Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Paramount’s Call of Duty, SNL’s 51st cast, and an anxious Jason Segel.
Let’s go!
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Will SNL’s Season 51 cast (pictured above) mint the next Ferrell, Wiig, Samberg, Davidson, or McKinnon?
Season 51's casting picks show a massive upheaval in the comedy landscape.
Way more emphasis is being placed on new media, including TikTokers, standups, and former Dropout (CollegeHumor) members shaking things up.
Here's a closer look at the newest cast:
Ben Marshall: The first face might be a bit familiar. One of the trio of the Please Don’t Destroy digital short crew has been a part of over 40 SNL digital shorts. Marshall is built for zany, high-intensity humor.
Veronika Slowikowska: TikTok has finally entered the game. Slowikowska’s often viral sketches and character shorts have amassed millions of views. With nearly 700k TikTok followers and 1M followers on IG, she has one of the biggest social footprints of any new cast member. She almost has a Kyle Mooney-style character roster that we feel could really fit in the cast. Clip.
Kam Patterson: A stand-up comedian, part of the Austin, Texas comedy show Kill Tony, made up of a bunch of Joe Rogan’s friends. Kill Tony’s comedy show has discovered a few notable comedians with its open mic style eviscerations; Kam has risen to the top. It should also be noted that Patterson also has quite a following on social media due to his outrageous clips. Clip.
Jeremy Culhane: The most traditional of the new cast. Culhane came from the LA improv scene, studying writing at Improv Mecca Groundlings, but more recently, he has become a part of former College Humor, now Dropout’s revolving cast of characters, participating in various improv-focused shows like Make Some Noise and Gamechanger. Clip.
Tommy Brennan: Stand-up comedian Tommy Brennan is actually a Second City dropout, deciding to switch to stand-up comedy instead, he has quickly gained a lot of traction and a moderate social media presence. Most recently, he performed stand-up on Jimmy Fallon. Clip.
With the aggressive cuts SNL made to its cast, it is hard to thrive in such a competitive environment, and it takes something special to truly emerge as a star. But we can at least applaud Lorne Michaels for getting with the times with these new castings.
Looking forward to a new generation of stars—live from New York!
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Paramount & Activision team for live-action Call of Duty film.
Disney pays $10M FTC fine.
Rocketman’s Dexter Fletcher to direct Paramount’s League of Gentlemen adaptation.
HBO Max acquires I Am Curious Johnny doc.
FX orders pilot for Very Young Frankenstein.
Charlie Hunnam in talks to play Lizzie Borden’s father in Monster S4.
Netflix announces series regulars for The Age of Innocence.
Jason Segel boards Anxious People starring Angelina Jolie.
Briarcliff Entertainment picks up Gore Verbinski’s time-travel indie Good Luck, Have Fun.
TPC acquires a 1114-title library from Myriad Pictures (Margin Call).
Vertical Entertainment picks up Luc Besson’s Dracula.
Shudder acquires Honey Bunch.
South Korea selects Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice as Oscar entry.
Farhana Bhula named Film4 Director.
Canal+ in talks to buy 34% of UGC.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Soap and Ghost, coming to the big screen. Paramount and Activision are teaming to launch a live-action Call of Duty film.
Based on the ultra-popular shooter series, including over 30 titles and essentially covering every possible angle of warfare ever thought possible. From missions taking place in the past, future, VR, and space. COD's massive marketing budget has always leaned towards theatrical ever since this announcement trailer.
The film had been in development since 2015 with Activision. It even had a full script and previsualization by 2017, but it stalled by 2020. Here’s hoping the producer James Skotchdopole (The Revenant) can get this back on its feet!
Paramount’s making a League of Gentlemen adaptation. This film centers on a group of James Bond-like Army officers turned bank robbers. Richard Attenborough was in the original cast. The new team is also top-notch:
Dir: Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman)
Wri: Bek Smith (co-writer: Moana 2)
EP: Michael Attenborough (EP: League of Gentlemen)
We hope this becomes the next iconic British spy film.
Tidbits:
Prime will celebrate genius mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man) with an animated anthology series adapting some of his earlier works from the ages of 17-26. The eight episodes will span a variety of genres and give a brief glimpse into the wild mind that brought us Chainsaw Man, clip.
HBO Max has picked up I Am Curious Johnny, a new doc following the over-the-top media mogul, art collector, and tech investor Johnny Pigozzi. The film is directed by music documentarian Julian Temple (Sundance doc The Filth and the Fury) and produced by Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor).
FX greenlights pilot for Very Young Frankenstein. The director is Taika Waititi (Dir: What We Do in the Shadows, Jojo Rabbit), and the showrunner is Stefani Robinson (EP/Writer: FX’s What We Do in the Shadows).
Mini Tidbits:
Paramount’s new hire
Disney’s $10M error
IMAX’s maestro obit
Engineering Emmys
For all the above tidbits and more click here.
Release Dates:
Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man
2-week theatrical release: November 26
Streaming release: Dec 12
That’s 2x longer than the first sequel’s 1-week run.
Mubi’s La Grazia
Dir: Paolo Sorrentino
Release: Dec 5th
HBO’s IT: Welcome To Derry
Release: Oct 26
Universal’s Untitled Jordan Peele film
Release date: unknown (pulled from 2026 schedule)
Trailers:
Utopia’s MegaDoc
Dir: Mike Figgis
Release: Sept 19
Disney+’s Marvel Zombies
Release: Sept 24
Paramount+’s Tulsa King (S3)
Star: Samuel L. Jackson, Sylvester Stallone
Release: Sept 21st
First Look:
Netflix’s People We Meet on Vacation
Cast: Tom Blyth and Emily Bader
Release: Jan 9, 2026
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Charlie Hunnam is the next Evan Peters. Like any cult creator, Ryan Murphy (Monster, American Horror Story, Swans) loves working with the same actors again and again. Hunnam is playing serial killer Ed Gein in Netflix’s Monster Season 3. And now he’s in talks to play Lizzie Borden’s father in Season 4.
