The list of upcoming video game adaptations just keeps on growing, and Xbox is adding yet another to its roster with a live-action movie based on the action-adventure game Sea of Thieves.

Xbox announced the movie inside a pretty stuffed feature from Entertainment Weekly that details the studio's many upcoming projects. Per the article, Sea of Thieves is in the works in conjunction with Hisako Films, the production company that belongs to Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton. A director or writer has not yet been attached.

The game debuted in 2018, and sees the player control a pirate who completes various voyages in an open world setting. Players can play solo, duo, or in a group, and yes, there's a treasure map and a treasure chest... as well as a megalodon and a kraken. Oh, and you get to choose from a variety of cool weapons including cutlasses, blunderbusses, throwing knives, blowpipes, and harpoon guns.

"The main character of a Sea of Thieves game is actually the player and the community," Booty told Entertainment Weekly. "So if you sit down to think about Sea of Thieves, it's not, 'Who are the main characters? What's the plot?' It's a super social game, but there's a tone to Sea of Thieves. It's built on a very cooperative community, so you can start to sense what that's going to be like."

Xbox's ongoing slate of live-action projects includes Prime Video's Fallout TV show, Netflix's Gears of War movie, a TV show based on Wolfenstein, and Michael Sarnoski's Death Stranding movie.

Sea of Thieves does not yet have a release date. For more, check out the ever-growing list of upcoming video game movies.

A movie based on the point-and-click mystery game Broken Sword is on the way from Story Kitchen, the studio behind the massively successful live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie franchise.

The list of upcoming video game movies just keeps on growing, but this one is pretty exciting for us early aughts kids with Gateway computers. According to Variety, Broken Sword is being adapted into a feature-length movie with Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos set to pen the script.

The first game in the franchise, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars, saw an American tourist named George Stobbart team up with French photojournalist Nicole Collard to solve a mystery left behind by the shadowy organization known as the Knights Templar. The point-and-click adventure-mystery game involves puzzles, collecting items, talking to NPCS, and all the 2D good stuff you could ever want in an early PC game. Four games have been released since, with the latest arriving via Kickstarter campaign in 2013 and a sixth game announced back in 2023.

"Very few franchises of this era have stayed relevant, premium, and loyal to the intelligence of their audience. ‘Broken Sword’ has done all three," Story Kitchen co-founders Dmitri M. Johnson and Michael Lawrence Goldberg said via joint statement. “Our work here isn’t to adapt a game into a film. It’s to move a world that has been building for three decades into the next medium it deserves, working hand-in-hand with the people who built it."

Broken Sword does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2026 and beyond, or check out our list of movie release dates.

After the cancellation of Sony's Spider-Man Universe series Silk Society, Angela Kang is making her return to TV with Never to Be Found, a soon-to-be-released psychological thriller novel.

Per Variety, the upcoming TV series is a "psychological thriller that weaves together themes of disappearance, identity, obsession, and the long shadow of trauma." The novel itself, penned by Jo Spain, alternates "between present-day Brighton/York and flashbacks to Japan and London, following protagonist Veronica Page as she becomes entangled with a suspected murderer while confronting her own painful past."

Kang became a writer for The Walking Dead season 2 before receiving a producer credit for season 3, becoming co-executive producer for season 5, and ultimately serving as showrunner for seasons 9 through 11. She was set to serve as showrunner for the Daryl Dixon spin-off, but exited due to creative differences and instead signed on to showrun Silk Society. After Kraven the Hunter ended up being a critical and financial failure, however, Sony cancelled all further SSU projects, including Silk Society. But, Sony is planning to reboot its extended Spider-Man Universe (meaning Silk Society could always make a comeback).

Kang is also set to serve as the headwriter for Katabasis, a TV series adaptation of a bestselling fantasy novel, as part of her multi-year deal with Amazon.

For more, check out our list of the best Prime Video shows to stream right now or check out our guide to the best new TV shows coming your way in 2026 and beyond.

Mads Mikkelsen and Jared Harris are set to star in Martin Scorse's What Happens at Night, an adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who play a married American couple who travel to a small, snowy European town to adopt a baby and end up staying at an all but deserted hotel littered with strange, eccentric characters.

Per Deadline, Mikkelsen is set to play Brother Emmanuel, a charismatic faith healer (who, in the book, truly ups the creep factor by convincing the unnamed wife character that she can heal from her cancer through the power of faith). The star recently played a strange resident at a strange apartment complex in Bryan Fuller's Dust Bunny... so that all checks out. There is no word yet as to who Harris will play, though we think it'll be a step-up from his character in Morbius.

What Happens at Night marks the seventh DiCaprio-Scorsese movie, with that Devil in the White City movie still... gestating. Scorsese directs from a script adapted by Patrick Marber, who adapted The Critic and Notes on a Scandal. This is the third movie based on author Peter Cameron's works, the first two being The City of Your Destination and Someday This Will Be Useful to You. Filming is reportedly underway.

What Happens at Night does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2026 and beyond, or check out our list of movie release dates.

Clue is getting a remake, and Nia DaCosta has the perfect pitch for it. The filmmaker, who directed the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, recently offered an idea of a location for the whodunnit movie, and even which character her favorite leading lady Tessa Thompson would play.

