Sony’s Separation
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
In The Industry News: Sony splits. Hunger Games first looks. Anne Hathaway redux.
Actor Spotlight: Daniel Craig DCU. Robert Pattinson’s time slip. Goodbye Millhouse.
Festivals: IDFA’s The Shepherd and the Bear. AFM’s Clive Owen film.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight: Tribeca Films: from Tendaberry to Wild Goat. Mubi’s Bring Them Down.
Let’s go!
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Sony breaks up with Legendary. Apparently, it was mutual. In 2022, the companies signed a multiyear global film distribution partnership. Under the agreement, Sony distributed Legendary-produced projects. But they all lost money:
The Book of Clarence (2023)
Budget: $40 M
Gross: $6.2 M worldwide
The Machine (2023)
Budget: $20 M
Gross: $11M
Sadly, Sony got the short end of the agreement, which was non-exclusive. And Warner Bros. also got to distribute Legendary-produced projects. And they all made money:
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Budget: $190 M
Gross: $714 M worldwide
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Budget: $135 M
Gross: $571.8 M worldwide
Clearly, Sony was getting the short of the stick. The two will end their agreement in December.
Sony doesn’t need the business either; they’ve had three monster films of their own this year:
It Ends with Us (2024)
Budget: $25 M
Gross: $350 M worldwide
Venom: The Last Dance (2024)
Budget: $120 M
Gross: $437.4 M worldwide
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)
Budget: $100 M
Gross: $404.5 M worldwide
We’ll see how they do with Kraven the Hunter, which hits theaters on December 13th. The film has been marred by reshoots but is apparently in good shape. They’re hoping for a Venom 3 performance (although that did poorly domestically), not Madame Web ($80 M budget, $100 M worldwide). They are banking that the violence in Kraven will help bring more people, but that's risky.
If you are a Hunger Games fan then you know a thing or two about Francis Lawrence… The director behind the successful YA franchise has signed off on a first-look producing deal with Lionsgate via his label about:blank.
Lawrence joined The Hunger Games universe for its 2013 sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which was so well received by critics and fans alike that he would then go on to direct the next four films in the collection.
Last year his Katniss Everdeen prequel story The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) grossed close to $350 M worldwide and sent the Lionsgate feature series based on the Suzanne Collins novels to $3.7 B in global ticket sales.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson stated:
“Francis’ ability to marry incredibly compelling characters and emotions with exciting and visceral action and spectacle is exceptional. He’s also a thoughtful, committed partner and we are beyond excited to deepen our partnership.”
Lawrence’s next film in the series is also set prior to the events in the original tetralogy, centered on fan-favorite character Haymitch Abernathy, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, is scheduled for a global release on Nov. 20th, 2026.
Anne Hathaway is collaborating for a second time with Amazon and her The Idea of You director Michael Showalter for the next Colleen Hoover film adaptation this time based on her No.1 bestseller Verity.
After making $350 M worldwide this past summer, Hoover’s hit novel It Ends with Us was just the first of several upcoming film adaptations based on the author’s viral books with her psychological thriller Verity the next in line.
Compared to the likes of Rebecca or Gone Girl, Verity follows:
Struggling writer, Lowen Ashleigh who gets hired by Jeremy Crawford to ghostwrite novels for his bestselling author wife Verity (Hathaway), who's unable to finish after an accident. Lowen uncovers Verity's disturbing truths while residing at the Crawfords' home to work.
The script is being adapted by screenwriter Nick Antosca (Hulu’s The Act), who was reported yesterday to also be adapting the upcoming Apple TV+ Cape Fear series.
Amazon MGM seems to excel in book-to-film adaptations, with the Hathaway-led The Idea of You (trailer) becoming the most-viewed original movie in its first full week on the streamer. The news of Hathaway’s Hoover casting comes shortly after she was announced to be joining the A-list cast of Christopher Nolan’s untitled next film, projected to have a 2026 release.
