Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Owen Wilson’s Ketchup, Jeremy Strong’s Crossroads, and a Cabinet.
Let’s go!
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Owen Wilson is going all Looney Tunes.
That’s because Ketchup Entertainment, which recently bought the rights to Warner Bros.’ The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024) and drove it to a respectable $15.3M WW at the box office, has just picked up hip hop comedy Rolling Loud starring Wilson.
A full-scale 2,000+ theatrical release is being planned. Cue the cartoon Kaboom.
This is great news, as Rolling Loud seems to have some zany DNA that Ketchup can latch onto. Just read the logline:
A father (Wilson) makes a bad parenting choice by taking his young son (Matt Rife) to a wild hip-hop festival, leading to chaos as they navigate crowds, security, and family dynamics with eccentric companions.
Rife is 30 so that makes this even goofier. And some wild names from the hip hop scene are in the film:
Sexyy Red
Ty Dolla $ign
Ski Mask the Slump God
Plus, Henry Winkler.
So we know Wilson will embrace his childish side in this film. Maybe as a super hip-hop fan. We know that giddy behavior comes naturally to Wilson. Just see his doe eyes in Wedding Crashers, or his wonder in Midnight in Paris, or his childish ease in Starsky & Hutch.
But what may emerge, which would make this really special. Which Wilson has only just started to grow into. Is a grounding, father figure type that imbues wisdom (not just spews it like his characters when he’s younger). Watch Apple TV+’s Stick (2025), where Wilson becomes a quasi father figure to an up-and-coming golfer he decides to train. We get to see both his robustness, and also why he gets such pleasure in living vicariously through a younger generation.
If Wilson can pull off both sides of this. The heightened absurdity and the deep aching, this will be a real spectacle.
Rolling Loud is scheduled for a Sept 18th theatrical release.
For More:
A little bit of both in the Stick trailer.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Lionsgate Q3 ’26: $724.3M revenue (+15% YoY), Net loss: $46.2M.
Lionsgate hires first ever Chief AI Officer (Kathleen Grace).
Amazon Q4 ’25: Ad services revenue $21.3bn (+17%).
HBO’s next game-to-series is Baldur’s Gate, with Last of Us Craig Mazin as creator.
Jeremy Strong leads Netflix’s Crossroads adaptation from Media Res.
Paramount signs Dan Trachtenberg for a 3-year first-look deal.
Screen Gems buys R-rated spec comedy White Knight.
UTA partner Nancy Gates exits after 30 years.
Michael Shannon to star in a re-imagined The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Chris Hemsworth boards crime drama Kockroach (w/ Taron Egerton + Zazie Beetz).
Laurence Fishburne cast in the reboot of The Exorcist.
EFM Project: Hello & Paris starring Kate Hudson, Javier Bardem.
EFM Project: Blasphemous starring Clive Owen, Karen Gillan, Josh Hutcherson.
Apple buys Sundance doc The Last Winter K2.
Neon picks up Sundance doc Once Upon a Time in Harlem.
UK production: 2025 spend $9.2bn (+22%); 193 films began shooting.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Lionsgate Q3 2026 earnings, as compared to last year:
$724.3 M revenue
↑ 15%
$46.2M net loss
Increased loss vs. last year $21.9M
Better than last Q’s net loss of $113M
$421.1M theatrical revenue
↑ 35% (Oh yeah!)
$58.5M studio profit
↓ 29%
$303M TV revenue
↓ 25%
$55.7M TV profit
↓ 8%
Lionsgate was bolstered by two big films, Now You See Me 3 and The Housemaid, but the latter had major P&A budgets, which kept profits down. Lionsgate is about to flip the script with the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic Michael (official trailer), which will launch April 24th, 2026.
Lionsgate has also hired its first Chief AI Officer, Kathleen Grace. She’s got a great pedigree: previously CSO at this AI company, Vermill, which helped companies trace when their content was used without their permission to train AI videos. Lionsgate is investing heavily in AI, recently striking a major partnership with Runway to train an AI video model based on its library.
Amazon Q4 2025.
