Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Westworld film, Fast & Furious show, and Herzog as a fish.
Let’s go!
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We just landed in Cannes. If you’re around, say “hi.” Here’s a full breakdown of the festival films:
https://theindustry.co/p/cannes-2026-lineup
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
David Koepp scripts a new Westworld film for Warner Bros.
Vin Diesel brings a Fast & Furious TV show to Peacock.
Florence Pugh stars in Studiocanal’s The Midnight Library.
Amazon adapts Elsie Silver’s Rose Hill romance series, w/ Marc Webb directing.
SAG-AFTRA approves a new four-year deal.
Liam Neeson joins surreal fantasy rom-com The Splendid Thing.
Felicity Jones becomes Agatha Christie in Eleven Missing Days.
Bong Joon Ho’s animated Ally casts Bradley Cooper, Ayo Edebiri, & Herzog.
Ryan Coogler’s X-Files guest stars: Amy Madigan, Steve Buscemi, and Ben Foster.
FKA twigs will play Josephine Baker in musical biopic.
The White Lotus S4 adds Ben Kingsley.
Aaron Paul joins Fallout S3.
Guy Pearce, Nick Jonas, and Nathan Silver headline new Cannes Market packages.
Angel picks up Sundance’s Fing! starring Taika Waititi.
Neon reunites with Matt Johnson for a new Finn Wolfhard thriller.
Nia DaCosta will direct the first two eps of Prime’s Sex Criminals.
Kino Lorber picks up Sundance’s Soul Patrol.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Beasts of No Nation - Netflix’s first film.
52% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
We’re getting a new Westworld. David Koepp (wri: Jurassic Park, Black Bag) will script a film adaptation based on the original Westworld (1973) film for Warner Bros.
It’s an interesting move by Warner Bros., as their TV division, HBO, pulled all the seasons of Westworld from the platform. The project wasn’t generating enough revenue to justify paying the costs of actor residuals and music licensing rights.
However, the underlying material couldn’t be more relevant than ever. With an entire world of robots designed to look human, forming parasocial relationships, and then hallucinating. “We don’t know exactly how they work.” Here’s the 4K trailer for the original.
Spielberg has been tipped as the director because at SXSW he said he was directing a mysterious Western.
The family is coming back to Peacock. Fast & Furious star Vin Diesel has announced the street-racing franchise is speeding on to the small screen for the first time. Diesel will EP a new series expanding the long-running saga beyond its ten main films, one feature spinoff (Hobbs & Shaw, 2019), and Netflix’s recent animated series, Fast & Furious Spy Racers. Beyond Diesel’s involvement behind the scenes, no plot details have been released.
From Universal Television, the series was announced ahead of Fast Forever, the rumored final installment of the franchise, which is set to premiere in March 2028, likely after the new TV series.
Tidbits:
Florence Pugh will star in and produce fantasy drama Studiocanal’s The Midnight Library, a “love letter to life” from Lion director Garth Davis. In a truly beautiful synopsis, Pugh will play a woman who finds herself in a library between life and death, given the chance to experience all the potential lives she could have lived. The Midnight Library will be the biggest budget film from Studiocanal, expected to enter pre-production this fall. Blueprint Pictures (Emma) will launch sales at Cannes.
Amazon loves its romance novels. Elsie Silver’s Rose Hill romance series has been picked up by the streamer for a TV adaptation. The first season will follow the first novel, Wild Love, an enemies-to-lovers story centered on a billionaire turned new dad who is simultaneously fighting his longtime attraction to his best friend’s sister. Marc Webb (dir: (500) Days of Summer) will direct the first two episodes, and Heidi Cole McAdams (wri: The 100) is on board as showrunner.
Byron Allen finally makes a major purchase, 52% of BuzzFeed for $120M. He will become the majority shareholder and the CEO. He recently bought 11% of Starz, and made a few failed attempts, including $10bn for ABC, FX, and Nat Geo, $3.5bn for BET, and $30bn for Paramount Global.
Mini Tidbits:
SAG-AFTRA approves 4-year deal. Get the full details here.
Greenlights:
Prime’s Fourth Wing (series)
EP: Michael B. Jordan, Lisa Joy (Westworld)
Dir Ep 1: Joy
NBC’s Wordle TV show
Cast: Savannah Guthrie
ABC’s The Rookie: North
Cast: Jay Ellis
Renewals:
Prime Video’s Reacher (Renewed for S5)
Fox’s 5 renewals:
Celebrity Weakest Link (for S2)
Extracted (for S3)
Don’t Forget the Lyrics (for S4)
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (for S5)
Celebrity Name That Tune (for S6)
Cancellations:
BBC Comedy Film Club (canceled after S1)
NBC’s On Brand With Jimmy Fallon (canceled after S1)
Trailers:
Black Bear’s The Rivals of Amziah King
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Kurt Russell, Cole Sprouse
Release: Aug 14
Vietnamese Drama Picturehouse
Cast: Tran The Manh, Khazsak
USA Network’s Anna Pigeon
Cast: Tracy Spiridakos, Ronnie Rowe
Peacock’s The Five Star Weekend
Cast: Jennifer Garner, Gemma Chan, Regina Hall
Release: July 9
Watermelon Pictures’ Shoot the People (doc)
Cast: Oscar-nominated Misan Harriman
Release: June 19
Netflix’s 72 Hours
Cast: Kevin Hart, Mason Gooding, Teyana Taylor
Release: July 24
Clip:
Animated adaptation of In Waves
Cannes Critics Week
Cast: Will Sharpe, Stephanie Hsu
First Look:
Paper Tiger
Dir/Wri: James Gray
Cast: Adam Driver, Miles Teller, Scarlett Johansson
Release dates:
Peacock’s The Paper (S2)
Release: September
Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (S3)
Release: Nov 11
Fox’s Baywatch (reboot)
Release: Jan
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Liam Neeson is getting weird again.
