Oops… I Did It Again
Disney, Amazon, and Roku pop the champagne, Ella Purnell is a Sweetpea, Peter Dinklage is the fool, and the sound of silence.
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Disney, Amazon, and Roku pop the champagne, Ella Purnell is a Sweetpea, Peter Dinklage is the fool, and the sound of silence.
Let’s go!
Looking for something to watch this weekend? Check out What’s Coming Next in…
Theatrical:
https://theindustry.co/p/whats-coming-theater-8-1
Streaming:
https://theindustry.co/p/whats-coming-next-streaming-8-1
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Oops… director John M. Chu is going to do it again with another hit on his hands! The Crazy Rich Asians (2018, trailer) director has signed on to direct a biopic based on pop star Britney Spears’ viral memoir from last year, The Woman in Me for Universal.
The news comes just months before the premiere of part one of Chu’s highly anticipated musical adaptation of Wicked in theaters this Thanksgiving. Wicked’s producer, Marc Platt, will work alongside Chu again for the upcoming biopic.
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The Grammy winner’s memoir sold more than 2.5 M copies in the U.S., and the audiobook, narrated by actress Michelle Williams, became the fastest-selling book in Simon & Schuster’s history. The 2023 retelling chronicles Spears’ lengthy career, battles with depression and abuse, and the championed termination in 2021 of her controversial conservatorship under her father.
Universal, who prevailed in the highly competitive auction for the Toxic singer’s story, was behind a musical biopic, Straight Outta Compton (2015, trailer), which followed the quick rise to stardom of the legendary rap group N.W.A.
While the studio is simultaneously working on other musical biopics like a film centered on rapper Snoop Dog, there are no additional announcements regarding production on The Woman in Me biopic, for now.
No word on casting, but wow, did Michelle Williams do a great job (JT impression).
Disney is celebrating. The House of Mouse’s Hulu and Disney+ saw a 10% increase in ad sales after their 2024 upfront. This comes after they aggressively cut their costs by 10-15% for advertisers after feeling threatened by Netflix and Amazon's recent entry into the ad market with their free streaming tiers.
Amazon is also celebrating. After their monstrous Q2 $148bn revenue, they’ve also made handsome gains on their ad sales:
$12.77 bn (Ad sales)
↑20%
The company is racing into all forms of entertainment with its recent 11-year streaming deal with the NBA.
Roku is popping champagne. They posted better-than-expected Q2 results. Here’s how they stacked up, plus the delta between last year:
$968 M - net revenue
↑14%
$33.95 M - net loss
Up from $107.6 M loss
30.1 bn - streaming hours
↑ 5.0 bn
83.6 M - streaming households
↑ 2M
Roku shared:
“We have increased our focus on growing the share of subscriptions billed through Roku Pay… The new Content Row on our Home Screen is helping to drive Roku-billed subscription sign-ups, by highlighting popular titles from SVOD services on our platform”
Roku is projected to continue this growth into Q3 and Q4.
Tidbits:
Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman (co-writers: M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin) are re-teaming to adapt a horror novel for Paramount Pictures, Wilderness Reform.
Synopsis:
Follows a group of teenagers who are sent to a juvenile reform camp and find out that the program has a far more sinister agenda than ever imagined.
Lindsey Anderson Beer (dir: Pet Sematary: Bloodline) will serve as the producer.
Janet Yang was re-elected as Film Academy president for three years. She has served since 2022.
Teamsters Local 399 and the studios ratified a new 3-year contract.
Sandy Bresler (agent: Jack Nicholson) passed away at 87.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Ella Purnell is a Sweetpea: The face of Amazon's Fallout series will star in a Starz series called Sweetpea, about a quiet, put-upon woman who is slowly boiling into a murderous rage.
Purnell became known first as Jackie from Yellowjackets. With the smash hit Fallout, everyone was talking about her portrayal of Lucy from Vault 33. She brings a sense of wonder and naivety that slowly morphs over the season as she goes from vault dweller to formidable denizen of the wasteland.
Now well versed in the dark comedy, Sweetpea teaser shows Purnell as a ticking time bomb.
Watch the teaser here, Sweetpea arrives this October on Starz.
Holt is a Family Man: Holt McCallany (The Iron Claw, Mindhunter) will star in the new family drama series The Waterfront, written and EP’d by Kevin Williamson.
The series is inspired by the real-life Buckley family's struggle to maintain control of their failing North Carolina fishing empire, resorting to increasingly dangerous tactics.
Holt McCallany will be playing the Buckley Family's Patriarch Harlan Buckley, a figure hell bent on keeping his status and protecting his family.
