Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Quentin Tarantino’s play, Chris Pine’s Yeti, and Roswell.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Quentin Tarantino will return as writer-director with an original stage play.
Pixar is developing Monsters, Inc. 3, The Incredibles 3 and Coco 2.
Paramount+ orders a new animated Garfield series with Lamorne Morris.
Byron Allen buys 10.7% stake in Starz for $25M.
TriStar lands Ben Mezrich’s sci-fi novel The Last Orbit.
Fox signs Ponyboi breakout River Gallo to first-look deal.
Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair screenwriter Alan Trustman dies at 95.
Morgan Creek Entertainment co-founder James G. Robinson dies at 90.
Chris Pine will lead Netflix survival thriller Yeti.
Julia Fox joins Amazon MGM’s holiday comedy Clashing Through the Snow.
Jason Clarke joins Viola Davis in Amazon MGM thriller Ally Clark.
Sinners wins the WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Greenwich Entertainment acquires North American rights to anime feature Jinsei.
Producer Bryce Zabel is developing a grounded feature about Roswell.
Webtoon Entertainment names Youngsoo Kim its new president.
Friday’s correct answer: 10+ flashbacks in The Matrix Resurrections.
51% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Tarantino is back, but not for the screen. Quentin Tarantino will write and direct an original stage play, aiming for a Fall 2027 debut in London’s West End theater.
The play is an “old-fashioned British farce,” similar to Michael Frayn’s Noises Off (1982), which follows a befuddled theater troupe trying to stage a sex comedy. There’s something very self-referential about this that feels right up Tarantino’s alley. One might imagine a very bloody version, maybe with the characters on stage fumbling to shoot a Tarantino film.
Tarantino will have no problem adapting his filmic style to the stage medium. His second to last feature, The Hateful Eight (2015) was built around an ensemble cast trapped in a single location.
During Sundance 2025, Tarantino shared why he was turning towards the stage:
“Theater, yeah they pay a f—ing lot of money to get in that seat… there’s no f—ing cellphones. You own the audience for that time.”
We can’t wait to see Tarantino’s grand vision on stage. Also worth noting, that although he has been very critical of the shrinking theatrical windows, he is also partnering with Netflix, albeit just to provide a script to Fincher’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth.
Bring back the Scream Meter. Monsters, Inc. 3 is currently in early development at Pixar, though details on the story and director have not been released yet.
The studio has a packed sequel slate ahead, including Toy Story 5 arriving in June 2026, The Incredibles 3 slated for 2028, and a Coco 2 expected in 2029. Meanwhile, Pixar’s original film Hoppers debuted at No. 1 with $88M worldwide. This marks the studio’s strongest opening for an original title in nearly a decade.
With a mix of new projects and returning franchises, Pixar aims to recapture the momentum of its golden era from 1995 to 2010 with familiar faces.
The cat is back! Paramount+ orders Garfield animated series. For the first time since Cartoon Network’s The Garfield Show (2009-2016), we’re getting a new Garfield series. Lamorne Morris will voice Garfield. He’s got a slew of great voice acting roles from Fox’s Krapopolis to Hulu’s Solar Opposites. No word on plot, but the cat is always a fun time. Currently in production.
This is not connected to the feature film series voiced by Chris Pratt, distributed by Sony.
Tidbits:
Byron Allen didn’t win Paramount, but now he owns a share of Starz. He just bought 10.7% of Starz for $25M. It’s a small investment, given Allen has recently made some major bids, which all fell through, including:
$10bn for ABC, FX, and the National Geographic Channel (Sept 2023)
$3.5bn for BET (Dec 2023)
$30bn for Paramount Global (Feb 2024)
In the last few years, Allen has bought about $1bn of local TV stations, however. Read the full details of his Starz buy in the SEC filing here.
TriStar Pictures (Resident Evil) has assembled a whole team and picked up the rights to The Last Orbit, the forthcoming sci-fi novel from author Ben Mezrich. Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) director Matt Shakman is attached to direct from Josh Friedman’s (wri. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) script with the story following the world’s response to an incoming asteroid headed for Earth. The Last Orbit is slated for publication early 2027.
Fox Entertainment Studios gives writer, actor, and Sundance breakout River Gallo a first-look deal for scripted television and motion picture projects. Ponyboi (2024, trailer), which Gallo wrote and starred in with Dylan O’Brien (Twinless) was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the festival taking home a number of awards for its gritty, surrealistic take on a Valentine’s Day drug deal gone wrong.
