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Black Mirror… Sydney Sweeney…

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

Black Mirror‘s psychic grip, Sydney Sweeney’s Euphoria, A24’s Eternity, where The Crow flies, and Eleanor Rigby.

Let’s go!

BLACK MIRROR IS BACK

In an era of technological and geo-political uncertainty, Black Mirror seems more important than ever.

Thankfully, it has just been renewed for a 7th season, which will premiere in 2025.

The show’s prescience, since it premiered on the UK’s Channel Four in 2011, has allowed viewers to preview our emerging dystopian-tinged society, even if it terrifies them:

But over a decade before Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, saw into the future and wrote the first episode of the series, he was stuck in his personal past, agonizing over failed relationships.

He went so far as to lie on his couch and turn the TV sideways so he wouldn’t have to sit up.

He noted:

“[I was like] a woozy sea lion.”

He turned his cynical focus to watching non-stop British reality shows and talent competitions. Out of this was born TVGoHome, an alternate-TV Guide-type blog that he would update with his own made-up ​ironic TV shows​.

The blog gained mass popularity; Booker was ultimately hired by Channel 4 to write the TVGoHome series…

So, it seems he was just one good idea away from breaking into the industry.

As we navigate collective tumultuous times, TV and film, like Black Mirror, play a vital role in offering a preview of our reality, making impending changes less disconcerting.

From a poem by Bertolt Brecht, circulated by Sundance at the start of the pandemic:

“In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing.

About the dark times.”

Black Mirror continues to sing, providing a thought-provoking and cautionary melody about the complexities of our digital age.

For More:

This 2001 Charlie Booker show, TVGoHome: Daily Mail Island (​full episode​), was the germ of Black Mirror.

Charlie Brooker Explains… the White Christmas episode of Black Mirror (​video​).

The 7th season will include a sequel to the popular U.S.S. Callister episode. Here’s a ​trailer​ for that episode.

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Patty Jenkins is not done with Star Wars. The Wonder Woman director’s original Rogue Squadron movie was apparently shelved a few years back so she could concentrate on Wonder Woman 3 till James Gunn gave it the axe when he took over DC.

Now it looks like it might be back on, with Jenkins apparently in agreement to at least ​turn in a script​. She joins a wide berth of other in-development projects (Seven!) with Directors including Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, James Mangold, Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau, Donald Glover, and Shawn Levy.

There is lots of talent to hopefully bring the franchise to a higher order. The past few years (with one bright spot being Andor) have been fairly middling (The Mandalorian) to downright awful (The Last Skywalker). Let’s see what these bright minds have in store for the galaxy far, far away.

The Crow is back, starring Bill Skarsgård. The newly released ​trailer​ shows Skarsgård and his girlfriend, played by FKA Twigs, getting murdered. But Skarsgård’s soul cannot rest until he avenges her death. What follows is a gloriously filmed hyper-violent immortal with Wolverine-esque regenerative powers inflicting vengeance.

The film’s power will rest on its ability to have a long first act that anchors the audience in the strength of the relationship. This is what made another Lionsgate film, John Wick (1), so powerful.

The director, Rupert Sanders, stated:

“What drew me to this was the opportunity to make a dark romance, something that dealt with loss, grief and the ethereal veil between life and death and reaching through that.”

The original The Crow (1994) is sadly best known for its on-set tragedy when a co-star accidentally killed the lead (Brandon Lee) when a prop gun malfunctioned.

Here’s the ​trailer​ for the original (1994).

The remake is in theaters April 26.

In Bill Skarsgård adjacent news, the directors of the It series, Andy and Barbara Muschietti, ​launched​ Nocturna, a new horror division of Skydance.

The Muschietti’s stated:

“Under this label, we are excited to deliver the full range of emotions that our movies pack: Heart, humor and horror.”

Their first project will be They Will Kill You.

Here’s the official synopsis:

A woman takes a job as a housekeeper in a NYC high-rise, unaware of the building’s history of disappearances. She soon realizes the community is shrouded in mystery.

Skydance has had mixed results in the past with sci-fi horror projects:

The Muschietti’s pure horror It franchise grossed $1.17 bn.

IASTE, currently in negotiations with the AMPTP, gets ​international support​ from the UNI Global Union. The executive committee of UNI’s Media, Entertainment and Arts said in a statement:

“The member unions across the globe stand in solidarity with our U.S. colleagues as they go into their negotiations for fair pay, decent working conditions and the protection of workers’ rights in the digital environment including the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI)… Your fight is our fight.”

The 170,000+ IASTE member guild, now backed by the UNI’s 500,000 media workers, will have more leverage against the AMFTP. Hollywood productions would no longer be able to use foreign crew if they shifted their shoot overseas if IASTE strikes.

Let’s hope for a speedy and equitable resolution.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Kat Dennings ​signs​ with Gersh. The actress, now best known for her part as Max on the sitcom Two Broke Girls and more recently as the star of the hyper-realistic breakup comedy Dollface (​trailer​) on Hulu, has partnered with the mega-agency for representation.