Fresh off playing another threatening Father, Fritz Von Eric, in The Iron Claw, he looked the part of an ex-wrestler and acted as the pressure cooker that led his sons to their doom. His physicality and massive stature were subverted a bit playing a gentler FBI Agent, Bill Tench, in Mindhunter:
The Iron Claw (2023)
Mindhunter (2017/2020)
The Waterfront will also mark McCallany's return to a Netflix series; he is also the first casting announced.
Al Pacino is King Lear in the upcoming Lear Rex. Jessica Chastain has already been cast as his eldest daughter.
Here’s the breakdown of the new cast and their roles:
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia, who gets cast out of the kingdom
Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Lear’s Middle Child
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)
The fool
LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You)
Edmund - villain
Danny Huston (Birth)
Chastain’s husband
Read more on Al Pacino’s madness as King Lear:
https://theindustry.co/p/al-pacinos-madness
Production on Lear Rex is set for Aug 12 in LA.
Tidbit:
Reeves will make his Broadway debut in Waiting for Godot alongside Alex Winter. The Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989, trailer). There’s a beautiful dryness to Reeves's line delivery that feels pitch-perfect for the play.
The playwright, Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett is now the subject of a major motion picture. Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects) will play two different versions of Beckett:
https://theindustry.co/p/samuel-becketts-shadow
Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick, Captain America: Brave New World) will star in and co-write Pursuit of Touch, produced alongside Jeremy O. Harris (Writer: Slave Play, Zola). The film stars Ramirez as a reclusive war veteran who discovers his favorite cam girl is embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy. Produced by Pinstripes and bb², the film is yet to secure a director.
Gillian Anderson (The X Files) will play a glorious wreck of a mother in Channel 4’s limited series Tresspasses.
FESTIVALS
BFI London Film Festival is playing with legos. Piece by Piece the Pharrell Williams music documentary (using lego animation) is set to close the festival.
In Piece by Piece Pharrell tells his story, from his come up with N.E.R.D. to his exploding musical career and work as a producer (which has garnered him 13 Grammys).
All of the vignettes will be performed by Lego, bringing along with it Lego's surprisingly competent grasp of humor:
The Lego Movie (2014)
They finally let Benny build a SPACESHIP! Clip
Lego Batman (2017)
Batman goes through a depression when the Joker is caught. Clip
You have to see the Piece By Piece trailer to believe it.
Tidbit:
Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door is selected to be the Centerpiece of the NYFF. It will world premiere in Venice.
Magnet Releasing acquires Things Will Be Different, which played at SXSW’s Midnight section. Here is the trailer.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Similarly to her character in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, actress and director Joan Chen has a serious eye for fashion.
Chen purchased the life rights of 70-year-old Dr. Qin Huilan and her eldest son Wei-Lai, who rose to popularity through their fashion content on social media.
The stylish mother-son duo have gotten the attention of major fashion designers and brands while sharing their newfound bond.
Chen first gained recognition among American audiences for her performance in the 1987 film The Last Emperor (trailer), which won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Throughout her diverse career she’s starred in films like the 1993 American biographical war drama, Heaven & Earth (trailer) written and directed by Oliver Stone as the third and final film in his Vietnam war trilogy.
Shortly after, would begin to focus on directing:
Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (1998)
Autumn in New York (2000)
Starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder
Chen currently stars and EPs Focus Features’ DIDI (trailer), which won the Jury and Audience Awards at Sundance.
Little is known yet about a potential film with the humble fashion icons. It’s not often a major movie star like Joan Chen buys the rights to your life story!
Tidbit:
Ramy Youssef strikes overall deal with Netflix. He is currently co-creating Golf, a 10-episode comedy series with Netflix with Will Ferrell.
Ferrell will play a fictional golf legend while details of Youssef’s character are being kept under wraps.
Ramy Youssef is best known for his poignant and hilarious Hulu show, Ramy, which he created and stars in as the titular character.
Ezra screenwriter Tony Spiridakis takes on Hello Darkness, My Old Friend. The biography revolves around Art Garfunkles’ college best friend, Sandy Greenberg, who went blind.
Spiridakis stated:
“When I finished reading Sandy’s memoir, I was overwhelmed and inspired by how he had overcome blindness to accomplish great things in his life.”
No word on shoot date but Sandy’s story is powerful, even inspiring Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence. What Spiridakis excelled at in Ezra was marrying the sanguine story with high stakes (which kick in at the midpoint).
ON THIS DAY
1973. American Graffiti, directed by George Lucas and starring Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard, premieres at the Locarno Film Festival.
Looking for something to watch this weekend? American Graffiti is available on streaming:
https://theindustry.co/p/whats-coming-next-streaming-8-1
That’s all for the week. See you Monday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.