Cinema isn’t just about the latest Disney/Pixar project or Star Wars spin-off. Memorable storytelling is happening all over the film industry, from Hollywood’s box-office-busting superhero smashes to small, innovative indie experiments. The Verge’s film section is here to help you sort through the latest Hollywood news and reviews, from favorite genres like sci-fi, fantasy, and horror to the independent movies that matter.
It was already exciting to know that Rebecca Sugar is making a Steven Universe follow-up series for Amazon, but Annapurna just announced that Sugar has also signed onto a new Moomin feature that will adapt a number of Tove Jansson’s classic stories for the big screen.
In Bugonia’s latest trailer, Emma Stone’s pharmaceutical CEO character can’t fathom why her kidnappers think she might be from another planet. But the more she insists that she’s just a very rich and powerful executive, the more they’re convinced she’s, you know, not human.
The digital avatar’s rollout feels like a stunt meant to normalize gen AI’s creep into Hollywood.
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, which combines the two volumes of Kill Bill and adds a seven-and-a-half minute animated sequence, is hitting theaters on December 5th.
Fortnite wasted no time cooking up its KPop Demon Hunters collaboration that will see the Huntr/x girls squadding up to slay monsters in a movie-inspired version of the game’s Horde Rush mode running from October 2nd to November 1st. Naturally, Rumi, Zoey, and Mira skins will also be coming to the Fortnite Shop.
Noah Hawley talks about turning Alien into a TV series following the season 1 finale.
We’re getting a new trailer for the Netflix film tomorrow, and as a teaser the streamer put out this poster that provides the best look yet at Jacob Elordi as the creature.
It’s set to debut on July 23rd, 2027, just about 20 years after the premiere of the first Simpsons movie in July 2007. I remember seeing the first in theaters, so now I feel really old.
President Donald Trump’s nebulous plan / threat to impose an 100% tariff on movies produced outside of the US never materialized when he trotted it out earlier this year. But Trump has begun banging that drum once again, which could mean Hollywood is in for a new way of production-related headaches.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
AI startups want to brute force their way into the movie business, even though the tech isn’t ready for its closeup.
Lionsgate has been hyping up generative AI ever since it partnered with Runway to build a model trained on the studio’s IP. But TheWrap reports that the companies have been struggling to get the model to generate anything usable because the “Lionsgate catalog isn’t enough to create those kinds of large-scale projects.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash’s villanous Na’vi clan believes that Eywa has forsaken them in the movie’s latest trailer, but all the shots of Pandora’s bioluminescent creatures rising up in revolt make it seem like the planet’s collective consciousness isn’t gone — it has just been waiting to make a move.
The Netflix film has an intriguing premise: “When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.” The trailer is mostly people looking very emotional in control rooms, and yet it’s still pretty intense. It streams on October 24th.
Though all of Oz is atwitter in Wicked: For Good’s final trailer, there’s a (literal and metaphorical) storm on the horizon that’s going to pop off when Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) are reunited.
This interview goes wildly off the rails, starting just before this anecdote:
I wrote a book a few years ago on Star Wars. We invited Dr. Kissinger to my Star Wars book party, and he said, “You wrote a book about Star Wars? Why’d you write a book about Star Wars?” He was puzzled and courteous, but really confused. And then he came to the book party, which was quite generous. He was a busy person.
[The New Yorker]
In addition to a new trailer for OD and a poster for Physint, Kojima Productions also showed off the first look at its animated Death Stranding project, under the working title “Mosquito.” It’s being written by Raised By Wolves creator Aaron Guzikowski, with Hiroshi Miyamoto from ABC Animations as director.
ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel in fear of Donald Trump is already casting an ugly shadow on the Disney brand.
The Jordan Peele-produced sports horror doesn’t quite come together in the end, but some of its core ideas are potent.
In an effort to help folks consume as much streaming content as possible, Tubi has just released Productubity, a new Chrome extension designed to make it easier for you to hide the fact that you’re watching movies or shows when you’re supposed to be, you know, increasing shareholder value.
Director Uta Briesewitz wants her new film to make you think about the human suffering that keeps the internet running.
If you missed James Gunn’s reboot of Superman in theaters, which kicks off a new era for DC’s film ambitions, the movie hits HBO Max this Friday.
Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have been slapping AI companies left and right with lawsuits alleging blatant copyright infringement. And now, Reuters reports that the three studios are setting their sights on Chinese AI firm MiniMax and its Hailuo image / video generator.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the newly merged Paramount Skydance Corporation is thinking about making a majority cash bid to acquire the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery — a move that would consolidate two of the world’s largest media conglomerates into a single entity run by billionaire Larry Ellison’s son.
[The Wall Street Journal]
The anime classic from Satoshi Kon is coming back to theaters on October 3rd, with an all-new 4K remaster. You can find tickets here.
Francis Lawrence’s adaptation of the Stephen King classic feels like gory YA that’s light on real social commentary.
The latest Tron: Ares trailer is mostly a delivery system for new Nine Inch Nails music, but it also does a pretty good job of making it seem like the movie’s going to do some wildly cool stuff with Light Jet dogfights.
There’s a whole lot going on in the new trailer for Bryan Fuller’s upcoming horror thriller Dust Bunny, but the main takeaway is that Sigourney Weaver is going to look cool as hell blasting people to smithereens with a pair of deadly stilettos. The movie’s out on December 5th.
Nobody wants to fess up to murder in the latest teaser for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, but Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc knows that there’s a killer in his midst — one whose identity will be revealed when the film hits theaters on November 26th.
