Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Tom Hanks’ Comeback, Ryan Gosling’s Doubleback, and Hadestown.
Let’s go!
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This Saturday, The Industry will be moderating a live Q&A in NYC with Asa Butterfield, Jaeden Martell, and director Oscar Boyson for the theatrical release of his directorial debut: Our Hero, Balthazar.
I’ve already seen the film, and Butterfield is sensational. And Boyson is drawing from his time producing for the Safdie brothers, but the style is definitely his alone.
Stop by Saturday, March 28th, at 7 pm at Regal Union Square (NYC).
Click here to secure your spot - https://www.regmovies.com/movies/our-hero-balthazar-live-qa-w-cast-filmmakers
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
The Comebacker reteams Tom Hanks w/ director Marielle Heller.
Ryan Gosling will star in Universal’s new film from The Daniels.
Netflix’s rural Texas thriller The Rancher adds director Ramin Bahrani.
Vice Studios names Adam Kassan as EVP of Scripted Film & TV.
Rebelle Media is adapting The Paradise Problem and The Heir Apparent.
Hulu is developing a legal drama, Opposing Counsel.
The Oscars will move to Peacock Theater in 2029.
Dua Lipa will star in A24’s Peaked, directed by Molly Gordon.
Himesh Patel is Mulder in Hulu's X-Files.
Claudette Godfrey is out as SXSW’s VP of Film & TV.
Mubi acquired Berlinale’s Rose, starring Sandra Hüller.
Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk will bring a live capture of Hadestown to theaters.
HBO Max launched in the U.K. and Ireland.
BBC cutting 10% of costs over three years.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Daniel Radcliffe is currently in a play.
74% got it right.
Opening week isn’t just for baseball; Hollywood’s stepping up to the plate, too.
The Comebacker reteams Tom Hanks with A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood director Marielle Heller, igniting a fight for rights between three unnamed studios.
Colman Domingo is attached to star alongside the beloved Bad Bunny, who just this past year has added two film credits to his resume with Happy Gilmore 2 and Caught Stealing.
It’s been nearly thirty-five years since A League of Their Own (1992), but for more reasons than just Hanks’ involvement this is undoubtedly a high-profile project with a lot of eyes on it.
Sony Pictures has seen great success with star-driven, crowd-pleasing dramas, including baseball-centered hits like Moneyball (2011), positioning them as a good home for The Comebacker.
Shooting in October.
Ryan Gosling will star in Universal’s new film from The Daniels (Dir: EEAAO).
The plot is not official, so all I can say is that The Daniels tackled the massive feeling of everything and nothing being meaningful in 2022; the new film taps into the existential crisis, but for 2026. Daniel Kwan told me it’s very execution based.
We’re very excited to see Gosling back in a sci-fi.
Project Development tidbits:
Lauren Fields (The Flash) and Morgan Faust (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) are developing Hulu’s legal drama Opposing Counsel. The show will follow a newly elected District Attorney and her defense attorney husband as they navigate their marriage on opposite sides of the law, set in modern-day San Francisco. Rideback is attached to produce the project.
Netflix’s The Rancher hires Director/writer Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes) for their rural Texas-set thriller with female leads. Melanie Toast and Toby Jaffe (Cliffhanger reboots) are scripting. We loved Bahrani’s 99 Homes (trailer), so we’re up for anything he does. Hopefully with Michael Shannon.
Rebelle Media (Hulu’s Tell Me Lies) is switching up from female-driven stories to a singular focus on the romance genre. The rebrand comes with the development announcement of two adaptations of popular romance fiction books, The Paradise Problem and The Heir Apparent, set up as part of their new slate.
Mini Tidbits:
The WBD board has unanimously approved the PSKY merger. Now the shareholders will vote on April 23 at 10 a.m. ET. It is very likely to pass this hurdle, but the bigger battle is with California Attorney General Rob Bonta and many Hollywood union leaders, who view the deal as an existential threat.
Netflix The Adventures of Cliff Booth salaries:
$40M - Brad Pitt (Star)
$20M - David Fincher (director)
$20M - Quentin Tarantino (writer)
Vice names Adam Kassan as EVP of scripted film and television, and Claire Marshall has been upped to Head of International Scripted. Both will report to the new pres Amy Powell.
Co-heads of UTA’s Independent Film Group, Jim Meenaghan and Rena Ronson, who have been incredibly influential in film packaging and sales for the agency, are upped to partner.
Martin Sorrell (prod. Melania) gets approval from FIFA to pursue a new documentary about this year’s World Cup. Chasing the Dream will take an intimate look at the international tournament that is set to premiere worldwide on Disney+.
Sony Pictures shuts down its VFX house and virtual production firm Pixomondo (The Amazing Spider-Man). Major studios seem to be cutting down VFX budgets with the rise of AI tools.
The Oscars are moving to Peacock Theater for the 2029 Oscars (e.g., the ones hosted by YouTube). Say goodbye to the classic Dolby Theatre, where The Oscars have been held since 2002.
