Welcome to IP Surveillance #17, your weekly scan of the books, articles, podcasts, games, and alternative IP that Hollywood should be watching — before everyone else does.

A24 just paid seven figures for a spec erotic thriller with Nicole Kidman circling. Mike Flanagan is back with Stephen King. Amy Sherman-Palladino landed a Jennifer Weiner adaptation at Universal. The studios are spending again — and the IP they're buying tells you exactly where the market is headed: contained, character-driven, high-concept.

In this edition: A24's seven-figure erotic thriller spec, Flanagan reunites with King for The Mist, a Hollywood body-horror satire that reads like The Substance meets Yellowface, a New Yorker investigation about babies in a mysterious LA mansion, and a Morehouse hostage podcast featuring a young Samuel L. Jackson.