Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Denis Villeneuve’s Flame, Row K’s Mister, and a crocodile.
Let’s go!
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Denis Villeneuve is back for the epic conclusion of his series Dune.
The trailer has some of the most astonishing imagery I’ve seen in quite a long time. Villeneuve is working at the highest levels as a cinema artist.
But what’s so astounding is his balance. And it takes me back to him speaking at the Gotham Awards, where he shared a bit of advice that Martin Scorsese had given him when he made the transition from indie film to Hollywood:
“Stay intact. Protect the flame. Creativity is linked with vulnerability.”
In the trailer, there is a calm intimacy between Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, a relationship that first bloomed in Part Two.
Interestingly, Part Two saw the corruption of Chalamet into a zealous leader, hell-bent on burning everything in his path. In this trailer, we see the death and destruction he causes, as well as the life he gives with his daughter, Anya Taylor-Joy.
Denis Villeneuve has reached a rare ranking of filmmakers who can balance the catastrophe of big-budget filmmaking with the voice of the indie cinema they once made.
Releasing on Dec 18th.
For More:
Dune Part 3 trailer.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Oscar viewership fell 9% to 17.9M.
R.J. Cipriani expanded his $150M lawsuit against Jeff Shell to include Paramount.
Lionsgate acquired crocodile horror spec The Death Roll.
Peacock is developing Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, with Tina Fey producing.
Sony & Macro Film Studios finalized a multiyear co-financing & distribution deal.
Warner Bros. is continuing archival push w/ Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault 2.
Wanda Studios bought out Sony’s stake in Octonauts.
SAG-AFTRA promoted Arianna Ozzanto to CFO-COO.
The White Lotus Season 4 adds Kumail Nanjiani.
NBC’s What the Dead Know pilot cast Lorenza Izzo.
Row K acquired action-comedy Mister.
Saucer Country is headed to TV as a premium drama adaptation.
Yesterday’s correct answer: The Big Brawl, Jackie Chan’s first English-language film.
28% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Oscar’s viewership dropped 9% in Sunday’s telecast. At 17.9M viewers, this was worse than the last three years:
2025: 19.7 M viewers
2024: 19.5 M viewers
2023: 18.8 M viewers
2022: 16.6 M viewers
2021: 10.4 M viewers
And of course, audiences have shifted away from linear, as reflected in the Oscars’ peak from a quarter century ago:
2000: 46.3 M viewers
Perhaps if they add a vertical video category as Conan hinted at, that would boost the numbers. Regardless, the clips on social media are getting millions and millions of views.
Tidbits:
Robert James “R.J.” Cipriani (AP on Jason Statham’s Wild Card) has added Paramount, David and Larry Ellison, and RedBird Capital to his $150M lawsuit against Paramount Skydance’s President Jeff Shell, former CEO of NBCUniversal. These additions to the lawsuit were made after Cipriani was counter-sued by Shell yesterday.
Lionsgate (The Strangers: Chapter 2) knows a thing or two about survival horror. With Glen Powell’s Barnstorm banner producing, the studio has acquired The Death Roll, a new horror feature romance that follows a couple whose dream vacation is interrupted by a 15-foot saltwater crocodile. That does seem like it would ruin a trip. The spec comes from Stolen Girls (2025) writers Kas Graham and Rebecca Pollock.
Never Have I Ever writer Lang Fisher is developing a series adaptation of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, with Tina Fey producing for Peacock. The project joins a growing wave of unhinged-mother narratives, adaptations like Nightbitch (2024) or last year’s Jennifer Lawrence-led Die My Love (2025). The novel by Elle Cosimano follows a single mother who, while dealing with the pain and pressure of motherhood, is mistaken for an assassin. The project is in its earliest stages over at Peacock.
Sony Pictures and Judas and the Black Messiah producer Charles D. King’s Macro Film Studios have finalized a multiyear exclusive, co-financing, and distribution deal. Macro most recently helped fund Sony Animation’s box office slam dunk GOAT, which grossed over $150M worldwide so far. Under the new agreement, the companies will co-finance select feature films, with Sony getting an exclusive look at all of Macro’s projects in development.
Warner is opening up its archival vault once again. Warner Bros. released the Blu-ray of Looney Tunes Collector’s Vault: Volume 2 with more than 50 classic Looney Tunes episodes, some of which have never been released in HD. Led by film historian George Feltenstein, the release will also have several essential Chuck Jones films, including Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short Stop! Look! And Hasten!, the cartoon Danny was watching in Kubrick’s The Shining. This is another effort by Warner Bros. to preserve its archival work and target the dedicated collectors who want to see not only the fan-favorite cartoons but niche episodes in high definition.
