Water Brothers, Wise Guys and 1999
Water Brothers, Wise Guys and 1999
Behind The Sopranos, Netflix's Truman Show, Disney Princess Scream Queen and the gutter.
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Behind The Sopranos, Netflix's Truman Show, Disney Princess Scream Queen and the gutter.
Let’s go!
If you like this email, please hit the “like” button. Or, leave us a comment with your thoughts on the edition.
Looking for something to watch this weekend? Check out What’s Coming Next in…
Theatrical:
https://theindustry.co/p/whats-coming-next-theatrical-821
Streaming:
https://theindustry.co/p/whats-coming-next-streaming-822
Most docs aren’t as fun as this.
The opening sequence to Water Brothers, a new documentary from Charles and Wil Kinnane, begins with a visceral blue-hued montage of massive waves, easy summers, and a wild elephant chase.
The nexus of the documentary is the godfather of surfing, Sid Abbruzzi, the owner of a local Newport surf shop, Water Brothers.
Abbruzzi and his store became legendary by fostering community, not only becoming a stomping ground for the likes of a young Tony Hawk but also a generation of emerging skaters and surfers.
I sat down with the filmmaking brothers to understand how they birthed this recklessly organic doc:
“It was a personal connection. We've known [Sid] our whole lives, and he made such an impact on so many people that we knew…. as kids, we were just like, wow, these guys are way too cool. We can't hang with these guys.”
The film celebrates what differentiates Sid from a normal proprietor. One misfit turned pro-skater who was taken under Sid’s wing characterized it best:
“Sid separated a dollar sign from the human being.”
In doing so, Sid took everyone in–and I mean everyone–and alchemized a young generation of surfing and skating talent through reckless abandon.
It’s a process familiar to director and writer Charles and Wil Kinnane, who count eight brothers in their creative circle:
“But with the family, I think that's the real secret to the sauce is kind of the beautiful honesty, the brutal and beautiful honesty we have with each other.”
Water Brothers is a masterclass in fostering community.
For More:
Check out the trailer and upcoming showtimes here.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
“Those who want respect, give respect.”
Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief) is bringing us back to northern NJ as if we never left with a two-part documentary feature, Wise Guy: David Chase And The Sopranos.
Official Synopsis:
A deep dive into the psyche of renowned Sopranos creator and writer, David Chase, to illuminate his life and career while offering a unique window into his unparalleled work on the iconic program.
Airing on HBO for six seasons 25 years ago, The Sopranos became an instant cultural phenomenon and a continuous source of inspiration, permanently changing the scripted television landscape.
Opening on a shot of the NJ Turnpike, the Wise Guy trailer begins with Chase explaining the origin story that was initially a film script about a mobster whose mother plots to kill him.
Beyond just the precious Italian cold cuts or the absurd amount of cigar smoking, Wise Guy with the return of several cast and crew members, will take a deeper look into the challenges and pressures of the behind the scenes making of the horrible but somehow still lovable Tony Soprano and his family’s complicated story.
A Jigsaw production, Wise Guy: David Chase And The Sopranos will premiere on September 7th with both parts airing consecutively, available to stream on Max.
Universal Pictures is letting Wes Ball hack your brain: Ball, director of Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes, will dip back into dystopianism with a crip cyber-punk finish courtesy of indie game publisher Devolver Digitals' Ruiner, an isometric video game set in a futuristic world (Trailer).
Though video game movies were knocked off their recent highs—Mario ($1.36 bn) by the recent Borderlands flop ($18.5 M)—there is a deep well of amazing worlds to discover.
Just follow one simple rule, play the damn game.
No production date yet for Universal’s Ruiner, but the script is currently being written by Michael Arlen Ross (Locked).
Netflix sees 150% growth in ad sales over 2023. During this upfront, they locked in big-name sponsors for their ad-supported plan on Squid Game, Wednesday Happy Gilmore 2, Love is Blind, etc.
But they’re also going hard on something more creatively nefarious.
Netflix explained:
“We’ll continue to improve the Netflix ads plan to ensure our members are delighted by the experience while simultaneously creating solutions that deliver results for our marketers, putting brands at the center of the best shows and films.”
It reminds me of the perfectly cringeworthy moment (clip) from The Truman Show.
Now, of course, Netflix’s projects are expensive, and product placement is a great way to defray the costs, but when it starts affecting the art, what do we lose?
Imagine Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer included extended shots of Guinness being slowly poured every time Martha entered the bar (even though she never ordered a drink).
I hope the creators have ample opportunity to push back, and it is not a precondition for their collaboration with the steamer.
Tidbit:
Chloe Zhao’s (dir: Nomadland) new film Hamnet just landed Focus Features as a distributor. The Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg produced movie centers on William Shakespeare and his wife in 16th Century England during his writing Hamlet. A far cry from Shakespeare in Love (winner of 7 Academy Awards, trailer), the novel on which the book is based takes the point of view of Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, as she deals with the grief of losing her son.
If Zhao taps into the aesthetic of her bleakly beautiful and stoic Best Picture winner Nomadland (trailer) with the unlimited resources of an Amblin project, it may be the type of big-budget film this director deserves.
Two Deals:
She’s moving to Warner Bros!
Producer/Writer Jen Statsky (co-creator of Hacks)
Deal: Work solely for Warner Bros. TV group under her First Thought Productions Banner.
Terms: Will create projects for HBO and Max inside Warner Bros. Discovery
The Emmy award-winning comedy writer’s previous credits include four seasons of NBC’s The Good Place as well as co-EP and writer on Comedy Central’s Broad City.
First-Look TV and Film Deal with Amazon MGM Studios.
