Motion Picture: Will Smith To Star In ‘Supermax,’ Jordan Fisher To Star In Ballroom Rom-com ‘I Won’t Dance’
Donnie Yen - vgc
Action/Sci-fi/Thriller: Will Smith (King Richard) is set to star in Supermax, directed by David Gordon Green. The action-thriller follows two FBI agents investigating a murder in a high-security prison. The screenplay was written by David Weil and David J. Rosen, known for their work on the TV series Hunters and Invasion. This will be Smith’s first non-franchise motion picture in years. Amazon and MGM Studios acquired the picture in a $70 million deal with Miramax. The film will have a streaming-only release with production slated for this summer. Further casting information has yet to be released.
Donnie Yen (Ip Man) and Rina Sawayama (John Wick Chapter 4) to star in the John Wick spinoff Caine. This will be Sawayana’s second feature film role after making her debut as Akira in John Wick: Chapter 4 back in 2023. Yen will be executive producing, directing, and starring as a blind assassin. “The new film is said to continue Yen’s story arc following the events of John Wick: Chapter 4, as Caine has been freed from his obligations to The High Table.” Production is currently underway as Lionsgate will continue to sell the project at this week’s Cannes market. The screenplay was written by Mattson Tomlin, writer of the upcoming The Batman Part II. “The movie is produced and creatively overseen by the franchise producers who have built John Wick into a billion-dollar-grossing franchise: Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee through their Thunder Road shingle, and Chad Stahelski, who produces through his 87Eleven Entertainment production banner.”
Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) has joined the star-studded cast of The Servant from Frances Lee. Domingo will be acting alongside Nicholas Hoult (Superman), Noah Jupe (Hamnet), and Emma Corrin (The Crown). “The Servant is a psychological thriller set in 1950s New York, about Tony (Hoult), an entitled British man who moves into a beautiful apartment on Central Park and becomes embroiled in a wicked power play with his manservant, Barrett (Domingo).” Mk2, Blueprint, and Film4 are set to drop the project at the Cannes market this week for international sales. The film is a reimagining of the 1963 Joseph Losey classic, and Harold Pinter penned the screenplay.
Jonathan Majors to star in political thriller Dinner at Nick’s from director Mark Brown. The film unfolds in a single night, over a dinner in the weeks following the 2024 presidential election. Brown claimed the project came about as a result of the polarizing conversations “with family and close friends following the 2024 elections, as so many people were trying to process how they felt.” As for Majors, “after starring in Creed III, Magazine Dream, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Majors was charged with assaulting his then girlfriend in 2023, and ultimately found guilty; his career stalling. She would then drop a federal lawsuit against Majors in which she accused him of assault and defamation.” This is his first major role in 3 years. Production is slated for this summer. “The film will be produced by Jonah Hirsch (Resistance 1942 and First), AJ Munoz, and Manny Hailey.”
Atsuko Okatsuka - Kristina Bumphrey
Comedy: Kumail Nanjiani, Atsuko Okatsuka, and Big Fella are joining Judd Apatow’s The Comeback King. Character and plot details are extremely under wraps, other than it revolves around a country western star in free fall, played by Glenn Powell, who wrote the script with Apatow. Judd Apatow will also be producing under his banner, Apatow Productions, per his longstanding deal with Universal Pictures. Glenn Powell and Dan Cohen will also be producing.
Simone Kessel (Yellowjackets) joins the cast of Honeymoon With Harry for Amazon MGM. Kessel will act opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, Kevin Costner, Sarah Pidgeon, Rita Ora, and Orville “Shaggy” Burrell. No information has been released pertaining to Kessel’s role in the project. The film is currently in production in Australia and is based on the best-selling book by Bart Baker. The story follows a “rough-around-the-edges man (Gyllenhaal) who ends up sharing an unwanted journey with his fiancée’s prickly, overprotective father (Costner) after a life-altering turn upends their plans.” Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are directing from a script by Dan Fogelman.
