Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet. Andy Serkis’ Alfred. And a VHS tape.
Let’s go!
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I sat down to interview Riz Ahmed to discuss his starring role in the upcoming film Hamlet.
It’s a blistering refresh of the material. Set in contemporary London, in an affluent South Asian family, Ahmed plays a jittery Hamlet mourning the sudden loss of his father, whose grief leads him to, in one scene, snorting coke and partying in a strip club or another racing headfirst into oncoming traffic.
Ahmed discussed:
“How Hamlet feels is how most of us feel: is the world going crazy, or am I going crazy? For me, that’s the play.”
He continued:
“Hamlet really is a story about someone who’s grieving the illusion that the world was a fair place… And we feel so powerless, just like Hamlet did. And … we realize we’re complicit in it as well, just like Hamlet.”
Ahmed has a rare ability to make powerlessness feel potent. From his Oscar-nominated role in Sound of Metal (2019) to last year’s high-intensity thriller Relay (2025), the actor is adept at crafting characters that feel brittle and dangerous.
His measured intensity underpins his Hamlet, though what makes this performance great is that he gives up control and slips into a maddening state.
Ahmed called it “an Insomniac Twilight Zone,” sharing that his performance was fueled by his transition into fatherhood:
“When I showed up on set most days, I only slept one or two hours. There was a rawness and a frazzledness and a kind of unraveling that was real.”
By drawing on his own instability, Ahmed found a way to channel the chaos of his life into his performance.
In a world stacked against us, Ahmed’s performance in Hamlet suggests that a touch of madness may be the only way to reclaim control.
For More:
Trailer plus full interview with Oscar-winner Riz Ahmed.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Paramount secures $24B from the Middle East to fund the $110B WBD takeover.
CBS to air Comics Unleashed in Colbert’s vacated late-night slot starting May 22.
Marybeth Sprows returns to Hallmark as SVP.
Former HBO exec Joseph J. Collins dies at 81.
Katherine LaNasa joins Hulu thriller Count My Lies as Shailene Woodley’s mom.
Michael Peña, Chris Messina, and Esai Morales cast in indie Tumor.
Andy Serkis returns as Alfred in The Batman II.
Josh Brener, Alexandra Shipp, and Justice Smith join horror White Elephant.
Kathryn Newton cast in the coming-of-age thriller Hot Year.
Shudder acquires Izabel Pakzad’s horror debut Find Your Friends.
James Cullen Bressack to shoot new horror film entirely on VHS.
Trivia correct answer: “If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed.” Kubrick quote.
34% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Paramount has locked in $24bn to help fund their $110bn takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery from:
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
$10bn
Qatar Investment Authority
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
This was reported back in December, but the equity agreements have now been signed. No word on whether this will cause any US government scrutiny, as this falls below the 25% investment threshold that would trigger a formal review by the FCC or the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Paramount is hoping the deal will close in Q3. The next step is for shareholders to vote on the deal on April 23.
Interestingly, Saudi Arabia’s funds are already backing some of the $100M budget for Paramount’s Rush Hour 4.
For a full breakdown on what the combined companies would look like and their financials, click here for our deep dive.
Mini Tidbits:
Marybeth Sprows returns to Hallmark Media as SVP Original Series. Sprows previously worked for the company from 2018 to 2019 as VP Original Programming before her move to Sony Pictures Television.
SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP negotiations will resume on April 27th. The bargaining began in February, but paused so AMPTP could negotiate with the WGA.
Former HBO president Joseph J. Collins has died at 81. A veteran cable television executive, he helped shape Time Warner Cable and Comcast, positioning them to become major broadband providers. His trailblazing influence laid the groundwork for how we consume content today.
Steven Sunshine dies at 81. Sunshine was most known for writing and producing Webster (ABC sitcom, 1983–1989, starring Emmanuel Lewis) and The New Odd Couple (ABC sitcom, 1982–1983, starring Ron Glass and Demond Wilson).
Renewals:
Fox’s Memory of a Killer (for S2)
Prime’s La Oficina (Mexico’s version of The Office) (for S2)
Dir/EP: Gaz Alazraki (Warner Bros.’ Father of the Bride)
Netflix’s Trash Truck (for S3)
Trailers:
Netflix’s Lord of the Flies (series)
Creator: Jack Thorne (Adolescence)
Release: May 4
Angel’s Animal Farm
Dir: Andy Serkis
Cast: Seth Rogen, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, Serkis
Release: May 1
20th Century’s The Devil Wears Prada 2
Release: May 1
Apple TV’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Cast: Tatiana Maslany, Jake Johnson, Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why), & Murray Bartlett (White Lotus S1)
Release: May 20
Tribeca Films’ Mabel
Cast: Judy Greer
Digital Release: April 21
First look:
FX’s American Horror Story (S13)
Release dates:
Universal’s The Comeback King
Dir: Judd Apatow
Star: Glen Powell
Release: Feb 2027
20th Century Fox’s Alien3 (The Assembly Cut)
Dir: David Fincher (his first film)
HBO Max release date: Now streaming
Netflix’s Sesame Street (S56, V3)
Release: June 8
Netflix’s Ms. Rachel
Release: Summer
Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen
Network: CBS
Air Date: May 22nd at 11:35 p.m.
