Rapunzel is pulling her hair back into her tower, with news that Disney’s live-action reimagining of the 2010 animated filmTangled has been put on pause. The project had been in active development, with The Greatest Showman filmmaker Michael Gracey on board to direct from a script by Do Revenge and Thor: Love and Thunder’s Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
The project pause comes in the wake of an underwhelming performance by Disney’s latest live-action adaptation, the Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot-starring Snow White.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the news, studio insiders remain uncertain whether Tangled will move forward down the road or undergo a complete creative rethink.
Disney’s strategy of repurposing its old titles by adapting them into live-action has been their go-to since the early 2010s. Some features — Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King — did better than others — Dumbo, Pete’s Dragon. Recently, though, Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King had a slow start and The Little Mermaid struggled at the box office, with Snow White performing even worse.
Lilo & Stitch, a remake of the 2002 animated film that will land in cinemas from May 23rd, looks to break from the recent pattern and perform well upon release. After that, the live-action Moana will sail in on July 10th, 2026.
One can only assume that whether Tangled gets back on production course will depend on how the aforementioned titles perform in the next 15 months.
Blumhouse’s Jason Blum took to the stage at CinemaCon to debut the first teaser trailer for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.
“The first Five Nights at Freddy’s was Blumhouse’s biggest hit,” Blum recalled before assuring the crowd that although the first movie was released day-and-date on Peacock, the sequel would launch exclusively in cinemas.
The first Five Nights at Freddy’s film centres on a security guard (played by Josh Hutcherson) at a pizzeria who soon learns that the establishment is home to some evil animatronics. The movies are based on the video game franchise of the same name that debuted in 2014. The trailer for the sequel teases more mysteries involving the pizzeria. “They’re out there, Mike,” Elizabeth Lail tells Hutcherson’s character in the footage, “… everywhere”.
Piper Rubio and Matthew Lillard also star in director Emma Tammi‘s sequel to the 2023 original film, which she also helmed. Tammi directs from a script she co-wrote with Scott Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback. In a previous interview, Tammi had said of a possible follow-up that “We have some loose ends that I think are going to have to come back in a sequel to be tied up.”
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will be released on December 5th, 2025. Watch the teaser below:
THE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WHO INSPIRED A TV POP-CULTURE ICON…
On the Re-Vamped with Juliet Landau podcast, fast becoming the go-to source for Buffythe Vampire Slayer revelations and new info, Susanna Puisto, costume designer from season one says, “Buffy, Willow and Cordelia were based on real people.” For the first time ever, Susanna shares that the inspiration for Buffy was her good friend who introduced her to show-creator, Joss Whedon. She goes on to say, “They were based on three high school girls here in Los Angeles. When they speak the Buffyspeak, I can hear my friend. It’s a very specific way of talking. There’s a whole backstory that’s true that’s really incredible.”
Landau says, “The thing I love about doing this podcast is that every single episode unearths things I’ve never heard before! After twenty-five years in the Buffy-verse, I didn’t think that was possible!”
Re-Vamped With Juliet Landau is the only Buffy podcast with a cast member as the guide. On the tv series, Buffy’s friends were referred to as The Scooby Gang – a reference to Scooby Doo. Juliet played vampire villainess Drusilla – aka Dru. Her Re-Vamped co-hosts are her alter-ego, Scooby Dru, who adds her singular POV to the mix, Sire Rebecca and Watcher Dev.
Re-Vamped captures heartfelt nostalgia and is a fresh evolution; a continuation with new content and new entertainment as well, with creative features like imagined “missing scenes” and fan-driven trivia battles.
Only up a short time, Re-Vampedwith Juliet Landau has already crossed 188,000 downloads. It won Best Podcast at the Breakout Music & Film Awards, with the ceremony held at The London Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Re-Vamped and its discoveries have already been covered in People, Entertainment Now, Yahoo News, Screen Rant, LA Weekly and Radio Times, among others. You can check out the show over on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or everywhere else podcasts are available.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man 4 is no longer untitled, with the CinemaCon announcement that the upcoming MCU feature is titled Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Holland appeared in a video clip to announce the title, and added, “Brand New Day is a fresh start”. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, best known for helming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, also took to the stage: “To say that it’s an honor to be standing on this stage is a pretty big understatement.” He explained that he was a lifelong fan of Spider-Man and has been drawn to Peter Parker’s “humor” and “messy humanity.” Cretton called Spider-Man 4 a “ride that we haven’t really seen before”.
The title is a reference to a 2008 comic book storyline that takes place after a universe-altering event in which everyone forgot who Spider-Man was, just as they did in the end of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna penned the new Spider-Man film after working on the script for No Way Home.
