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.
Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Rango, and the Budweiser frogs) is apparently not a fan of AI. The second trailer for his upcoming techno-apocalypse comedy focuses on the dehumanizing nature of technology, letting you know this isn’t just a mindless romp and that your smartphone is the beginning of the end for humanity. The movie is hitting theaters February 13th.
Podcasts enter the realm of horror with A24’s upcoming flick Undertone, in which “a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings.” Maybe don’t watch the trailer with headphones on. It’s due in theaters on March 13th.
Teasers for Avengers: Doomsday continue to trickle out, and surprising no one — at least, no one who watched that hours-long cast reveal — the latest confirms that the new film will prominently feature the X-Men. Watch for a blink-and-you’ll miss it shot of a very emotional Cyclops.
Hugh Jackman is taking another stab at playing an aging anti hero, this time in the historical thriller The Death of Robin Hood. The film is helmed by Michael Sarnoski — director of Pig and the live-action Death Stranding feature — and is slated to hit theaters sometime this year.
Did the new Knives Out’s impressively ornate seminary gym seem a little familiar? It’s not just you, it was one of the world’s subtlest Rickrolls.
The short MCU clip that premiered exclusively before Avatar: Fire and Ash is finally accessible. See Chris Evans’ former Captain America drive a motorcycle, wear a jacket, and hold a baby. Didn’t Steve Rogers retire?
The film will be out on December 18th, 2026, so we have a year to wonder.
It took director Park Chan-wook 16 years to make this film. He explains how it became more timely than ever.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow is scheduled to hit theaters in 2027, and James Gunn has found his big bad. Lars Eidinger is relatively unknown in the US, but he has been nominated for a European Film Award and appeared in Noah Baumbach’s White Noise.
Not nearly enough people are talking about Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s masterpiece of a film, Bugonia. But that should change once the movie makes its Peacock streaming debut on December 26th.
The Screen Culture and KH Studio YouTube pages have suddenly disappeared, taking their fake clips with them, reports Deadline. An earlier Deadline investigation showed how they operated, mixing official movie footage with AI-generated images, which some movie studios were profiting from by claiming the ad revenue they brought in.
YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon provided this statement to The Verge:
After their initial suspension, these channels made the necessary corrections in order to be readmitted into the YouTube Partner Program. However, once monetizing again, they reverted to clear violations of our spam and misleading metadata policies, and as a result, they have been terminated from the platform.
Boy, the creative choices here for the Melania doc... They feel familiar somehow. Even, and maybe especially, the music.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director James Cameron opens up about all of the non-Avatar he has and how he’s “a bit of a crossroads” about whether he wants the franchise to keep going or if he wants ” it to fail just enough that I can justify doing something else?”
[The Hollywood Reporter]
He’s withdrawn financial backing from the bid, which may leave it floundering, and the Warner Bros. board has recommended shareholders reject the hostile offer. It looks like everyone involved is beginning to realize what The Verge’s own Liz Lopatto pointed out yesterday: “What Paramount is doing doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
Update: The Warner Bros. board has recommended rejecting the Paramount bid.
The third chapter of James Cameron’s sci-fi epic is a visual knockout but lacking in new ideas.
Bi Gan, the director of Resurrection, talks about the purpose and power of the long, unbroken tracking shot.
The third movie in the whodunit series is now streaming on Netflix. You can also check out my review of Wake Up Dead Man (it’s good!) and an interview with director Rian Johnson about why he doesn’t plan in advance and why the movies are always rooted in the present.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which is launching in 2026, looks like the Star Wars Episode I: Racer successor I’ve always wanted. While it seems to focus more on various Star Wars vehicles than just podracers, the trailer includes a brief shot of Sebulba and the iconic sound of his podracer. I know my main already.
Disney Plus is about to become filled with uninspired garbage.
The director behind Belle and Summer Wars on why his fantasy epic Scarlet is so timely.
Everyone’s favorite movie-rating social media platform has entered the video rental game. Unlike other rental services, this one is highly curated, launching with just nine films. Of those, four have never been released. Prices are a little all over: some movies, like 1991’s Poison by Todd Haynes, are only $3.99 for a 48-hour rental, while Unreleased Gems like the recent SXSW fave It Ends are $19.99.
Netflix may be the frontrunner now, but the war for Warner Bros. could end in a number of different ways.
Rian Johnson’s latest mystery trades crowd-pleasing spectacle for something that pushes the series in a new direction.
We’re still waiting for news about the remake of the first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but as part of a huge report digging into court filings about why KOTOR II for Switch never got its Restored Content DLC, Game File found mentions of a KOTOR II remake in development as recently as March.
Warner Bros. has a long history of bad buyouts and mergers, but maybe Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has been watching a little too much Arrested Development on his own platform.
Bebopper:
Arrested Development but it might work for us .gif
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We just found out that the original Star Wars theatrical cuts are returning to theaters in February of 2027. Not to be out-nerded, the extended cuts of the Lord of the Rings films will be hitting the big screen to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring. You’ll only have two weekends to relive the magic (or pain, depending on your opinion of the extended cuts), so you might want to get your tickets now.
WB has a checkered history of acquisitions, but joining forces with Netflix would elevate it to a new level of prominence.