Amazon does not release individual numbers for Prime Video. Here is the most relevant figure from their earnings call and the delta from Q4 2024:
$21.3bn - Overall ad services revenue
↑ 17%
Boosted by Prime Video’s ad-supported tier
Full report here. Their net sales were $213bn. $21.2bn profit (up 6%)
Tidbits:
If Paramount can’t buy Warner Bros., it will just keep poaching talent. They’ve signed a three-year first-look deal with Dan Trachtenberg (dir: 20th Century’s Predator: Badlands and Hulu’s Predator: Killer of Killers). Trachtenberg will make feature films with his producer Ben Rosenblatt. It’s a bit of a return after they made 10 Cloverfield Lane with Paramount. Paramount has also pulled Matt and Ross Duffer (Stranger Things) from Netflix and Jon M. Chu (dir: Wicked) from Universal. Good news for Trachtenberg, he’s in an elite category of creators!
Succession’s Jeremy Strong has his eyes on a new family drama. Strong is set to lead Netflix’s series adaptation of Crossroads from Media Res (The Morning Show). Set in 70s Chicago, Crossroads follows a pastor who sees the lives of his family unravel after a church scandal rocks their town. The project reunites Media Res with writer-producer Amy Herzog, following their collaboration on HBO’s Scenes From a Marriage. The series is currently in development.
HBO’s next video game-to-series adaptation is Baldur’s Gate. At the helm is Craig Mazin, who previously adapted, wrote, and co-showran The Last of Us, still the gold standard for game-to-screen. He excels at turning lore into a beautiful web of relationships. This game continues immediately after Baldur’s Gate 3, in D&D’s Forgotten Realms setting.
Screen Gems (Sisu: Road to Revenge) has acquired R-rated spec comedy White Knight from Bad Boys writer Chris Bremner’s company Unknown Quantity. After Unknown inked a major deal with Sony, Bremner has been on the hunt for original scripts from emerging writers with White Knight his third acquisition. All plot details are currently unknown.
Mini Tidbits:
Pioneer Productions (Prod Co: Gold: A Journey with Idris Elba) is making a Tupac doc. If you haven’t been following the updates on the case, a suspect in the 30-year-old murder Keefe D, is set to stand trial this year. Pioneer has exclusive access to Keefe D + family. So this should make for a wild trial doc.
UTA Partner Nancy Gates (clients: Michael J. Fox, David Tennant, Karl Urban, Kaitlyn Dever) is exiting after 30 years. She started in the mail room in 1996 and worked her way up. She is said to be eyeing a move to management.
AMPAS is doubling down on its initiative to make content. Jennifer Davidson is now the CMO, and Communications, and Content Officer. As they slowly gear up to move to YouTube in 2029, expect more industry interviews and podcasts.
Scottish Comedian Craig Ferguson hosts CNN’s Craig Ferguson: American On Purpose. Premiering later this year, we expect nothing less than this to be blissfully wacky.
A number of companies have undergone leadership switchups this week:
David E. Kelly Productions
Germany’s Constantin Film
Principal Entertainment LA
Full breakdown on who’s joining and leaving here.
Renewals:
AMC’s Dark Winds (for S5)
Release: 2027
Trailer:
HBO’s Rooster
Cast: Steve Carell
Release: Mar 8
Neon’s Exit 8
Premiere: Cannes (Midnight)
Trailer - w/ an M.C. Escher etching
Release: April 10
Disney+ UK’s Rivals (S2)
Release: May 15
Netflix’s The Dinosaurs
Narrator: Morgan Freeman
EP: Spielberg
Release: Mar 6
MGM+’s No Regrets
Stars: Kevin Kline, Laura Linney
Release: Mar 1
Mubi’s Rosebush Pruning
Cast: Callum Turner, Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Riley Keough, Lukas Gage, Tracy Letts
Premiere: Berlin Film Festival
Peacock’s The Miniature Wife (series)
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, Matthew Macfadyen
Release: April 9
Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2
Release: Mar 20
HBO’s Murder in the Glitterball City (2-part docu series)
Release: Feb 19
First look:
BBC’s The End Of It (sci-fi film)
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Gael García Bernal, Noomi Rapace
First look - very The Shining
HBO’s Euphoria (S3)
Release: Apr 12
Sean Baker’s Sandiwara (fashion short film)
Premiere: Berlin Film Festival
Release dates:
GKIDS’ Labyrinth
Release: May 10–11
Sunrise Films’ Wasteman
Premiere: TIFF
Cast: David Jonsson, Tom Blyth
US release: April 17
Hulu’s Sunny Nights
Cast: D’Arcy Carden & Will Forte
Release: March 11
The Wizard of Oz (TV broadcast)
MeTV air date: October
First time on TV in 30 years
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Michael Shannon is Doctor Caligari. He will star in a re-imagining of the German Expressionism horror, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
For those who haven’t seen the original, Caligari is a mad psychologist who controls a murderous somnambulist (trailer).
