Steven Spielberg’s Galaxy Quest
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A Cover Story on Steven Spielberg’s new film.
In The Industry News: JGL’s AI, Apple’s TV+’s Gorge, Mubi’s billionaire.
Actor Spotlight: Danielle Deadwyler is a Savior, the new Mr. Smith.
Festivals and Resources: No Other Land wins again, Dìdi script.
Indie Filmmaker Spotlight/International News: Nick Frost’s Get Away. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross new auteur. Romania’s Oscar submission.
Let’s go!
Although this is very much still a rumor, we have some details on an upcoming Steven Spielberg film. It is called Old Man’s War (source material: John Scalzi’s sci-fi series).
Here’s the synopsis:
75-year-old John Perry enlists in the military after losing his wife and best friend. His consciousness is transferred into a genetically enhanced, youthful body, giving him a second shot at life—on the battlefield. But here’s the kicker: John finds himself fighting alongside the younger version of his wife. The twist? It’s her body, but with a stranger’s mind, leaving John battling heartbreak while trying to rekindle a lost love amidst an intergalactic war.
The transference of the mind to an idealized body reminds me a lot of Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018). That film dealt with the interplay between digital and physical identities, showing how artificial constructs can amplify or constrain. It will be fascinating to see if Old Man’s War refines these ideas.
Spielberg has always been able to find the beating heart in large-scale movies. That’s what makes him the highest-grossing film director of all time. So, no matter how wild the circumstances in the film, from Dinosaurs coming to life to Aliens invading the planet, he always finds a way to personalize.
Old Man’s War is not Spielberg’s next film. That is slated to be a UFO film, rumored to be titled The Dish. Read more about the film here:
https://theindustry.co/p/steven-spielbergs-space-odyssey
The cast includes of The Dish includes Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colman Domingo, and, fittingly, Colin Firth:
https://theindustry.co/p/steven-spielbergs-king
The Dish is said to be shooting early next year.
For more:
Digital reincarnation is becoming more of a possibility. Did you catch that Sundance AI reincarnation doc - trailer?
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is directing his sophomore film, an AI thriller for Rian Johnson's T-Street Productions starring Anne Hathaway.
Apple’s TV+’s upcoming Valentine’s Day film is The Gorge, starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy. This will go straight to streaming.
Mubi gets an undisclosed investment from a billionaire.
Louie Provost, Disney’s longtime EVP of Motion Picture Production, is leaving after 17 years.
The president of Tyler Perry’s Studios, Steven Mensch, has passed away.
Severance (Season 2), Reacher (Season 3), Yellowjackets (Season 3), Wheel of Time (Season 3) get trailers.
Dorthy’s slippers from The Wizard of Oz sold for $28 M.
Danielle Deadwyler (Till) is starring in The Saviors with Adam Scott.
Michelle Yeoh (EEAAO) reprises her Star Trek: Discovery role of Emperor Philippa Georgiou.
Mark Eydelshteyn (the oligarch’s son in Anora) is cast in Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 2 as Mr. Smith.
Horror phenomenon Black Phone 2 is officially in the works with emerging actress Arianna Rivas (Levon's Trade).
No Other Land wins the top prize at the IDA Doc Awards.
The new Nick Frost (Shaun of The Dead) horror comedy, Get Away, was released this weekend.
Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will score Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film After The Hunt (cast: Julia Roberts).
Briarcliff Entertainment’s Werewolves just released this weekend. Star: Frank Grillo.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to return to directing with an untitled AI thriller for Rian Johnson's T-Street Productions. Anne Hathaway is set to star. The script was co-written by Gordon-Levitt and Kieran Fitzgerald (Wormwood, Fallout), with a story contribution from Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll).
The project marks a continued collaboration between Gordon-Levitt and Johnson, who first teamed up as lead actor and director on the 2005 cult classic Brick and later Looper:
Johnson also nabbed a special thanks credit on JGL’s directorial debut:
Don Jon (2013)
$39.4 M worldwide
$3 M budget
This film joins a growing trend in Hollywood exploring AI. Most recently, we discussed an AI spec script bought from a completely unknown writer for $3 M. Article Here.
There are no studio attachments as of yet, but watch this space; this is an exciting return to form for Johnson and a big step for JGL.
Apple’s Valentine’s Day film is The Gorge. Coming straight to streaming Feb 14th, this film is directed by Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone, Dr. Strange) and stars Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.
I didn’t love the synopsis, so after watching the trailer, I re-wrote it:
Two elite but lonely snipers (Teller and Taylor-Joy) are tasked with guarding the gorge, e.g., the gates of hell. Each takes a post on the opposite side of this gorge, and they bond from a distance. But when the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together to save the world.
The trailer is equal parts corny, ridiculous, and alluring. There are monsters in that gorge, and although Teller and Taylor-Joy feel somewhat cold to each other in the trailer, they’re both incredible performers who have a deep capacity for empathy.
