Neon. A24. Ghostbusters!
Neon’s Golden Boy, A24 bids for Parts Unknown, Ghostbusters goes animated…again, Mavis Beacon’s story and Belarusian quantum technology.
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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Neon’s Golden Boy, A24 bids for Parts Unknown, Ghostbusters goes animated…again, Mavis Beacon’s story and Belarusian quantum technology.
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Looking for something to watch this weekend? Check out What’s Coming Next in…
Theatrical:
https://theindustry.co/p/whats-coming-next-theatrical-814
Streaming*:
https://theindustry.co/p/whats-coming-next-streaming-815
*Including 13 AMC series coming to Netflix:
In Oz Perkins, Neon trusts.
The directing/distributor duo behind Longlegs have just dropped a teaser for their new project, The Monkey.
Here’s the official synopsis, based on the book by Stephen King:
When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father's old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.
The teaser lands exactly 193 days before the film’s release date (Feb 21st, 2025). Very close to Longleg's 188-day gap between the first teaser and the film’s premiere.
What Neon is architecting is a deeply terrifying and teasing horror campaign that allows the excitement to build over a long period of time, which in turn sustains a long tail at the box office.
Longlegs held the top ten box office for five weeks straight (and counting!).
Perkins stated:
“ They asked me early on, ‘Do we have your permission to kind of go nuts?’ And I said, ‘What else are we doing here? Go for it. Do your thing.’”
Additionally, Neon withheld Longlegs from traditional reviewers (who typically are more critical of the horror genre) until right before the release.
We’re excited about the forthcoming marketing tidbits for The Monkey and the killer team around it:
Star: Theo James (The White Lotus)
Producer: James Wan (dir: Saw, Furious 7)
EP: Fred Berger (La La Land)
EP: Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Midnight Special)
In theaters Feb 21st… we’ll see you then.
For More:
March to your own drum beat, The Monkey teaser.
Longlegs Teaser 1, Teaser 2, Teaser 3.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Who ya Gonna Call? Netflix has officially greenlit an animated Ghostbusters series, first announced in 2022. Elliott Kalan (Mystery Science Theater) has joined the project as writer, showrunner, and EP. Sony Pictures Animation and Ghost Corps, Inc. will produce the series. Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, who co-wrote and directed the recent live-action features, will also serve as EPs.
This marks the third animated Ghostbusters series in the franchise's history following:
The Real Ghostbusters (1986-1991, seven seasons)
Famous for needing to change characters to avoid likeness disputes
Extreme Ghostbusters, (1997, one season)
Ghostbusters, but add more grunge
This new iteration will lean into the tone of the current movie series Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).
No details yet on release dates but it is currently in the midst of development.
The Mayhem Continues! Shortly after Prime Video’s official announcement of Vought Rising, a prequel series to The Boys, Sony Pictures Television has extended their deal with EP Paul Grellong, who stated:
“With Vought Rising up next and our eyes on future projects, I’m eager to keep telling stories together for many years to come.”
Grellong will act as showrunner and EP on the new origin story that he helped develop and write, in addition to continuing to EP the R-rated superhero satire through its fifth and final season.
The Boys Season 4 (trailer) premiered this past June, and while no dates have been released regarding its upcoming spinoff, it will be set in the 1950s and will feature Jensen Ackles Soldier Boy and Aya Cash’s Stormfront.
Searchlight Pictures goes Fitzgerald. No, it’s not another Great Gatsby adaptation; instead, the studio will produce his novel Tender Is the Night. Soo Hugh, the creator, showrunner, writer, and producer of Pachinko, will write and direct (they recently struck a multi-year deal with Apple).
The novel follows the Dick Diver a sucessful psychologist whose wife is beset with psychological breakdowns stemming from her abuse as a child. Dick begins to become infatuated with a young girl who he meets on the French Riviera. Of course, things go south…
Fitzgerald based the title on a verse from a Keats poem, which inspired Fitzgerald to write:
Don't you worry I surrender
Days are long and life's a bender
Still I know that
Tender is the Night.
Interestingly, the novel has two versions, one with flashbacks (where we see Nick meet his wife, who starts off as one of his patients) and one published posthumously that is told more chronologically.
Hugh has demonstrated an adeptness with flashbacks in Pachinko, so we anticipate her adapting the original version.
No word on the shoot date.
Tidbit:
Twisters, three and a half weeks into its theatrical run, is now on VOD. It still needs another $80 M to break even.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) will play Anthony Bourdain. Here’s the current status of the package:
Tony
Production Company: Star Thrower Entertainment (King Richard, Wind River)
Director: Matt Johnson (BlackBerry)
A24 is circling the package.
Sessa has a dark cynicism that is beyond his age as demonstrated in his breakout performance The Holdovers. This seems like a perfect fit for Bourdain whose own cynicism was the endless source of his creative hunger.
Alexander Payne (Dir: Holdovers) remarked:
“Dominic instinctively understood how to access his own life experience for an emotionally intelligent performance.”
We look forward to more developments on this project as Sessa’s career burgeons (also props to CAA for keeping him booked with creatively energizing roles).
Critically acclaimed actor and director John Slattery joins John Grisham's TV adaptation of The Rainmaker for USA Network as series antagonist Leo F. Drummond.
