Superman and Sundance Strawberries
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Superman. Sundance. Strawberries.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
First look at James Gunn's spin on Superman.
Three projects centering on Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of United Healthcare CEO, are in development.
The bestselling From Blood and Ash series has found a home at Sony for its upcoming series adaptation.
Fathom Events, after a year of major theatrical revenue ($145 M), is rebranding as Fathom Entertainment.
Rudy Mancuso (Dir: Música) just sold a pitch to Amazon MGM, Stand-In, which he will direct and co-write.
Marvel’s Nova series for Disney+ has gained momentum with Ed Bernero (showrunner: Criminal Minds), joining as writer and showrunner.
Renewals: Apple TV+’s Silo, Netflix’s A Man On the Inside.
Walton Goggins (Fallout) has officially checked into the White Lotus in the new season three trailer.
Sundance selects 57 short films out of 11,153 submissions! One stars Kenneth Lonergan.
The screenplays for Queer, Young Woman and the Sea and Transformers One are here.
Aram Rappaport’s new indie studio/streaming service, The Network, has just hired a head of production, Hilary Shor (Prod: Children of Men, EP: The Deliverance).
Albert Birney (dir: Strawberry Mansion) is back for another Sundance film, Obex.
Big Slamdance winner Good Bad Things has been acquired by Music Box Films (Ida) for North American distribution.
Alex Garland’s new A24 film Warfare drops a trailer.
Mark Williams, co-creator of Ozark, is directing a new TV series Safe Harbor.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
This sneak peek of Superman's soundtrack absolutely soars: Though we are still ways out from James Gunn's spin on Superman, the guy just keeps teasing things.
Possibly trying to quell angry Snyder fans, he has taken a more transparent director-audience relationship. Gearing up for a trailer release, Gunn has shared a piece of the soundtrack, and it's really lovely.
Pulling on motifs of Reeves’ Superman with a choir adds a lightness and that human element. Gunn has been very open about his vision of Superman being lighter in tone (and film gradient). He also dropped the official logline to cement that ethos:
“James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a SUPERMAN who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind.”
He draws from silver-age Superman comics and commits that his Clark Kent will be an actual good guy, not the grey anti-hero of recent fare. It's looking like Gunn views Clark as a Kansas boy first and an all-powerful god second.
Superman will be in theaters on July 11, 2025.
Three projects centering on Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of United Healthcare CEO, are in development:
Project 1: Untitled Luigi Mangione Project
Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief)
Synopsis:
Delves into the murder of Brian Thompson, exploring how killers are created, what the murder says about society's values, and the public's reaction to the victim given frustrations with the health insurance industry.
No word on production dates.
Project 2: Untitled Luigi Mangione Documentary
Dir/Prod: Stephen Robert Morse (prod: Netflix’s Amanda Knox)
Synopsis:
Explores different perspectives around the murder case, including the victims, families, Mangione himself, and the moral complexities raised by Thompson's assassination and the broader issues around America's privatized healthcare system.
No word on when this doc will shoot.
Project 3: Who Is Luigi Mangione?
Network: Investigation Discovery Special
Prod: Dan Abrams (founder: Law & Crime)
Format: Hour-long special
Synopsis:
Lingering questions surrounding Mangione’s arrest and explores how a young man of such wealth and privilege could seemingly commit such a heinous crime while aiming to explore the psychology behind the alleged assassin.
Premiere date: Feb 2025.
This all seems a little too soon, but I’m not surprised.
Fathom Events established itself as a major theatrical distributor with some monster revenue this year:
$145 M gross revenue
↑ 45% from 2023
This was due, in part, to the success of theatrically releasing:
Coraline (15th-anniversary re-release)
$34M+ box office
The Chosen episodic series
$32M+ in box office
$17M+ box office
Fathom has now re-branded to Fathom Entertainment as it moves into 2025.
Marvel’s Nova series for Disney+ has gained momentum with Ed Bernero, former Criminal Minds showrunner, joining as writer and showrunner. Bernero replaces Sabir Pirzada (Moon Knight), who was initially attached when the project began over two years ago. In some ways, this is a spin-off of Guardians of The Galaxy. The series follows Richard Rider, aka Nova, and his origins as a member of the Nova Corps, gaining superhuman powers. Over the long pre-production, there have been a lot of rumors about actors attached to the role, including Ryan Gosling at one point. Nova is a cool character with interesting powers and, at times in the comics, joins and even leads the Guardians. Lets see if this one ever actually takes flight.
Tidbits:
From Musica to Stand In. After Internet personality and musician Rudy Mancuso directed the sonically absorbing Música for Amazon MGM, he returned with a new pitch, Stand-In, which he just sold to the streamer.
Here’s the synopsis:
A Hollywood-obsessed stand-in who seizes his chance to shine after a series of events leads to the disappearance of the actor he’s standing in for.
Mancuso will direct, write, and EP.
Ahead of the premiere of offshoot NBC series Suits LA, Aaron Korsh the creator of USA Network’s legal drama Suits has an overall deal with UCP. Under the deal, in addition to acting as a showrunner on Suits LA, Korsh will develop and produce original series for different platforms exclusively with UCP. The spinoff series Suits LA will premiere on NBC and Peacock on February 23rd, 2025.
