Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
A24’s Ping Pong, Paramount’s Top Gun, and a brilliant friend.
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The Safdie brothers excel at weaving non-actors into their movies.
They did it with Arielle Holmes in Heaven Knows What, they did it with Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems. And now Josh Safdie is doing it once more with Kevin O’Leary in his solo directorial effort, A24’s Marty Supreme.
O’Leary, in real life, is a businessman best known as the most denigrating investor on ABC’s Shark Tank.
He described his Marty Supreme role:
“I play the richest guy in America in 1952…I'm not a nice guy. Oh my goodness. I think I was able to play that role quite well.”
The trailer for the film shows Timothée Chalamet, a prolific ping-pong hustler, making a pitch to O’Leary about the popularity of the sport internationally.
What surprised me was not how much the moment mirrored the entrepreneur/investor dynamic on Shark Tank, but instead how O’Leary looked softer and more affable than I’d ever seen—and I’ve seen all 350 episodes of Shark Tank.
Part of the Safdies’ touch with non-actors is their insight into how to both use their persona and redefine it. Part of this should be attributed to their longtime casting director, Jennifer Venditti, and their street casting director, Eleonore Hendricks.
With one of their early features, a street encounter with a drug-addicted homeless woman, Arielle Holmes, led them to build the film around her, which became Heaven Knows What (2014). There’s a raw warmth to Holmes in the film that never exploits her as a stereotype.
In Uncut Gems, the Safdies pushed Kevin Garnett’s celebrity persona further, drawing out his greed and frustration.
And in Marty Supreme, the use of O’Leary will push the film into a more grounded realm and also make it more fantastical. That’s the trick of casting a celebrity non-actor; we’re pulled into the mystical melding of their celebrity persona with their character.
For More:
Marty Supreme trailer.
Josh Safdie is not the only Safdie brother with an A24 sports film:
https://theindustry.co/p/safdie-brothers-uncut-sports
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Paramount Skydance Corp CEO David Ellison lays out plans for 15+ films/year.
NBCUniversal acquires Bourne rights in 9-figure deal.
BoulderLight teams with American Vandal creators for new series.
Apple TV+ is developing Barry Eisler’s John Rain assassin series.
Asad Ayaz is now Disney Entertainment marketing president.
Bill Burr’s North Hill Productions signs first-look deal with Fox.
ITV America is adapting Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino's memoir.
GKIDS and HBO Max expand partnership.
Hulu greenlights Count My Lies starring Shailene Woodley and Lindsay Lohan.
Charlie Hall joins Netflix’s Monster.
Nishijima Hidetoshi (Drive My Car) will star in Prime Japan’s Human Specimens.
Lorna Raver (actress: Drag Me to Hell) dies at 81.
Oscilloscope picks up Natchez, Tribeca Best Doc winner.
Watermelon Pictures picks up digital for There Was, There Was Not.
Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend is getting a Turkish adaptation.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Paramount Skydance Corp.'s new CEO, David Ellison, shared the company’s top film/TV priorities moving forward. This includes a plan to release 15 films/year and later up to 20.
These will include
Family films (Gremlins, Goonies, The Night at the Museum)
Horrors
R-rated comedies
Originals (Timothée Chalamet’s High Side)
Franchise films
Top Gun 3
Star Trek (also TV priority)
Transformers
World War Z 2
They’re investing in theatrical and called out their lack of interest in straight-streaming films.
More good news for Paramount:
Stock up 31% yesterday
South Park’s latest episode is the most-watched in 7 years, with 6.2M views in 3 days. Globally, the series is up 49%.
They won’t sell BET.
Jeremy Strong will star in a Paramount+ firefighter series, 9/12
We like their too-big-to-fail mentality with Larry Ellison’s backing. Although the axe is about to drop on many employees.
The Bourne Universe-al. In a 9-figure deal, NBCUniversal has acquired all of the rights (sans publishing) for the Bourne book series. This keeps everything in-house as Universal has released all 5 Bourne films ($1.64bn gross).
