Motion Picture: Kevin Hart Joins Netflix Action Comedy, Guillermo Del Toro Teases ‘The Buried Giant’
Industry: AI is not welcome at the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences has updated its rules and regulations regarding AI. “The only sorts of performances that will be eligible for acting Oscars are those credited in a film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent.” The same rules apply to the screenplay categories as well. Per Rule 2, the Academy may also request further information regarding the role of AI in human authorship. Additionally, actors can now be nominated for multiple roles in the same category.
Action/ Scifi/ Thriller: Mubi has acquired rights to the sci - fi action thriller from South Korean director Na Hong - Jin. Hope will premiere at Cannes later this month with NEON distributing in North America and the U.K., while Mubi takes Latin America, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Turkey. “The company will announce its Hope theatrical release plans in the coming months.” Hope features Korean stars Hwang Jung-min (The Wailing), Zo In-sung (Moving), and Hoyeon (Squid Game). The film was produced by Na’s production banner, Forged Films, and Plus M Entertainment, which is also handling international sales.
Ana De Armas (Blonde) to star in espionage thriller Impunity alongside Sebastian Stan (Avengers). The film is set against the backdrop of one of the legal cases of the 20th century, when Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998. The film was shot in Chile, Spain, and the U.K. in English and Spanish. The cast includes Alfredo Castro (The Club), Antonia Zegers (Too Late to Die Young), and Alejandro Goic. Impunity is based on the best-selling novel 38 Londres Street by Philippe Sands, a renowned lawyer and novelist.
Caleb McLaughlin and Nnamdi Asomugha are joining Rachel McAdams in an Untitled AI Thriller from Netflix. Actor Joseph Gordon - Levitt will be directing and producing. He wrote the screenplay alongside Kieran Fitzgerald. Both share story credit along with Natasha Lyonne. Netflix acquired the package last October but has made no comments on the plot. The film will be shotthis summer. This will be McLaughlin’s first project since wrapping up the Netflix hit series Stranger Things over the holidays. He was also the lead in the Sony Animation film, Goat. Asomugha's recent credits include The Knife (2024) and The Savant (since 2026).
Ryan Bergara (Buzzfeed Unsolved) and Kevin Kreider are leading the science fiction horror film from director Jennifer Zhang. Troubadour is set inside a state-of-the-art game studio, in which a team is testing a powerful experimental device capable of generating stories from the subconscious of its user. Thus triggering a psychological unraveling as those stories begin exposing buried truths and blurring the line between fiction and reality.” The project is set to debut at Cannes and marks Bergara’s first feature lead. For Zhang, this is her first feature-length project since Charon (2023), in which she wrote, directed, and starred. Avatar Entertainment will introduce the feature to international buyers at the Cannes Film Festival.
Comedy: Kevin Hart joins McG in an untitled, high - concept action comedy from Netflix. Hart will star in the project and direct under his banner Hartbeat, as well as the company’s Luke Kelly-Clyne and Bryan Smiley. The film is based on a short story by Sean Lewis and concerns “two rival spies who cross paths in a Lamaze class as their wives become fast friends. With their double lives colliding in unexpectedly hilarious and dangerous ways, the two men are forced to reluctantly become confidantes and partners on the road to fatherhood.” In a return to genre, McG will be directing his first action film in 25 years.
Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) will join Will Forte (Four Season) in action - comedy, Synergy System, which will launch sales at the Cannes market with Cinetic Media and WME Independent. Toby Harvey will be writing and making his feature directorial debut. Synergy Systems is described as “an action-charged, near-future thriller in which terminally indecisive data analyst Bemis (André) uncovers that his employer, Synergy Systems, is a front for an apocalyptic doomsday plot.” Haddish will be playing “RealTalk” and Forte “Narcissus.” There is no official production or shooting information.
Drama: Eiza Gonzalez ( Baby Driver ) is set to lead and produce the female bodybuilding drama Iron Jane alongside Brandon Sklenar (The Housemaid). Lissette Feliciano (Women is Losers) will direct. Of the project, she told Variety: “Eiza brings a physical and emotional commitment, bravery, and collaborative spirit to the role that fully realizes the character I imagined on the page. Her transformation into Jane is inspiring, and alongside Brandon’s quietly magnetic presence as her coach, creates a relationship that I hope will stay with you long after the film ends.” The film follows the life of Jane (Gonzalez), who discovers the world of female body building after a childhood of abuse and neglect. Through body building she finds strength and power; “the chance to become untouchable.” Sklenar plays a former champion who becomes her coach and mentor. Highland Film Group is handling international sales, WME to lead U.S. sales, and CAA Media financed the project, which will launch at Cannes Marché du Film.
Animation: Oscar-winning director, Guillermo del Toro, teases his stop motion adaptation of Kazu Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant during talks at the BFI (British Film Institute) career talks earlier this week. Del Toro was awarded the British Film Institute’s highest honor, a BFI Fellowship. And to celebrate, the Mexican filmmaker participated in a series of talks and Q&As. In a talk with Jane Wood, he unveiled his next production: a stop-motion adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2015 novel The Buried Giant. He described the project as “a fascinatingly difficult stop-motion movie for adults” that is being produced “without any concession to a family audience.” Del Toro will be reuniting with streamer Netflix and long-time collaborator Ron Perlman. Although he did not announce what role he will play. The pair has been working together since Del Toro’s debut film Cronos. The Buried Giant follows “an elderly British couple, Axl and Beatrice, living in a fictional post-Arthurian England in which no one is able to retain long-term memories.” Due to the labor-intensive nature of stop - motion filmmaking, the production could take years before completion.
Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias (Space Jam: A New Legacy), Diego Luna (Andor), Stephanie Beatriz (Zootopia 2), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) join forces to star in the family animated film I, Chihuahua. The film is described as a love letter to Mexico’s Lucha Libre wrestling culture from director Jorge R. Gutiérrez (The Book of Life). Iglesias will play the lead Concho, an underdog, iron-willed chihuahua determined to prove he belongs in the ring. Luna voices Chacho’s stepdad and over-protective retired-fighter Juan, whilst Beatriz is Xochi, Chacho’s musically gifted best friend and sidekick, and Perlman will partner with Gutiérrez as the ringside double act Rock Powers and Tony Tijuana. Director Jorge R. Gutierrez describes the project as “pure corazón” for him. It is a film about identity, family, lucha, and the power inside all of us underdogs. Rocket Science Productions is producing alongside Gutierrez and launching sales for the Cannes Market. Thorsten Schumacher of Rocket Science told Deadline ‘I, Chihuahua is a charming, funny and inspiring blend of the anthropomorphic animal world (Zootopia), sports underdog movie (The Karate Kid) and the greatest ‘fight’ stories (Rocky). We’re delighted to be working with visionary filmmaker Jorge R Gutierrez, who has assembled an incredible cast.” They are promising this will be “The greatest Lucha movie ever made!” There is no official information about a release date.