This takes the spot of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Read more about why Colbert’s show is ending in May
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Emmy-winner Katherine LaNasa will star as Shailene Woodley’s mom in Hulu’s Count My Lies.
Woodley stars in this Gone Girl-esque psychological thriller as the manipulative and unhinged Sloane Caraway, who lies her way into getting a nannying job for the glamorous and wealthy Violet Lockhart (Lindsay Lohan).
LaNasa, as the charge nurse in The Pitt, is a motherly figure to the hospital staff. She goes into fight or flight mode when the cards are really on the table, or provides a shoulder to cry on, or some tough love for Dr. Robbie. So we’re curious where this project will land, given that her approach to motherhood is multifaceted.
20th Television will produce alongside Lohan and Woodley.
Tumor’s cast is growing. Michael Peña, Chris Messina (Juror #2), & Esai Morales (Gabriel in the final 2 Mission: Impossible films) are joining Sam Rockwell and Maisy Stella (My Old Ass).
Directed by Will Bridges (Apple TV+’s All of You starring Imogen Poots) and produced by Stay Gold Features (Under the Silver Lake, Honey Boy), the film centers on a low-level LA private investigator who searches for a missing politician’s daughter among the city’s privileged elite. The twist is that he’s battling a late-stage brain tumor, weakening his grip on reality as old memories blur with the present.
The film just wrapped shooting in LA, where it received a tax credit of $2.6M on a budget of $7.5M.
Master Wayne… welcome back. Andy Serkis will return as Alfred Pennyworth in The Batman II (dir: Matt Reeves). The butler’s return was uncertain due to schedule conflicts with The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
Now officially back, Serkis will join the star-studded cast of The Batman II, along with Scarlett Johansson and Sebastian Stan (Thunderbolts).
Serkis successfully showed his interpretation of Alfred by adding an ex-military grit to the character, functioning not as a warm-father figure to Robert Pattinson’s Batman but rather a stoic guardian to the younger Caped Crusader.
Tidbits:
Big Head goes horror. You may remember Josh “Big Head” Brener from Silicon Valley (clip). Well, now he’s been cast in the horror film, White Elephant (Dir: Eli Craig - Clown in a Cornfield). No word on his exact role, but the film centers around friends at Christmas whose annual white elephant game turns bloody. We feel like Brener would make a good candidate for the first one killed, as he plays clueless so well. Also cast are Alexandra Shipp, who recently was in a light genre film in IFC’s Forbidden Fruits, and Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow). The film is financed by MRC’s RSPX.
After her final girl moment in Ready or Not 2, Kathryn Newton is joining Hot Year, an indie coming-of-age thriller film. An exploration of “brutally honest and grotesque womanhood,” the film follows two childhood best friends whose relationship is tested when a revenge plan against an ex-boyfriend goes awry. Their specific roles have not been confirmed, but Newton is joining Euphoria’s Storm Reid and former Disney actress Dove Cameron. Production is beginning next month in Oklahoma.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A Girl’s Trip gone terribly wrong. Shudder acquires Izabel Pakzad’s Find Your Friends. The horror debut feature will follow five friends as they go on a girls’ trip to Joshua Tree, only to find themselves threatened by the locals of a hostile desert town.
Helena Howard (Madeline’s Madeline). will lead as the film’s protagonist, Amber, along with Chloe Cherry (Euphoria) and Bella Thorne (Divinity).
The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival and was additionally screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as one of 10 Industry Selects. We hope to see a mixture of Spring Breakers (2012) and The Descent (2005) in Pakzad’s Find Your Friends, a sensory overload girl’s trip (first look clip) that quickly turns into a gory battle for survival.
Mini Tidbits:
A Rome court has ruled that the Netflix price increases in Italy were unlawful. Netflix must refund affected customers up to 500 euros, because the price hikes were imposed without providing enough information to its subscribers. Netflix’s total number of Italian subscribers was 5.4M in 2024, which would mean that the total amount needed to refund the customers could reach up to €2.7B.
We’re going Lo-fi. I Have Proof, a new horror film by James Cullen Bressack (Darkness of Man), will be shot entirely on VHS. The writer-director has bought around 30 VHS cassettes from eBay to find enough tapes to shoot on. No info on the plot.
ON THIS DAY
1939. Francis Ford Coppola born in Detroit, Michigan.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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