Slattery, who’s been in films like Best Picture winner Spotlight (2015, trailer), is also no stranger to the small screen, appearing in:
Sex and the City
City treasurer and Carrie Bradshaw’s short-lived boyfriend
Veep (Season 5)
Julia Louis-Dryfus’ love interest
Arrested Development (Season 4)
He is, however, most known for his heavily nominated role in AMC’s Mad Men as the unpredictable and usually inappropriate Roger Sterling.
While the suave ad agency found partner was not an antagonist, per se, he did have some villainous moments and some pretty awful habits throughout the series 7 season run. (Roger Sterling: Sterling Then and Now).
We’ve seen him in the conference room, now he’s causing havoc in the courtroom as:
“one of Grisham’s most iconic characters… a legendary lion of the courtroom and senior partner at Tinley Britt, the powerful firm that Rudy Baylor is up against.”
Jon Voight previously played the role in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1997 take (trailer).
The new Lionsgate and Blumhouse series has yet to announce premiere dates or who will play opposite Slattery in Matt Damon’s former role as Rudy Baylor.
Tidbit:
A blind woman, an international criminal, and an FBI agent. Sounds like the start to a joke, but its the line up of Midnight a new thriller. The cast is epic:
Blind Woman
Alexandra Shipp (The Good Half)
International Criminal
Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element)
FBI Agent
Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka, Men in Black 2)
I really enjoyed Shipp’s playfulness in The Good Half (where she co-starred alongside Nick Jonas). It’ll be interesting to see how she portrays a blind character.
Midnight is headed to TIFF where it will be shopped by Great Escape (sales agent: Reverse the Curse).
Rachael Lillis, the English voice actor for Misty and Jesse in the Pokemon animated series, has died at 46. Lillis was there at the beginning of Pokemon's first season in 1998, voicing Jesse and Misty throughout 25 seasons and 23 feature films, along with various voice acting roles through the years. She will be missed.
Tiny Tidbits:
Daniel Craig first look image in Queer (Dir: Luca Guadagnino). For more on the project:
https://theindustry.co/p/daniel-craig-goes-queer
Dave Franco will play Allison Williams’ crush in Regretting You (author: Colleen Hoover). For more on the project, check yesterday’s actor’s spotlight:
https://theindustry.co/p/joaquin-phoenix-and-a-moon-walk
Heather Graham continues her foray into horror, joining Zazie Beetz in They Will Kill You. Previously Graham starred in the body-swap horror Suitable Flesh where she plays a possessed psychology patient, who goes on a joyful, out-of-body killing spree (trailer).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Do you remember Mavis Beacon? The software, launched in the 80s, became synonymous with learning how to type. But what happened to the model that would guide you through the lessons (reminder image)? That’s what Neon’s Seeking Mavis Beacon from director Jazmin Jones tries to answer.
What I love about the newly released trailer is that it forefronts not only loss of identity but the price of perfection that comes with having one’s cartoonishly perfect image distributed to millions.
Neon is releasing theatrically at the end of the month.
James Wan's Atomic Monster: James Wan is quickly becoming Universal’s go-to guy for its rouges gallery of monsters. Since Wan's production company merged with Blumhouse, he introduced his previously announced series 1313, which will dip into Universals Monsterverse.
Now Wan is in talks to direct a modern retelling of Creature From The Black Lagoon (rumored to star Scarlet Johansson). The film, a priority for Universal since their 2019 strategy shift towards filmmaker-driven monster movies, will focus on visceral horror while honoring the original classic. Wan, known for his success in the horror genre with franchises like Saw and The Conjuring and the very water-based Aquaman, will be a fantastic fit, and we look forward to seeing his take on such a classic.
There’s a creepy new horror company coming to town, Cweature Features. The team behind it is formidable:
Ken Kao (founder)
Cuckoo (2024)
Producer
Mid90s (2018)
Producer
The Favourite (2018)
EP
Silence (2016)
EP
Rampart (2011)
Producer
Josh Rosenbaum (founder)
Cuckoo (2024)
Producer
Mid90s (2018)
Co-Producer
The Favourite (2018)
EP
The duo currently leads Waypoint Entertainment, which helped shepherd Longlegs for Neon.
Kao stated:
“I am thrilled to finally announce Waypoint’s new evil sister company Cweature Features. We hope this new division will shake up the genre with daring and innovative projects that push the boundaries of what horror can be.”
Eek!
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Belarusian filmmaker Darya Zhuk is dipping her toe into quantum mechanics with Exactly What It Seems (IMDBPro link).
Here’s the synopsis:
A married couple seeks political asylum in the US. They find themselves unexpectedly teleported back to Belarus through a mysterious quantum technology created by scientists under the dictatorial regime. Hunted like criminals in the woods of their homeland, they must mend their dysfunctional relationship to secure their return to safety.
There’s something about this Sisyphean immigrant tale that tracks very much with her previous work, Crystal Swan, an electric tale of a young Belarusian woman whose attempts to visit Chicago are derailed by a typo. Her electric blue hair and addiction to house music feel wonderfully vivid (trailer).
Zhuk stated:
“Satire and science fiction are great in creating just the right distance from the harsh reality of the current dictatorial regime and in examining the recent emotional trauma of a failed revolution in Belarus in 2020. We are also looking to open up this story to a wider audience who might know nothing about current events.”
We’ll follow up as we hear more updates on Exactly What it Seems.
Tidbit:
A very cool poster for Park Chan Wook’s (dir: Oldboy, Decision to Leave) The Ax.
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ON THIS DAY
1967. Bonnie and Clyde is released.
See you tomorrow.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.