During a Reddit chat with fans, a user asked DaCosta: "Sony has secured the rights to remake the cult classic; Clue. If you were giving the helm to write and direct the remake. What would your take on it be? And which character would Tessa Thompson play?"

"My take would be, it's in Norway in a resort, off season, in the middle of nowhere. Tessa would play the manager of the hotel/the Tim Curry character," the director answered, and it sounds like The White Lotus meets Knives Out.

As the Redditor noted, Sony Pictures landed the TV and film rights to the board game in 2024 (via Variety), although nothing has been announced yet regarding an adaptation.

Clue was famously adapted onto the big screen in 1985 by director Jonathan Lynn and writer John Landis. The film starred The Rocky Horror Picture Show star Tim Curry as Wadsworth the butler, who welcomes a group of strangers to a secluded mansion where things go wrong. It also featured Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Michael McKean as Mr. Green, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard, Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet, Colleen Camp as French maid Yvette, and Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy.

Besides being a hilarious black comedy which pays tribute to the iconic game, Clue is also remembered because it infamously featured a number of different endings – a smart and fun way to mimic the experience of playing the board game, which includes multiple scenarios and potential killers.

There is definitely room for the whodunnit in today's movie and TV landscape, with movie sagas like Netflix's Knives Out (which recently added a third installment, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery) and shows like The Traitors captivating audiences.

While we wait for more news on the remake, check out our list of all upcoming movies in cinemas in 2026.

Now that Wake Up Dead Man is available to watch on streaming, director Rian Johnson has finally addressed that Star Wars joke in the film, saying it's "very apropos today". Johnson, who directed the divisive The Last Jedi back in 2017 before launching the Knives Out saga, simply "couldn't resist" including the line.

The joke itself comes when one of the suspects, Cy Draven (played by Daryl McCormack), is talking about joining his father in building a powerful business empire. He then, in a completely serious way, compares himself to the Rebellion in Star Wars, to Father Jud's (Josh O'Connor) obvious surprise. The moment makes fun of certain conservative-minded people who see themselves as part of the Rebellion, when their views might be more aligned with the evil Empire.

"I couldn’t resist," the filmmaker told Polygon. "The ultimate joke of that moment, that everyone thinks they're the Rebels, I think is very apropos today."

The joke fits right in within the Knives Out movies, which have always made fun of contemporary life, ideologies, and politics. "You just have to be instinctual about it. On the one hand, I like that these movies are unapologetically set in the present moment. That's a feature and not a bug. On the other hand, you don't want to get annoying about it, so it's a little bit of just trusting your ear," Johnson explained in the interview.

Drawing further comparisons between Knives Out 3 and the Star Wars franchise, the director said: "Anyone who grew up with Star Wars deeply rooted in their childhood –it’s almost a cliché to say it feels like a religion. That can be used to cut both ways. But for me, there is something very fundamental about it. It's a fundamental myth that we grew up with, from childhood. I grew up very Christian, so when I was a kid, I was parsing Star Wars through my faith and through my Christianity. It's all tied up in that. Very naturally, if I'm telling that story, it's going to be filtered through the values I grew up with."

Now on Netflix, Wake Up Dead Man follows Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he gets involved in a particularly mysterious crime that takes place at a Catholic church in upstate New York. The cast also includes Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Cailee Spaeny.

For more, read our Wake Up Dead Man review, and fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix movies, or see our guide to everything new on Netflix in November 2025.

Hideo Kojima has now watched Wake Up Dead Man, AKA Knives Out 3, but his review of few words has fans thinking he didn't enjoy it.

"Tonight, I watched the third installment of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series, 'Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man,'" he wrote on Twitter.

Kojima is known for waxing poetic about the films he watches, so his briefer movie write-ups have become synonymous with bad reviews. By contrast, his review of Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk, which he posted last week, clocks in at 219 words.

"Dang. I didn't expect him not to like this one. I thought it was fun," someone replied. "Oof," wrote someone else.

The movie has a near-perfect score of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, with our own Wake Up Dead Man review giving the film four stars and praising Josh O'Connor's performance and the character development of Daniel Craig's detective Benoit Blanc.

O'Connor plays Jud, a priest trying to redeem his dark past who's sent to a small parish in upstate New York after an act of violence against a fellow clergyman. He's now in the domain of the charismatic and controversial Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, played by Josh Brolin, and the pair don't see eye to eye – until Wicks drops dead mid-service. The list of suspects is played by an ensemble cast that includes Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, and Cailee Spaeny.

Wake Up Dead Man is streaming now on Netflix. For more on what to watch, check out our guide to the other best movies on Netflix.

Knives Out creator Rian Johnson has confirmed he'll remain the only director in the murder mystery series.

"I don't see it as IP," Johnson told Variety, confirming that no one else will write or direct a film in the series. "Each Knives Out film is something I want to make. If that stops being the case, we won't do another one."

Knives Out kicked off in 2019 with the original movie starring Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas. Glass Onion followed in 2022, and this year it's Wake Up Dead Man, which hits Netflix on December 12 and is currently in theaters. Craig returns as Benoit Blanc in all three movies.

Wake Up Dead Man currently holds a stellar 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with our own 4-star Wake Up Dead Man review verdict reading: "Josh O'Connor proves himself as a leading man who can go toe-to-toe with Daniel Craig's scene-stealing Benoit Blanc in this introspective yet entertaining whodunnit. A vast improvement on Glass Onion, Wake Up Dead Man swaps tech billionaires for corrupt clergy to create a funny, sincere sequel that's on par with the original Knives Out."

