Oscars Host
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
In The Industry News: The Oscars host, Zack Snyder's LAPD, Warner Bros. Forbidden Planet.
Actor Spotlight: Poorna Jagannathan in Lanterns. Alan Ruck in Elsbeth.
Festivals: IDFA’s Loss. Doc NYC’s muse.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight: Doppelgänger’s Rounding, Erin Brockovich’s double docs.
Let’s go!
Our live event with Josh Mond (prod: Martha Marcy May Marlene, dir: James White) on how to make a personal film on your own terms is on Wednesday. Details here:
https://theindustry.co/p/live-event-from-sundance-to-cannes
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Finding a host for the Oscars has proven to be difficult every year, but it looks like the position has officially been filled!
The well-respected, very much qualified, and hilarious Conan O’Brien has been announced as the host for the forthcoming 97th Academy Awards.
Since his nearly 30 year Late Night run came to a close in 2021, Team Coco has stayed busy with the comedian’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend putting up blockbuster numbers and consistently one of iTunes’ top comedy podcasts since its creation back in 2018.
Conan’s second travel show, Conan O'Brien Must Go premiered with four episodes on Max earlier this year seeing everyone’s favorite lanky tall Irishman visiting Argentina, Thailand, Norway, and, of course, Ireland. Max recently renewed the show for a season 2 which will feature six new episodes.
This will be the first time the comedian hosts the Oscars, but he has previously emceed other high-profile shows like the Emmy Awards both in 2002 and in 2006 (Emmy's Intro).
Oscar viewership has cratered in the post-COVID years. Note that pre-2018 the telecast was never less than 32 M viewers:
2024: 19.5 M viewers
2023: 18.8 M viewers
2022: 16.6 M viewers
2021: 10.4 M viewers
2000: 46.3 M viewers
The 2021 telecast was heavily impacted by COVID, drawing an all-time low number of viewers, yet since then, there has been a gradual growth in viewership. The 4% increase from 2023 to 2024 is likely due in part to the Best Picture nods for the #1 and #5 top box office grosser: Barbie ($1.445 bn) and Oppenheimer ($975.6 bn).
Right now, there is no clear frontrunner for Best Picture. And while Oscar viewership isn’t directly correlated to box office popularity of the Best Picture frontrunners, two films could create significant draw if nominated:
Gladiator 2
Wicked
Gladiator 2 had a massive $87 M overseas opening weekend. For comparison, Oppenheimer took $98 M in its opening weekend overseas. We’ll see where we land when Gladiator 2 opens domestically this weekend. The film doesn’t have a great chance of winning, as only two sequels have ever clinched Best Picture: The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Plus, by all accounts the film is not as strong as the original Gladiator (2000) which took Best Picture.
Wicked is tracking really well for its opening next weekend. We’ll see if can put up anything close to Barbie’s $155 M domestic opening.
Whether or not, Conan + Gladiator 2/Wicked results in an increased viewership, I command Conan or taking the mostly thankless job, which results in few laurels if you succeed and massive hate if you fail.
We’ll be watching when the 97th Oscars air on March 2nd, 2025.
Is this Zack Snyder's fabled "Chill”project?: A few months ago, Snyder showed a bit of humility, announcing that after his failed Rebel Moon project, he was burnt out on VFX and CGI and wanted to do something small.
This new untitled LAPD Action project for Netflix might be putting that into practice. Here’s synopsis:
An elite LAPD unit confronts the clash between law and morality in high-stakes life-and-death situations, exploring the intense and complex landscape of law enforcement.
Snyder will co-write and direct. There are apparently elements of a scrapped feature Snyder was working on almost two decades ago. With this simpler, humbler path forward we at The Industry wish you luck Mr. Snyder. Just you know, take it easy on the slo-mo on this one.
Takashi Yamazaki's Grandplans: Sony Pictures has secured Grandgear, the first English-language film by Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki, following a heated bidding war. Yamazaki will write, direct, and produce, with J.J. Abrams producing under Bad Robot. There are no known plot details for Grandgear, only some slight speculation from the title and the director's penchant for big effects and Kaiju that there might be some element of a mecha vs monster. Again that's very much a reach and possibly spurred upon by hopes and wishes. Yamazaki showed a mastery of industry, as not only writer/director but also Visual Effects Supervisor of Godzilla Minus One leading a VFX team of 35, taking home the Oscar for best visual effects (the first director to do so since Kubrick). It will be exciting to see what develops from this project that led to a bloody bidding war; there is obviously a Godzilla-sized eye on what Yamazaki does next.
Warner Bros. is developing a new version of the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, with Brian K. Vaughan (showrunner: CBS’ Under the Dome) writing and Emma Watts (former head of Paramount’s film division) producing. Possibly best known for its iconic poster. The film considered a cornerstone of science fiction, never got a remake due to complicated licensing disputes, but last year, all parties came to an agreement leading to a quick greenlight from Warner Bros.
Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, it follows a 23rd-century rescue mission to Altair IV that unravels a deadly mystery involving ancient alien technology.
Though Hollywood is full of needless remakes, this one is a welcome shot. Being half a century old, this classic story could absolutely benefit from a refit; with this and the upcoming Barbarella remake, are we about to be in a zeitgeist full of old sci-fi B movie influence?
