Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Cruise v. Pitt, Domingo v. Washington, and a Travel Companion.
Let’s go!
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Did you get the answer correct to yesterday’s Quiz? See below.
We’re entering a strange chapter of Hollywood history.
One in which anyone, anywhere can create photorealistic video scenes of any major A-list star.
There’s no calling their agent. There’s no submitting an offer letter. There’s no studio greenlighting your project. This technology shatters the hierarchy of the film industry in a way that feels scary, terrifying, illegal, and maybe even a tad liberating.
What we’re seeing is Seedance 2.0, a Chinese AI platform owned by ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company), producing a flood of viral AI videos over the last 48 hours:
Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise (see above)
Bryan Cranston fighting Bob Odenkirk
Jerry Seinfeld fighting Jason Alexander
These videos not only capture the actor’s likeness with extreme accuracy but also do a pretty bang-up job on their vocal inflections as well. And it’s only going to get exponentially better.
But not everyone in Hollywood is convinced that this technology is an extinction event. During our Apple F1 panel yesterday, the Oscar-nominated VFX team strongly dismissed the idea that any AI systems would replace their work.
However, I think the larger issue here is a paradigm shift, just like how giving filmmakers access to digital cameras decades ago democratized who can make movies.
The difference is that now (before the MPA hopefully sues to ban this), anyone can unlock any actor.
But even if this were legal, should this be adopted?
Creativity is born out of limitation. And not having access to things forces you to be more creative, more inventive. When you have unlimited AI resources, you outsource your imagination to a system that isn’t human.
For More:
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Roku Q4 2025: $1.39bn revenue (+16%), $80.5M profit (vs. -$35.5M Q4 2024)
Jenni Konner (EP: Deli Boys) renews overall deal with 20th Television.
Amazon MGM buys Country Roads spec from Seven Bucks Productions.
Netflix’s creators of The Empress set their next series, Witches.
Netflix acquires doc short The Baddest Speechwriter of All from Ben Proudfoot.
Fox names Sophie Leonard EVP, Unscripted TV.
My Mama Cass: Jessica Gunning to play Cass Elliot.
Colman Domingo joins Netflix’s An Innocent Girl (dir: Jaume Collet-Serra).
Ed Helms + Nat Wolff join She Gets It From Me.
David Boreanaz to lead reboot of NBC’s The Rockford Files.
Jason Clarke cast in the Sydney Sweeney-led Gundam from Legendary.
Thandiwe Newton cast in HBO/BBC’s First Day on Earth.
SXSW adds 13 projects. Standouts:
The Fox (Sam Neill, Olivia Colman)
Love Language (Chloë Grace Moretz, Anthony Ramos, Lukas Gage).
Kino Lorber acquires Sundance’s Filipiñana.
Vertical lands U.S. rights for Wizard of the Kremlin w/ Paul Dano and Jude Law.
Oscilloscope picks up The Travel Companion.
Prime Video unveils global 2026 originals including Masterplan (Stanley Tucci).
TODAY’S QUIZ
Yesterday’s correct answer: Rum Love was NOT a TV movie starring Nicole Kidman. 41% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Roku’s Q4 2025:
$1.39bn - Revenue
↑ 16%
$80.5M - Profit
↑ from $35.5M loss
Second profitable quarter in a row
145.6bn streaming hours for the year
↑ 15%
Full breakdown here.
Roku’s current scale exceeds half of broadband households and continues to grow with new features like voice search.
Tidbits:
Nobody Wants This showrunner, Jenni Konner, has renewed her overall deal with 20th Television. The Girls writer is also currently working on the second season of the wonderfully bombastic 20th-century TV Hulu comedy Deli Boys. Through her Jenni Konner Productions, she’ll continue to write, develop, direct, and produce series for Disney TV.
Amazon MGM Studios acquires Country Roads, an original screenplay from Oscar-nominated writer Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures), and Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions (The Smashing Machine). Schroeder is also the writer behind billion-grossing movies Frozen 2 (2019) and A Minecraft Movie (2025), with her new film a dramedy set in the country music world.
Amazon MGM Studios’ adaptation of Mercedes Ron’s Bali series, 30 Sunsets to Fall in Love, marks the first U.S. show to come from an Argentinian-Spanish author. Amazon has adapted 10 of Ron’s books previously (in Spanish), with the newest show about two people who fall for each other but only have 30 sunsets together.
Damascus Station writer David McCloskey has signed off on a multi-year first-look deal with Prologue Entertainment (A House of Dynamite). Once a CIA analyst, now an accomplished writer, McCloskey will develop film and TV projects based on his existing and future writing for Prologue.
Netflix projects/deals:
Just a few months out from the final season of European drama The Empress (S1 trailer), the show’s creators, Robert and Katharina Eyssen, and Netflix have found their next project. Witches (working title) is set in 17th-century Germany, a historical drama series following three sisters living in fear of the growing witch hunts.
Author and podcast host Jay Shetty (“On Purpose”) is launching his own production company, Perfect Strangers Media, and is already closing a deal with Netflix. The company will produce film, TV, and podcasts with one scripted and one unscripted show in development currently with Netflix.
Netflix acquires The Baddest Speechwriter of All, a doc short from Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot (The Last Repair Shop) and NBA legend Stephen Curry in his directorial debut. Through watercolor animation, the Sundance film follows a doctor’s memory of his life during the Civil Rights Movement.
Mini Tidbits:
From a producer to an exec. Fox hires Sophie Leonard (Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test) as EVP of Unscripted Television. The division has begun to take up some of the network’s primetime programming, with Leonard set to help with dev and production.
