The Mail Cart: Monday, June 1st

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⭐ ‘Backrooms’ Director Kane Parsons just became the youngest filmmaker ever to reach no. 1 in the box office at 20 years old

The project was also A24’s best opening ever ($81 million) with an 8x return already. Parsons is another creator from the YouTube to Horror movie pipeline, which likely played a role in 86% of the audience being 35 or younger.

I was skipping class at 20 trying to figure out what to do with my life. Same same but VERY different.

🧠 Big Brain Fact: Who co-financed this movie? Chernin Entertainment. Chernin took some really early bets on creators (before it was a buzzword) buying stakes in companies like Barstool in 2016.

⭐ ‘Obsession’ increased its box office revenue AGAIN (+10%) in the movie’s 3rd week.

Last week the film posted a 39% boost. A movie hasn’t increased in both its second and third week since 1982 outside of Christmas. ‘Obsession’ currently sits at $148 million globally and is Focus’ top grossing movie ever in North America. BTW it cost $750k to make. Same story as above. Unreal.

⭐ Universal Music Group rejected Bill Ackman & Pershing Square’s $64 billion buyout proposal

⭐ Gersh is folding U.K. agency PLG into You First Football to create Gersh Football, with a new U.K. office opening ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

This year Soccer hit 10% in a U.S. favorite-sport survey, edging baseball at 9 percent and taking third behind football and basketball and now the World Cup will arrive. This will not be the last time we write about soccer..

⭐ ‘Michael’ is within $65 million of the all-time record for a music biopic and sits at $846.2 million

🧠 Big Brain Fact: The current record holder is ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at $911 million, and both were produced by Graham King.

⭐ YouTube Premium users watched more than 800 million hours of podcasts in April 2026, so YouTube is adding three podcast-focused features

The new tools include On-the-go mode, Auto speed, and Ask-powered personalized recommendations based on genre, mood, or shows users already like.

Basically, fewer taps, fewer ads, more podcast binging. As YouTube moves deeper into the subscription business and continues to dominate eyeball retention.

We know assistants don’t get bonuses... SO we had an idea.

You know the horrible feeling of flights changing last minute, getting blamed for traffic in the Uber (Please fix rush hour in LA), being asked to find the bigger hotel suite (but it doesn’t exist).

Well, we think you should earn some Cashback for all that trouble helping sort your boss’s travel plans.

So we partnered with ShopBack.

Book your boss’s travel = earn $$$$$

And don’t just take our word for it:

“I book the travel anyway. It’s literally my job. All I changed was opening ShopBack first. That one habit has paid me over two thousand dollars.”
-Penelope, EA (who has earned $2,189.43 from just 15 trips)

We have a feeling your boss travels even more 👀

Check it out here and get a $5 sign up bonus

🎙️ Erika Alexander: “We assume that these things are reserved for certain people. But I think the best thing about America is that someone in a farm on a barn is a boy that looks like Marlon Brando who is going to be the next big thing. And yet standing by him can be someone just as talented.”

Somewhere out there is brilliant and waiting for their shot. It could be you, or the person to come after you. Remember to make the most of the chances you’re given take that risk you have been thinking about. If you don’t, someone else might do it first!

Watch the full episode of AvA LIVE below:

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AvA: How did you get your start in the industry?

Spiro: After graduating from Central St Martins in London, I began my career as a photographer. It was while on assignment in war torn Bosnia that I had this epiphany. A moment that changed everything for me.

I was trying to process all the atrocities I witnessed in Sarajevo and created these hand stitched journals where I blended extracts from my personal diary beside stills from the assignment. Putting words alongside my images felt so liberating and sparked an undeniable urge to dig deeper. This led me to the Royal College of Art where I earned a master’s in film directing. 

Once I graduated, I began working as a documentary filmmaker. Not long after that a drama exec at the BBC watched a feature length doc of mine, which by all accounts blended a powerful visual aesthetic with raw empathetic storytelling. They invited me to come and direct a long running medical drama and bring some ‘fresh blood’… no pun intended. Walking on to set for the first time felt insanely daunting while also bizarrely like I’d finally found my home! 

