Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
David Fincher’s Adventure, Austin Butler’s Strength, and a Stiletto.
Let’s go!
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The trailer for Netflix’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth dropped during the Super Bowl, and I’ve been studying it like the Zapruder film.
It’s a bit of cinematic mecca:
Dir: David Fincher
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Sequel to Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Cast: Brad Pitt, Elizabeth Debicki, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Here’s what I can say about it after watching it 12 times.
The first is that we are thoroughly in Tarantino’s world. The colors, the vibe, it’s all very much in the same vein as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
But while that film was lush with the bright, sunshiny colors of Tarantino’s pulp aesthetic, it’s as if David Fincher has brought his dark sensibilities into this world.
It’s not just that the colors are tilted towards Fincher’s patented sickly greens. It’s that the camera moves (even though the trailer distorts some semblance of the rhythm) are smooth, focused, and organized.
So now we’ll see if this fun, breezy, Tarantino film gets flipped onto its backside by Fincher.
We can already see we’re in the underbelly, as in the trailer, Pitt moves behind the walls of movie sets, movie screens, and into a dark underworld that Fincher draws out so well.
No release date has been set.
For More:
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Austin Butler + Edward Berger team on a Lance Armstrong biopic.
Takashi Miike sets a Kyoto horror with Charli xcx and Milly Alcock starring.
Lionsgate double EFM packages:
A Head Full of Ghosts (cast: David Harbour, Rebecca Hall).
Unforgettable, directed by/starring Colman Domingo.
Bill Camp stars in Hyde as a detective hunting a serial killer.
Charles C. Stevenson Jr. (Will & Grace’s bartender Smitty) dies at 95.
The Day of the Jackal Season 2 adds Pablo Schreiber.
DGA Awards: Paul Thomas Anderson wins Best Director.
Rotterdam: Variations On A Theme wins the Tiger Competition.
Neon acquires worldwide rights to Clarissa starring Ayo Edebiri.
Under Paris sequel in the works with Alexandre Aja directing.
David Mamet adapts Speed the Plow w/ Anthony Mackie, Ben Mendelsohn.
Eli Roth’s The Horror Section acquires stripper-slasher Stiletto.
Danny Ramirez directs Baton, a soccer drama w/ Lewis Pullman.
Atlas Entertainment + Spain’s AF Films co-produce Hammer Down.
Germany mandates 8% streamer/broadcaster reinvestment into domestic prod.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Austin Butler jumps into his second project with Edward Berger, a Lance Armstrong biopic. Right now, a multi-studio bidding war is being generated as this film has a secret ingredient: Lance has signed over his life rights!
That means Butler + Berger are hoping to make this one pretty epic. Comparing it to F1 and The Wolf of Wall Street.
But look no further than Oscar-winning best doc Icarus (2017, trailer), the wildest sports doping documentary of all time, and you can see what the Lance biopic has the chance to be insane.
This is produced by former Netflix boss Scott Stuber. And written by Zach Baylin (King Richard, The Order). We like all the elements here. But we’re still waiting on this Butler/Berger pic: https://theindustry.co/p/austin-butler-time-traveler
Lionsgate double EFM:
Lionsgate boards two major A-list projects ahead of sales at EFM.
A Head Full of Ghosts
N.A. Distribution: Lionsgate
Cast: David Harbour (Stranger Things), Rebecca Hall
Synopsis:
The Barretts’ normal suburban New England life is torn apart when their teenage daughter shows signs of acute schizophrenia, reluctantly leading them to be the subjects of a reality show. 15 years later, Merry faces her haunting past.
Unforgettable
Int. Sales Rep: Lionsgate
Dir/Cast: Colman Domingo
Going to EFM
Synopsis:
Follows Nat King Cole as he navigates racial injustice, Hollywood sabotage, and self-doubt while ensuring his legacy and paving the way for future generations of artists
Like the Hunger Games franchise, Lionsgate has been bringing its most high-profile projects to markets with international sellers.
Mini Tidbits:
Melania has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 6% and an audience score of 99%. That’s the largest split ever.
