Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson Joins STREET FIGHTER

jackson 50 cent curtis to play balrog in street fighter film adaptation

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is joining Street Fighter, Legendary Entertainment’s feature adaptation of the classic Capcom video game.

The rapper-turned-actor and entrepreneur joins an eclectic cast, including Jason Momoa as Blanka, Noah Centineo as Ken, and country singer Orville Peck as Vega. Also on the call sheet are WWE superstar Roman Reign as Akuma, and martial artist-actor Andrew Koji as Ryu. Callina Liang is playing Chun-Li. Jackson “50 Cent” Curtis will play Balrog, a disgraced boxer who is also the villain’s bodyguard.

Kitao Sakurai, who directed Bad Trip, is set to direct the video game adaptation. Directors Danny and Michael Philippou, best known for Talk to Me, had been attached to a previous version of the project.

The Street Fighter franchise began as an arcade fighting game in 1987, followed by the very popular Street Fighter II in 1991. A feature adaptation was released in 1994 and starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raúl Juliá, and Ming-Na Wen. In that adaptation, Colonel William Guile and his mixed-bag army fight the tyrannical General Bison, whose vicious plans include turning a captive into a hideous mutant in order to aid his mega plan of ruling the world. In 2009, 20th Century Fox released Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

It’s the latest in a long line of video game adaptations to emerge from Hollywood recently, with the recent successes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, as well as A Minecraft Movie.

Denis Villeneuve To Direct Next JAMES BOND Film

denis villeneuve to direct james bond feature for amazon mgm

In news that might lift some fans’ spirits, Denis Villeneuve has been tapped to direct the next James Bond feature entry, the first under Amazon MGM Studios’ rule.

Tanya Lapointe, Villeneuve’s moviemaking partner and wife, will serve as executive producer alongside Villeneuve. As previously announced, Amy Pascal and David Heyman have also boarded the project as producers.

“Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007. I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory. I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come,” said the Dune and Blade Runner 2049 director. “This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor.”

Reportedly, Denis Villeneuve beat out several other directors who met for this film, which included Edward Berger, Edgar Wright, and Paul King. The new Bond will mark the franchise’s 26th film and the follow-up to 2021’s No Time to Die, which was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga.

It’s unclear when Bond will begin production, considering Villeneuve is preparing to film Dune: Messiah this summer, but the search is underway for a screenwriter.

Stephen King’s THE STAND Heads To The Big Screen

cbs show poster for the stand by stephen king

After two television miniseries, Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic novel The Stand is getting a feature film adaptation for the first time. Doug Liman, best known for helming The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, and Road House, has been tapped to direct the film for Paramount Pictures, according to Variety.

As Variety notes, “The project does not yet have a script, however, so development may take some time as Liman and the studio winnow King’s novel — which runs 1,153 pages in its unabridged version — into a single movie. But the studio sees the movie as a priority and is moving forward aggressively to make it happen.”

In King’s novel, one man escapes from a biological weapon facility after an accident, carrying with him the deadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that – in the ensuing weeks – wipes out most of the world’s population. In the aftermath, survivors choose between following the 108-year-old Mother Abagail, or the powerful Dark Man, Randall Flagg, who has set up his command post in Las Vegas. The two factions prepare for a confrontation between the forces of good and evil.

A feature adaptation of The Stand has been attempted before, with filmmakers including George A. Romero and David Yates attached to iterations that never made it past development.

THE WITCHBOARD Remake Drops Trailer

madison iseman in the witchboard trailer

The Blob and A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors director Chuck Russell returns with Witchboard, a remake of Kevin S. Tenney’s 1986 film of the same name.

Madison Iseman (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Aaron Dominguez (Only Murders in the Building), Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Antonia Desplat, and Charlie Tahan star.

In New Orleans, Emily (Iseman) and her fiancé Christian (Dominguez) are opening their new dream café. But their dreams are dashed when Emily finds an ancient, cursed Witchboard, an ancient artifact that once served as a gateway to the spirit world. As Emily becomes increasingly captivated by the board’s ability to summon spirits, Christian seeks the expertise of Alexander Babtiste (Campbell Bower), an enigmatic occult scholar.

