Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
HBO’s The Pitt, Lord & Miller’s Archie, and Neon’s George Orwell.
Let’s go!
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HBO Max’s The Pitt taps into the chaos of overworked healthcare professionals at a Pittsburgh hospital.
The show navigates through their personal crises, workplace politics, and the emotional toll of treating critically ill patients. All the while triaging the most crucial question for these workers: when do we treat the patients as a body and when do we treat them as a human being?
The cast is led by a great performance by the noble but tormented Noah Wyle, who presses through this “deli of death.”
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are developing an Archie movie.
20th Century picks up a dark magic feature pitch for Hex.
Ed Zwick (dir: Blood Diamond) directs revisionist Western The Creed of Violence.
New Regency picks up erotic thriller spec Fixation.
Wolfenstein series creator Patrick Somerville inks 2-year Amazon deal.
Amazon MGM is adapting upcoming fantasy novel Katabasis.
Ryan Coogler’s Proximity hires Terra Potts as CMO/COO.
Jigsaw Productions elevates Robert Kessell to EVP of scripted.
Hallmark cuts 30 jobs.
HBO & Sky order 2 seasons of legal anthology War starring Dominic West and Sienna Miller.
Tramell Tillman joins Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
A24 thriller October adds Chase Sui Wonders.
Catherine Keener joins Amazon MGM’s Love of Your Life.
Mortician wins Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival.
Music Box Films acquires Sundance’s By Design, starring Juliette Lewis as a chair.
Andrew Haigh developing Keith Haring series.
Kino Lorber takes North American rights Nadav Lapid’s satire Yes.
Thailand selects A Useful Ghost as Oscar submission.
See why it has 13 Emmy nominations - click here for more info.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Lord & Miller take a crack at Archie: The duo behind The Lego Movie and The Spider-Verse has set their sights on turning Archie comics into an “Event Movie.”
Teaming with former Paramount Studio president Emma Watts and comic writer Tom King, they hope to turn King's newer, edgier interpretation of Archie into a faithful adaptation of the town of Riverdale, not to be confused with CW's horny, Twin Peaksy take previously.
This is a big moment for King, whose comic Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow is getting adapted by James Gunn's DCU.
The world of Archie comics exists in a high school, but the single comic under King went to great lengths to keep the town interesting, including a zombie invasion, Archie fighting the actual AVP Predator, and a bizarre love story that led to Archie marrying both Betty and Veronica.
Lots to work with, and I'd trust Lord & Miller with anything.
Dave Green (Dir: Coyote vs. Acme) and BenDavid Grabinski (creator: Netflix’s animated Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) have teamed up on a new movie called Hex, and it just sold to 20th Century.
Green will direct, Grabinski will write, and Andrew Lazar (American Sniper) will produce.
It's a dark magic story, which is great as these two guys carry a lot of weight in the geek space. This team previously collaborated on Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. Grabinski also made the Are You Afraid of the Dark? revival.
Ed Zwick, director of The Last Samurai (2003), is back with a new movie, The Creed of Violence. A revisionist Western set during the Mexican Revolution.
Synopsis:
1910. Two men - an assassin and a government agent with a hidden connection try to stop an arms smuggling ring.
This is very much in the vein of Zwick’s previous films, such as Blood Diamond (2006) and Glory (1989): action films that are both very violent and hyper-political.
Tidbits:
Another sci-fi pull for the adaptation grinder: Jay Oliva (storyboard artist: Deadpool, Wonder Woman) will direct an animated adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s (author: Stranger in a Strange Land) book Citizen of the Galaxy (1957). It follows Thorby, a space slave who gets a second chance and a destiny. I am just waiting for them to try and adapt a Bazooka Joe gum wrapper comic.
New Regency has landed erotic thriller spec Fixation from Wednesday scribes Erika Vazquez & Siena Butterfield. The story centers on a couple’s therapist who is drawn into a dangerous triangle of lust, lies, and manipulation. This marks the second collaboration between New Regency and Made Up Stories after their partnership on Gone Girl (2014).
Amazon MGM Studios' Wolfenstein TV series creator, Patrick Somerville (Station 11), has signed a 2-year overall deal with Amazon. He will develop other TV show ideas under his chaoticgood.tv banner. With that nerdy name alluding to Dungeons and Dragons jargon and his surprisingly sweet take on the apocalypse with Station 11, Somerville might be a great get for Amazon.
Just before it's published, Amazon MGM Studios is adapting Katabasis, a fantasy novel from Babel author R.F. Kuang for TV. The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang is attached as showrunner and writer, with the upcoming novel a dark academic satire following a grad student studying magic.
Mini Tidbits:
Ryan Coogler’s + Alex Gibney’s hires
Hallmark cuts 30 jobs
Mustaches
For all the above mini tidbits and more, click here.
Trailers:
Netflix’s Black Rabbit
Cast: Jason Bateman and Jude Law (as brothers!)
Release: Sept 18
Paramount+’s Mayor of Kingstown (S4)
Cast: Jeremy Renner
Release: October 26
Apple TV+’s The Morning Show (S4)
Release: Sept 17
Netflix’s The Ba***ds Of Bollywood
Dir/Wri: Aryan Khan (son of Shah Rukh Khan)
Release: Sept 18
First Look:
Amazon’s Hedda
Dir: Nia DaCosta (28 Years Later: Bone Temple)
Premiere: TIFF
HBO & BBC’s Half Man
Creator: Richard Gadd
Release: 2026
Netflix’s Emily in Paris (S5)
Release: Dec 18
See why it has 13 Emmy nominations - click here for more info.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
HBO and Sky’s new legal thriller anthology series War, not only stars Dominic West (The Affair) and Sienna Miller (Anatomy of a Scandal), but has already been ordered for two seasons ahead of its premiere.
