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.
Neon was one of the only studios that seemed interested in picking up Luca Guadagnino’s biographical drama about Sam Altman after Amazon suddenly decided not to distribute the movie. And now, Neon is reportedly “in advanced talks” for a deal that could get the project into theaters.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
YouTube-to-Hollywood hit Backrooms is coming back to theaters on July 3rd, with an expanded version called “Everything Must Go” that features 16 additional minutes of footage.
If you missed the second Super Mario movie in theaters, it’s hitting Peacock on July 30th, which is a good amount of time to jump into the games if you haven’t.
Supergirl’s less-than-stellar debut is a reminder that the DCU is fighting an uphill battle.
The first trailer for Robert Eggers’ Werwulf makes the movie seem a lot like a cross between The Witch and Nosferatu, which means it should make for a deliciously disturbing watch when it hits theaters on December 25th.
That’s Robert Eggers talking about his next creature feature, Werwulf, which follows 2024’s vampire horror flick Nosferatu. Esquire has a first look image of the film, along with some details from the director that have me itching for a trailer.
One way that Sony Pictures’ Klara and the Sun (due in theaters on October 23rd) sticks out among the crowded field of dystopian AI companion flicks is that it’s an adaptation of a book from Never Let Me Go author Kazuo Ishiguro. Waititi is writing the screenplay and directing, with a cast including Natasha Lyonne, Amy Adams, and Steve Buscemi.
The latest installment in the Pixar franchise raked in $160 million over the weekend, besting The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s $131.7 million. It’s also the second largest opening weekend for an animated film ever, only bested by Incredibles 2 and its $182.7 million.
Developers Oliver and Patrick Evans have made a digitized 3D version of the famous movie closet that lets you explore 1,247 films distributed by The Criterion Collection. So now you can peruse the shelves and pull out titles to learn more about them, just like your favorite celebrities (kinda).
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[The Criterion Closet]
With tickets going on sale today ahead of Spider-Man’s premiere on July 31st, Sony Pictures released a new nearly three-minute trailer to follow the March teaser that quickly racked up a billion views.
This new one still features a world that’s forgotten Peter Parker, and also highlights the movie’s villain, an invisible entity that seemingly takes over even Bruce Banner / Hulk.
Disney and Pixar’s latest feature gets at the heart of how we let tech hurt us.
After The Wizard of Oz at Sphere topped $400 million in ticket sales over the last year, Sphere Studios says it “will use its advanced technologies” to present The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Sphere.
There are no details on how much that process will resemble the Google AI-powered approach to Oz, which Indiewire’s David Ehrlich called “…less a celebration of the original than an Emerald City-sized version of Cecilia Giménez’s Jesus fresco.”
Under Lachlan Murdoch’s leadership, Roku will become a doorway to all things Fox.
The two projects highlight how it takes more than nostalgia to reinvigorate a franchise.
The director of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die says he’s not totally against AI and wouldn’t fault a young indie filmmaker for turning to it if they couldn’t otherwise afford to create a key portion of a film. But he is concerned about its impact. According to Variety, saying:
You almost need a rating system. If you use AI to write a script, you get an F. What people are most afraid of is that there is no transparency. People are afraid of what is real and what isn’t.”
AI wasn’t just slop at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Lionsgate’s partnershuip with Runway seemed to have hit a major snag last fall when the companies couldn’t get their AI model to generate footage suitable to be turned into a full-on movie. And now, they’re reportedly putting more energy into producing “short episodic series using existing Lionsgate IP.”
You’ll be able to watch the third Avatar movie from home soon, as it hits Disney Plus on June 24th.
It’s the first film of 2026 to rake in more than a billion dollars, and on a budget of only $110 million. It’s unlikely to be the last movie to cross that threshold this year, however, with two Marvel movies and Toy Story 5 on the horizon.
”You might see some characters from the game pop up,” Michael Sarnoski told IGN, but don’t expect a straightforward adaptation of the games. He’s working on revisions to the script with Hideo Kojima and A24 right now and said:
“Kojima has been really generous in letting me play in his world but letting me tell a story with my own characters and my own sort of corner of this world, but keeping it honest to the game and doing something that fans will really like. So it’s been a great process so far, and I’m really excited to share it.”
Sorry, I mean Star Wars: Galactic Racer. A new trailer shows off what appears to be the game’s story mode. The conversations look a little stilted, but who cares — all I care about is the podracing. It’s coming out on October 6th.
Quilty claims to predict box office success.
The original lightsabers in Star Wars were hacked together from antique camera parts, so it’s fitting that folks are still going back to basics to build new ones. As lightsaber home-build videos are exploding right now on TikTok, it’s fun to see Home Depot embrace it. Sure, you can still buy something fancy directly from Disney, but the best lightsabers in the world have always been built by fans.
Fresh off interviewing the chatbot-powered stunt that is Tilly Norwood, the NYT tells us of Martin Scorsese’s advisor and partner arrangement with Black Forest Labs (whose Flux tech has powered xAI’s image generation) in what it calls “a clear sign of Hollywood’s softening stance on artificial intelligence.”
Right now, however, that softening extends only to a test of storyboard creation:
I recently tested this out on a scene and the ability to visualize and immediately share the storyboard was creatively freeing. During the pre-production process, time costs money, and this allowed us to move faster without sacrificing quality or craft.
Prime members in the US will have the chance to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day in select theaters on July 29th, two days before the movie is widely released stateside. Tickets will be available here, and you can sign up to be notified when they go on sale.
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David Robert Mitchell — the director best-known for the excellent horror flick It Follows — is making the jump to summer blockbusters with The End of Oak Street, in which a suburban block somehow gets overrun with hungry dinosaurs. It hits theaters on August 14th.
Le Vertige is directed by Quentin Dupieux (FKA: Mr. Oizo), and it follows Jacques, a low-polygon model of a man convinced that nothing is real and that all of humanity is living in a simulation. It looks like a surreal blast, but sadly, there’s no US release date yet.
Marcia, 80, was married to George Lucas from 1969 to 1983 and edited many of his early films, including American Graffiti and THX 1138. She also worked with Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, earning multiple Academy Award nominations along the way.
Filmmakers like Kane Parsons are getting their start on YouTube, before moving to bigger productions.
225 movies will initially join the service, including big hits like The Hunger Games and John Wick, with around 100 more being added this year and early next, Deadline reports.
[Deadline]
The latest trainer for writer / director Jane Schoenbrun’s slasher thriller Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is as spellbinding at it is deeply, deeply messed up.
The agency is looking to partner with filmmakers, musicians, writers, poets, and artists to help tell the story behind programs such as the Artemis Moon missions and the Space Reactor-1 Freedom mission to Mars. But get your proposals in ASAP, the window closes on Tuesday, June 30th.
