Ryan Gosling’s extinction, Helen Mirren’s Murder

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

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Ryan Gosling goes to space, Pierce Brosnan’s cold case, SonyParamount, Rashida Jones’ is sunny, Napoléon triptych and a trap.
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Let’s go!

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MURDERS. HAIL MARYS. MADDEN.

There’s a flurry of in-development projects that are dropping today.

Here’s a look at some of the most exciting:

• ​The Thursday Murder Club​
  • Potential attachments: Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley
  • Dir: Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter 1-2)
  • Production Company: Spielberg’s Amblin
  • Status: in development

Official synopsis:

Four septuagenarian friends live in a retirement community and solve cold cases for fun. But when a shady property developer is found dead, the four find themselves in the middle of their first live crime.

Based on the bestselling book series of the same name.

• ​Project Hail Mary​
  • Starring: Ryan Gosling
  • Dir: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie)
  • Studio: Amazon MGM
  • Release Date: March 20, 2026

Official synopsis:

Set in the near future, it centers on junior high (middle) school-teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace (Gosling), who wakes up from a coma afflicted with amnesia. He gradually remembers that he was sent to the Tau Ceti solar system, 12 light-years from Earth, to find a means of reversing a solar dimming event that could cause the extinction of humanity.

Based on the book by Andy Weir (Author: The Martian).

• ​Warfare​
  • Dir: Alex Garland (Civil War), ​Ray Mendoza​
  • Cast: Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn, Michael Gandolfini
  • Studio: A24
  • Status: Filming in May

It’s said this will be A24’s most expensive film yet. The cast is currently undergoing boot camp.

• ​Madden​
  • Cast: Will Ferrell + Hugh Jackman
  • Director: David O. Russell
  • Status: Shooting in Fall

Official synopsis:

After being forced into retirement by the Oakland Raiders, fiery former NFL head coach John Madden (Ferrell) teams up with a mild-mannered Harvard programmer to rewrite his fading legacy by building the world’s first football video game.

Jackman is rumored to play Joe Montana (NFL Hall of Fame).

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Netflix Q1 2024 Revenue. Here’s the breakdown, plus the increase from a year ago:

• $9.3 bn revenue
  • ↑14.8%
• $2.3 bn net income
  • ↑ 77%
• ↑ 9.3 M subs
  • ↑ 16%
  • 269.6 M total globally
• $2.1 bn free cash

Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann stated:

Netflix’s introduction of ads on their lowest tier has led to record growth.

Neumann continued:

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos stated that Netflix is ​not slowing down​ in terms of the number of films they will produce, shading rumors that new Netflix Film Chief Dan Lin will focus more on quality than quantity.

Netflix also stated that it will ​stop​ reporting its subscriber numbers. Game. Set. Match.

Sony aims for Paramount. Paramount and Skydance are in a ​30-day exclusive​ negotiating window. Now Apollo Global, an asset management company that offered $27 bn to buy Paramount Global but was ​rejected​, is in talks with Sony Picture Entertainment to make another offer.

The ​Sony + Apollo Global bid​ may favor both Shari Redstone, president of Paramount’s parent company, who is said to be uninterested in selling her legacy to a management company, and investors, who have decried Paramount rejecting the $27 bn offer, although that essentially values anything outside of the Paramount movie studio at $0.

We can’t imagine this studio merger will get through the anti-trust laws.

Zack Snyder talks a lot. The director behind Watchmen, Batman V Superman might as well have been Michael Bay, with how many bombs he dropped in the press junket for the follow-up to his Netflix started-as a Star Wars sci-fi Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver.

He sat down with the “Happy Sad Confused” Podcast and gave a peek behind the curtain at the casting process for some of his films. For his hyper-violent take on Alan Moore’s Watchman. Snyder mentioned a few major Hollywood stars that were vying for roles most prolific was ​Tom Cruise​, who wanted to take a darker turn as the psychopathic murderer/narrator Rorschach. He also mentioned ​Leonardo DiCaprio​ as a potential Lex Luther to his Superman. It doesn’t seem like it went further than a meeting, but Leo was apparently “smart about the material” and gave an idea of “Superman fighting the Justice League,” ​which we kind of got​.

Lastly, Snyder expressed more excitement about continuing with his Rebel Moon world, telling Radio Times that he could see four in the series or ​as many as six​. This is not counting his R-rated recut of the first two, Netflix’s artificial Snyder cut situation that has mostly fallen flat.

Reviews have not been kind to Rebel Moon, talking of a hard-to-follow plot, flat characters, and a classic Snyder trope an overreliance on slow motion. Snyder is many things, but he is most certainly a dreamer who thinks in grand, epic strokes. Who are we to say what will happen to the Rebel Moon franchise? I guess only time will tell what new adventures await us. It’s ​mostly up to Netflix.​

Before he was Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, he was just some guy, Orion Pax to be precise. Transformers One is the origin of Hasbro’s toy line turned mega-franchise. Giving us a new cast for younger, not yet battle-hardened heroes. Keegan Micheal Key as fan favorite Bumble Bee, Bryan Tyree Henry as D-16 soon to become future evil overlord Megatron, and Chris Hemsworth take on Optimus Prime (the first take on the character to not be voiced by Peter Cullen). Rounding out the cast is Scarlett Johansson as Elita-1, another Autobot who joins the group on their journey; however, her current-day analog has not yet been revealed.

Director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) is adding more fun and a bit of humor, changing the tone and switching to a shiny new animation style to perhaps open up a new avenue for a series that has been Micahel Bay’d to death. The trailer originally dropped on April 11th at Cinemacon but has now been released publicly.