There is no further casting information or official production dates for Verity shared yet.
Apple TV+ has unveiled Dope Thief, an eight-episode crime drama based on Dennis Tafoya’s novel, premiering March 14, 2025. Created by Peter Craig (writer: The Town) and EP’d by Ridley Scott, who directs the pilot, the series stars Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta), and Wagner Moura (Narcos).
Synopsis:
Two Philly delinquents posing as DEA agents to rob a rural house, their scheme unravels a massive Eastern seaboard drug corridor.
It's exciting to see what Brian Tyree Henry is up to now that Atlanta is finished and Eternals doesn't appear to be coming back.
Streaming on Apple TV on March 14, 2025.
Tidbit:
Cynthia Erivo is untouchable! The heavily nominated Erivo’s production company, Edith’s Daughter, has entered a first look deal with Universal Pictures. This news comes just days before John M. Chu’s (Crazy Rich Asians) widely anticipated Universal film Wicked takes the world by storm with its expansive premiere later this week.
Peter Cramer, President of Universal Pictures, said:
“Cynthia’s world-class talent is matched only by her unwavering commitment to authenticity, representation, and empathy as a storyteller. We are so honored that she has chosen to partner with Universal to help amplify her mission at Edith’s Daughter.”
You can see Erivo as the wickedly iconic Elphaba in theaters everywhere Nov. 22nd.
Craig Zobel has signed a multi-year first-look deal with HBO, continuing his collaboration with the network. Known for directing and producing Mare of Easttown and The Penguin, Zobel’s latest series, starring Colin Farrell, garnered 18M U.S. viewers. Acting as a prequel for Batman Part 2 and a throughline from The First Battison film to the other. The Penguin was a rousing success, and DC mega fans and casuals were both pleasantly surprised by Farrell's complete transformation into Oz. With this huge success it's no wonder HBO wants first dibs on what comes next for Zobel.
Disney and Lucasfilm announced Star Wars Visions: Volume 3, featuring nine animated shorts by eight Japanese anime studios, including TRIGGER and Production I.G. The anthology celebrates Star Wars mythology through diverse cultural perspectives, continuing the series' tradition of blending iconic storytelling with Japanese animation artistry. Volume 2 explored even more mediums outside of anime.
Star Wars Visions: Volume 3 will debut on Disney+ in 2025.
Mini Tidbits:
Disney+’s Inside Out spinoff Dream Productions just dropped a trailer. The animated series centers on a dream production company that makes the dreams of the little girl in Inside Out, Riley. It seems a little chaotic and lacks a narrative thread, but I’m not really the core audience for this. Releasing on Disney+ on Dec 11th.
Alien Earth: We get the briefest look at a Xenomorph, and something that looks like a ship’s hallway.
Release Date: Summer 2025.
Ol Parker (dir: Ticket to Paradise, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) signed on to direct Jennifer Lopez in Office Romance for Netflix. No plot details have been revealed, but it's three in a row for the actress after The Mother (2023) hit 136 M views and Atlas (2024) hit 73 M.
Lionsgate doubles down on Den of Thieves (2018) with a sequel. The first film took $80 M at the box office against a $30 M budget… so just enough cream on top to make another. Gerard Butler returns for Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (trailer). Out 2025.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
DC Goes to War: Daniel Craig set to star in Sgt. Rock a DC Studios project based on the 1959 War comic and directed by Luca Guadagnino.
This will be Craig and Gadagino's second collaboration in the last couple of years. Working previously together on Queer (which we wrote about here).
Sergeant Franklin John Rock was first introduced as part of the US push to make comics reflect better on the military-industrial complex. The comics followed his rise through the ranks but with some soap opera-esque twists, a missing father, a secret brother back from the dead, etc.
Daniel Craig seems to be the perfect fit for this machismo with various tough guy roles in war flicks The Trench (1999), and The Defiance (2008) and most famously, he was discovered for the role of James Bond during a wartime rendition of Othello. Those who are burnt out from superheroes might be excited to learn that the comic is a grounded, gritty wartime drama; Quentin Tarantino apparently was considering adapting at one point.