Johnson has previously indicated that he'd be open to returning for more films. "Creatively, I feel energized after making this one. Daniel and I are already starting to formulate … what could the next one be if we do another one? I don't know why I would stop doing it if we could keep making them," he said earlier this month.

Wake Up Dead Man is in theaters now. You can fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix movies.

There are two types of confession a person can make. There's the one you give to a priest in a confessional, and the one you give in a police station: in this separation of church and state, the former absolves you, while the latter incriminates you. Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in his whodunnit Knives Out series, is interested in both types – and it makes for the most thoughtful entry yet, without losing any of its trademark humor and buoyancy.

Johnson's follow-up to 2022's Glass Onion is a massive upgrade on its predecessor, swapping its limp takedown of tech billionaires for a meatier, more interesting analysis of morality, religion, and the harm we do to each other. This is mostly explored through Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), a young priest who's sent to the small town of Chimney Rock, New York to atone for breaking the jaw of "some asshole deacon [who] said something way out of line." Before he was a priest, Jud was a boxer who spent time on the street, and he's done his best to turn his anger into love for Jesus and others: his whole deal is healing the world, rather than fighting it.

When he arrives at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, Jud quickly discovers that he's not welcome in Chimney Rock. Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) keeps his faithful flock enthralled with impassioned sermons that Jud soon realizes are much more concerned with fighting the world than healing it, and he's not interested in sharing the limelight with any other member of the clergy. Wicks provides a not-so-subtle allegory for right-wing cults of personality, but Wake Up Dead Man is more effective than Glass Onion's attempts at social analysis – mostly due to the fact that Wicks is surrounded by relatively normal people who highlight the absurdity of his words and actions.

True lies

The monsignor's congregation includes Martha (Glenn Close), Wicks' right-hand woman, and embittered lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington), who resents spending her life raising obnoxious wannabe-politician-turned-influencer Cy (Daryl McCormack), whom she believes to be her father's illegitimate son. There's also newly separated doctor Nat (Jeremy Renner), who's struggling to come to terms with life without his wife and kids, Lee (Andrew Scott), a one-time hit sci-fi writer who's now in "Substack hell", and Simone (Cailee Spaeny), a cellist who was forced to retire early in her career due to chronic pain.

Jud believes that Wicks is keeping his congregation angry and afraid instead of helping them heal and move on, and during a fiery confrontation with the monsignor, he says that he'll do "whatever it takes" to save the church. Quite soon after that, Wicks drops dead during his Good Friday service, and all fingers point to Jud. This is the cue for Daniel Craig's rakish private detective Benoit Blanc to appear – a fair way into the movie's runtime, which is to its detriment.

When Blanc arrives in Chimney Rock, he's already certain of how he feels about religion: he's not a fan. He's concerned with the storytelling and facades involved in faith, and Jud concedes that Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, in its imitation of a medieval European building, has more in common with Disneyland than Notre Dame. But just as Jud puts his faith in Jesus, Blanc puts his faith in logic, and all faith can be shaken. As the stories-within-stories surrounding Wicks' death come to light, it seems Blanc's beliefs may have more in common with his perceived notions of organized religion than he initially thought. But, the film seems to be asking us, what is any of this storytelling trying to convince us of? The truth, or lies? Wake Up Dead Man exposes new vulnerabilities in Blanc, making him feel more interesting, more fallible, and more well-rounded as a character.

At nearly two and a half hours, the movie feels too long (although it's actually the shortest movie in the trilogy so far). That's because it gets too convoluted and baggy around the edges, and the otherwise pacy film stalls as the script trips over too many details and explanations behind various plot twists – some of which prove to be false starts, anyway. Not all hope is lost, though: Wake Up Dead Man sticks the landing in the final act when everything comes together to reveal the truth in a satisfying – and surprisingly moving – conclusion.

Return to form

O'Connor holds his own against Craig's charismatic Blanc and proves himself as a leading man in his least understated role yet, after honing his hangdog look in independent films like La Chimera and The Mastermind. He balances Jud's anger and difficult past with a desire to be good that feels genuine, channelling a hardness that falls away whenever his face is illuminated by the light of the church's stained glass windows.

Spaeny, meanwhile, gives a good supporting turn as Simone, adding another string to her bow after leading last year's Alien: Romulus. Glenn Close is cartoonishly campy as the devout Martha, but she does a skilful 180 on an otherwise fairly one-note (if entertaining) character in the final act to give one of the movie's most touching performances. The weak link is Mila Kunis' police chief Geraldine, a bland and underbaked side character who's merely going through the motions to act as a sensible foil to Blanc's unconventional detective.

The movie also endeavors to do some interesting self-reflection: Jud's frustration at the "game" of mystery-solving is a prod at our true crime fascination and so-called 'cozy crime' as a genre. By swapping gaudy satire for introspection (without losing any of the franchise's trademark flamboyance), Wake Up Dead Man brings Knives Out back to its roots and makes for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery arrives in theaters on November 26 and starts streaming on Netflix on December 12. For more, fill out your watchlist with our picks of the other best movies on Netflix.

From ABC series High Potential and Netflix's adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club to the continued success of Only Murders in the Building, audiences look to be really enjoying killer thrills with a dash of humor of late.