The film rolls out on September 20th.

Here’s ​that trailer​.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Rashida Jones’ new A24/Apple series, ​Sunny​, has Black Mirror energy. The first-look ​photo​ shows her conversing with an imposing robot. The series is loosely based on Collin O’Sullivan’s novel Dark Manual.

Jones plays Susie, an American living in Tokyo; struggling to live might be a better word. Her husband and their son both disappeared in a plane crash. Susie turns to drinking to help her cope. As a consultation for her loss, she also receives a robot named Sunny, and the two create an uneasy alliance that turns into a friendship, and both uncover a conspiracy of her family’s disappearance.

Along with starring in Sunny Jones also acts as an EP.

Rashida Jones is probably best known from The Office as Jim Halpert’s ex-girlfriend, the one who briefly stands in his way of getting with Pam. After that, she went over to a not dissimilar in DNA Parks and Rec as Leslie Knope’s (Amy Poehler) best friend, Anne.

Sunny will begin airing on Apple TV+ on July 10th every Wednesday for ten episodes.

Glen Powell is the man. Here’s a round-up of his latest and greatest project:

• ​The Hitman​
  • Starring/Co-written by Powell
  • Dir: Richard Linklater
  • Official Selection, Sundance, TIFF, Venice
  • New ​Trailer​
  • On Netflix June 7th
• ​Anyone But You​
  • Starring Powell
  • Hits $218 M worldwide box-office revenue
  • ​Trailer​
• Upcoming: ​Huntington​
  • Starring Powell
  • Revenge Thriller
  • A24 ​in talks​ t0 produce
  • Dir: John Patton Ford (​Emily the Criminal​)
  • Shooting this summer
• Previous standout:
  • Top Gun Maverick (co-star, ​clip​)

Powell has a certain slimy suaveness that is both confusing and alluring. The lead role in Linklater’s most commercial film since School of Rock (2003) may cement Powell as the next Hollywood action star.

Tidbit:

The multi-talented Kevin Hart has ​signed​ with WME.

FESTIVALS AND RESOURCES

Stonestreet Studios offers summer residency programs that immerse actors in a state-of-the-art film studio set.

They equip actors with an understanding of screen performance techniques and the entire filmmaking process, from scripting to shooting to editing, so they can become the producers of their own careers.

Some of their alums include:

• Miles Teller (Whiplash),
• Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
• Idina Menzel (Frozen, Wicked)

They offer one residency program in New York & one in Los Angeles professionally or for credit* that includes:

• Screen Acting & Production
• Directing the Actor
• Creating Your Own Material
• Producing Your Own Career
• Screen Audition & Industry Prep
• Weekly Industry Auditions

Successful completion of the full program leaves students with a polished original pilot, film, or series, as well as a newfound familiarity with the NY &/or LA landscape.

This residency provides an unparalleled opportunity for screen actors to advance their career.

The NY residencies begin May 20th & July 8th. The LA residency program is a four-week program from June 3rd – June 28th.

For More info:

• ​LA residency program​
• ​NY residency program​

*Stonestreet Residency Program can be taken for credit or non-credit as Stonestreet is the exclusive screen acting & production residency program for NYU Tisch Drama degree program.

TECH SECTION

One of the lost masterworks works of cinema is Abel Gance’s Napoléon (1927).

The original film ran 7 hours and included a finale Triptych Sequence that spanned three screens with an aspect ratio of 4.00:1.

The film has been ​painstakingly restored​ over 16 years, piecing together lost prints and going frame by frame across 100km of film.

It will open the Cannes Classics and later be released on Netflix.

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and the silent take. Sauvaire’s latest film, Asphalt City, starring Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan, dropped on VOD today. It is a caustically intense look at the psychological brutality endured by two New York City EMTs as they provide treatment for the bloodied, beaten, and dying.

There is an unparalleled cinematic grit in this film that deserves to be studied if you can stomach it.

The Industry sat down with Sauvaire to discuss his approach to filming the scenes.

Sauvaire stated:

The best example is a near-silent (comedic) scene where Penn and Sheridan eat noodles in their ambulance.

Sauvaire continued:

That non-verbal dynamic becomes critical later in the film when the paramedic pair enters an apartment where a man has clearly beaten his wife and they must navigate how to de-escalate the situation.

Asphalt City is available on Apple TV+ ​here​.

M. Night Shyamalan is trapped. His new film Trap is a psychological thriller set in a single location at a concert.

Here’s the official synopsis:

A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.

Here is the twisty ​trailer​, with Josh Hartnett starring as the father.

Shyamalan is overdue for a comeback. What feels unique about this film is how tightly it is tied to Hartnett’s POV, which is significant given the twist.

Shyamalan stated:

​Trap is set to release on August 9th.

Tidbit:

Eliza Hittman’s (dir: Never Rarely Sometimes Always) new feature, Motherlove, has just ​received funding​.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The story centers around Ana, a Georgian immigrant in Brooklyn, who takes a job caring for Lori, an elderly woman in Manhattan, where she is forced to navigate end of life issues and complex family dynamics, while haunted by the separation from her own young daughter whom she has left behind in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a gem of a film, and we can’t wait to see Hittman’s next.

ON THIS DAY

1967. Casino Royale, a James Bond comedy film starring David Niven and Peter Sellers, premieres. Based on the Ian Fleming novel.

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

Written by Gabriel Miller and Spencer Carter.

Editor: ​Gabriel Miller​.

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