Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet and a Superman
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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl, Paramount, and Skydance tie the knot, Kate Winslet spirals, Super/Man soars, and a frat house.
Let’s go!
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Nicole Kidman’s filmography is awash with romances with younger men.
Kidman’s most compelling on-screen romantic roles feature dark fantasies with younger men.
Babygirl, which is premiering at Venice, is her most recent. Kidman plays a high-power New York executive who is disconnected from her desires. Her husband (Antonio Banderas) doesn’t satisfy her, so instead, her focus shifts to the company’s new intern (Harris Dickinson), who unleashes her.
In Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Kidman is married to Tom Cruise but finds herself undone by her desire to sleep with a young naval officer with whom she shared a single glance.
In To Die For (1995), she strikes up a sexual relationship with a young Joaquin Phoenix in order to manipulate him for a crime.
And in Birth (2004), Kidman develops a deep-rooted attraction to a ten-year-old boy who claims to be her dead husband, and the two share a bath.
Kidman stated:
“Movies that deal with uncomfortable subject matter will rarely be rapturously received because you’re dealing with things that don’t make people feel safe… they’re not a soothing bath.”
Kidman’s ability to push herself to the edge of human psychology is consistently magnetizing.
In Babygirl, she is especially raw, a far cry from her recent Netflix’s A Family Affair, where she dips into her latent desire with her daughter’s boss, Zac Efron, stating:
“[Babygirl] left me ragged. At some point I was like, I don’t want to be touched. I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time I was compelled to do it. Halina (dir: Bodies Bodies Bodies) would hold me and I would hold her, because it was just very confronting to me.”
We can’t wait to see Kidman push the edges of herself.
Babygirl premiers at Venice. A24 releases December 25th.
For More:
First look photo of Kidman and Dickinson in Babygirl.
There’s nothing quite like Birth (2004) trailer.
Eyes Wide Shut Kidman fantasy scene
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Skydance clinches Paramount…almost.
After a tense 45-day go-shop period following Skydance’s bid to acquire Paramount, which saw Edgar Bronfman’s (Chairperson Fubo, former CEO Warner Music Group) lob an 11th-hour $6 bn bid, has come to an end with Bonfman pulling his offer.
Bronfman stated:
“Tonight, our bidding group informed the special committee that we will be exiting the go-shop process… We congratulate the Skydance team and thank the special committee and the Redstone family for their engagement during the go-shop process.”
This leaves Skydance David Ellison (Skydance, CEO) as the sole bid for Paramount.
And now that the window has ended, pending regulatory approval, the Skydance/Paramount deal will close next year.
The Remakes Just Keep Coming!
Sony Pictures and Mucho Mas Media teamed up with original director Luis Valdez to remake his 1987 musical biopic, La Bamba, following the short but impactful life of rock and roll legend Ritchie Valens.
Valdez explained his reasoning behind his desire to take another look at the “Donna” singer:
“The life and career of Richard Valenzuela continues to inspire new generations of fans the world over. As new biographical details have come to light, a new cinematic look at his eternally young seventeen years on earth can only add to his undying legend.”
Here is the trailer for Valdez’s original La Bamba (1987).
The upcoming reimagining has Oscar-nominated José Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) penning the script which is currently in the preproduction stage.
Lionsgate’s new detective series Borderline has found a home on the Roku Channel on Sept. 1st.
Official Logline:
Straight-laced detective inspector Philip Boyd of North Ireland finds himself working alongside his foul-mouthed Republic of Ireland counterpart, detective inspector Aoife Regan, and although neither are happy about the partnership, the two must put their personal and professional differences aside to solve the brutal cases of victims along the border.
Written and created by Vital Signs’ John Forte, the cast includes Eoin Macken (I Used to be Famous) as Philip and Amy De Bhrun (Jason Bourne) as Aoife.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Kate Winslet goes down the rabbit hole.
The HBO show queen, who has perfected a trio of powerfully broken leaders (Mildred Pierce, Mare of Easttown, The Regime), is diving back into a starring role in a series, The Spot, this time for Hulu.
Here’s the official synopsis:
When a successful surgeon (Winslet) and her schoolteacher husband begin to suspect that she may be responsible for a child’s hit-and-run death, their quest for truth spirals into a web of mounting suspicion and dark secrets, testing their resolve and their relationship as they confront the possibility of hidden guilt and betrayal.
This shares a lot of DNA with Rabbit Hole (a Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart adaptation of the gutting play), in which the facade of suburbia closes into a stranging pitch.
The Spot received a straight-to-series order. A24 and 20th Television will co-produce.
From first time filmmaker, Julia Max, comes a new indie horror The Surrender, led by The Boys’ Colby Minifie.
