Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Sundance bidding war, Paramount’s The Wolf of Wall Street, and a fashion king.
Let’s go!
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Sundance cliff notes:
I spoke with David Permut, producer of The Invite, which is directed by Olivia Wilde and stars Edward Norton, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Wilde.
Multiple distributors are locked in a bidding war to acquire the film. Interested parties include Focus Features and A24.
Permut told me yesterday evening:
“The deal will be closed by tonight.”
As of publication, the deal has not been closed. And that’s good news for the film as the bidding continues. It’s expected to sell for well over $10M.
Hats off to David, who’s been working on the film since 2016. The guy is a beast. He attends every screening at Sundance. Doesn’t eat, doesn’t go to parties. Just watches movies to discover talent.
Also, The Weight, starring Ethan Hawke, premiered yesterday to great reviews. I spoke with the producers at the party who were overjoyed by the reaction.
Searchlight’s In the Blink of an Eye has gotten poor reviews.
I saw Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. It’s the silliest movie at Sundance, but that in no way means that it's anything short of incredible.
It's a zany journey about allowing your partner a free pass to sleep with a celebrity. And the outright wackiness of both the filmmaking style and the acting just makes it delightful at every twist and turn. From a narrator who’s a mailman, to John Slattery playing a sad-sack version of himself, to Jon Hamm pretty much just playing Jon Hamm.
Every bit of it is delightful and bonkers, and it should easily get scooped up by a distributor.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Paramount+ orders The Real Wolf of Wall Street, a 3-part docuseries.
Imagine Entertainment is adapting WWI thriller novel Angel Down into a feature.
Fremantle’s Christian Vesper exits after a decade.
Blair Fetter becomes head of Amazon’s worldbuilding/genre series.
Paramount Skydance hires Shivani Patel as EVP Strategy & Ops across film/TV.
Disney TV Animation names Zack Olin SVP of Development & Current Series.
Olympic Gold winner Chloe Kim doc in the works from director Sue Kim.
Steven Mnuchin joins Lionsgate Studios’ board after building a 12.6% stake.
TCM lands a 6-year deal as TV home for classic Looney Tunes shorts.
Kumail Nanjiani hosts the 78th DGA Awards.
Geoffrey Mason, longtime Emmy-winning sports TV producer, dies at 85.
Alan Ritchson to star + co-write Amazon MGM feature about Vietnam-era Medal of Honor recipient Mike Thornton.
Odessa A’zion joins Sean Durkin’s A24 musical coming-of-age Deep Cuts.
Richard Gere joins Apple TV+ limited series The Off Weeks.
Michael Sheen leads BBC doc Buried.
Eloise adds Sally Hawkins + Victor Garber to cast.
Berlin Panorama title Four Minus Three gains Beta Cinema sales.
Bobby Moresco set for Giorgio Armani biopic Armani – The King of Fashion.
Netflix Spain rolls out a major 2026 slate.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Paramount+ is producing The Real Wolf of Wall Street, a three-part docuseries exploring the true story behind Jordan Belfort, the main character in Scorsese’s 2013 epic.
Produced by Maxine Productions and See It Now Studios, the series features first-time interviews with insiders, new footage, and 15,000 unreleased government documents. It examines Belfort’s rise as the face of 1990s excess, the pump and dump fraud that collapsed his firm.
Though the drug haze, office antics, and excess of DiCaprio’s depiction of Belfort were pretty crazy, the real story is even more insane.
Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment is developing Daniel Kraus’ novel Angel Down into a feature film.
The novel follows a swindling soldier who, after surviving WWI by the skin of his teeth, is tasked with four other “grunts” to go on one last deadly mission. The adaptation news comes amid Imagine's current production of 20th Century Studios’ feature adaptation of Kraus’ bestselling survival thriller novel Whalefall.
Exec Moves:
Peter Friedlander is making moves just months into the start of his role as Amazon MGM Studios’ Head of Global Television. The studio is completely restructuring its TV department, sectioning teams into genre-specific divisions such as drama, comedy, animation, unscripted, and so on.
Previous heads Laura Lancaster and Nick Pepper are leaving their roles, with talks of taking on producing deals with the major studio in the future.
Netflix alum Blair Fetter (Bojack Horseman, The OA) will report as head of worldbuilding and genre series, effective February 2nd.
