Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Tom Cruise’s Risky Business, Amazon’s sharks, and a space odyssey.
Let’s go!
If you enjoy today’s edition, please hit the like button or leave a comment.
Tom Cruise is getting an Oscar…. an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.
Academy President Janet Yang stated:
“Cruise’s incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community has inspired us all.”
It’s true that we now think of Cruise as a death-defying super stuntman actor, or the magnanimous envoy to the theatrical experience (even promoting Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same weekend as his MI:7).
But rewind the clock to his three acting Oscars noms (all in pre-2000), when he was able to access not just the zenith of machismo but the raw frailty of a broken spirit:
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Magnolia (1999)
He’s now involved in a trio of projects that may return him to form:
Broadsword
Dir: Christopher McQuarrie (Dir: MI:5 - MI:8, Top Gun 2)
Synopsis: An S.O.E. operation in WWII follows a marine captain who crashes in France and becomes the sole survivor.
Untitled Alejandro G. Iñárritu Film
Synopsis: The most powerful man in the world causes a disaster and embarks on a mission to prove that he is the savior of humanity.
Untitled Tom Cruise/SpaceX Project
Dir: Doug Liman (Dir: Edge of Tomorrow)
We hope one of these roles mints him a (non-honorary) Oscar.
Cruise will be handed his honorary Oscar during the 2025 Governors Awards on November 16.
For More:
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Show me the Clip!
Magnolia (1999)
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Streaming surpasses cable and broadcast in U.S. TV viewing.
Amazon MGM acquires Glen Powell's firefighter drama, directed by Ron Howard.
Harold & Kumar reboot greenlit by Lionsgate.
Amazon teams with Dallas Jenkins (creator: The Chosen) for Joseph of Egypt series.
Amazon buys shark thriller Survive.
SAG-AFTRA names Charlotte Wells new CEO.
Netflix reboots Land of the Lost.
DC Studios casts Tom Rhys Harries as the lead in Clayface.
Dune 3 casts Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke as Paul’s children.
Paramount is developing a Suffer Little Children horror remake.
Partners In Kind teams with Kubrick estate for a doc.
Dark Star Pictures acquires Aaron Paul-produced The Wilderness.
Palme d’Or winner Nanni Moretti returns with new romantic drama It Will Happen Tonight.
Netflix begins production on My Brilliant Career series.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Streaming beats Cable + Broadcast. In what was an inevitable outcome, the share of consumers who watch TV on streaming (44.8%) has topped those who watch it on Cable + Broadcast (44.2%).
YouTube accounts for 12.5% of all TV viewing and 28% of all streaming viewership. That’s a whopping 66% larger share than Netflix. And a 250% larger share than Disney.
Also, Fox’s free streaming service Tubi hit 100M monthly users for the first time (2.2% of TV viewership).
Full breakdown from Nielsen here.
Glen Powell is red hot (as in fire hot): Amazon MGM has acquired an untitled firefighter film starring Glen Powell, co-produced by his Barnstorm banner and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment.
With Howard also set to direct, and the script by Christina Hodson (Bumblebee), the story follows two childhood friends turned elite firefighters battling wildfires and personal tensions in Texas.
This continues Powell’s streak of collaborations with acclaimed directors (Richard Linklater and Lee Isaac Chung) and upcoming (Barry Jenkins and Edgar Wright).
Harold & Kumar get another sequel: The creators of Cobra Kai—Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald—are reuniting to develop a new Harold & Kumar film for Lionsgate.
The trio, who launched their careers with the cult stoner comedy series, will return to their hallowed ground. Just like old times, the trio will write, direct, and produce, with original stars John Cho and Kal Penn expected to return.
The original is a bona fide stoner classic that really spoofed and challenged all sorts of stereotypes as two hapless stoners went on an odyssey to get White Castle/Escape Guantanamo/and save Christmas. Original Trailer.
They made a surprising friend when escaping from Guantanamo - Clip.
Amazon teams with The Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins for Joseph of Egypt series. This seems like a no-brainer after Amazon took US theatrical and streaming rights for The Chosen, which has done over $47M domestically across three theatrical releases.
