Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
Spider-Man’s Fall, Jaafar Jackson’s Max and a Howl.
Let’s go!
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the most character-focused Marvel film since Endgame. And fans are loving it.
The film had the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time, earning $360M. This is a critical win for the studio that has been struggling with box office inconsistency.
For the past few years, Marvel has focused on upscaling their cinematic universe. Ever since the Multiverse plotline began to unfold, films like Eternals (2021), The Marvels (2023), and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) dealt with inter-universal travel and celestial beings. This made the films feel grander, at the expense of characters’ personal stakes.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Marvel’s successful declaration that they will return to their roots with more character-driven stories. This is a film that highlights Peter Parker’s inner turmoil, opening with the web-slinger more lonely than ever.
In Brand New Day (2026), every person Peter Parker has ever loved forgets about his existence after the catastrophic spell of the previous film. It’s a particularly tough blow because his ex-girlfriend MJ and best friend Ned moved back to New York after graduating from college, thus making Peter painfully close to the life he once had.
But don’t let this make you think that the film is mopey.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has some of the greatest Spider-Man action sequences of all time, including his acrobatic confrontation with Savage Hulk. Director Destin Daniel Cretton takes the intricate fighting sequences of his previous film Shang-Chi and translates them into Spider-Man’s superhuman style.
While Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a self-contained, emotionally evocative film, it still does its job as a building block to a bigger Marvel world. A simple reveal in the film about a character gives us a hint of the vast possibilities of what’s ahead for the MCU.
For More:
Want to see Spider-Man in IMAX? Brand New Day will open on IMAX screens Thursday, August 6th.
One bit of sad news: Mary Egida Rivera, best known for her performance as Ned’s Lola in Spider-Man: No Way Home, dies at 82.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Amazon MGM develops an animated Warhammer 40,000 series.
EchoStar loses 241K pay-TV subs in Q2.
Amazon develops multicam sitcom, DINKS, w/ Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman.
Alan Ritchson signs a first-look feature deal with Netflix.
Hulu adapts Sheila Masterson’s romance novel The Poison Daughter as a series.
CBS orders Hilda! (In Lights!) as its first pilot for the 2027–28 season.
Jaafar Jackson joins Will Smith in Amazon MGM/Miramax’s Supermax.
Dave Bautista in talks to replace Ryan Hurst as Kratos in Prime’s God of War.
Kate Mara joins Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe in thriller Trust the Man.
Tim Blake Nelson joins S2 of HBO’s Task.
Mary Holland joins HBO Max’s Jimmy Olsen mockumentary series.
Orion lands Howl, Kumail Nanjiani’s feature directorial debut.
Stephanie Laing will direct Working Title’s rom-com Runaway Wedding.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Babylon, Margot Robbie and Samara Weaving film.
38% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Amazon MGM doubles down on their series adaptation of British miniature war game Warhammer 40,000. In addition to the live-action series (showrunner: Mike Flanagan), they are now also making an animated series.
This is going to be a spinoff of Prime’s already popular Secret Level animated series. And fans of the show will know they already did a Warhammer 40,000 episode (trailer). The director of that episode, Dave Wilson, is the co-creator of this along with John Orloff (creator: Apple TV’s Masters of the Air). Henry Cavill will EP.
The original game takes place in the far future, where humanity battles traitors, alien empires, supernatural deities, and space monsters for survival. So all good fun.
Dish Network’s parent company, EchoStar’s Q2 2026:
241,000 subscribers lost
4.68M Dish TV subs total
6.39M total pay-TV subs (w/ Sling TV)
$49.5M net income*
*Full breakdown here.
Tidbits:
Amazon is developing its first multi-cam sitcom DINKS (Dual Income, No Kids), from the legendary Marta Kauffman (Co-Creator: Friends). The show follows a couple who, in the absence of a marriage or kids, decide to literally build a life together by renovating their nightmarish house. Paul Scheer (Veep) and June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie), who are married in real life, will star. The show will be produced by a partnership between Amazon MGM, Lionsgate, and Publicis Media Content Innovation. With streamers like Netflix trying to crack the multi-cam sitcom genre with shows like Leanne, the move suggests Amazon sees an opportunity for audience share, with the help of Marta Kauffman, the master of the format.
New Netflix royalty. Reacher star Alan Ritchson has signed a first-look feature deal with Netflix following the success of his sci-fi action movie War Machine (trailer). Premiering with a massive debut of over 55M views in its first three days, it’s no surprise Ritchson is the newest actor the streamer has locked into a long-term partnership. Via his Dancing Skeleton production banner, the first project under the new pact brings two action veterans together, with Ritchson set to star and produce and Fast & Furious writer Chris Morgan penning a feature script set in the world of MotoGP. The high-octane film will follow a former racing prodigy tracking a global motorcycle theft ring, only to discover its mastermind may be his long-lost brother.
Hulu is adapting the enemies-to-lovers romance book The Poison Daughter into a new series with self-published author Sheila Masterson on board to EP. The Poison Daughter sees every person Harlow Carrenwell kisses dies immediately until she meets her betrothed, Henry Havenwood, who isn’t affected by her poisonous powers. The adaptation is currently looking for a writer.
