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SXSW Spotlight: Surviving Earth

The Industry

Mar 11, 2025

Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

Woody Harrelson, Universal’s Drop and a pretty thing.

Let’s go!

Join our workshop tomorrow with Oscar-Nominated writer-director duo:
https://theindustry.co/p/workshop-with-oscar-nominated-writer

Surviving Earth, which just premiered at SXSW, is the rawest of personal stories.

I sat down with the lead Slavko Sobin and writer/director Thea Gajić to unwind how she forged this ultra specific tale of her father (played by Sobin), whose passionate spirit is weighted down by addiction.

The film centers on Sobin, who fled the conflict in Yugoslavia and is now living in the UK. He’s a good guy: a drug counsellor, helper of the homeless and a talented harmonica player trying to become a full-time musician.

Sobin is sensational in the film (a compliment that got him blushing). He spoke about his character’s burden:

“Once you're a drug addict, everybody sees you as a drug addict... So you need to give 800% of what some other people are giving to accomplish this or that. And I think the struggle is just never ending and it messes with you. And nobody sees how hard you're trying. They only see your fuck-ups.”

What makes Gajić’s film so beautiful is how she weaves characters showing each other kindness into every frame. Which is what makes the second half of the film so painful—to watch as she slowly pulls those threads away.

In one scene, she explains how Sobin’s friends have lost patience with him after he interrupts band practice for a dire call:

“You can still really upset the people you love the most, because of, despite how much they support you, because of your behaviour and because of your lack of communication… the shame you might feel because of that.”

Surviving Earth is a tender look at loving someone who doesn’t love himself.

If Netflix doesn’t pick these up, it’ll be a perfect pick up for Sony Pictures Classics.

For More:

My interview with writer/director Thea Gajić and lead Slavko Sobin. If you ever wanted a playbook for adapting a heavy personal story into cinema gold, check this out.

THE INDUSTRY TLDR

Woody Harrelson will play a giant in a new film, Giant.
Scorsese and Leo are possibly set to reunite in Home for Apple Studios.
Oscar winning producer Stanley R. Jaffe (Kramer vs. Kramer) has passed away at 84.
Warner Bros. TV’s Clancy Collins White is now president of creative affairs.
Sony TV signed a first-look deal with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and his production company.
Universal’s Drop just premiered at SXSW. Meghann Fahy is magnificent.
Nicole Ari Parker joins HBO’s Lanterns.
Jason Momoa is confirmed to be playing Space Pirate Lobo in James Gunn's Super Girl.
Shout! Studios has acquired Pretty Thing, a seductive thriller from director Justin Kelly (I Am Michael).
Foton Distribution will release The Uninvited, a comedic drama starring Pedro Pascal.
Mark Duplass is self-distributing his Tribeca series The Long Long Night.
BBC bought Families Like Ours, a TV series by director Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round).

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

*Corazón de León.* **Caribbean Films Distribution**.

Woody Harrelson doesn’t need to jump. Harrelson will play a giant in a new film called Giant, the English-language adaptation of the rom-com Corazón de León (2015).

Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) will play the normal size woman who falls in love with him. Marcos Carnevale, the original director and writer of the film, will direct. Gonzalo Maza (co-writer of Sony Pictures’ A Fantastic Woman!) will write.

CAA is currently out with the package. Here’s the trailer for the original, about a woman who falls in love with a very short man.

Possible project on the horizon. Scorsese and Leo are set to reunite for their seventh feature film in Home (IMDBPro link):

Dir/Wri/Prod: Martin Scorsese
Prod/Star: Leonardo DiCaprio
Producer/Writer: Todd Field (Tár)
Studio: Apple Original Films
Source Material: Home by Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson

Synopsis:

Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack―the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years―comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.

We’ll circle back if this comes to fruition.

Tidbits:

Oscar winning producer Stanley R. Jaffe (Kramer vs. Kramer) has passed away at 84. The veteran executive formed his own production company, Jaffilms, which became affiliated with his father’s Columbia Pictures. Just before he worked at Paramount, where, in the short time he was there, greenlit the company’s most famous hit The Godfather (1972). Jaffe would go on to produce The Bad News Bears (1976) and Fatal Attraction (1987).

Warner Bros. Television has just promoted longtime executive Clancy Collins White to president of creative affairs, where she will oversee casting and research while continuing to oversee scripted programming development. WBTV has also moved Mele Nagler to EVP of that department where she will report to White.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and his production company, House Eleven10, signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television to develop scripted dramas. Their first project, Ghostman, stars Abdul-Mateen as a crime heist fixer and clean up man. Big year for Mateen: he also leads Netflix’s Man on Fire and Marvel’s Disney+ show Wonder Man.

Netflix has finalized its acquisition of one of the biggest standouts from this year’s Sundance lineup, The Perfect Neighbor, a documentary feature from Geeta Gandbhir for $5 M.

More on the film here:
https://theindustry.co/p/netflixs-perfect-neighbor

Mini Tidbit:

You can only run from your past for so long… Netflix has released the full length trailer for the fifth and final season of You and all eyes are on serial killer (and serial cheater) Joe Goldberg. All 10 episodes of the final season of You will drop on Netflix on April 24th.

