Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
CA’s quarter billion, Pedro Pascal’s knight, and a rose.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
CA allocates $256M in tax credits to 22 TV shows.
Brad Singer named future CFO of Warner Bros.
Anonymous Content lays off 15% of staff.
Fox & YouTube TV strike short-term extension.
Pedro Pascal replaces Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Haynes’ De Noche.
Anthony Ippolito will play Sylvester Stallone in Amazon MGM’s I Play Rocky.
Elizabeth Banks leads true crime series Karen.
John Malkovich joins Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey (S2).
Mireille Enos joins Jon Hamm in MGM+’s American Hostage.
Emil Wakim exits SNL after one season.
Pitt, Phoenix, Mara, Cuarón & Glazer board Venice’s The Voice of Hind Rajab as EPs.
Music Box acquires Belgian Oscar entry Young Mothers.
Vertical picks up Lucy Liu’s Rosemead.
Bryan Singer returns with period drama starring Jon Voight.
Sweden, Iceland, and Papua New Guinea submit their Oscar entries.
Aquarius Films (Lion) closes after 20 years.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
The new $750M CA state tax credit continues to give.
They’ve just allocated $256M to 22 TV shows.
Click here for my full analysis of the key titles, trends, and how much each studio received: https://theindustry.co/p/ca-tax-credit-tv-gets-256m
The tax credit was allocated to some big series, such as Season 2s of some big hits:
Apple TV+’s The Studio
Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent
Plus pilots from FX, Disney+, and a new Larry David project.
Just ahead of the Warner Bros. Discovery split, former partner Brad Singer will be joining the streaming and studios company as official CFO. While the separation won’t occur till mid-2026, the ValueAct Capital partner will start his new position at the beginning of October. Singer will oversee global financial strategies and planning.
Anonymous Content is making cuts. Roughly 19 of their 130 staff are being let go. This is symptomatic of the film industry as of late, although hopefully less with the CA tax credit hitting! We’ve seen it even with companies that haven’t been constrained due to M&A, such as Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media (cut 3), Lena Waithe’s production company (downsized), Blumhouse (cut 6), and A24, which cut its Documentary division.
Fox Corp. and YouTube TV struck a short-term extension on their carriage deal, averting a blackout for YouTube TV’s 8M subscribers. The pact ensures Fox Sports, Fox News, and the Fox broadcast network remain available on YouTube TV as negotiations continue. This is critical with college football and the NFL season looming, and MLB heading into its playoff race.
David Brown (IMDbPro link) (EP: The Apprentice) is arrested for fraud. He faces up to 300 years in prison for wire fraud, forging Kevin Spacey’s signature, and a slew of other charges. Read more here.
Trailers:
CBS’ DMV
Release: Oct 13
First Look:
Netflix’s The Ed Gein Story
Creator: Ryan Murphy
Star: Charlie Hunnam
Co-star: Laurie Metcalf, Vicky Krieps
Best posters + tagline I’ve seen for a true crime series ever
Release: Oct. 3rd
Prime’s Lazarus
Cast: Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy
Release: Oct 22nd
France TV’s Stalk (S3)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Pedro Pascal just went head-to-head with Joaquin Phoenix in Eddington. Now, Pascal is in talks to replace Phoenix in De Noche, the Todd Haynes gay romance film.
If you remember, Phoenix exited the film before production began last year. The cast and crew were held for weeks, and the film was eventually abandoned… until now.
This is great news for the film's legendary producer, Christine Vachon (founder: Killer Films), who stated this had been a nightmare as Phoenix came to her and Haynes with the project.
When it was first announced, we explored the project in a cover story on Joaquin Phoenix: https://theindustry.co/p/joaquin-phoenix
De Noche will likely shoot next year in Guadalajara, Mexico. Now we hope Vachon can get her Bryan Cranston and Lily Gladstone film, Lone Wolf, back on track.
Anthony Ippolito (The Offer) has been cast as Sylvester Stallone in I Play Rocky, Amazon MGM’s drama about the making of Rocky.
Directed by Peter Farrelly (Green Book), the film tells the true story of Stallone refusing to sell his script unless he could star, turning down fortune to gamble on himself.
In a true bout of “method acting” Ippolito pursued the role with similar persistence, landing it after sending an unsolicited audition tape. Ippolito already has experience playing another major Hollywood star; he played a young, nervous Al Pacino prepping for the big scene in The Godfather in The Offer. Clip.
Ippolito does great at capturing Pacino’s intensity and fear.
Tidbits:
Prime Video and Warner Bros. TV’s true crime limited series sees Elizabeth Banks set to play Karen Read, a real woman accused of murdering her boyfriend. We’ve always believed that Banks was capable of depravity. She got the closest in Brightburn (trailer). Besides leading the series, Banks will also EP.
The second season of Apple TV+’s dark comedy series, Bad Monkey, casts John Malkovich as a series regular opposite Vince Vaughn. The Dangerous Liaisons (1988) actor’s famously sardonic delivery would really be a great match for the sharp Bill Lawrence comedy. Malkovich will play Spencer, the head of the South Florida criminal organization. Premiering late next year.
Emil Wakim is exiting SNL after one season, joining fellow recent departure Devon Walker. Wakim, who had limited screen time, debuted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2022 and was a Just For Laughs “New Face. Clip. It's a shame this one feels a bit like he just didn't get enough chances to really make an impact.
