Slumdog Billionaire
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on a Slumdog Millionaire sequel.
In The Industry News: The Animation Guild’s victory, CAA’s cold blood, and Amazon’s Beast Games.
Actor Spotlight: Charlize Theron does time travel. Richard Gadd is no half-man.
Festivals and Resources: Doc NYC’s Slumlord Millionaire.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight: Neon millionaire.
Let’s go!
Join our live event today at 6 pm EST with Ted Hope (former Amazon Studios Head of Motion Picture Development, Production, and Acquisition) on how to build a career in the film industry. Details here:
https://theindustry.co/p/ted-hope-workshop
SLUMDOG BILLIONAIRE
Jai Ho!
Slumdog Millionaire is back for a sequel. The Film and TV rights were acquired by Bridge 7, a new company founded by:
Netflix, Director, International Originals and Acquisitions (2016 - 2019)
EVP, Producer, Imagine Entertainment (2019 - 2022)
CAA TV Lit agent
Client: Peter Knight (Co-EP/Consulting Producer: Bojack Horseman)
Client: Adam Penn (Supervising Producer: American Horror Story)
Shetty’s work centers on cross-cultural Indian films, like Netflix’s recent rom-com Wedding Season (2022). The trailer has a slight Anyone But You vibe.
Shetty and Kessman stated:
“Some stories stay with us long after the credits roll, and Slumdog Millionaire is undoubtedly one of them. Its narrative is universal, cutting across cultural and geographical lines, and it embodies the kind of stories we love—ones that bridge entertainment with profound human experiences”
The original was a sublime blend of kinetic romanticism and cutthroat capitalism, played out during a Who Wants to be a Millionaire episode, which saw Dev Patel (in his first film role!) getting beaten for allegedly cheating on the game show.
Director Danny Boyle was in top form, melding the multiple threads of Patel’s characters' childhood into cinematic gold.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, and made $378.4 M on a $15 M budget.
There was so much magic in the original that it’s hard to envision what “the next chapter of Jamal’s journey” will be like. But if it works, it will be destiny.
Or just a cash grab?
For More:
D for Destiny Slumdog trailer.
Remember Slumdog Millionaire’s preposterously catchy end credits?
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
CAA is shopping a new podcast, Cold Blooded: The Apollo Gym Murders, a true crime case dissected by Emmy-winning investigative journalist Scott Weinberger in a 10-episode podcast series that came out earlier this year.
The cold case murder centers on Billy Halpern, a 40-year-old Florida bodybuilder found bound with his throat slashed in his townhouse in Miramar.
A former cop and journalist said:
“It is a rich character driven story that has unusual elements, but ticks all the right boxes as far as I’m concerned. And it’s solved. I mean, there was a time that we weren’t sure the case was ever going to be solved, and I still think it’s a great story without the solve, but the fact that the family has justice… it certainly got a Hollywood ending.”
Weinberger has lived a very colorful life, and his life story is incredible, almost as unbelievable as The Apollo Gym Murders, which you can listen to here.
Tidbit:
The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) has reached a tentative three-year deal with the AMPTP, including wage hikes, AI protections, improved remote work terms, new media provisions, and added sick leave. Key demands centered on job security and fair pay amid industry contraction. Ratification details are soon to be announced.
Amazon’s Beast Games first look. There are so many shades of Squid Game in the teaser; I wonder if Netflix will perk up their legal pencils. Regardless the reality competition, with a $5M payout to the top prize winner, wasn’t expecting a class action lawsuit by the participants.
By the NY Times account, the conditions to make this show were rough… much rougher than you might anticipate watching MrBeast’s wild competition videos ($456K Squid Game in Real Life, 100 Days Trapped win 500K). But that's what happens when you empower a DIY YouTuber with God-like powers to have his way with 1000 contestants.
Regardless, Beast Games premieres on Dec 19th.
Disney's little blue bastard wreaks havoc in Hawaii, this time live-action. Disney's Lilo and Stitch remake, directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, stars newcomer Maia Kealoha as Lilo, alongside Zach Galifianakis and others. The original animated version made $273 M worldwide, so it's not hard to see why they are their little monster to the 3rd dimension.
