The Luckiest Man Alive
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Paul Walter Hauser, Zelda and Neon’s Nirvanna.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
In America, you can make yourself into whoever you want to be. At least, that’s the promise.
One of the most chameleonic actors working today, Golden Globe and Emmy winner Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell, Black Bird, Cruella), embodies this fully in his latest film, The Luckiest Man in America.
I sat down with Paul to discuss his character, the lovable schemer Michael Larson, a real-life figure who went on Press Your Luck in 1984 and made more than anyone in game show history.
Paul unwound what attracted him to the part:
“That's a common thread of a lot of the characters I play. These men who are driven yet wayward. They are their own worst enemies.”
Larson forges through the film, deadset on creating his own mythology as a stand-up father, a loving husband, and a folksy ice cream driver. All of which are disrupted by the cast:
Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight, White Lotus), the game show host
Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), behind-the-scenes assistant
Johnny Knoxville, talk show host
David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck), the game show producer
As the game show begins, and Larson shares a little about himself to all those watching at home, he bluffs that he is married “to the most beautiful woman in the world,” when in fact, he is a divorcee.
Hauser broke down one scene where his carefully curated image shatters:
“So much of what Michael does is calculated, strategic. So when a moment comes that he hasn't planned for… he is going from being the ringleader to being thrown into the lion's cage.”
And that’s the pleasure of watching this film, seeing Hauser brilliantly oscillate from winner to loser.
During airtime, Larson used the game show format to forge himself into the man he wanted to be—a personification of the American dream.
But The Luckiest Man in America reminds us: it's okay to fall short of the myth.
For More:
Trailer and our interview with Paul Walter Hauser.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Sony is making a Zelda movie.
Sony’s genre label Screen Gems is adapting the horror book Road of Bones.
Sony Pictures Television is shutting down Simon Pegg’s production company.
Prime’s mega-budget Citadel series is stalling.
Ravi Ahuja will depart from Roku’s board of directors.
Bruce Glover, who played Mr. Wint in the Bond film Diamonds are Forever has passed away at 92.
Anna Lambe (True Detective) joins Brad Pitt in The Heart of the Beast.
Comedian Tom Segura gets his first scripted Netflix show with Bad Thoughts.
CPH:DOX top prize goes to Always.
Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab selects 7 writers.
Neon has acquired the rights to Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.
Republic Pictures and ShowBiz Direct are releasing Bau, Artist at War, starring Emile Hirsch.
Sky launches the new docuseries, The Man Who Wanted to Change the World.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
The Legend of please don't fuck this up: Long rumored, long dreamt at times feared, we are really doing this, The Legend of Zelda is getting a live action adaptation by director Wes Ball (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) and Sony.
This weekend, Sony rolled out its calendar app, announcing the movie's planned March 2027 release. T.S. Nowlin from the Maze Runner series (that Ball directed) is currently writing the script.
To many, many people, The Legend of Zelda, in all its iterations, is considered one of the best video game series ever made. Twenty-one mainline titles all highly regarded by fans, and some, such as Ocarina of Time (1998) and Breath of The Wild (2017) are considered groundbreaking innovations on the art of video games themself and are both considered some of the best games ever made.
Big boots to fill Wes, on the surface, the premise of the Zelda series is simple:
https://theindustry.co/p/zelda
Scott Derrickson (dir: The Black Phone, Doctor Strange) is bad to the bone. He will direct an adaptation of the horror book Road of Bones for Sony’s genre label Screen Gems.
Here’s the book’s teaser synopsis:
A stunning supernatural thriller set in Siberia, where a film crew is covering an elusive ghost story about the Kolyma Highway, a road built on top of the bones of prisoners of Stalin's gulag.
The last time Derrickson directed a film for Screen Gems was Deliver Us from Evil (2014), which made $87.9M worldwide on a $30M budget. Derrickson’s writing partner C. Robert Cargill (The Black Phone, The Gorge) will pen the script.
Tidbits:
Sony Pictures Television is shutting down Stolen Picture, the production company founded by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, though its brand and IP will remain. Liquidation is underway, with no job losses expected. Pegg and Frost exited in 2022. Stolen Picture produced short-lived series like Truth Seekers and Out Of Her Mind. Tragically this was a bit expected after CEO Miles Ketley passed away in 2020. Pegg described him as captain of the ship. More bad news for Pegg, who just last week had a film he was in halted for funding.
Prime’s mega-budget Citadel series is stalling after the head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, departed the company. The second season of the Russo brothers- directed series will be pushed from fall 2025 to spring 2026. All spinoffs (there’s an Italian and Indian version) have been put on hold. These were always very expensive, with the first season costing a whopping $250M and total production costs across all series and spinoffs at $500M total.
After over a decade with Roku, Ravi Ahuja will depart from the board of directors due to his promotion to CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Prior to joining Sony, Ahuja had been extremely instrumental in the merger of Fox and Disney/ABC Television following the latter’s acquisition of the major network back in 2019. Beginning his new role back in January, he will not officially step down from his director post until the company’s annual stockholders meeting this coming June.
Mini Tidbits:
Netflix is hyping up its Stranger Things stage play. Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow will document the prequel and its upcoming premier on Broadway. The doc drops April 15th and the play opens April 22nd. Stranger Things 5 is expected to release this year (trailer).