Synopsis:
Betrayed by jealous brothers, Joseph defies all expectations and rises to incredible power in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. But his past catches up with him.
Jenkins will EP while Craig Wright (writer: Lost) will write and EP.
Tidbits:
Netflix is developing a reboot of the 1974 cult sci-fi series Land of the Lost, with original creators Sid and Marty Krofft attached as EPs. It's a kooky B-movie sci-fi that follows a family trapped in a dinosaur-filled alternate dimension. Original Theme song. In 2009, Will Ferrell starred in a version that bombed so badly it has been wiped from public consciousness. Trailer.
Veteran writers Joe Forte and Meg LeFauve’s production company, Story House, has inked an exclusive, multi-year deal with Netflix for their film slate. Forte wrote the Harrison Ford thriller Firewall (2006), and LeFauve is best known for co-writing Pixar’s Inside Out films.
Amazon’s survival shark movie! Amazon just picked up Survive, a feature pitch from Ian Levy (writer: Netflix’s upcoming film Out There) and Premeditated Productions under their first look deal with Amazon. The story is about a mom and daughter who flee an abuser but wind up in a crash that leaves them tangling with sharks.
SAG-AFTRA Foundation finds its new CEO in-house, promoting former COO Charlotte Wells to the new leadership position. Wells joined the non-profit back in 2017. She will focus on raising $3-5M to support the foundation’s numerous programs.
Mini Tidbit:
Chuck E. Cheese is launching its first animated holiday TV special starring Nathan Kress, produced by HappyNest and UTA. This is the first step in aiming to evolve the brand into a full franchise.
A network fully devoted to TV Westerns like Gunsmoke is coming this fall from The Weigel Broadcasting Company. Giddy up!
BET Studios is developing a half-hour sitcom starring comedian Desi Banks. The Atlanta-based standup’s new multi-camera show will be largely based on his own comedy routines as he attempts to balance fatherhood and his dreams.
Trailers:
Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox
Star: Grace Van Patten
Release date: Aug 20
Netflix’s The Sandman (Season 2)
Release date: July 3 (vol 1), July 24 (vol 2)
Quiver Distribution’s London Calling
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Rick Hoffman (Suits)
Release date: Sept 19
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Molding a Villain: Tom Rhys Harries has been cast as the lead in Clayface, a DC Studios film written by Mike Flanagan and directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil).
Described as a body horror tale rather than a superhero film, it follows a B-movie actor transformed into living clay and an origin story of a well-known Gotham City super villain.
Rhys is relatively green for such a big part. He was sensational opposite Uma Thurman in Apple+’s Suspicion where he embodied a childish cockiness that could slither into fear at a moment’s notice (check out the 4th episode of AppleTV+’s Suspicion).
Matt Reeves is producing. Release: September 11, 2026.
A fresh trailer for I Know What You Did Last Summer shows The Studio’s Chase Sui Wonders desperate for help. The graphic trailer blends lives of the past and the present in a terrifying fashion, with franchise fan favorite Jennifer Love Hewitt working alongside Wonders to solve this whodunit once and for all.
Wonders gave a real standout performance as the indignant assistant in Seth Rogen’s Apple TV+ comedy The Studio (trailer) and was often the moral center of the episodes. Similar essence in Last Summer as the cautious best friend, seemingly more logical and determined than the rest of the group.
The long-awaited return of the beloved horror franchise hits theaters on Jul. 18th.
The children of Dune: Newcomers Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke join Dune 3 as Leto II and Ghanima, Paul and Chani’s twin children. Denis Villeneuve’s third film is expected to adapt Dune: Messiah, exploring Paul’s reign and the aftermath of his Fremen jihad.
Makes sense that Jason Momoa might also return, seeing as his son is now in the cast.
The birth and age of the children are all a bit weird. Villeneuve appears to be pulling their story forward, possibly blending elements of both Messiah and Children of Dune.
Jhaleil Swaby (Prime’s The Lake) is the newest addition to The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the sixth installment in the box office-breaking franchise. Swaby will play the aggressive and arrogant District 1 tribute Panache, who goes head to head with our young protagonist Haymitch. The Lionsgate prequel premieres Nov. 20th, 2026.
