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.
Star Wars: Beyond Victory - A Mixed Reality Playset is a new podracing-focused experience for Meta’s Quest headsets that will be shown at Star Wars Celebration 2025.
You won’t actually race from the cockpit of a podracer, but that’s probably a good thing to prevent the game from being a “puke factory,” as one of my colleagues eloquently put it.
Ryan Coogler’s latest feature feels like a classic southern vampire tale with movie magic running through its veins.
It seems like there are actually going to be quite a few uninfected humans running around in 28 Years Later. The film’s latest trailer is filled with survivors and soldiers armed with lethal weapons, but once Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) leave from the safety of their remote home, they’ve got to fend for themselves to keep the rage-fueled ghouls at bay.
Available for preorder today for $59.99 and shipping on May 1st, 2025, Lego has announced a 700-piece buildable version of the iconic Star Wars logo created by graphic designer Suzy Rice.
The black support structure supporting the yellow lettering is covered in detailed Lego greebling, while inside the letter T you’ll find a tiny hidden Star Destroyer pursuing the Tantive IV.
Though we knew Toho had plans for a follow-up to Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One, the studio has just announced that it is spending $830 Million over the next three years to energize the classic franchise’s global future.
[bloomberg.com]
If The Brutalist’s 3+ hour runtime kept you from seeing it in theaters, some good news: you’ll be able to stream the movie at home on Max starting May 17th.
Because trashing theaters has become part of how some fans engage with A Minecraft Movie, the feature now opens with a PSA encouraging people in the audience to stop throwing buckets of popcorn that someone is eventually going to have to clean up.
Writer / director Drew Hancock’s new thriller Companion stands somewhere between M3gan and Lars and the Real Girl with its story about a man (Jack Quaid) whose girlfriend (Sophie Thatcher) doesn’t know that she’s actually a sophisticated android. The movie’s an inspired entry in the growing canon of AI panic horrors, and if you missed it during its theatrical run, you’ll be able to catch it on Max beginning April 19th.
One of the many decisions a director has to make is what format they’ll use to shoot a movie. Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther, Creed, and the upcoming Sinners (hitting theaters on April 18th, 2025) breaks down the various analog film formats still in use today, their aspect ratios, and the creative reasons why a director would opt for one format over another.
The company is partnering with Range Media with AI on Screen, a program to “commission films about the relationship between humanity and AI,” according to a blog post.
Two films are already in the works for a scheduled release later this year.
[blog.google]
If you’re headed to Star Wars Celebration in Japan later this month, Audio-Technica has announced a pricey souvenir for you, as spotted by Notebookcheck. Unlike its Star Wars-themed wireless earbuds, only 10 of these ATH-AWSW DV headphones, featuring wooden ear cups adorned with images of Darth Vader made using traditional Japanese crafting techniques, will be available.
Each pair is priced at 990,000 yen, or around $6,817.
This new trend of people in Minecraft movie screenings having meltdowns when Jack Black references Chicken Jockeys was already getting weird. But maybe seeing Jimmy Fallon trying to get in on the hype will make everyone realize that trashing movie theaters for fun is kind of terrible, actually.
While fans of Andor and The Mandalorian are busy arguing with one another about which is the superior Star Wars spinoff, Tony Gilroy is out here telling Empire what should be obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of how franchises work:
“The success of The Mandalorian gave us the platform to jump off. Their success is what would fuel the whole thing. I mean, no Baby Yoda, no Andor. Seriously. Don’t think that we don’t know that.”
It’s the biggest US opening ever for a video game adaptation according to The Hollywood Reporter, taking home $157 million — compared to $146 million for The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023, which eventually hit $1 billion worldwide. Reviews for Minecraft are mixed, but theater audiences seem to be having a blast.
Alongside the success of Detective Pikachu and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, it suggests video game movies are becoming quite the cash cow.
With Talk to Me, directors Danny and Michael Philippou gave us an enthralling taste of their ability to spin deeply disturbing horror tales. And the new trailer for their latest feature, Bring Her Back, makes it looks like they’re about to leave us all terrified once again when the film hits theaters on May 30th.
While we won’t be seeing more of the animated Miles Morales for another two years, Sony and Marvel announced at this year’s CinemaCon that the wait for Tom Holland’s live-action Spider-Man is going to be much shorter. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to hit theaters on July 31st, 2026, and both the movie’s logo and subtitle suggest some big changes are on the way.
Dead Talents Society, Taiwanese director John Hsu’s supernatural comedy about ghosts who have to earn haunting permits and sometimes compete in reality competitions for the deceased, was one of the most fantastic movies out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. And now that it’s streaming on Netflix, you should do yourself a favor and give it a watch.
After 44 years of being held in Park City, Utah, the Sundance Film Festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado starting in 2027. According to the Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees, Boulder’s “small-town charm with an engaged community, distinctive natural beauty, and a vibrant arts scene,” were part of what sealed the deal.
A mysterious livestream is revealing cast members one at a time — so far including Chris Hemsworth, Vanessa Kirby, and Anthony Mackie. They’ll appear in Avengers: Doomsday, set to hit theaters on May 1st 2026, with Robert Downey Jr. making his return / debut as Doctor Doom.
It’s taking Marvel 13 minutes to announce each name so far though, so we might be here a while.