A teaser released yesterday showcases Stitch smashing a Disney-themed sandcastle and making a ruckus down at the beach. Hitting theaters May 23, 2025, surfs up.
Netflix will release Missing You, a Harlan Coben (author) thriller starring Rosalind Eleazar (Slow Horses), on January 1. The trailer tracks a woman whose husband disappeared 11 years ago, who discovers a dating app that leads her down a twisty track to unravel the mystery. This follows the success of another show adapted from a Coben book, Fool Me Once (trailer), which garnered over 108 million views.
Disney leads Nielsen's October Media Gauge with 11.7% share, driven by football and news. YouTube has dropped to second place with 10.6% of TV viewing. That’s seismic, given that YouTube used to have the largest share of streaming, previously 26% larger than its closest rival, Netflix, and 3x larger than Amazon, with 2.5B active users (80M paid), user-generated content, premium video channels (ABC, AMC, BBC, Disney, ESPN, Fx, Paramount), and now the NFL. Their revenue Q3 2024 was $8.92 bn, a little shy of Netflix’s Q3 $9.82 bn.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Charlize Theron joins the new Christopher Nolan film. This is exciting as the cast list just keeps getting more and more stacked:
Matt Damon
Anne Hathaway
Robert Pattinson
Tom Holland
Lupita Nyong’o (A Quiet Place: Day One, 12 Years a Slave)
Zendaya (Cameo/small role)
No details of their roles have been revealed yet. But it’ll be interesting to see Charlize Theron who works well as both ultra-raw (Monster) and super slick (The Old Guard). Nolan’s films are deep meditations on time and time travel, a genre we covered extensively:
https://theindustry.co/p/a-brief-history-of-time-travel-films
Theron’s character in The Old Guard is an immortal being who has bested time. But her inability to die erodes her ability to live. One of the most interesting parts of the film is when one of Theron’s friends is stuck in a death loop by drowning and slowly goes insane.
That moment bridges into the psychological effects of fractured time experiences, aligning it with Nolan’s interests.
Nolan’s follow-up to his Best Picture winner Oppenheimer (2023) is said to start filming early next year with a July 2026 IMAX release.
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Baby Reindeer’s writer/creator/star Richard Gadd excels at ripping out his heart.
Now, his latest project, Half Man (previously Lions) is being co-produced by HBO and BBC, and has officially confirmed he will also star on screen.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Ruben (Gadd) turns up at his estranged brother Niall's (played by English actor Jamie Bell) wedding, acting as a catalyst for a revival of the last 40 years of their relationship.
The new series will be Bell’s first BBC TV series but he was an impressive get given his past British catalog with All of Us Strangers (2023), Rocketman (2019), and Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017).
Production on Half Man is said to begin early next year in Scotland.
New adds for Amazon's Voltron Movie:
Voltron is based on the 1980s anime Voltron: Defender of the Universe; the adaptation follows five pilots commanding Robot Lions that form the mega-robot Voltron.
There were a lot of small robots make a big robot, some good early anime kaiju goodness.
Previously announced:
Henry Cavil
(Newcomer) Daniel Quinn
New Cast:
Sterling K Brown (American Fiction)
Rita Ora (Singer, 50 Shades Series)
John Kim (Purple Hearts)
Voltron is currently in production.
Tidbit:
It’s a family affair! James Wilkie, the son of Tony Award-winning actor Matthew Broderick, will be acting together for the first time as guest stars on CBS’ anthology crime series Elsbeth. The 22-year-old is just beginning his acting career with a prior minor role in the Natalie Portman Apple series, Lady in the Lake. The father-son duo will play the main roles in their episode, which is expected to air in early 2025.
Hugo Weaving returns to play the villain. Weaving co-starring in Slow Horses Season 5, the Gary Oldman-helmed Apple TV+ series centering around those MI5 agents who didn’t quite make the cut.
Filming for season 5 kicks off in January.
FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES
Doc NYC, America’s biggest doc festival, crowns its winners.