As Emily’s grip on reality weakens, Babtiste’s true intentions come to light—to use the Witchboard’s dark power for his own twisted purposes. Culminating in a decadent masked ball at Babtiste’s mansion, the line between temptation and terror blurs as Emily and Christian find themselves trapped in a deadly web of witchcraft and dark desires. Emily and Christian must race against time to break the board’s curse before they succumb to its deadly power!

The Witchboard releases on August 15th, 2025. Watch the trailer below:

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 Releases Trailer

the strangers: chapter 2 trailer

Madelaine Petsch returns in The Strangers: Chapter 2 as final girl Maya, a horror sequel for which the trailer has just been released.

The second entry in the slasher trilogy (itself a reboot of the franchise that began with the 2008 film The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman), from director Renny Harlin, sees Maya once again forced to run and hide from a murderous trio: the Man in the Mask, Dollface, and Pin-Up Girl. Per the logline: “The Strangers are back – more brutal and relentless than ever. When they learn that one of their victims, Maya (Petsch), is still alive, they return to finish what they’ve started. With nowhere to run and no one to trust, Maya must survive another horrific chapter of terror as The Strangers – driven by a senseless, unceasing purpose – pursue her, more than willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.”

Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath also star in The Strangers: Chapter 2, which Harlin directed from a screenplay by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland. Courtney Solomon, Mark Canton, Christopher Milburn, Gary Raskin, Alastair Burlingham and Charlie Dombek serve as producers.

Ahead of the film’s cinema release on September 26th, watch the trailer below:

STAR PEOPLE Trailer Revisits The 1997 Phoenix Lights Event

star people film poster cropped

Sci-fi thriller Star People has debuted its trailer, ahead of its premiere at the Los Angeles Dances with Films festival on June 28th. The film is inspired by the true-story of the 1997 Phoenix Lights, the largest mass UFO sighting in American history. The event has inspired other movies like 2007’s Night Skies, The Phoenix Incident (2015) and Phoenix Forgotten (2017).

The sightings occurred over Phoenix, Arizona, and surrounding areas on March 13th, 1997, and involved thousands of people witnessing a large, V-shaped formation of lights silently blinking and moving across the night sky.

Star People tells the story of a photographer who receives a tip that could finally shed light on her childhood UFO sighting, until a deadly heatwave and unexpected guests threaten to derail her obsessive search for answers.

Kat Cunning stars with McCabe Slye, Eddie Martinez, Bradley Fisher, Adriana Aluna Martinez, and Connor Paolo. This film marks the narrative feature debut of writer-director Adam Finberg. He’s previously worked on a number of shorts, as well as directing the documentary feature, The Business of Recovery.

Star People releases in US cinemas on July 25th, and on VOD on August 12th via Blue Harbor Entertainment. Watch the trailer below:

The Punisher Returns For SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

jon bernthal as the punisher frank castle

Jon Bernthal will make his big-screen Marvel debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Though the actor has appeared in several Marvel television series as the vigilante known as the Punisher, even headlining his own show, he has yet to appear in any of the MCU feature films.

Now, he’ll join Tom Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the upcoming film, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Filming is expected to begin this summer in England, with a planned release date of July 31st, 2026.

The movie is, as if often the case with Marvel projects, cloaked in layers upon layers of secrecy. The only thing we actually know is that Zendaya and Jacob Batalon will be reprising their respective roles as MJ and Ned.

Bernthal first appeared as Frank Castle/the Punisher in the Netflix series Daredevil, before starring in his own series for two seasons. He recently returned for a handful of episodes in Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again. He is set to return for season two of the show, and is also getting a stand-alone film for Disney+, which Bernthal is co-writing.

Bernthal making his big-screen Punisher debut opposite Holland is also a sweet, full-circle moment, as the pair were working together on the 2017 film Pilgrimage when they were each prepping to audition for their Marvel roles. The actors have said they had helped each other with their audition tapes.

