Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Warner Bros.’ legend, Paramount’s concessions, and Gad gambles.
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Warner Bros. is developing Siren Head, Dir/Wri: Brian Duffield, Wri: Zach Cregger.
Paramount submits concessions for its $111bn Warner Bros. merger to the EC.
Lionsgate reunites with The Furious director Kenji Tanigaki for The Reckoner.
Alamo Drafthouse launches a distribution program for unreleased festival films.
Netflix is developing Lucy Clarke’s thriller novel The Surf House as a TV series.
Chernin Entertainment is developing Victoria Aveyard’s pirate fantasy Tempest.
Starz boards Channel 4 drama Maya, starring Bella Ramsey.
Lola Tung boards Halina Reijn’s Please.
Josh Gad cast in Bradley Cooper’s Ocean’s Eleven prequel.
Maya Da Costa joins Paramount and Blumhouse’s new Paranormal Activity movie.
Joe Wright will direct Working Title’s Tim Winton adaptation Juice.
Bille August will direct Giorgio Armani biopic Armani: The King of Fashion.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Kubrick was originally going to direct A.I.
57% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Hollywood is turning to the internet in search of their monsters. Warner Bros. is making a horror movie based on Siren Head, an internet sensation urban legend based on paintings created by artist Trevor Henderson. It depicts a mysterious creature (above) that has two sirens for a head and a lean humanoid body.
The film will be directed by Brian Duffield (Dir: No One Will Save You) and co-written by Zach Cregger (Dir: Weapons) and Duffield.
Following the immense success of Backrooms (2026), which started out as a viral YouTube video series, Hollywood has begun scouring the far corners of the internet to find its next horror icons. Siren Head is a creature that the younger generation can easily recognize on screen, similar to how Backrooms was almost a nostalgia piece for the Gen Z audience.
However, the biggest difference between the two is that while Backrooms introduced internet dwellers to a new world, Siren Head still is a single creature. While there are other creatures like Cartoon Cat and Long Horse that Trevor Henderson created, there is still a question mark on what their narrative potential could be. The idea of a Siren Head film feels somewhat similar to the Slender Man craze that happened in the last decade, which ended in a subpar film, Slender Man (2018).
However, with Duffield’s knack for creating visceral experiences about person vs. beast with very little need for dialogue or backstory, this feels right in his wheelhouse. And Cregger can tap into the mythological element.
Tidbits:
Lionsgate teams back up with director Kenji Tanigaki (The Furious) for his next action film, The Reckoner, which will star Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) as the lead. Lionsgate has sealed a production deal with Russo Brothers’ AGBO (Prod Co: Everything Everywhere All at Once), and the script will be written by Derek Kolstad (Wri: John Wick). Tanigaki’s breakout Hong Kong action hit The Furious earned more than $20M in the U.S.
Alamo Drafthouse is launching a new distribution program specifically for unreleased festival movies to play across its dozens of theaters. Films unable to secure distribution after playing at festivals like Sundance, TIFF, Tribeca, and Cannes will get a limited theatrical run for some much-needed big-screen exposure. Kicking off the program is the SXSW doc Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt. Wonder if they’ll change the title.
Paramount has submitted concessions to its original $111bn Warner Bros. merger plan to satisfy the European Commission's growing concerns. The EC didn’t specify the changes required for approval, but a “new provisional deadline” has been set for Jul. 22.
Two Adaptations:
Safe House? More like The Surf House. Netflix is developing a TV adaptation of The Castaways author Lucy Clarke’s thriller novel The Surf House. With Tell Me Lies director Ed Lilly attached, the story is set in a secluded Moroccan surf retreat following a young woman seeking refuge, only to become consumed by the mystery of another guest who vanished there a year earlier. The North Road Company (Chief of War) and Jessica Rhoades’ Pacesetter Productions (Station Eleven) are producing the new series.
Chernin Entertainment is gearing up for war on the high seas with a series adaptation of Victoria Aveyard’s epic novel, Tempest, in the works. Heading to shelves this September, the book is a pirate fantasy following a noblewoman caught between duty and the only man she’s ever loved. Aveyard’s Red Queen series was similarly snapped up by Peacock back in 2021 and, despite little movement, is still in development.
Mini Tidbits:
Fox Corp. elevates Seana Sullivan to SVP, Corporate Communications. Sullivan will lead the communication strategy across Tubi Media Group in her new role. She joined Tubi 3 years ago as VP of Communications and Publicity.
Starz boards Channel 4’s drama Maya, starring Bella Ramsey (HBO’s The Last of Us). The show will follow the story of a mother and daughter who are forced into witness protection in order to escape a dangerous threat. Ramsey plays the teenage daughter who must take on new identities.
Wilford Lloyd “Bud” Baumes, the man who developed ABC’s The Love Boat (1977-86) and executive produced TV’s Wonder Woman, has died at 86. Baumes was truly one of television’s quiet architects.
