Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Will Smith’s Supermax, Amazon MGM’s Gold, and a Big Fix.
Let’s go!
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Cannes Day 3 premiered Mubi’s Fatherland from director Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War), which some critics have felt was emotionally stilted. It’s a stark, powerful rendition of a father and daughter (Thomas Mann and Sandra Hüller) as they journey across post-war Germany, trying to spiritually rebuild what has crumbled. Clip.
The second In Competition film to premiere was Parallel Tales from director, writer Asghar Farhadi (2x Oscar winner for A Separation and The Salesman), starring Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, and Catherine Deneuve.
Farhadi’s films tend to withhold the inciting incident until 40 minutes into the film, which creates a powerful dramatic effect. This is a twisting tale of a dying writer who takes in a thief who steals her identity. It’s delightful in its narrative construction. And is like the twisted, indie version of Stranger Than Fiction.
Isabelle Huppert is wonderful, but the breakout star is Adam Bessa, who has more screentime than anyone else.
Day 4 of Cannes will world premiere All of a Sudden, directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) and Gentle Monster from sales rep mk2, starring Léa Seydoux.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Amazon MGM acquires Will Smith’s Supermax from Miramax for $70M.
Versant posts $1.69bn in Q1 revenue.
Paramount programming exec Keith Cox exits.
Nina Gold will cast the next James Bond.
Netflix and Archewell develop war memoir No Way Out, w/ Matt Charman writing.
HBO’s Roosters becomes its most-watched debut comedy series in over 15 years.
Jodie Comer leads HBO kidnapping thriller The Chain.
Natalie Dormer joins Netflix’s FIFA match-fixing thriller The Big Fix.
Netflix acquires four festival docs, including Room to Move & Free Leonard Peltier.
Ruben Östlund making-of doc, Ruben tracks The Entertainment System Is Down.
Fifth Season acquires rights to Corey Stoll and Julia Stiles thriller Recap.
Catherine Breillat and Lone Scherfig line up new Cannes Market projects.
Michelle Yeoh EPs Thai Muay Thai action drama Nak Muay.
Wednesday’s correct answer: Mimic the film Guillermo del Toro disowns.
54% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Will Smith’s new film is going straight to streaming.
Smith will star in Amazon MGM’s action thriller Supermax, directed by David Gordon Green (Halloween sequel franchise). Amazon MGM bought the film from Miramax for $70M. If Miramax had held onto it, they would have almost certainly released it theatrically (as they’re co-owned by Paramount).
If Amazon puts it directly on Prime, it would be a bit of an odd move given that they’re aiming for 15 films released theatrically/year and had one of the buzzier slates at CinemaCon. Also, Smith’s last onscreen performance was Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), which hit $404M worldwide. That had a baked-in audience, though, and Amazon may not believe this is worth spending the money on a theatrical campaign.
Creatively, that’s odd too, as in Supermax, Smith will be playing an FBI agent investigating a murder that has taken place in the world’s most secure prison. Smith’s most iconic (and highest-grossing) characters are in law enforcement, from Agent J in the Men in Black franchise to Mike Lowrey in Bad Boys.
This will be Smith’s first role in an original film since the incident at the Oscars.
Versant’s Quarter One earnings:
$1.69bn Total Revenue
↓ 1.1%
$286M Net Income
↓ 22.1%
$704M Adjusted EBITDA
↓ 7%
$192M Platforms Revenue
↑ 9.5%
$368M Advertising Revenue
↓ 7.3%
Versant Media Group is made up of NBCUniversal’s cable television networks, like the USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, SYFY, and the Golf Channel.
Following the separation from Comcast back in January, this quarter marks the first full earnings report from Versant as an independent public company.
Tidbits:
In the wake of the Skydance merger, Paramount’s Keith Cox (greenlit Yellowstone) exits. He is a top programming executive behind brands like the Paramount Network, Showtime/MTV, and TV Land. After 20 years with the company, Cox is currently in negotiations to join his former boss, Chris McCarthy, at NBCUniversal. He will finish out the month at Paramount.
The hunt for 007 begins. Nina Gold, the casting director for HBO’s Game of Thrones series and films like Les Misérables (2012) and Conclave (2024), is in charge of choosing the next James Bond. Gold will work closely with director Denis Villeneuve (Dir: Dune) for the search. Gold has a reputation for choosing authentic and grounded actors, sometimes making decisions that are unexpected. Though it is too early for speculation, we are excited to see who Gold would bring to the table.
As part of their partnership, Netflix and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell (With Love, Meghan) are developing a feature on war memoir No Way Out: The Searing True Story of Men Under Siege. The Oscar-nominated Matt Charman (Bridge of Spies) is writing the adaptation, telling the story of a group of British soldiers sent to hold a district in Afghanistan’s Helmand province during the war.
Mini Tidbits:
The first season of HBO’s Steve Carell-led feel-good show Roosters has just become the most-watched debut comedy series for the prestige TV network in more than 15 years. The last to hit this marker in under 90 days of its premiere were the dramedy Hung (2009) and Sex and the City (1998).
Doctor Who’s coming to AMC+. Beginning June 11, AMC+ will stream all 13 seasons of the BBC’s revived Doctor Who TV series.
Emmy-winning TV producer Sarah Caplan (Lost) has died after a three-year-long battle with Alzheimer’s. From Alias to her more recent role as co-executive producer of Apple’s The Morning Show spent over 30 years working in prestige television.
Greenlit:
CBS Studios’ family adventure series The Emperor’s Stone
Airing on France Télévisions in France, ZDF in Germany, and Rai in Italy.