There have been numerous attempts to bring this classic to the screen. Even if it's not exactly how fans pictured, we are excited to have Craig join the DCU.
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Robert Pattinson re-teams with Christopher Nolan for his new film. This is exciting as the cast list just keeps getting more and more stacked:
Matt Damon
Anne Hathaway
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 a post-Tenet re-team with Nolan and Patterson. In Tenet, Patterson played the debonair time-traveling agent. The guy explaining the rules and the philosophy to John David Washington. The best scene in the entire film was the Casablanca tribute at the end of the film (clip).
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.
Tidbit:
Goodbye Millhouse: Pamela Hayden, the voice behind Milhouse and numerous other Simpsons characters, is retiring after 35 years. Credited in nearly 700 episodes, Hayden called the show “an honor and a joy.” Re-casting for her roles begins soon.
Best of Millhouse clips.
Listen up Suits fans! Gabriel Macht, the actor behind suave super lawyer Harvey Specter, is reprising his role in the upcoming NBC spinoff Suits: L.A. in a three-episode arc. Macht played the bachelor prosecutor for the entire nine season duration of the show with its final season airing back in 2019. While it will take place in LA and not New York, the spinoff’s lead character Ted Black played by Arrow’s Stephen Amell reportedly resembles the gist of Specter and Macht making an appearance will act as a sort of passing the torch, if you will.
On the heels of Suits having a streaming resurgence on Netflix, Suits: L.A., also created by Aaron Korsh, is expected to air next fall on NBC.
David Spade and Theo Von will star in and produce Busboys, a self-financed buddy comedy they wrote. Directed by Jonah Feingold, the film follows two Arizona friends who become waiters to solve their problems—unsuccessfully. Produced with Robert Ogden Barnum, filming begins January 10 in Los Angeles.
Emerald Fennell’s (dir: Saltburn) has some new cast additions for her new film Wuthering Heights for Warner Bros:
Fantastic as Brendan Fraser’s doctor friend in The Whale, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress
Alison Oliver (Saltburn)
Shazad Latif (The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)
Previous cast include Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. No other news has been announced regarding the newest Wuthering Heights adaptation, but filming is set to begin in the UK in 2025.
FESTIVALS
IDFA’s The Shepherd and the Bear, which was produced by Willa (La Cocina), sells to Jour2Fete (Distributer: Victoria).
Synopsis:
High in the French Pyrenees, the reintroduction of wild bears in a traditional shepherding community provokes deep conflict. An aging shepherd struggles to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage boy becomes obsessed with tracking the bear.
Releasing 2025.
A post-AFM sale:
Cast: Clive Owen
Dir/Co-writer: Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters)
Sales Rep: International Film Trust (Cell)
Buyer: Wild Bunch (Germany and Italy)
Other countries sold: Spain, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Greece, Israel, Portugal, and CIS
Synopsis:
Police lieutenant Krützfeld (Owen) faces a moral test when a Jewish man is wrongly accused, sparking orders to attack Jewish neighborhoods. As chaos erupts, the lieutenant must decide between following orders or protecting the innocent.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Since Tribeca Film, the distribution arm of Tribeca Enterprises, launched back in April, they’ve acquired fifteen of the top festival films for national distribution.
The following films were acquired in the second set of acquisitions for Tribeca:
The Featherweight (2023)
From first-time director Robert Kolodny
Prod. Company: Appian Way (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Premiere: Venice Film Festival
Synopsis: Set in 1964, a camera crew follows Willie Pep, retired featherweight boxing champion. Down and out in Hartford CT, married to a woman half his age and with a drug-addicted son and mounting debts, Pep decides to make a return to the ring.