The Surrender centers on a fraught mother-daughter relationship that is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead. As the bizarre and brutal resurrection ritual spirals out of control, both women must reconcile their differences as they fight for their lives, and for each other.
Minifie is most known for her role as Vought’s very own anxious and overworked international executive, Ashley Barrett, on Prime Video’s The Boys (scenes) as well as its spinoff series, Gen V. Minifie’s most recent film credit was another thriller indie, I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020, trailer) that explores the deepest and darkest recesses of the human psyche.
The Surrender is currently filming in Los Angeles.
Tidbits:
From Dragons to Ponies. Emilia Clarke (GOT) leads a new espionage series, Ponies, from Peacock.
Synopsis:
In Moscow, 1977. Two persons of no interest (PONIES) work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives.
Clarke excels at brutal initiations, reminiscent of her rise to power as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, where she transformed from a timid exile into the fierce Mother of Dragons.
Ponies is co-created by Susanna Fogel (The Flight Attendant).
Willem Dafoe goes to a birthday party. The actor just wrapped filming a Greek feature called The Birthday Party.
No word on who Dafoe will play but the story centers on a 1970s Mediterranean tycoon throwing a lavish birthday party for his daughter and sole heiress, on his exclusive private island.
I dream of Dafoe playing the tycoon perhaps tilting between his flamboyant charm in The Boondock Saints (1999) and internal torment in Pasolini (2019, trailer).
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INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Return of a Super/Man.
A trailer has just landed for the tragic and inspiring story of Christopher Reeve's rise to becoming a film star, followed by a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After which he became an activist for spinal cord injury treatments and disability rights.
Fair warning: the trailer pulls on your heartstrings.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story premiered at Sundance, was sold to Warner Bros. for $15 M and plays in theaters on September 21, with another screening on the late actor’s birthday, September 25.
True Crime The Musical: A wild premise that won over Cannes. Emilia Perez drops its anticipated official trailer. In the film, lawyer Rita (Zoe Saldana) receives an unexpected offer. She has to help a feared cartel boss retire from his business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamed of being.
The film also stars Selena Gomez and Point Break’s Edgar Ramírez in supporting roles.
French filmmaker Audiard has become a consistent staple at Cannes. His film A Prophet (2010) won the Grand Prix, Rust and Bone (2012) was in competition, and in 2015, he won the coveted Palme d’Or for Dheepan.
The film’s NY Times review describes Emilia Perez as:
“Almodovar meets Sicario meets This is Me…Now and then you’re only halfway there!”
Here’s the newly released official teaser trailer.
Brotherhood is Forever… afterall. Hereditary’s Alex Wolff is very familiar with the world of suspense, starring in the new teaser trailer for filmmaker Ethan Berger’s feature debut, The Line, a fraternity horror by Utopia.
The recently dropped teaser trailer sees The Line as much more than just a messed up hazing comedy or an overly cruel horror film but rather an eerie and all too familiar character study.
Here is the Official Logline:
The Line is a campus thriller that plunges into the dangerous world of college fraternities and blind adherence to tradition. Tom (Wolff), a scholarship student desperate to break free from his working-class background is charmed by a prestigious fraternity’s promises of high social status and alumni connections that open doors. But Tom soon finds himself completely ensnared in a perilous game of ambition and loyalty.
Alike Wolff, Utopia is not shy to more disturbing and unsettling stories with their acclaimed absurdist dark comedy Sick of Myself (2022, trailer) and the Persian crime thriller and Cannes winner Holy Spider (2022, trailer) both of which take an unconventional and stylistic approach to raw and realistic premises a common theme in the distributor’s films.
While initially premiering at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, The Line will play in theaters everywhere on Oct. 18th.
Tidbit:
IFC Films and Shudder’s continue their killing spending spree with Get Away, a comedy slasher. The script comes from Nick Frost, who co-starred in Shaun of the Dead (2004) and The World’s End (2013)
Official synopsis:
A family's vacation to a remote getaway takes an unexpected turn when they discover the island they're on is inhabited by a serial killer.
Emily Gotto, SVP of acquisitions and production for Shudder, stated:
“Get Away is a laugh out loud comedy that pours several buckets of blood onto a family’s sweet vacation in Sweden. This hilarious thrill ride will stir up laughs and scares in equal measure”
No word on the release date.
Will it be as big as IFC Films' recent horrors: Late Night with the Devil ($14.8 M) or In a Violent Nature ($4.5 M)?
ON THIS DAY
1953. Romantic comedy film "Roman Holiday" is released, starring Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, and Eddie Albert
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.