Skydance produces. Premiering Feb 14th, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Mubi gets an undisclosed investment from a Billionaire. No terms/amounts were disclosed, but Mubi’s founder stated:
“We are thrilled to welcome Zhang Xin (Real estate billionaire) to our board of directors.”
No company has been more explosive in the arthouse world this year than Mubi. The company bought a trio of films at Cannes:
The Substance
Starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley
Won: Cannes Best Screenplay
The Girl With the Needle
Bird
Dir: Andrea Arnold
Plus, they picked up Berlin’s top prize-winning film, Dahomey. They are making aggressive moves into the US market with the theatrical release of The Substance, which opened at $3.2 M and snagged $16.4 M domestic. Plus, to build out their theatrical distribution slate, they’ve made a strategic hire, Mark Boxer, who built Amazon’s Theatrical Distribution Division (American Fiction (2023), Sound of Metal (2019), Cold War (2018)
While streamers like Apple and Netflix are shelving their theatrical distribution strategies, I’m hopeful that Mubi will fill the market gap and conquer.
Tidbits:
After seventeen years, Louie Provost, Disney’s longtime EVP of Motion Picture Production, is leaving his position at the end of the year.
Provost shared:
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with incredible filmmakers making projects we loved on all sorts of different scales, everything from big blockbusters like Aladdin (2019) and Maleficent (2014) to inventive comedies like Rescue Rangers (2022) and bold reinventions like Pete’s Dragon (2016).”
Along with CEO Bob Iger, Provost joins the list of high-profile executives in need of replacement.
Max’s Harry Potter series has a new key creative member: costume designer Holly Waddington. She is most known for her Oscar-winning work making the zany whimsical costumes in Poor Things. Early in her career, she worked with Spielberg, serving as an assistant customer designer on a duo of projects, including Lincoln (2012).
A flurry of New TV show season trailers:
Apple TV+’s Severence (Season 2)
Full Trailer, maybe this time we’ll find out what sorting all those little numbers means
Premiere: Jan 17th
Prime’s Reacher (Season 3)
Trailer. A jacked dude takes on an even bigger dude.
Premiere: Feb 20
Showtimes’s Yellowjackets (Season 3)
Trailer. Everything will come back
Premiere: Feb 14
Prime’s Wheel of Time (Season 3)
Premiere: March 13
Mini Tidbits:
We’re not in Kansas anymore. Dorthy’s slippers from The Wizard of Oz sold for $28 M, the most expensive piece of movie memorabilia ever. The identity of the buyer isn’t known. My money is on Ariana Grande.
28 Years Later poster. The trailer is expected on Tuesday.
The president of Tyler Perry’s Studios, Steven Mensch, has passed away. He was instrumental in managing Perry’s 330-acre Atlanta studio. He will be missed.
Actor Mark Withers, known for roles in Dynasty and Stranger Things, died at 77 on Nov. 22nd. Dynasty (Clip), Stranger Things (Clip). He will be missed.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Starring in four films just this year, Danielle Deadwyler is now entering the dark comedy world with The Saviors, an upcoming indie film from actor-turned-director Kevin Hamedani.
Synopsis:
A suburban couple whose life spirals out of control when they rent their garage to mysterious tenants.
The rising actress is starring alongside Severance’s Adam Scott who will be producing under his Great Scott productions as well.
Deadwyler got her start in theater where she grew up in the city of Atlanta before getting her breakthrough feature film opportunity playing the titular role of educator, activist, and mother, Mamie Till-Mobley in gut-wrenching true story drama Till (2022, trailer).
She is currently receiving rave reviews for her performance in the ensemble-heavy family drama, The Piano Lesson (2024, trailer). With an emotional directness, intense physicality, and an absolute commitment to the role she is for sure a scene stealer in this new Netflix hit.
In addition to Piano Lesson in 2024, Deadwyler has starred in:
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
Part of a large ensemble cast in this Sundance selection film
Parallel (2024)
Acted as the lead and produced in this space and time-bending thriller
40 Acres (2024)
Played the lead in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller
The Saviors is currently in production in LA with an expected 2025 premiere.
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Michelle Yeoh (EEAAO) reprises her Star Trek: Discovery role of Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who will be tasked with joining a black ops division of Starfleet. The first full trailer for Star Trek: Section 31 starts off a bit edgy, showcasing a fresh and rebellious tone for the over-sixty-year-old franchise.
It seems Yeoh is taking just as many risks and chewing up just as much scenery in Section 31 as she did in Everything Everywhere All at Once, and most of all, it seems like she is having a blast playing a morally grey badass.
Section 31 will be arriving Jan 24th on Paramount+.
Mark Eydelshteyn is cast in Mr. & Mrs. Smith Season 2 as Mr. Smith—no word on the plot or production date for the series.
You might have missed Eydelshteyn’s name in the Anora credits as Mikey Madison is getting all the (deserved!) awards buzz. Yet Eydelshteyn deeply embodied the essence of the ultra-wealthy: a young man acts as if there are no consequences for his actions because there are none. That is until things go sideways, and he’s reduced by his oligarch parents to a sniveling child. It’s a great transformation and shows he has a good deal of range.