Knives Out 3, officially titled Wake Up Dead Man, is set to keep that trend going, as Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc takes on his most complicated case yet in upstate New York. With that, GamesRadar+ asked one of its stars why "cozy crime" is having such a moment right now...

"I think both things are probably in existence. I think there's still probably some heavy murder mysteries on our way, too," chuckles Andrew Scott, who plays sardonic sci-fi writer Lee Ross in the franchise's latest offering. "I don't think they've disappeared. But, yeah, it's that mixture of comedy and murder, I think.

"Only Murders in the Building is a great example, in that you've got the two best comedians in the world, and Selena Gomez and Meryl Streep; all these incredible comedic people. I suppose that juxtaposition of those two things is what people are into. Certainly in our film, that's what we aim to do. My character is a bit more light in the sense but then there are other characters that have really dark, heartfelt stuff. That's the blessing of having lots of characters, an ensemble like this, like those films and shows do, too. You can use different people for different tones."

Also featuring the likes of Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, and Glenn Close, Wake Up Dead Man is the series' most personal, meditative chapter yet as it sees Josh O'Connor's boxer-turned-priest team up with Blanc to prove he didn't off his brutish new boss: Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). A tricky task considering, as the trailer spells out, he was "the only one on stage with [him] at the time of his killing."

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery releases in cinemas on November 26, arriving on Netflix worldwide on December 12. For more, check out our guide to all the other upcoming movies heading our way.

Despite being the dapperly-dressed glue that holds the Knives Out movies together, Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc doesn't show up in upcoming sequel Wake Up Dead Man until 40 minutes in – and if you're a bit gutted by that news, writer-director Rian Johnson suggests you take it up with one of history's most iconic whodunnit writers.

"It's [got] a much more traditional murder mystery structure than the first two. I mean, this is kind of how most of Agatha Christie's books work," Johnson explains to GamesRadar+ in the run-up to the Netflix film's limited theatrical release. "In the first act, you meet all the suspects, then the murder happens, and then the detective shows up. So this was kind of going back to basics; I thought it could be interesting to do that.

"But, also, because the theme of this movie is a little bit more complex – or, not complex, but I just really wanted to get it right in terms of nailing the tone and nailing Jud's character, what religion was to him – having that first act to take that time and really set the table, not just with the suspects and with Jud's point-of-view? It felt like it was worth it. And I thought as long as I can get an actor who can carry this movie for the first 40 minutes, so people aren't saying, 'Wait, where the hell is Daniel?' I'll be fine."

Said actor tasked with easing James Bond fanatics' impatience is Josh O'Connor, whose Rev. Jud Duplenticy is forced to team up with gifted case-cracker Blanc when he's accused of killing Josh Brolin's brutish priest Monsignor Wicks. Following a violent altercation with one of his superiors, the guilt-ridden former boxer is sent to a small-town parish in upstate New York, to assist Wicks in running the church – but quickly finds his new boss's ways of doing things abhorrent, as he watches him swindle certain members of the congregation and relish putting newcomers off with his controversial sermons. He doesn't do well to hide his disdain, which, combined with his past, doesn't do him any favors when Wicks winds up dead – and sets him on a journey of both faith and fact-finding.

"[Josh is] just the best, man. With each of these movies – the first, with Ana de Armas, the second with Janelle [Monáe], and now with Josh – you know, they all have a protagonist who's not Blanc, and the essential thing of that is it has to be somebody who the audience is immediately on board with. Having seen the myriad of other work that Josh had done, and the amount of range that he had, and then also honestly, when we met, I was just like, 'This is somebody I want to be on the movie set with. I think that's going to translate to someone the audience wants to spend the movie with.'"

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery releases in cinemas on November 26, arriving on Netflix worldwide on December 12. For more, check out our guide to all the other upcoming movies heading our way.

Josh O'Connor says it was "a dream come true" working with Daniel Craig on upcoming Knives Out sequel Wake Up Dead Man – and that he "really learned" from the way the "humble and charismatic" actor approached the movie.

"He's such a gentleman," O'Connor, who follows in the footsteps of Ana de Armas and Janelle Monáe as the unwitting sidekick of Craig's Benoit Blanc this time around, tells GamesRadar+. "You know, one of the things that was most surprising about making this movie – and I imagine it's the same on the other two – you really go on a journey as an audience member, but it was the same for the actors, too.

"One moment, you're doing a sort of double act with Daniel and real comedy set-pieces, and then in the next, there's a real opening of your heart," he continues, attempting to explain how he and the James Bond star established their super-fun onscreen chemistry. "And watching Daniel, I really learned from him, in the way that he can be light and playful when he needs to be, then he's got his earphones on and walking around, getting into a headspace where he can attack a scene that needs more thought or feeling.

"The way he operated at work was really inspiring to me. In terms of our double act, it was all there on the page, but [writer-director] Rian [Johnson] definitely allowed us to play around with things. There's this one particular moment, which I won't divulge, that we didn't think would ever make the movie but it did, so…"

It wouldn't be a Knives Out movie without a star-studded cast surrounding O'Connor and Craig, and Wake Up Dead Man is no different. When O'Connor's boxer-turned-priest Jud Duplenticy gets transferred to a parish in upstate New York, he immediately clashes with its congregation leader Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin). Despite his brutish ways, his followers are devoted; his right-hand woman Martha (Glenn Close), sardonic sci-fi author Lee (Andrew Scott), tightly-wound lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington), shallow influencer Cy (Daryl McCormack), newly-divorced town doctor Nat (Jeremy Renner), and disabled ex-cellist Simone (Simone). But when Wicks gets killed in the middle of an on-stage sermon, Blanc is quick to deduce that any one of them could've done it.

