IN CINEMAS NOW

The Super Mario Bros Movie – Starring Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Keegan-Michael Key, Fred Armisen and Seth Rogen

The Pope’s Exorcist – Starring Russell Crowe

Ride On (Mandarin) – Starring Jackie Chan

Leonor Will Never Die (Filipino)

STREAMING THIS WEEK

Film – Operation Fortune: Ruse De Garre (Prime Video) – April 7th

Film – The Portable Door (Now) – April 7th

Series – Tiny, Beautiful Things (Disney+) – April 7th

Series – Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+) – April 7th

Film – The Forgiven (Now) – April 8th

Series – Rennervations (Disney+) – April 12th

Series – Obsession (Netflix) – April 13th

Series – Florida Man (Netflix) – April 13th

STAR WARS CELEBRATION NEWS

Star Wars Celebration is currently going on right now, so there’s plenty of news that has dropped today as they open with their big studio showcase full of announcements and surprises, typically a lot of the footage is just shown for the audience (unfortunately I’m not there) but that doesn’t stop news and them releasing the odd trailer for the world to see.

Star Wars Series News

• Andor Season 2 will likely release late summer 2024, a first trailer was shown to the audience.
• The Acolyte shows off a new logo, set in the High Republic, Joonas Suotamo will play a Wookie Jedi, Lee Jung-Jae will play a Jedi Master, a teaser was shown to the audience and will be released in 2024.
• The Mandalorian showed 7 minutes of the next episode to the audience, who will also watch the full episode this evening.
• Skeleton Crew shows off an impressive director line up including recent Oscar Winners The Daniels, Jon Watts, David Lowery, Jake Scherier, Bryce Dallas Howard and Lee Isaac Chung. The first trailer was shown to the audience. The show releases later this year. Kerry Condon joins the cast.
• Ahsoka had a trailer released to the world, showed a poster and will release in August this year. The show teases the return of Thrawn and the links to Star Wars Rebels.

Star Wars Film News

• Dave Filoni will direct a Star Wars film which will be the culmination of The Mandalorian side of the universe.
• James Mangold (director of Logan, Ford vs Ferrari, Walk the Line) will direct Dawn of the Jedi, a film about the first Jedi, described as a biblical epic.
• Daisy Ridley will return as Rey in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars film set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker, and will follow the establishing of a new Jedi Order.
• Not Star Wars, but a final trailer and poster were released for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny were released, as well as footage shown to the audience.

BARBIE TRAILER & POSTERS

We all knew as soon as the first full trailer for Barbie would break the internet, it didn’t disappoint. In fact the internet was broken just before when Warner Bros released character posters for all the different Barbie’s and Ken’s expanding the never ending cast list and giving a look at many of them.

Not long after the poster dropped, they released the trailer and it promises to be a lot of fun. We get a look at a lot of the cast teasing chaos and a story that looks like its going to borrow from The Wizard of Oz. The humour is perfect. I honestly didn’t think I would ever say I’m excited to see a Barbie film but here we are, with the talent involved, it’s going to be huge, one you won’t be able to miss.

The cast includes (takes a deep breath) Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa, Ariana Greenblatt, Helen Mirren, John Cena, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Nicola Coughlan, America Ferrera, Kate Mckinnon, Alexandra Shipp, Hari Nef, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Jamie Demetriou, Ritu Arya, Connor Swindells, Emerald Fennell, Dua Lipa, Scott Evans and Sharon Rooney.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE TRAILER

Somehow Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse became the second biggest trailer of the week. This time we get a look at the story which promises a whole bunch of Spider-People from the Spider Society set up by Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (voiced by Oscar Isaac) chasing down Miles who looks like wasn’t invited to join the group. Reading into the trailer it looks like he can’t join because he hasn’t lost someone the rest of the Spider Society has, meaning it’s not looking good for Miles’ parents. The animation is incredible, and if you weren’t sold on it before you certainly should be now. It certainly looks to be the Empire Strikes Back of this series, promising a darker film.