The Olympics opening ceremony hit 21.4M views, up 34% from 2022. That’s a big win for NBCUniversal. As Beijing’s winter Olympics opening ceremony had only 15.9M. The production itself was mind-blowing. This section was visually stunning.
Super Bowl Trailers:
Paramount’s Scream 7
Cast: Neve Campbell
Release: Feb 27
Pixar’s Hoppers
Release: March 6
Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary
Star: Ryan Gosling
Release: Mar 20
Universal/Illumination’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Release: April 1
Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu
Trailer (beer commercial spoof)
Release: May 22
Universal’s Disclosure Day
Dir: Spielberg
Trailer (with UFO at the end!)
Release: June 12
Universal/Illumination’s Minions and Monsters
Release: July 1
DC’s Supergirl
Release: June 26
Four additional non-Super Bowl trailers here.
Release dates:
Focus Features’ Finding Emily
Prod Co: Working Title Films (Bridget Jones’s Diary)
Cast: Minnie Driver, Angourie Rice, Spike Fearn
Release: Aug 28
Warner Bros.’ Practical Magic 2
Release: Sept 11, 2026
Warner Bros./DC’s Clayface
Release: Oct 23, 2026
Paramount’s untitled John Tuggle film (last player chosen for 1983 draft)
Dir: Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies, 50/50)
Cast: David Corenswet (Superman)
Release: Dec 25, 2026
Paramount’s The Rescue
Dir: Potsy Ponciroli (TIFF’s Motor City)
Cast: Brandon Sklenar
Release: Jan 29, 2027
Warner Bros.’ Remain
Dir: M. Night Shyamalan
Based on novel by: Nicholas Sparks
Release date pushed: Feb 5, 2027
Highest-tested Shyamalan film ever
Paramount’s Get Lite
Dir: Teyana Taylor
Cast: Storm Reid
Release: April 9, 2027
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Oscar-nominated Best Foreign Film)
Launching on MBC Shahid (54% Saudi-Owned streamer) on Friday
Winner: Venice Grand Jury Prize
Plus:
HBO Max is now streaming all of Schitt’s Creek
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Bill Camp’s heart of darkness. Camp has just been cast in the film Hyde, as a detective who “descends into the rotting heart of a decaying metropolis” while hunting a serial killer.
Look, is this typecasting? Yes, but Camp is just so good at this.
In Presumed Innocent, he played Jake Gyllenhaal’s best friend, who is pressured to become Gyllenhaal’s lawyer. Camp undergoes psychologically degrading nightmares of the alleged crime.
Camp has played across so many incredible projects:
Birdman (2014)
Joker (2019)
Detective who encounters Phoenix on an off night
Shooting in May in Romania.
Milly Alcock is on an upward climb. From the young lead of Game of Thrones spinoff, The House of the Dragon, to the titular Supergirl, Alcock’s newest project is Japanese auteur Takashi Miike’s (Ichi the Killer) newest untitled horror film.
The film follows three lifelong friends who reunite in Kyoto, hoping to revive the connection they once had.
In an undisclosed role, Alcock is joining Charli XCX (A24’s The Moment), who is very much stepping up her acting game this year, as part of the new untitled project with The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus and Attack on Titan’s Kiko Mizuhara.
Production will begin this month with a late 2026, early 2027 premiere.
Mini Tidbits:
The actor behind Will & Grace bartender Smitty, Charles C. Stevenson Jr., passed away at 95. He appeared in major shows from The Office to Shameless to Glee, and steadily worked in TV for decades.
Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal adds Orange Is the New Black’s Pablo Schreiber and Weruche Opia (BBC’s I May Destroy You) for its second season. Character descriptions and the season two logline are under wraps but both new additions will play serious, recurring characters.
Gosh, we love Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters. Now he’s joining the true story drama Hal from director Mark Williams (Ozark). The film looks at the founding of Convoy of Hope, the hugely successful humanitarian organization started by down-on-his-luck journalist Hal Donaldson (Alexander Ludwig). Emma Roberts also stars.
