Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Ari Aster’s horror, Isabelle Huppert's vampire, and a spotless mind.
Let’s go!
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EFM (European Film Market) is the premier market for getting films financed. With many splashy projects, it will be a post-Sundance litmus test if the film industry is surviving or thriving.
Here’s a quick guide to the latest and greatest:
Dir/Wri: Ari Aster (Hereditary)
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal
Financier/Prod/Distribution: A24
Producer: Lars Knudsen (Hereditary, The Witch)
Premiere: Possibly Cannes
Searching for international buyers
Synopsis:
The film follows a small-town New Mexico sheriff (Phoenix) with higher aspirations.
Dir/Wri: Ulrike Ottinger (Berlin Lifetime Achievement Award)
Star: Isabelle Huppert
Co-writer: Elfriede Jelinek (author: The Piano Teacher)
International Sales: Magnify (Magnolia Pictures's international sales arm)
Synopsis:
Inspired by the life and legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, a 16th-century Hungarian serial killer as she awakens from her long beauty sleep and emerges from the underworld.
Huppert in a vampire movie will be astonishing. Luckily, we can rest assured knowing that her portrayal won’t be like anything we’ve ever seen before.
Untitled Hitman Thriller
Dir: Ernest Dickerson (DP: Do The Right Thing, Dir: 11 eps Walking Dead)
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson and Daveed Diggs (Nickel Boys)
International Sales: WME Independent
Domestic Sales: Fifth Season, CAA Media Finance and Contentious Media
Jackson Plays:
Morris Stokes, a recently retired and very opinionated hitman for mob boss Easy-A.
Ever since Pulp Fiction, viewers have hungered to see Jackson back in the philosophical hitman role.
For More:
James Franco is back for another “psychedelic stoner comedy” in Toad, also starring Tiffany Haddish and Craig Robinson. Architect (32 Sounds) is the sales rep.
Family Sci-Fi film, Xeno (prod company: Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Productions) is about a teen who befriends an alien. Blue Fox Entertainment (Language Lessons) is the sales rep.
Special Ops Rent-A-Cop stars Billy Zane (Waltzing With Brando). VMI Worldwide (Adrien Brody’s Clean) is the sales rep.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Q4 has been great for YouTube, they brought in 2.7% more revenue than Netflix.
The Fantastic Four trailer looks pretty… well, you know.
Ethan Hawke is leading a new reimagining of the classic Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter (1950) for 20th Century Studios.
WME has promoted Mike DeVeau to partner of the talent department. He reps Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck, and Riz Ahmed.
Lionsgate has acquired domestic rights for the Brazilian survival thriller Titan.
Hulu has canceled its show How to Die Alone.
The Weekend plays a character named Abel Tesfaye (his real name) in his debut feature, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
Mark Strong has joined Apple TV+'s Neuromancer as a series regular.
Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are opening SXSW with Paul Feig’s Another Simple Favor.
SXSW doc premiere Deeper nabs Dogwoof as a sales agent.
Sideshow And Janus Films score Ira Sachs's latest film, Peter Hujar’s Day, which premiered last week at Sundance.
The Bear’s Molly Gordon is set to write, direct, and star in A24’s upcoming comedy Peaked.
Michel Gondry's new animated film, Maya, Give Me a Title, will have its domestic premiere at the NY International Children’s Film Festival.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Q4 has been great for YouTube. Here’s the latest, with the change from last year:
$10.47 bn ad revenue
↑ 13.8% from last year
2.7% higher than Netflix’s $10.2 bn
11.1% Total TV Usage (Nielson)
↑ 4.7% since last Quarter
31% larger share than Netflix
Some believe YouTube poses the biggest existential threat to the streaming companies. YouTube has the largest share of streaming, with 1 bn hours of content consumed daily. 2.7bn monthly active users (80M paid), user-generated content, premium video channels including Starz, with whom they’ve extended their bundle deal, and ABC, AMC, BBC, Disney, ESPN, Fx, Paramount, plus the NFL.
