April Fools…

Sponsored by:

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Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:

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Pranks from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to Carrie, Robert Zemeckis is here, IATSE closes more tentative agreements, Lynne Ramsay’s Arctic and a bad piano.

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Let’s go!

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APRIL FOOLS’ DAY AND THE CINEMA OF PRANKS

Happy April Fools’ Day.

I wanted to take a second to celebrate some great movie pranks, ranging from the hilarious to the horrific:

• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
  • Dir: John Hughes
  • Prank: Matthew Broderick pretends to be the Sausage King of Chicago to snag a VIP reservation
  • ​Clip​
• Home Alone 2 (1992)
  • Dir: Chris Columbus
  • Prank: To stop the hotel staff from peaking into his room, Macaulay Culkin sends them running by playing a gangster movie
  • You filthy animal ​clip​
• Borat (2006)
  • Dir: Jason Woliner, Larry Charles
  • The movie is one big prank with Sacha Baron Cohen skewering American values by pretending to be from Kazakhstan
  • ​7 best​ Borat pranks.

But the most shocking movie prank of all time is in Brian DePalma’s supernatural horror Carrie (1976). Carrie, played by the innocent and haunting Sissy Spacek, gets covered in pig blood during the prom.

What’s so crippling is that this moment arrives at the apex of Carrie’s dreams.

The film begins with Carrie being socially ridiculed for her freakish immaturity (she has her period in the gym shower, and the girls throw tampons at her). Later, when one of the popular boys in school asks her to the prom, Carrie can’t believe it.

On prom night, a series of tremendously validating moments occur:

• Carrie has her first kiss on the dance floor
• Carrie’s date calls her beautiful
• Carrie wins prom queen

And it’s at this climactic moment on stage, being crowned, that Carrie gets drenched in pig blood.

At this moment, she unleashes supernatural terror onto the prom, burning it to the ground and killing everyone inside. She is forced to commit this ultimate act of revenge because she cannot escape her social position as a pariah.

This prank defines her downfall and uprising.

For More Fools:

An even more shocking prank? In South Park – Scott Tenorman Must Die, Cartman, seeking revenge, uses a chili cook-off to trick a classmate into eating his parents. Greek myth-level horror ​clip​.

American Graffiti (1973). In this pre-Star Wars George Lucas film, Richard Dreyfuss strips the wheels off a police car. ​Clip​.

You can’t help but laugh at this shock ​airbag prank​ from Neighbors (2014).

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Weekend Box Office. Here are the domestic grosses:

• $80 M Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Warner Bros/Legendary)
  • Blew past $50 M expectation
  • $194 M worldwide
  • $135 million production budget
  • ​Trailer​
• $ 15.7 M Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony)
  • 2nd weekend
  • 65% drop
  • $73.4 M domestic total
  • ​Trailer​
• $3.3 M Immaculate (Neon)
  • 2nd weekend
  • $11 M domestic total
  • ​Trailer​

30 years after Forrest Gump (1994), filmmaker Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Eric Roth ​reunite​ with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright for Miramax’s Here.

Here, based on the 2014 graphic novel of the same title by Richard McGuire, it captures the human experience in its purest form told through generations of stories.

Here is the official synopsis:

The story of a corner of a room and of the events that have occurred in that space over the course of hundreds of thousands of years.

Just in time for the holidays, Here will be in theaters on November 27th.

No trailer has been released, but check out a snippet of the graphic novel ​here​.

IATSE grips, craft services, and make-up artists, and hair stylists guilds reach ​tentative agreements​ with AMPTP.

To date, 6 out of the 13 local guilds will present their members with terms for ratification.

Here are the six:

• Local 80
  • Grips
  • Crafts Service
  • Marine
  • First Aid Employees
  • Warehouse Workers
• Local 706
  • Make-Up Artists
  • Hairstyle
• Local 695
  • Production Sound
  • Video Engineers
  • Studio Projectionists
• Local 600
  • Cinematographers
• Local 729
  • Set Painter
  • Sign Writer
• Local 800
  • Art Directors

The executive director of the Editors Guild (Local 700), Cathy Repola, issued a statement:

Negotiations will continue this week.

The shared contract for all guilds under IATSE expires on July 31st.

Demands range from streaming residuals to AI protections to unaddressed concerns from the last potential strike in October 2021, where the crew were sick and tired of long hours, and unsatisfactory wage due to inflation.

Tidbits:

Euphoria Season 3 is ​delayed​.

Georgia will not ​cap​ its film credit. “Georgia is open for business.”

Blumhouse ​pushes​ Wolf Man, starring Christopher Abbott, from its Halloween debut. Now releasing Jan 17, 2025.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

William Fichtner plays an ​underworld boxer​ in Cutman. Here’s the official synopsis of his latest role:

A retired underworld boxer (Fichtner) who grapples with a terminal illness while reluctantly serving as an enforcer for low-level mobsters. Haunted by the memory of his deceased cutman, he suffers until a chance encounter with a troubled junkie and her daughter. He then embarks on a journey of redemption and retribution.

Fichtner has one of those faces you can’t get out of your head. He has two roles that have been burned into our memory:

• The Dark Knight (2008)
  • Bank Manager with a sawed-off shotgun

Key dialogue exchange.

Fichtner:

Heath Ledger’s joker:

​Clip​.

