Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on Tony Kaye’s (dir: American History X) first feature in over a decade.
In The Industry News: Warner Bros. Discovery + Lionsgate Q3. Star Wars asteroid field. Amazon’s Mass Effect.
Actor Spotlight: Renate Reinsve keeps us laughing. Gaby Hoffmann is The Bear’s mom.
Festivals: AFM sneak deals.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight: Uncut Gems debut. Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada.
Let’s go!
Our live event with two-time Oscar nominee Ross Katz (prod: Lost in Translation) on how to make a beautiful film is kicking off next week. I’ve been floored by his hyper-creative approach on how to stand out. Details here:
https://theindustry.co/p/ross-katz-live-event-how-to-make
Punk Marvel. Punk Marvel. Punk Marvel.
That's how Tony Kaye (director of American History X) described his upcoming film, The Trainer, in our interview, which spanned everything from Green Apples to Edward Norton’s best performances to his reverence for The Beatles.
Kaye shared the unexpected influence Marvel had on his new work:
“They make movies about intergalactic warfares, superheroes, incredible people... [my] movie is about a human being and all the intergalactic warfare, the war room inside the human mind.”
The Trainer distorts the superhero film’s core tenant: the god complex.
The film follows Jack Flex, a delusional fitness trainer, who chases The American Dream by inventing a weighted hat promising to boost “hope molecules” in the brain.
Kaye’s own American Dream was thwarted in 1998 during the post-production of his first feature film, American History X, when he lost final cut. This triggered Kaye to spend millions to reinstate his version of the film. But when these demands weren’t met, he took out a full-page ad in the NY Times calling for his director credit to be changed to “Humpty Dumpty.”
Kaye’s dead-set pursuit of artistic perfection broke the standard studio mechanism by which first-time directors' visions are consistently smothered (see Fincher’s Alien 3) and, sadly, got him expelled from Hollywood.
Kaye’s career was resurrected for a third act by Vito Schnabel (Feud), who serves as co-writer, producer, and lead in The Trainer.
Kaye detailed his adaptation process:
“I went into [Vito’s] head with my soul-searching cameras and microphones. And I drew out this marvelous character called Jack Flex.”
Kaye emphasized his directorial obligation to deeply study his actors:
“What I'm interested in is extracting an acting performance from people in front of the camera. I am an actor's director. That's why when I worked with Edward Norton, I got his best performance of his fucking career. I worked with Adrian Brody on Detachment, a very underrated picture that Adrian's work is, is, is genius, beyond genius.”
Kaye is both a student, a deep studier of actors, and above all else, a trainer.
For more:
The Trainer premiered at the Rome Film Festival. No release date is set.
Listen to the full podcast interview with Tony Kaye, whose relentless pursuit of artistic purity defines his career:
https://theindustry.co/p/tony-kayes-punk-marvel-movie
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros. Discovery Q3 2024 results. And the change from last year:
$135 M net income*
↑ from $417 M loss
$2.68 bn studio income (↓17%)
↓40% theatrical revenue
$2.4bn EBITDA
↓18%
$210 M studio EBITDA (↓31%)
110 M subs (52.6 M domestic)
↑ 7.2 M Q2 2024
$289 M profit DTC
Up from a $3.6 M loss
Up from a $107 M loss Q2 2024
*Net income includes $1.6 bn write down.
CEO David Zaslav stated:
“In total, Max delivered 7.2 million net subscriber adds, the strongest quarterly gain since the platform’s launch, resulting in healthy subscriber-related revenue growth and meaningful progress toward achieving our 2025 Direct-to-Consumer segment financial objectives.”
Studio profits were down 58% with no $1.45 bn Barbie film to resurrect Joker 2’s box office bomb.
Zaslav continued:
“For the past two years, we’ve been driving changes within our motion picture studio to improve green light governance and franchise management, which remain focal points going forward. This is a business where translating operational changes into results takes time, but I believe we’ll see those strategic shifts deliver improved outcomes in the coming years.”
Silver lining: Advertising revenue grew 49% to $205 M thanks to domestic Max ad-tier subs.
Lionsgate Q3 earnings, as compared to last year:
$948 M revenue
↓ 7%
$163 M net loss
↑ $886.2 M loss
$2.6 M studio profit
↓96%
CEO Jon Feltheimer said:
“In a transitional, disrupted and difficult year for our industry, we reported disappointing financial results in the quarter… Our performance underscores the need to adhere even more rigorously to the risk mitigated business models, slate diversification and strict financial discipline that have always served us well.”
Lionsgate had seven straight box office disasters in a row, including:
Borderlands (released: Aug 9)
Box Office: $33 M
Budget: $115 M
The Crow (released: Aug 23)
Box Office: $18.6 M
Budget: $50 M
On the flip side, Lionsgate is expecting to have a massive next year with their Michael Jackson biopic Michael.
I Have a Bad Feeling about this: Disney announced its new Star Wars trilogy will be written and produced by Simon Kinberg with collaboration from the internet's number one enemy executive producer of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy.
