corruption surrounding his evasion of arrest. This continues Ronan Farrow’s journalistic legacy after his article on Harvey Weinstein.
Mini Tidbits:
Sam Hargrave (Extraction) is in talks to direct Apple Original Films’ adaptation of Dark Horse comics’ Last Flight Out, written by Marc Guggenheim (Arrow). The mid-budget drama will follow a father and daughter reconciling as Earth collapses.
After 20 years, Lilah Kojoori, Nickelodeon’s VP of comms, is leaving the network. Koojoori worked on campaigns for shows like iCarly and Victorious, with her departure happening amid widespread cuts from Nickelodeon’s parent company, Paramount.
YouTube TV is adding Bloomberg Media. The TV service will be adding one channel with live 24-hour news and another with original content from the media company officially titled Bloomberg TV+. Both channels went live beginning yesterday.
Under Armour has launched Lab96 Studios, an in-house content studio producing long-form, creator-led sports projects. Early projects include films with Gunna, Overtime, SMAC, and Boardroom.
Remember Backyard Baseball? Well, my high school friend Lindsay Barnett is adapting the old 90s game into an animation with voices from Tiffany Haddish and Arturo Castro. Play on!
Paramount is moving into a 285,000 sq ft space in New Jersey. The studios that they’re occupying have 23 stages. Films shot on this lot may receive NJ’s 40% tax incentive.
Boom goes the dynamite! Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite gets 22.1M views in 3 days on Netflix.
New budget numbers for some of the Oscar contenders this year:
Amazon MGM’s After the Hunt
Budget: $70 - $80M
Focus Features’ Bugonia
Budget: $55M
Renewals:
Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building (renewed for S6)
London move confirmed!
Trailers:
Neon’s Sentimental Value
Release: Nov 7
Legion M’s Fackham Hall
Release: Dec 5
Well Go USA’s Frontier Crucible
Co-star: William H. Macy, Armie Hammer
Release: Dec 5
Aura Entertainment’s Wildcat
Cast: Kate Beckinsale
Release: Nov 25
Release dates:
Netflix’s One Piece (S2)
Release: March 10, 2026
Lionsgate’s Power Ballad
Cast: Paul Rudd & Nick Jonas
Releases: June 5, 2026
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Just a week out from the widespread theatrical release of Christy, Sydney Sweeney has already found her next starring role. Apple Original Films is developing a modern take of 60s’ French film That Man From Rio (original trailer) with Sweeney and Fast & Furious franchise director Justin Lin attached.
The comedy follows a young private who is thrown in a wild chase to rescue his girlfriend after she is abducted and brought to Rio de Janeiro. Deemed by masters of their craft, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, as a major influence on adventure cinema, this will most likely be Sweeney’s most physical role to date.
First introduced to audiences in HBO’s intense drama Euphoria and later receiving praise for her powerful performance in the boxing biopic Christy (trailer), the actress has largely built her career around dramatic projects. While she’s also shown some comedic flair in romcom Anyone But You (2023), this new That Man From Rio remake marks her first foray into full-scale action-adventure territory.
Emmy-winning Claire Foy joins the team conspiring to take down the Rupert Murdoch empire in Danny Boyle’s new film Ink. From France’s Studiocanal and House Productions (Conclave), the film follows a band of rebels who reinvent news for the masses, sparking a media revolution.
Ink is worlds apart from Foy’s commanding performance as Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown (scene). In the new drama feature, she’ll portray an ambitious editor, stepping away from playing the literal embodiment of power to someone striving to challenge it. Foy joins Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch, with filming beginning this week.
Tidbits:
Olivia Wilde joins Pedro Pascal and David Harbor in Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! for Searchlight Pictures. It follows a Cellist (Pascal) who returns to Hollywood after being burned by it in the past. Wilde will play the cellist’s former lover. This is Gilroy’s next big follow-up after wrapping up Andor and grabbing an Emmy.
