Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Netflix’s True Detective, Annette Bening’s ranch, and a buffalo stone.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Netflix wins untitled Nic Pizzolatto series, starring Matthew McConaughey.
Hulu orders pilot for Foster Dade, a YA mystery drama.
Frank Price, former Columbia & Universal chief dies at 95.
Gilmore Girls 25th anniversary doc in the works.
Netflix cancels The Waterfront after 1 season.
Annette Bening joins Yellowstone spinoff The Dutton Ranch.
David Strathairn joins period drama The Bard.
Apple Studios casts Indie DesRoches as Mark Wahlberg’s on-screen son.
Ontario Creates iff unveils slate, including Lily Gladstone’s Buffalo Stone.
Natalie Portman boards NYFF Carol Kane short as EP.
Noah Baumbach to direct A24 series Hope.
Halina Reijn is developing an untitled cult-inspired series.
Chuck Russell (Dir: The Mask) returns with Witchboard.
Celeste Yim & Devon Walker exit SNL.
Nanni Moretti preps new feature It Will Happen Tonight with Playtime.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Nic Pizzolatto started a war.
As August winds down, Netflix has won a heated bidding war for an untitled series from True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, starring Matthew McConaughey and Cole Hauser (Yellowstone) as brothers. It created quite a bidding war with everyone except HBO, with whom Pizzolatto got into a disagreement when True Detective S4 went ahead without him.
This is a big one. True Detective season 1 was a huge step for the McConaissance. This one shot was my personal moon landing, and this credit sequence changed the trajectory of my life.
With Pizzolatto leaving after the criminally underrated season 3 of TD, there have been talks of various projects, but this seems like a promising comeback.
It's exciting to see what these two brothers can do, not to be confused with the other brothers series McConaughey has with former True Detective co-star Woody Harrelson. The man has a lot of brothers.
Tidbits:
Veteran writer, producer, and CEO of Columbia Pictures Frank Price has died at 95. While at Columbia, he shepherded critical and commercial successes like Tootsie (1984), Ghostbusters (1984), and the Oscar-winning Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Price ended up becoming Head of Universal back in the 80s and has left a lasting imprint on the movie industry since then.
Hulu has ordered a pilot for Foster Dade, a YA mystery drama from Greg Berlanti (Creator: You) and Bash Doran (Life After Life), adapted from Nash Jenkins’ novel. Set across 2008 and the present day, the mystery series would take place in a boarding school. This is the third pilot currently in development by Berlanti.
Previous Shout! VP, Melissa Boag, will take on the CMO position at Radial Entertainment. This is the newly formed company from FilmRise (dist. Forensic Files) and Shout! Studios’ (dist. Arcane). FilmRise’s VP of business affairs, Minh Vo, will also be joining Radial, keeping her position.
Oy, with the poodles already! (Clip). Searching For Stars Hollow, a new Gilmore Girls-centered documentary, is in the works in celebration of its 25th anniversary. The doc will feature BTS footage and interviews with cast and crew.
Static Media (owner: SlashFilm) buys TVLine (owner: Penske). Interesting move, as this is now Static Media’s second film-related media company.
Trailers:
Bleecker Street’s Bone Lake
Scary, sexy trailer
Release: Oct 3rd
Prime’s Hotel Costiera
Star: Jesse Williams
Release: Sept 23rd
PBS’ Patience (S1)
Star: Talented newcomer Ella Maisy Purvis
Well Go USA’s Beast of War
Australian Release: Oct 9
Release date:
FX’s English Teacher (S2)
Release: Sept 25th
Cancellations:
Netflix’s The Waterfront (after 1 season)
Star: Holt McCallany
First Look:
Netflix’s A House Of Dynamite
Dir: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson
Limited theatrical release: October 24th
Focus Features’ Bugonia
Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Five-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening has joined the newest Yellowstone spinoff, The Dutton Ranch (working title), which will center on fan-favorite power couple Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Dutton (Cole Hauser).
Even Hollywood’s most decorated actors are embracing long-form TV as the place for the best character-driven work, and where would be better than Taylor Sheridan’s empire?
The Kids Are All Right actress will play Beulah Jackson, a “powerful, cunning, and charming” woman who is in charge of a major ranch in Texas. The role echoes her last TV stint in Peacock’s miniseries Apples Never Fall (scene), where she played a commanding matriarch whose allure and complexity kept everyone around her slightly off balance.
One of several Yellowstone spinoffs, The Dutton Ranch is currently filming with no announced premiere date.
New ads for The Bard. Joining an ensemble for the period piece about Poet George Moses:
Julia Schlaepfer (The Politician)
Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones)
David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck)
The Bard centers on George Moses Horton, the first Black American poet published while enslaved, despite the risk of death.
Now shooting in North Carolina.
Tidbits:
Amazon MGM Studios’ newest book-to-movie adaptation, The Last Sunrise, casts Andrés Velencoso (Netflix’s My Mother’s Love) and Chloé Sweetlove. Based on the viral Anna Todd novel, Velencoso will play a love interest. The film centers on a young woman whose life transforms during a summer in Majorca. Eva Longoria stars.
Apple Studios’ untitled Stephen Chbosky (Wonder) film adds Indie DesRoches as the young son of Mark Wahlberg and Vera Farmiga. A remake of German dramedy Weekend Rebels (2023), it follows an autistic boy’s newfound interest: going cross-country to find his favorite NBA team. DesRoches, also known for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Father Stu, is set to fast-track his career even at the age of 12!