Publisher Liz Pelletier (Fourth Wing, Iron Flame)
Former Crooked Highway President Sheryll Clark (Cloverfield)
Terms: Three-year deal, Entangled Publishing’s entire catalog for film, TV, and gaming will be produced and developed under their newly formed Premeditated Productions banner for Amazon.
Amazon is already developing a television series based on author Rebecca Yarros’s mega-viral novel Fourth Wing.
Speaking of big deals, it looks like J.J. Abrams' lucrative $250 M deal to produce Films and TV shows for Warner Bros. is getting renewed, but at a vastly lower number after a few shows failed to launch (Demimonde, Overlook). Additionally, it’s rumored that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Dir: 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) will not renew their contract with Sony.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
From Disney princess to scream queen, Rachel Zegler, is not ready to party like it’s 1999 in the trailer for A24’s new disaster comedy, Y2K, written and directed by SNL standout Kyle Mooney.
Here is the Official Synopsis:
Two high school nobodies make the decision to crash the last major celebration before the new millennium on New Year’s Eve 1999. The night becomes even crazier than they could have ever dreamed when the clock strikes midnight.
Zegler will continue her run of starring in big budget and highly anticipated films as the titular role in Disney’s 2025 live action Snow White that just dropped its trailer at the biannual D23 event earlier this month.
Y2K picked up lots of attention at its premiere at this year’s SXSW, with actor/director Jonah Hill and The Bear creator Christopher Storer also attached as producers of Mooney’s apocalyptic comedy.
Watch the very chaotic and very 90s trailer here ahead of its theatrical premiere on December 6th.
Tidbit:
Maria Bello has been cast in Netflix’s The Waterfront. The film revolves around a disintegrating North Carolina fishing empire.
Her character description reads:
A complex woman who’s married to Harlan (Holt McCallany) and the mother of their two children. After her husband took a step back from the family business, together with their son, she has been running the fishery in very questionable ways in a desperate attempt to save the family.
Bello has recently been seen as the persnickety ultra-rich business owner who flaunts her wealth (still). She was also pitch-perfect in A History of Violence.
No shoot date has been set for the eight-episode series.
FESTIVALS
Johnny Depp’s 2nd feature as a director will premiere out of competition at San Sebastian Film Festival.
It’s a bit of a blow for the film Modi - Three Days on the Wings of Madness (star: Al Pacino), which I’m sure the team was aiming for a Venice/TIFF premiere.
Parts of the official synopsis feel achingly self-reflective:
Paris, 1916, in the midst of WWI--the Italian-born painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani considers himself a commercial and critical failure. One evening in a fashionable restaurant his frustrations erupt into scandalous behavior and costly damage to the premises. Suddenly he finds himself on the run from the police.
Depp has been relegated to the world of independent film for the time being. We will have to see if any distributors bite.
The San Sebastian Film Festival runs from September 20th - 28th.
The Heirloom is picked up for distribution by Factory 25 (Joe Swanberg’s Art History) following a successful run at Rotterdam (In Competiton).
Here’s the official synopsis:
The film follows a neurotic couple whose relationship is brought to the edge by the arrival of a traumatized rescue dog.
The film is written, directed, produced, stars, and co-edited by Ben Petrie.
No release date has been set.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Neon continues to invest in horror. They have just acquired Hell of a Summer from 30West (The Crow, Triangle of Sadness). This marks the directorial debut of Billy Bryk and Stranger Things’s Finn Wolfhard.
Here’s the official synopsis:
The counselors of a summer camp are terrorized by a masked killer.
What I’m most excited about is that this horror comedy is produced by Jay Van Hoy (The Witch, The Lighthouse, American Honey), his first narrative feature since Uncle Frank (2020).
No release date from Neon has been set, but after the runaway success of Longlegs ($100 M) and the more tempered Cuckoo ($5.3 M), I’m sure they won’t wait long.
An underdog fish out-of-water bowling story, The Gutter, was acquired by Magnolia Pictures.
So dust off those Big Lebowski bowling shoes because here is the official synopsis:
Walt lands work at bowling alley AlleyCatz. He's pressured to embrace his bowling talent, which sparks backlash from detractors seeking to undermine his sudden pro success.
The idea was inspired by what directing brothers Isaiah Lester (Black-ish), and Yassir Lester (Loot) termed the brokest years of their lives, which they spent at an LA bowling alley.
They explained their company:
“Us, who are broke grown adults and literally a child’s birthday and then gang members…bowling and talking about crimes they did earlier that day.”
Shameik Moore (Dope, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Susan Sarandon star.
Magnolia will be released in theaters and digitally on November 1st.
See-Saw Films (The King’s Speech, The Power of the Dog, Shame) drops their TV lineup:
Source Material: play
Synopsis:
Two characters meet as the only Black kids in school in their philosophy class and experience that astonishing imprint of first love and tracks them as they grow apart, together, apart, together, allowing us to explore the challenges and joys of intimacy and how we all have the potential to get in our way.
The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King
Source Material: novel
Synopsis:
A young man who decides to reinvent himself and go on a mission to get a boyfriend, regardless of whether he’s getting much encouragement from the world around him.
Source Material: novel
Synopsis:
A London vet who takes up a fellowship on a tiny, remote island to study an endangered breed of tortoises — and also to solve a mystery in her own life.
We can’t wait to see these actualized!
Tidbit:
Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language film, The Room Next Door, drops a teaser. Watch the melancholy yet eye-popping bright-colored teaser, which includes some beautiful tension in the friendship between Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton’s characters.
Sony Pictures Classics distributes. The film will premiere in Venice and then at NYFF.
Alexander Payne (dir: The Holdovers) is directing a Danish-language film. He is using his Greek citizenship to get European funding. No plot details were revealed.
ON THIS DAY
1942. Walt Disney's animated movie Bambi is released.
See you Thursday.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.