"To a certain extent, these movies are kind of mouse traps. So it's not like you can just go off and riff. But I also think that if you get a group of actors like this together, it would be stupid to not let them play," says Johnson. "I love to get together with the actors before we start shooting, and go through the scenes. 'Are any of these lines bumping?' If any actor feels like something doesn't feel right, or there's a better way of saying it, I'm always encouraging and open to that."

"Rian's very, very good at casting. I think that's really important with a film like this. So everybody was well suited to their characters," adds Andrew Scott, who plays misanthropic, moated house-owning Ross. "It's just the power of the imagination; we didn't have any rehearsal time beforehand. If it's well-cast and the script is good, that ease and chemistry just happens. [Rian] creates an atmosphere where you're all together a lot of the time; there's no retreat to our trailers and all that kind of jazz. We just hung out, all the time for months. It's lucky that we're here, still getting on with each other now that we know a lot of each other's deep, dark secrets."

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery releases in cinemas on November 26, arriving on Netflix worldwide on December 12. For more, check out our guide to all the other upcoming movies heading our way.

Where do you start writing a murder mystery? Do you have the final act reveal pinned down before you flesh out the characters and how it all kicks off? Not, it turns out, if your Knives Out writer-director Rian Johnson...

"I avoid writing [the murder mystery part] until I can't anymore, most glibly," the filmmaker laughs in a new interview with GamesRadar+. "I don't really start at the end or the beginning; I start zoomed out. I start with the most fundamental basics; I knew I wanted to do a locked-door mystery with this one. But the bigger aspect of all that is just what makes any other movie work; who's the protagonist? What do they want? Why can't they get it? What is the movie about, and how does that serve the theme?

"You kind of build the mystery around that, because the mystery you can kind of construct like a crossword puzzle – but the basic line of what the movie is about is what's actually going to support it for an audience," Johnson concludes.

Swapping Glass Onion's sundrenched Greek island for a cloud-covered parish church in upstate New York, Wake Up Dead Man, the upcoming third installment in the Knives Out franchise, sees Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) faced with his most complicated case yet. Taking inspirations from the works of John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Allan Poe, it centers on Josh O'Connor's Jud Duplenticy, a young boxer-turned-priest who's transferred to the seemingly snoozy town after a violent altercation with one of his superiors.

There, he quickly clashes with Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), whose cruel, heavy-handed ways of shepherding Our Lady of Perpetual Grace's troubled but morally questionable locals rubs Jud up the wrong way. He doesn't do well to hide his disdain, either, often trying to bring up the flaws in his practices to Wicks' faithful flock. So when Wicks winds up dead in the most head-scratching of ways, Jud immediately becomes the main suspect, forcing him to team-up with proud atheist Blanc to uncover the truth and prove his proclaimed innocence.

"I think what's so interesting about religion, generally, is that it's so easily interpreted in different ways – and can be so easily corrupted," says O'Connor. "A lot of Jud's arc was on the page from day one, and I was so thrilled to be asked to play him and to go on that journey, because I think I really recognized it.

"I felt I really recognized that turmoil and I saw a lacking of that kind of a story right now, in a time where I felt like we really need it. The beauty of Jud is that he doesn't... know, and a lot of the time he's questioning things," he continues. "Josh Brolin's character, Monsignor Wick, is much more certain about his views. There's something very interesting about playing a character who questions everything; it's a really good opening to approaching a role."

A thoughtful exploration of the perils of blind faith, the film's ensemble is made up of a whole host of complicated, often despicable supporting characters, including Glenn Close's pious zealot Martha Delacroix, Andrew Scott's misanthropic sci-fi author Lee Ross and Daryl McCormack's spoiled influencer-turned-wannabe politician Cy Draven.

"The magic of these films is that [Rian's] always tackling real-life situations, and they have that social relevancy," says McCormack. "There's plenty to just draw from in our current kind of world but I think, for me, when it comes to playing someone you might not inherently understand, you always have to find a doorway of empathy. Ultimately you have to try and not judge them and some of these characters are difficult not to judge."

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery releases in cinemas on November 26, arriving on Netflix worldwide on December 12. For more, check out our guide to all the other upcoming movies heading our way.

Filmmaker Rian Johnson has been seeding questions about whether he and star Daniel Craig might continue their Benoit Blanc franchise following the upcoming Wake Up Dead Man, the third film in the series which includes 2019's Knives Out and 2022's Glass Onion. Now, speaking to THR, Johnson confirms that he and Craig are already at work thinking up Blanc's next adventure, though it's too early to confirm whether a new film is officially on the books.

"Creatively, I feel energized after making this one. Daniel and I are already starting to formulate … what could the next one be if we do another one? I don't know why I would stop doing it if we could keep making them"

Wake Up Dead Man involves Craig's erudite detective Benoit Blanc getting involved in a particularly mysterious crime that takes place at a Catholic church in upstate New York. Alongside Craig, the film's ensemble cast includes Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny and Daryl McCormack.

