Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Warner Bros.’ Ocean’s, Sony’s Fake Skating, and Couture goes Vertical.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Warner Bros.’ Ocean’s prequel loses director Lee Isaac Chung.
FX orders Disinherited from Peter Gould (Better Call Saul) as a new series pickup.
A24 buys series rights to upcoming crime thriller novel We Are the Dead.
Sony + Will Gluck’s Olive Bridge adapt Lynn Painter’s romcom novel Fake Skating.
See-Saw Films (Slow Horses) develops an American adaptation of Lovejoy.
A+E orders new true-crime projects: Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around.
John Leguizamo joins Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist (Universal/Blumhouse).
Paris Hilton joins Amazon MGM’s holiday comedy Clashing Through the Snow.
Terry Crews joins Inauguration Day, a coming of age drama.
Kaley Cuoco cast in HBO’s How to Survive Without Me.
Billy Zane joins Apple TV+’s Stick S2.
Berlin Film Festival keeps Tricia Tuttle as festival director.
Cannes’ Official Selection will be announced April 9.
Vertical buys NA rights for Couture starring Angelina Jolie.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Julia Roberts had the Friends cameo.
69% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros.’ Ocean’s prequel loses its second director in a row. First Edward Berger was hired, which would have been a wild vision for the franchise, then Lee Isaac Chung (Twisters, Minari) who just dropped out.
We did a full assessment of what that film would have looked like here. Margot Robbie is still starring and producing. And the hunt for a new director has begun. We would love to see Bart Layton (American Animals, Crime 101) helm it.
FX has ordered a new series, Disinherited, from Wri/Dir/EP: Peter Gould (co-creator: Better Call Saul). The cast includes Alan Ruck (the actual eldest boy in Succession), Eddie Marsan (the sadistic boss in Fair Play) and Karl Glusman.
Synopsis: An unexpected inheritance thrusts a pair of scrappy sisters into a world of generational wealth and long-buried crimes.
Ruck will play an attorney, and Glusman will play a paralegal. Victoria Pedretti and Kiera Allen play the sisters.
Book adaptations:
A24 has secured the series rights to We Are the Dead, the upcoming crime thriller from British author Laura Shepherd-Robinson. The novel, set for publication next year, follows a British police chief investigating the first beheading at the Tower of London in 300 years. If greenlit, the adaptation would join A24’s growing crime slate, alongside Netflix’s Trigger Point and the upcoming Safdie brothers-produced, Lucy Liu led Superfakes for Peacock.
Love on ice seems to be a common trend. Sony Pictures and Will Gluck’s Olive Bridge (Anyone But You) are adapting the bestselling novel Fake Skating for a feature film. The romcom story is about hockey-loving childhood sweethearts who end up in a “fake relationship” with real feelings. This will be the first screen adaptation for social media favorite author Lynn Painter.
See-Saw Films (Slow Horses) is set to adapt the Lovejoy detective novels, an American remake of the BBC’s long-running series adaptation from the 80s. Part antiques dealer, part detective, the twenty-four books follow the adventures of a man with an unusually impressive knack for spotting fraud and scams. The series isn’t currently attached to a network or streamer.
Tidbit:
A+E has ordered three new true-crime documentaries centered on high-profile figures like Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around and K9 PD with Jim Belushi. A mix of films and docuseries, the new additions give the network an expansive upcoming unscripted slate.
Trump buys Netflix debt. Somewhere between $600K - $1.25M according to his financial disclosure. Interesting timing, given Netflix dropped out of buying WBD just a month after these transactions were made.
Renewal:
ABC’s Abbott Elementary (for S6)
Cancellations:
FX’s The Bear (ending after S5)
PBS Masterpiece’s Miss Scarlet (ending after S7)
MTV’s Jersey Shore: Family Vacation (ending after S9)
Trailers:
HBO/DCU’s Lanterns
Cast: Aaron Pierre, Kyle Chandler
Release: August
1-2 Special’s Silent Friend
Premiere: TIFF, Venice
Léa Seydoux plays a tree
Release: May 8
Daughters of the Forest
Premiere: CPH:DOX, SXSW
Music Box Films’ The Stranger
Premiere: Venice
Cast: Denis Lavant, Swann Arlaud
Oscilloscope’s The Travel Companion
Premiere: Tribeca
Release: April 17
Release dates:
Hulu’s Pizza Movie
Release: April 3
Creators: BriTANicK
Triple Media Film’s Life Hack
Premiere: SXSW
Release: May 15
Prod: Timur Bekmambetov (Mercy)
EP: Michael Fassbender
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
The Exorcist cast keeps getting juicier. First Scar Jo, next Chiwetel Ejiofor, next Laurence Fishburne, now John Leguizamo. Word is he may be playing the bad guy in The Exorcist for director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) from Universal and Blumhouse.
Is that typecasting? Sure. But what Leguizamo is really good at is seeming villainous when really, he’s righteous. So that could be fun to play with if they go that direction. The latest example of this was his layered character in the underappreciated Apple TV’s Smoke (clip).
Paris Hilton will have to hold the “That’s hot!” as she joins Amazon MGM Studios’ holiday film Clashing Through the Snow, starring alongside Landman’s Michelle Randolph and Christopher Briney (The Summer I Turned Pretty).
Described as a modernized Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, the reality star will play a stylized version of herself. This isn’t the first time The Simple Life star has shown up on the big screen, previously seen in horror movie House of Wax (2005) and a cameo appearance in Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (2013). The holiday comedy began filming last week.