Kinberg has experience in the Star Wars he created: the Clone War spin-off Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018). While the Cartoon Network series started off slow and childish, it came into its own and promptly grew with its audience, delving into deep Star Wars lore.
All of that well and good, but Kinberg is also the man responsible for X-Men Dark Phoenix saga and arguably a man who killed Fox's X-Men. (Double-edged sword for Disney acquiring Deadpool and that IP).
Starting off promising with X-Men Days of Future Past (2014), the following Apocalypse (2016) was pretty bad, and Dark Phoenix (2019) was abysmal. Sounds kind of like the exact trajectory of the last three Star Wars films (though I am a Last Jedi defender). The Rise of the Skywalker (2019) did immense damage to the fandom and was a true disappointment.
Now enter Kinberg fresh faced and seemingly willing to bend the knee to Kennedy, a requirement for the job that Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Dir/Wri: The Lego Movie) learned the hard way when they got booted off of Solo.
This is a series that aside from some bright spots (Andor) is absolutely bleeding out, and Kinberg doesn't have a great track record, no matter how much he put into Rebels.
But being truthful, maybe it's not really worth worrying about this, creating a project in this universe has about the odds of navigating an asteroid field… Rian Johnson, Colin Trevorrow, Patty Jenkins, and dozens more have all had projects in development at one time or another, then suddenly disappeared without a trace after one or too many creative differences.
Star Wars absolutely needs a reboot though, or some kind of fix, to get the awful taste of the last trilogy out of audiences' mouths.
Mass Effects World Deserves to be Explored: Bioware's beloved trilogy of highly in-depth space fairing RPGs is being developed as a series for Amazon MGM.
While exact plot details remain under wraps, the Mass Effect series is known for its sprawling sci-fi narrative, focusing on Commander Shepard's fight to save the galaxy from the Reapers in the original trilogy. There is a Massive interconnected world in Mass Effect, with a ton of history that can be delved into a strong interesting, developed species and planets and tech.
This has the bones to be as big as a Star Wars or a Star Trek. But it looks like we will be in for a long wait, a script is currently in the works by Daniel Casey (Fast and The Furious 9), but no word yet on the release timeline, and the whole thing has been quietly in development since 2021. With the fifth game being worked on, it seems unlikely we will see anything about this until 2026.
Check out the trailer and let your imagination go wild with where this could go.
Tidbit:
Barry Keoghan's Joker gets The Penguin treatment. Even though he only really got revealed in a blurry Batman deleted scene. The Irish actor has been exploding lately and fans are very excited to hear what the plan is for his take on the clown prince of crime. His brief performance was unhinged and creepy and the fact that the camera never quite showed his face promised something garish behind the glass. First up the bad news, Barry's joker will only appear as a cameo in Batman Part 2 slated for 2026. But afterward he will star in his own HBO series leading up to the final Reeves film Batman Part 3 where he presumably will be the big bad of the film.
Mini tidbit:
Nexstar (CW’s parent company) Q3 results.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) stuns in Armand. The film played at Un Certain Regard at Cannes and was bought by IFC Films.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Was it just a children’s game or something more serious? Elisabeth (Reinsve) is called into her son’s school when something happens between Armand and his friend Jon. But the incident triggers a series of events, forcing parents and school staff into a captivating battle – where madness, desire, and obsession arise.
Reinsve, who won Best Actress at Cannes for The Worst Person in the World (2021), is wild in Armand; one scene in the trailer features her unhinged laughter that rivals Joaquin Phoenix in the first Joker.
Reinsve has been making some stunning English-langue debuts, her first English Language feature A24’s A Different Man where she plays a wonderfully curious and prying neighbor, which she described ast:
“Socio-pathic. She has a longing for something. She’s searching for something, and she’s very ambitious.”
Also this year she played Jake Gyllenhaal’s colleague and lover in Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent. There is a frightening darkness to her in that role (interview)
Reinsve’s next big project is Worst Person director Joachim Trier’s highly anticipated Sentimental Value, which is currently filming in Norway. It is set to launch at Cannes (fingers crossed) and premiere in theaters next year. Neon is the distributor.
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Tidbits:
Christmas is about to go up in flames… Paramount Pictures has dropped the first trailer to Dear Santa, a new Jack Black comedy from director Bobby Farrelly (Champions). The trailer sees after an unfortunate spelling error mistakenly summoning Satan instead of Santa to wreak havoc on the holidays. Both Bobby and Peter Farrelly (Dumb & Dumber) are producing, reuniting with Black for the first time since their 20th Century Fox comedy Shallow Hal (2001). Dear Santa will be available for streaming on Paramount+ and on digital November 25th.
Marc Maron and Gaby Hoffmann have joined the cast of Deliver Me From Nowhere, a Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White. Directed by Scott Cooper, the film focuses on the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska, a raw, introspective project that marked a creative departure. Maron plays producer Chuck Plotkin, and Hoffmann portrays Springsteen’s late mother Adele. Springsteen himself is heavily involved in the production, and recently visited the set (still). Currently shooting in New Jersey and New York.
Scott Adkins, who played the head of the German table in John Wick 4 (what a prosthetics job!) is joining the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-led crime thriller RIP sells to Netflix. The film is directed by Joe Carnahan (writer/director: Smokin Aces, writer: Bad Boys for Life (2020).
