Announcements, updates, and trailers — there’s lots of film news from the past week or so! Between a new look at Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings, trailers for A24’s new horror film and The Color Purple’s second film adaptation, and new insight into Gladiator 2 and Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut, there is a lot to catch up on. Keep scrolling…

Gladiator 2 begins filming this month! Directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, it stars Paul Mescal as a grown-up Lucius Veras, alongside Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Fred Hechinger, May Calamawy, and Joseph Quinn. The original action adventure period piece revolutionised technical effects, with special effects that redefined the genre. There have long been rumours of a sequel, and finally, it is in pre-production. Set to come out on November 22, 2024, we still don’t know its complete plot. But with this cast, we already know it’ll be incredible.

A24 has released a second trailer for Talk to Me, their upcoming horror film by Danny and Michael Philppou. Starring Sophia Wilde, it follows a teenage girl who becomes haunted by supernatural visions following a seance gone wrong. As characters become possessed, the film blurs the lines between reality and fiction, making us question alongside them what is truth and what is a figment of their imagination. It will be out on July 28, 2023 — watch at your own risk.

Finn Wolfhard is directing an upcoming horror comedy, and has been teasing the project for several months now. Titled Hell of a Summer, it marks Finn’s directorial debut and co-stars Billy Bryk, with whom he also wrote the script with. In a new look into the film, Wolfhard shares how his age created an added challenge for him to get funding. At only 20 years, investors were often sceptical, but Finn believed in the project and never gave up. It has officially wrapped filming, though there is no release date yet. And, other than the fact that it takes place at a summer camp, we don’t know much about the thrasher plot. Hopefully, we will soon!

There is a second trailer out for No Hard Feelings, and it reveals that the film is rated R. Showing some more glimpses into the storyline, which centres around Jennifer Lawrence’s character as she attempts to solve her financial troubles by taking on a job fake “dating” an incoming college freshman (Andrew Barth Feldman), per request of his helicopter parents. Directed by Gene Stupnitsky, it will be out this month!

“A bold new take on the beloved classic,” reads the trailer for The Color Purple. Directed by Blitz Bazawule and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones, its star-studded cast (Halle Bailey, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and more) brings Alice Walker’s novel of sisterhood to life with a musical twist. Depicting the struggles of African-American women living in the south during the early 1900s, the book was written in the 1980s and shortly thereafter adapted for the screen. Now, 40 years later, it will touch hearts once again.