War is set in the elite world of London law following the divorce of the century between tech titan, Morgan Henderson (West), and his estranged wife and film star, Carla Duval (Miller).
West, famed for his gritty realism as Detective Jimmy McNulty (scene) on The Wire and his layered portrayal of Prince Charles in The Crown, takes on a role more dramatic than any palace or police precinct, spotlighting his knack for portraying powerful men under siege.
From the creator of Apple’s Hijack.
Tidbits:
Tramell Tillman, fresh off being Emmy-nominated for Severance, joins Spider-Man: Brand New Day. He’s great in a super suit: dance scene. Rising very fast, he recently appeared in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and continues projects with Amazon, Netflix, and will soon be on Broadway.
A24’s fugitive thriller, October, adds The Studio’s breakout star Chase Sui Wonders to its cast alongside Saturday Night’s Cory Michael Smith. Beyond her turn on the Seth Rogen comedy, Wonders has starred in mostly horror and thriller projects, including her last collaboration with A24, the Gen Z cult comedy horror Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022). From Rebel Ridge (2024) director Jeremy Saulnier, October is set during Halloween.
Catherine Keener (Get Out, Capote) is the newest cast addition to Amazon MGM’s Love of Your Life alongside Margaret Qualley and The White Lotus’ Patrick Schwarzenegger for Ryan Gosling’s Open Invite Entertainment banner. The two-time Oscar-nominated Keener has previously worked with Amazon for their limited anthology series Modern Love (2019-21).
Mini Tidbits:
Hayley Atwell and Rupert Everett join Rivals season two as guest stars, playing husband and wife Helen and Malise Gordon. Rivals is a beloved British drama series about the 1980s British television dynasty. Rivals returns to Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally.
Rafał Zawierucha (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Mauricio Ochmann (Non-Negotiable) will star in Rode Hard, a six-part comedy about American ranchers teaching cowboy skills to Polish villagers. Produced by Diamond Moving, filming begins in spring 2025.
Omid Abtahi joins Prime Video’s Joseph of Egypt as a new character named Ankuh. The eight-episode series, led by Adam Hashmi as Joseph, expands upon the biblical story of Joseph's defiance of Egypt and rise to power.
See why it has 13 Emmy nominations - click here for more info.
FESTIVALS
TIFF:
Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore launches Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, a doc on Italian fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli, at TIFF.
TIFF Centerpiece Erupcja, a wild love story between a Polish florist and a British tourist (Charli xcx), is boarded by Magnify (sales rep: Veni Vidi Vici, Christmas Eve at Miller’s Point) for international sales. CAA reps domestic.
Venice:
Mubi’s Agon. It’s a mythological depiction of 3 Olympic athletes. Not quite doc, not quite experimental film, but fully experiential. Trailer. Premiering at Venice Critics Week.
Venice Out of Competition doc Notes Of A True Criminal is picked up for worldwide sales by Cinephil.
Edinburgh:
Mortician wins Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film centers on a reclusive mortician who faces an unusual request from a dissident singer in hiding. Brooklyn-based Visit Films recently acquired global sales.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Big Brother is watching Raoul Peck. His Cannes doc Orwell: 2+2=5 shows how we increasingly live in a world where war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.
It overlays an Orwellian rhythm onto modern life, and it’s chilling (trailer).
Music Box Films picks up Sundance’s By Design, starring Juliette Lewis. Finally!
Here’s the logline:
A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.
I saw this at Sundance and loved it. The film is about what happens when we reduce each other to objects. There are some great lines that, in context, have wildly powerful emotional resonances:
“I’m underneath you.”
“Chairs can’t stand up for themselves.”
“We can never own people like we do objects”
The level of satire is operatic, and the audience was laughing nonstop. Releasing early 2026.
Tidbits:
All of Us Strangers director Andrew Haigh is helming and writing a series about 80s American pop artist and activist Keith Haring. In a competitive negotiation, Working Title Television (BBC’s The Tudors) won the rights to Brad Gooch’s biography Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring. While All of Us Strangers explored a haunting and private grief, this new project marks a shift toward portraying a larger-than-life cultural figure whose art unfolded on a very public stage.
Director Baltasar Kormákur (2 Guns, Everest) will make his return to acting in Baldvin Z’s Dark Ocean, a claustrophobic Icelandic/English drama about a fisherman stuck on a trawler. The cast is full of familiar Icelandic actors like Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Severance) and Thorvaldur Kristjansson (The Minister). Shooting in 2026 between Iceland and Canada.
Howard Overman (Misfits, The War of the Worlds) has created Hit Point, a six-part police thriller blending crime, romance, and high-stakes drama. Produced by Urban Myth Films with Canal+ and UKTV’s U&Dave, directed by David Caffrey, it marks U&Dave’s first original scripted drama, set for release across 50+ territories next year.
Thailand has announced Cannes’ film A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka) as its official submission for the International Feature Film Category for the 98th Academy Awards. The satirical ghost story is described as a romantic comedy, a deliberate departure from Thailand’s acclaimed horror scene.
Mini Tidbits:
Kino Lorber’s Yes
Parasite production company’s new deal
BBC’s Dexter
For all the above and more, click here.
ON THIS DAY
1942. Bambi is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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