Fremantle’s CEO of global drama and film, Christian Vesper, is leaving the company after a decade. While at Fremantle, he was majorly influential in the reality competition world (American Idol and X Factor) and simultaneously became a major indie producer backing features such as the Oscar-nominated Bugonia and Poor Things.
Disney Television Animation has named Zack Olin SVP of Development and Current Series. He joins after senior roles at Nickelodeon, Awesomeness, and ABC, with credits including Monster High: The Movie, XO, Kitty, grown-ish, Speechless, and Happy Endings.
Paramount Skydance hires Shivani Patel as its new EVP of Strategy and Operations for film and TV. Patel previously served as Universal Entertainment’s SVP of Strategy and Business Development.
Mini Tidbits:
Two-time Olympic gold medal-winning snowboarder Chloe Kim is getting her own documentary from producers Ken Kao (The Favourite) and Nic Gonda (Hamnet), with director Sue Kim (The Last of the Sea Women) on board. At just 17, Kim became the youngest woman to win a gold medal for snowboarding.
Microdramas are getting big. Fox Entertainment and (YouTube) Dhar Mann Studios struck a multiyear deal to produce 40 vertical microdramas for Holywater’s MyDrama platform. Dhar Mann is not necessarily known for its quality, but it has a strong production arm that works fast and cheaply.
Former Treasury Secretary (Trump’s first term) Steven Mnuchin has joined Lionsgate Studios’ board after building a 12.6% stake through Liberty Strategic Capital. His appointment includes a one-year standstill, capping ownership at 17.5%. Lionsgate cites Mnuchin’s financial, regulatory, and entertainment experience, including producing credits such as Avatar.
Comedian Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) is the official host for the 78th annual DGA Awards. Nanjiani will be replacing Judd Apatow (dir. Knocked Up), who had emceed the ceremony for the past five years. The DGA Awards will take place Feb. 7th.
TCM has secured a six-year deal to become the TV home of classic Looney Tunes shorts, beginning in February. The rollout includes a week-long Bugs Bunny tribute.
Geoffrey Mason, a 24-time Emmy-winning sports TV producer, died at 85. He helped guide ABC’s live coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis and later consulted on Oscar-nominated drama September 5.
Trailers:
The Match Factory’s Projecto Global
Premiere: Rotterdam
Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model
Release: Feb 16
Fox’s The Faithful: Women of the Bible
Cast: Minnie Driver (Emily in Paris)
Release: March 22nd
Just for fun: Grubhub commercial directed by Yorgos Lanthimos: 15 sec clip.
First Looks:
Netflix’s The Fifth Wheel
Dir: Eva Longoria
Cast: Nikki Glaser, Kim Kardashian
Release: TBA
Tankistas: Wild Company
Release: TBA
Release Dates:
Mubi’s Blossoms Shanghai
Dir: Wong Kar Wai
Release: Feb 26
Searchlight Pictures’ Ready or Not: Here I Come
Cast: Samara Weaving, Elijah Wood
Release: March 20th
Hulu’s The Testaments (The Handmaid’s Tale prequel series)
Cast: Chase Infiniti
Release: April 8th
FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette
Dir: Ryan Murphy
Release: February 12th (on FX and Hulu)
Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)
Dir: James Cameron and Billie Eilish
Release: May 8th
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Alan Ritchson (Reacher) leads the cast of Amazon MGM Studios’ untitled feature about former Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor recipient Mike Thornton, with Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog), Aden Young (Rectify), and Sam Rechner (The Fabelmans) newly added to the ensemble.
Based on a true story set during the final days of the Vietnam War, the film centers on Thornton, played by Ritchson, as he leads a mission to rescue five American servicemen trapped behind enemy lines in North Vietnam. After the operation unravels, Thornton is pursued by roughly 150 enemy soldiers. Ritchson is not only starring but also co-wrote the script with Mark Semos and Jason Hall (American Sniper).
With a 6-foot-3 frame, Ritchson has almost become mythologically huge for Reacher, heightened by special effects and choreographed fights. The show frames him as more of a force of nature than a mortal man. The build of a SEAL mixed with his measured restraint and at times a willingness to lean into vulnerability.
Finally, as a co-writer, he’s likely approaching the performance from the inside out. Seems like a perfect role.
The man is a monster in Reacher - clip.
A24 loves Odessa A’zion. The SAG-nominated, Marty Supreme breakout is joining musical coming-of-age Deep Cuts from The Iron Claw director Sean Durkin. The on-the-rise actress’s role has not been disclosed, but the 2000s-set film will follow two music-loving twenty-somethings navigating love and growing up in the decade that defined them.
