Tye Sheridan’s Tree of Life

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

Tonight I went to the premiere of Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s Asphalt City, starring Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan.

Let’s go!

TYE SHERIDAN’S TREE OF LIFE

Tye Sheridan’s first role was in Tree of Life (2011, ​still​).

Sheridan emerged from director Terrence Mallick’s nationwide casting search, outcompeting more than 10,000 boys.

For Sheridan, who has gone on to work with a range of directors:

• Mud (2012)
  • Dir: Jeff Nichols
• Ready Player One (2018)
  • Dir: Steven Spielberg
• Card Counter (2021)
  • Dir: Paul Schrader

Asphalt City was the most reminiscent of that early working environment.

At the post-premiere screening Q&A, Sheridan explained:

And that’s what Asphalt City feels like.

It is an unforgiving look at the psychological brutality endured by two New York City EMTs as they provide treatment for the bloodied, beaten, and dying. Sheridan and his burned-out partner, played brilliantly by Sean Penn, force medicine into their patients’ bodies, which ironically erodes their own life force.

Sheridan spent months riding around with EMTs and learning to emulate them on-screen:

And Sheridan does, in his rawest performance to date.

It’s not an easy film to watch but that makes the moments of lightness and humor (yes, there are some!) a glorious reprieve.

The film is out today in theaters.

For More:

Asphalt City ​Trailer​.

Asphalt City ​link​ to showtimes.

Tye Sheridan co-founded an ​AI company​?

THE INDUSTRY NEWS

Live long and prosper again. ​Steve Yockey​, the creator of the Max murder mystery suspense series The Flight Attendant, is gearing up to write the ​4th installment of Star Trek​. Though Star Trek has been around since the 60’s, the most recent iteration started with J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the franchise Star Trek (2009).

The crew of the Enterprise, including Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, are all expected to return.

Claire Danes’ long-gestating project finds a Homeland. She will star and EP ​The Beast In Me​, which has just been ​greenlit​ by Netflix.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Since the tragic death of her young son, acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs (Danes) has receded from public life, unable to write, a ghost of her former self.

But she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Sheldon, a famed and formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance.

At once horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth – chasing his demons while fleeing her own – in a game of cat and mouse that might turn deadly.

The project has a pretty stacked team:

• EPs
  • Jody Foster
  • Conan O’Brien
• Showrunner
  • ​Howard Gordon​ (co-creator Homeland)
• Creator/Writer/EP
  • ​Gabe Rotter​ (Writer Ast/Producer: X-Files)
• Studio
  • 20th Television

The scripts are complete but no production date has been set.

THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT

Jerry Seinfeld is back. He makes his directorial debut and stars in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story. In the newly released ​trailer​, Seinfeld, who also co-wrote the script proclaims:

In the film, Seinfeld, who works at Kellogg’s competes with Post to change breakfast forever in a wonderfully absurd homage to the space race.

Jerry Seinfeld, who was the co-creator, co-writer, and star of Seinfeld (1989-1998), hit his on-screen acting apex when ​imitating Kramer​ during The Chicken Roaster episode. He’s also spectacular in making a ​friends-with-benefits deal​ with Elaine.

Seinfeld’s life-and-death breakfast serial battle co-stars Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, and Peter Dinklage.

Dropping on Netflix on May 3rd.

And, if you’re in the mood, of course Seinfeld has ​a bit on breakfast cereal​.

TECH SECTION

Hollywood writers and journalists just wrote an ​anti-AI​ open letter to Congress.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, president of the WGA East stated:

NewsGuild-CWA president Jon Schleus stated:

While the WGA has put some ​guardrails​ in place regarding use of AI, the ubiquity of the tech coupled with its orders of magnitude level growth over a short period of time threatens to cripple the creative ecosystem if it can nail recursive learning.

A thought experiment for our readers.

