Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
Amazon MGM’s Hammer, Universal’s War and Mr. Smith goes to the airport.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
Looks like Santa’s heading to family court.
Jennifer Aniston and Peter Dinklage have been cast as the leads of Olivia Wilde’s fourth feature film, Universal’s holiday comedy titled Naughty.
Aniston will play a mother whose last shot at winning custody of her son is to track down Santa Claus (Dinklage) and convince him to testify in her divorce hearing.
A Lannister now a Claus, the Game of Thrones actor is no stranger to holiday comedies, memorably starring as a big-time publisher (and an angry elf) in Jon Favreau’s Elf (2003), giving us one of the most quotable scenes from a Christmas movie in the 21st century.
Santa is typically less high-strung, but it should be fun to see Dinklage spar with the Friends actress. When she isn’t flexing her dramatic chops in the newsroom on Apple TV’s The Morning Show, Aniston continues to go back to her comedic roots and has even starred in a holiday comedy film herself with Office Christmas Party (2016).
Hopefully Naughty is more jolly and less uncomfortable than Wilde’s festival gem The Invite, with filming beginning next month.
For More:
Peter Dinklage in Elf scene.
Jennifer Aniston in Office Christmas Party trailer.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Mike Flanagan is in talks to showrun Amazon MGM’s Warhammer 40,000 series.
Universal Global TV develops Annie Jacobsen’s Biological War: A Scenario.
Atsuko Okatsuka and Josh Rabinowitz develop a marriage comedy for Amazon.
Providence Equity takes full ownership of Casey Wasserman’s The Team.
James Marsh directs a National Geographic doc about 127 Hours’ Aron Ralston.
MGM+ acquires Embassy, starring Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons.
Jennifer Aniston & Peter Dinklage star in Olivia Wilde’s holiday comedy Naughty.
Alexandra Daddario will star in the indie drama American Fever Dream.
Eric McCormack joins psychological thriller You’re Safe Now.
Behemoth! will have its world premiere as the centerpiece of the 2026 NYFF.
Netflix acquires Australian drama The Airport Chaplain for global release.
Warner Bros. acquires Euro rights to Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Kill Jackie.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Ed Wynn voiced the Mad Hatter.
44% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Mike Flanagan (Dir: Doctor Sleep) in talks to join the Amazon MGM series adaptation of British miniature war game Warhammer 40,000 as EP. Flanagan will also serve as showrunner, writer, and director of the series.
The original game has gained immense popularity since 1987, with its parent company Games Workshop generating an annual revenue of $650M with Warhammer IP. The setting of the game takes place in the far future, where humanity battles traitors, alien empires, supernatural deities, and space monsters for survival. Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) will EP and star in the series.
While Warhammer 40K might sound like an action miniature game, its roots lie in cosmic horror. The game introduces its players to a unique dystopian future where humanity is preyed upon by aliens, dark gods, and unknown monsters of deep space. There is no doubt that this is a series that requires a showrunner who understands how to do horror before action – a perfect position for Mike Flanagan, who has been making some of the best horror projects in recent years, including Netflix’s The Haunting series (trailer). We can expect Flanagan to emphasize the supernatural element of the Warhammer series, with his expert knowledge of how to show ghastly horror on screen.
Tidbits:
Universal Global Television is developing a TV adaptation of Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s latest novel Biological War: A Scenario. The show will follow an engineered pathogen outbreak that grows into a global pandemic, pushing human civilization towards total destruction. Patrick Macmanus (Showrunner: The Girl from Plainville) will serve as creator and EP of the show. We like Macmanus for this; The Girl from Plainville (trailer) had such a human touch to such a horrific event, we feel like he can personalize this.
Amazon is developing a half-hour marriage comedy from stand-up comedians Atsuko Okatsuka (Outcome) and Josh Rabinowitz (Babes). No info on the plot, but the show will be Okatsuka’s take on modern marriage. Hiro Murai (EP: Widows’ Bay) will EP alongside Ramy Youssef (Ramy). Okatsuka’s standup employs deadpan delivery about sharp real-life observations, so this new show should be stark and hilarious.
Providence Equity (investor: Mediawan, Seesaw) is now the full owner of The Team (previously owned 60%). This was Casey Wasserman’s sports/music company previously named Wasserman Agency. This ownership shift comes amid the sale of his company and his decision to step down because of his connections to Epstein. At this point, the other talent agency he owns, Brillstein Entertainment Partners (clients: Brad Pitt, Sydney Sweeney), seems to be continuing as usual.
Mini Tidbits:
National Geographic is revisiting one of the most extraordinary survival stories ever told. Oscar-winning documentarian James Marsh (Man on Wire) will direct a new doc on Aron Ralston, the subject of Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning film 127 Hours (2010), featuring never-before-seen footage from his six-day arm-severing ordeal. The doc will closely follow the climber’s memoir Between a Rock and a Hard Place.