Clearly, Murphy was impressed with what he saw in S3. And like Evan Peters, who has appeared in 9 seasons of American Horror Story and 3 separate Murphy shows, Hunnam may become a regular.
Christopher McDonald (Hacks) has joined the James Stewart biopic Jimmy as Lionel Barrymore, who famously played Mr. Potter, perhaps the most sinister villain in It’s a Wonderful Life (clip). McDonald has a maniacal, cartoonish meanness, as seen in Happy Gilmore 1 & 2, that will be perfect for this.
Edith Wharton’s classic love story, The Age of Innocence, is getting a Netflix adaptation. Here are the series regulars:
Camila Morrone (Daisy Jones & the Six) as May’s smart cousin, Ellen
Kristine Froseth (Oh, Canada) as the kind May Welland
Margot Martindale (The Americans) as May and Ellen’s grandma
Ben Radcliffe (Masters of the Air) as high society gentleman, Newland
The newest take will remain faithful to the original novel while approaching the love triangle with a more modern angle. From Chernin Entertainment (Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen), the series has just begun filming.
Cannes Market’s Anxious People adds Jason Segel to the cast:
Dir: Marc Forster (World War Z)
Star: Angelina Jolie, Aimee Lou Wood
Wri: David Magee (Life of Pi)
Prod Co: Black Bear (Sing Sing)
Synopsis:
A heartwarming and uplifting comedy about a group of strangers that get caught up in an unusual hostage situation on Thanksgiving.
We look forward to seeing who the person is who is taking everyone hostage. Jolie, Wood, or Segel would all give such delightfully different versions of the holiday kidnapper.
Mini Tidbits:
ABC’s anticipated Scrubs revival sees the return of Judy Reyes, reprising her role as the no-nonsense nurse Carla Espinosa (clip). She will be credited as a recurring guest star while continuing her role as a series regular on another ABC series, High Potential. Scrubs is set for a midseason premiere.
Yellowjackets actor Kevin Alves is set to take what he’s learned in the wilderness from his time on the hit Showtime show for a new horror feature film, ScareBNV. The college summer vacation gone wrong film is set to shoot in Canada this month.
FESTIVALS
Couture starring Angelina Jolie has sold to 18 countries, including Italy. US rights are still waiting to be sold by UTA. This is director Alice Winocour (Proxima) - 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.
Distributor: Pathé Films (Emilia Perez). Premiering at TIFF.
TIFF Market revives Basto. The project launched at EFM in 2024 with Jessica Biel, Daniel Radcliffe, and Ethan Hawke. Now Radcliffe and Hawke are replaced by Lewis Pullman and Walton Goggins, respectively.
For a deeper dive into the project, click here.
Cuba Gooding Jr.’s mob boss film, Atlas King, heads to TIFF Market. Highland Film Group (Arcadian) has taken worldwide sales. Gooding Jr. will also star in a shark thriller, Above the Break.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Gore Verbinski (Dir: Pirates of the Caribbean series) partners with Briarcliff Entertainment for the time travel indie Good Luck, Have Fun. Once prolific in the director's sphere, Verbinski fell into the shadow realm after the bomb of 2013's Lone Ranger. He returned for A Cure for Wellness (2016), which also lost money.
But he’s a gifted director, so whatever he’s cooked up with cast Sam Rockwell, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, and Juno Temple is bound to be insane enough to tempt the risk-prone Briarcliff Entertainment (The Apprentice, Magazine Dreams). We look forward to this releasing Jan 2026.
Indie financier TPC (Bugonia, Dead Man’s Wire) has executed its first formal library acquisition, purchasing a 1114-title catalog from Myriad Pictures.
The deal includes a lengthy slate of festival gems and big-name projects: the Kevin Spacey-led Wall Street drama Margin Call (2011), the Oscar-nominated An Education (2009), and SXSW’s Bob Trevino Likes It (2025).
This strategic move marks a significant expansion of TPC’s content holdings and signals its growing presence in film finance, having already serviced more than 1,000 projects globally.
The genre-rich Vertical Entertainment (The Exorcism, Eden) has acquired filmmaker Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale, a romantic take on Stoker’s classic gothic horror novel for North American rights.
The Fifth Element (1997) director is often experimental with his filmmaking, combining high-concept stories with a unique artistic style, which falls in line with Vertical’s love of elevated indie projects that still possess great audience appeal (Sundance’s The Last Days).
See Besson’s muse Caleb Landry Jones in the trailer ahead of Dracula’s 2026 theatrical run.
Shudder buys Honey Bunch. After a strong showing at Berlinale and an uplifting TIFF premiere, Honey Bunch will debut on Shudder in 2026.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Fresh off its Venice premiere, South Korea announces Neon’s No Other Choice as its official Oscar selection. From Oldboy (2005) director Park Chan-wook, the black comedy thriller follows a long-time unemployed man who decides the only way to get a job is to eliminate his competition.
So far, 18 countries have selected their Oscar submissions. Full breakdown here.
Japan’s second-highest-grossing film of all time, Kokuho, has been acquired by Studio Ghibli distributor GKIDS for North American rights. The Cannes drama was also recently announced to be the country’s official Oscar selection.
Mini Tidbits:
Channel 4’s new director
BBC’s new Head of Scripted
Canal+’s negotiations
Bryan Cranston series adaptation
For all the above tidbits and more, click here.
ON THIS DAY
1953. Jean-Pierre Jeunet born in Rhône-Alpes, France.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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