CinemaCon is always a news-rich time of year for film lovers, and Lionsgate’s presentation at the conference brought many updates on their Keanu Reeves-starring John Wick universe.
The studio presentation kicked off with an extended look at the Len Wiseman and Ana de Armas spinoff film, Ballerina, the trailer for which released last year. Ballerina is due to hit cinemas on June 6th, 2025.
Update 1: The John Wick franchise is getting an animated prequel feature
Lionsgate announced that Shannon Tindle is directed an untitled animated movie from a script by Vanessa Taylor. Keanu Reeves is expected to voice the character, with longtime franchise producer Chad Stahelski also behind the project. The prequel will take place prior to the events of the first John Wick film, and sees Wick completing the Impossible Task of killing his foes in a single night to fulfil his obligation to the High Table.
“In both animation and the world of John Wick, the possibilities are endless,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Adam Fogelson said. “And there is no John Wick story fans are clamoring for more than the Impossible Task. Shannon’s take on that story is an incredible one, and we are beyond excited to see what John Wick can do in animation.”
Stahelski added, “I’ve always been fascinated with anime. It has always been a huge influence on me, especially with the John Wick series. To have the opportunity to develop a John Wick anime seems to be the perfect progression for the John Wick world. I feel John Wick is the perfect property for this medium — anime holds the potential to expand our world, our characters, and our action in ways unimaginable before.”
Update 2: John Wick 5 is in the works, with Keanu Reeves returning
After much speculation about the franchise’s future, Lionsgate has officially confirmed that John Wick: Chapter 5 will be moving forward. Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski are both returning for the feature, following Chapter 4, which ended with (spoiler) the death of Reeves’ assassin.
There was no information given as to what story the feature might explore.
Update 3: Donnie Yen has been tapped to direct his own spinoff
Donnie Yen is now directing himself in the upcoming franchise spinoff, which will see the action legend reprise his role as the formidable blind assassin, Caine. Lionsgate also revealed that Mattson Tomlin, writer of the upcoming The Batman Part II and the feature adaptation of Keanu Reeves’ comic book BRZRKR, has joined to script the project. The previous draft of the screenplay for Yen’s spinoff was written by Robert Askins.
Plot details for the spinoff are unknown, but it will continue Caine’s story after he was forced to kill Wick. Now freed from his obligations to the High Table, Caine will face new challenges.
Production is expected to begin later this year.
Stay tuned for more updates on the John Wick universe!
Host meets Dungeons & Dragons in GroupChat, a new screenlife horror for which the trailer has now been released.
In GroupChat, a grieving game master’s new online role-playing adventure spirals into a deadly reality, trapping players in a supernatural fight for survival.
“This is an insanely personal film to me, as I wrote it to help deal with the passing of my own father,” writer-director Dan Brownlie told Bloody Disgusting.
Marcel Jortzik, Amy Tara, Toby Wynn-Davies (Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey), Georgie Rogers, James Grimm, and Debbie Rochon (Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV) star.
With post-production complete, the UK film is currently submitting to festivals. Therefore, GroupChat does not yet have a release date.
Watch the trailer below, and scroll further to see the film’s poster, designed by celebrated horror artist Graham Humphreys, who also did the artwork for STARBURST: THE ALBUM, on sale now!
Drawing inspiration from genre staples like [REC] and V/H/S, The Last Cabin stands at the crossroads between found footage, survival horror, and home invasion. In the film, a film crew finds themselves trapped in a remote cabin and stalked by three masked men who know the isolated forest like the back of their hands.
“We set out to make horror feel real and unsettling,” said Brendan Rudnicki. “Isolated and exposed, you’re stalked by something relentless, every sound causing anxiety. The Last Cabin dives into that dirty, clawing fear, where surviving’s all you’ve got left.”
Brendan Goshay, Tatum Bates, Isabella Bobadilla, Benjamin L. Newmark, Kyree Cook, Austin J. Rhodes, Cashmere Monique, and Daniel Wheeler star.
Brendan Rudnicki is President and CEO of DBS Films, which boasts multiple top releases on streaming platforms such as Tubi, Vudu, and Apple TV. DBS Films include Murder in the Forest, Forest of Death, The Haunting of the Murder House, Into the Forest, The Unseen The Haunting of the Suicide House, and The Devil in the Room, all of which reveal the studio’s fascination with rural-set haunted house horrors.
The Last Cabin is being released on demand by The Horror Collective on April 29th, 2025. Watch the trailer below:
Two of our favourite genre filmmakers, John Carpenter and Bong Joon-ho, have agreed to collaborate on one of the South Korean director’s upcoming projects, which he says will be a horror film.
Bong, who is currently promoting his new sci-fi film Mickey 17, shared the stage with Carpenter during a special 4K restoration screening of the latter’s 1982 horror classic, The Thing.