U.S. Competition:
Grand Jury Prize: Stone Mountain
Dir: Daniel Kaufman
EP: Oscar-Winner Roger Ross Williams (Dir: Cassandro)
Synopsis:
The spectre of the Confederacy stands high over Stone Mountain, Georgia, engraved in granite. The community lives in the shadow of a controversial carving, larger than a football field, of rebel leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
The Jury stated:
“Kaufman crafts a Faulkner-esque portrait of the community surrounding Stone Mountain Park in Georgia, home to the world’s largest bas-relief sculpture: a Confederate memorial carving. Kaufman’s constantly roaming camera eavesdrops on a community with deep racial divides. Seemingly without judgment, Kaufman weaves a complex tapestry of a community — and of a nation. This evocative work establishes Kaufman’s distinct and assured cinematic voice.”
The trailer sucked me into another world.
International Competition:
Grand Jury Prize: Yalla Parkour
Dir: Areeb Zuaiter
Synopsis:
When filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter lost her Palestinian mother, she lost her connection to Gaza. With all the memories from her childhood destroyed, she sets out on a quest to connect with a young man she sees in a video doing parkour among ruins in Gaza.
Much more than a simple YouTube parkour video.
Audience Award:
Audience Award Winner: Slumlord Millionaire
Dir: Steph Ching Ellen Martinez
Synopsis:
In New York City's most quickly gentrifying neighborhoods, a group of fearless residents, activists, and nonprofit attorneys fight corrupt landlords and developers for the basic human right to a home.
No trailer yet.
Tidbit:
IDFA director Orwa Nyrabia steps down.
Inside Out 2 screenplay:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Neon Millionaire! Neon grabs a $200 M credit facility (allowing them to borrow on an ongoing basis) from Comerica Bank, with whom they’ve previously worked.
Comerica’s SVP of Entertainment stated:
“Comerica believes in the vision of Neon and couldn’t be more thrilled to support their continued growth. Their ability to identify and curate film, while finding innovative ways to connect audiences with cinema, is unmatched.”
And don’t just take the banker’s word for it. They’ve won the Cannes Palme d’Or five times in a row:
2024
2023
Dir: Justine Triet
2022
Dir: Ruben Östlund
2021
Dir: Julia Ducournau
2019*
Dir: Bong Joon Ho
*Cannes 2020 was canceled due to COVID
The top-performing indie film of this year is Neon’s Longlegs, which has grossed $74.3 M domestically.
Neon has had 11 releases to date, pulling in $117.9 M domestically ($10.7 M/film average). By comparison, A24 has had 13 releases and has made $154 M domestically ($11.8 M/film average).
Noah Pritzker’s Ex-Husbands is strangely charming. The film feels like an indie (not pejorative!) blend of:
Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)
Beginners (2010)
The trailer opens on a plane where a father (Oscar nominee Griffin Dunne - After Hours), asks his gay son about a recent sexual encounter the son had. This all goes down while the father is signing divorce papers after 30+ years of marriage.
The father and son’s failure to understand each other nicely comes to a head. It ultimately coalesces when the father “accidentally” purchases a solo ticket to Tulum, only to find out his son is already headed to a bachelor party there.
Greenwich Entertainment just acquired distribution rights in the US and Canada, where it will be released in 50 local markets next year.
Tidbit:
Bitcoin Bio: David O. Sacks Productions, Mark Goffman, and Getaway Entertainment are developing a film about Bitcoin's mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, directed by Sophia Banks. Inspired by Andrew O’Hagan’s article The Satoshi Affair, the movie will explore Nakamoto's enigmatic identity and Bitcoin's global impact, quite fitting since BTC just hit an all-time high of around $98,000.
Mini tidbit:
Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is a multi-generational epic about a family who found a mythical town. Based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel of the same name. Netflix repurchased the rights in 2019 and will bring the Spanish-spoken series to its platform on December 11th.
Gaze into A24’s new Queer trailer.
ON THIS DAY
1942. Casablanca premieres at Hollywood Theater, NYC (Academy Awards Best Picture 1943).
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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