Macaulay Culkin joins Fallout Season 2 in a recurring role as a “crazy genius type.” He will be joining Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins and the rest of the cast of quirky characters just trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that wants them all dead.
FESTIVALS
American Film Market (AFM) kicks off Day 4. Here are some domestic deals that closed:
Sneaks (animated)
Dir/Wri: Rob Edwards (wri: The Princess and the Frog)
Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Anthony Mackie, Martin Lawrence, Chloe Bailey
Domestic Buyer: Briarcliff (The Apprentice)
Release: 1500+ screens, April 18, 2025
Synopsis:
When a designer sneaker unwittingly finds himself lost in New York City, he must dig deep into his sole in order to rescue his sister and return to his rightful owner.
Briarcliff has a wild pattern of distributing hot-button films like The Apprentice and Magazine Dreams and animated movies like 10 Lives (2024).
55 (IMDBPro link)
Prod Company: Scott Free
EP: Paul Feig (dir: Bridesmaids)
Domestic buyer: Quiver Distribution
Release: 2025
Synopsis:
55, an orphan teenage pickpocket working the streets of Mumbai, embarks on a life-altering journey after meeting the daughter of one of his victims.
This is a stacked team for director Shyam P. Madiraju who EP’d Cake (2014).
Big new projects coming to the market:
Dir/Wri: Michel Frano (Memory, Chronic)
Cast: Jessica Chastain
Worldwide Sales Rep: The Match Factory (The Substance, Perfect Days)
Synopsis:
Romance blossoms between a wealthy socialite and a Mexican ballet dancer, intertwining their contrasting lives and cultures.
Zeus (IMDBPro link)
Dir: David Blue Garcia (2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Sales Rep: Highland Film Group (Russell Crowe’s Sleeping Dogs)
Synopsis:
A group of friends celebrating a holiday by the lake encounter a vicious Cane Corso mastiff named Zeus, fighting for their lives against the relentless canine.
Dir: Tony Bancroft (1998’s Mulan)
Wri: Michael Ferris (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines)
Sales Rep: Toonz Media Group
Synopsis:
Three young geniuses create rambunctious Minibots at Robotics camp. They must control the chaotic bots and protect them from a sinister tech company seeking to acquire them.
Release date: 2026.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Uncut Gems actor Hailey Gates is making her directorial debut with feature film Atropia, a topical war satire with a strong cast and a producer in Queer director Luca Guadagnino with Frenesy Films.
Memento International has boarded the stacked team on Atropia with a cast made up of Blink Twice’s Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner (Masters of the Air), Monster’s Chloë Sevigny, and comedian and writer Tim Heidecker (Time & Eric).
Official Logline:
Follows an aspiring actress working on a U.S. military base that simulates an Iraqi war zone.
A bold first film, Gates worked with Guadagnino previously in a minor acting role in Challengers (2024), but is most known for her part in the Safdie brother’s high intensity thriller Uncut Gems (2019).
Memento is pitching her movie as an:
“Exuberant, audience-engaging film whose screwball comedy and romance underscore a profound commentary on war and society.”
The budding filmmaker is not only trying out the director’s chair but also wrote Atropia, based on her short film titled Shako Mako, that was originally produced for the popular fashion brand Miu Miu.
Atropia is currently in post-production.
Paul Schrader’s self-reflexive film, Oh, Canada, which was an official selection at Cannes, TIFF and NYFF finally has a trailer.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Leonard Fife, one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam, shares all his secrets to de-mythologize his mythologized life.
Jacob Elordi and Richard Gere star as a younger and older version of Fife.
The trailer depicts a moving-memory-driven story that gives a deep look and exploration of inevitable mortality, and while the famed 78-year-old filmmaker has said he is working on another project it seems based on a story standpoint Oh, Canada would be a fitting final chapter in a legendary career given its parallels with Schrader’s own story.
Schrader is the famed gritty filmmaker behind:
Taxi Driver (1976)
Writer
First Reformed (2017)
Writer/Director
The Card Counter (2021)
Writer/Director
Distributor Kino Lorber will premiere Oh, Canada in select theaters on December 6th.
Tidbits:
Filmmaker Alejandro Monteverde (dir: Sound of Freedom) reunites with Angel Studios for Bethlehem, an epic spiritual thriller reimagining King Herod's infamous massacre in Bethlehem. The film follows a determined woman protecting her newborn son from the murderous king. The film has a stacked cast:
Sam Worthington
Ben Mendelsohn
Gael García Bernal
The actor portraying King Herod remains a mystery.
Monteverde's Sound of Freedom (2023), grossed $250 M globally making it the highest earning indie film of that year.
Bethlehem is currently filming in Morocco and is set for a 2025 release.
Doug Liman will EP If You See Something, an immigrant romance directed by Oday Rasheed that explores love amid political and social pressures. The film premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival and is currently seeking distribution.
ON THIS DAY
1949. All The King's Men premieres in New York (Best Picture 1950).
That’s all for the week. See you Monday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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