The Taken star has joined romantic comedy The Splendid Thing alongside John Cleese and Matthew Modine, who will also direct the film himself.
The surreal fantasy film follows a celebrated novelist (Modine) haunted by characters from his own books who begin to come to life, including Neeson as a Gatsby-esque figure who accidentally lands the writer in the hospital.
Nothing is as it seems, including Neeson’s career, which continues moving further away from the straight-faced action heroes that defined a large chunk of his career. The Splendid Thing marks Neeson’s first film since the deadpan parody comedy remake The Naked Gun (2025), where he donned a schoolgirl disguise during a hostage situation and was involved in a ridiculous bit with Pamela Anderson and a snowman.
The world of silliness and whimsy now feels as much a part of Neeson’s cinematic lexicon as “I Will Find You.”
Hyde Park Intl. (Marianne) is launching sales at Cannes.
Felicity Jones is the new queen of crime.
Jones will portray author Agatha Christie in Eleven Missing Days, a noir-leaning retelling of her infamous 1926 disappearance, a real-life unsolved chapter that turned the queen of crime into the subject of her own whodunit.
The Train Dreams actress will star alongside César winner Vincent Cassel as a Belgian police detective in a case of life imitating art. The film poses the British writer’s vanishing as a mystery where everyone around her becomes a suspect.
Experienced in period dramas and known for playing intelligent but internally complex women, like in her Oscar-nominated turns in The Theory of Everything (2014) or The Brutalist (2024), Jones seems like someone who can perfectly encapsulate Christie’s enigmatic persona.
Currently in pre-production, the film will shoot in the UK this summer. Fortitude International will launch sales at Cannes.
Tidbits:
Neon’s Ally, an animated film directed by Bong Joon Ho (Mickey 17, Parasite), has a stellar voice cast of Bradley Cooper, Ayo Edebiri, and Werner Herzog. We’re getting a bit of Finding Nemo vibes, with the film taking place underwater and centering on an inquisitive piglet squid.
Amy Madigan, Steve Buscemi, and Ben Foster will guest in Ryan Coogler’s X-Files pilot for Hulu. EP’d by original X-Files creator Chris Carter. Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel play Mulder and Scully. We can see the trio playing wonderfully provocative weirdos from a bent world.
Grammy-nominated musician FKA twigs (Mother Mary) is officially portraying Jazz Age icon Josephine Baker in an untitled musical biopic from director Maïmouna Doucouré (Cuties). In her first leading onscreen role, Twigs has described Baker as an inspiration and acknowledged not only the cultural weight of portraying a triple threat but also the enduring significance of Baker’s legacy.
Everyone has checked in at The White Lotus Season 4. Ben Kingsley and Max Minghella (Industry) are the final guests to be cast. They join Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan, and Laura Dern. Premiering spring 2027.
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) is joining the post-apocalyptic world of Prime Video’s Fallout for its upcoming third season. The casting reunites EPs Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy with the actor who previously worked together on HBO's Westworld, with Paul as an AI-fighting, former criminal for hire. Production has begun with a projected 2027 premiere.
Peacock’s streaming hit The Day of the Jackal casts Matt Bomer (Fellow Travelers) in its second season, recurring opposite Eddie Redmayne. While his role has not been confirmed, Bomer will reportedly play a villain, with production ongoing in Budapest.
Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) joins director Halina Reijn’s (Babygirl) next A24 film Please. Burke will be acting alongside Grammy nominee Gracie Abrams.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
A few more great films are added to the Cannes Market, including one starring Guy Pearce, another with Nick Jonas, and a US remake of Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize winner A Poet.
Full breakdown here:
https://theindustry.co/p/cannes-market-2026
Slow cinema master Hong Sangsoo’s (Right Now, Wrong Then) 34th feature, The Day She Returns, sells across seven territories.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Waititi is returning to his roots. Angel Studios (Sound of Freedom) acquires U.S. rights to Sundance’s Fing!, starring Taika Waititi (Dir/Actor: Jojo Rabbit). Directed by Jeffrey Walker (Apple Cider Vinegar), the film will follow two librarian parents racing into the jungle to find the legendary creature “Fing” before a ruthless park owner (Waititi).
Taika Waititi has made a name for himself in recent years with Marvel films like Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Now, it seems that he is coming back to much smaller, weirder, and more personal stories, much like his early career films like Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016). He was a master at crafting deadpan comedy that hides an underlying emotional sadness, and we hope to see it again in Fing!.
After the success of Neon’s absurdist comedy Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025), the studio is joining forces again with director Matt Johnson on a new untitled project. Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard is attached to star as an investigative journalist breaking a story on an international cocaine smuggling operation closer to him than he could have ever realized.
One of Canada’s strongest directors, this new film, shortly after the drop of his A24 trailer, Tony, continues Johnson’s streak of taking on real-world stories and heightening them. Neon will release the film in the US and handle international sales at the Cannes Film Market.
Prime’s series Sex Criminals brings on Nia DaCosta to direct ep 1 & 2. The show follows two lovers who stop time during sex and use the power to rob banks. DaCosta has a slick, kinetic, sexy stylization on full display in Prime’s Hedda that will be perfect for this. Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick), along with Tze Chun (Gotham), co-create.
Tidbits:
Sundance’s Soul Patrol
Green Book producer
Briarcliff Entertainment acquisition
All those tidbits and more here.
ON THIS DAY
1967. Blow-Up wins the Grand Prix (2nd place) at Cannes.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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Midnight Library is on my TBR and I love Pugh so excited for that one!