Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Breaking Bad, video game adaptations galore and a Divine Comedy.
Let’s go!
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Breaking Bad ushered in the modern era of prestige TV.
Yes, there was The Sopranos (1999-2007) and The Wire (2002-2008), both of which took storytelling in TV to unprecedented heights. But it was the cinematic prowess of Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and his team that pushed the medium even further. From the first shot of the premiere episode in 2008, a slow-mo shot of pants flying into the air, it didn’t let go of its grip until Walter White had scorched everything in sight to build his empire.
Now Gilligan is back with a new series.
Something that, for the first time in 17 years, breaks him out of the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe: Apple TV+’s Pluribus.
Synopsis:
The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.
The star is Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn. Gilligan described her character:
“She plays someone who’s trying very hard to be good. She’s a bit of a damaged hero, but she’s a hero nonetheless.”
Damaged heroes are Gilligan’s specialty.
In Breaking Bad, the culture leeched onto Bryan Cranston’s Walter White because his motives at the start of the show are honorable: to make enough money to support his family following his terminal cancer diagnosis.
This is the catalyst that jolts White out of his dweebish demeanor at the start of episode 1, brought on by years of subservience to a job he hates, to a marriage that is tired, and to a career that he abandoned. White’s life up until those moments is a vast sublimation of rage.
Gilligan’s mastery allows those with righteous aims to take on the nightmarish dimension of ego at its most intoxicating and spectacular high.
We can’t wait to see what he unlocks in Pluribus.
Apple has ordered 2 seasons. Premiering Nov 7th.
For More:
Pluribus teaser.
Breaking Bad might not exist if Vince Gilligan had not written an X-Files episode (clip) for Bryan Cranston in 1998, a decade before Breaking Bad premiered.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Amazon MGM is developing a Wolfenstein series.
Charter loses 80K video subs in Q2 2025.
Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media cuts 3 execs.
Comic-Con debuts new trailers for Peacemaker S2, Starfleet Academy, and Lionsgate’s The Long Walk.
Coyote vs. Acme will (finally!) release August 2026.
Iris Apatow joins The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Emily VanCamp leads crime film Little Audrey.
Crossed, from The Boys creator Garth Ennis, casts Owen Harn.
Marlene Warfield (Network) dies at 83.
Mother of Flies wins Fantasia Fest.
Goodfellas picks up Venice Orizzonti title Divine Comedy.
Halo director launches Love Hate Hunt Kill, a desert-set sci-fi indie thriller.
Coin Operated developing David Yarovesky’s horror film He Never Dies.
Shudder acquires The Mortuary Assistant, based on the viral video game.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Move over Fallout: Amazon MGM Studios is developing a Wolfenstein TV series, based on Bethesda's alternate World War 2 Nazi-killing first person shooter.
The game follows super soldier BJ Blascowicz as he mows through the alternate hyper-advanced Nazis. The game had a stellar reboot in 2014 that led to stellar reviews and a sequel that built on BJ's growing list of freedom fighters including guitarist Jimi Hendrix.
The game is a ton of fun, definitely dips into darker territory than Fallout. Maybe a bit close to home as of late but with the team of Patrick Somerville (Station Eleven) as showrunner and Kilter Films (Fallout, Westworld) producing we should be punching Nazis in no time, this is definitely one to keep watch.
Video Game Trailer here.
Charter, the leading U.S. pay-TV operator, sees losses slow in Q2 2025:
12.6M total video customers
↓80K subs since last quarter
Charter reduced its pay TV losses by 80.4% year-over-year, with it losing 408K subs in Q2 2024.
The stock was down 18.5% Friday (biggest loss in company history).
It’s a tough time for production companies. Recently, Lena Waithe’s prod co downsized, Blumhouse laid off 6, and A24 cut its Doc division.
Now Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media (Sinners, Creed III, Judas and the Black Messiah) cut three roles:
SVP, Film (Rebecca Cho)
EVP (Kalia King)
Dir of Dev, Film (Hannah Levy)
We thought Proximity would be more immune, given Sinners is the #2 highest-grossing horror film domestically of all time ($365.9M WW total). And they have two projects in full swing Universal’s A Vicious Circle and 20th Century Studios’ California Bear.
ComicCon Recap: Happy Comic Con! This year was an exciting one. Here are some of the projects that stuck out to us.
Lionsgate’s The Long Walk
Release: Sept 12th
Steven King’s Hunger Games style thriller about a competitive death march apparently showed 22 minutes of footage, from what I have seen this one seems HEAVY.
HBO’s Peacemaker (Season 2)
Releases: August 21st on HBO
After a promising start with Superman, Gunn appears to be using his pet project to explain some of the behind the scenes timeline stuff. Chris aka Peacemaker, falls in love with a new better dimension and I assume this will be how he crosses over into the new DCU from the old DCEU.
20th Century’s Predator Badlands
We got a bit more of a good look at Elle Fanning's character and she's got no legs! She appears to be a Cyborg paired up with our Alien hero. The first 15 minutes was shown, the premise of this is a little silly, but I could see this being a fun watch.
Universal Pictures’ Nobody 2
In theaters August 15th
Bob Odenkirk still killing people while being old this time on vacation. There was an unreleased bit of footage that showed him kicking ass ala Jackie Chan which was sweet.
Paramount+’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Holly Hunter joins as the space school's dean, weird how you get a southern accent in space, but I don't know. If you think about it this is kind of Trek's answer to Gen V. The trailer looks good, maybe needs a little seasoning.
Two other great Comic Con tidbits:
Sterling K. Brown has joined Amazon's Voltron movie as yet to be named, original character.
Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote Vs Acme - Long thought dead. but purchased from Warner Bros. for $50M, showed off some footage (not leaked just yet) they also had a fun little gag where Acmes Lawyers served them papers. In theaters Aug 28, 2026.
Tidbits:
Dick Clark Productions has hired Mike Chuthakieo as their first-ever Chief Commercial Officer. He will oversee all commercial strategies, revenue generation, and major programs like the Golden Globes and the American Music Awards.
TV literary manager Matt Baldovsky has joined production and management company Adventure Media. Some of Baldovsky’s clients include Munis Rashid (wri. The Night Agent) and Amy York Rubin (wri. Dead to Me).
Sequels/Reboots in the very early stages:
My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
Original Cast: Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, and Rupert Everett
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Original Cast: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Two Christmas Trailers:
Cineverse’s Silent Night, Deadly Night
Christmas 2025
Warner Bros.’ Margie Claus (Animated Christmas Feature)
Melissa McCarthy Announcement vid
Christmas 2027
Two Trailers:
AMC’s Talamasca
Cast: Jason Schwartzman, William Fichtner
Creator: Anne Rice (The Mayfair Witches)
Release: October 26
Starz’s Outlander (Season 8)
Final Season Premiere: Early 2026
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
The sick twisted mind behind The Boys comic Garth Ennis has another one of his stories, Crossed, coming to life, with the a fresh cast.
Written by Ennis and directed by Rob Jabbaz (The Sadness), Crossed is a post apocalyptic kind of zombie not zombie survival. A group of survivors try to well… survive when a pandemic strips people of their inhibitions and sends them into violent rage. The leader of the infected has taken on the name “Horsecock” and he will be played by Owen Harn (CobraKai). The ensemble of survivors include its dual leads Devin Druid (13 Reasons Why) and Ash Santos (American Horror Story).
The Boys was a huge hit and a good peek at Ennis’ proclivities, Crossed might just ratchet that up beyond comprehension.
Tidbits:
Gen V Season 2 returns to Godolkin University with new faces, including Ethan Slater (Wicked) as university founder Thomas Godolkin, and cameos from The Boy's Starlight (Erin Moriarty). There seems to be some themes crossing over from The Boys as well, with new programs appearing in school due to Homelander's actions. Premieres September 17th. Trailer.
As filming finally begins, Iris Apatow (Funny People) and Edvin Ryding (28 Years Later) have been cast in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the Lionsgate prequel film. The pair will play two Capitol University students, Proserpina and Vitus, who are assigned to design for the District 12 Tributes. In theaters Nov. 20th, 2026.
Amazon MGM Studios’ anticipated series adaptation of Off Campus casts Khobe Clarke (Netflix’s Firefly Lane) in a major role. The college-set best-selling book series tells the unlikely love story of a hockey player with each season set to follow one of the four novels. Filming in Vancouver.
The lead of ABC’s Revenge, Emily VanCamp has joined the cast of Little Audrey, a mysterious crime film inspired by the heartbreaking real-life story of Audrey Santo. VanCamp is joined by Emmy nominee Aidan Quinn (Practical Magic) and Crash’s Jennifer Esposito.
Marlene Warfield (actress: Network) passed away at 83. We love her scene in Network, where she goes on a tirade (clip) about getting her share of the profit for a show about revolutionary groups.
FESTIVALS
Fantasia Festival winner is Mother of Flies.
Synopsis:
When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods - but every cure has costs.
Shudder has the rights. Full list of Fantasia winners here.
Two Venice films picked up by sales reps:
Ali Asgari (dir: Until Tomorrow) film Divine Comedy (Orizzonti sidebar) picked up by Goodfellas (Megalopolis, The Boy and the Herron).
Synopsis:
Through a navigative journey of absurd bureaucracy, underground deals, and an increasingly surreal reality, Bahram, an Iranian-Azeri filmmaker, decides to screen his banned film without official permission.
Loco Films (prod co: Waiting for Dali) has picked up Memory, the opening film for Venice Days. The trailer is ultra surreal and haunting.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
The Fantastic Four: First Steps might be Marvel's most well-shot film.
It leans heavily on its retro-futurism, but it's brought back into the modern age with the cinematography from its DP Jess Hall.
The thing that really stuck out to me was the grain film quality, it seems small at first but the grain on this immediately points to Hall's other work in things like Grindhouse (2007), there is a richness to this movie that is lacking in Marvel as of late.
Though at its heart FF is a quieter story about family, during the big fights I felt the sense of perspective that I was at street level with the heroes.
All in all what I am saying is Marvel please let Hall keeping doing his magic, I'd love to see the next phase of Marvel be heralded by this stunning cinematic achievement (trailer).
Tidbits:
The filmmaker behind the Halo series has announced a new indie film, Love Hate Hunt Kill, a sci-fi thriller that follows a desert getaway gone wrong as a masked hunter and an ominous comet threaten a couple’s survival. An interesting take by a man who showed a good grasp of sci-fi thrills.
Gary Dauberman’s Coin Operated is developing He Never Dies, a horror film written and directed by David Yarovesky (Brightburn). The story follows a relentless, evolving killer who keeps returning, less human each time. It’s Coin Operated’s second recent project, following Human Remains. With Superman on the brain it's cool to revisit Brightburn's subversion.
Shudder has acquired The Mortuary Assistant, the horror film based on the viral video game. Starring Willa Holland and Paul Sparks, it follows a mortician performing demonic rituals. This feels a bit more like capitalizing on the Five Nights at Freddy's craze rather than a real massive innovation, but for Shudder fans they will get their gore and kills no problem. Will be releasing 2026. Game trailer.
ON THIS DAY
1954. On the Waterfront is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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