Japanese actor Lily Franky, best known internationally for the Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters (2018), is joining Diary of a Mad, Old Man, the newest film from director Wayne Wang (Smoke). While both his role and the plot have not been revealed, his film anchoring performance in Shoplifters (trailer) is one that sticks with you even years later, making his new casting very intriguing.
“Basil!” After a long battle with dementia, TV icon Prunella Scales has sadly passed away. Despite being BAFTA-nominated for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II, Scales will forever be remembered as the razor-sharp, hilarious Sybil Fawlty in the classic BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers (clips). She defined a generation of British comedy and left an indelible mark on television history.
Ray Romano is set to star opposite Kate Hudson in Mindy Kaling’s new Netflix series Running Point S2. He plays the coach in this basketball comedy that has Isla Gordon (Hudson) forced to take on the role of President of the Los Angeles Waves, a professional basketball franchise, after a scandal forces her brother to resign.
Season two of Apple’s Bad Monkey sees Natalie Martinez (Reminiscence) reprising her series regular role. Recurring guest star Charlotte Lawrence (Chapter 51) has been promoted to a series regular, with the two actresses joining lead Vince Vaughn as the Miami detective turned health inspector.
Mini Tidbits:
Dog Day Dennis Quaid. Dennis Quaid will continue his side-hustle starring in dog-related films (e.g., A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Journey, Strays). He was just cast in Netflix’s holiday family film A Dog’s Perfect Christmas.
Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley) and Jess Weixler (Teeth) are set to star in Claws, a haunted fairytale about a couple whose celebration turns sinister after discovering a feral girl in their basement. Filming in upstate New York.
Mark Harmon is returning to what he knows, reprising investigator Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the first crossover episodes between NCIS and NCIS: Origins set for Nov. 11th on CBS. He played the part for 18 seasons, but has not appeared as Gibbs since the Origins pilot last year.
Yara Martinez (Bull) joins historical thriller Pedro Pan, dramatizing Operation Pedro Pan, the Cuban child rescue mission. She stars alongside Néstor Carbonell (Lost), Allen Leech (Downton Abbey), Danny Pino (Cold Case), and Paz Vega (Sex and Lucia).
Mädchen Amick (Twin Peaks, Riverdale) will direct episode 7 and guest star in episode 9 of NBC’s Brilliant Minds Season 2. She will play Alicia Ramati, ex-wife of Eric Dane (Euphoria), a firefighter with ALS. The episodes air on Nov. 3 and 24. Amick recently made her feature directing debut with Fractured in 2024.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Gotham Film Awards Nominees 2025.
Here’s a breakdown by studio:
11x Neon
9x Mubi
9x A24
7x Warner Bros. (6x One Battle After Another)
6x Netflix
4x Amazon
3x Focus Features
3x Sony
Check out the full breakdown here.
AFM Projects:
Cookbook For Southern Housewives
Co-Star: Michael Madsen (final performance)
Sales Rep: Archstone
Bloody Tennis
Dir: Nikias Chryssos
Cast: Helena Zengel (The Legend of Ochi)
Composer: Jim Williams (Titane)
International Sales Rep: The Playmaker (Sew Torn)
Psyche
Cast: Noah Jupe (Honey Boy)
Domestic Sales Rep: UTA
International Sales Rep: Architect (Winner)
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
The Voice of Hind Rajab, which had a sensational debut at Venice, has been picked up by Willa. Already, the film was gaining momentum with Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix on board as EPs.
It’s great news for Willa, as most of the studios passed on the film because it was too controversial. For those unfamiliar, Willa is the indie distributor behind my favorite film of last year, La Cocina, starring Rooney Mara. Willa also partnered with Lionsgate for the recent release of Fairyland, starring Emilia Clarke and Scoot McNairy, which was unexpectedly poignant.
The Voice of Hind Rajab will release Dec 17th.
But wait! There’s more film news below:
4 indie films have been acquired (including one by a major studio)
1 well-known (and respected!) actor is making his directorial debut
And a Philip K. Dick book is getting a wild adaptation
Plus much, much more.
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