Maybe we’re about to see a John Wick-esque explosion in the IP with a Bourne TV series and a new Bourne spinoff films (à la Ballerina/Caine).
The rights getting snatched up in a bidding war is a far cry from what Bourne Identity director Doug Liman went through to get them in the late 1990s. Suffice to say, it involved crashing an engagement party, Sylvester Stallone, and the Teton Mountains. Full story here:
https://theindustry.co/p/how-jason-bourne-changed-cinema
Weapons producer BoulderLight has brought together two incredible comic minds, the creators of American Vandal & Youtube Sketch group Almost Friday, for their new series Last Night Was a Movie.
American Vandal was a Peabody Award-winning two-season docuseries that perfectly spoofed 2010 Netflix-style documentaries, but made them about high school pranks. Trailer.
Almost Friday is a YouTube sketch group known for their production value and their twists (just watch this). There is not a lot of info known about the actual show, just that the troupe will be writing and acting in the series.
This is flat-out just a win for the long-lost art of YouTube sketch. Currently, it's in a bit of a bidding war over which network will scoop it up.
Tidbits:
Apple TV+ may have a new franchise on its hands. Barry Eisler’s bestselling John Rain books are headed to the small screen by Apple and Tom Winchester’s (prod. Shōgun) Pure Fiction TV label. The fourteen-part series follows ex-CIA agent and international assassin John Rain, whose trademark is making his kills look like natural causes. See-Saw Films (Apple’s Slow Horses) is also producing.
Asad Ayaz is now the Disney Entertainment marketing president. Shannon Ryan will serve as Disney Entertainment Television marketing president, including DTC (Disney+ and Hulu). This is an expansion of both of their roles following the announcement that Hulu is being folded into Disney.
Comedian Bill Burr’s North Hill Productions signed a first-look deal with Fox Entertainment Studios to develop scripted and unscripted projects, following his Emmy-nominated Hulu special Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years. Burr continues to be the one comedian who is mostly gracefully carrying on George Carlin’s legacy.
Netflix has secured streaming rights for Mr. Tiger's Blood himself, Charlie Sheen, who has a new two-part documentary chronicling his life and his very public meltdown in 2010. Now, in full sobriety, Sheen wants to talk about what happened. Streaming Sept 10th. Trailer.
Gym, tan, doc. Jersey Shore’s very own Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino’s well-received 2023 memoir, Reality Check: Making the Best of the Situation, is being adapted into a doc for ITV America (Peacock’s Love Island USA).
Anime producer GKIDS and HBO Max plan to expand their partnership, adding award-winning Japanese films, including Your Name, Perfect Blue, and Summer Wars, including several titles that have never had a North American release. Summer Wars is a classic.
Is this our next James Bond (clip)? We hear that Scott Rose-Marsh may have screen tested for Amazon MGM’s upcoming James Bond. We love that they’re looking at lesser-known actors as it feels truer to the films’ DNA (George Lazenby cough cough). In that clip above, Rose-Marsh’s confidence is magnetizing.
Trailer:
Prime’s The Girlfriend
Cast: Robin Wright
Release: Sept 10
Netflix’s Steve
Cast: Cillian Murphy
Dir: Tim Mielants (Small Things Like These)
Release: Sept 19 (theatrical) Oct 3 (streaming)
Bleecker Street’s Relay
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Lily James
Dir: David Mackenzie
1970s style trailer
Release: Aug 22nd
Netflix’s Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Release: Aug 27th
Paramount+’s Bodyguard of Lies
Release: Sept 23
Release Dates:
Stans
Eminem-produced doc on Eminem
Paramount+ release: Aug 26
Paramount+’s Landman (S2)
Release: Nov 16
First Look:
Netflix’s The Beast in Me
Cast: Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
An unexpected duo straight out of the early 2000s. Shailene Woodley is joining Lindsay Lohan (Freakier Friday) in Hulu’s newly greenlit series adaptation of Count My Lies, a Gone Girl-esque psychological thriller.
