Hot Rumor: Damon Lindelof Circling Kidnapping Thriller 'The Chain,' Which Has Landed at HBO

Happy Tuesday, folks!

Today at 5 p.m. PT, I’ll be going live on The Hot Mic with John Rocha for our final show of the year. I’m also hoping to drop one more newsletter before 2026 arrives.

This week, I’ve been cramming in some last-minute movies such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, David Cronenberg’s grief-stricken The Shrouds, and Michel Franco’s erotic drama Dreams, which stars Jessica Chastain and hits U.S. theaters in February. Perhaps we’ll see Chastain’s long-delayed Apple series The Savant around that time, too, hmm?

I was also glued to all the NFL action this weekend — I couldn’t care less about college football, having attended NYU — and thankfully, I managed to win one of the six fantasy leagues I entered this year. I finished second in the Movie Trivia Schmoedown league, third in two more leagues, and 6th in the last two leagues — a decent year, all things considered.

Over the holidays, Avatar: Fire and Ash ruled the box office, but what else is new? Fire and Ash is holding stronger than its 2022 predecessor, The Way of Water, and while I doubt that Avatar 4 will be James Cameron’s next movie, I do think it will get made eventually. Disney would be leaving a lot of money on the table by abandoning Cameron’s five-film plan at this point.

Meanwhile, I have to give credit where it’s due — Timothee Chalamet’s hard work marketing Marty Supreme paid off to the tune of $27.1 million over the 4-day weekend, which is an impressive haul for a 2.5-hour period piece about a Jewish ping pong player. It’s considered A24’s second-best opening behind Warfare, which opened to $25 million over a traditional three-day weekend earlier this year. Click here for my full review of Marty Supreme, and please stop comparing the film to The Smashing Machine just because each was directed by a Safdie brother. It’s reductive, thanks.

Elsewhere, Deadline reports that Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is looking at a $20 million-plus over the four-day holiday weekend in January. Uh, didn’t Danny Boyle’s predecessor open to $30 million over three days, and wasn’t it considered something of a disappointment despite curiously positive reviews?

Why is Sony’s Tom Rothman insisting on moving forward with a third film? Is he really that emboldened by the early-bird reviews, or is he just bullish on the idea of having Cillian Murphy in the third film? Or, is it a calculated movie to bolster his relationship with Boyle and Alex Garland by allowing them to complete their vision for this trilogy? I have no idea, I’m just hoping that The Bone Temple lives up to the hype, as a source who saw it months ago claimed it was worse than Boyle’s film, which I personally didn’t care for. I dig the trailers Sony has released so far, but the studio has already fooled me once, so I remain skeptical.

Today’s top story concerns Damon Lindelof’s return to HBO. There are also items about the Jordan Peele-Marvel rumor that got the internet buzzing yesterday, the new director of the Sleeping Dogs movie, based on the hit video game, and a look at Amazon’s first Madden teaser starring Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale as Raiders owner Al Davis — a story first reported by yours truly.

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