Trailers:
Warner Bros.’ The End of Oak Street
Dir: David Robert Mitchell (It Follows)
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor
Release: Aug 14th
Greenwich Entertainment’s Magic Hour
Premiere: SXSW
Release: May 15
Magenta Light Studios’ Deep Water
Dir: Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2)
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley
Release: May 1
Netflix’s Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 (Animated series)
Release: April 23
CNN’s K‑Everything
Host: Daniel Dae Kim
Release: May 9
Netflix’s Running Point (S2)
EP: Mindy Kaling
Cast: Kate Hudson, Ray Romano
Release: April 23rd
Netflix’s Santita
Cast: Gael García Bernal
Release: April 22nd
Utopia’s Forge
Premiere: SXSW
Release: May 15 (LA), May 22 (NY)
Netflix’s Man on Fire (reboot)
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Andrew Scott
Sneak Peek Scene
Release: April 30
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Dua Lipa fans will be “Levitating” at the news that the Grammy winner is set to star in A24’s Peaked. Written and directed by The Bear and Theater Camp’s Molly Gordon, the film follows two high school mean girls attempting to relive their glory days at their ten-year reunion. Lipa will be joining young actors like Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie and Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley, while reuniting with her Barbie co-star Emma Mackey.
Aside from a brief cameo in Barbie as the bubbly mermaid doll, the pop star’s only other scripted role came in the polarizing action-comedy Argylle (2024). In her first major acting role, she played a mysterious and stylish spy, a central part of the film’s first act, only to quickly disappear and never be seen on screen again. Peaked could be a great opportunity for the “Dance the Night” singer to build on her screen work with a more substantial supporting turn.
Tidbits:
There’s another Idris in town. Damson Idris, who played Brad Pitt’s foil in F1 (the younger, cockier driver), is now taking the wheel in Netflix’s The Lord’s Day series. The synopsis reminds me of an iconic scene in Skyfall: During the opening day of Parliament, a spy (Idris) gets caught in the siege, where his loyalties and skills are tested. We loved seeing Idris’ transformation in F1, from foolish bravado to team player. Seems like a similar arc could be a fit in this series.
Sue Storm as a police officer? Vanessa Kirby (Fantastic Four: First Steps) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman franchise) star in Apple’s sci-fi action thriller Liminal. Based on the AWA graphic novel Telepaths, the film explores a world in which a tenth of Earth’s population suddenly gains telepathic powers, and the newly telepathic Boston Police force has to deal with it. No word on her role, but if she plays a police officer, it could be a mix of her MI6 agent from Hobbs & Shaw (2019) and her Sue Storm from Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). Directed by Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Now You See Me).
We’ve found our Mulder. Himesh Patel will star in Ryan Coogler’s X-Files pilot for Hulu. Patel will play opposite Danielle Deadwyler (Scully). At SXSW, Patel was a surprise guest at the Riz Ahmed panel, pretending to be ultra-high-and-mighty. Yet, there was a regalness to the entire bit that made it even goofier. The original Mulder (David Duchovny) was nothing if not a man of extreme conviction to the point of being ridiculous.
Five more casting tidbits here + Rob Lowe.
FESTIVALS
Claudette Godfrey is out as the VP of Film & TV at SXSW. In her place is Peter Debruge, who is a chief film critic at Variety, with the company for 20 years. We loved Godfrey’s energy at SXSW. She hyped up every screening (see above) with as much, if not more, energy than the filmmakers. She has a blistering warmth that lit the mad-eyed genre-hungry SXSW audiences ablaze.
Heartbreaking documentary MARIINKA has won the audience award at the 23rd CPH:DOX festival (trailer).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Mubi is wetting their beak before Cannes. They’ve just picked up Rose, which premiered at Berlin, where lead Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for Best Performance.
Synopsis:
A woman in the early 17th century, who is disguised as a man and wants to be a good citizen at any cost.
Mubi grabbed NA, UK, and six other territories. Here’s the trailer.
Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk division is bringing a filmed live capture of Hadestown to theaters this summer, preserving the Tony-winning musical with its original cast.
Bleecker’s event cinema arm, Crosswalk, was created specifically to handle these types of projects. Here’s two biggies they’ve done:
Waitress (2023)
$2.8M domestic opening
Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience (2025)
$5.7M domestic opening
The strategy is proving lucrative, converting live performances into theatrical box office draws while expanding audiences beyond traditional theater, a space few other companies are actively exploring.
A possible Roblox film? The Emmy-winning Baobab Studios, led by Eric Darnell (Madagascar), has acquired exclusive Film & TV rights for some of the most popular games of Roblox.
Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system where users can program and play games created by themselves or other users. As of 2026, Roblox has more than 150M daily active users.
Baobab Studios has bought the rights to the platform’s longest-running title, Natural Disaster Survival – a survivalist game located on an unknown island full of natural disasters.
Perhaps Baobab Studios could see a similar success with Roblox, like what Warner Bros. found with Minecraft.
Mini Tidbit:
Judd Apatow is producing Utopia’s The Way I Was Made: The Story of a Man Called E music doc.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Movistar Plus+ picks up 6 titles from Sony, including:
Lord of the Flies
Creator: Jack Thorne (Adolescence)
American Hostage
The Miniature Wife
No word on the release dates in Spain. Lord of the Flies is coming soon to Netflix in the US.
Tidbit:
The BBC is planning to cut 10% of its costs over the next three years as the company grapples with mounting financial pressures.
Prague-based global sales agent Filmotor (Songs of Slow Burning Earth) has acquired A Fire There, a coming-of-age doc. It follows three Armenian men discovering who they are against geopolitical uncertainty.
HBO Max launches in the U.K. and Ireland.
ON THIS DAY
1952. Singin’ in the Rain premieres at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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