At a post-screening Q&A conducted by Bong, via his interpreter, he said: “So you’ve created a lot of scores for your films and most of them were done by yourself. Would you be interested in doing music for another film?”
“My plan is for my next, next movie –” he tried to continue, but before he could add anything further, Carpenter interjected to say: “I wanna do your score.” The two icons shook on the agreement.
Details on this horror project are still vague. In 2021, Bong stated of his two future projects: “The Korean film is located in Seoul and has unique elements of horror and action. It’s difficult to define the genre of my films. The English project is a drama film based on a true event that happened in 2016. Of course, I won’t know until I finish the script, but it has to be set half in the UK and half in the US.”
As well as directing his own films, John Carpenter has also composed several iconic soundtracks for his movies such as Escape from New York, Assault on Precinct 13, Big Trouble in Little China and six Halloween films.
Production is underway on busy UK indie Shogun Films’ new horror movie Harbinger with James Crow (Nemesis) in the director’s chair and actor Tony Sands, best known as Tom in cult CBBC drama Moondial, in one of the lead roles. He was also one of the stars of the short film Echoes of the Passed, which won a STARBURST Fantasy Award in 2018.
HARBINGER centres on Julia (Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott – Knightfall), the sole survivor of infamous Satanic serial killer Henry Decker (Peter Woodward, Babylon 5), who is convinced to take part in a TV ghost show fronted by Neal (Tony Sands) filmed at the late Decker’s former home by TV producer Mike (Gary Webster, Minder). Once there, they uncover an ominous carnival fortune-telling machine, known as The Harbinger, which dispenses murderous fates, foretold via fatal Tarot cards, as Decker plots a sinister return to life.
Rounding out the cast are Johnny Palmiero (Doctor Plague), Joseph Emms (Knightfall), Anna Arthur (The Last Screenwriter) and Maisie Gee (Through My Eyes).
The screenplay is by Simon Cluett (We Still Kill the Old Way, Age of Kill), from a story by Harry Boxley. Jonathan Sothcott produces. Director of Photography is Andrew Robinson. The Harbinger was designed by Stuart Webb. Executive Producers include Jamie McLeod Ross and Charlie McDougall for Empire Studios, as well as Keith Reilly. Robert Geoffrey Hughes and Chris Hurst are writing the score. Harbinger is being filmed on location in South East England.
Producer Jonathan Sothcott, who also casts the Shogun productions, said: “Moondial absolutely enraptured me as a kid, it was brilliantly made and acted and is right up there with The Tripods and The Box of Delights in terms of early influences. I read the book – with Tony on the cover! – and have revisited it many times over the years, and boy does it stand up! Tony’s haunting performance stayed with me, so the chance to work together as adults was too good to miss, and now we are making a lot of horror movies. Harbinger presented the perfect opportunity. As the very real psychic medium at the heart of the action, Tony delivers a brilliant performance.”
Tony Sands added, “It was an absolute honour to be involved in Harbinger. A truly wonderful cast and crew made it an enjoyable experience, and finally getting to work with Jonathan was a pleasure. I love the character of Neal, had a lot of fun playing him. I really think we have a great film here, Shogun pulled in a brilliant cast who were amazing to watch on set. I can’t wait for everyone to lay their eyes on this!”
Tony Sands in Harbinger
Trinity Creative are handling worldwide sales and will introduce the project to buyers at Cannes.
Andy Taylor, commercial director for Trinity Creative, said, “We’re really excited to be working with Jonathan and his team on their new film, Harbinger. Shogun Films has a real flair for producing high-quality, commercial films, and this looks to be no exception. With a great theme, strong cast and James Crow at the helm, we can’t wait to see the results and work on making this a big success around the world”
Shogun Films will also release Helloween, Knightfall, and Doctor Plague this year and is currently in pre-production on vampire thriller Midnight Kiss.
Cult video game Undertale is celebrating its first decade with a one-night-only 25-piece orchestral concert.
The Determination Symphony will be performed at the Eventim Apollo, London, England, on 22 June 2025. This is a musical journey following the fall into the underground, and will lead the audience through the Ruins, Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, and more.
Toby Fox’s Undertale was officially released back in 2015 (though demos came out in 2013). It’s considered by most fans and critics to be a modern classic. The 8-bit style game follows a child’s journey through a whimsical fantasy place called the Underground, a secret part of the Earth filled with monsters. It’s noted for its complex themes, replayability, storyline and distinct soundtrack.
The concert is produced by Lambert Jackson Productions in partnership with Materia Music. Tickets for Undertale’s 10th anniversary orchestral concert ‘The Determination Symphony’ go on sale today, Friday 28 March and are available from www.eventimapollo.com
