Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Zack Snyder’s Escape, Sydney Sweeney’s Trap, and a frog.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Zack Snyder will write and direct an Escape from New York reimagining.
Sydney Sweeney’s Honey Trap signs a first-look deal with Sony Pictures.
Lionsgate TV adapts Julia Bianco’s romantic fantasy novel Witch Season.
UCP adapts thriller The Fine Art of Lying with Scarlett Johansson’s prod co.
Former Disney lawyer Jim Kapenstein joins Starz as CLO/CSO.
Hulu doc exec Kate Bustamante exits after nine years.
Zoë Kravitz will star in Apple’s Megan Park-directed comedy.
Holt McCallany stars in serial-killer noir thriller Hyde.
Jeymes Samuel directs Sega video game adaptation Streets of Rage.
Anna Kendrick will direct Netflix’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Dito Montiel directs a Gene Wilder biopic with rights from Wilder’s estate.
Vertigo Releasing acquires Emilia Clarke romance Next Life.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Josh Trank was 27 when Chronicle went box office #1.
21% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
We’re getting another version of Zack Snyder’s dystopia. Snyder will write and direct a reimagining of John Carpenter’s dystopian cult classic Escape from New York (1981, trailer).
Starring Kurt Russell as the iconic one-eyed antihero Snake Plissken, the original film followed a convicted soldier who is given 22 hours to rescue the captured president from a dystopian Manhattan island that is ruled by a ruthless prison colony.
Details about the plot are under wraps, with StudioCanal developing the project and John Carpenter serving as an EP. The film was a massive hit back in 1981, grossing over $50M with only a $6M budget.
Whatever your feelings are on Snyder, he is a master at creating apocalyptic landscapes. Whether it be the zombie outbreak in Dawn of the Dead (2004), the musty steampunk battlefields of Sucker Punch (2011), or a world destroyed by evil Superman in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021).
Escape from New York has a major grunge factor, which would be beautiful with a little of that Snyder-signature slow motion to amp up the brutal, tribal gang wars of lawless Manhattan.
Tidbit:
Fresh off the series finale of HBO’s Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney’s Honey Trap inks a first-look deal at Sony Pictures (Anyone But You). Looking to expand her producing credits, The Housemaid actress has a lot on her plate, currently working with Sony on the TriStar Pictures remake of Barbarella and will also star and produce their feature adaptation of Madison Lawson’s novel The Registration. Sweeney launched Honey Trap with her longtime collaborator Kaylee McGregor, who will serve as president of production and development.
Book Adaptations:
Lionsgate Television is bringing Julia Bianco’s upcoming romantic fantasy novel Witch Season to life ahead of its end-of-June publication date. From producer Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories (Nine Perfect Strangers) the story follows Katherine Barnes, the rule enforcer of an LA based coven tasked with taking in “unsettled” witches to reform them. Bianco is a frequent collaborator with Made Up Stories, currently in their writer’s room for an unknown project with Fifth Season.
Universal Studio Group’s UCP is adapting thriller novel The Fine Art of Lying into a series with Scarlett Johansson’s These Pictures (Fly Me to the Moon) attached. Alexandra Andrews’ novel follows a woman desperate to reclaim her identity, trying to break into New York’s art world, and she gets suddenly dragged into a murder investigation that makes her reconsider all her choices.
Mini Tidbits:
Jim Kapenstein, the former Deputy General Counsel at Disney, is joining Starz next week as the company’s new chief legal and strategy officer. He spent nearly 30 years at Disney before moving to Starz.
Kate Bustamante, the Senior Manager of Original Documentaries at Hulu, is leaving the company. Bustamante has overseen many award-winning docs like Minding the Gap, Stolen Youth, and Fyre Fraud over her 9-year tenure.
AMPAS announced it is creating an annual Academy Marquee Theater List that recognizes and celebrates 25 of the best U.S. and international theaters, voted on by Academy members. The selections will be made just ahead of the 100th Oscars next year.
Trailers:
Warner Bros’ The End of Oak Street
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor
Release: Aug 14
Netflix’s I Will Find You
Cast: Sam Worthington, Britt Lower
Release: July 18
Dustin Brown’s Solidarity
Prod: Darren Aronofsky
Release: June 19
Starz’s Outlander: Blood of My Blood S2
Release: Sept 18
First Look:
James Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow
First Look at Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor’s war suit
Release: Jul 2027
Release Dates:
Neon’s Hope
Dir: Na Hong-jin
Premiered in competition at Cannes
N.A. release: Sept 9
BBC’s What It Feels Like for a Girl
Prod: Hera Pictures (Hamnet)
Now available on Prime in the US (acquisition)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Catwoman in a comedy? Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) will star in Apple’s new film directed by Megan Park (My Old Ass).
The untitled project is described as Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy meets Julia Roberts’ Stepmom, following a woman who gets stuck taking care of her boyfriend's kids, whom she didn’t know existed.
Zoë Kravitz has made a name for herself playing fiercely independent and intense characters, from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) to the Fantastic Beasts franchise. She successfully showed her own interpretation of the iconic Catwoman character in The Batman (2022), adding a layer of familial trauma to the mysterious vigilante.
It’s hard to imagine how she will play a silly role, but we got a glimpse of her wacked out, drugged up comedic timing in her guest appearance on HBO’s The Studio, and we would love to see her in a looser role that lets her play against her cool onscreen persona.
Produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap and FilmNation, the film found a home at Apple after a competitive bidding war with Amazon.
Tidbits:
Holt McCallany is back at hunting down serial killers. Holt McCallany (Netflix’s Mindhunter) stars in noir thriller Hyde. The film will follow Detective Grimes (McCallany), an investigator who dives into the deepest corners of a failing city to hunt down a serial killer. McCallany had a rugged weight to his performance, playing the veteran police officer Bill Tench in David Fincher’s series Mindhunter. We hope to see his charisma as he hunts down his next serial killer.
Mini Tidbits:
Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) returns to the video game thriller Stream 2: Sudden Death. Stream (2024, trailer) follows a family who enters a deadly game of life and death, chased down by four deranged killers. Curry briefly appeared in the first installment but will play a much bigger role in the sequel.
Katey Sagal (Futurama) joins the untitled Apple TV comedy starring Elizabeth Banks. The show will follow Heidi (Banks) as she sets out to secure a lively second act for herself and her kids, until she finds herself coordinating her father’s retirement sexcapade. Sagal will play Mavis, who is Heidi’s dad’s new girlfriend.
Pretty Little Liars actress Sasha Pieterse is taking a big step with her next leading role, taking on the titular Rosemary, a psychological thriller from the perspective of President JFK’s sister. Forced to undergo a lobotomy at just 23, Rosemary’s tragic story has long lived in the shadows of her famous family and their political dynasty.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Jeymes Samuel (Dir: The Book of Clarence, produced by Jay-Z) is directing the film adaptation of Sega’s classic video game Streets of Rage. The original 1991 game follows three vigilantes who wage war against the ruthless criminal syndicate that has overtaken their city.
Ever since their initial release, Streets of Rage has been one of the most successful beat-’em-up series in gaming, with the recent installment selling over 2.5M copies worldwide.
Samuel did an amazing job blending stoner-comedy with ancient Jerusalem in his breakthrough, The Book of Clarence. But he showed a real mastery of the filmic form in Netflix’s The Harder They Fall. He blends music, action, and camera movement, which is the closest I’ve seen to rivaling Tarantino (trailer).
Pat Casey and Josh Miller (Wri: Sonic the Hedgehog) will pen the screenplay for Streets of Rage. This could be his biggest film yet.
Anna Kendrick is back at Netflix in the director’s chair for the highly anticipated feature adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling 2017 novel follows an aging legendary actress who, through her tell-all biography, reveals the ruthless glamor, sacrifices of fame, and the pain of forbidden love through her experiences in the golden age of Hollywood.
Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour (2023), was not just a dating game show gone wrong, but a thriller that sharply examined the danger hidden beneath charm and control. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo similarly looks at what happens when the image the world falls in love with bears little resemblance to the person underneath.
Kendrick, having the potential to be just as strong behind the camera as in front of it, marks an exciting new development.
Some heartbreak, lots of laughs, and even more curls. The late, great Gene Wilder is getting a biopic from director Dito Montiel (Boulevard). Securing the life rights from Wilder’s Estate, the biopic will trace the beloved Young Frankenstein actor’s entire career, going back to the years before he became one of cinema’s most recognizable faces, when he was just a shy theater actor.
Montiel’s Sundance premiering crime dramedy A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) followed a young RDJ returning to his childhood neighborhood in Astoria when his father falls ill, forcing him to revisit the painful memories of the version of himself he left behind.
From the absolute comedic gold that is Blazing Saddles (1974) to the wonderfully eccentric Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Wilder became synonymous with a theatrical type of comedy, but beneath his wild eyes and perfect timing, there was a melancholic softness, even sadness, that made his performances feel that much richer than straightforward comedy. Montiel could bring that duality to life, consistently drawn to wounded characters looking to find the humor and the humanity in even the loneliest among us.
Mini Tidbits:
Gary Dauberman (Wri: It) is developing a film adaptation of Yellowjacket Summer, a horror short story from Robert R. McCammon. The film will follow a mother and her children who become stranded in a Georgia town overrun by yellowjackets. Daniel Kraus (Co-Wri: Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water) will adapt the screenplay for a feature.
Documentary+ acquires rights to A Man With Sole: The Impact of Kenneth Cole. The feature doc follows legendary designer Kenneth Cole’s creative savviness and social advocacy.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Vertigo Releasing has acquired Next Life, the romance feature starring Emilia Clarke and Édgar Ramírez, for the U.K. and Ireland, ahead of its premiere at Tribeca. Set in London’s jazz scene, Clarke plays an aspiring singer who embarks on two alternate realities, forcing her to reconsider life and love.
India’s Impact Films (Indian Distr: Parasite) acquires All of a Sudden by Hamaguchi Ryusuke (Dir: Drive My Car), Sheep in the Box by Kore-eda Hirokazu (Dir: Shoplifters), and Parallel Tales by Asghar Farhadi (Dir: A Separation).
BBC’s Director of Comedy Commissioning Jon Petrie is leaving for Hat Trick Productions (Prod Co: Derry Girls). Petrie has served as the head of comedy at the BBC for the past five years, overseeing Amandaland and Small Prophets.
ON THIS DAY
1989. Dead Poets Society premieres in the US.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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