O'Conner and Brolin portray priests who find themselves on opposite sides of a moral dilemma, with O'Conner's fresh-faced cleric butting heads with Brolin's more jaded, older Monsignor.

"I grew up Catholic, so it's not too far removed from my own experience," says O'Connor, who plays the idealistic young Father Jud Duplenticy in the film, explaining that he consulted with an actual priest in preparing for the role. "He has a brilliant mind and excellent faith and leads in kindness and forgiveness and thoughtfulness, and so he was a real help to me."

"I don't like watching this guy - it doesn't make me happy," Brolin says of his character, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. "I saw [the film] for the first time, and … it made me really uncomfortable. But I think it's appropriate for the role. The writing is so good."

The film will be released to select theaters on November 26, before arriving on Netflix on December 12. In the meantime, fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix movies, or see our guide to everything new on Netflix in November 2025.

The next Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man, has earned a rock-solid Rotten Tomatoes score – though it falls short of the original murder mystery movie.

Wake Up Dead Man, which is the third film in Rian Johnson's series, has been certified fresh at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes with 89 reviews. The first film, Knives Out, boasts a 97% score, while the second film, Glass Onion, sits at 91%.

"It works, and it’s no big mystery why – Johnson knows his form and format, and delivers on it, playing with tone and message but never losing sight of why these stories are so damn entertaining to watch and unravel," reads IndieWire's B+ review.

"It delivers first giggles, then twists and gasp-inducing rug-pulls, courtesy of standout performances from a cast that includes Josh Brolin, Glenn Close and a never-better Josh O'Connor," says The Times in a 5-star review.

"Rian Johnson's mystery movie will be a perfect fireside companion when it hits Netflix in early December. Guaranteed, you won't find a more fiendish film this winter," reads NME's four-star review.

"Johnson has assembled his strongest cast yet and provides them with entertainingly 'extra' characters to inhabit – and for us to tut at. Best of all, Daniel Craig and Josh O'Connor form a sleuthing double act with shades of Holmes and Watson," says Time Out in a 4-star review.

Wake Up Dead Man sees Daniel Craig return as Benoit Blanc, with Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, and more filling out the cast.

The film will be released to select theaters on November 26, before arriving on Netflix on December 12.

In the meantime, fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix movies, or see our guide to everything new on Netflix in November 2025.

Ever since Jeremy Renner's involvement in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was announced, we've been scratching our heads wondering how the Marvel star can be playing... a regular guy after his name-drop in Glass Onion. Turns out, the actor is just as confused as we are – but he's not losing any sleep trying to figure it out.

"He has no idea who he is," he told Entertainment Weekly in a new interview, casually referring to himself in the third person. "He's a sad doctor. He isn't watching movies, man. He's a sad man. That's the archetype I play: dad in crisis." Renner went on to say that while he "wasn't part" of figuring out why Dr. Nat Sharp looks exactly like the dude who plays Hawkeye, he knows "it was talked about".

For now, it seems safe to assume that it's purely going to be a celebrity lookalike situation, which Wake Up Dead Man may not even end up referencing on screen. Josh Brolin's priest Jud Duplenticy or Mila Kunis's police chief Geraldine Scott might not be big MCU heads, granted, but Cailee Spaeny's Simone Vivane could be more familiar with the bow-wielding Avenger... We'll have to hold tight and see.

If you cast your mind back to 2019's Glass Onion, you'll remember there's an early scene where Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) starts spluttering after eating a fiery canapé served at the weekend getaway of Edward Norton's Miles Bron. "Oh, that's Jeremy Renner's small-batch hot sauce," Miles explains. "I let him invest. He sends me, like, a pallet every year. Take a few bottles." Bottles with Renner's face on no less...

"Jeremy's a great actor who I've wanted to work with for a long time," writer-director Rian Johnson told Tudum earlier this month. "I was very relieved he thought the hot sauce thing was funny! He's playing a proper part in this one; we'll keep the sauce offscreen. Maybe we'll sneak a few bottles onto the catering table."

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery premieres in select theaters on November 26, before landing on Netflix on December 12. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way.

Critics are praising Netflix's upcoming mystery thriller Knives Out 3 following its premiere at Toronto Film Festival. The threequel, officially titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, has debuted at a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 96% ahead of its November release.

The first reviews are describing it as "twistier" and "darker" than the previous installments, Knives Out and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and promising "Rian Johnson's best and most ambitious Benoit Blanc installment yet" (via Awards Radar).

"Johnson is just having fun, but he also sneaks a winking level of spiritual inquiry into this edge-of-your-brain mystery-thriller," wrote Variety's Owen Gleiberman.

"Wake Up Dead Man is twistier, darker, and more emotional than the previous two installments, in which Johnson explores ideas of faith and logic and the mythologizing that gets us through the day – all in a brilliant murder mystery," said Collider's Rose Bonaime.

"Although Wake Up Dead Man is the Knives Out movie that's most preoccupied with existential questions surrounding death, writer/director Rian Johnson’s third film in the series is also the one that’s most full of life," wrote Chase Hutchinson on TheWrap.

"A series that’s really found its footing again, a wealth of fun to be had in ways that are constantly surprising, a franchise fully woken up," added The Guardian's Benjamin Lee.

