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Cate Blanchett will play the live-action version of her animated character Valka in the remake of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2. Olafur Darri Olafsson is also joining the cast as the villainous Drago. Now in production with director Dean DeBlois, the adventure film again stars Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Julian Dennison and Gerard Butler. Antonio Banderas and Danny Trejo are reteaming to star in ARMADILLO UNITED, a comedy-drama set around a fictional youth football team that's trying to get to the World Cup. Costars include Danay Garcia and Ruben Blades. Alan Jacobs is writing and directing. Adria Arjona and Kingsley Ben-Adir will star in SCORN, about a woman who refuses to go away quietly after her married lover tries to dismiss their romance as just a fling. Sarah-Violet Bliss is writing and directing. Jack Whitehall, Casey Wilson and Scott MacArthur are joining Kim Kardashian in THE FIFTH WHEEL, a comedy about a successful woman surprised to find herself the odd woman out on a Vegas holiday with longtime friends. Eva Longoria is directing. Cristin Milioti is joining Glen Powell in the cast of Judd Apatow's still-untitled comedy about a country music star who has fallen on hard times. Powell and Apatow are also producing and writing the script. Sophia Bush, Jerry O'Connell, Violet McGraw and Tim Rozon will star in SUMMER'S LAST RESORT, a comedy about a teen trying to sabotage her mother's relationship with her school's vice principal. Melanie Scrofano is directing from a script by Emily Andras. Michael Angelo Covino will direct and star in THE LAST FIX, a comedy about a political fixer in Boston who learns that he has a terminal illness. So he plans to go out in a blaze of glory. The script is by Chuck MacLean. Gracie Abrams (JJ's musician daughter) will star in PLEASE, the next film by Halina Reijn (Babygirl). The plot details are being kept under wraps, but it's said to centre around themes of violence and masculinity. Stephen Lang, Bruce Boxleitner, Samuel Roukin and Eric Nelsen will star in GETTYSBURG 1863, about a Union soldier struggling with conflicting loyalties during the American Civil War. Bo Brinkman is writing and directing. Lang played a Confederate soldier in the 1993 epic Gettysburg. Myles Truitt (Stranger Things), Madison Wolfe, Alex Aiono, Genneya Walton, Marley Aliah and Mitchell Hoog will star in YOUNG BLOOD, about university friends who travel to Key West for spring break, then somehow end up stranded on a deserted island with ravenous vampires. Ari Schlossberg is writing and directing. And Jorge R Gutierrez (El Tigre) will direct an animated SPEEDY GONZALES movie, based on the lively Looney Tunes mouse. There's no word yet on the plot. Created in the 1950s, the character most recently turned up in 2021's Space Jam: A New Legacy, voiced by Gabriel Iglesias.
Michelle Yeoh will star in the fourth and fifth AVATAR movies, if they go ahead. James Cameron hasn't yet confirmed the project, but plans to shoot the next two back to back, as he did with the second and third films. Apparently, Cameron has already shot scenes for the fourth film that feature Yeoh with younger cast members. Glen Powell will lead the cast of the sci-fi thriller TESSERACT, which is being written and directed by Sam Esmail (Leave the World Behind). The plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but the title hints at something to do with time travel. Michelle Williams will join the cast of writer-director Damien Chazelle's untitled new project, which is apparently an 1970s-style action movie set in a prison. The plot is being kept tightly under wraps. The film also stars Daniel Craig, Cillian Murphy and Dave Bautista. Nicolas Cage, Justin Long and Shelley Hennig will star in the action thriller BEST PANCAKES IN THE COUNTY, about a perilous stand-off in a small-town diner between federal agents, a con artist and a frazzled waitress. Writer-director Ken Sanzel is currently filming in Arkansas. Faye Dunaway, Mira Sorvino, Jack Huston and Betty Gabriel have joined the cast of PRIMA, which stars Nicola Peltz Beckham as a ballerina struggling to maintain her place in the company when the leadership changes. Luca and Alessandro Morelli are directing. Emily Bader wlll play soccer legend Mia Hamm in a biopic titled THE 99ERS, tracing the US women's team as they took on China in the 1999 World Cup, which was played to a crowd of 93,000 in the Rose Bowl. Nicole Kassell is directing. Blair Underwood and American football star Vernon Davis will produce and star in THE LISTENERS, a psychological thriller about a jazz musician whose sudden deafness confounds his doctors. Costars include Bechir Silvain, Cindy Herron, Taylor Talley and Simone Leonora. Joslyn Rose is directing. Ed Helms, Rhiannon Giddens, John Sayles, Regina Taylor and Steve Earle will star in the drama AN ODE TO MARY JO, about a woman who is distracted from issues involving her children by the mystery of her missing ex-husband. Justin Liberman is making his directing debut. Rising star Spike Fearn (Ella McCay) will lead the cast of writer-director Gavin O'Connor's next film, RUNNING, which centres on a homeless teen who uses his natural track and field gifts to escape his past and form a new family. Michelle Randolph has landed a lead role opposite Christopher Briney in the holiday romcom CLASHING THROUGH THE SNOW, which follows someone desperately trying to get home in time for Christmas. Carlson Young is directing. Guiseppe Tornatore will write and direct THE FIRST DOLLAR, a biopic about Bank of America founder Amadeo Peter Giannini, who helped create the Hollywood studio system and financed a string of early classic films. And Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) is making a film adaptation of MR BURNS: A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY, a dark comedy set a century after society collapses. It features people reconstructing an episode of The Simpsons in an effort to preserve history.
