Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Riz Ahmed on Bleecker Street, Jason Momoa on a pirate ship, and the death of a salesman.
Let’s go!
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David Mackenzie lives for the unrepeatable.
I sat down with Mackenzie (dir: Hell or High Water) to discuss his latest film, Relay from Bleecker Street, starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington.
The film follows a fastidiously cautious broker (Ahmed) who navigates a payoff between a whistleblower (James) and a corrupt corporation. It is a morality play that becomes increasingly grey.
Mackenzie explained:
“The life of the whistleblower. It’s a tough life. Somebody who's prepared to go out on a limb, and doing something unpopular, they're immediately shunned… even if you've been successful, you're an outcast, and no one really gives a damn.”
Mackenzie heightens the intensity of this emotional desolation by ingraining the film with the full-throttle intensity of a 70s spy thriller.
Mackenzie described his filmmaking:
“Loose in my methodology but tight in the filmmaking, but keep some of that rock and roll spirit to it.”
What this births is a film made of surprising moments. Like a particularly tense scene in a bar where Ahmed has a moral crisis played out in a drinking glass:
“It's so intense and so brilliant. And just comes out of something that's just, pure intuition. That's what I'm looking for. That gives you the goosebumps, and I think it's really great cinema.”
Mackenzie is a risk-taker. And that attribute is transmuted to his characters on screen.
Ahmed risks everything: his job, his integrity, his life. The more peril he embraces, the murkier his decisions become. It all adds up to a cinema thriving in the grey.
Relay is in theaters this weekend.
For More:
Full interview with David Mackenzie. It’s a mini masterclass from a cinema master. Plus trailer.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Amazon MGM buys pirate spec from Jason Momoa & David Leitch.
Zack Snyder pivots to a “small scope indie.”
Danny Boyle directs Ink. Guy Pearce in talks to play Rupert Murdoch.
Nexstar acquires Tegna for $6.2bn, controlling 80% of local US stations.
The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc inks an HBO overall deal.
Hulu adapts bestseller The Summer of Songbirds into series.
Jeffrey Wright & Octavia Spencer to star in Death of a Salesman (Focus/Amblin).
HBO unveils Weasley family cast for Harry Potter series.
Gabriel Basso boards Amazon MGM’s Love of Your Life.
Paweł Pawlikowski begins production on 1949 with Sandra Hüller.
Stunt coordinator Scott Rogers’s directorial debut stars Josh Holloway.
Strand Releasing buys Cannes winner La Petite Dernière.
Ron Perlman launches fan-financing platform Watrfall.
Channel 4 and Canal+ adapt Army of Shadows series.
Miramax & Doha Film Institute partner on Arabic-language films.
Ireland submits Sanatorium as Oscar entry.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Jason Momoa on a pirate ship. Amazon MGM has just bought a spec script.
Logline:
The Raid set on a pirate ship.
The following are in negotiations:
Producers: Jason Momoa (On the Roam), David Leitch (87North)
Dir: Leitch
Star: Momoa
Script is coming from Will Dunn (Ms. Marvel series).
If this comes together, I imagine Momoa starting as a slave on a pirate ship and fighting his way to freedom. Leitch is one of the most kinetic filmmakers working today, with a supreme understanding of how to choreograph and shoot action. I still love his Atomic Blonde (2017).
Everyone made fun of Zack Snyder for his overuse of slow-mo. Now he’s making a “small scope indie”.
It follows an ex-DEA agent who, with the help of a long-retired war photographer, ventures into South America to save his niece and nephews. Now with his Rebel Moon series crashing and burning, Zack has pivoted to a little passion project.
Though this does smell of trouble for his long (exclusive?) collaboration with Netflix.
Danny Boyle will direct Ink, a film from StudioCanal about Rupert Murdoch’s early media empire. Based on James Graham’s play, it dramatizes Murdoch’s 1969 purchase of The Sun and his hiring of editor Larry Lamb, sparking a rivalry with The Mirror that reshaped British tabloids and worldwide news from then on.