• Crash (2004)
  • Plays Don Cheadle like a pawn in the most sinisterly empathetic way possible
  • ​Clip​

This latest role for Fichtner feels much darker than his usual fare. We’re guessing this film could snag a Sundance premiere.

Cutman ​just wrapped​ production.

Ghostface is back! And Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers, the fame-seeking reporter, is on the case in ​Scream VII​.

The only character to be featured in every installment of the franchise, Cox, will be joining ​previously announced​ Neve Campbell, who will also return as fan-favorite final girl, Sidney Prescott.

Campbell’s character was notably absent from Scream VI (2023) due to a salary dispute, with Cox telling Variety:

In 1987, Cox earned her first recurring role on Family Ties (​still​) and, more recently, can be seen continuing her work in the horror genre in Starz’s Shining Vale (2022), in which she is also credited as an executive producer.

Friends (crazy, clean-freak closet ​scene​) alum, landed the role in the original Scream (1996), alongside Campbell, but little did she know she’d be portraying the quippy newswoman for nearly three decades!

Scream VII is still in pre-production, with a release date yet to be announced.

Here are her ​best moments​ in Scream.

British-American actor Chance Perdomo has died at the age of 27. Perdomo’s publicist confirms his death was a result of a motorcycle accident this past week on March 29th.

He is most known for his roles as a warlock Ambrose Spellman in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018) and more recently as Andre Anderson in The Boys spinoff series Gen V (2023), which premiered its first season last fall. Perdomo also starred as Jerome Rogers in the 2018 TV movie Killed by My Debt, which earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

He will be missed.

Louise Gossett Jr., the Oscar-winning actor who played the drill sergeant from hell in An Officer and a Gentleman, passed away at 87. Watch him ​rip Richard Gere to shreds​ in his Oscar-winning role.

FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES

Created by filmmakers, for filmmakers, ​Filmmaker Magazine​ covers the art and business of the independent film world with a savvy yet accessible insider’s point-of-view.

Filmmaker covers new technologies, both studio and do-it-yourself distribution, and, through its in-depth interviews with the best directors in the business, offers insights into the creative process that are of interest to both filmmakers as well as casual film lovers.

Filmmaker is published by an established, non-profit, filmmaking membership organization, ​The Gotham Film & Media Institute​.

The Gotham celebrates and nurtures independent film and media creators, providing career-building resources, access to industry influencers, and pathways to wider recognition.

Click ​HERE​ to find out more about Filmmaker Magazine.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

In our opinion, ​Lynne Ramsay​ is the greatest living director in their prime. She has completed four feature films in her quarter-century career:

• Ratcatcher (1999)
  • Cannes: Un Certain Regard premiere
  • ​Trailer​
• Morvern Callar (2002)
  • Cannes: Director’s Fortnight Award of the Youth for Best Foreign Film
  • Suicide and stolen identity lead to a twisted freedom
  • ​Trailer​
• We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
  • Cannes: Official Selection
  • So psychologically entrenched in trauma that the opening 40 minutes is essentially an experimental film that dissolves into the most chilling mother-son relationship ever committed to screen
  • ​Trailer​
• You Were Never Really Here (2018)
  • Cannes: Best Actor, Best Screenplay
  • Peers into Joaquin Phoenix’s mind as a brutal contract killer and mother’s boy
  • ​Trailer​

Here’s the official synopsis for her potential next feature, ​Stone Mattress​:

A retired physiotherapist and twice a widow, embarks on a luxurious cruise into the magnificent Arctic Northwest Passage, populated by a crowd of privileged influencers and wealthy retirees. On the ship, Verna meets Grace, and the seemingly ordinary Bob, an unaccompanied man in his mid-sixties who inherited a family business.

Although he doesn’t have a fraction of Verna’s elegance and wit, Bob tries to seduce her. But he might not be the foolish yet harmless man he initially appears to be, and his presence troubles Verna. As wounds and humiliations from her past resurface, the smooth atmosphere of the cruise will be disturbed by a shocking act.

Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh are set to star.

Ramsay is eyeing a ​late 2024​ start date. Fingers crossed, it happens.

Nisha Ganatra is ​attached​ to direct Freaky Friday 2. Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis will star.

Ganatra previously directed Late Night (2019, ​trailer​), which was written by and starred Mindy Kaling as a new writer on Emma Thompson’s fledgling late-night show. It’s a bit indicative of The Devil Wears Prada dynamic, but Ganatra manages to be acerbically perceptive to the hypocrisies of the TV industry.

Freaky Friday 2 is currently in development. Here’s the OG ​trailer​.

Lance Oppenheim goes from retirees to prenatal. ​Oppenheim​ has had a wild career trajectory. His Sundance official selection, Some Kind of Heaven documentary, was produced by Darren Aronofsky and the NY Times and released when he was only 24.

It focused on a utopian retiree home with four residents finding meaning through drugs, sex, and partying (​trailer​).

Here’s the official synopsis for his new feature Spermworld:

Three men enter the new wild west of baby making – online forums where sperm donors connect with hopeful parents – but find themselves exchanging more than just genetic material.

Here’s a link to the ​trailer​.

The film will premiere on FX on Friday and Hulu on Saturday.

ON THIS DAY

Adrien Brody will ​quit​ acting.

See you tomorrow!

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Written by Gabriel Miller and Madelyn Menapace. Research by Spencer Carter.

Editor: ​Gabriel Miller​.