Watch how starry-eyed he is in the Anora trailer.
Tidbits:
Horror phenomenon Black Phone 2 is officially in the works, with emerging actress Arianna Rivas joining the original pic’s ensemble in the Blumhouse/Universal sequel. Earlier this year Rivas starred in the Hulu teen comedy Prom Dates (trailer) and has just wrapped filming the Amazon/MGM movie Levon’s Trade opposite Jason Statham. Scott Derrickson (dir. Sinister) is returning to direct with his Black Phone 2 scheduled for theatrical release on Oct. 17th, 2025.
The star-studded Famous (A24), an upcoming thriller from A24 and Black Bear, adds Woman of the Hour’s Daniel Zovatto and Bill Pullman (Independence Day) to its cast. A film exploring the dark side of celebrity life, the newly announced actors will be joining Zac Efron, who will be playing two roles, Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor and Succession’s Nicholas Braun, among others. From director Jody Hill (Eastbound & Down, The Righteous Gemstones) filming is currently underway in LA.
Wyatt Russell (Night Swim) is in talks to join Steven Spielberg's upcoming event film The Dish.
FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES
There is a flurry of awards events this season, but one of particular importance in the doc space is the IDA Doc Awards.
They just awarded No Other Land, Best Doc Feature.
Read our Cover Story on the documentary:
https://theindustry.co/p/brad-pitt-and-no-other-land
The doc has also won at the Gothams, NY Film Critics Circle, and was just nominated for Indie Spirit.
Read Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez screenplay here:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy
Audiard directs. Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez star.
Also, read Sean Wang’s Dìdi screenplay at the same link above, as well as Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night script.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Get Away, the new Nick Frost (Shaun of The Dead) horror comedy, looks good. Everything is fine; cue the man running in the background on fire. Along with writing (his script debut) and producing, Frost plays the patriarch of the Smith family whose vacation AirBnb just happens to reside on a remote island plagued by murder and inhabited by locals that absolutely hate the Smith family's guts.
It mixes British sensibilities and bone-dry humor with a tinge of Midsommar (2019).
Frost is the right-hand man of Simon Peg, his best friend and comedic partner, coming up on the show spaced, and having a massive role in the Cornetto Trilogy, Edgar Wright and Pegg's epic three-movie horror comedy spree Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and At World’s End. Loosely connected through themes and cast, Frost played three different iterations of a comedic augment to Pegg.
Perhaps Frost dipping a toe into familiar territory opens the discussion for a new Cornetto trilogy?
Get Away arrived in theaters this weekend and has garnered a fair 75 on RT.
Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have found their new auteur: Luca Guadagnino.
The double Oscar winners (The Social Network, Soul) are now set up to score Guadagnino’s new film After The Hunt (cast: Julia Roberts).
They’ve scored his last three films:
Queer (2024)
Challengers (2024)
Bones and All (2022)
They like to work with the same director, most famously David Fincher, on 5 films:
The Social Network (2010)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Gone Girl (2014)
Mank (2020)
The Killer (2024)
They are also very open to scoring Guadagnino’s future projects, including the new American Psycho:
https://theindustry.co/p/new-american-psycho
Tidbit:
You may have seen those early silent films with an effervescent dancer twirling her dress. That woman is Loie Fuller, the subject of Film Movement’s (Mother Couch) new film Obsessed With Light (trailer). Currently playing at the Quad Cinema in NYC.
Briarcliff Entertainment’s Werewolves just released this weekend. The plot revolves around a society where the supermoon turns millions into hyper-violent Werewolves. I would love to say this has shades of Eugène Ionesco’s theater of the absurd masterwork, The Rhinoceros, but it’s really just a kill fest. Catch Werewolves in theaters now (trailer).
Jake Rubin and Evan Metzold (Damned If You Do) will direct Mulligans, a dark golf comedy for Objectively Good Media (OGM). Scripted by Rubin, the film follows a wealthy Florida family battling for inheritance during a golf tournament. The project marks the duo’s second feature, with OGM’s Damed if You Do being their debut.
No production details have been announced yet.
Director Askhat Kuchinchirekov’s semi-autobiographical Kazakhstan film Bauryna Salu is deemed a gem and a potential international Oscar contender. The coming-of-age drama tells the moving story of a young boy, Yersultan, who, according to the old nomadic tribal tradition ‘Bauryna Salu’ is handed over to his grandmother after his birth so she can raise him. At twelve years old, he has to return to a family and a home he’s never known after the sudden passing of his grandmother. Bauryna Salu (trailer) had its world premiere last year at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Romania’s submission to the International Feature Oscar race this year is filmmaker Emmanuel Pârva’s Three Kilometers to the End of the World. Winner of the Queer Palme award at this year’s Cannes competition follows a gay teenager’s journey of self-discovery in a conservative Danube Delta community. The film deals with themes of repression, denial, ignorance, pride, cruelty, and, of course, love (trailer).
ON THIS DAY
2005. Brokeback Mountain is released.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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