Her first role post Stranger Things, Natalia Dyer, is joining Goodbye Girl, an upcoming romcom from Amazon MGM Studios. Dyer will be joining leads Kiernan Shipka and Cole Sprouse with the story following a professional heartbreaker (Shipka) who “accidentally” falls in love. No word on Dyer’s part.
Showtime’s Yellowjackets has upped Nia Sondaya to a recurring character for the fourth and final season. She plays the kind, animal-loving teen Akilah whose fate was left unknown at the season three finale. Season 4 will premiere this year.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
The DGA Awards anoint PTA Best Director for One Battle After Another.
Historically, they haven’t been a great predictor of the Oscars, only syncing up 5/11 times. However, OBAA has won Critics’ Choice (7/11 match for Oscars).
Other winners include Charlie Polinger for first feature, The Plague. It’s well deserved, and we interviewed Polinger and co-star Joel Edgerton here: https://theindustry.co/p/joel-edgerton-interview-ifcs-the
Full list of DGA winners here.
Rotterdam crowns winners.
Tiger Competition (award for emerging voices)
Variations On A Theme
Dir: Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar (South Africa, Netherlands, Qatar)
The jury stated:
“Possessing a deep poetic language, we found this to be a thoughtful and moving portrait of a community living under the spectre of colonial legacies and familial bonds in this world and the next.”
Full list of winners here.
Plus, 7 new EFM projects here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Remember Netflix’s bonkers shark smash hit Under Paris? Well, it racked up 41M views in five days and was like Jaws turned up to 11, with a pack of mutated sharks terrorizing the river Seine in France.
It’s now getting a sequel from director Alexandre Aja. He’s done some campy, gory films in the past, like The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Piranha 3D (2010). Recently, he did Lionsgate’s Never Let Go (2024). With Aja at the helm, the sequel should be even crazier. We just hope it preserves the original’s deft poise, which creates real stakes, while delivering pulse-pounding action and some truly beautiful underwater shots. Trailer here.
Neon picks up Clarissa, a modern Mrs. Dalloway film set in Nigeria for worldwide rights.
Synopsis:
Society woman Clarissa prepares to host a party at her home in Lagos, Nigeria, where she will unexpectedly encounter once-intimate friends from her youth.
The film has a killer cast, including David Oyelowo (Selma) and Ayo Edebiri.
No word on release date. Neon International will do international sales.
David Mamet is back with Speed the Plow. The film is adapted from his play of the same name and stars Anthony Mackie, Ben Mendelsohn, and Sharon Stone.
Synopsis:
A film producer and his associate plan to pitch a project to a studio with a big-time movie star attached until they’re side-tracked by the producer’s attractive secretary.
Mamet’s best work is the play and subsequent screenplay for the acerbically sharp-witted Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, and Ed Harris (trailer).
Speed the Plow is selling at EFM. With shooting kicking off in Atlanta Feb 18th.
Tidbit:
We know David Lipper as a producer, but now he moves into directing with The Twelve Dates Of Christmas. The synopsis is pretty fun:
Follows Christina Walker, a successful shop owner who has devoted her energy to her career at the expense of her dating life, as she goes on 12 dates in the 12 weeks leading up to Christmas hoping to find Mr. Right.
Previously, he’s produced Sundance’s Carousel with Chris Pine and Jenny Slate and EP’d Bride Hard. 12 Days cast: Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Ben-Victor, Greer Grammer & Kahyun Kim.
Mini Tidbits:
Eli Roth’s banner The Horror Section has acquired Samuel Gonzalez Jr.’s stripper-slasher Stiletto, based on exotic dancer Gigi Gustin’s script. Gustin stars as Lyric, hunting a masked killer. Post-production underway. No word on release date, but we love the poster.
Top Gun: Maverick actor Danny Ramirez is making his directorial debut with Baton, a soccer drama with a young ensemble cast attached. Ramirez has years of soccer in his background, with the film following an athlete determined to go professional. The cast is led by Ramirez, Lewis Pullman (Thunderbolts), and Camila Mendes (Do Revenge).
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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