CBS has ordered Hilda! (In Lights!), a single-cam comedy marking its first pilot pickup for the 2027-28 season. From Fresh Off the Boat writer Abbey Caldwell, kind of like a different take on That Girl, the pilot will follow a woman leaving her small town to make her Broadway dreams come true in the Big Apple; the only catch is she’s 70 years old. Caldwell will write and produce.
Sony Pictures hires Jill Blankenship (Wri: Daredevil: Born Again) to write a medieval action film, Castle. The idea for the project was first proposed by Chris Bremner (Wri: Bad Boys for Life) and his production company Unknown Quantity.
Renewals:
CW’s Scrabble (for S3)
CW’s Trivial Pursuit (for S3)
CW’s Police 24/7 (for S4)
Trailers:
Bassam Tariq’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Cast: Mahershala Ali
Premiere: TIFF
Release: Sept. 25
Neon’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo
Dir: Takashi Miike
Cast: Lily James
Premiere: TIFF
Donkey Princess (Princesa Burro)
Premiere: Locarno Film Festival
4K restoration of Der Fan
Release: Aug. 28
First look:
Focus Features’ The Bell Jar
First Look: Billie Eilish as Esther Greenwood
Dir: Sarah Polley
Release: 2027
Release date:
Shudder’s V/H/S/MIXTAPE
Dir(s): Flying Lotus, RZA and more
Release: Oct. 9
Warner Bros’ F.A.S.T.
Wri: Taylor Sheridan
Release: Apr 23 2027 → May 14 2027
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
After moonwalking his way through one of the year’s biggest box office performances in Michael, Jaafar Jackson has landed his first post-biopic role.
Joining Will Smith and AnnaSophia Robb, Jackson will star in Supermax, the prison-set action thriller from director David Gordon Green, Amazon MGM, and Miramax.
Jackson’s astonishing transformation into his late uncle went far beyond mimicry. Taking on what many would consider an impossible job, his remarkable precision and attention to detail made it feel as though Michael Jackson himself had stepped back onto the big screen.
But after an acting debut that took my breath away, the actor clearly isn’t content with being remembered for a single role. Supermax gives the young actor his first opportunity to show audiences who he is as a performer beyond his last name.
While Smith and Robb were confirmed to be playing FBI agents, there is no word yet on who Jackson will play. Cameras pick up on Supermax later this summer.
Drax might play Kratos in the God of War drama series. Dave Bautista is in talks to play the Ghost of Sparta in Prime Video’s long-developing series, an adaptation of one of the most popular PlayStation video game franchises of all time.
Bautista would replace Ryan Hurst (The Odyssey), who tore a bicep while filming and is being recast. The show will adapt the most recent games, following Kratos and his young son Atreus on a mythic journey to scatter the ashes of Faye.
The former professional wrestler Bautista has made a name for himself in the film industry by portraying Drax in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). We know that he has the charisma and comedic timing that are crucial to showing Kratos’ relationship with his son Atreus. We’ve also seen him play a protective father character before in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead (2021), where he needed to infiltrate a zombie-infested Las Vegas to save his daughter (Ella Purnell). While Hurst’s Kratos could’ve highlighted the character’s more restrained side as a father, Bautista’s physicality and intensity make him a great choice to capture the brutality and rage that defined Kratos.
Casting Tidbits:
Kate Mara
Tim Blake Nelson
Mary Holland
All those casting tidbits here.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Locarno’s I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming (prod: Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer) has its worldwide sales rights picked up by France’s Outplay Films (Free at Heart). The film follows a queer Ukrainian couple whose relationship is under threat when one’s gender transition collides with Russia’s military invasion. Premiering at Locarno later this week.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures (Prod Co: Nickel Boys) lands the rights to Kumail Nanjiani’s (Eternals) directing debut Howl.
The film follows a famous but troubled actor (Nanjiani) who announces on a talk show that he will turn into a werewolf in less than an hour, on live television.
We love this premise!
Nanjiani is best known for his self-deprecating humor but also has a knack for blending humor with emotional vulnerability. He has experience tweaking his performance style for various genres, from the mythical fantasy of Eternals (2021) to the horror comedy of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). His ability to balance comedy with heartfelt character moments makes him perfect to direct a horror-comedy.
The script was written by Madison Vanderberg (Wri: Corporate Retreat) and will be produced by Weed Road Pictures (Prod Co: Constantine).
2x Emmy winner Stephanie Laing (Dir: Tow) is trading neighborhood warfare for a wedding scandal. The Your Friends & Neighbors director is joining Working Title’s Runaway Wedding, a romcom that puts a chaotic spin on happily ever after. The film follows an underage couple whose runaway elopement sends their disapproving parents on a cross-country chase that sparks a romance of their own. Laing’s Jon Hamm-led Apple hit, while mostly concerned with expensive watches, domestic heists, and suburban betrayals, has its fair share of unexpected romances and falls in line with the theme of characters chasing one thing, but finding something else. Runaway Wedding has not yet started filming.
Tidbits:
Saban Films pickup
Danny Ramirez EPs
From Goodfellas to Sesame Street
All those tidbits and more here.
ON THIS DAY
1970. John August born in Boulder, Colorado.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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