Motion Picture: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ‘The Samurai and the Prisoner’ Drops First Trailer, Simu Liu Joins Sci-FI Thriller ‘Homewrecker’
Jonathan majors - Robin L Marshall
Action: Director Kenji Tanigaki sets his eyes on Peter Dinklage for his next feature film. Tanigaki will direct The Reckoner, which will be written by John Wickscribe Derek Kolstad. The plot details are currently under wraps. Lionsgate acquired the feature with Anthony and Joe Russo’s AGBO set to produce. The Reckoner marks the latest collaboration between Lionsgate and AGBO, which are behind the upcoming John Rambo movie from director Jalmari Helander and starring Noah Centineo.Russo-Otstot, AGBO’s chief creative officer, added, “The moment we saw what Kenji Tanigaki did with The Furious, his take on action so unique and engaging we knew immediately he was the only director who could take this vision and bring it to life.”
Monica Barbaro is in talks to join the cast of the Ocean’s Eleven prequel alongside Bradley Cooper. The Topgun Maverick actress is in talks for a role in Warner Bros.‘ untitled feature with Bradley Cooper directing, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Cooper and Margot Robbie will star in the movie alongside Wagner Moura as the villain. Cooper is directing from a script he is writing after Carrie Solomon penned a previous draft. Plot details are currently under wraps for the project that is based on characters created by George Clayton Johnson and Jack Golden Russell.
Jonathan Majors returns to the bid screen in Run Hide Fight: Infidels from Daily Wire FIlms. The action film has a set budget of $5 million according to Page Six, marks Majors’ return to the screen after a domestic violence incident swiftly led to his ouster from Hollywood and he was unceremoniously dropped from multiple major projects just as his profile was hitting a new peak. Majors was arrested in early 2023 for physically assaulting his then-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari; he was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment later that year. The Lovecraft Country star then spent a year completing an in-person domestic violence intervention program.
The standalone sequel to the 2020 American action thriller, which follows a teenage girl outwitting gunmen who have taken over her high school, has a change of scenery at a New England college that has been transformed into a mini-caliphate after terrorists overtake the campus. With headlines ripped from the past few years, and with the Daily Wire producing this Red Dawn-like action flick, a right-wing perspective is to be expected.
Maya Da Costa (Girls Like Girls) has joined the cast of the next Paranormal Activity movie from Undertone helmer Ian Tuason, Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Paramount. Character and plot details remain under wraps with the next installment in the hit found-footage franchise slated for release on May 21, 2027. The film will be financed and produced jointly by Paramount and Blumhouse Atomic Monster, with Paramount handling its worldwide release.
Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty) is set to star in the A24 film Please from director Halina Reijin. Tung’s role is being kept under wraps, as all have been. No plot details have been released. Tung joins the previously announced Gracie Abrams, Tom Burke, Connor Storrie, and David Jonsson. Reijn will direct from her own script, producing through her Man Up Film banner, collaborating with David Hinojosa. A24 will also produce and finance the project, with Zach Nutman exec producing.
Simu Liu (Avengers: Doomsday) joins the cast of the upcoming Sci-fi thriller Homewrecker. Filming is confirmed to begin in Paris, France, on July 15, 2026 following the Bastille Day national holiday. The synopsis for the original screenplay by Elisa Bell (Vegas Vacation) and Travis Gordon reads: “During a heart-breaking domestic revelation, three star-crossed Americans are suddenly forced to work together to survive a terrifying unexplained global event that threatens to destroy life as they know it.” The project has been likened to Paramount sci-fi horror 10 Cloverfield Lane, comes from producers Denise Di Novi (Little Women), Margaret French Isaac (The Fan), and Oliver Scherick for Di Novi Pictures, with John Zois (Greenland franchise) and Warren Goz (The Marksman) producing for Parallel 42 Entertainment.
Drama: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Samurai and the Prisoner drops first trailer. Four and a half decades and 30 films into Kurosawa’s career, it is the acclaimed Japanese genre master’s first samurai movie. Janus Films secured U.S. rights to the film after its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May and will release it in theaters on July 31, 2026. The company dropped the samurai saga’s first trailer on Thursday. “Masahiro Motoki, star of the Oscar-winning drama Departures, plays Lord Araki Murashige, a real-life vassal who rebelled against the warlord Oda Nobunaga in 1578 and barricaded himself inside Arioka Castle.” The ensemble cast also includes Yuriko Yoshitaka, Joe Odagiri, Munetaka Aoki, Ryota Miyadate and Tasuku Emoto.
The Venezuela Drama Lost Chapters has been acquired by Several Futures for North American distribution. Following its world premiere at FID Marseille and additional stints at Munich and Locarno, Goteborg, and subsequent North American premiere at New Directors/New Films. The film will open on July 24, 2026 with an exclusive engagement at New York’s IFC Center, followed by other cities. The drama follows Ena“who returns home to Caracas after years spent living abroad. Upon her arrival, she finds herself caught between two generationally shifting worlds: her grandmother is rapidly losing her memory, while her father spends his days searching for rare and forgotten Venezuelan books in his bookstore. Ena’s trajectory changes completely when she discovers a mysterious postcard hidden among the shelves, prompting her to embark on a journey through the Venezuelan landscape in search of a long-forgotten writer.”