The trailer also gave us a first look at villain, The Spot (Voiced by Jason Schwartzman) who will play a big role in the 3rd film too. The film also teased a connection to the MCU referencing Doctor Strange and the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, a cameo by Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and/or Tobey Maguire could very well be on the cards.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s cast includes Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez and Rachel Dretch.

BLUE BEETLE TRAILER

DC tried to grab a few headlines of their own with the first trailer for Blue Beetle. The film is fighting an upward battle with the reshuffling going on a DC before the DCU arrives. Blue Beetle will be the first Latin led superhero film, with Cobra Kai star Xolo Maridueña playing the role of Jamie Reyes, when it arrives in August. The trailer looks a lot of fun and reminds me of the vibe of the first Shazam! had.

Blue Beetle stars Xolo Maridueña, Susan Sarandon, Bruna Marquezine, George Lopez, Elpidia Carrillo and Damian Alcazar.

SECRET INVASION TRAILER

Marvel might be taking some time to slow down their output but that doesn’t stop the hype arriving for their next Disney+ series. Secret Invasion sees Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) return to Earth to find skrulls taking over in disguise as humans. The show looks fantastic and like it could do what Andor has done with Star Wars. A gritty, espionage, spy thriller might be exactly what the MCU needs to revitalise the universe.

Secret Invansion‘s first episode drops June 21st and stars Samuel L Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Olivia Colman, Emilia Clarke, Cobie Smulders, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Martin Freeman and Don Cheadle.

HARRY POTTER REBOOT SERIES

I’ve often thought that the Harry Potter series could work as a series, due to the huge amount of content that was missing from the films thats in the books, however I did not think it was something that was going to happen anytime soon. However, according to Bloomberg it looks like a deal to adapt the books into a series might not be far away. The books would certainly suit a TV show where they could put out a series a year for each book, meaning the characters wouldn’t age up as quick as they did in the films. However, with JK Rowling’s involvement and it still feeling so fresh it’s hard to see it going anywhere anytime soon. I’d rather see other stories told in this universe first.

LIVE ACTION MOANA

Disney has had mixed reception for their Live Action adaptations whether it’s from the undeniably good looking CGI show off in The Lion King, the fun Aladdin, the dull Dumbo or the beautiful Cinderella. It seemed only a matter of time before their more recent animation would face the same treatment. Moana was a huge hit at the time, and with the cast not just looking exactly like the characters but being perfect for the roles in makes a lot of sense that Moana will become live action. Dwayne Johnson will reprise his role as Maui and Auli’I Cravalho as Moana.

SHREK 5 OFFICIALLY IN THE WORKS

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish was a big hit with Shrek universe fans, revitalising the nostalgia young adults had for the universe with an update providing the universe with a much more interesting and timeless animation style. The final moments of the latest Puss in Boots tease his return to Far Far Away and we know who can’t be far away then. This week Chris Meledandri (founder of Illumination, and a creative partner for Dreamworks animation) teased the original cast returning for Shrek 5 as well as potential for a Donkey spin-off.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOLUME 3 POSTERS

Tickets are now available to be booked for the next MCU film Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 and with that comes character posters and another trailer for the film.

LIVE ACTION STREET FIGHTER IN THE WORKS

Legendary Pictures and Capcom are set to team up to make a film based on the Street Fighter game series. Perhaps not a huge surprise after Mortal Kombat did well on HBO Max with it’s pandemic release, and would likely have gone on to do even better. No more news about creatives and actors involved at this stage.

NEW LOOK AT JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX

Joker: Folie a Deux officially wrapped filming this week. The sequel to the hit about Batman’s most notorious and craziest villian is highly anticipated, after Joker became the first R Rated film to cross $1 billion worldwide. There have also been numerous leaked photos of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn dancing down those famous stairs from the first film.