The bestselling From Blood and Ash series has found a home at Sony for its upcoming series adaptation. The TV series will focus on author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s five spicy fantasy books with a chance of expanding the filmed universe with potential spin-offs of her just as successful Flesh and Fire prequel series.
Renewals:
Apple TV+’s Silo
Season 3 + 4
Show will end after Season 4
Netflix’s A Man On the Inside
Season 2
Mini Tidbits:
Red One is now the most-watched movie on Prime, with 50 M views in 4 days. Given the wild budget of $250 M against $175 M worldwide theatrical earnings, the release seems to have done its duty as a great enticement to drive people to Prime… and the Bezos flywheel.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
The nightmares of Walton Goggins.
Walton Goggins has officially checked into the White Lotus. The season three trailer dropped by Max yesterday, Goggins and the rest of the ensemble cast can be seen arriving at the famous fictional luxury resort this time in Thailand for a stay that seems to be anything but relaxing.
Goggins will play Rick Hatchett, a rugged man with a chip on his shoulder, traveling with his free-spirited and much younger girlfriend Chelsea (played by Aimee Lou Wood). Series creator Mike White who directs, writes, and EPs, the Max hit show said:
“The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex, and I think the third season would be maybe a satirical funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.”
Goggins seems to thrive in chaos, with his characters more often than not in both unusual and nightmarish situations the actor shines in moments of mayhem. Goggins really started to make a name for himself as the scene-stealing misogynistic yet complex child star Baby Billy Freeman in The Righteous Gemstones (2019-2023, scene), a character in complete ignorance of his own self-desperation, so unpredictable in every way that it a role not just any actor could pull off.
Dropping this past spring, the actor starred as Cooper “The Ghoul” Howard in Amazon Prime’s Fallout (trailer). Set in a post-apocalyptic LA, Cooper who once was a deeply moral family man, saw his values die with civilization, now a mutilated survivor who lives his days as a cold-blooded bounty hunter (scene). Goggins is able to play the good man who becomes a monster archetype masterfully.
In true White Lotus fashion, what should be an amazingly beautiful vacation always turns for the worst, maybe not as nightmarish as an apocalypse, but Goggins seemingly yet again plays a complicated man in a completely unhinged environment when White Lotus drops on Max on February 16th, 2025.
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Tidbit:
A.I. thriller Serena, the directorial debut from filmmaker Rob Alicea (Adulthood) announces its cast. The Halloween trilogy’s Andi Matichak, Steven Strait (The Expanse), Ashleigh Murray (Riverdale), Tyrone Marshall Brown (Power), and María Gabriela González (Fantasy Island) make up the cast with production just beginning in New York on the robot gone wrong film.
FESTIVALS
Sundance selects short films! This is a wildly competitive category so hats off to the 57 films that were selected out of 11,153 submissions. That is an acceptance rate of half a percent. (Haravard’s acceptance rate is 3.2%).
Here’s a few of our favorites:
Dir: Alex Thompson
Synopsis: In the Depression-ravaged countryside of 1930s America, adolescent girls are expected to fulfill a long-standing rite in which they hunt and slay a mythical beast of their mother’s choosing.
Poetic surreal Black and White first look image.
Dir: Alex Heller
Synopsis: In a debate chamber, affluent high schoolers argue a bill on minimum wage in an effort to impress two working-class adult judges.
Cast: J. Smith-Cameron (Succession), Kenneth Lonergan (dir: Manchester by the Sea)
First look photo of a very despondent Lonergan and a very incredulous Smith-Cameron.
Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites
Dir: Chheangkea
Synopsis: During her chaotic family’s Qingming visit, dead Grandma Nai sneaks away from her peaceful afterlife after overhearing that her Queer grandson is about to get engaged to a woman.
Grandmas just want to have fun, first look photo.
Also my boy Gerardo Coello Escalante has his second short at Sundance in two years. This time he’s at the festival with Susana.
Casting director Kim Coleman (BlacKkKlansman, Harriet) snags a producing credit for AN ALMOST SUCCESSFUL DATING APP LOVE STORY.
And Jason Reitman (Dir: Saturday Night) EP’d Ragamuffin.
View the full short program here.
Read Justin Kuritzkes’s Queer screenplay here:
https://theindustry.co/p/prospective-best-screenplay-academy
Also read Young Woman and the Sea and Transformers One, plus 23 more Oscar-hopeful scripts at the same link above.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Aram Rappaport’s new indie studio/streaming service, The Network, is expanding. They have just hired a head of production, Hilary Shor (Prod: Children of Men, EP: The Deliverance).
Shor stated:
“Aram and I have collaborated on a number of projects now and I wholeheartedly believe in the approach that he is taking to create premium content that not only speaks to consumers, but allows artists to explore new territory and take a more active role in the creative process.”
So far, The Network has put out:
The Green Veil (2024)
Cast: John Leguizamo (TV lead role debut)
The Artist (2025, forthcoming)
Cast: Patti Lupone, Zachary Quinto
Shor’s credits show she’s a force of nature and will provide some accelerant to this already burgeoning streamer.