Astonishingly, I was nominated for a BAFTA for these first ever episodes of drama I directed!

AvA: What’s the most challenging part of directing a book adaptation?

Spiro: Adapting a novel is a unique challenge because reading fiction is an active, deeply personal experience. As readers, we unconsciously fill in narrative gaps, letting our imaginations run wild. So, when adapting the book to the screen, we must actively bridge those crevices. We have to invent deep backstories and add psychological layers to the characters. Most importantly, we must carefully reshape the ending, which is always the most delicate part of the adaptation to get right.

AvA: You were a photographer at the beginning of your career, what did you learn from that experience that you use today?

Spiro: While a strong image can tell a thousand words, at least if you are one of those phenomenal Magnum photographers, which I sadly was not what really struck me when entering the Film and TV industry was the sheer power of sound and dialogue. Carving out a rich soundscape gives images a completely new dimension. Melding that layer of auditory storytelling with my background as a photographer is exactly what drives my cinematic vision.

AvA: You’ve directed everything from Better Call Saul and Downton Abbey to 3 Body Problem and now All Her Fault. How do you adapt your directing style across such different worlds while still maintaining your own voice?

Spiro: For me, everything starts with story and character.  During prep I dig deep and get to the emotional truth of a scene before looking at genre as a structural and artistic framework. Once this foundation is secure, I allow myself to unclip my wings and fly, injecting my directing style and individual voice. 

The industry is so quick to pigeonhole talent. So, I have consciously built a career that resists categorization. Having the ability to work across multiple genres isn’t just important and liberating, it allows me the creative freedom to tell any story that moves me. 

AvA: What does a great assistant, coordinator, or junior team member do that genuinely makes a production run better?

Spiro: We are only as good as the people around us; the team is everything. Early on in my career, executive producer Liz Trubridge gave me an invaluable piece of advice: "Cast your crew just as carefully as you do your talent". 

One of my many roles is to cultivate a healthy, collaborative environment on set where everyone feels seen and heard. 

This philosophy stems from my father, who always told me: "No matter what your job is, give it 100%. If you are asked to make a cup of tea, make it the best cup of tea they've ever had." I carry that standard with me and strive to inspire it in others. 

I always notice the small things… crew members who think ahead and go the extra mile. And I always pay it forward, either by hiring them for my next project or ensuring that the network executives are made aware of who helped make the magic happen. 

AvA: When you’re building tension in a psychological thriller, what are the small details audiences don’t realize are carefully planned?

Spiro: Goodness. That’s a big one! So much goes into the planning of a pilot and indeed a series. With ‘All Her Fault’ so many design elements were looked at and hopefully the sum of these many parts helped build tension. 

I worked closely with our production designer Rob Harris. We discussed and carefully planned sets to help support the visual language I was building. For example, we incorporated floor to ceiling glass doors, using specific antique glass with beveled edges. What I found was that when you shoot through this glass, and depending on the angle at which you hit it, you could create double imaging of the characters, and then as the camera continues to move through the pane of glass, across the beveled glass, the characters disappear for a fleeting moment. This visual play helped elevate the sense of unease during the more intense moments. 

Another area I focused on was color, from set dec to costume. While researching different shades of blue we discovered which ones responded most actively to varying lighting conditions. We found a blue that reacted a certain way when lit by warmer temperatures, thus creating a cozy feel. But as soon as we lit it with cooler temperatures the same blue felt uninviting. 

For the overall arc of our show, in the early episodes, we established a safe sanctuary for Sarah Snook’s character, but by the back end of the show, when all the lies in the early episodes started to unravel, that same home began to feel like an alienating cage for Snook. This was all reflected through choice of color and use of light. Hopefully, these subtle details helped amplify the tension for the viewer. 

There are some fun easter eggs within the costume design too! If you watch again, you’ll notice that every button on Sarah Snook’s tops, had a double set of buttons for each hole - to represent the two babies in her life. Many of her earrings used cut glass like the beveled glass on set or had double rings. The list goes on and on… 

👋 See you back here on Wednesday

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The Mail Cart is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.

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