Trailers:
Universal Pictures’ The Odyssey
Final trailer
Dir: Christopher Nolan
Release: Jul. 17
Laika’s Wildwood
Official Featurette
Dir: Travis Knight
Release: Oct. 23
Fox’s Baywatch reboot
Cast: Stephen Amell, Jessica Belkin
Release: Jan. 2027
Paramount+’s Colin from Accounts (S3)
Release: Jul. 27
Umbrella Entertainment’s Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant
Premiere: Sundance
Disney’s Camp Rock 3
Cast: The Jonas Brothers
Release: Aug. 13
Premiering at Karlovy Vary Film Festival:
Yellow Pill Films’ Rain Catcher
Int. Sales Rep: Cercamon’s Vorteks
Miroslav Terzić’s 3 Weeks After
Int. Sales Rep: Bendita Film Sales
Release Dates:
Sony Pictures’ The Comebacker
Cast: Tom Hanks
Dir: Marielle Heller
Release: Jul 30, 2027
Netflix’s Unspeakable: The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Clive Owen
Release: Dec. 25
Fathom Entertainment’s Jimmy
Cast: KJ Apa, Rob Riggle, Jason Alexander
Release: Nov. 6
Viz Media’s Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War-The Calamity
Release: Jul. 25 (on Hulu and Disney+)
Re-Releases:
Mel Gibson’s 4K The Passion of the Christ
The remastered version includes a sneak peek at The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One
Release: Sept 1-17
MGM+’s Godfather of Harlem will end with a two-hour series finale following its season four finale last June.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Lola Tung is the newest young actor to be cast in Babygirl and Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn’s new film Please.
Tung is known for carrying Amazon’s YA hit series as the immature but passionate teenager, Belly, caught in a love triangle with her longtime crush and, wait for it, his brother. While that premise was pretty unsettling, Tung first tried out the thriller horror space as part of the all-female ensemble in SXSW’s Forbidden Fruits (2026). What started as a campy teen slasher quickly turned into a graphic horror with even more blood in its final act than the shocking The Substance ending.
In Please, Tung is joining Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie and The Long Walk’s David Jonsson, and while plot details are unknown, if it’s anything like Reijn’s previous films, it’s sure to be unpredictable and, at the least, disturbing.
Tidbits:
Every Ocean’s movie needs its comedic relief, and Josh Gad is that guy. The Frozen actor has joined Warner Bros.’ upcoming Ocean’s 11 prequel. Led by Bradley Cooper, who is writing, directing, and starring, Gad joins Margot Robbie, along with Oscar nominees Wagner Moura and Monica Barbaro. The untitled film will follow Danny Ocean’s parents attempting to pull off an epic heist at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix. Character details have yet to be announced.
Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Paramount add Maya Da Costa (Hulu’s Under the Bridge) to the new Paranormal Activity movie. Da Costa beautifully portrayed a teenager grappling with first love and her sexual identity in the coming-of-age film Girls Like Girls; however, the skills needed to navigate a profound summer romance may prove far less useful in the face of the paranormal. No word on plot.
Michael Weatherly is returning to CBS’s NCIS Season 24 as the series icon Tony DiNozzo. Following the cancellation of the spinoff show Tony & Ziva, Weatherly has been away from the mothership series for exactly 10 years after departing in May 2016.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
From period pieces to the apocalypse, Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice) is set to direct Juice, Working Title’s feature adaptation of Tim Winton’s acclaimed sci-fi novel. Set in a world ravaged by climate collapse, a young husband and father is recruited into a secret resistance targeting the wealthy elite blamed for the global catastrophe. When the mission goes terribly wrong, he finds himself on the run and forced to survive on his own.
Wright rarely repeats himself, but he almost always starts with a book. The two-time BAFTA winner has taken on nearly every genre, from the psychological thriller The Woman in the Window (2021) to the wartime drama Atonement (2007), regardless, Wright is at his most effective when working with existing literature.
He’ll be joined by Emmy-winning writer Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady), who is adapting the screenplay.
Two-time Palme d’Or-winning director Bille August (Pelle the Conqueror) is set to helm Armani: The King of Fashion. The Danish filmmaker will direct the anticipated biopic, announced just nine months after the passing of the legendary fashion designer. It’s an inspired pairing as August has built a career on internal character studies, more interested in the person behind the spectacle, or fashion empire in this case, rather than the actual spectacle itself.
Armani revolutionized fashion not through excess and flamboyance, but through discipline and meticulous craftsmanship. In The Best Intentions (1992), loosely based on Ingmar Bergman’s parents, the film follows an eroding marriage, but rather than painting either as a hero or a villain, August patiently reveals the emotional conflict beneath their walls, completely humanizing the fractured couple. Whether a character from literary fiction or a real person, August has a remarkable respect for the characters he brings to life, making him the perfect selection to continue Armani’s legacy.
Mini Tidbits:
Former BBC Studios exec Janet Brown has been named Tribeca Enterprises’ new Chief Commercial Officer. Brown will oversee Tribeca’s commercial strategy and company-wide revenue operations, looking to drive growth with distributors and studios.
Disney+ renews Polish drama Breslau for a second season. The show follows an ex-convict who is dragged into an investigation of a murder he failed to solve many years ago. Disney+ also ordered two more shows in Poland: the comedy Everything Under Control and the thriller The Game.
Producer Nils Hartmann (Prod: The New Pope) steps down as EVP of Sky Studios Italy. Hartmann has served the company for 23 years, creating many Italian TV series that gained international attention. Emanuele Marchesi will step into Hartmann’s role.
Shortly after getting a season two renewal, Channel 4’s A Woman of Substance was sold to Spanish broadcaster TVE to play in Spain. From Banijay UK’s The Forge Entertainment (The Buccaneers), the rags-to-riches dramedy series is making its way around the globe, with the new Spanish deal completed just after the first season was sold to BritBox for the U.S.
ON THIS DAY
1947. Larry David born in Brooklyn, New York.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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