Motion Picture: Cries Of A New ‘La Llorona’ Installment, Jaden Smith And Willow Smith Working on Anime Films
Jay Hernandez - Tasos Katopodis/Stringer
Action/Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy: New Line Cinema has revealed an upcoming sequel to The Curse of La Llorona, appropriately titled Revenge of La Llorona. Attached to the film are Jay Hernandez (Magnum P.I.) and Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire). Returning for the sequel is Raymond Cruz (Breaking Bad), who played Rafael Olvera in the first film. Atomic Monster is also back on production for the sequel. Another big reveal is that the writer and director aren’t the same, with new ones taking their places. The film focuses on La Llorona returning and forcing a troubled family to reconcile and join forces with their estranged curandero grandfather to take on this evil, before La Llorona claims their kids indefinitely.
Oscar nominee documentarian Pedro Kos (The White House Effect) departs from his usual style to direct a found footage horror film titled In Our Blood. The film stars Brittany O’Grady and E.J. Bonilla, who play two documentarians named Emily Wyland and Danny Martinez, respectively. The plot revolves around Wyland trying to reunite with her mother, who has been a drug addict most of her life. The pair set out to Las Cruces, New Mexico in search of her, coming across the cartel in control of the area, Los Carcineros. The film made its debut last year at the Fantasia International Film Festival and is set to release in the United States on Friday, October 24, 2025.
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai - Steve Granitz
Comedy/Drama/Musical: Filmmaker and former Amazon development executive Brandon Harris has finished production on his sophomore film, A Fresh Hell. The film follows a scummy leftist podcaster trying to break into comedy after his co-hosts get cancelled, or else embrace the right wing. He also loses his home to L.A. fires and loses a grip on his mind due to his fame. Eventually couch surfing through various people, like friends, exes, and frenemies, he ends up at a Malibu health center, where he suspects more is going on than just smoothies. The film is described as a Los Angeles picaresque and stars Harris, Andre Hyland (The 4th), Annapurna Sriram (Fucktoys), and Jim Cummings (Thunder Road), along with Evan Louison, who helped co-write the film with Harris. No release date has been announced.
Production on a new coming-of-age film titled The Ditch has wrapped up. Directed by Chilean American writer-director Nicholas Manuel Pino, the film is set in 1994 New York with the U.S. World Cup going on. It follows the story of 11-year-old Nicky and his group of friends, who fall in love with soccer, when suddenly Nicky is drafted to a competitive team, forcing him to choose between competitive success and protecting the joys of the game. The film stars Laura Benanti (No Hard Feelings), Carlos Miranda (Station 19), Chris Diamantopoulos (The Boys in the Boat), and newcomer Jagger Rodriguez, who plays Nicky. Pino says the film was inspired by his childhood and said in an interview, “Soccer has the power to unite people from all walks of life and across the globe. In the 90s, as the love of soccer grew in the U.S., it became a shared language between my immigrant father and me, giving us common ground and a sense of home during a time when I was navigating life as a ten-year-old ‘shrimp,’ finding my place in America.” No release date has been announced.
Former Reservation Dogs actor D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai has been cast in the upcoming film A Long Winter. While a lot is unconfirmed, the general plot is about an alcoholic mother who gets into an argument with her husband and leaves to go to her brother’s house, when suddenly a snowstorm kicks up and prompts a search. The project has been brewing for a while and producer credits are still being sorted out, with no further information available.
Geeta Gandbhir - Erik Tanner
Documentary: The Critics Choice Association has revealed their picks for the Critic’s Choice Documentary Awards. Among them is Geeta Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor, which follows the killing of Ajike Owens. Owens’ story is told through bodycam footage and the documentary examines the disputes that lead up to the tragedy. The film has warranted six nominations, including best director and best documentary, and debuted at Sundance Film Festival in January 2024, with a release date on Netflix for Friday, October 17, 2025.
Chloe Zhao - Jeff Spicer/Stringer
Industry Update: Companies Medan and Neon are collaborating to bring a theatrical release of Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just An Accident, to the U.S. Written and directed by Panahi, the film’s plot centers around former political prisoners who confront their past and possibly their jailhouse captor. This is Panahi’s first film since being released from prison in Iran. Chief Content Officer at Medan, Negin Salmasi, said in an interview, “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Neon. Jafar Panahi stands as one of cinema’s defining voices — a master whose career has redefined artistic courage and whose vision remains as globally urgent and necessary as ever.” No release date has been announced.
Oscar winner Chloé Zhao just debuted her latest film, Hamnet, at the BFI London Film Festival. Zhao shared a bit of her experience with being a neurodivergent filmmaker, how that affects her thought processes, and how she incorporates that into her filmmaking. Zhao elaborates by saying that due to the way she takes in and processes information, she has a rough time with other people and the outside world, but when she taps into it it’s akin to a superpower: “But later on, once I understood it and I could put language around it, I [realized] I have the ability to recognize patterns, maybe I’m just faster or more sensitive. So if that’s used in the right space, then I can almost predict certain situations.” Hamnet is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on Thursday, November 27, 2025.
Jaden Smith and Willow Smith have teamed up with U.S. and Tokyo-based anime studio N LITE to executive produce and voice roles in the studio’s upcoming works. Jaden is set to executive produce in N LITE’s upcoming film Mfinda, which draws inspiration from Congolese mythology, where Jaden will also voice Kozo, an ancient spirit warrior. The film has entered preproduction. Willow Smith has also signed onto another one of their projects, a horror thriller titled Webe: Spirit Detective, which draws inspiration from Gullah Geechee folklore. The film focuses on a sleuth with relish for the paranormal, who heads to the Deep South to investigate a string of murders that have awakened a boo hag spirit seeking justice. Mfinda will be one of the anime films produced by a Black and Japanese team.