Emma Mackey is joining Jeremy Allen White and Molly Gordon in PEAKED, a comedy about two former high-school mean girls who are trying to relive their glory days at their 10-year class reunion. Gordon is also directing and cowriting with Allie Levitan. Mickey Rourke, Alec Baldwin, Tara Reid, Nick Cannon, Danny Trejo, Patrick Warburton, Til Schweiger and Carrot Top will appear in the new National Lampoon movie HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE, about a film producer (Mike Hatton) trying to rescue a crumbling project involving a has-been movie star (Paul Sloan). Hatton is directing and cowriting with Sloan. Marion Cotillard will star in ROMA ELASTICA, about an actress preparing to star in her very last feature film, which is set in 1980s Rome. Costars include Noemie Merlant, Franco Nero, Isabella Ferrari, Ornella Muti and Zlatko Buric. Bertrand Mandico is writing and directing. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Drew Starkey will star in STAN, about a loyal fan who believes there is a secret message hidden in a female singer's songs. Karyn Kusama is directing (her first film since 2018) from a script by Jordan Rosenbloom. Joe Locke, Johnny Flynn, Monica Dolan, Billie Piper, Peter Mullan, Juliet Stevenson, Luke Thompson, Adeel Akhtar and Matthew Beard are joining Olivia Colman and Andrew Scott in ELSINORE, which just started filming this week in the UK with director Simon Stone. This is a biopic about actor Ian Charleson. Jean Dujardin will star in ROLLERCOASTER alongside Julie Platon. It's a romantic drama about a man who is learning to cope with his bipolar condition, so he can move forward with his life. Cyril Gelblat is directing. Marissa Bode (Wicked) will join Greg Tarzan Davis and Sonja O'Hara in the thriller SNARE, about a scientist in an obsessive romantic triangle with her ex and a new lover. O'Hare is also cowriting and codirecting with Adam Hoelzel. Christina Elmore, Hannah Love Lanie, Kathreen Khavari and Angel Laketa Moor will star in ZUGZWANG, a dark fantasy about a private detective who takes on a risky case hoping to solve the problems in her life, but she finds herself caught in a circle of corruption. Bridget Stokes (A Black Lady Sketch Show) is writing and directing. Brian DePalma is making his first film in seven years, writing and directing the thriller SWEET VENGEANCE, which was inspired by two real-life murders. Filming is scheduled to begin in Portugal this summer, so look for casting announcements soon. And KPop Demon Hunters writers Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan are writing the script for Tim Burton's long-gestating remake of the 1958 classic ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN, about a socialite who grows into a giant after encountering an alien. Margot Robbie is producing, and set to star in the film.