Jordan Fisher is set to star in and produce the YA romantic comedy I Won’t Dance. Fisher will play Exavier, a sexy bad boy in the ballroom dancing scene. This will be Christine Lakin’s directorial debut. The project is described in “the vein of Crave/HBO Max breakout Heated Rivalry, as the enemies-to-lovers story of Xavier and Alaina, two ballroom rivals who have spent their entire lives trying to outshine each other.” But when their partners bail two weeks before competition their only option is to work together to bring home the gold. Of the project, director Christine Lakin said, “Jordan Fisher is the rare kind of triple threat talent who not only brings massive fan appeal but also a keen producer’s eye to this project. He is a dream partner to tell this story.” Production is set for February 2027.
Drama: It’s official, Lupita Nyong’o is playing two roles in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Nyong’o was previously announced to play Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. But after much online speculation, it has been confirmed that she will also play Helena’s sister, Clytemnestra, who is married to Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). The Odyssey hits theaters July 17.
Siena Agudong joins the cast of YA Romance The One Before The One with Blue Fox entertainment launching sales at Cannes. Production is slated to begin in July in Austin, Texas. The film is written and directed by Brittany Sarkisian, “based on a story by John E Clark. The film is produced by Sarkisian and Jaylen Moore for Showmance Productions, along with Raja Collins, Dan Sheldon, and Tara Pirnia.” The story follows a burned-out Wall Street analyst, Steven (Gillespie), who returns to his hometown for his twentieth high school reunion. “Suddenly he is inexplicably transported back to his senior year and reunited with his lost love, Beth (Agudong). Steven becomes determined to rewrite history, but the version of Beth he spent twenty years idolizing may not be the soulmate he remembered. While trying to ensure his best friend Brian doesn’t once again miss the opportunity to play college football, and rebuilding his relationship with his longtime friend and songwriter, Katie (Waisglass), Steven slowly comes to realize that the life and love he always wished for might not be the one that got away.”
Ang Lee’s Gold Mountain adds Chedi Chang, Sophia Xu, Yao, Zine Tseng, and Owen Teague to the cast. Lee is directing the pic from a script adaptation by Pulitzer Prize finalist Chang-Rae Lee. The script is based on C. Pam Zhang’s acclaimed novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold, the story is set during the dying embers of the American Gold Rush. The story follows two newly orphaned Chinese immigrant children as they traverse a hostile California frontier to bury their father and free themselves from their past. The film is a massive co-production between production companies: Fifth Season, The Ink Factory, and Likely Story, and is currently shooting in Northern California. It is being co-financed by Fifth Season and 127 Wall Productions.
Bao Nguyen reveals cast and trailer for his upcoming coming-of-age drama Picturehouse. The film is inspired by the writer/director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh’s childhood in Vietnam and the people he knew growing up. “The film is set in 1960s South Vietnam where a family-run theater becomes a haven for an eight-year-old boy who leans on the magic of cinema to grow up amid a divisive war.” Minh spent 6 years developing the personal project. He claimed “It is a fictional story inspired by the lives of the people that I not only knew, but looked up to and loved growing up in my grandfather’s cinema. The physical movie house becomes the place that projects possible worlds beyond the war, so that the all-too-real violence can be turned back into fantasy on a bed-sheet screen made by my mother.”
Ego Nwodim - XNY/Star Max
Animation: SZA, Josh Johnson, and Ego Nwodim join the voice cast of CoComelon: the Movie alongside Ike Barinholtz (The Studio), Nicholas Hoult (Superman), SNL’s Sarah Sherman, and Rhys Darby. The project is a collaboration between Moonbug Entertainment, Flywheel Media, Prime Focus Studios and DreamWorks Animation, with animation by the DNEG Group, Kat Good is directing the film, with plot details remaining under wraps, “with Justin Tranter serving as executive music producer. No word yet on other creative attachments.” The film will be released to theaters by Universal on February 19, 2027.