Netflix unveiled today a first trailer for the movie, which sees Daniel Craig reprising his role as detective Benoit Blanc as he faces the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) and a new list of suspects with the help of Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor).

The suspects include devout Catholic Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), local doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), uptight lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), best-selling author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), former concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), aspiring politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), and groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church). Additionally, Mila Kunis appears as local police chief Geraldine Scott.

According to the official synopsis, this is Benoit Blanc's "most dangerous case yet" as the "seemingly impossible murder rocks the town" and "defies all logic".

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to hit theaters on November 26, before heading to Netflix on December 12. For more, check out our list of the best Netflix movies, or keep up to date with the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025.

The first trailer for Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in Rian Johnson's Knives Out saga, has arrived – and Benoit Blanc is back for a mystery of the holy variety.

In the brief clip, which can be viewed below, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) delivers his normal Sunday sermon before returning to his quarters... and turning up dead. Rev. Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), another member of the clergy, teams up with Blanc (Daniel Craig) to get to the bottom of it – and the part where he refers to him as "Benoit frickin' Blanc" is my favorite part of the trailer. As with every Knives Out film, every member of the church is a suspect, and everyone is extremely suspicious.

The complete list of suspects is as follows: Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), devout Catholic and Wicks' "right-hand woman," local doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), uptight lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), best-selling author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), former concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), aspiring politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), and groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church). Additionally, Mila Kunis appears as local police chief Geraldine Scott.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to hit theaters on November 26, before heading to Netflix on December 12 – the same release formula as the first two films.

Knives Out and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery are both available to stream on Netflix. For more, check out our list of the best Netflix movies, or keep up to date with the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025.

The Knives Out 3 theatrical release date has finally been revealed – but the mystery sequel isn't on the big screen for very long.

The movie, officially titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, is only getting a two-week run in theaters when it's released on November 26, despite director Rian Johnson's push for more.

"I want this in as many theaters for as long as possible," Johnson previously told Business Insider. "We're going to push for everything we can get in terms of theatrical because I want as many people as possible to see it in that form."

Glass Onion, the previous movie in the franchise, had a different release strategy than usual for Netflix movies. It hit theaters for a week in November 2023, before returning to the big screen once it had released on Netflix a month later – a first for the streamer. It's unclear whether Wake Up Dead Man will follow a similar schedule.

Glass Onion was also the first time a Netflix movie had been shown in all three of the US' biggest theater chains: (AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark. The first Knives Out was released exclusively in theaters back in 2019.

Alongside Daniel Craig's returning detective Benoit Blanc, Wake Up Dead Man has a brand-new ensemble cast that includes Josh O'Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, and Andrew Scott.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery hits theaters on November 26, before arriving on Netflix on December 12. In the meantime, check out our guide to the best Netflix movies to add to your watchlist.

Before adapting Richard Osman's bestseller The Thursday Murder Club for Netflix, Chris Columbus was responsible for bringing another literary sensation to the screen as the director of the first two Harry Potter movies. Despite the divergent subject matter, according to Columbus, the process of adapting both novels for the screen was similar in some respects.

Speaking with GamesRadar+ at a press event in London, Columbus touched on his history of adapting beloved books for the screen. "When I read The Thursday Murder Club, I got that feeling that I had when I first read Harry Potter," the director says. "I'm in love with this. I'm a fan. I want audiences to experience the film the same way they experience the book. So, I had this desire to be extraordinarily faithful."

That faithfulness extended to Cooper's Chase, the all-important retirement home in which the eponymous Thursday Murder Club resides. "I felt that Cooper's Chase had to feel like a character in and of itself. So, it was very similar in terms of Hogwarts. Cooper's Chase became sort of a fantastical place to retire, like almost a wish fulfillment. I didn't want Cooper's Chase to be your typical retirement community that feels dreary or depressing. I wanted it to be a place that, even if you're 35 or 40 years old, you may want to spend a couple of months there because it's filled with life. The only death you should be feeling there is the murders that may occur on the grounds."

In adapting The Philosopher's Stone, Columbus was praised for his spot-on world-building and casting choices that set the template for seven future Harry Potter films (and, controversially, the HBO series which is currently filming). Casting, once again, was crucial when it came to bringing The Thursday Murder Club's beloved amateur sleuths to the screen.

"When I was working on Harry Potter [and] re-reading the book, I was always jotting down cast ideas," Columbus notes. "It was Maggie Smith and Richard Harris and Alan Rickman, and they all said yes. Subsequently, I've done movies over the years where, most of the time, your first choice is either not available or they say no. With The Thursday Murder Club, the same thing happened. I wrote down Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan and Sir Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie; they all said yes. So, as a result of that, I knew there was spiritually something right about this movie. Something felt like this was meant to be."

The Thursday Murder Club is streaming now on Netflix. For more, check out our guide breaking down the best Netflix movies, or if you want a change of pace, here's our up-to-date list of the best shows on Netflix.

Benoit Blanc is back on the big screen in Knives Out 3, officially titled Wake Up Dead Man, as the whodunnit threequel kicks off its limited theatrical run. Of course, if you can't make it to the multiplex, the movie is also coming to Netflix next month – but, either way, there's no better time to get clued up on Rian Johnson's latest murder mystery.