Mini Tidbits:
Creature report! China’s Wanda Studios (Pacific Rim: Maelstrom) obtains full ownership of the kids’ franchise Octonauts. Wanda bought out Sony from its $49M stake in the adorable aquatic series now being shopped around for a new streaming deal ahead of its upcoming seventh and eighth seasons.
Joanna Stern joins NBC News as Chief Technology Analyst. The Emmy-winning columnist is most known for her videos at The Wall Street Journal, where she spent more than a decade working as a technology columnist. She will run her own creator venture, so we can expect her vertical videos and digital newsletters to continue at NBC.
SAG-AFTRA is shuffling the deck internally, promoting Arianna Ozzanto to the dual role as a CFO and COO.
Renewal:
Hulu’s Paradise (for S3)
Trailer:
Apple TV+’s Outcast
Star: Keanu Reeves
Dir/co-star: Jonah Hill
Release: April 10
Prime’s Jack Ryan Ghost War
Release: May 20
Kino Lorber’s Amrum
Cast: Diane Kruger
Premiere: Cannes Premiere section
Release: April 17
First look:
Paramount+’s The Chi (S8)
Release:
Netflix’s Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85
Theatrical release: April 18
MGM+’s The Westies
Release: July 12
Netflix’s The Crash (true crime)
Release: May 15
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Looks like there are still a few rooms available at The White Lotus.
The fourth season of HBO’s anthology drama series has added comedian-actor Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), New Girl’s Max Greenfield, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’s Chloe Bennet to its ensemble cast, joining stars like Helena Bonham Carter and Sandra Bernhard.
Nanjiani seamlessly handled a rare Oscar tie while presenting the Best Live Action Short Film category at this past weekend’s ceremony, and with that level of cool, collected composure, he seems well prepared for whatever show creator Mike White throws at him.
This time set in Saint-Tropez, France, The White Lotus season four is expected to premiere in the spring of 2027.
Mini Tidbits:
Devil Wears Prada actor Rich Sommer has joined ABC’s crime procedural R.J. Decker as a guest star. He’ll play a husband receiving death threats, and if he’s anything like Mad Men’s anxious Head of TV Harry Crane (scene), he’s probably not handling it well. The pilot premiered on ABC earlier this month.
Aimee Carrero (The Menu) and Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys) are cast in Netflix’s Protecting Jared. The film will be directed by Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t). The project is described as a two-hander action comedy set in Hawaii. We hope to see the same kind of creative action sequences that Fleischer excels at in this new movie.
Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams is everywhere, including Netflix’s next limited series, The Altruists. The show will look at the rise and fall of major cryptocurrency FTX and the creators behind it, who soon enough became Gen Z’s own Bonnie & Clyde. The Altruists wrapped filming this past fall with no word on Williams’ role.
Lorenza Izzo (Hacks) has landed the lead in NBC’s What the Dead Know pilot. Izzo will star alongside Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black) and Michiel Huisman (The Haunting of Hill House) as an NYPD computer crimes specialist who has recently been reassigned to homicide.
Welker White (Goodfellas, The Irishman) will star in Martin Scorsese’s Apple film What Happens At Night. The film will follow a married American couple who travel to a snowy European town to adopt a baby. White joins the star-studded cast of the new Scorsese pic, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Jennifer Lawrence (Don't Look Up), and Mads Mikkelsen (007: Casino Royale).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Row K (Dead Man’s Wire) has just made another buy with the comedy Mister. The film stars Walton Goggins (The White Lotus) alongside Chloë Grace Moretz. And hails from the studio behind John Wick.
Goggins will play an amnesiac being hunted by assassins who, with the help of his estranged daughter (Moretz), must confront his mysterious past in order to survive.
Mister is the directorial debut of Wade Eastwood, who has an obvious knack for action flicks, having previously worked as a second unit director on the past two Mission: Impossible movies.
We’re getting the sense that RowK is leaning into the deranged thriller films with this, Cliffhanger, and Dead Man’s Wire.
No word on release date.
Tidbits:
HBO Max’s Laura’s Treatments finds International Buyers. Co-produced by France Télévisions, the thriller series stars Valérie Bonneton (Little White Lies) as a woman seeking revenge for the murder of a fellow member of her domestic violence support group. The four-part drama has closed new deals with broadcasters across Switzerland, Spain, Canada, and the Netherlands.
A year after Simon Pegg’s film Angels in the Asylum suddenly shut down mid-production, crew members are finally receiving their overdue wages. The British government’s Redundancy Payments Service announced that an undisclosed amount of UK taxpayer funds will go towards helping to partially reimburse unpaid cast and crew members with the film left in limbo.
The truth is out there and headed to prestige TV. Saucer Country, the Hugo-nominated comic about a New Mexico governor whose presidential run implodes after she claims alien abduction, is being adapted as a premium drama from Saudi producers Hamzah Jamjoom and Alberto Lopez.
ON THIS DAY
1913. René Clément born in Bordeaux, France.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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