Netflix, Apple, and the Golden Globes
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Netflix’s Big Day, Apple’s Blitz, and the Golden Globes.
Let’s go!
Golden Globe Nominations.
It’s easy to be cynical about this awards show, and for good reason. Their ownership is dubious; they have a history of making questionable decisions, and it’s really just a cash cow.
But it’s, for better or worse, considered a precursor to The Oscars. So, let’s get into the highlights of yesterday’s nominations:
https://theindustry.co/p/the-golden-globe-2025-nominees
The 82nd Golden Globes will be airing on January 5 on CBS and Paramount+.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Golden Globes winner: Netflix with 36 nominations across TV and Film.
Golden Globes loser: Apple TV+’s Blitz (dir: Steve McQueen) with 0 nominations.
Warner Bros. Discovery inks new deal with Comcast, expanding streaming and linear reach.
Rupert Murdoch has failed to give his son Lachlan full control of the Murdoch Empire (Fox News, etc.).
Warner Bros. pushes the release date for Flowervale Street (dir: David Robert Mitchell, prod: J.J. Abrams, cast: Anne Hathaway + Ewan McGregor)
Michael Mann is nearing completion of the Heat 2 screenplay
Sony’s 28 Years Later trailer just released.
Matt Smith plays the character of Bunny Munro in a new Sky series from a Nick Cave novel.
Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) is cast as a slug in the Mandalorian & Grogu Star Wars films.
Chris Evans has been revealed to have joined the cast of Avengers: Doomsday.
Linda Cardellini is the newest cast member to join HBO’s upcoming limited series DTF St. Louis, starring opposite Jason Bateman.
Screenplays for A Real Pain and My Old Ass here.
Open AI’s Sora launches today.
Rising filmmaker Sarah Friedland’s award-winning coming-of-old-age story, Familiar Touch, has been acquired by Music Box Films.
Mohammad Rasoulof (dir: Neon’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig) has a new animated film in the works.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros. Discovery inks new deal with Comcast. Terms include Comcast distributing WBD’s content across its linear channels, including:
HBO
CNN
TNT
Comast will now be able to offer WBD’s streaming services, Max and Discovery+, to millions of Xfinity users.
Comcast’s president of content acquisition, Greg Rigdon, stated:
“Through these agreements, we will bring Warner Bros. Discovery’s extensive portfolio to our customers however they want to consume the content across our existing and future linear television and streaming bundles.”
The global deal includes the UK and Ireland, with Sky extending its HBO output deal and offering Max bundled or standalone when it launches in the UK in 2026.
It also cleared up Comcast’s Sky lawsuit against WBD, claiming a breach of a 2019 deal granting exclusive rights to co-produce at least four series per year, including the upcoming Harry Potter series. Comast withdrew the lawsuit.
In a drama worthy of a Succession episode, a sealed court document has been reviewed by the NY Times that showed Rupert Murdoch the $19.5 bn (net worth) had failed to give control of the Murdoch Empire to his son Lachlan. Although the future is unclear, it will now likely be divided between all of his children.
Under Murdoch’s umbrella are Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post.
NY Time stated:
“The ruling was at times scathing. At one point in his 96-page opinion, Mr. Gorman [the judge] characterizes the plan to change the trust as a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust.”
In short, some of Rupert’s children feel Fox News is too polarizing and are trying to take control of the company, which has been entrusted to Lachlan, the chairman of Murdoch's News Corp and CEO of Fox Corporation.
Also, apparently, after Murchoch’s kids watched Succession in April 2023, they started to get nervous about the PR strategy for their father's death.
Warner Bros. is switching release dates…
The film by director David Robert Mitchell (Under the Silver Lake) and producer J.J. Abrams is a mystery thriller feature starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. It was delayed by almost a year:
5.16.25 → 3.13.26
Final Destination: Bloodlines:
The sixth installment of New Line Cinema’s famed horror franchise has set its summer release date, now being the only major studio-backed film premiering on May 16th, 2025.
This live-action hybrid movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Aubrey Plaza was originally at Sony but, after being taken over by Warner Bros., has been pushed a few months:
8.15.25 → 10.10.25
Tidbit:
Double Feature: Director Michael Mann is nearing completion of the Heat 2 screenplay, aiming to make it his next film. He claims, “It has to be finished really soon” in order to move on to his next prospective project Hue 1968 a Vietnam War Movie.
Sony’s 28 Years Later trailer just released. We’ll have a full write-up tomorrow. Directed by Danny Boyle. With Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, Cillian Murphy.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Matt Smith + Nick Cave, we are in: Sky gives a quick first look at Smith embodying the character of Bunny Munro in the six-part adaptation of Goth Music God Nick Cave's novel The Death of Bunny Munro. The story follows a promiscuous wanderer who has to adopt the son of one of his late wives; with a lost concept of how to be a father, the two set off on an unhinged road trip to bond and process grief.
