Motion Picture: Fox Buys Roku In $22B Merger, Ana De Armas To Lead Erotic Thriller ‘Palm Grove’
O.T. Fagbenle - Brianna Bryson
Action/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller: Emmy-nominated actor O.T. Fagbenle is joining the cast of Eleven Missing Days, an upcoming mystery thriller on the real-life disappearance of author Agatha Christie. Directed by Bertie Ellwood, the film dramatizes Christie's mysterious 11-day disappearance in 1926. Felicity Jones stars as Christie, while Vincent Cassel plays a retired detective investigating the case. Specific details about Fagbenle's role are under wraps. Fagbenle is best known for portraying Luke Bankole in The Handmaid's Tale and is represented by Buchwald, Entertainment 360, and Hansen Jacobson Teller Hoberman. He is joining a strong cast that already includes Alfie Allen, Ben Hardy, and Stacy Martin. Eleven Missing Days is currently in production in the United Kingdom.
Ana De Armas (Blonde) is joining Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue) in the erotic thriller Palm Grove from director Kornél Mundruczó. Writer James Morosini is helming the screenplay as well as producing. Peter Chernin, David Ready, and Brady Fujikawa will produce on behalf of Chernin Entertainment. While plot details are currently under wraps the film is set in Miami's most exclusive neighborhood where the lives of two housewives (Hudson and De Armas) become intertwined when they discover their husbands' double lives. The star-studded package is currently looking for buyers.
melonie diaz - Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
Drama: John Lee Hancock’s On 2018 Monsanto adds LaKeith Stanfield (Roofman),Melonie Diaz (Roofman), Bilal Hasna (The Agency), to the cast, joining Jonathan Bailey and Laura Dern. The Netflix Courtroom Drama is based on a real life incident with the U.S. chemical company Monsanto. Plot and character details are underwraps. Production is currently underway. The script is written by Michael Wisner, Alexandra Duparc, Ned Benson and Hancock. Producers on the project include Moritz Borman, Eric Kopeloff, Philip Schulz-Deyle, Adam McKay, Kevin Messick and Jon Levin.
Oliver Stone’s White Lies adds actress and social entrepreneur Stephaine Suganami (Opus) to the cast as principal photography commences. Suganami joins a cast that includes Josh Hartnett, Leila George, Michael Douglas, Willem Dafoe, Ellen Barkin, Homer Gere and Yvonne Chapman. The film spans three generations and focuses on “Jack Freeman (Hartnett), a child of divorce repeating his parents’ mistakes…Feeling trapped, he embarks on a lust-filled journey to escape — only to find himself more lost than before.” Suganami will play the role of Chika, a woman who gets to know Joe and his son. Suganami is repped by Gersh, 1v1 Entertainment and Granderson Des Rochers.
America Ferrera (Barbie) is developing an adaptation of the best selling memoir My What If Year by author Alisha Fernandez Miranda. The 2023 memoir follows Miranda’s bold decision to leave her lavish corporate job to follow her dreams for a year. “Her memoir…was named a Best New Book by People Magazine and The Boston Globe.” Miranda will act as consultant and producer on the film. The project is in development at Warner Brothers with no current release date or casting information available. Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me) is writing the screenplay, with Connor DeSha to exec produce via his and Ferrera’s Take Fountain banner. Ferrera is repped by CAA, manager Christy Haubegger, and attorney Jodi Peikoff.
Comedy: Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie) has joined the cast of the new romantic comedy Egg Baby. The script is written by Sawyer Perry and directed by Natalie Anderson (Nobody Wants This), “Egg Baby follows a rebellious artist and a golden-boy quarterback who are forced to co-parent an egg for health class, only to find that raising “Yolk-o” might crack open something real between them.” XYZ Films is producing the film while Amazon MGM Studios will be handling the world wide streaming release of the film.