Just this year, the LA native really showed her range, playing both a bright, trendsetter on HBO’s I Love LA and giving a compelling and emotionally complex performance in the Oscar-nominated Marty Supreme (her great audition tape). Marty sidelined every person in his life, but A’zion’s performance as the fiery Rachel added a whole other level of depth to the film’s frenetic, character-driven story.
In Deep Cuts, A’zion will be joining Cailee Spaeny (Civil War) and Drew Starkey (Queen) with production beginning in Feb.
Tidbits:
It is not often Richard Gere spends some time on the small screen, but he is now the newest addition to Apple TV’s The Off Weeks, a limited series also starring Ben Stiller and Jessica Chastain. His role is unknown in the divorce dramedy, but the casting marks the second major streaming show for Gere in recent years, following his major part in Paramount+’s The Agency.
Michael Sheen will front Buried, a two-part BBC doc probing claims of “forever chemicals” buried in South Wales. The series follows Sheen revisiting whistleblower Douglas Gowan’s warnings, meeting affected communities and experts, and examining whether decades-old contamination has harmed public health and the environment. Airing later this year on BBC2.
Mini Tidbits:
Amy Sherman-Palladino’s (creator of Gilmore Girls) new Netflix feature, Eloise, adds to its cast. The Shape of Water’s Sally Hawkins and Victor Garber (Alias) are joining Ryan Reynolds in the newest live-action feature adaptation of the adorable children’s books about everyone’s favorite Plaza resident.
Ryan Murphy’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette adds Erich Bergen, who I know as keyboardist Bob Gaudino in Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys (2014), to its cast. He’ll star as JFK Jr.’s good friend and best man, Anthony Radziwill, when the show premieres on FX Feb. 12th.
Peter Collins Campbell has wrapped Grind, a darkly comic indie thriller starring Jack Haven (Bodies Bodies Bodies) and Janeane Garofalo (Reality Bites). The film follows a Manhattan bike courier racing to make rent in one night.
Civil War Indie drama Gettysburg 1863 wraps casting, led by Shannon Lucio (Prison Break) and Eric Nelsen (1883). Previously announced cast includes Stephen Lang (Avatar) and Jake Busey (Stranger Things). Directed by Bo Brinkman, the film is shooting in Gettysburg and is targeting a late 2026 release.
Hamilton star Renée Elise Goldsberry has been cast in the CBS legal drama Cupertino. The casting reunites Goldsberry with show creators Robert and Michelle King, who also made The Good Wife (2009-2016), in which she starred as a recurring prosecutor, a similar role to what she’ll be playing in the upcoming Silicon Valley set series.
(NON-SUNDANCE) FESTIVALS
Berlinale:
Beta Cinema (Amrum) boards sales for Four Minus Three, from festival favorite director Adrian Goiginger (The Best of All Worlds), premiering in Berlin’s upcoming Panorama section. The true story is centered on two professional clowns living their dreams when, of course, tragedy strikes. Watch the emotional trailer here.
EFM:
SC Films (Dragonkeeper) is launching world sales on R-rated animated stoner comedy Getting Lost with voice work from Dan Aykroyd and Kevin Smith. After his legendary TV-host uncle dies on air, an inexperienced cameraman heads into the wild to finish one last episode, guided by a pot-smoking chameleon, he realizes survival is as psychological as it is physical. Sounds funny enough. SC will screen early footage in Berlin during the EFM.
Tidbits:
Austria-based sales rep Fizz-e-Motion is the official sales agent for sci-fi thriller Psychonaut starring The Pitt’s Fiona Dourif, headed to the upcoming European Film Market. The film follows a young girl who, through a futuristic machine, is able to dive inside the mind of her dying girlfriend in search of the essential memory that could save her life. There’s a lot going on in this trailer, and while I may be even more confused after watching it than I was before, the premise is interesting.
Poland’s New Horizons International Film Festival names Dorota Lech as its new festival director. The Polish-born writer has led the Discovery program at TIFF since 2013, garnering extensive experience in curating film selections specifically from Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. The New Horizons festival will take place Jul. 17th-27th.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Lamborghini. Maserati. Armani? The Oscar-winning Crash writer Bobby Moresco has been tapped to direct and write…
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