We love Shannon at his most evil. Sometimes it’s okay to just see an actor play to type. And he does it so well (The Shape of Water clip).
The new Doctor Caligari’s Cabinet of Wonders is financed by Anton (Greenland, His Dark Materials) and directed by the Dowdle Brothers (Showtime’s Waco starring Shannon). CAA and Anton are selling the film at EFM.
After several cast shakeups, Chris Hemsworth (Thor) has signed on to Kockroach, a crime drama from director Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic) based on William Lashner’s novel of the same name.
“In the vein of Goodfellas and Scarface”, the story follows an outsider who infiltrates New York’s criminal underworld, working his way to the top until he becomes the most powerful crime boss in all of the city.
The Furiosa: Mad Max actor will be joining Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), replacing Channing Tatum who had to exit the project for scheduling conflicts. While all character descriptions are currently unknown, Kockroach still feels like a small step away from the big-budget superhero mold we know Hemsworth most known for.
Black Bear will bring Kockroach to the EFM for sales.
Tidbits:
The Exorcist cast keeps getting juicier. First Scar Jo, next Chiwetel Ejiofor, now Laurence Fishburne. No word on his role in The Exorcist for director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) for Universal and Blumhouse. But he’s got a commanding presence, both from his first on-screen role in Apocalypse Now, to The Matrix, and even those goofy John Wick throwbacks with Reeves.
Lisa (Blackpink), who killed it in White Lotus S3, may return to acting in an untitled rom-com for Netflix. No word on plot but David Bernad (EP: White Lotus S3) serves as EP and Katie Silberman (wri: Booksmart) will pen the script. In White Lotus, Lisa played a shy hotel worker who hungered for a partner who was a fighter (clip).
Mini Casting Tidbit:
Kerry Washington
Emma Roberts
Kim Coates
Gavin Casalegno
All those casting tidbits and more here.
FESTIVALS
Two top titles headed to the European Film Market:
Hello & Paris
Dir/Wri: Elizabeth Chomko (What They Had)
Cast: Kate Hudson, Javier Bardem
Prod. Comp: Fifth Season (Severance)
Int. Sales Rep: 193 (Die My Love)
Synopsis:
Follows a fiercely independent landscape architect and a crisis-ridden bestselling novelist who, after a prickly first encounter in Paris, began a sparky transatlantic exchange over books and recipes.
Blasphemous
Dir: Luke Piotrowski (The Night House)
Cast: Clive Owen, Karen Gillan, Josh Hutcherson
Int. Sales Rep: CAA Media Finance (Roofman)
Synopsis:
Follows two clerics who must transport a possessed young woman to a secure location for an exorcism. All hell breaks loose when she unexpectedly escapes, putting their lives and faith to the ultimate test.
7 more EFM projects here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Double doc buys from Sundance!
Apple picks up The Last Winter: K2
Dir: Amir Bar-Lev (Amazon’s Grateful Dead doc, Long Strange Trip)
Prod Co: Propagate Content (Apple TV+’s Stick starring Owen Wilson)
Prod Co: Ventureland (Nat Geo’s The Rescue)
Synopsis:
K2’s first winter ascent claimed 5 lives, revealing modern alpinism’s struggles with commercialization, social media impact, and conflicts between marginalized climbers and traditional elites.
3x first look photos here.
Neon picks up Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Dir: David and William Greaves
Producer: Liani Greaves, Matt Hoffman
Synopsis:
A decade post-death, filmmaker William Greaves reveals his final work: footage of a 1972 gathering he arranged with Harlem Renaissance legends, which he deemed his most significant capture.
It was a herculean effort for Hoffman and Liani to sort through and piece together this film 50+ years after it had been shot.
First look photo here.
Remember, all 5 academy nominated docs this year premiered at Sundance. So these have a good chance of being Oscar-bound.
We’ve got some great news items below the paywall:
Blue Valentine DP, steps into the director’s chair
Indie distributor who’s worked with Cronenberg & Villeneuve picks up a new film on telepathy.
Plus, a full breakdown on UK Production levels. And what it means for the future of film and TV in the region.
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