As the company restructures Disney Branded Television and National Geographic, the head of marketing, Pam Levine, is leaving the company. Her most notable work was on campaigns for Percy Jackson & the Olympians and the Descendants franchise.
Netflix dips its toe back into pilots with A Different World. For the studio’s second pilot ever, they will shoot a sequel to the 1987 Cosby Show spinoff A Different World (original promo). Debbie Allen will direct.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
“No one is ever too old to learn from a master.” Those chilling words, delivered by Bruce Glover, who played Mr. Wint in the Bond film Diamonds are Forever has passed away at 92. Watch some of his scenes from the film here with some great BTS commentary on how he was cast (clip). Glover was a brilliant character actor, also appearing in Chinatown 1974 and Walter Hill’s Hard Times.
If you are enjoying the newsletter and see its value, please consider supporting the newsletter by becoming a premium subscriber https://theindustry.co/subscribe
Recently starring in The Brutalist, English actress Emma Laird will lead the upcoming BBC family crime drama Mint, from Conclave producer House Productions. Described as a dark comedy, the unconventional drama will expose the inner workings of a dangerous mob family. This will be the first TV series from Charlotte Regan, the director of the heartfelt 2023 comedy Scrapper. Following this casting news production on Mint is about to begin.
Tidbits:
Three time Golden Globe winner Richard Chamberlain known for his roles in shows like Shōgun (1980) and The Thorn Birds (1983) has passed away at age 90. Chamberlain starred in a number of iconic films but got his breakthrough as the titular role in NBC’s medical drama Dr. Kildare (1961-1966). He will be missed.
Anna Lambe (True Detective) joins Brad Pitt and J.K. Simmons in The Heart of the Beast, an action-adventure film by David Ayer. Pitt stars as a soldier stranded in Alaska with his dog. Lambe’s role is currently undisclosed.
Character actor Denis Arndt, whose intense charisma lit up roles from Basic Instinct to multiple David E. Kelley series, has died at 86. A two-time Purple Heart veteran turned Tony-nominated Broadway standout in Heisenberg, Arndt’s gritty charm and powerful presence resonated across decades on stage and screen.
Comedian Tom Segura gets his first Netflix show with Bad Thoughts. It seems hilarious, ridiculous, and wonderfully over the top (trailer). Release date May 13th.
FESTIVALS
CPH:DOX awards top prize to Always.
Here’s the synopsis:
A Chinese boy discovers the power of poetry in a picturesque and magical film from a mountain village. A striking debut of great beauty.
The jury stated:
‘There’s a huge difference between nothing and small things. But life is in fact made up of many, often unnoticed, small things. We need the sensibilities of artists to show us the greatness of the little things.”
Full list of winners here.
Congrats to the 7 screenwriters selected for Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab. This one caught our eye:
The Shell Covered Ox/ Boi De Conchas
Writer/Director: Daniel Barosa
Writer: Natália Sellani
Logline:
While mourning her missing sister, Rayane practices for a music festival – provided she doesn’t become an ox first, a misfortune assailing local teenagers.
The short film on which the feature is based premiered at Sundance last year. Here’s the trailer.
Find the full list of the Screenwriting Lab projects here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Neon has acquired the rights to Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, a time-traveling comedy from Canadian creators Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, based on their cult mockumentary series.
Directed by Johnson (dir/actor: Operation Avalanche) and cowritten with McCarrol, the film follows two aspiring musicians who scheme to play a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli, despite never having written a song.
The web series had some very funny moments, and the unscripted energy always led to something off the wall, and Matt and Jay's chemistry was just as natural as their friendship.
You're Kramer - clip.
Matt watches Star Wars for the first time - clip.
The acquisition was teased with a cryptic social media post (above) featuring a nostalgic Orbitz bottle, a key element in the film's plot.
This was one of the wildest films at the 2025 SXSW Festival. Looking forward to the rollout Neon gives this one.
Republic Pictures a Paramount Pictures subsidiary and ShowBiz Direct (Reagan) have acquired Bau, Artist at War starring Emile Hirsch.
Here’s the synopsis:
The inspiring love story of Joseph Bau, artist, forger, holocaust survivor. Using his artistic skills, humor and hope in the camps, Joseph stays alive and helps hundreds to escape. Miraculously, he finds love in the midst of despair.
Sean McNamara (Regan) directs. Release date is slated for Sept 26th.
A new Sky docuseries,The Man Who Wanted to Change the World, follows the life of Mauro Rostagno, a political activist in the 70s who was ultimately killed by the mafia, with each episode exposing the treacherous underbelly of Italy’s organized crime scene.
The new series is reminiscent of Italian author and fellow activist Roberto Saviano’s exposé Gomorrah, which uncovered secrets of the Neapolitan mob and was later adapted into a pretty popular HBO Max series of the same name (2014-21, s1 trailer).
The Man Who Wanted to Change the World is now playing on Sky.
ON THIS DAY
1943. Roy Andersson (dir: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence), born in Gothenburg, Sweden.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
Follow us on: Facebook | Instagram
Want to advertise with us? Email: clarke.scott@theindustry.co