The Accountant 3 is in the works. The director of the first two, Gavin O’Connor, will return to finish off the trilog,y which sees Ben Affleck as a savant accountant and an assassin.

Max’s Conan O’Brien Must Go is renewed for Season 3.

Amazon’s Cruel Intentions is cancelled after one season.

The release date for Sony’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey starring Margot Robbie & Colin Farrell and directed by Kogonada (After Yang) has been pushed from May 9th to Sept 19th.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Universal’s Drop just premiered at SXSW. The film stars Meghann Fahy who plays a single mother who works up the courage to go on a first date. Except on that date, she is instructed to kill her date or her kids will die.

Fahy has a scintillating charm that she can turn off in a heartbeat. That’s why she stood out in White Lotus Season 2, where she maintains a plastic smile almost right up until the crippling scene at the end.

Fahy was also fantastic in Sundance’s Rebuilding. She played Josh O’Connor’s ex-wife, who navigates her duties to their daughter and him with tenderness and stunning remoteness.

We love to see her get pushed to the brink in this wild horror thriller.

Here’s the Drop trailer out April 11th.

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Nicole Ari Parker joins HBO’s Lanterns as Bernadette, the youngest lantern John Stewart’s mother. Described as a superhero murder mystery in the vein of True Detective, the 8-episode series is one of the most mysterious and anticipated of Gunn's DCU projects.

Jason Momoa, long rumored but finally confirmed to be playing Space Pirate Lobo in James Gunn's Super Girl film.

Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet is the newest big name added to the cast of Showtime’s spinoff drama series Dexter: Resurrection. He will appear as a supposed serial killer in four episodes when the series launches on Paramount+ this summer.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Shout! Studios has acquired Pretty Thing, a seductive thriller from director Justin Kelly.

Here’s the synopsis:

A successful executive (Alicia Silverstone) who struggles with a scorned young lover (Karl Glusman) who takes his obsession too far.

SVP of Acquisitions and Originals at Shout! stated:

“There is a perennial and voracious demand for high quality, sexy thrillers in the marketplace, and Justin has served up a pretty delicious one.”

Justin’s breakout was Sundance 2015’s I Am Michael, starring Zachary Quinto, James Franco and Emma Roberts. That film centered on a gay activist who goes straight after finding religion. His follow-up King Cobra starred Alicia Silverstone and James Franco centered on a young gay porn star who is wildly popular.

Justin’s movies are extreme in their sexiness and are voraciously wild. No word on release date for Pretty Thing.

Tidbits:

Foton Distribution will release The Uninvited, a comedic drama starring Elizabeth Reaser, Walton Goggins, and Pedro Pascal. Directed by Nadia Conners, a West Hollywood party is interrupted by an uninvited guest which causes Rose (Reaser) to rethink her life and marriage. The film debuted at 2024's SXSW, and will release in theaters incrementally, kicking of in NY April 11th, LA April 18th and U.K. May 9th with a VOD release that same day. This massive cast, including Pascal who is red hot right now, could make this one a lovely little indie. Here’s a tiny trailer.

Widely regarded as South Africa’s greatest ever playwright, Athol Fugard, has passed away this past weekend. He published more than 30 plays, six of which ended up on Broadway, including The Blood Knot and two productions of Master Harold… and the Boys. The film adaptation of his novel Tsotsi won the 2006 Oscar for Best International Feature. Fugard had a massive impact on the South African theatre landscape and will leave behind a rich legacy.

After a year of no bites, Duplass says fuck it: The Long Long Night, Mark Duplass’ nihilistic series about two guys trying to make the world a better place has not had any successful program offers since its 2024 Tribeca debut. Some near misses and some “not financially viable offers” have led to the director turning to his community and crowdfunding to find an avenue to land. Duplass has launched a Seed & Spark to fund marketing with donors, receiving early access April 18, before the series releases in some form online April 28. Not everyone is as prolific to pull a Radiohead on the film industry but Duplass has earned his indie godhood with this one. There’s an aggressive zaniness to the trailer.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

BBC has bought Families Like Ours a TV series by director Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round, The Hunt, The Celebration).

Synopsis:

In a not-too-distant future, Denmark faces total evacuation due to rising water levels. As the nation prepares to leave their homes, high school student Laura must choose between her divorced parents and the boy she's fallen in love with.

Trailer here.

China’s $2B blockbuster, Ne Zha 2 will soon be released across Europe in over 30 territories by Trinity CineAsia. When the fantasy film opened in North America last month, it earned $19 M, which, despite paling in comparison to the numbers it put up in China, still beats out the majority of Chinese commercial blockbusters that play over here. Officially the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, Ne Zha 2, will open in the UK and Ireland on Mar. 21st with other dates to follow.

The Oscar-winning production company Barunson E&A (Parasite) is co-investing in Rangga & Cinta, a musical reboot of the beloved Indonesian romcom What’s Up with Cinta? (Ada Apa dengan Cinta, trailer) which became a cultural phenomenon in the early 2000s.