Matt Smith has the honor or the burden of being known best for his stint as the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who, but when he finished his 3-year tenure, he threw himself into many exciting roles.
Most recently, I played Daemon Targaryen (still) in the Game of Thrones Prequel House of Dragons. Smith was also recently seen on the set of Aronofsky's new film sporting an insane mohawk (above).
Always an exciting actor and now embodying the absolute post-punk gravitas of Nick Cave's pen, this is one to keep an eye on folks.
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Tidbit:
Jeremy Allen White, one of 2024's most attractive men, is playing a slug. More specifically, he has been cast in the Mandalorian & Grogu Star Wars films. White will be playing the part of Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba, the first-act villain of Return of The Jedi. May he rest in peace. Though he packed on pounds for Iron Claw, it is safe to assume that White's interpretation will be using CGI. Mandalorian & Grogu is in theatres on May 22, 2026.
Avengers Assemble (again). I think we all knew this would happen: Chris Evans has been revealed to have joined the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, presumably to take up the mantle of Captain America again (or, most likely, a variant of him).
There are about a dozen comic books that make this unsurprising. But the very short of it is Doomsday and its sequel, Secret Wars, are rumored to be drawing heavily from the Battleworld saga, a collision of multiverses and all sorts of chaos that leave possibilities for all sorts of alternate universe shenanigans. Don't be surprised if you hear more of these casting rumors as we ramp up to Marvel's new phase. Battleworld gets pretty nuts.
Shortly after three seasons of success in Netflix’s Emmy-nominated dramedy Dead to Me (2019-2022), Linda Cardellini has proven she knows a thing or two about a good dark comedy. Cardellini is the newest cast member to join HBO’s upcoming limited series DTF St. Louis, starring opposite Jason Bateman (Ozark) and David Harbour (Stranger Things). From creator, showrunner, and director Steven Conrad (Prime Video’s Patriot) the seven episode series is currently in pre-production.
FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES
Read Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain screenplay here:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy
Eisenberg directs and stars. Kieran Culkin also stars.
Also, read Megan Park’s My Old Ass screenplay at the same link above + 12 more Oscar-hopeful scripts.
TECH SECTION
Open AI’s Sora launches today. I tried to get access, but the servers are zonked out with people flooding in, so they’ve cut off sign-ups. I will have a deeper report when I get to dive in.
Thus far, my opinion hasn’t changed much from my initial reaction:
“It’s hard to know whether this is an extinction-level threat to creativity. In the short term, Hollywood studios could exploit these tools to replace 2nd unit crews, assistant editors, storyboard artists, etc.”
Read the full take:
https://theindustry.co/p/will-smith-and-a-woolly-mammoth
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Rising filmmaker Sarah Friedland’s award-winning coming-of-old-age story, Familiar Touch, has been acquired by Music Box Films (Ida) after taking home two awards (Best Director Award and the Luigi de Laurentis Lion of the Future award) at its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.
Here’s the official synopsis:
An octogenarian woman transitions to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.
Friedland’s well-received feature debut earned her a nomination in the “Someone to Watch” award category ahead of the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards. Formerly an established dancer and choreographer, Friedland said:
“Music Box has been a steadfast champion of bold, artist-driven, independent cinema and I’m delighted to partner with them in bringing our coming-of-old-age film to North American audiences. Familiar Touch is a film for those who are aging, those who are caring, and those who have been cared for; in other words, all of us.”
Music Box Films will release Familiar Touch in 2025 following its strong festival run in the U.S.
“Why are we discussing potato chips?” first look clip.
Tidbit:
Mohammad Rasoulof (dir: The Seed of the Sacred Fig) has a new animated film in the works.
Here’s the focus:
The life of absurdist Iranian playwright Abbas Nalbandian, beginning a decade before the Iranian Revolution and covering the country’s turn until the playwright’s death a decade later.
Rasoulof stated:
“Just before the revolution, all Iranians saw the face of Ayatollah Khomeini in the moon… Everyone in the country looked up and shared in this kind of collective hallucination – and that’s something you can only show in animation.”
We look forward to Rasoulof’s hallucinatory animation.
Iranian filmmaker Tina Gharavi (dir. African Queens: Cleopatra) is taking on Icelandic bestseller Refurinn to adapt it into a crime thriller as a UK-Iceland co-production titled The Fox. The series will be the first time Gharavi takes on the showrunner role in addition to her already penning the pilot and planning to direct and produce with her Bridge+Tunnel Productions. She is currently directing the upcoming romantic comedy Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day, and, most notably, in 2012, was BAFTA and Sundance-nominated for I am Nasrine (trailer), an intimate coming-of-age story and deep journey of self-reflection. The Fox is currently in its early stages of production.
ON THIS DAY
1962. Lawrence of Arabia premieres at Odeon Leicester Square (Academy Awards Best Picture 1963).
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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