OCTOBER Horror Thriller Reunites Jeremy Saulnier And A24

green room director jeremy saulnier reunites with a24 for october

Jeremy Saulnier, who helmed Green Room for A24 back in 2015, is back in business with the popular production company with his upcoming October. The title is being described as a Halloween-set horror action thriller.

Deadline details, “Plot details are being kept under wraps, but sources described the project as a fugitive thriller set during Halloween. Saulnier will direct from his own script, with A24 producing and financing.”

Cory Michael Smith stars in October, with further roles still being cast. Smith recently earned career-best reviews for his portrayal of Chevy Chase in Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, which goes behind the scenes in the 90-minute lead-up to the first taping of Saturday Night Live. He also recently starred in the HBO comedy-satire Mountainhead and in the Joachim Trier dramedy Sentimental Value, and will soon be seen in Famous opposite Zac Efron. He also wrapped on the pilot for Amazon’s The Nightbeast, starring Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany.

Producers for the film include Rich Peete, Eli Bush, and Jeremy Saulnier & Skei Saulnier, with Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Traci Carlson and Elliott Coley and Macon Blair.

Saulnier is also known for having directed episodes of True Detective, as well as the feature films Rebel Ridge and Hold the Dark.

SKETCH Trailer Promises Monster-Filled Family Fun

sketch film trailer image

A monster-filled, family-friendly adventure comedy, the upcoming film Sketch is being described as Jurassic Park meets Inside Out.

When a young girl’s sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life: unpredictable, chaotic, and dangerously real. As the town unravels, she and her brother must track down the creatures before they leave permanent damage. Their father, racing to find them through the fallout, must navigate a town in crisis to reunite his family and stop the disaster they never meant to unleash.

Arrested Development‘s Tony Hale stars opposite The Good Place actress D’Arcy Caren, as well as Bianca Belle (Swamp Thing), Kalon Cox, and Kue Lawrence (Good Girls).

This Angel Studios film hails from writer-director Seth Worley, making his feature debut. It is based on his own 2020 proof-of-concept short film, Darker Colors. Sketch made its debut in the Special Presentations program at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received positive reviews.

The film is produced by Steve Taylor, Tony Hale, Kevin Downes, Daryl Lefever, and Katelyn Botsch, with Andrew Erwin, Tony Young, Bill Herren, Jon Erwin, Justin Rosenblatt, and Sean Devereaux serving as executive producers.

The film premiered in the Special Presentations program at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

Sketch releases in cinemas on August 6th. Watch the trailer below:

Russell T Davies Gives Update On DOCTOR WHO’s Future

Russell T Davies

The latest series of Doctor Who ended on 31st May with the show in a situation it’s not been in since 1989 – no further episodes have been commissioned. Lead writer and executive producer Russell T Davies has given his update on the situation.

This comes after Various rumours have circulated as to the future of the Time Lord following Ncuti Gatwa’s exit from the series and the surprise return of Billie Piper, seemingly as the Sixteenth Doctor. But for us to know what happens next, the producers at the BBC and Bad Wolf need to get the greenlight, and it seems Disney – who have co-funded and co-produced the show since 2023’s 60th anniversary specials – are reluctant to commit to any more.

Now, Davies has addressed the situation in honest but typically optimistic fashion in his latest – and for now, last – column in Doctor Who Magazine, saying: “Doctor Who will never end! There are pathways leading to potential futures – we’ve still got the mystery of that bright and blazing ending, ‘Oh, hello,’ yes indeed, hello Billie! And there’s Susan, of course.”

He went on to say: “But we don’t know what’s happening yet, and while everyone works that out, I’ll take a pause on this page … Hopefully, we’ll have news soon, and certainly, The War Between the Land and the Sea is about to break out, so there are great things ahead. Until then.”

So, there remains no change in the situation that, currently, Doctor Who is not under production. That War Between the Land and the Sea that Davies referenced, however, is the latest spin-off in the Whoniverse (has that caught on? are people actually calling it that?). The five-part miniseries will see UNIT facing a threat from the Sea Devils and is expected to broadcast later this year.