Guy Pearce is in talks to play Murdoch, and we kind of like him getting typecast as a ruthless titan of industry. Jack O’Connell is negotiating to portray Lamb.
Boyle reunites with producer Tessa Ross after Slumdog Millionaire, and with James Graham adapting his own play. Shooting in October.
Tidbit:
Paramount has officially locked down Netflix royalty, the Duffer Brothers, with a nine-figure 4-year deal that includes both streaming and theatrical feature films. Beginning April 2026.
Lauren LeFranc, the genius creator and showrunner behind The Penguin (nominated for 24 Emmys), has signed a two-year overall deal with HBO. LeFranc’s newly launched prod co, Acid and Tender Productions, will tell “off-kilter, character-driven stories, no matter the genre.”
Hulu has won the rights to The Summer of Songbirds to develop into a drama series based on the bestselling female friendship novel by Kristy Woodson Harvey for Kapital Entertainment (Hulu’s A Million Little Things) and 20th Television (The Rookie). Being adapted by Brennan Peters (prod: Prime’s The Power).
Local News giant Nexstar (value: $6.3bn with/ 200 local stations) buys Tegna ($3.2bn value, 64 local stations). The final deal, if approved by the FCC, is valued at $6.2bn and would have the conglomerate own the market on 80% of local stations across the US. This will all add up to $300M in cost savings (E.g., firings) and $8bn in revenue.
Netflix’s Swan Song (from The Perfect Couple author) sees showrunner, Joanna Calo (prod: The Bear), exit. Swan Song is still in early stages.
Mini Tidbits:
WGA East’s new potential presidents
A new CBS show
Paramount+’s new true crime
Robin Williams’ manager's obit
For all the above mini tidbits and more, click here.
Trailers:
Netflix’s The Ballad of a Small Player
Dir: Edward Berger (Conclave, All Quiet on the Western Front)
Cast: Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton
In theaters: Oct 15th
Prime Video’s Fallout (S2)
Release date: December 17
The Captive
Dir: Alejandro Amenábar (The Sea Inside)
Premiere: TIFF
Lionsgate’s Anniversary
Cast: Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Phoebe Dynevor
Dir: Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi)
Release: Oct 29th
BritBox’s Riot Woman
Streaming: Oct 22nd
Release Date:
Aura Entertainment’s Coyotes
Cast: Justin Long
Release: Oct 3rd
Cancellation:
Netflix’s Wolf King (ending after S2)
First Look:
Apple TV+’s Palm Royale (S2)
Premiere: Nov. 12
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Jeffrey Wright is Willy Loman. One of the greatest modern plays, Death of a Salesman, is being adapted by Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Lincoln). Focus Features is distributing. Spielberg’s Amblin is producing. Chinonye Chukwu (Till) will direct.
That’s high prestige. But we’re more excited about Wright playing Loman. And Octavia Spencer playing his wife, Linda.
She says a standout line in the play:
“Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.”
And we will pay attention.
These feel like roles Wright and Spencer were born to play. Wright has portrayed characters that are simultaneously proud, broken, and off their rocker. See Season 2 of Westworld.
Tidbits:
Gabriel Basso has boarded Amazon MGM Studios’ Love of Your Life. Produced by Ryan Gosling. Directed by Rachel Morrison (The Fire Inside). Starring Margaret Qualley as a newly single woman on a journey. No word on Basso’s character, but we loved him as the scummy boyfriend in Juror #2. Able to play “piece of shit” and victim.
Chilean star Paulina García has joined La ilusión de un paraíso, renowned for her Oscar-nominated, nuanced, middle-aged lead in Gloria (2013, trailer). The new feature is a tense drama from Argentina’s Valeria Pivato (The Desert Bride) and will see the Berlin Silver Bear winner play a retired woman who moves to the wooded mountains with her husband. Pitching at San Sebastián Festival this September.