Mini Tidbit:
SAG-AFTRA will continue negotiating with the studios for another week. Their contract ends June 30th. And they’re racing so WGA can pick up negotiations on March 16th.
Three Obits:
From Harvard Law School to Hollywood, Alan Trustman, Bullitt screenwriter, has died at 95. He joined the industry by challenging himself to write a film better than the ones he was watching. Then the classic, stylish heist film The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) was born. He went on to write more screenplays and novels while continuing to practice law for several decades.
James G. Robinson, the Hollywood producer who co-founded Morgan Creek Entertainment has died at 90. He produced a wild range of movies from EPing Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers (1988), and EPing The Last of the Mohicans (1992) to producing The Good Shepherd (2006) and even animated films like The King and I (1999). Morgan Creek Entertainment lives on through his sons, who have picked up the horror mantle with Ari Aster’s Eddington.
Jeremy Larner has died at 88. The Oscar-winning screenwriter had a career spanning seven decades, writing the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Candidate (1972) starring Robert Redford.
Renewals:
Netflix’s The Night Agent (for S4)
Filming in LA
Cancellations:
Peacock’s Ted
Not technically canceled, but creator Seth MacFarlane has no plans of making S3
Trailers:
Netflix’s Harry Styles. One Night in Manchester
Release: March 8
Sky’s SNL UK
Premiere: March 21
Jio Studios’ Dhurandhar: The Revenge
Release: Mar 18
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Star Trek’s Chris Pine is headlining new Netflix survival thriller Yeti, from The Conjuring: Last Rites director Michael Chaves.
Pine will play a determined father who alongside his daughter is fighting to survive a deadly predator high in the Alps after an avalanche traps them with no hope of rescue.
Recently, Pine has been drawn to more experimental indie dramas like:
Poolman (2023)
His directorial debut
The Kidnapping of Arabella (2025)
Italian drama
Carousel (2026)
Sundance romance
The first action forward film he’s led since Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Yeti is the beginning of a series of more high-profile, big budget films on Pine’s coming slate. News of Netflix’s survival thriller came not long after the actor joined Universal’s The Catch with Emma Stone.
Yeti is in post-production.
Amazon MGM Studios has assembled quite the ensemble for their upcoming holiday comedy Clashing Through the Snow, with the Safdies’ muse Julia Fox (Uncut Gems) the newest addition to the bunch.
Fox will play an “iconic rock star musician” joining Paris Hilton, Michelle Randolph (Landman), and Lukas Gage (The White Lotus S1). Given her countless avant-garde red carpet looks and fashion moments I could easily see Fox channeling an out-there rockstar.
Clashing Through the Snow started filming last month.
Indie comedy Desert Flowers adds to its cast:
Hacks’ Michaela Watkins
Teen Wolf’s Tyler Posey
SNL’s Kyle Mooney
Leslie David Baker (Stanley from The Office)
One of those comedies that takes place in a single chaotic, unforgettable night, Desert Flowers follows three longtime friends whose desert getaway turns into a life-changing adventure. Filming is ongoing in L.A.
Tidbits:
The beach is filling up! Fox’s upcoming Baywatch reboot cast is growing with Yellowstone’s Hassie Harrison and newcomer Thaddeus LaGrone (Mr. Irrelevant) new additions. Harrison will play a brilliant foster kid turned Olympic athlete who is a quintessential lifeguard, while LaGrone will play a former Marine who struggles with asking for help from his new team. Fox’s Baywatch will premiere by the end of the year.
The Hunting Wives actress Madison Wolfe is joining Netflix’s A Christmas Kind of Love. She broke out on the Starz series that found success on Netflix, now sticking with the streamer for her new project where she’ll play the daughter of a widowed baker who has a past as a rising country singer. Currently in production in Louisiana.
Jason Clarke will star with Viola Davis in Amazon MGM’s Ally Clark. The new thriller will follow an investigator who tries to get to the bottom of her friend’s death by looking into a dangerous global conglomerate. No info on his role.
Mini Tidbit:
Lana Condor will appear in Season 3 of XO, Kitty, reprising Lara Jean Song Covey from the Netflix hit To All the Boys series.
Obits:
Stephen Hibbert, writer and actor, passes away at 68. Hibbert began his career as a writer for Late Night with David Letterman and later wrote for MADtv. He was also known for his on-screen role as The Gimp in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994).
80s actor Corey Parker (Will & Grace) has died at 60 from a long battle with cancer. From Biloxi Blues (1988) to Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998-99) for over two decades, Parker had supporting roles across film and TV. Later in life, he moved to the classroom teaching acting at Duke University for a number of years.
