Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
YouTube’s Peacock, Amazon’s Hatter, and a Wish.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
YouTube Premium users will get access to Peacock via a new distribution deal.
Amazon MGM develops an animated Mad Hatter film directed by Scott Mosier.
FX orders Wildwood, a New Jersey-set comedy from Derry Girls creator.
SAG-AFTRA formally opposes the Paramount-Skydance-WBD merger.
Netflix acquires int’l rights to the first four series in Starz’s Power franchise.
John Wells (ER/The Pitt) renews his overall deal with Warner Bros. TV.
Regina Hall joins Dwayne Johnson in Benny Safdie’s film Lizard Music.
Obsession breakout Michael Johnston in talks to join the next The Mummy film.
Whoopi Goldberg will star in Netflix’s Women Like Us.
The TV Academy and NATAS explore reuniting nearly 50 years after separating.
Obscured Releasing acquires North American rights to SXSW’s Ugly Cry.
Prime signs a deal with CJ ENM to bring more than 100 Korean titles to India.
Chinese animated feature All Wishes Come True! tops China box office w/ $112.5M.
Yesterday’s correct answer: Goosebumps. Ryan Gosling starred in a 1996 episode.
43% got it correct. However, Gosling recently appeared in a social video with Elmo.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Peacock is finding a new perch on YouTube. Beginning early next year, YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. will gain access to Peacock through a new multi-year partnership with NBCUniversal and Google. The service offers NFL and NBA games and other live sporting events from NBCUniversal, as well as hit reality series like Love Island USA, The Traitors, and The Real Housewives franchise, as well as scripted series like All Her Fault and The Office.
This deal marks Peacock’s largest wholesale distribution agreement to date, coming shortly after the streamer’s first profitable quarter (Q2 2026), during which time it also added 2M paid subs. The move also comes ahead of Comcast gearing up to spin off NBCUniversal over the next year into a separate company.
The price of the new YouTube Peacock Premium bundle has yet to be announced.
Tidbits:
Amazon MGM is developing an animated Mad Hatter film, directed by Scott Mosier (Universal’s 2018 animated The Grinch). No info on the plot of the film as of now, other than the fact that the film will be based on the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The film will be produced by Aniventure (Prod: Netflix’s Klaus). Nothing beats the original’s very wild, acid-trip style (clip).
Derry Girls but set on the Jersey Shore. FX and 20th Television have won the rights to Wildwood, a comedy series in development from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee. This will be the BAFTA winner’s first project out of the UK. McGee describes it as a spiritual successor to her coming-of-age Irish series but set in the early 2000s in Wildwood, New Jersey. Turns out the only thing louder than Derry teenagers is a Jersey Shore boardwalk crowd.
Nearly 50 years after splitting into separate organizations, the Television Academy and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) are exploring a potential reunion. The proposed merger would reunite Emmy divisions coast to coast, with all current governors’ terms extended by one year “to ensure continuity in the deliberations.” There is no clear deadline set for a decision.
Mini Tidbits:
SAG-AFTRA is taking a stand against the freshly delayed PSKY-WBD merger. The union’s national board officially adopted a resolution opposing the deal while stopping short of joining the multistate antitrust lawsuit blocking the acquisition.
Starz’s Power will be available on Netflix this Nov. The global streamer just struck a deal with Lionsgate TV and gained the international rights to the first four series of the Power franchise: Power, Power Book II: Ghost, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, and Power Book IV: Force.
John Wells (EP: The Pitt) has renewed his overall deal with Warner Bros TV. He has been with Warner Bros for 40 years, producing iconic series like ER and The West Wing. Under the new deal, Wells will continue to develop and produce shows for HBO and HBO Max.
First Look:
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film Flesh Impact
First Look at Dakota Johnson as Marilyn Monroe
Premiere: Venice
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Netflix’s Possible Love
Dir: Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Sul Kyung-gu (Memoir of a Murderer)
Premire: Venice/TIFF
Streaming release: Nov. 6
Trailers:
Prime Video’s The Chosen (S6)
Release: Nov. 15
ComicBookPros’ Bill Sienkiewicz: That Polish Guy
Release Dates:
Neon’s A Place in Hell
Dir: Chloe Domont (Fair Play)
Cast: Michelle Williams, Andrew Scott, Daisy Edgar-Jones
Release: Dec 25, 2026 → Apr. 23, 2027
CBS Fall Dates:
Survivor (S51)
Release: Sept. 23
NCIS (S24), NCIS: New York (Series Premiere), NCIS: Origins (S3)
Release: Oct. 6
George & Mandy’s First Marriage (S3), Eternally Yours (Series Premiere), Elsbeth (S4), Cupertino (Series Premiere)
Release: Oct. 8
GHOSTS (2 ep Halloween Special)
Oct. 29
ABC Fall Dates:
Dancing with the Stars (S35), R.J. Decker (S2)
Release: Sept. 15
Abbott Elementary (S6)
Release: Oct. 7
9-1-1 (S10), 9-1-1: Nashville (S2), Grey’s Anatomy (S23)
Release: Oct. 15
Prime Video India’s Vadhandhi - The Mystery of Mani (S2)
Release Aug. 7
The Traitors (S2)
Release Aug. 13
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Regina Hall (Scary Movie) joins Dwayne Johnson on Amazon MGM’s family adventure film Lizard Music, directed by Benny Safdie (The Smashing Machine). The film will be a live-action/CGI hybrid film, following a boy (Theo Clark Leber) who stumbles upon a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing music. Dwayne Johnson plays an eccentric 70-year-old man called The Chicken Man, and Hall plays The Chicken Man’s friend and co-worker.