Gal Gadot will produce and probably star in THE RECOVERY AGENT, an adventure thriller based on the first in a series of novels about a woman who specialises in tracking down lost and stolen treasures. Will Arnett will take on the lead role in BEHEMOTH, replacing the departing David Harbour. Tony Gilroy's drama uses flashbacks to recount the story of a cellist's life. Costars include Pedro Pascal and Eva Victor. Kathryn Hahn is lined up to play Mother Gothel, and Australian actress Teagan Croft (Titans) has landed the lead role as Rapunzel in Disney's live-action remake of its 2011 animated musical comedy TANGLED, with Milo Manheim (Zombies) as the heroic Flynn Rider. Michael Gracey is directing. Vicky Krieps and Alex Lutz will star in EMMA DOUCET, an Austen-style romantic drama about a single mum who falls for the French prime minister. Writer-director Elise Girard plans to start filming in the spring. Billy Bob Thornton and Ariana Greenblatt will star in SOMEDAYS, about a fatally ill delivery driver who rescues a troubled teen girl, forming a friendship that changes both of their lives. Brian Klugman is writing and directing. Denise Richards, C Thomas Howell, Kim Coates and Patrick Muldoon will star in KEY TO FREEDOM. Aside from the fact that it's some sort of horror thriller, there is no news yet about the plot or premise. Damian Lee is writing and directing. Thomas Dekker and Alyson Gorske will star in ARTICHOKE, a Giallo-style thriller about a young woman who becomes trapped in a fever-dream of a relationship. Amir Moini is directing from a script by Adam Van Dyke; Dario Argento's granddaughter Anna Lou Castoldi is producing and narrating. Christopher Briney will star in the comedy CLASHING THROUGH THE SHOW, which is being described as a new take on the Planes, Trains and Automobiles scenario of soomeone desperately trying to get home for the holidays. Carlson Young (Upgraded) is directing. Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective) is writing the script for the thriller COLD ZERO, about a plane that crashes near the North Pole containing secret technology that pretty much everyone is desperate to recover. Brad Berg (Lone Survivor) is producing. And Johnny Knoxville has confirmed that a fifth JACKASS movie will be released this summer, four years after the last one. It's likely that Knoxville's cohorts Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jason Acuna and even Bam Margera will be back, alongside younger daredevil idiots. OLDER NEWS >> | ||
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S T A G E & M O R E beyond the big screen... | |||
 Make the yuletide gay STAGE: The Fit Prince brings a hilarious sense of holiday romcom anarchy to King's Head Theatre until 3rd Jan...  Let it all hang out STAGE: Golden Goose Theatre's new production of cheeky song and dance hit Boys in the Buff until 10th Jan...  Tale as old as time STAGE: Charing Cross Theatre presents its annual queer adult pantomime Beauty and the Beast until 11th Jan...  The boss’ new groove DANCE: ZooNation's a dazzling hip-hop take on Dickens, Ebony Scrooge at Sadler's Wells East until 4th Jan... STAGE: RVT's panto Growled riotously spins Beauty and the Beast, until 3rd Jan... STAGE: Brick Lane Music Hall's The Magic of Christmas dinner-theatre until 19th Dec...
NOV TV: Boots, Only Murders 5, Chad Powers, Peacemaker 2, MobLand, The Morning Show 4, Alien: Earth, more... DANCE: Ballet Black's Shadows, a new double bill at Sadler's Wells... DANCE: Pite and McBurney's staggering Figures in Extinction at Sadler's Wells... DANCE: Akram Khan and Manal AlDowayan's elemental Thikra at Sadler's Wells... STAGE: KC and the Sunshine Band musical Get Down Tonight at Charing Cross... STAGE: Ghost Stories returns to London's Peacock Theatre... DANCE: Hofesh Schechter's surreal Theatre of Dreams at Sadler's Wells... SEP TV: Chief of War, Wednesday 2, Smoke, Dexter: Resurrection, The Institute, Stick, Fisk and more... DANCE: Andrea Pena's Bogota explores history and culture at Sadler's Wells East... DANCE: Acosta Danza celebrates A Decade in Motion at Sadler's Wells...
MORE >>
NEWS SOURCES:
Dark Horizons.
The Hollywood Reporter.
Variety.
Deadline.
The industry.
| ALSO: Empire. IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes. Ain't It Cool News. Digital Spy. The Wrap. Sight and Sound. Entertainment Weekly. BBC. CNN. Evening Standard. The Guardian. Film Threat. indieWire. Screen International. © 2026 by Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall HOME | REVIEWS | NEWS | FESTIVAL | AWARDS | Q&A | ABOUT | TALKBACK | ||
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