Right now, LLMs need millions of pieces of training data to replicate an input (see: ​AlphaGo​ or ​AlphaFold​). It follows that it would take millions of A-level screenplays to generate a single good script.

But there are not millions of exceptional screenplays. In the 100+ years of cinema, there are maybe 10,000.

Given the hockey-stick curve acceleration of these models, how many years will it take for a generative AI to write a profound screenplay?

INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT

David Duchovny’s sophomore feature film Bucky F*cking Dent was just bought by Vertical. Duchovny, who also stars, spoke about the ​struggles​ of bringing this film to life at the Tribeca Film Festival when it premiered last year:

He drew inspiration from the great directors he’s worked with over the years on X-Files and Californication.

• ​Rob Bowman​ (Reign of Fire, The X-Files)
• ​Chris Carter​ (The X-files)
• ​David Nutter​ (Game of Thrones, The Pacific)
• ​Kim Manners​ (The X Files, Charlie’s Angels)

Here’s the synopsis for Bucky F*cking Dent:

Follows Ted who moves in with his father Marty (Duchovny) when he develops a fatal illness. To keep him happy and alive, Ted enlists Marty’s grief counselor Mariana and friends to fake a Red Sox winning streak.

The film will premiere later this year.

Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill capture the essence of Rolling Stone’s muse. Their new documentary Catching Fire – The Story of Anita Pallenberg, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, played at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

The opening words of the ​trailer​ couldn’t be more memorable:

Here’s the official synopsis:

This intimate documentary reveals the story of a fierce rock ‘n’ roller, actress, muse and mother who rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s.

Bloom and Zill have cut their teeth working with a number of top-notch documentarians:

• ​Alexis Bloom​
  • Producer: We Steal Secrets (2013, dir: Alex Gibney)
• ​Svetlana Zill​
  • Producer: In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon (2023, dir: Alex Gibney)
  • Co-Producer: Wormwood (2017, dir: Errol Morris)

Magnolia Pictures will release Catching Fire – The Story of Anita Pallenberg in theaters and on VOD May 3rd.

Oz Perkins (son of Psycho’s Anthony Perkins) takes on Stephen King. Perkins’ most recent project, Longlegs, co-starring Nicolas Cage became a bit of an internet sensation when Neon released three terrifying tearers (​Teaser 1​, ​Teaser 2​, ​Teaser 3​). While Longlegs won’t be released until July, Perkins’ new project has already been set.

Here are the details:

• The Monkey
  • Writer/Director: ​Oz Perkins​
  • Based on the book by: Stephen King
  • Star: Theo James (The White Lotus)
  • Producer: James Wan (dir: Saw, Furious 7)
  • EP: ​Fred Berger​ (La La Land)
  • EP: ​Brian Kavanaugh-Jones​ (Midnight Special)

Here’s the official synopsis:

When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.

You may remember the terrifyingly iconic ​dust jacket cover​.

Perkins’ previous feature was the eerie and atmospheric feature, ​Gretel & Hansel​ (2020).

If Longlegs lives up to the hype, it may cement him as the next horror director sensation.

​Yamazaki Takashi​ just signed with CAA. He’s the first director since Stanley Kubrick to win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

He directed, wrote, and VFX supervised this year’s breakout Godzilla Minus One. The film depicts a postwar Japan grappling with the emergence of a new terror, compelling its devastated inhabitants to claw back (​trailer​).

The mass-scale, highly detailed VFX is nothing short of stunning when seen through the lens of this “shoe-string” budget ($15 M with a 44-person ​VFX team​.)​

Congrats Takashi​!

ON THIS DAY

1976. 48th Academy Awards: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest wins all five major Academy Awards:

• Best Picture
• Best Actor: Jack Nicholson
• Best Actress: Louise Fletcher
• Director: Miloš Forman
• Best Screenplay: Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman

That’s all for today. See you Monday!

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Written by Gabriel Miller and Spencer Carter.

Editor: ​Gabriel Miller​.