Dennings brings a rye wit to her characters, a coolness displayed in her indie hit Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (she plays Norah, ​trailer​).

She worked well in the ensemble of Thor 1, 2 (​scene​), & 4. Her character Darcy being a fan favorite, was even briefly brought back in Wandavision. Aside from a few upcoming projects, she briefly tied the knot with tough-as-nails rocker Andrew WK.

Sydney Sweeney is back for ​Season 3 of Euphoria​. There are no details on the script, but Sweeney has recently had a meteoric rise in popularity due to the $208 M rom-com Anyone but You. She’s currently tearing up SXSW in Neon’s horror film, Immaculate (​trailer​), and it is terrifying. She plays a nun whose immaculate pregnancy is an omen.

Sweeney is typically known for her acerbic, albeit slightly lighter, HBO roles:

Sweeney’s uncanny ability to stretch herself both to the heights of her sweetness and the depths of her emotional darkness only appears to be growing.

One tidbit: Scarlett Johansson is ​rumored​ to have been offered the lead role for the new reboot of Jurassic City.

FESTIVALS

Juliette Binoche has been ​appointed​ as the president of the European Film Academy. The EFA is best known for the European Film Awards. It is an organization funded by the German National Lottery that holds conferences, master classes, and short film initiatives. It was founded by Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries) in 1989, who served as president until Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Perfect Day) took over in 1996, followed by Agnieszka Holland (Green Border) in 2020. Holland has stepped down to devote her time to making more films.

We look forward to Binoche’s statement.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Olmo Schnabel’s feature debut, Pet Shop Days, stars Willem Dafoe. The film is interesting for a number of reasons:

  • Premiered at the Venice Film Festival
  • Official selection: SXSW
  • EP’d by Martin Scorsese

​Schnabel​ served as a PA on Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and notably as an Assistant on At Eternity’s Gate (2018), starring Willem Dafoe. Notably, At Eternity’s Gate is directed by his father, Julian Schnabel (dir: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).

Here’s the official synopsis for Pet Shop Days:

It follows the affair between the impulsive Alejandro and the college-age pet store employee Jack, exploring the underbelly of New York and a romance that sends them down a rabbit hole of vice.

The ​teaser​ clip showcases Jack’s father (Dafoe) discovering him in a very precarious situation.

​Utopia​ (Shiva Baby) has just acquired the film for North American Distribution.

Robert Schwartzman, co-founder of Utopia, stated:

“[The film’s] provocative dynamism not only harkens to iconic ‘90s independent cinema, but flourishes with promise of what the future of auteur filmmaking will look like… an unabashedly original NYC tale.”

No release date has been set.

Ned Benson returns to form. His latest film, The Greatest Hits, premiered at SXSW and is a time-travel romance.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Harriet finds art imitating life when she discovers certain songs can transport her back in time literally. While she relives the past through romantic memories of her former boyfriend, her time travelling collides with a burgeoning new love interest in the present. As she takes her journey through time, she must consider whether or not she should change the past.

The ​trailer​ blows the somewhat trite synopsis out of the water.

The actualization of fractured temporal experience from a loss also resonates in his previous work, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.

That film was a daring romance that split its narrative into two films. The first is The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His, which focuses on James McAvoy’s head-over-heels romance that leaves him abandoned when his lover disappears.

The second film, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her, centers on Jessica Chastain’s side of the relationship.

Both films were released at the Toronto International Film Festival. A year later, they combined to make The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (​trailer​), which premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Benson’s bold creativity could have set a new standard for cinema-going, but it was considered too radical at the time.

The Greatest Hits will premiere on Hulu, by way of Searchlight Pictures, on April 12th.

Who would you spend eternity with? That’s the eternal question in ​A24’s Eternity​. The film comes from Pat Cunnane’s 2022 Blacklist script.

Here’s the synopsis:

After death, everybody gets one week to choose where to spend eternity. For Joan, Larry, and Luke, it’s really a question of who to spend it with.

Miles Teller (Whiplash), Callum Turner (Masters of the Air), and Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) are set to star.

This is Cunnane’s first screenplay. He previously served as a senior writer for President Barack Obama for six years and was responsible for writing statements, jokes, op-eds, and more in the President’s voice.

Cunnane also co-wrote the Emmy-nominated Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee ​episode with Barack Obama​.

No shoot date for Eternity has been set.

One tidbit: The groundbreaking documentary Food, Inc. has a sequel, Food, Inc. 2. Here’s the ​trailer​.

ON THIS DAY

1972. The Godfather, based on the book by Mario Puzo, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, premieres in NYC (Academy Awards Best Picture 1973).

That’s all for the week. See you Monday.

—

Written by Gabriel Miller and Spencer Carter.

Editor: ​Gabriel Miller​.

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