Woodley plays the manipulative and unhinged Sloane Caraway, who lies her way into getting a nannying job for the glamorous and wealthy Violet Lockhart (Lohan). This marks Lohan’s first scripted TV lead role, notably not a romcom!
While the Disney star has little experience in the TV arena, Woodley’s new role is a sharp departure from her best-known small-screen part as Jane in HBO’s Big Little Lies (scene). Sloane, who thrives on fabrication, is the complete opposite of Jane, whose commitment to truth defined her arc throughout the series.
It’s a pairing that promises both nostalgia and novelty, blending Lohan’s long-awaited dramatic turn with Woodley’s venture into darker, more dangerous territory.
20th Television will produce alongside Lohan and Woodley.
Tidbits:
Charlie Hall joins Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix Monster season on murderer Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam). Hall plays Deputy Frank Worden, son of Gein’s final victim, aiding his arrest. Cast includes Laurie Metcalf and Tom Hollander. Previous Monster seasons hit hard as cultural touchstones and featured Jeffrey Dahmer and, later, the Menendez brothers. Currently in production.
Remember Nishijima Hidetoshi from Drive My Car? He starred as a theater director whose soul felt as if it wasn’t in the driver’s seat. But Hidetoshi’s ability to overcome this and plug back into life was the joy of the film. He will now star in Prime Japan’s Human Specimens as a researcher of butterflies who keeps human specimens, including his son. Yeah… It’s going to be dark.
Mini Tidbits:
ABC's first-responder drama, 9-1-1, boosts Corinne Massiah (ABC’s Mistresses) and Elijah M. Cooper (All American) to series regulars for its ninth season. The actors have portrayed the kids of Angela Bassett’s Athena Grant on and off for most of the show.
Stephen Fry will narrate the doc This is Soho (premiere: MIPCOM 2025). It’ll explore Soho’s communities amid rising rents, closures, and commercialization. Fry has a lot of experience in narration. Watch him observe his cameraman get sodomized by a rare parrot - clip.
Lorna Raver, known for cursing Allison Lohman in Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, died at 81. The stage-trained actress also appeared on The Young and the Restless. Drag Me to Hell was one of her best performances. Clip.
Multiple cast additions round up. Including:
Max’s Big Bang Theory spinoff
Dan Levy’s Big Mistakes (Netflix)
And an indie whodunit
Full breakdown here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Oscilloscope picks up US distribution rights for Tribeca Best Doc winner, Natchez. The doc explores a picturesque Mississippi town built on antebellum charm that confronts the truth that its most marketable history is its most painful. An expected potential Oscar contender, Natchez is director Suzannah Herbert’s second collaboration with Oscilloscope, after Wrestle (2018).
Watermelon Pictures (Distr: From Ground Zero) has acquired digital rights for There Was, There Was Not, which focuses on four women of Artsakh who face war's aftermath (trailer). The film played at Doc NYC and won the Venice Critics' Week prize. The film will premiere in NY+ LA in October via Suncatcher, which picked up theatrical.
Watermelon Pictures also dates the release for Pistachio Wars, a film that originated on Gathr and gained popularity. Adam McKay EPs. Coming this fall (teaser).
Zach Baylin (writer: King Richard) produces Brother Save Us.
Synopsis:
A 12-year-old boy in the Midwest befriends an AI farmworker, creating tension with his brother while their father battles illness.
From first-time writer/director Jesse Behrenwald.
Mini Tidbits:
Cineverse and Lloyd Braun’s Banyan have launched MicroCo, a short-form mobile studio. It will produce 1-3min series, and focus on multiple genres.
Gavin Briscoe joins Cartuna (distributor: Hundreds of Beavers) as VP of Distribution. It’s a post Briscoe previously held at Utopia, and before that at Magnolia. He has worked to distribute Shiva Baby, No Other Land, and Sick of Myself.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Eduardo Casanova’s miniseries Silence is a female vampire story…
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