The author behind Die Hard's inspiration (Nothing Lasts Forever), Roderick Thorp, has only one other action novel, which gets optioned by The Coppage Company. Hot Pursuit follows a Coast Guard lieutenant who does what he needs to do after his wife is kidnapped.
Entertainment lawyer Susan Grode who repped the late great Stephen Hillenburg (creator of SpongeBob SquarePants) passed away. Her career spanned decades, primarily in animated TV. She was also the mother to Legendary Entertainment CEO Josh Grode.
DGA and PGA leaders are meeting with the US Department of Justice to share info on how the Netflix/WB merger would change the media landscape.
Renewals:
Prime’s Off Campus (for S2)
Trailers:
Prime’s Spider-Noir
A24 and HBO’s Neighbors (unscripted series)
Release: Feb 13
First Look Photos:
Peacock’s M.I.A
Release date: May 7
Release Dates:
Inaugural Entertainment’s Neglected
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Dylan Sprouse
Release: April
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
From stalker to Mama. Baby Reindeer actress Jessica Gunning is cast in the titular role in My Mama Cass, from A Complete Unknown producer Veritas Entertainment. The film is based on the life-spanning memoir about folk singer Cass Elliot, penned by her daughter.
Gunning will play Elliot, a founding member of the ‘60s rock quartet The Mamas & The Papas, often described as “the heart” of their sound. Contrary to her on-edge acclaimed performance in Baby Reindeer (scene), Elliot has a warm charisma and calming voice. My Mama Cass is in its development stage.
Colman Domingo’s House of Cards. Domingo was just cast in Netflix’s An Innocent Girl, the new film from director Jaume Collet-Serra (Carry-On). It follows an ambitious woman who gets seduced by a powerful and dangerous DC married couple (Domingo + Kerry Washington).
Are we going to get Domingo go full Frank Underwood with direct camera addresses? Probably not, but his resonant voice and sly yet kingly demeanor feel ripe for this role.
Tidbits:
Get in the robot, Jason Clarke: Legendary’s Gundam live-action adaptation starring Sydney Sweeney has just cast Clarke. Since 1979, giant robots have been fighting under the name of Gundam, finding massive success in Japan and becoming one of the earliest crossover successes in America. The last time Clarke played a robot: Terminator Genisys as a John Connor/Terminator hybrid.
Family dramedy She Gets It From Me casts Ed Helms (The Office) and Nat Wolff (Paper Towns), joining previously announced female leads Rachel Zegler and Marisa Tomei. The story sees the reunion of a separated mother and daughter, with Helms and Wolff there to make sense of the hilarious and emotional journey they all go on. Production will begin in NJ by the end of this month.
NBC’s reboot of The Rockford Files has found David Boreanaz to play the James Garner character. Written by Mike Daniels, the contemporary update of the late 70’s classic series (trailer) follows private investigator James Rockford after his release from prison. With a modern twist, it’s kind of heralding a more American Sherlock. NBC also greenlit another pilot, Protection. That hails from Josh Safran (creator: Quantico).
HBO and BBC’s First Day on Earth casts Thandiwe Newton (Westworld) and Ncuti Gatwa (Barbie). The series comes from I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel, and while specific roles aren’t disclosed, the show follows a British-Ghanaian novelist Henri (Coel) who escapes her collapsing life and travels to Ghana.
Casting tidbits:
Zoë Winters
Edgar Ramírez
Kelvin Harrison Jr.
All these casting tidbits and many more here.
FESTIVALS
SXSW adds 13 more projects. Here are two that stood out:
The Fox
Director/Screenwriter: Dario Russo
Cast: Emily Browning, Sam Neill, Olivia Colman
Synopsis:
In this darkly comic folktale, an affable foxhunter encounters a talking Fox who offers him an opportunity to transform his fiancée into the perfect woman.
Love Language
Director/Screenwriter: Joey Power
Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Anthony Ramos, Lukas Gage
Synopsis:
An aspiring author with a side hustle writing wedding vows for other people reconnects with her long-time crush, only to learn he is the fiancé of one of her new clients.
Full list of the 13 projects here.
EFM has some hot new projects. Here’s a breakdown of the top 8. Plus, two projects that caught our eye at Series Mania.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Kino Lorber picks up Filipiñana, which just premiered at Sundance and won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision.
Synopsis:
Teen girl Isabel feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club where she works. However, after piecing together a violent picture of what lies beneath the club’s pristine surface, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation is actually rooted in a sinister shared history.
Directed and written by Rafael Manuel and based on his short film. Releasing later this year.
Tidbits:
After many months, Vertical Entertainment (Dravula) is the one to swoop up Olivier Assayas’ Wizard of the Kremlin for U.S. distribution. The divisive Venice-premiering political drama sees Paul Dano and Alicia Vikander alongside Jude Law as Vladimir Putin in a story about the rise of the Russian dictator. The film is expected to hit theaters at some point this year. Wizard of the Kremlin - Trailer
Catch flights not feelings. Brooklyn-based Oscilloscope Laboratories (Natchez) secures The Travel Companion, an indie comedy for North American rights. A struggling filmmaker gets free flights from his airplane-employed roommate but sees his creativity come to a halt as his love life takes off. The Tribeca premiering movie will have a theatrical run in late spring.
Mini Tidbits:
The producers behind the Sundance-winning Take Me Home have founded production company Give Not Take Media. Ai-jen Poo (Impact consultant on The Pitt) and Lydia Storie both have backgrounds in advocacy and on-set consultancy with their new company, centered on stories about age and disability.
Outsider Pictures (In the Summers) picks up Peruvian film Mistura for North American rights just ahead of the EFM. The culinary drama is centered on a woman who is shunned from her elite social circle after her husband leaves her, redefining herself and her culture in the kitchen. There will be a limited theatrical release beginning April 24th.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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