Hulu acquires TV animation pitch Detective Agent Derek from EP Nick Kreiss (Prod: Afraid). The show is a prestige cop show that follows internet subcultures, hosted by Detective Derek – a nunchuck-wielding, anime-obsessed cop.
Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer’s pay just got upped to $19.4M, including bonuses and stock awards. Feltheimer has had an incredible year after Michael was Lionsgate’s first film to hit a billion dollars.
Pickups:
MGM+ acquires Embassy, a drama series starring Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect) and J.K. Simmons (Whiplash). The series follows an American diplomat who must help a high-value asset escape the U.S. Embassy in London, which has been taken over by deadly mercenaries.
Renewal:
Acorn TV’s crime drama Art Detectives for S2
Trailers:
Sony’s Jumanji: Open World
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan
Release: Christmas 2026
Apple TV’s Ted Lasso (S4)
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple
Release: Aug. 5
Netflix’s Below
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Charlie Heaton
Release: Oct. 8
Paramount’s Children of Blood and Bone
Dir: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Cast: Damson Idris, Cynthia Erivo, Idris Elba, Viola Davis, Regina King, and Chiwetel Ejiofor
Release: Jan. 15, 2027
Prime Video’s The Last Sunrise
Release: Aug. 26
Barbara Forever
EP: Christine Vachon
Winner of Best Editing in Doc competition at Sundance 2026
Release: Sept. 4
Release Dates:
Focus Features’ Elsinore
Cast: Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott
Premiere: TIFF 2026
Release: Nov. 20
Netflix’s Beauty In Black (S3)
Dir/Wri/Prod: Tyler Perry
Release: Aug. 27
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
From sitcom to suspense, Emmy winner Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) has joined psychological thriller You’re Safe Now from director Nimisha Mukerji (9-1-1).
After playing the titular (non) straight-man Will Truman for eleven seasons on the NBC sitcom, McCormack has embraced a darker side of television in more recent years, having starred in MGM+/Sony Studios’ murder mystery series Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue (2025) and one season of the Hulu thriller The Other Black Girl.
Production on You’re Safe Now is taking place now in Toronto.
Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus) stars in indie drama American Fever Dream. The film follows a hopeful middle-class family as they slowly become poor, showing the end of the American Dream. Daddario stars as Carrie, a mother struggling to keep her family together despite financial troubles.
Interesting turn for Daddario, as she’s currently starring in a film about vast upward mobility in Angel Studios’ Hershey, where she plays the wife of Milton S. Hershey, yes, as in the chocolate. She seems to revel in these roles about class. Her breakout role in The White Lotus was also about a woman who sacrifices love for money in order to maintain a high-class lifestyle.
Mini Tidbit:
Tony winner Lena Hall (Your Friends & Neighbors) has joined the family drama feature Disconnecting Peter alongside Chad Michael Murray. Unlike her lost and reckless character on Apple’s crime dramedy series, in her new film Hall will be the one with all the responsibility, tasked with holding together her family as her husband’s (Murray) destructive patterns threaten to unravel them.
Meta Golding (The Pitt) joins the cast of Fox’s Memory of a Killer S2. Inspired by a book of the same name, the show follows Angelo Flannery/Doyle (Patrick Dempsey), who leads a dangerous double life while slowly losing his memory. Golding plays Mel, Angelo’s childhood sweetheart.
Shabana Azeez (The Pitt) stars in queer romance film Unrequited, directed by first-time writer-director Lynn Q. Yu. The film follows two former college roommates who go on a goodbye road trip to explore the diverse food of California. Azeez’s character in The Pitt is fantastic, too smart for her own good, but stunted by an overbearing mother.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Behemoth!, the orchestral drama feature from Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), will have its world premiere as the centerpiece selection of the 2026 New York Film Festival. Starring Pedro Pascal (TLOU) as a gifted cellist alongside Olivia Wilde (The Invite) and Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby), the 64th annual NYFF will run from Sept. 25 - Oct. 12.
Sales reps have come to feast on many of the titles at festivals from:
Venice
TIFF
Locarno
San Sebastian
Here’s a breakdown of what they nabbed.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Australian drama The Airport Chaplain finds a home at Netflix for global release. The show follows an airport chaplain played by Hugo Weaving (The Matrix) who clashes with his new boss, played by Shabana Azeez (The Pitt).
There’s something friendly, effervescent and free-flowing about Weaving in this that seduces you into thinking he’s softened in his older age (trailer). But keep watching. Next, he flips into a short release of maniacal anger when confronted by his new boss.
The show will be launched on the streamer on August 26, and the development is already underway for Season 2.
Warner Bros. acquires revenge thriller Kill Jackie, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones (Netflix’s Wednesday), for HBO Max in European territories. The series follows a drug dealer turned art dealer who suddenly becomes the target of a squad of assassins.
ON THIS DAY
1983. Luis Buñuel dies.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co