Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Michael Bay’s Point, Viola Davis’ Games, and a Culkin crime series.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Cynthia Erivo and Michael Bay will produce Saturation Point, a sci-fi thriller for Universal.
Viola Davis and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will star in Amazon MGM’s House of Games reboot.
Justin Hartley signs first-look deal with 20th Television.
Apple Studios is developing an F1 sequel.
The Devil Wears Prada sequel confirmed: Meryl Streep returns with new cast member Kenneth Branagh.
Penn Badgley to lead Amazon MGM romcom You Deserve Each Other with Meghann Fahy.
Apple and A+E cast Rory Culkin in new untitled crime series.
Mackenzie Davis joins Josh Hartnett in Netflix’s sea creature thriller.
Aziza Scott (One of Them Days) joins Italianna with Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit casts its young ensemble for Disney+.
Noel Keserwany’s debut feature, Printemps, follows her Berlinale-winning short Les Chenilles.
Minnie’s Midnight Massacre joins the public domain horror trend.
Karlovy Vary Film Festival debuts Don’t Call Me Mama, a romance-turned-Hitchcockian-thriller.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Strange combo here, Cynthia Erivo and Michael Bay will team up to produce a Universal Pictures adaptation of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s sci-fi thriller novel Saturation Point.
The story follows Dr. Jasmine Marks as she leads a perilous mission into “The Zone,” a deadly rainforest where extreme climate conditions have birthed a new form of non-human intelligence.
It is not yet announced if Erivo will take on the role of Dr. Marks, but it seems like a good fit, given her predilection for handling the supernatural in HBO’s The Outsider (clip). What better way to ride off the Wicked hype than partner with the flashiest (as in explosions) director in existence?
Bay’s company, Platinum Dunes (A Quiet Place Part 1 & 2), tilts a little more toward creature-based sci-fi/horror than his directorial work.
Viola Davis and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Matrix 4) are set to star in and produce Amazon MGM Studios’ “reimagining” of David Mamet’s directorial debut, the classic 1987 psychological neo-noir House of Games (trailer). Davis' production company behind this is Juvee Productions, founded by her and her husband, which has been tilting towards bigger budget action pictures like The Woman King (2022) and Prime Video’s G20 (2025).
While the film diverges from Juvee’s recent work, what ultimately makes this retelling promising is the casting of Davis.
Davis' character in the long-running Shonda Rhimes ABC drama How to Get Away with Murder (scene) is similar to the main character of House of Games, psychiatrist Margaret Ford. Both hyper-smart women become entangled in a world of deceit, crime, and manipulation. Their composed exterior masks deeper vulnerabilities, and slowly, both characters’ identities fracture under the weight of secrets, guilt, and betrayal.
It is risky territory touching such a defining and generally well-received film, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Academy Award winner Viola Davis.
Tidbit:
20th Television has signed a multi-year first-look deal with This Is Us actor Justin Hartley’s company ChangeUp Productions. The deal follows the record-breaking success of CBS’s Tracker, in which Hartley stars. The show's sophomore season, which ended last month, was so successful that it immediately got renewed for a third season. Hartley will continue to develop and produce original character-driven content across broadcast, cable, and streaming via his ChangeUp.
Mini Tidbit:
Apple Studios is working on an F1 sequel. And why not? They made $57M in the opening weekend, their best opening weekend ever (Box Office Breakdown).
Trailers:
Netflix’s Apocalypse in the Tropics
Release date: July 14th
Hulu’s Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful
Release date: July 16th
Netflix’s My Oxford Year
Release date: Aug 1
Focus Features Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
Release date: Sept 12th
Netflix’s Troll 2
Release date: Dec 1
Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary
Star: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller
Release date: March 20th, 2026
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
It’s safe to say Penn Badgley’s onscreen characters struggle in the love department.
The You actor is set to headline Amazon MGM’s You Deserve Each Other opposite Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus). The film is based on a novel by Sarah Hogle and is described as a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romcom.
Official logline:
Follows an engaged couple who have fallen out of love and try to sabotage each other into calling off their wedding, only to fall back in love in the process.
Badgley's first breakthrough role was as (spoiler!) the Gossip Girl from the CW’s long-running teen drama. Throughout its six seasons, his character had numerous on-and-off-again relationships, most of which ended in failure, but none as toxic or violent as Joe Goldberg's. Badgley played Goldberg, the terrifyingly charming lead of Netflix’s hit thriller series You (trailer), which dropped its fifth and final season this past April.