Regina Hall hasn’t really starred in traditional family-oriented films, and luckily this won’t be one! Her sharp comedic timing and energetic screen presence in the Scary Movie films make us think that she could be a strong fit for the film’s eccentric atmosphere.
From girl issues to Mummy issues, Obsession’s Michael Johnston is in talks to join Universal’s next The Mummy movie. Earlier this summer, Johnston’s career did a complete 180, breaking out in Focus Features’ $460M-grossing horror feature Obsession as Bear, an unconfident music store employee whose wish for love triggers a terrifying and deadly obsession.
Johnston’s Bear was selfish, reckless, and far more complicated than your average horror player.
If the casting is made official, Johnston would join Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, both returning to reprise their roles. While there is no word on who he would play, it’s possible that his casting signals this film will tilt a little more into the horror space than previous Weisz/Fraser Mummy films.
The fourth installment will start shooting this fall, scheduled for an Oct. 2027 release.
Netflix and the Obamas’ Higher Ground have formed quite the girl group. EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg, alongside Jenifer Lewis (GOAT), Vanessa Williams (Soul Food), and Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill) are slated to star in the comedy feature Women Like Us. In the same vein as Peacock’s The Five-Star Weekend, the film follows a recently widowed woman dragged to the Hamptons by her sister and lifelong best friends for a weekend of grief, love, and sisterhood.
The ensemble brings together decades of highly acclaimed work across genres, from the Oscar-nominated The Color Purple to Tarantino’s Kill Bill; this group has a collective star power that should be as much of a draw as the comedy itself. Women Like Us is beginning production this fall in NYC.
Tidbits:
David Oyelowo (Selma) joins indie film Little Five, produced by Anne Hathaway’s production company Somewhere Pictures. The film follows the legendary Little 500 cycling race at Indiana University. Oyelowo plays a former cycling champion who becomes a mentor for the protagonist. Oyelowo played Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma (2015) with a tortured sense of conviction. For a quick dose of his acting, check out his heart-wrenching silent performance, suffering through voicemails in this trailer for The After. He’s going to bring real depth and gravitas to this new role.
From one mother to the next, Crystal Fox (The Big Door Prize) is joining the cast of Hulu’s untitled Cable Guy pilot. Inspired by the 1996 Jim Carrey movie, Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. will lead, with Fox set to play the warm but overprotective mother of Wayans’ character. Fox just recently portrayed Tessa Thompson’s complex and independent mother in Netflix’s hit thriller miniseries His & Hers, with the actress now tasked with channeling her maternal instincts for a comedy series.
Obit:
Prolific choreographer and actress Hope Clarke (Sidney Poitier’s A Piece of Action) has sadly passed away at 85. When she wasn’t dancing, Clarke appeared in several films, including playing the mother of Jeffrey Wright’s Jean-Michel Basquiat in Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat (1996).
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Obscured Releasing (Dist: Blue Film) acquires NA rights to the psychological horror comedy Ugly Cry. Emily Robinson (Eighth Grade) directs and stars in the film that follows a young Hollywood actress as she struggles to fulfill impossible beauty standards. The film premiered in SXSW’s Narrative Spotlight section.
Brooklyn-based Story Syndicate (Netflix’s Maternal Instinct) is expanding its scripted team by hiring veteran producer Robin Schwartz as Head of Scripted. The documentary-heavy studio will use Schwartz’s background on series like Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit and HBO’s Sharp Objects to grow the company’s slate of original, non-biographical series.
Prime Video’s India arm signs a multi-year licensing deal with CJ ENM (Prod: Parasite) that brings more than 100 Korean titles to Indian subscribers over the next two years. The new deal includes a slate of 26 new titles and a wide range of library titles, all of which will be available with Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu subtitles. India has become one of the biggest markets when it comes to consuming Korean content, with K-dramas like Queen of Tears and Extraordinary Attorney Woo earning over 600M hours watched on Netflix.
Chinese animated feature All Wishes Come True! (2026) takes over the top position at the Chinese box office, garnering $112.5M over two weekends. The film follows eight mortals who must outsmart mythical deities.
ON THIS DAY
1954. On the Waterfront is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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