The leads of Netflix’s Inuk dark comedy North of North, Anna Lambe (True Detective) and Zorga Qaunaq, are reteaming up for the psychological thriller In the Heart of the South. Filming just wrapped in Ontario. Lambe played Finn Bennett’s wife in the 4th TD season.
FESTIVALS
Every now and again, we get a dark fairy tale that graces the festival screen. The latest is IFC’s 100 Nights of Hero, Venice Critics Week closing night film.
It centers on a charming house guest who stumbles into a castle inhabited by an innocent bride (Longlegs’ Maika Monroe) and a maid (Emma Corrin).
The trailer is sexually charged and macabre, with a bit of Alice in Wonderland. Releasing Dec 5.
Want something else in this genre? Try Tale of Tales from Cannes 2015.
The upcoming 20th edition of the Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (IFF) highlights 40 genre-spanning new projects.
Included is the indigenous drama Buffalo Stone with a screenplay co-written by Lily Gladstone.
Another is Succor, a breakup rom-com feature directed by Hannah Cheesman (The Boathouse) and produced by Lithium Studios Productions (Terminal). Adapted from their 2015 TIFF short.
Also included is the road trip drama The Last Tears of The Deceased from filmmaker Beza Hailu Lemma, the director behind Cannes Critics Week short pick Alazar (2024).
The co-financing and co-production forum begins Sept. 7th.
Tidbits:
Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American rights to TIFF’s Scarlet. Mamoru Hosoda’s animated film was originally slated to be distributed by Sony Pictures. Co-financed with Studio Chizu and Nippon TV, it follows a brave princess transcending time and space.
Oscar-nominated director Tamara Kotevska (Neon’s Honeyland) is prepping a Siberia-lensed documentary, The Mammoths That Escaped the Kingdom of Erlik Khan, as her next project. The film follows a reindeer hunter facing a family-influenced dilemma. Kotevska’s current project, The Tale of Silyan, premieres at Venice next week.
Chris Pine co-stars in The Kidnapping of Arabella (2025), an Italian film in the Orizzonti section. The film is about an Italian woman convinced she's the wrong version of herself. Clip.
We can’t get enough of Carol Kane. She was wicked in Between the Temples and super fun in Paramount+’s Star Trek series. There’s a short film about her and her mom, Carol & Joy, that’s premiering at NYFF. Natalie Portman’s Mountain A has boarded as EP.
Venice Spotlight’s Hijra drops a trailer with some very angry camels. They take on a new meaning as they’re tamed by a young woman.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
A24's new series in development:
Hope
Dir: Noah Baumbach (first TV series)
Source material: Andrew Ridker’s Hope
Synopsis
The Greenspans are the envy of Brookline, MA. The husband is a successful physician. His wife is a pillar of the community. Their daughter works at a distinguished publishing house. But when the husband is caught in a work scandal, their blissful existence shatters.
Baumbach’s mystical power as a filmmaker lies in his ability to dismantle conventional notions of family (see: The Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story). This seems like a long-form expansion of his work.
Untitled Cult Series
Dir: Halina Reijn (Babygirl)
This is inspired by Reijn’s upbringing in the Subud cult.
Shu Qi’s defining trait is curiosity. The Transporter's damsel in distress actress-turned-Venice Competition director has shared a first-look clip of her debut film, Girl.
The film centers on a young girl who grew up in a state of confusion until she meets another little girl who introduces her to the world’s beauty.
Something resonant in the first look clip is the careful way Qi captures the girl’s curiosity. It’s a core feeling that she also tapped into in her performance in The Transporter (clip). I’m finding her ability to reflect this on both sides of the camera astonishing.
Chuck Russell is back. You’ve seen his movies: The Blob (1988), The Mask (1994), and The Scorpion King (2002). His new film is Witchboard. It looks like a combo of Ouija, Final Destination, Eyes Wide Shut, and, for reasons that will become apparent when you watch the horrifying trailer, The Mask. It’s a hodgepodge for sure, but we know what Russell can deliver when it comes to ultra campy/gore. He had a 14-year gap after directing The Scorpion King, returning in 2016 for the forgotten I Am Wrath (2016).
SNL Cast Cuts:
Celeste Yim is leaving SNL. She was in the writer’s room for 5 years. Her standout sketch was We’re Trying. In it, Bowen Yang and Adam Driver play a couple who are trying for a baby. Watch everyone get confused (sketch). With Celeste leaving her frequent collaborator, Bowen Yang may leave next, but that’s a bit speculative.
Devon Walker has also exited SNL after three seasons. In his IG post, Walker described the show as both “cool” and “toxic,” and he poked fun but didn't answer whether he quit or was fired. He "featured" in this hilarious sketch.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Acclaimed Italian auteur Nanni Moretti’s (The Son’s Room) new feature, It Will Happen Tonight, sees a collaboration with French distributor Playtime (Son of Saul) and producer Pan-Européene (Mr. Nobody) to sell and co-produce, launching sales at Venice. Playtime co-CEO François Yon said:
“The films struck us as both utterly romantic and extremely modern. It is a movie made for a broad audience while being a Moretti film all the way. This is a typical crossover type film for which there is a great appetite around the world.”
The romantic drama will begin shooting next month.
Colombia-based Red Collision Studios has found a director in Felipe Holguin (dir. Oscar-nominated La Suprema) to direct This Bolero is for Ita, a turbulent cross-border love story feature from the studio.
ON THIS DAY
1955. Pather Panchali is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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I liked The Water Front. I feel the annoying part was how weak the son was, pining over his ex girlfriend while married to a ride or die.
Not until the ending did he grow up.
I was expecting another season.
Holt was aces!