Star Wars: End of an Era
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Lucasfilm's legacy, Edward Berger’s Oscar, and a caper.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Kathleen Kennedy is leaving Lucasfilm this year.
Scott Stuber, former Netflix film boss, is in talks to team back up with Edward Berger (dir: All Quiet on the Western Front).
Leslie Siebert has been promoted to president of Gersh after her 40th anniversary with the company.
Roberto Orci (writer: Transformers, Star Trek) has passed away at 51.
The director behind Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Eric Appel, has been tapped to direct The Breadwinner.
AMC Theaters Q4 earnings.
From the author of BlacKkKlansman, Hulu and 20th Television are adapting a memoir.
Vincent Cassel plays an effervescent DJ in Netflix’s Banger. It’s a big departure from his normal characters.
Nicole Kidman loves nothing more than a meaty, melodramatic story where she can go a little crazy in Prime’s Holland.
Patrick Wilson joins Apple TV+’s Cape Fear series.
Jon Bernthal will star as the Punisher in a Marvel Television special for Disney+.
Jennifer Fox (dir: The Tale) is developing her first narrative TV series, Ruth’s Ghosts.
Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) is set to write the screenplay and in talks to star in A24’s adaptation of Barney.
Jamie Lee Curtis EPs an indie sci-fi.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Kathleen Kennedy leaving this year: Lucasfilm's head looks to be charting her course for retirement. Long taking the brunt of the internet's ire, Kennedy has not had a stellar record in her time in Lucasfilm: Indiana Jones 5, the recent Star Wars trilogy, and the Acolyte series.
The loudest of nerds have been wanting this for years. And while there were some bright spots these franchises under Lucasfilm are all in varying states of disarray. Star Wars is a shell of its former self, and it seems like a lot of the creative decisions and, constant firing and rehiring, the strange choices of subject matter all fall to her feet.
Flashback a decade or so, and Kathleen Kennedy is a superstar producer responsible for E.T. (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), and Twister (1996). When George Lucas sold off Star Wars, he left Kennedy in charge. Fans were hesitant. Kennedy had already been involved in previous Lucasfilm efforts that began showing warning signs even before the Disney sell-off. But fans nevertheless remained hopeful that she might be able to bring Star Wars back to its glory days.
But as the slate of Star Wars films and series started to roll out, the quality and the spirit of Star Wars strained and suffered. Massive damage was done by just how terrible Rise of Skywalker (2019) was, and with the most recent Acolyte (2024) series getting canceled before it even finished airing, things are looking uncertain for the once-beloved series.
While Kennedy deserves the dignity of going out on her own terms, the day she leaves is a welcome to many.
Scott Stuber (Roma, Marriage Story, All Quiet on the Western Front), former Netflix film boss, is in talks to team back up with director Edward Berger for an untitled political drama.
Here are the details:
Studio: United Artists (newly revived by Amazon MGM)
Prod: Stuber
Dir: Berger
Writer: David Weil (creator: Citadel)
Synopsis:
Evan Gershkovich and the harrowing year the Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent spent in a Russian prison on fabricated espionage charges after being arrested by the Federal Security Service.
Berger and Stuber’s teamwork on All Quiet on the Western Front, garnering 4 Oscars, including Best Foreign Film, was nothing short of outstanding. Let’s hope lightning strikes twice.
Leslie Siebert has been promoted to sole president of Gersh after her 40th anniversary with the company.
She stated:
“This is an exciting moment for our company as we strengthen and empower our leadership team and position Gersh to ensure our clients grow their businesses and achieve lasting success in a competitive marketplace.”
Bob and David Gersh, sons of original founder Phil, have both been promoted to co-chairmen with five additional agents given the new title of managing partner. Siebert will continue to represent her roster of clients while overseeing the day-to-day operations.
Roberto Orci has passed away at 51. His credits are major blockbusters:
Transformers (2007)
Writer
Star Trek (2009)
Writer/EP
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Writer
He will be deeply missed.
Tidbit:
The director behind Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Eric Appel, has been tapped to direct The Breadwinner (IMDBpro link), a TriStar Pictures comedy starring and written by Nate Bargatze. While plot details are being kept under wraps for now, this will be Bargatze’s, the current world’s top touring comedian, feature film acting debut. Appel’s extensive TV directing credits include shows like Silicon Valley, New Girl, and The Office.
Poker Face Season 2 premieres in spring 2025 on Peacock. Natasha Lyonne returns as Charlie, solving mysteries while on the run. Inspired by ’70s cinema and classic TV, the season plans to feature a star-studded guest cast and twelve episodes. Check out Natasha on the run with crabs! In a first look photo here.
Four Major studio development projects.
One of these four projects is EP’d by a Best Picture Winner:
https://theindustry.co/p/amazon-mgms-adaptations
AMC Theaters Q4 earnings. Plus, the change from last year:
https://theindustry.co/p/amc-q4-2024
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
In a massive departure from Vincent Cassel’s hyper-intense roles (See: Black Swan, Jason Bourne, Partisan), Cassel will play an effervescent DJ in Netflix’s Banger.
Here’s the (translated) synopsis:
Scorpex (Vincent Cassel), a legendary DJ in decline, seems the only one to ignore that his hour of glory has passed. When Rose, a moody DGSI agent, offers to bring down the very fashionable Vestax, his young rival, Scorpex sees the chance to return to the top with a banger.