Trailblazing female filmmaker Amy Heckerling has not sat in the director’s chair in well over a decade, but is deciding to make her return in the form of a fourth film in her Look Who's Talking franchise. Heckerling is currently writing the script alongside her grown daughter Mollie, who was the inspiration for the original 1989 film (trailer). The film was uniquely narrated from the POV of a newborn baby whose mother was left raising her all on her own.
In total, the three movies in the franchise grossed over $350 M worldwide and starred the recently passed Kirstie Alley as well as Bruce Willis, John Travolta, and Roseanne Barr, all of which were some of the biggest talents Hollywood had to offer at the time.
Heckerling shot to popularity with her teen romcom Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), with her impact made permanent with the iconic Alicia Silverstone-led Clueless (1995), which has managed to hold onto its massive cult following to this day.
There is no other news regarding the Look Who’s Talking sequel.
Albert Birney (dir: Strawberry Mansion) is back for another Sundance film, Obex. Here’s the scoop on this new film:
Conor Marsh lives a secluded life with his dog, Sandy, until one day he begins playing OBEX, a new, state-of-the-art computer game. When Sandy goes missing, the line between reality and game blurs and Conor must venture into the strange world of OBEX to bring her home.
If you don’t know the work of Albert Birney, I implore you to check out Strawberry Mansion (2021). Does the entire thing make sense, no? But it is a fantastical, magical, DIY hallucination charmer of a film (Trailer). It has the soul of a Wes Andeson film and the mind of a Charlie Kaufman daydream.
I can’t wait to check out Obex at Sundance. Magnify (Christmas Eve in Miller's Point) has taken worldwide sales rights.
Big Slamdance winner Good Bad Things has been acquired by Music Box Films (Ida) for North American distribution. Co-written by lifelong friends, the film’s director Shane D. Stanger and Danny Kurtzman, the romantic comedy is about a young man with a physical disability, learning to be vulnerable by exploring new connections on a dating app, a story loosely inspired by Kurtzman’s own life living with muscular dystrophy. Kurtzman also stars in the film alongside The Flash’s Jessica Parker Kennedy and Jane the Virgin’s Brett Dier, taking home the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at its premiere at Slamdance. You can watch the emotional trailer for Good Bad Things here ahead of its February release.
Alex Garland’s visions of war. Garland (Dir: Civil War) is co-directing Warefare with Ray Mendoza, an Iraq war veteran. For all of Civil War’s harrowing imagery of America tearing itself apart, Warfare does away with any sci-fi premise and locates viewers squarely in the home of an Iraqi family house being used as a base for a platoon of American Navy SEALs played by a sextet of talented young actors:
Joseph Quinn (Gladiator 2)
Will Poulter (The Bear)
Cosmo Jarvis (Shōgun)
Michael Gandolfini (The Many Saints of Newark)
Charles Melton (May December)
D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Dogs)
The trailer is harrowing and appropriately claustrophobic and the tagline makes me think the film will be a deeper investigation of the psychology of war:
“Everything is based on memory.”
Release date 2025.
Tidbits:
Calling all Metal heads: Hulu's Upcoming docuseries Into The Void delves into heavy metal history, exploring the backstories of iconic bands like Black Sabbath and Metallica. The eight-part series debuts in 2025.
TIFF’s The Last Republican doc drops a trailer.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Mark Williams, co-creator of Ozark, is directing a new TV series Safe Harbor. Night Train Media’s synopsis reads:
Tobias, a gifted hacker and his ambitious best friend Marco, intent on cracking into the tech billionaires club. They are plunged headfirst into the chaos of organized crime when they cross paths with the Irish mob.
The genius of Williams’ Ozark was the ability to transform a seemingly ordinary accountant (Jason Bateman), who cowered in fear from his Mexican Drug Cartel bosses, into a brutal strategist hell-bent on protecting his family.
Williams shared more about Safe Harbor:
“At the core of this exciting, edge-of-your-seat series is a family of friends who find themselves in dangerous, life-changing situations with some very bad players who force our heroes to challenge themselves and each other to grow as people.”
The edit in the trailer feels overly network-y, but the underlying show is interesting.
Out Jan 10th.
Asterix cinematic universe. Netflix is releasing an animated film based on the most popular comic book in the history of France: Asterix & Obelix.
This new film, Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight, will be the first animated film in some time following five live-action adaptations:
Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar (1999)
Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002)
Starring: Monica Bellucci
Asterix At The Olympic Games (2008)
Asterix & Obelix: God Save Britannia (2012)
Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (2023)
Starring Vincent Cassel and Marion Cotillard
In Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight (2025), a village druid forgets how to prepare their magic potion. Asterix, Obelix, and the Gauls must find new ways to keep the Roman conquerors at bay.
For a snippet of their misadventures, check out the trailer.
Australian screen industry shrinks 29% from last year due to declines in big-budget international spending.
Read more about it here.
ON THIS DAY
1964. Goldfinger premieres in London.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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