Disney Sets ‘Star Wars’ Movie ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu,’ ‘Toy Story 5’ and Live-Action ‘Moana’ for 2026 Release Dates

“Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has a lot of options for what he could make next, and one of them could be his long-gestating “Cleopatra” movie based on the Stacy Schiff novel “Cleopatra: A Life” for Sony Pictures (he has a couple of options, one of them being a third “Dune” movie too). Before that, however, some may remember the era when filmmaker David Fincher had a version of the movie set up at Paramount, circa 2012, that would have starred Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie  (long before the competing Gal Gadot incarnation with Patty Jenkins and Kari Skogland).

Brent Lang Executive Editor Joe Hall has been named president and CEO of Manhattan Neighborhood Network, an award-winning cultural organization. The non-profit is also the largest community media center in the country, overseeing two state-of-the-art facilities in Hudson Yards and East Harlem. In his new role, Hall is tasked with setting the vision of Manhattan Neighborhood Network and building out a development team that can market the organization, raise its profile and increase funding.

Hunter Ingram SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from “Warsaw,” the sixth episode of “We Were the Lucky Ones,” now streaming on Hulu. For the first time since World War II started on their doorstep in Poland in 1939, Nechuma and Sol Kurc are not living under the same roof. At the start of Episode 6 of Hulu’s Holocaust drama “We Were the Lucky Ones,” based on Georgia Hunter’s novel, the Polish couple says goodbye to their eldest daughter Mila (Hadas Yaron) and young granddaughter Felice, who make a daring escape from the Radom ghetto by blending in as German citizens thanks, in part, to a coat made by Nechuma that’s deemed so stylish it couldn’t possibly be worn by a Jew.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “No extraneous commotion,” Jordan Fein, the associate director of “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club,” beseeches the small army of construction crew members who are drilling, hammering and carrying planks of wood around him, not to mention the half-dozen musicians and dancers waiting to rehearse. It’s roughly two weeks before the revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “Cabaret” opens its doors to the public, and Fein is fine-tuning the prologue, an hour-and-15-minute immersion into club culture that precedes the show. It’s a daring piece of theatrical provocation that has helped to make the Broadway production one of the season’s hottest (and most expensive) tickets.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts has announced that Miky Lee will deliver the 20024 Commencement address.

EXCLUSIVE: Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) is set to executive produce and star in the newly greenlit Lifetime movie The Bad Orphan. Chloe Coco Chapman will make her television debut alongside Brandt and additional cast members Mark Taylor (Reacher) and Eve Edwards (The Good Doctor).

Brent Lang Executive Editor From hit man to hedgehog. “John Wick” leading man Keanu Reeves will voice Shadow in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” a source confirmed to Variety. He joins a cast that includes Ben Schwartz as Sonic, as well as Jim Carrey as the villainous Dr.

LAS VEGAS – The Walt Disney Studios showed 75 minutes, yes almost an hour and a half of film footage for movies it’s releasing over the next 12 months at CinemaCon 2024. Most of which will not be released publicly.

The first footage from the upcoming fourth Captain America movie was just shown at 2024 CinemaCon on Thursday (April 11) in Las Vegas.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “South Park” co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are teaming with Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free on a new live-action comedy that will hit theaters just in time for our nation’s birthday. The film is slated to open on July 4, 2025 and will be distributed by Paramount Pictures. It faces some stiff competition.

Brent Lang Executive Editor There was something fitting about the setting. Paramount Pictures unveiled the first footage from “Gladiator II” on the stage of The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, a hotel that reimagines Ancient Rome in all its decadent splendor, albeit with a few more slot machines. Ridley Scott seems to be offering a bloodier version of that distant age, one that finds Paul Mescal enter the arena as a nobleman who has renounced his privilege.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” will be re-released in theaters in honor of the sci-fi epic’s 10th anniversary. The film, which earned an impressive $731 million globally when it debuted in 2014, stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon and is set in a dystopian future in which a group of astronauts must travel to the far reaches of space to find a new planet for humankind to colonize. Paramount Pictures announced the re-release during its presentation to theater owners and executives at CinemaCon, the exhibition industry conference taking place this week in Las Vegas.

Jack Dunn Tribeca Enterprises, SIC, the Portuguese broadcast company, its streaming service OPTO and the City of Lisbon have unveiled the first-ever European-edition of the Tribeca Festival, which will take place in Lisbon, Portugal from Oct. 17-19. The festival will kick off with an opening night celebration followed by a two-day event on Lisbon’s waterfront.

When Golden Globe winner Zendaya auditioned to play MJ in "Spider-Man: Homecoming," she was already a well-known actress by Disney fans. Production of "Spider-Man: Homecoming" was wooed by her talent but had no idea who the star was. Zendaya has starred as MJ, the love interest of Peter Parker, otherwise known as Spider-Man, in three movies to date.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Zendaya was already a big star when she was cast as MJ in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” By that point in her career she had already amassed a huge following as the star of two Disney Channel hits, “Shake It Up” and “K.C. Undercover,” plus popped up in Beyonce’s “Lemonade” film and was a runner-up on “Dancing With the Stars.” None of that apparently registered for “Spider-Man” producer Amy Pascal. “To be honest with you, neither [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige nor I knew who she was,” Pascal admitted in Vogue magazine as part of its Zendaya cover story.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Robert Downey Jr. is not closing the door on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which he kicked off in 2008 with “Iron Man” and headlined for 11 years through 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” Iron Man met his demise in that tentpole, but that has never stopped rumors from circulating that Marvel is trying to bring Downey back into the fold, especially now that the MCU has hit a box office rough patch with 2023 flops such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels.” Certainly, Downey’s return as Iron Man could restore Marvel to its blockbuster glory days. Speaking to Esquire magazine after his Oscar win for “Oppenheimer” last month, Downey was asked if he would ever return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe now that he is officially an Academy Award winner.

Beau Willimon (Andor) has been tapped to co-write Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi (working title) alongside the film’s director James Mangold, Deadline can confirm.

CinemaCon begins next Monday, and Disney has a tease for what fans should expect during their presentation next week. The studio now has official theatrical release dates for a handful of upcoming films, including Lucasfilm‘s first “Star Wars” movie in theaters since 2019.

Here’s an unexpected treat for “Star Wars” fans on their favorite annual holiday, May the 4th: a follow-up to the acclaimed 2022 animated series “Star Wars: Tales Of The Jedi.” And fans of that series should expect more of the same from “Star Wars: Tales Of The Empire.” The six-episode new season shares the same animation style as its predecessor along two all-new stories.

Brent Lang Executive Editor In a competitive situation, Vendôme Pictures, the Oscar-winning banner behind “CODA,” has optioned the film and television rights to John Vaillant’s nonfiction book about climate change “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World.” It comes after the book was released to much acclaim in June 2023 and went on to win the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. It was also a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award, andwas named a best book of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Financial Times and The Guardian, among many other prominent publications.