But the streamers are also playing a different game with premium content and using YouTube engagement on trailers to drive people to their platforms.
The Fantastic Four trailer looks pretty… well, you know: Fantastic Four's first full trailer gives a great peek at Marvel's first family and the alternate universe they live in. It looks like this will not be another origin story; from conversations Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) has with his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), we can assume that the four will already have been to space and received their powers, acting as almost celebrities in this world very different from our own MCU.
Director Matt Shakman is really in his element with this alternate 60's retro-futurism, something he cultivated in his love letter to retro television Wandavision. There are a few unanswered questions, like how the family will end up in our MCU universe in time for Avengers End Game, but it looks like the movie will probably be a little bit more golden age of comics, with goofy villains, that is until big bad Galactus shows up to do his thing.
As far as first looks, this one is oozing with charm and is different enough to make even the most superhero-fatigued give it a second look.
Check out the trailer here.
Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters July 25th.
Four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke is leading a new reimagining of the classic Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter (1950) for 20th Century Studios.
The original film follows the notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo (Peck), who rides into town to find his true love, who doesn’t want to see him. He hasn’t come looking for trouble, but trouble finds him around every corner.
Hawke recently wrote, directed, and produced the TIFF film Wildcat (2023), starring his daughter Maya Hawke (Stranger Things). Hawke has named The Gunfighter as one of his all-time favorite films (interview clip), yet there is no word on if he will direct or star beyond him producing and penning the script of the remake which is currently in its early stages of development.
Tidbits:
WME has promoted Mike DeVeau to partner of the talent department. Deveau’s most recently closed Felicity Jones’ now Oscar-nominated role in The Brutalist. He reps Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck, Riz Ahmed (The Sound of Metal), and Alan Ritchson (Reacher). From starting in the mailroom back in 2013, DeVeau has led a very impressive career.
Lionsgate has acquired domestic rights for the Brazilian survival thriller Titan. From V/H/S/85 director Mike P. Nelson the film follows a team of doctors on a humanitarian mission through the Amazon rainforest and are faced with an ancient predator looking to reclaim the jungle. Represented by north.five.six (Dutch & Razzlekahn) and Constantin Film (Resident Evil), the film has just wrapped shooting in Colombia.
Cancellations:
Peacock’s Hysteria!
Hulu’s How to Die Alone
Hulu pilot Downforce
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
The Weekend really wants you to call him by his name: So much so that he is playing a character named Abel Tesfaye (his real name) in his debut feature Hurry Up Tomorrow, sharing the screen with heavy hitters Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, Abel plays Abel a musician going through a mental breakdown ala Vanilla Sky or even a bit of Paprika.
Hurry Up Tomorrow also just so happens to be the name of his next album too, a bit of synergy with Lionsgate.
A movie tied to an album is probably something we will be seeing more of. (Speaking of which, what happened to the Childish Gambino film?). Abel as The Weekend, has always been very cinematic in his performances, embodying characters and themes like his spectacular live performances for the 2020 American Music Awards and MTV Music Video Awards:
He also recently released a series of short films for his project, After Hours.
So Abel truly seems to have a passion for cinema and wants to be an actor, you know where I am going with this.
We need to talk about his first acting debut on HBO's The Idol, considered to be the worst-reviewed series for the platform ever, and a big part of that was criticism for his performance, but it has to be acknowledged the script was not very good. Now, every millionaire superstar deserves a second chance, maybe Hurry Up Tomorrow will be that for Abel.
With an interesting cast and some incredible shots, I guess my only true fear is the meta-narrative, and the fact that it's tied to an album release could end up in a self-indulgent mess.
But I think we all would rather have a musician who is passionate about being an actor rather than one who is just phoning it in. Abel is not phoning it in he's going for it. You can see how that works out for him and Lionsgate May 16.
Check out the trippy trailer here.