Veteran rom-com writers Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn (He’s Just Not That Into You, The Vow), this time around are set to direct the upcoming film. It’ll be nice to see Badgley get a happy ending for once.
Not only is Miranda Priestly back, but she also has a new husband! After two decades, The Devil Wears Prada sequel is officially happening with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and new addition, Kenneth Branagh, all on board. Although, sadly, not Adrian Grenier.
In her first film role in five years, the sequel will follow Streep’s iconically intimidating Priestley, still the head of Runway, dealing with the headwinds of publishing, with the magazine industry now in a diminished state.
While it has been heavily asked for, the sequel has big stilettos to fill as the original grossed $326M at the box office and even earned Streep an Oscar nomination. Speaking of nominations, Branagh, so far, is the only new cast member, and he will play the fourth Mr. Miranda Priestly (best of luck to him).
20th Century Studios announced that production will begin this week, and filming will take place in Italy and New York.
Tidbit:
Apple and A+E Studios’ upcoming untitled crime series casts Rory Culkin (Under the Banner of Heaven) in a series regular role. Culkin will play a nervous staffer of a high-security psychiatric institute alongside Liev Schreiber, Stephen Graham, and Bill Camp. One of Rory Culkin’s few recent credits that really showcase what he is capable of is in the season 6 episode of Black Mirror, “Beyond the Sea,” which sees him as cruel, maniacal cult leader Kappa (scene). His untitled new series will begin filming this summer in Pittsburgh.
Mackenzie Davis + Josh Hartnett and sea creatures. Davis will co-star with Hartnett in an untitled supernatural creature series for Netflix. The six-episode series will focus on a mysterious sea creature terrorizing a remote town challenged by a hard-bitten fisherman (Hartnett) determined to protect his family. Jesse McKeown (writer: The Umbrella Academy) is the creator and showrunner. No word on Davis’ role.
Aziza Scott, who was mean as nails in the most hilarious way in One of Them Days (clip), will co-star in Universal Pictures’ new romcom feature, Italianna. From Kat Coiro (dir. Matlock), Scott will be joining The Little Mermaid’s Halle Bailey and Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page, with plot details still remaining under wraps. Italianna release date: Apr. 10th, 2026.
Jon Favreau’s Disney+ series Oswald the Lucky Rabbit casts Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Skeleton Crew), Mykal-Michelle Harris (Mixed-ish), and Ryder Allen (The Penguin). With a young cast, a promise to emulate a live-action mixed with cartoon, a la Roger Rabbit, this could be an interesting one to look out for.
Mini Tidbit:
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator Rob McElhenney’s new name is now Rob Mac.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / FESTIVALS / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Lebanese filmmaker Noel Keserwany is developing her debut feature, Printemps, following her Berlinale-winning short film Les Chenilles.
Printemps synopsis:
In a quiet seaside town, Soha sells fake designer perfumes to make ends meet. When a TV rom-com crew unexpectedly takes refuge in her shop during a storm, she sees a chance to change her destiny.
What Keserwany is so brilliant at is showing the lived experiences of migration and the forces that can elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary. We’re hoping for a touch of magical realism in the feature as a slight contrast to the formally grim but impactful short (trailer), which Keserwany wrote, directed, and starred in.
Tidbits:
Disney is not going to like this: The fair use IP-skirting team behind Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey has a new murderer that might make Walt Disney come back to life just to put a stop to it. Minnie Mouse takes her revenge in Minnie’s Midnight Massacre, a low-budget horror film where Steamboat Willie’s first mate, Minnie, seeks revenge on childhood bullies. We knew this was coming when Steamboat Willie's copyright lapsed due to fair use, but we didn't know it would be this creepy.
Film Square Productions (Ahmed & Ahmed) has joined the upcoming Egyptian fantasy film The Masters of Magic and Beauty, with widely successful Arab producer Ahmed Badawy (Bogeyman) also on board. Written and directed by first-time feature director Jad Chahine, the film is described as a haunting blend of mythology and a family drama. It will be presented at the Amman International Film Festival.
Karlovy Vary Film Festival strikes again with Don’t Call Me Mama. The festival is known for having tremendous indie gems, and this one starts off as a boilerplate illicit affair, but then takes on the tension of a Hitchcock thriller (trailer).
ON THIS DAY
1991. Terminator 2: Judgment Day premieres at Century City, California.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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