Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Samara Weaving’s Scream, Jason Reitman’s supernatural, and a Father Figure.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
I sat down with Samara Weaving, the top actress in the horror comedy genre, whose face has been plastered upon the popular consciousness as the bloody bride in Searchlight’s Ready or Not (2019) and the newly released Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026).
She has a trifecta of new, violently delightful releases over the next few months, including IFC’s Over Your Dead Body and Magnolia’s Carolina Caroline.
She shared that her elevated scream girl-esque performances have been inspired by the stories of blue-collar workers during wartime:
“Suddenly they’re thrust into these insane scenarios where they’re fighting for their lives. And so that helped me with horror and being like a final woman because you’re not a superhero. You’re just a person that’s in an extreme environment where you have to survive. And that sort of scrappiness and that like raw animalistic survival that kicks in is so fascinating to me.”
What allows Samara to be so great on screen is her uncanny ability, amidst the chaos of the carnage, to slow down and let us register her vulnerability.
Her trifecta of upcoming releases, where she transcends the title of scream queen:
Ready or Not 2 is in theaters.
IFC’s Over Your Dead Body with Jason Segel opens April 24th.
Magnolia’s Carolina Caroline releases June 5th.
For More:
Check out our full interview with Samara. Plus trailers for all of the above films.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Netflix will adapt The Decorator into a psychosexual drama series.
Hulu is adapting YA rowing novel Capsized as a drama series.
Laika will make a live-action film of Exit Party. Emma Stone EPs.
Jason Reitman will produce Sony’s supernatural real-time thriller 71 Minutes.
Amazon sets Jerry West doc Jerry West: The Logo.
Tubi greenlit esports YA romance Game On.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will produce a Netflix polo drama.
Kirsten Dunst joined The Housemaid’s Secret, opposite Sydney Sweeney.
Oscar nominee Valerie Perrine died at 82.
Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gaby Hoffmann joined Sean Durkin + A24’s Deep Cuts.
Mahershala Ali joins HBO’s Task S2
Netflix’s Rabbit, Rabbit adds 24 cast members, including Allison Pill.
Bill Camp cast in Operation Fastlink.
Sundance’s Sandbox Fund backs Emma D. Miller’s doc Father Figures.
Jane Fonda will EP Amy Goodman doc Steal This Story, Please!
Yesterday’s correct answer: The Jazz Singer is considered the first sound film.
87% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Democratic leadership is pressuring the FCC Chair, Brandon Carr to deeply scrutinize the PSKY acquisition of WBD. In a letter, they warn against the foreign influence due to the $24bn investment from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi:
“This is not incidental capital, it represents roughly one-fifth of the total transaction value. And it is not clear that this will be the only foreign investment in this transaction.”
I doubt their letter will do anything. Foreign investments are commonplace in Hollywood, just look at Sony, Miramax (co-owned by Qatar’s beIN Media Group), or Plan B (co-owned by France’s Mediawan). Likely, more foreign investors will come in when the merged PSKY WBD sells its stock.
A trio of novels and short stories are picked up, sparking film and TV adaptations from:
Netflix
Hulu
Laika Studios (Coraline)
Read about these three projects here.
Tidbits:
Jason Reitman (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) will produce supernatural thriller 71 Minutes for Sony Pictures. Written by Ian Shorr (Infinite), the real-time thriller follows a man on the run with only 71 minutes left to escape from his pursuers. Reitman has previously told a tense story with a ticking clock in Saturday Night (2024, trailer), and we are excited to see what he does with a serious thriller.
The late NBA All-Star Jerry West is getting a doc from Amazon. Jerry West: The Logo marks the directorial doc debut of Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, with the film following the tragic personal life of the legendary player turned Lakers coach. Premiering April 16th.
Tubi announces an Esports YA Romance Game On. Starring Sky Katz (Surviving Summer) and Case Walker (The Other Two), the film will follow a talented gamer who falls in love with her online arch-nemesis.
Prince Harry & Meghan Markle will produce a Netflix Polo-themed drama. The untitled project will be set in Wellington, Florida, and revolve around the messy rivalry between two polo teams. This is after Netflix ended its deal with their prod co Archewell Productions.
Renewals:
Disney+’s Wonder Man (for S2)
Returning cast: Abdul-Mateen II, Ben Kingsley
CBS’s CIA (for S2)
Cancellations:
Paramount+’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (cancelled after S2)
Trailers:
HBO’s Hacks (S5, final season)
Release: April 9
Paramount+’s Dutton Ranch
Cast: Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser, Annette Bening, and Ed Harris
Release: May 15
Disney’s Moana (live-action)
Star: Dwayne Johnson
Release: July 10
Release dates:
HBO/BBC’s Half Man
Creator/Star: Richard Gadd
Release: April 23
I’ve been told it’s dark, very, very dark
Persimmon’s A Mosquito in the Ear
Premiere Santa Barbara Film Festival
Cast: Jake Lacy (The White Lotus)
Release: Spring
Prime’s Every Year After (series)
Release: June 10
Wrapped:
Amazon MGM’s Drama King
Prod Co: Pimienta Films (Roma)
Cast: Diego Calva, José María Yazpik
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Kirsten Dunst has now joined the sequels to Warner Bros. and Lionsgate’s highest-grossing films of 2025.
In addition to A Minecraft Movie 2, she has been cast in The Housemaid’s Secret, opposite Sydney Sweeney. If this is anything like the first film, then we imagine Dunst and Sweeney moving from friendly to enemy to partners in crime.