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Mark Strong has joined Apple TV+'s Neuromancer as a series regular, playing Armitage, the enigmatic employer of hacker Case (Callum Turner) and assassin Molly (Briana Middleton). Based on the 1984 science fiction novel, The 10-episode drama follows Case as he navigates digital espionage and high-stakes crime alongside Molly in a dangerous heist against a powerful corporate dynasty. Mark Strong is probably most recently recognized for playing the stalwart Merlin in the Kingsman series.
This clip is a bit of a spoiler for Kingsman, but it's just pretty awesome:
He also recently played Gotham mob boss Carmen Falcon in HBO’s Penguin series:
No stranger to action and grim, Mark Strong seems like a perfect addition to the world of Neuromancer and what a world that the novel is hugely influential and is considered the grandfather of the Cyber-Punk aesthetic, which now acts as a world for various video games, movies and definitely shares a bit of DNA with Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
FESTIVALS
Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are opening this year’s SXSW in Paul Feig’s Another Simple Favor, the sequel movie to the director’s playful 2018 mystery, A Simple Favor (trailer).
Official Synopsis:
Follows Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Lively) as they head to the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman.
Despite the 2018 film grossing close to $100 M with only a $20 M budget, Amazon/MGM has decided, against Feig’s wishes, especially after a festival premiere, to give the sequel a straight-to-streaming release date of May 1st on Prime Video.
This year, in addition to Another Simple Favor, Feig has his psychological thriller, The Housemaid, headlined by Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, based on Freida McFadden’s popular book of the same name, set for a Christmas Day premiere.
With “through the roof” test screenings, soon enough, the mysteries Feig has in store will be revealed when Another Simple Favor premieres on the opening night of SXSW on March 7th.
Tidbits:
Where the Night Stands Still premiering at Berlin’s Persepectives section centers on the “corrosive legacy that colonialism has left on the Filippino psyché.” The trailer is textural and eerie.
SXSW doc premiere Deeper nabs Dogwoof as a sales agent. The film is directed by Jennifer Peedom (Solo, Sherpa, Mountain) and centers on a reckless free diver who vies to discover the world’s deepest cave.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Sideshow And Janus Films score Ira Sachs's latest film, Peter Hujar’s Day, which premiered last week at Sundance.
Here’s the synopsis:
A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.
Rebecca Hall plays writer Linda Rosenkrantz, who decides to interview Peter Hujar (played magnificently by Ben Whishaw) about what he did yesterday in extreme detail.
There is a poetic nature to seeing how a photographer’s memory distorts and captures their own life in real-time.
Throughout, Hall, despite having a fraction of the dialogue of Whishaw, soaks him in with her eyes, dashing between cajoling and fawning. It’s a masterclass in active listening.
Sachs for his part won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize at Sundance back in 2005 with Forty Shades of Blue. Since then, he has released Sundance favorites Little Men (2016) and Passages (2023).
You can check out Sachs’s wonderfully intimate style in Peter Hujar’s Day when it releases in the fall.
The Bear’s Molly Gordon is a true triple threat. The actress is set to write, direct, and star in A24’s upcoming comedy Peaked.
Official Logline:
Following the two girls who traumatized you in high school as they try to relive their glory days at their 10-year reunion.
She is co-writing the screenplay with her friend Allie Levitan, who was recently hired as a writer on Saturday Night Live. Gordon previously co-directed, co-wrote, and starred in Searchlight Pictures mockumentary Theater Camp (trailer), an eccentric comedy following the wacky staff of a rundown theater camp.
Peaked is set to begin shooting later this year.
Tidbit:
Michel Gondry's (dir: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) new animated film, Maya, Give Me a Title, will have its domestic premiere at the NY International Children’s Film Festival.
Synopsis: Michel Gondry’s stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.
Here’s the cerebral trailer.
ON THIS DAY
1919. United Artists, founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith.
See you tomorrow!
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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