The trailer is in French, but that doesn’t stop it being one of the most wacky Cassel characterizations. But also, there are clips of him looking fairly intense, which will only add to the comedy.
Banger slams onto Netflix April 2nd. Hopefully, with subtitles.
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Nicole Kidman loves nothing more than a meaty, melodramatic story where she can go a little crazy.
Amazon MGM’s official trailer for Holland sees Kidman’s picture-perfect life begin to unravel in the sophomore feature from director Mimi Cave (Fresh).
In Holland, Kidman plays a small-town wife, teacher, and homemaker who suspects her husband of leading a double life - she ends up dragging her friendly colleague (Gael Garcia Bernal) into the mystery. Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen plays her husband.
There’s a wonderful facade to Kidman that typically we love to see shatter (Eyes Wide Shut, Babygirl etc.) In this film, the mask only seems to be getting tighter, like some sort of riff on Pleasantville.
Set to premiere at SXSW, the film will head straight to Prime on March 27th.
Tidbits:
Patrick Wilson joins Apple TV+’s Cape Fear series. Here’s the synopsis:
A storm is coming for happily married attorneys Anna (Amy Adams) and Tom Bowden (Wilson) when Max Cady (Javier Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison.
Wilson will take on the role previously played by Nick Nolte in the Scorsese film. He’s great at playing the supportive husband character who is driven to total madness (The Conjuring).
With Daredevil Born Again arriving March 4th, it's been announced that along with appearing in the series, Jon Bernthal will star as the Punisher in a Marvel Television special for Disney+, airing in 2026 alongside Daredevil: Born Again season two. He originated this role in the original Daredevil Netflix series, which led to a spin-off of its own. Exciting to see an actor with such ownership and mastery of their character.
Be aware of your surroundings… Netflix’s resident stalker Joe Goldberg is back in a new trailer for the fifth and final season of You. Star Penn Badgley returns as the charming but deranged Joe as well as EP alongside Greg Berlanti and former showrunner Sera Gamble. Will Joe leave his murderous past behind him? While the teaser trailer doesn’t quite answer that question, you can see for yourself when the last season of You drops on Netflix on April 24th.
John C. McGinley reunites with Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence for an (untitled) HBO comedy starring Steve Carell. Set on a college campus, Carell plays an author with a complicated relationship with his daughter. McGinley will play the university president.
FESTIVALS
Jennifer Fox’s tales of the future.
To avoid confusion, we’ve bolded the Jennifer Fox we’re referring to in this story as the industry has two Jennifer Fox's (both of which I can confirm are quite nice):
Jennifer Fox
Dir: The Tale (starring: Laura Dern)
Jennifer Fox
Prod: Nightcrawler, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Fox will direct her first narrative series, Ruth’s Ghosts.
Here’s the synopsis:
Set in 2030 New Orleans, it turns on Ruth, a devout Evangelical pro-life lawyer who sues her daughter Naomi, a liberal jazz musician, for custody over Liv, 13, who is dangerously pregnant.
Fox’s project is at the pitch stage, where it won Berlinale Series Market’s Co-Pro Series, a specialized pitching event by the Berlinale Co-Production Market, and is now heading to Series Mania.
The synopsis calls up familiar memories of the young girl in the shockingly hard-to-watch yet poignant, autobiographical fiction The Tale, where Laura Dern remembers an intimate relationship she had with an older man when she was 13 (trailer). We Fox the best of luck getting the project off the ground.
Sitcom issues with a mumblecore finish: We have all sent the wrong text to the wrong person. Upcoming SXSW debut Caper gives the stat of 70% per year, but that seems slightly high. Regardless of fudged numbers, this one looks fun. Caper is a sex comedy directed by Dean Imperial about a group of men scrambling to erase a disastrous sext from a boss’s phone before it ruins a friend’s career. The premise is a very funny one, but I was struck by how serious everyone was in their reaction, there was an interesting realism and understated very real fear of getting cancelled.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Barney loves you, and Ayo Edebiri loves Barney? The Bear actress is set to write the screenplay and is in talks to star in A24’s upcoming movie, all about the kooky purple dinosaur. The character broke out as a global sensation with the series Barney & Friends, which aired for 14 seasons on PBS between 1992 and 2010. The “surrealistic” take on the beloved children’s character is described as focusing on “some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney - just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”
While the Emmy-winning actress is best known for her breakout role in FX’s stressful drama The Bear, which she will be seen returning in its fourth season this June, she has several writing credits already on her resume. Edebiri has penned multiple episodes of the FX series What We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024), the raunchy adult-animated show Big Mouth (2017-2025), and the Apple TV+ drama Dickinson (2019-2021).
Following the global phenomenon of Barbie (2023), Mattel now has a full roster of toy-centered films in the works (Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, e.g.), with this project has been in development with Get Out actor Daniel Kaluuya’s 59% Productions since 2019.
Tidbit:
Jamie Lee Curtis EPs a sci-fi. Plus, A genre house closes financing for a trio of trippy films. And Max is coming to a new country.
https://theindustry.co/p/jamie-lee-curtis-eps
ON THIS DAY
1920. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is released.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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