‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ Universe Continues To Grow As Sega And Paramount Sign Off On Third Film As Well As A ‘Knuckles’ Spin-Off Series In The Works At Paramount+ With Idris Elba Reprising Role

Paramount is the latest Hollywood studio to pull its upcoming movies, the Sandra Bullock-Channing Tatum-Brad Pitt romantic comedy adventure The Lost City and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, from Russia as the Ukraine invasion continues.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterParamount Pictures is the latest Hollywood studio to pause the theatrical release of its upcoming films in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine last week.“As we witness the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine, we have decided to pause the theatrical release of our upcoming films in Russia, including ‘The Lost City,’ and ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2.’ We stand by all those impacted by the humanitarian crisis across Ukraine, Russia, and our international markets and will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds,” a spokesperson said in a statement.More to come…

The Toronto Film Festival said Thursday that it is planning a return to an in-person festival for this year’s edition, which it confirmed will run September 8-18. The festival had been all but virtual the past two years because of the global pandemic.

Three new character posters have dropped for Sonic the Hedgehog 2!

NAACP Image Awards has officially been kicked off! As usual, this year's ceremony honoring people of color across television, music, literature and film is preceded by a week-long celebration, with five nights of virtual awards leading up to Saturday's live telecast.Hosted by returning emcee and seven-time NAACP Image Awards winner Anthony Anderson, the ceremony will include Issa Rae, Kerry Washington, LL Cool J, Morgan Freeman, Questlove, Tiffany Haddish, Zendaya and more presenting awards, while Samuel L. Jackson accepts the NAACP Chairman's Award and Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project, receives the Social Justice Impact Award.The preceding non-televised nights will be hosted by actor and comedian Affion Crockett, with awards presented by Cory Hardrict, Demetrius Shipp Jr., Khleo Thomas, Lori Harvey, Wendy Raquel Robinson and more.

Cristiano Ronaldo netted his first goal of 2022 on Wednesday as Manchester United snapped out of a three-game winless run with an important 2-0 victory over Brighton.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“The Novelist’s Film,” which Wednesday earned Korean director Hong Sang-soo the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin, has scored multiple rights deals. With Seoul-based Finecut handling the rights sales, the film was licensed to Ama Films for Greece and Cyprus, Mimosa Films for Japan, L’Atalante Cinema for Spain, Arizona Films Distribution for France and to The Cinema Guild for the U.S.Finecut also did European Film Market business with “Contorted,” an unorthodox horror about a family tragedy.

Cinema Guild has acquired U.S. rights to The Novelist’s Film, the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner from South Korean writer-director Hong Sangsoo, which recently made its world premiere at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival. The film is the third Silver Bear winner in as many years from Hong—who won Best Director for The Woman Who Ran in 2020 and Best Screenplay for Introduction in 2021—and will be the 11th of the director’s works released by Cinema Guild in the last seven years.

franchise begins to materialize.On Tuesday, producer J.J. Abrams revealed the news that a fourth film was in the works during the Paramount Investors Day Presentation.Paramount is in talks with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg, to reprise their roles as, respectively, Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Sulu, Bones and Scotty.«We are thrilled to say that we are hard at work on a new  film that will be shooting by the end of the year,» Abrams said, according to Variety, adding that the movie «will be featuring our original cast and some new characters that I think are going to be really fun and exciting and help take  into areas that you’ve just never seen before.»The cast first came together  — along with the late Anton Yelchin as Chekov — for the first time in 2009's, which both reset the universe's continuity and, through time travel, blended the universes of the multiple timelines.The crew reassembled in 2013 for , where they faced off against Benedict Cumberbatch's super-soldier assassin Khan, and for a third outing in 2016's, where they matched wits and brawn with Idris Elba's ruthless warlord Krall.Abrams told investors, «We’re thrilled about this film, we have a bunch of other stories that we’re talking about that we think will be really exciting, so can’t wait for you to see what we’re cooking up.

ViacomCBS unveiled a slew of new news Tuesday during an investor day presentation that followed the release of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings.

The Sonic the Hedgehog universe is expanding rapidly!

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterParamount Pictures has given a taste of its upcoming theatrical film slate. During its annual investor day presentation on Tuesday, the studio announced plans for “A Quiet Place 3,” as well as another sequel to “Sonic the Hedgehog.”“A Quiet Place Part III” will debut in 2025.

There’s so much Spongebob Squarepants coming to us!

EXCLUSIVE: After several fits and starts, the next Star Trek film is gearing up to begin production by year’s end. Paramount has begun talks with Chris Pine to reprise as James T. Kirk, and the intention is to engage to bring back aboard Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura, Karl Urban as Dr. Bones McCoy, John Cho as Sulu and Simon Pegg as Scotty. Deadline revealed last summer that Paramount and producer JJ Abrams hired Matt Shakman to direct, fresh from the triumph of the Marvel/Disney+ series WandaVision, just after the series was nominated for 23 Emmys. Shakman has been supervising a draft by Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires, based off a draft by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterA “Sonic the Hedgehog” series about Knuckles is in the works at Paramount Plus.The announcement was made as part of the ViacomCBS (now Paramount) investor day presentation.