MAXXXINE CASTING

Ti West’s X and Pearl became instant cult classics after a film and prequel getting released in the same year is unprecedented. The third instalment in the franchise, Maxxxine, is currently in production with Mia Goth returning once again. The cast announcement made by A24 includes Michelle Monaghan, Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debicki, Lily Collins, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey and Moses Sumney.

HYPNOTIC TRAILER

Hypnotic is the latest film from director Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk till Dawn, Alita: Battle Angel, Machete, Sin City). The film follows Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck) investigating his missing daughter and a government programme. The film is set to be released on May 12th in the US, no word yet on a UK release date. The film also stars William Fichtner and Alice Braga.

BEAU IS AFRAID TRAILER

Ari Aster’s latest bizarre horror film is just around the corner. Coming in at nearly 3 hours, this unique horror is certainly set to get horror fans excited after Midsommar was so critically well received. This time teaming up with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, I think it’s best to go into this one with no expectations because Ari Aster will certainly defy whatever you take in with you. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan and Hayley Squires and releases in the UK May 19th but in the US April 21st.

WELCOME TO DERRY CASTING

We finally have some casting for the IT prequel series Welcome to Derry. Bill Skarsgard has confirmed, in an interview with Jake’s Takes, that he won’t be returning as Pennywise for the series. The series will take place in the 1960’s and star Chris Chalk (When They See Us), James Remar (Black Lightning), Taylour Paige (Zola) and Jovan Adepo (Babylon).

QUICK NEWS

• MTV announce the nominations for their MTV Movie & TV Awards 2023
• Paddington in Peru begins filming in July
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will premiere at Cannes Film Festival on May 18th
• Michelle Yeoh will recieve Women in Motion Award at Cannes Film Festival
• The Little Mermaid will feature three new songs
• John Wick spin-off, Ballerina, starring Ana De Armas and Norman Reedus, will be released on June 7th 2024
• Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon has a nearly 4 hours run time
• Minecraft starring Jason Momoa will release April 4th 2025
• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom moves release date to December 20th
• Frank Grillo will have a role in the DCU
• Five Nights at Freddys will release on October 27th
• Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix, directed by Ridley Scott will release in cinemas November 22nd
• The live action How to Train your Dragon will begin shooting this summer
• Donald Glover confirms talks to return as Lando Calrissian
• Adam Driver in talks to play young Neil McCauley in Heat 2
• Taylor Russell joins Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender and Hoyeon Jung in Hope
• Priyanka Chopra joins John Cena and Idris Elba in Heads of State
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley and Richard Madden will all star in Killer Heat
• Keanu Reeves will star alongside Jonah Hill, who is also directing, in Outcome for Apple
• Maia Kealoha has been cast as Lilo in the live action Lilo & Stitch
• Eli Roth’s next film Thanksgiving will be released on November 17th
• Bella Ramsey leads Monstrous Beauty, also starring Fiona Shaw, Ruth Negga and Dominic West
• Reginal Hall joins Sadie Sink, Kelvin Harrison Jr and Murray Bartlett in O’Dessa
• Samara Weaving to star in Netflix comedy, Little Sky
• Zoe Kravitz to produce and star in Biter
• Austin Butler to produce and star in City on Fire
• Jinkx Monsoon joins the next season of Doctor Who
• Chloe Zhao will direct Hamnet
• Josie Totah joins Dacre Montgomery and Barbie Ferreira in Faces of Death

I hope you enjoyed this recap of all the film news this week, it turns out there was a boat load, I wouldn’t expect there to typically be this much news in the future. This was very much a trial, one I enjoyed doing and would like to continue, but any feedback on this idea and sharing film news this way would be appreciated. It should be much easier for me to keep on top of, especially as I’m about to start a new job on Monday, and my aim is to get one of these out every Friday at 5pm so make a mental note of that. Be sure to follow me on social media, via the buttons below to make sure you don’t miss me latest reviews that I’ll still be doing as much as possible.

Thank you as always for the support!

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