Mini new casting tidbits for:
HBO’s Harry Potter
Amazon MGM’s Artificial
Two indies with A24 actors
For all the above mini tidbits and more, click here.
FESTIVALS
Venice Film Festival. 5 films have picked up sales reps. Some are major, having worked on F1, Mickey 17, and Call Me By Your Name:
https://theindustry.co/p/venice-sales-reps
Sales Rep LevelK (Sebastian) has sold Live a Little to six territories, including Breaking Glass Pictures for US rights.
If you’re in Venice, Kevin Spacey is showing the trailer for Holiguards Saga — The Portal Of Force. It’s the first film he’s directed in 20 years. He also stars.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
After some time away from the director’s chair, Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski (Cold War, Ida) is beginning production on his newest feature, 1949.
Synopsis:
Cold War, 1949. Explores Thomas Mann's (Hanns Zischler) post-war German life, his daughter’s (Sandra Hüller) stand against Nazi rule, and their road trip into exile.
In 1949, Pawlikowski returned to the postwar European canvas that had defined his most acclaimed work. He won Best Director at Cannes for his three-time Oscar-nominated film Cold War (2018, trailer), which told a turbulent love story across 50s Europe.
While shifting into a more political lens and exploring a father-daughter relationship (an arguably more complex dynamic), it’ll be interesting to see this period of history told from a different perspective.
Zone of Interest (2023) DP Łukasz Żal is attached. His razor-sharp cinematography, paired with Pawlikowski’s austere and nuanced storytelling, promises something meticulously exciting.
The stunt guys keep directing! Scott Rogers is making his directorial debut, One Second After. Rogers stunt-coordinated John Wick 3, Midnight Special, and Her. Recently, he took on second-unit directing for Tron: Ares.
His film stars Josh Holloway (Max’s Duster) as a professor/ex-military officer who leads his town to safety after an electromagnetic pulse renders the world powerless…literally.
Strand Releasing has picked up La Petite Dernière, which premiered in competition at Cannes, where it won Best Actress for Nadia Melliti’s work.
Synopsis:
When Fatima leaves her close-knit suburban family to study philosophy in Paris, she finds herself caught between her religious upbringing and the freedom of student life in the city.
Hafsia Herzi is the dir/co-writer. Clip. Releasing Spring 2026.
Mini Tidbits:
Greig Fraser’s Beatles
Ron Perlman’s Watrfall
Marlon Wayans’s Midnight Horror Story
For all the above mini tidbits and more, click here.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Channel 4 and Canal+ are adapting Army of Shadows (1969) into a series. For those not familiar, it is an unsung masterpiece. A war film centered on underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.
It’s a smart movie by Canal+, which just premiered a 4K restoration of the original at Cannes Classics last year (trailer). From Ronan Bennett (creator: Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal). The adaptation shifts the setting from France to “near-future authoritarian Britain.”
Miramax is partnering with Doha Film Institute. The Bob and Harvey Weinstein-founded company (Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love) is now internationally owned. By Paramount Global (49%) and beIN (A Qatar-owned global media network). The Doha partnership will help five local filmmakers from Arabic-language nations produce scripted content.
The International Feature Oscar entries are slowly pouring in.
Ireland’s official entry is Sanatorium, a Ukrainian-language doc and debut feature from Irish native director Gar O’Rourke. The film takes a look at Kuyalnik Sanatorium, a building in 70s Ukraine that contained mud treatments said to cure infertility and physical disabilities.
Palestine’s official entry is Palestine 36, a period drama following the Palestinian revolt against British colonial rule from director Annemarie Jacir (Cannes’ Salt of This Sea).
Nominations for the 98th Oscars won’t be announced until Jan. 22nd, 2026.
Mini Tidbits:
Sherlock Creator’s new series
BBC Germany’s new exec
A global micro-drama division
For all the above mini tidbits and more, click here.
ON THIS DAY
1951. Rashomon wins Venice Golden Lion.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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