20th Century Studios ends up on top! In a competitive deal, 20th Century won the rights to Test Drive, an upcoming action film by writer/editor Matt Venne (writer: Antonio Banderas’ Acts of Vengeance) and Safehouse Pictures. Venne is currently working on Showtime’s Dexter spin-off series Dexter: Resurrection. The most recent project to come from the mostly mythical adventure-based studio, Safehouse Pictures, was Netflix’s sci-fi Atlas, starring Jennifer Lopez.
There is no director or talent attached yet to Test Drive, but with a company as formidable as 20th Century on board solely based on the spec’s writing, that makes it a promising future feature.
Tidbit:
Disney has removed the second Star Wars film set for December 2026, replacing it with Ice Age 6, announced at D23 Brazil. This reorder comes on the heels of Simon Kinberg's recently announced trilogy. This could also be a ploy to free up some space (accidental pun) for Disney's other Star Wars features, The Mandalorian and Grogu, which will be released in theatres in May 2026.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Poorna Jagannathan has joined the cast of HBO and DC Studios' Lanterns, a superhero crime series with a True Detective tone, focusing on Green Lanterns Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as they investigate a murder in the American heartland with Jagannathan said to play a character who is “effortlessly confident and poised.”
While that description seems cripplingly shallow, Jagannathan’s myriad of roles have been anything but:
The Night Of (HBO, 2016)
Plays Riz Ahmed’s mother (above)
Wolfs (Apple TV+, 2024)
Plays Pitt and Clooney’s underground medical specialist
“Dum Dums” clip
Jagannathan has a marvelous ability to oscillate between immense gravity and levity.
Lanterns is looking cooler by the minute. The off-tone idea confounded a lot of fans when it was first announced by James Gunn, but this really seems to be shaping up to be a much more grounded world and fun twist on the crime procedural.
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Tidbit:
The sophomore season of the CBS dramedy series Elsbeth is expanding its cast. Alan Ruck (Succession, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and Ioan Gruffudd (Titanic) are set to guest star with actor Sullivan Jones (Interior Chinaton) taking on a recurring role as a medical examiner in New York. Carrie Preston stars as the titular role, an astute but unconventional attorney who works with the NYPD to catch some of the city’s most notorious murderers. Elsbeth’s second season premiered last month, with episodes airing on Thursday nights on CBS.
FESTIVALS
IDFA doc Loss Adjustment gets picked up by UK distributor Taskovski Films. Here’s the synopsis:
Pedro has a tough time dealing with corruption in his work as a claims adjuster for an insurer in Mexico. Seeking an escape, he befriends filmmaker and artist Miguel Calderón, hoping that the world of contemporary art will offer him relief. But when he becomes attracted to an actress and impulsively accepts a role in a play about violence and femicide, it leads to a personal crisis.
The desire for escapism is palpable in the trailer. Plus, there’s an ultra cinematic shot of a man silhouetted in front of a projector displaying footage of a playground slide shot as if the camera is gliding upward. Very trippy. The film premiered at IDFA, which kicked off on Thursday.
Last week, Taskovski also picked up IDFA doc Light Memories.
The only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize is Maus. The comic, which depicts the horrors of the Holocaust, and the author, Art Spiegelman, is the subject of Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, a new doc at Doc NYC, which runs through Dec 1st.
Check out the trailer and take a look into how Maus changed the medium of comic books, pulling it away from Superheroes and expanding the boundaries, making it all together darker and more resonant.
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse will be released on PBS' American Masters. No date has been set.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Music Box Films Genre label Doppelgänger acquires Rounding. The film, directed by Alex Thompson, premiered at Tribeca in 2022.
Here’s the official synopsis:
A driven young medical resident transfers to a rural hospital for a fresh start. There, the demons of his past start to catch up to him when he becomes consumed by the case of a young asthma patient.
Watching Rounding is like peeling back layers of nightmares. While the protagonist in Rounding slowly self-destructs, the lead at the heart of Thompson’s first feature, Saint Frances (2019), moves on a path of self-recovery. That film, which took the Special Jury Prize and Audience Award at SXSW (trailer), is a generous movie about a mid-30s woman finding acceptance and family in different configurations.
Recently, Thompson co-directed the film Ghostlight (2024), about an amateur Thespian taking on Romeo and Juliet, which premiered at Sundance, was distributed by IFC Films and took $766 K worldwide.
Rounding will open theatrically on Jan 3rd.
Tidbit:
Silk Factory, a transatlantic creative agency, that just won the Clio Award for Best trailer for Kneecap’s red band trailer) has brought on three new hires for major roles, specifically playing a part in their new interactive production arm based in the UK. Creative directors Stephen Schwartz and Amanda Pulver are brought on as VPs focusing on business developments across entertainment, consumer brands, and music for the agency. Richard Loader, an EP, will lead the interactive production division.
Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist (yes, the one played by Julia Roberts), has signed on to EP two docs at Doc NYC:
Doc sub-genre: Investigative Thriller
Synopsis:
A citizen journalist and mother, Natalia Zubkova is an army of one who first exposes and then fights the rampant corruption of the Russian government and its coal mafia, despite surveillance, harassment, and threats.
Epic first look image of Zubkova.
Subgenre: David/Goliath legal doc
Synopsis:
In the pristine Bristol Bay area of Alaska, two sets of siblings are alarmed when they learn of plans for the proposed Pebble Mine in the vicinity of their homes. The Salmon sisters, Native Alaskans, work on the regulatory front – pushing the federal EPA to block the project, and remaining hyper-vigilant to political pressures that could shift at any moment.
Hopefully, her cache will help the film's land distribution.
ON THIS DAY
1928 Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie is released, the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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