Mini Tidbit:
Lulu Wilson joins Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone in a not-yet-named Hulu comedy about students on a trippy stairwell quest to get a pizza, directed by YouTube duo BriTANicK's Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher. Currently in production.
Actor turned director Will Ropp’s coming of age comedy Brian casts Peyton Elizabeth Lee (Doogie Kameāloha, M.D.) and Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives’ Joshua Colley. Ropp’s high school set directorial debut has just wrapped production.
As the BBC and BritBox’s Jane Austen universe continues to expand, so is the cast for the series adaptation, The Other Bennet Sister. Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey) and Richard E. Grant (Death of a Unicorn) will play Mr and Mrs Bennet, and Indira Varma (GOT) will play Mrs. Gardiner, the sisters’ worldly aunt. Filming is underway in Wales.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Paramount in development on a new horror film, Suffer Little Children. This hails from indie filmmaker Rodrigue Huart who will write and direct the film based on the horror cult classic Who Can Kill A Child?, a psychologically depraved movie about a British couple who wind up on a remote island and encounter a stampede of murderous children - trailer.
Huart is perfect for the job, with his SXSW-winning short Transylvanie (2023) about a horrific little girl vampire, which also feels like more of a psychological thriller than horror (trailer).
It’s a great time for studios like Paramount to team with indie filmmakers, as studios are scrambling for horror IP after indie successes like Neon’s Longlegs ($128M) and mid-budget horrors like Warner’s Final Destination: Bloodlines ($273M), earning best in series at the box office.
From Cate Blanchett aliens to Stanley Kubrick. Production company Partners In Kind, behind the upcoming Zellner brothers' Cate Blanchett alien invasion film, Alpha Gang, is producing Monolith, a deep dive into 2001: A Space Odyssey’s cultural impact in collaboration with the Kubrick estate. Stevan Riley (Sundance’s AI Marlon Brando doc Listen to Me Marlon) directs.
There’s a cool confluence of sci-fi projects happening over at Partners In Kind that we fully support. They’ve teamed up with Time Studios (Frida) for this, and a few other docs, including Winnie and Nelson, a Nelson Mandela doc… no mention of The Mandela Effect.
Tidbit:
Dark Star Pictures gets North American rights to The Wilderness, a nature thriller written and directed by emerging filmmaker Spencer King (Black Petunia) with Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul producing.
Tubi has picked up the doc The Second Set, a tennis doc from Nike, centering on tennis champ Naomi Osaka coming back to the sport after having a child. Premiering on Tubi in August.
405 Films is developing a feature on UFC champ Charles Oliveira, chronicling his rise from Brazil’s favelas to Octagon stardom. Filming will take place in Brazil and Vegas.
Mubi’s The History of Sound (premiere: Cannes) starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor releases on Sept 12. Here they come, Oscars!
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Acclaimed Italian auteur Nanni Moretti is returning to the director’s chair with romantic drama It Will Happen Tonight. The film will loosely be based on the short story collection Hungry Heart by Eshkol Nevo.
Every one of Moretti’s films has premiered at Cannes, including his anti-melodrama, deep character study on dealing with tragedy, The Son’s Room (2001), which took the Palme d’Or (trailer).
BBC Studios and UKTV Global Head of Acquisitions Melanie Rumani has sadly passed away from cancer. Rumani joined the BBC back in 2006 and sourced content for 40 individual pay TV channels and SVOD BBC-branded services globally, and helped launch new channels across the company’s multiple territories.
All3Media International has appointed Micah Hewson to the role of VP of sales for Australia and New Zealand. The London-based banner behind shows like The Traitors and Midsomer Murders, with Hewson now in charge of negotiating broadcast and digital rights deals for the company’s extensive, multi-genre portfolio.
Netflix has begun production on My Brilliant Career, a series adaptation of Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel. Philippa Northeast stars as Sybylla, a headstrong young woman fighting for independence in turn-of-the-century Australia. Filming is underway in South Australia.
ON THIS DAY
1969. The Wild Bunch is released.
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