Tidbits:
Josh Finan is cast in the movie adaptation of Edith Wharton’s period drama The Custom of the Country for StudioCanal. He will play one of Sydney Sweeney’s husbands. A simple and trusting man, whom Sweeney ultimately discards. Feels similar to him staying completely still while there’s a dancing chicken behind him (clip) in Netflix’s The Gentleman.
Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) is joining Inauguration Day, a coming-of-age drama and feature debut of Sterling Hampton IV (dir. Sundance short Kylie). Per usual, Crews will act “larger than life”, as a father who unintentionally makes every situation harder for his teenage outsider son. The film will take place at a predominantly white school during President Obama’s 2009 inauguration with Crews most likely bringing his trademark humor and heart.
Led by some of Hollywood’s most well-known older leading men, The History Channel has tapped Kevin Bacon, Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Dolph Lundgren to host new docuseries. The network unveiled five new series and documentaries, including History’s Strange Fortunes with Kevin Bacon. Premiering this fall.
Kaley Cuoco joins the cast of HBO’s How to Survive Without Me, a new drama starring Ray Romano from Greg Berlanti (Brilliant Minds). Romano will play the widowed patriarch of a grieving family. Cuoco plays the perfect and elegant daughter whose facade is breaking. We loved to see how she cracked under the bananas premise of being a time traveler in Peacock’s Meet Cute.
Mini Tidbits:
Tichina Arnold is keeping it in the family. After two decades starring on shows like Martin (1992-97) and The Neighborhood (2018-26), the actress-producer has inked a first-look deal with CBS Studios under her new Queen Light Productions banner.
Billy Zane joins Apple TV+’s Stick S2. No word on his character, but everyone in S1 was operating on their A-game from Owen Wilson to Timothy Olyphant to Judy Greer.
CBS’s Regency casts newcomer Shiv Pai (Iron Fist) as a series regular for the new historical comedy pilot. Like Modern Family but in 19th-century England, the multi-cam sitcom will follow the upper-class Tillbrooks as they navigate life and scandal as a family. Pai will play the charming groundskeeper.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S2 casts Babou Ceesay. We loved him in Alien: Earth as the steadfast cyborg who shows glimpses of fear. He’s the FX show’s version of Ash. He will play Ser Bennis of the Brown Shield on the HBO series.
FESTIVALS
Tricia Tuttle will remain the Director of the Berlin Film Festival. But, wow, she has had a wild ride. Tuttle came on board as Festival Director in 2024. But the fiercely political festival 2026 edition this year, drew a massive amount of scrutiny, with some calling for her resignation. Luckily, the support was just as rousing, and the board has decided to let her stay.
Cannes Official Selection will be announced April 9th.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Couture starring Angelina Jolie has sold to Vertical for North American rights. This is director Alice Winocour’s (Proxima, wri: Mustang) first English-language film.
Synopsis:
In the frenzy of Fashion Week, three women cross paths in Paris, grappling with the world’s tragedies and the questions of their lives: American film director Maxine Walker (Jolie), South Sudanese model Ada, and French makeup artist Angèle, working in the shadows of the catwalks.
It premiered at TIFF 2025 and will be released later this year.
Mini Tidbits:
Mike Richardson, CEO of Dark Horse Entertainment (prod co: The Mask, Hellboy, The Umbrella Academy), is out after 40 years. The company was his baby, as he started as a comic publisher that would not just license to Hollywood, but be an active creative producer.
Radial Entertainment (Conan) has acquired New Dominion Pictures’ library, bringing longtime nonfiction staples like The FBI Files, The New Detectives, and A Haunting under its roof. The deal adds roughly 600 hours of true-crime, paranormal and investigative content to Radial’s growing catalog.
Robot Dreams producer Cartoon Saloon has named Anthony Leo the studio’s new CEO. Through Canada’s Aircraft Pictures, Leo previously co-produced the Oscar-nominated animated drama feature, The Breadwinner (2017).
20/20 Visions (Kingdom Reign) and Harlem Nights (1989) producer Mark Lipsky are developing The Unseen Shield, a political biopic about the first Black Secret Service agent, Abraham Bolden. Assigned to JFK’s protective detail, the film will chronicle his career and eventual wrongful conviction.
Emmy-winning producer Gary Dontzig, known for Murphy Brown, has died at 79. He began his career as an actor with a guest role on Laverne & Shirley, later building a long career writing and producing shows like Disney’s Hannah Montana and sitcom Becker (2001-04).
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The French box office is bouncing back early in 2026 with a 20% increase in local theatrical admissions. Family favorite comic book adaptation Marsupilami tops the charts, with American movies like Avatar: Fire and Ash and Zootopia 2 among the top grossers.
Indochina Productions (The White Lotus) has partnered up with LA-based Storyoscopic Films (Trouble) on BBK Films, a new joint production company based in Bangkok. BBK will focus on Asian stories that shoot locally in Thailand and Southeast Asian territories, with two action feature films in production.
English documentarian Sophie Fiennes (Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow) has found UK distribution with Sovereign Film Distribution (Memoria) for her new doc Acting (trailer). The intimate film will look at the rehearsal process of a theater company preparing Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Acting is set to get a fall theatrical premiere.
Asian streaming service Rakuten Viki (Light on Me) has added a new original series to debut on the platform this month. Climax follows the collapse of a competitive couple, in a Succession-esque drama about corporate greed, political games, and protecting societal reputations.
ON THIS DAY
1962. The Guns of Navarone wins Golden Globe.
Written by Gabriel Miller and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co