Based on a Tessa Bailey novel, It Happened One Summer casts its three romantic leads. In a Schitt’s Creek-esque fall from grace, Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries) will play a once “LA it girl” cut off from her family’s safety net. Dobrev will star alongside Virginia Gardner (Fall) and Tyler Hoechlin (Road to Perdition).
World War Z’s Mireille Enos is joining Jon Hamm in American Hostage, a 70s drama thriller series from MGM+. The anthology series will see Enos as Hamm’s formidable wife, Barbara. Premiering Feb. 2026.
FESTIVALS
Venice opened yesterday with Francis Ford Coppola presenting Werner Herzog with a lifetime achievement award. The video is very sweet.
Some other festival developments:
Kaouther Ben Hania (dir: The Man Who Sold His Skin, Four Daughters) in-competition film The Voice of Hind Rajab has been boarded by a string of starry EPs: Brad Pitt, Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Alfonso Cuarón, and Jonathan Glazer. Made in association with Pitt’s Plan B. Watermelon Pictures (The Teacher) is distributing in the US.
On The Road (Venice Horizons) has been picked up for Italian distribution by I Wonder Pictures (EEAAO, The Substance, Eddington).
Synopsis:
A drifter who sleeps with truckers meets a reserved driver and joins him hauling freight across northern Mexico. As they grow closer on the road, the drifter's past threatens them both.
Diego Luna serves as a producer.
Past Future Continuous (Venice Days official selection) has been picked up for international sales rights by Taskovski Films (Fauna)
Synopsis:
Maryam, an Iranian woman who escaped the revolution, keeps in touch with her parents through cameras installed in her home in Iran, revealing an intimate story about exile and ties to her homeland.
Venice Trailers:
Mother (Horizons Opening Film)
Cast: Noomi Rapace (as Mother Teresa)
Duse (In Competition)
Cast: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Noémie Merlant
TIFF Trailers:
Sony Pictures Classics’ Nuremberg
Cast: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon
Release: Nov 7th
XYZ Films’ The Furious (Midnight Madness)
Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising (Official Selection)
Degrassi: Whatever It Takes
Doc on the popular series Degrassi: The Next Generation
Doc subjects: Drake, Kevin Smith
Student Academy Winners here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
The Belgian selection for this year’s International Oscar category, Young Mothers (trailer), gets North American rights acquired by Music Box Films (Late Shift).
From the Belgian filmmaking brother duo Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the drama centers on five young women living in a temporary shelter for underage mothers. The film won the Best Screenplay award at its world premiere at Cannes this year.
The Chicago-based distributor has seen great success in the international arena like with Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winning Ida (2015) and Sweden’s Oscar entry A Man Called Ove (2017).
The shortlist for Oscar nominations will be announced on Dec. 16th.
Vertical picks up Rosemead, starring Lucy Liu. The film premiered at Tribeca (US Narrative Competition). A poignant story about family bonds, Rosemead navigates the complexities of mental health and the cultural stigma within the Asian American community.
The film is gut-wrenching, and Liu consistently demonstrates her profound emotional ability as an actress on a whole new level.
Hats off, as this was a seven-year journey to screen, with Liu as the producer. Releasing in December.
After more than eight years in directing exile, Bryan Singer has returned with a new movie starring Jon Voight. The Superman Returns director, fired mid-production from Bohemian Rhapsody in 2017, secretly shot a film in Greece in 2023.
It is a period drama, involving a father-son relationship set amid Israel’s occupation of Lebanon.
Singer, who’s been living in Israel for the past five years and working without an agent, privately raised under $10M in financing. Where this film ends up distribution-wise is very up in the air.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Some new, big international contenders have submitted their official selections for consideration for the upcoming 98th Oscars.
Sweden has picked Eagles of the Republic (clip), a political thriller from director Tarik Saleh (Venice’s Metropia) The film premiered at this year’s Cannes festival and will also play at TIFF in its Centerpiece section.
Iceland selected The Love That Remains (clip) from A White, White Day (2019), director Hlynur Pálmason. The film captures a year in the life of a family as the parents navigate separation.
Papua New Guinea has submitted its first-ever International Oscars selection with Paba Buka, a WWII film. From acclaimed Indian director Bijukumar Damodaran (Trees Under the Sun). The momentous occasion happens to coincide with the country’s 50th year of independence.
The deadline for selections for the 98th International Oscar category is Oct. 1st.
Disney+ has secured first-window rights to Nordisk Film’s local theatrical releases in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland starting 2026. Covering over 90 current features planned.
More Nordic news: Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson (Under the Tree) and Saga Garðarsdóttir (The Love That Remains) star in Hot Stuff, a 1979-set Icelandic-Romanian comedy-drama about Icelanders vacationing in Spain.
Mini Tidbit:
After nearly two decades, Australian production company Aquarius Films (Dev Patel’s Lion) is closing its doors. Producers and founders Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford will each pursue smaller separate projects as well as manage the ongoing rights in Aquarius’ catalogue (Binge series Mix Tape).
BritBox has acquired period drama The Hardacres (trailer) from Banijay Rights for North American streaming rights for both seasons. After its premiere last October, the series became Channel 5’s best new weekly drama and will be available in the U.S. on Sept. 10th.
ON THIS DAY
1956. 17th Venice Film Festival starts. No Golden Lion awarded.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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