Dunst has had a versatile career. Moving from rom-com to arthouse and now back to big-budget fare. She’s great in anything because she has a malleable persona that can play breezy charm (Wimbledon) or the burrows of despair (Melancholia).
The Oscar-nominated Valerie Perrine has passed away at 82. She started her career as the seductive porn star trapped in an alien prison in Slaughterhouse Five (1972). Her best line:
“Time travel is a bitch for you, isn’t it? Particularly the war.”
She went on to play the ditzy secretary to Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor in Superman (1978) and Superman 2 (1980, clip). She won Best Actress at Cannes, the BAFTA, and an Oscar nomination for Lenny (1974), where a controversial comic (Dustin Hoffman) drives her to the ends of her wits (clip).
Some deep cuts with A24’s Deep Cuts. The cast of Sean Durkin’s (Dir: Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Iron Claw) new film is growing: Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gaby Hoffmann join Cailee Spaeny and Drew Starkey (Queer). Eli Bush (Uncut Gems) and Josh Safdie produce.
Synopsis:
Two music-obsessed twentysomethings navigate the messy realities of ambition, belonging and adulthood over the course of era-defining decades.
Durkin is quite good at depicting relationships where people cannibalize each other. Shooting was expected to start last month.
Tidbits:
Mahershala Ali joins Mark Ruffalo in HBO’s Task S2. The show follows Tom Brandis (Ruffalo), an FBI agent who is in charge of a new task force. Ali will play a well-respected DEA agent in Philadelphia whose team goes head-to-head with Ruffalo. We may get to see Ali once again as a stoic character in public authority, much like his portrayal of Arkansas State Police detective Wayne Hays in the third season of HBO’s True Detective.
A large pill to swallow. Netflix’s Rabbit, Rabbit casts 24 people, including Alison Pill and Brian D’Arcy James (Spotlight). Will Poulter, Regina Hall, and Adam Driver are the series leads. Created by Peter Craig (wri. The Town) it will center on a convict taking a lot of hostages (thus the large cast).
Harriet Walter (Succession) and Freddie Fox (House of the Dragon) join the cast of HBO’s Youth. The show will follow a 50-year-old divorcee’s search for sex and love while also playing the roles of a daughter and a mother.
Stephen Lang (Avatar) joins Nava Mau’s (Baby Reindeer) comedic Thriller The Dregs. The film will follow a friend’s trip to the Alps that turns supernatural when they drink a cursed bottle of Grappa. Lang will play the antagonist, a waiter well-versed in witchcraft and alchemy.
Bill Camp (Presumed Innocent) has joined the coming-of-age crime thriller Operation Fastlink, inspired by a real-life FBI cybercrime case that targeted the underground piracy scene of the early 2000s. Production just wrapped in New Jersey.
FESTIVALS
Sundance is supporting 16 docs through their Sandbox Fund. One project caught our eye:
Father Figures (U.S.A.)
Dir/Prod: Emma D. Miller (Prod: Mistress Dispeller)
Producers: Colby Day (writer: Searchlight’s In the Blink of an Eye, Netflix’s Spaceman)
Synopsis:
When a retired theater director begins creating internet videos featuring intimate conversations with his growing collection of ventriloquist dummies, his daughter attempts to repair their relationship.
Currently in post.
See the full list of grantees here.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences supports five Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. One project we love:
Satoshi (U.S.A)
Writers: Sara Crow, David Rafailedes
Nicholl Partner: NYU Tisch
Synopsis:
After her family loses everything in the 2008 financial crisis, a teenage anime-obsessed hacktivist realizes money isn’t fair…so she sets out to reinvent it with a new digital currency called Bitcoin.
See the list of fellows here.
Mini Tidbit:
All3Media Global. France TV and Mister Smith Entertainment secured a number of deals for their TV and films. Full breakdown here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Leo Milano’s The Lottery. For his sophomore feature, Milano follows a bunch of 20-somethings into a dream that dissolves into a nightmare. Five friends find a $300M lottery ticket, and then get trapped in a blizzard in a ski cabin.
Looking at Milano’s first film, The Crusades (trailer), he’s quite good at portraying machismo friendships. This new one seems to have a bit of The Shining. Morris Ruskin (Fox’s Murder in a Small Town) produces.
Brooklyn-based Wavelength (Tribeca’s She Dances) has hired Matt Kline as Chief Growth Officer. In a newly created role, the advertising veteran will oversee all brand partnerships while communicating with marketers to develop feature films, television, Broadway, and digital. Wavelength just launched their 10,000 sq ft. production campus in L.A.
Mini Tidbits:
James Tupper (Big Little Lies, Revenge) makes his feature directorial debut with the romance Open Up. The film will follow two lovers who play a couple’s card game that suddenly turns into a series of difficult truths that challenge their relationship. The film will star Parker Sack (Unstoppable) and Jessi Case (Murdaugh: Death in the Family).
Josh Long’s (writer of Some Other Woman) indie feature Father Son Time starts production. The film will center on a neurodivergent father who takes his son on a spring break road trip in an attempt to reconnect with an estranged wife and mother.
Jane Fonda will EP documentary Steal This Story, Please! The film will focus on the life of investigative journalist Amy Goodman. Fonda joins the roster of producers that includes Rosario Dawson (MIB2) and Rage Against the Machine rocker Tom Morello.
Cole Jackson (PR: Marty Supreme, F1) is going solo. He’s launching his own freelance publicity business. Recently, he worked with the co-founder of Hayden 5, Todd Wiseman Jr., on his debut feature film, The School Duel.
ON THIS DAY
1999. The Matrix premieres.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co