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.
The latest poster for DC Studios’ upcoming Clayface movie — out October 23rd — from director James Watkins definitely leans into a kind of body horror that’s very different for the DCU. That kind of energy could be nice change of pace as the studio builds its new cinematic universe.
Update: And now we’ve got a trailer.
Though Warner Bros. tried to kill Coyote vs. Acme for the insurance money tax write-offs, Ketchup Entertainment has released the long overdue movie’s first trailer ahead of its theatrical debut on August 28th.
Ghibli’s getting a little meta with Night in the Valley of Witches — a new animated short co-directed by Goro Miyazaki and Akihiko Yamashita that is set in a fictionalized version the studio’s real world theme park. You’ll be able to see the movie at the actual theme park beginning on July 8th.
Netflix has announced the leading cast for its upcoming Gundam movie from director Jim Mickle (Sweet Tooth), and the lineup looks like… an interesting group of faces, to say the least.
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I love horror movies and overanalyzing things, so Horror Lex scratches a really specific itch. It doesn’t actually host any papers or books. Instead, it’s a hand-selected index of over 13,000 documents, many of them from peer-reviewed journals. A lot of them are free to read, too.
[Horror Lex]
YouTuber Patrick Willems has argued that movies look objectively worse than they did 25 years ago. Digital cameras and an overreliance on CGI are factors. But he also argues that YouTube killed off the music video-to-Hollywood pipeline, starving the industry of inventive visual stylists.
Some of the best explorations of virtual worlds come from anime, and up next is Labyrinth from director Shoji Kawamori. It centers on a high school student who gets trapped in her phone, only for a virtual doppelgänger to take over her life. It’s hitting theaters soon, but only for two days: May 10th and 11th.
Disney released the “final trailer” for The Mandalorian and Grogu ahead of its May 22nd debut in theaters. It looks fun! And Grogu is still so dang cute.
The movie, which Activision and Paramount announced last year, is scheduled to hit theaters on June 30th, 2028. It’s set to be written, directed, and produced by Peter Berg, with Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan also onboard to write and produce.
We already knew that a Spaceballs sequel was on the way, and now we have two very important pieces of information: the title and premiere date. It’s called Spaceballs: The New One and will be in theaters on April 23rd, 2027. Hopefully we get more videos of Mel Brooks in the lead up.
Video game adaptations have steadily been getting better, and in that way the first trailer for the Street Fighter movie looks like a remnant from an older, simpler time. I’m just glad the bonus stage car makes an appearance.
The director made one of the greatest 3D films of all time. He explains why he’ll never do that again.
Sony has released some new first-look images of its upcoming Spider-Verse sequel, alongside confirmation that the movie is expected to land in theaters on June 18th, 2027 — a week earlier than the last reported date of June 25th. That’s a pleasant pivot from the delays it was previously blighted with.
That’s the message Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman had for theaters at CinemaCon, pushing for them to make screening windows longer, tickets cheaper, and include fewer pre-show ads.
“Admissions have clearly been down from pre-COVID, and if we’re going to fix that, which we can, we all have urgent work to do. I urge you all now to make some hard choices for the long term rather than the short term.”
In a statement to Deadline, Paramount argues that its merger will ensure “creators have more avenues for their work, not fewer:”
We have been clear in our commitments to do just that: increasing output to a minimum of 30 high-quality feature films annually with full theatrical releases, continuing to license content, and preserving iconic brands with independent creative leadership.
On Monday, more than 1,000 Hollywood professionals signed an open letter opposing Paramount’s $110 billion deal.
Ben Stiller, Joaquin Phoenix, Tiffany Haddish, Bryan Cranston, and Lin-Manuel Miranda are among the over 1,000 Hollywood professionals pushing back on the $110 billion deal that they say will “further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape:”
We are deeply concerned by indications of support for this merger that prioritize the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good. The integrity, independence, and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised.
If you’re missing Stranger Things, Netflix has a new series executive produced by the Duffer brothers, only this one skews slightly older. It follows some strange goings on at a retirement community, and if nothing else, it has an incredible cast with the likes of Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters, and Bill Pullman.
Another Hunger Games movie is on the way, and this one is possibly most notable for the cast: a whole bunch of stars are playing younger versions of characters from the original trilogy. The newcomers include the likes of Jesse Plemons, Ralph Fiennes, Kieran Culkin, and Elle Fanning. The movie hits theaters November 20th.
Explosive Media is going up against the White House in a meme war.
Sony is working on a Metal Gear Solid movie directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the directors behind Final Destination: Bloodlines, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A few years ago, Oscar Isaac had been attached to play Solid Snake in an MGS film, but this news makes me think that now isn’t happening.
That’s Brad Bird talking about animation, just as Netflix released the first batch of images for his upcoming retrofuturistic detective movie Ray Gunn. It doesn’t have a premiere date yet, but we do know the main cast, which includes Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits as a one-eyed alien.
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While Tencent and Jared Kushner’s private equity firm are no longer contributing to Paramount’s $110 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, The Wall Street Journal reports that $24 billion of the proposed deal is still being provided by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
[The Wall Street Journal]
Though Netflix insisted that it bought Ben Affleck’s AI company InterPositive to help filmmakers, Deadline reports that one of the startups big selling points listed in its 2024 patent application is its ability to bring production costs down by millions of dollars.
If you’ve visited the official Project Hail Mary website on mobile rather than desktop, you may have missed the free STL file that you can download to replicate this popular prop from the movie. You’ll have to acquire the Xenonite yourself though, obviously.
Nintendo and Illumination’s latest film is another visual stunner with a ho-hum story.
Supergirl continues to look very Guardians of the Galaxy-inspired in its latest trailer, which makes it clear just how important Krypto the dog will be to the story. The Superman follow-up hits theaters on June 26th.
Following recent releases Iron Lung and Undertone, next up we have Backrooms, a liminal horror movie directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons. It hits theaters on May 29th.
Apple TV has a big lineup of new series this year, and one of the more notable is Cape Fear, inspired by Martin Scorsese’s ‘90s film of the same name (which was itself a remake). If nothing else, the cast looks great, and you can check out the first teaser below.
Project Hail Mary has surpassed $300 million at the box office, making it the highest grossing Amazon MGM film to date — though that doesn’t count MGM movies prior to the acquisition. Still, it’s a great sign for an original sci-fi film, even if it may end up becoming a franchise.
The author explains why you should never approach writing a book like a movie.
Ghost in the Machine director Valerie Veatch wants you to understand how race science has shaped this moment in tech.
Been meaning to catch the film, maybe I will once it’s available to stream. My colleague Kevin Nguyen reviewed it last year.
Project Hail Mary premieres tomorrow, and it’s the kind of big, exciting sci-fi movie I’d highly recommend seeing on a big screen. For more on the movie, check out my review as well as my interview with author Andy Weir and screenwriter Drew Goddard about adapting the story for film.