Renewals:
Sky’s Prisoner for S2
Showrunner: Matt Charman (Bridge of Spies)
Nickelodeon’s PAW Patrol for S14, S15
+ Spinoff series Rubble & Crew for S5, S6
Clip:
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Dir: Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant)
Premiering at Cannes
Trailer:
Hulu’s The Season
From Crazy Rich Asians studio SK Global
Release: June 17
Release Dates:
Dua Lipa (Live From Mexico)
Concert film accompanying upcoming album
Release: May 22
Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty S9
Release: May 24
Streaming on Hulu and HBO Max June 15
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Jodie Comer loves to play a woman under pressure.
The 28 Years Later actress has boarded HBO’s new limited series The Chain, based on Adrian McKinty’s bestselling novel of the same name. It’s a really horrific story centered on Comer as a mother who’s trapped inside a brutal kidnapping ring where saving her own child means abducting someone else’s.
The panic-driven premise feels like a perfect match for Comer, whose Emmy-winning breakout role as the emotionally erratic, dangerously impulsive, but sharp-thinking assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve (2018-22) showcased her ability to make even the most unthinkable choices feel desperately necessary.
Lost creator Damon Lindelof is on board as showrunner.
Emmy winner Brit Lower (Severance) and Oscar nominee Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value) are rounding out the cast for Zero K, a feature adaptation from Michael Almereyda (Marjorie Prime).
The dramatic sci-fi follows a tech billionaire (played by Peter Sarsgaard) preparing his dying wife (Lilleaas) for cryonic preservation in an advanced medical facility while his estranged son (played by Caleb Landry Jones) searches for stability with a woman raising a young son (Lower).
Production is ongoing in São Paulo, Brazil.
Tidbits:
Game of Thrones and Hunger Games star Natalie Dormer is the newest addition to Netflix’s thriller feature The Big Fix. Joining Riz Ahmed and Netflix regular Mark Wahlberg, the film follows an Interpol cop at FIFA who uncovers a match-fixing scandal and launches a full-stakes investigation. From Chernin Entertainment, the film marks the second recent Netflix project (after Extraction) for Dormer.
Chris Rock joins the voice cast of live-action-animation hybrid short film Goodnight, Lamby. The film will follow a three-year-old girl as she searches for her missing stuffed Lamby through her father’s surreal sculpture. The film is produced by Darren Aronofsky. Paul Rudd is also cast alongside Rock.
Bye, Marvel, hello, DC. With filming ongoing, director Matt Reeves confirms Scarlett Johansson will appear, while Sebastian Stan will play Two-Face in The Batman: Part II. Bullet Train’s Brian Tyree Henry has also joined the cast. The sequel will (hopefully) hit theaters in October 2027.
Mini Tidbits:
Isabella Rossellini
Richie Stephens
Dacre Montgomery
All those casting tidbits and more here.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
Netflix has acquired four major documentaries from this past year’s festival circuit.
Tribeca’s Room to Move
Dir: Alexander Hammer (Edit: Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé)
EP: Amy Schumer
Release: May 27
Sundance’s Boys State
Dir(s): Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss (Teenage Wasteland)
Release: Sept. 4
Sundance’s Free Leonard Peltier
Dir(s): Jesse Short Bull (Lakota Nation vs. United States), David France (How to Survive a Plague)
Release: Oct. 12
Telluride’s The Bend in the River
Dir: Robb Moss (Containment)
Prod(s): Joel Coen, Frances McDormand
Release: Dec. 4
A trio of Cannes films is picked up by sales reps, including Soderbergh’s film and the latest from the director of Red Rooms. Breakdown here.
The third annual Gotham Television Awards will bestow Homeland and The Beast in Me star Claire Danes with a performer tribute at the event in New York on June 1.
Cannes Market additions, with projects starring Noomi Rapace and Guy Pearce. Full details here.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
A feature documentary titled Ruben is in the works, following filmmaker Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness) during the making of his latest film, The Entertainment System Is Down. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Sigge Eklund, the doc tracks a project fueled by Östlund’s near-impossible ambition to become the first director in history to win three Palme d’Or awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Entertainment System Is Down is currently in post-production and will compete at next year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Fifth Season (Prod Co: Severance) acquires international distribution rights to the Indie series Recap, starring Corey Stoll (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) and Julia Stiles (Bourne franchise). The show follows Morley (Stoll), who wakes each day with no memory beyond a video recap and lives by strict rules on an isolated farm, until one incident makes him question his reality.
It is being described as a psychological thriller from showrunners Adam Glass (Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders) and Andrew Dabb (Supernatural).
Director Announcements at Cannes:
Respected French filmmaker and festival regular Catherine Breillat is writing and directing The German Cousin, a drama set in 1930s Europe. Her last feature, the erotic drama Last Summer, played in Cannes competition in 2023, with the director returning to the festival as a producer of the 2026 entry The Man I Love starring Rami Malek.
Danish director Lone Scherfig (An Education) is set to helm Scandinavian romance thriller Honeytrap, with TrustNordisk selling at the Cannes Market. From her own script, it follows a woman who falls intensely in love with the “perfect” man before realizing he is an agent meant to seduce her for information about her secretive job.
Mini Tidbits:
Emmy-winning, veteran magazine editor Graydon Carter is launching Par Avion Pictures, a production company alongside former Vanity Fair writer Harrison Vail. The company will have a specific focus on literary adaptations and history-centered projects across narrative and non-fiction formats. Their first project is a literary doc and co-production with HBO and Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side).
Berlin 2025’s Best Director-winning film, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, has sold to Cohen Media Group for US rights. The film is about a jazz pianist and stars Bill Pullman and Laurie Metcalf.
International Tidbits:
Michelle Yeoh EPs
BBC comedy Black Ops
UK pay-TV titan Sky
Details here.
ON THIS DAY
2004. Shrek 2 premieres at Cannes.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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