The Graduates (2023)
From first-time director/writer Hannah Peterson
Prod. Company: Pinky Promise (The Last Showgirl)
Premiere: Tribeca Festival
Synopsis: A year after her boyfriend dies from gun violence, a young woman prepares to graduate high school as she navigates an uncertain future alongside a community that is searching for ways to heal.
Tendaberry (2024)
From first-time director Haley Elizabeth Anderson
Producer: Carlos Zozaya (Gasoline Rainbow)
Highly accomplished young indie producer
Premiere: Sundance
Synopsis: As her boyfriend returns to Ukraine to care for his ailing father, 23 year old Dakota faces the challenges of a precarious new reality, navigating the complexities of survival in New York City on her own.
Born Hungry (2024)
From director Barry Avrich (Three Tall Women)
Prod. Company: Melbar Entertainment Group (PBS News Hour)
Premiere: Palm Springs Film Festival
Synopsis: In this inspiring story of grit and determination, a runaway child from the streets of India is adopted by a family and becomes one of the top chefs in the world.
Egghead & Twinkie (2023)
From first-time director/writer Sarah Kambe Holland
Prod: Danielle Fountaine (Grandpa’s Workshop)
Synopsis: After coming out to her parents, an Asian American teenage girl takes off on a roadtrip to meet her online crush with the help of her nerdy best friend.
Wild Goat Surf (2023)
From first-time director Caitlyn Sponheimer
Prod. Company: CouKuma Productions (I Want to Be Like You)
Synopsis: Set in a rundown Okanagan RV park during the summer of 2003, Goat, a surfing-obsessed, twelve-year-old skater girl, navigates the unbridled, unstructured, summer days of youth, dreaming about becoming a surfer.
Family Therapy (2024)
From director/writer Sonja Prosnec (History of Love)
Prod: Rok Secen (The Tree)
Premiere: Tribeca Festival
Synopsis: A young stranger disrupts a seemingly perfect family’s life, exposing their internal issues, fears, and dysfunctional relationships as external chaos invades their once idyllic existence.
No release date for the films has been set, but it looks like these will all be given a VOD release across the various streaming platforms like Kanopy, Kinema Apple, Prime Video, plus the Tribeca Channel.
Andrea Iervolino, the producer of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, has been having a good few months. He’s producing a great new project:
Bugatti
Writer: Oscar-Winner Bobby Moresco (Co-Writer: Crash)
Synopsis: Life story of Bugatti, the founder of the iconic automobile company
Plus, the previously announced:
Cast: Mike Tyson, Bella Thorne & James Franco
First Italian superhero movie.
Cast: Andy Garcia, Anthony Hopkins and Michele Morrone
Synopsis: biopic about the founders of Maserati. Garcia plays Mr. Rossini, a central figure in the brothers' story.
Director: Bobby Moresco (Producer: Crash, Million Dollar Baby)
On top of that, he is leading the building of a new $300M studio in Tuscany that promises to offer a paradise for filmmakers looking to film period pieces in the rolling hills. The complex will feature a virtual water tank and a 360 studio. It will also include a 250-acre backlot and a luxury hotel with an integrated movie theater.
Iervolino invested $53M into the project. He is currently courting a $213M investment from a Bahrain wealth fund that specializes in petroleum trading.
Bring Them Down is getting a Winter 2025 release by Mubi:
Dir: Christopher Andrews (feature debut)
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Christopher Abbott
Premiere: TIFF
Production Company/Distributor: Mubi
Synopsis:
An Irish shepherding family thrust into battle on several fronts: internal strife, hostility within the family, rivalry with another farmer. Paternalism, heritage, and the generational trauma cycle through the cultural prism of Ireland.
Trailer, from livestock to deadstock.
Tidbits:
Julius Avery (dir: The Pope’s Exorcist ) will direct They Found Us. The film centers on a father who is attacked by aliens in the Utah wilderness. It will shoot in Australia Pt 1 of 2025.
Wright Brothers biopic!
ON THIS DAY
1976. Rocky premieres in New York (Best Picture 1977).
See you Friday!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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