FESTIVALS
No decision has been made, but Lynne Ramsay wants to re-edit the end of Die My Love. The film premiered at Cannes where it was bought by Mubi for $24M. She shared that the film edit was rushed to debut at Cannes. A similar thing actually happened with her film You Were Never Really Here (2017), which she rushed the edit so it could premiere at Cannes, later changing the edit.
Die, My Love is a Lynne Ramsay film through and through. There’s the way her images, edits, sound design all burrow into your amygdala. I believe the ending and a few other parts of the film, could benefit from another pass on the editing. We’ll be waiting.
Awards:
Sinners won the WGA award for Best Original Screenplay, and One Battle After Another won Best Adapted Screenplay. Not a big surprise as these are the two major Oscar favorites.
Film pickup:
Sister Sister
Int. Sales Rep: Skyline Media (The Ancestral Home)
Dir: Kathy Uyen (debut)
Prod. Comp: Muse Films (Goodbye Mother)
Is headed to Apple TV in 36 international territories (including N.A., Europe, and Oceania)
Synopsis:
A late night radio host offers a room at her opulent home to a runaway teen, not suspecting that her guest has ulterior motives that will force her to face her darkest secrets.
Mini Tidbits:
Venice Film Festival founder and renowned film critic Giorgio Gosetti has passed away at 70. Working as a journalist and festival coordinator for several decades, in 2004 he created the famous Venice Days section of the festival. Gosetti has left an indescribable mark not just on Italian but global cinema.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Greenwich Entertainment, known for art-house live action films (Piercing, Coup!, Dreams), picks up North American rights to Jinsei, an anime, which played at Annecy Animation Festival.
This is a bold move from Greenwich, as they’ve never released a fully animated film, let alone an anime.
It speaks to the quality of the film. The tone of the trailer is a light existential teen crisis that flares into the realm of dystopia.
Greenwich is also piggybacking off of the fact that there’s been a massive surge at the North American box office for these films. Just this weekend Sony re-released Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, after it has taken $136M domestically.
Jinsei will release this summer.
Tidbits:
Distributor GreenApple Entertainment (Stone of Destiny) has signed a four-film deal with AMC Networks’ streaming service ALLBLK (Angrily Ever After), expanding the platform’s female-led slate centered on Black voices and stories. Several projects are already in development, with the partnership launching with true crime thriller feature Long Time Listener, set to premiere this October.
We’re about to get to the bottom of Roswell. Producer Bryce Zabel, creator of sci-fi military series like Fox’s M.A.N.T.I.S. (1994-1995) and NBC’s Dark Skies (1996-1997, trailer) is working on a film about the 1947 Roswell incident. Zabel’s 90s network series are high on camp but his fascination with the subject matter has stayed. And we hear his depiction of Roswell will be very grounded. Partially based on this book.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Webtoon Entertainment is getting a new president. Youngsoo Kim takes the reins of the global Korean-American digital comic company with more than 155M monthly active users. Webtoon has provided source IP for various film and TV adaptations of major streamers, like Netflix’s All of Us Are Dead (2022) and Sweet Home (2020). They have upcoming projects partnering with Hollywood, such as Something’s Wrong in Stagtown with Margot Robbie’s Lucky Chap Entertainment.
Frankenstein’s Oscar Isaac and La Llorona (2019) director Jayro Bustamante are advocating for Guatemala’s first national film law. The much overdue legislation would strengthen the country’s film industry and help the stability and growth of local productions throughout Guatemala. The charge is being led by FIPCA, the Ibero-American Federation of Cinematographic and Audiovisual Production, with close to 4,000 signatures given.
Mini Tidbits:
San Sebastian best actress winner Nora Navas (Black Bread) is attached to star in The Bastard Daughter (La Hija Bastarda), a tragicomedy from Solita Films (The Fishbowl). Navas will play a woman stricken with grief who faces a decision, clouded by exhaustion, between isolation and facing her grown daughter back home.
Thailand’s Girl From Nowhere is getting a Japanese remake. Fuji TV’s FOD will stream Transfer Student Nanno this April, with its mysterious lead played by 20-year-old Nakajima Arisa in her screen debut. The original series found global success on Netflix, breaking into the Top 10 in Brazil, South Korea, and several other South Asian markets.
ON THIS DAY
2004. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind premieres in LA.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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Let me know if you can put me in a film?? Alfred Bracy
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518 616 8636.
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