In a recent interview Ike Barinholtz revealed that a possible Police Academy reboot with Key and Peele was in the works but was scrapped after the Mike Brown shooting. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele were set to star in the “dirty, R-rated, modern” take on the 1984 Hugh Wilson-helmed police comedy that spawned six sequels and two series, but the recent 2014 police killing of Black 18-year-old Michael Brown made the film seem in bad taste. Ike Barinholtz opened up about being approached to write a Police Academy reboot with his writing partner but as the film was in development Mike Brown was shot. The comedian stated “And we were making the movie for Key and Peele, and all of a sudden, people were like, ‘We’re not making a cop comedy right now where we’re having these two hilarious Black actors play police officers.’ Sorry, it never happened.”
Adeline Rudolph (Mortal Kombat II) is set to join the cast of Netflix’s 13 Going On 30 reboot. Executives at Netflix are keeping plot and character details under wraps but Jennifer Garner who starred in the original film is set to return as an executive producer. Production is set to start in Los Angeles in late June. Brett Haley, helmer of Netflix’s hit Emily Henry adaptation People We Meet on Vacation, is set to direct from a script by Hannah Marks (Mark, Mary, & Some Other People) with revisions by Flora Greeson (The Princess Diaries 3). Rudolph is repped by Luber Roklin, IAG, and Rick Genow.
sydney agudong - Taylor Hill
Sydney Agudong (Lilo & Stitch 2025) is set to lead the cast of the adventure comedy The Tourist Curse. The film also stars Ta'imua, Kimee Balmilero, Jason Antoon, Mele’iwa Silva, Dionysio Basco, Rebecca Creskoff, Seana Kofoed, Celia Kenney, and Stephen Hill. Production is set to start sometime in June. The film is set in and will be filmed in Hawai’i. “Set against the backdrop of an unnamed Hawaiian island, the PG-13-aimed movie is about a group of game show contestants sent to a mysterious location and tasked with finding a missing artifact, who inadvertently awaken the local creature, turning their tropical treasure hunt into a cross island fight for survival.” Alexander Bocchieri (Go For Broke) is set to direct the comedy with a “creature feature twist.”
Industry: Top brass at Fox and Roku claim that Fox’s acquisition of the streaming giant Roku is a win-win but Wall Street has reservations. Fox’s shares fell 18% in the first hour of trading. During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, several questions addressed a concern on the Street’s part about how a “Switzerland” business like Roku can continue to prosper as part of Fox. Kannan Venkateshwar of Barclays put an even finer point on it. “When you negotiate with, say, Comcast or YouTube, you are largely a supplier of content. But now you’re also a distributor of the content,” he said. “It just creates a lot of complications both with respect to how many brands you own, what those brands individually do, as well your distribution strategy.”
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch pushed back with a rebuttal. “I don’t think that’s, that’s quite the case,” he said. “We’re partners now in many ways with YouTube and YouTube TV and Comcast, that doesn’t change. Those businesses themselves, in many cases, are both distributors and content providers. That doesn’t change.” The definitive deal combines Fox’s sports, news, and entertainment content and the Tubi streaming service with Roku’s connected TV platform, resulting in the combined company becoming the third-largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing, “with an attractive mix of Fox’s sports, news, and entertainment content, alongside streaming services Tubi and The Roku Channel,” both companies said.
However, to fund the transaction Fox will go $8 billion into debt. Closing the deal will give Fox shareholders a 73 percent ownership of the combined companies. Meanwhile Roku shareholders will retain a 27 percent stake. Fox’s Roku acquisition is expected to close sometime in 2027 and result in an expected $400 million in cost synergies. Roku is expected to accelerate Fox’s push into the international markets including Latin America. Surprisingly, Fox and Roku plan on keeping their brands separate after the merger. Murdoch claims it is so they can “continue to serve their viewers in the way they do now,”
Industry experts believe “the Roku play by Murdoch, who officially prevailed late last year in his family’s Succession-like battle for control of Fox, was designed to provide a greater platform for Fox’s existing assets while also cashing in on the increasing demand for ad-supported streaming.”