This time around, Blanc's latest case takes him to a small town in upstate New York, where an "impossible murder" has shaken the community's local Catholic church. His sleuthing skills (and atheism) are tested by new ally Father Jud, Josh O'Connor's young priest making amends for past sins.

We've put together everything you need to know about Wake Up Dead Man right here, from the Knives Out 3 release date to the lowdown on the cast and plot and much more besides. Benoit Blanc's "most dangerous case yet" (and one of our most-anticipated upcoming movies) is upon us, so make sure you're up to date.

Wake Up Dead Man release date

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was released in theaters for a limited two-week run on November 26, 2025. If you can't catch it on the big screen, though, don't worry: it premieres on Netflix globally on December 12, 2025.

Wake Up Dead Man review

The Knives Out 3 first reactions were overwhelmingly positive, and our own Wake Up Dead Man review had a similar tone. Reviewer Emily Garbutt gave the movie four stars, praising Josh O'Connor's performance and calling it "a funny, sincere sequel that's on par with the original Knives Out" and "a "vast improvement on Glass Onion."

Wake Up Dead Man trailer

The first Knives Out 3 trailer dropped in September 2025, shortly after the movie's world premiere at TIFF. The clip, which you can watch above, gave us our best look yet at the movie, including who the murder victim is this time around. That would be Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, played by Josh Brolin, a priest who's found dead in the middle of a sermon after entering a narrow concrete room... alone.

Wake Up Dead Man cast

Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc in Knives Out 3, acting as the blue-eyed glue that holds each title together, but he's joined by a whole new cast of potential suspects – including Jeremy Renner, who was the subject of a particular condiment-related gag in 2022's Glass Onion.

"Oh, that's Jeremy Renner's small-batch hot sauce," Edward Norton's Miles tells Benoit in the film, after a bite of a fiery canape has him spluttering. "I let him invest. He sends me, like, a pallet every year. Take a few bottles." Bottles with the Hawkeye actor's face on, no less...

Check out the full cast list below:

• Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc
• Josh O'Connor as Rev. Jud Duplenticy
• Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix
• Josh Brolin as Msgr. Jefferson Wicks
• Mila Kunis as Geraldine Scott
• Jeremy Renner as Dr. Nat Sharp
• Kerry Washington as Vera Draven
• Andrew Scott as Lee Ross
• Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane
• Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven
• Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt

Wake Up Dead Man plot

In Wake Up Dead Man, Josh O'Connor's Father Jud follows in the footsteps of Ana de Armas' Marta and Janelle Monae's Andi to team up with Benoit Blanc to catch the killer.

As for the victim, that's Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the charismatic leader of the church in Chimney Rock, New York. When he's is found dead in a small, otherwise empty storage closet in the middle of an Easter service, it seems Blanc may have his toughest case yet on his hands.

The suspects? Martha Delacroix, devout Catholic and Wicks' "right-hand woman," local doctor Nat Sharp, uptight lawyer Vera Draven, former bestselling author Lee Ross, retired concert cellist Simone Vivane, aspiring politician Cy Draven, and groundskeeper Samson Holt. And Father Jud, of course...

We won't get into any spoiler territory here, though – you'll have to watch for yourself to see who did the crime.

For more, check out our latest breakdown of the best Netflix movies for some watchlist inspiration.

Matthew McConaughey is set to star in a movie based on the Mike Hammer detective novels written by none other than True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto.

Per Variety, not much yet is known about the film, and a director has not yet been attached. Mike Hammer is a no-holds-barred detective who first appeared in the 1947 novel I, the Jury. Since then, 22 novels have been released, and there have been five feature-length adaptations. The book series is set to end this year with the novel, Baby It's Murder.

McConaughey starred as Detective Rustin "Rust" Cohle opposite Woody Harrelson as Detective Martin "Marty" Hart in True Detective season 1, which hit HBO back in 2014. The story took place across two timelines: 1995, when the pair are young detectives fresh on the scene who are brought in to investigate the death of Dora Lange, and then 17 years later when Dora's murder is suddenly linked to a series of unsolved missing-person cases.

Pizzolatto served as showrunner for True Detective seasons 1-3, before Issa Lopez took over for season 4 and the upcoming season 5. The scribe was also hired to rewrite the script for Marvel's Blade before the film was shelved indefinitely. Mike Hammer will be the first time he and McConaughey have reunited since 2014.

The Mike Hammer movie does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025 and beyond, or check out our list of movie release dates.

Knives Out has dropped a rather mysterious teaser for its upcoming instalment, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and I think I know what it means.

The new cryptic teaser, posted on Wake Up Dead Man's official Twitter page, pans up an old church while its bells toll in the background. But it's not the video that's the most interesting thing; it's the caption, which reads, "The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers, but the root of the righteous endures."

That quote is from the bible, Proverbs 12:12. Although the words may tease the movie’s plot, I think 12:12 could well be the movie's release date, December 12, 2025, which just so happens to be a Friday.

Plus, we know that Wake Up Dead Man might be getting a theatrical release just like its predecessor, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, did. And what day do movies tend to release in theaters? That’s right, on a Friday.

Could Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery be hitting theaters this December? I think so. Check out the post below.

Aside from teasing the date, the quote is important too. Proverbs 12:12 suggests that wicked people are never content with what they have and are often jealous of other evil people for their possessions. We all know that the Knives Out franchise loves to give its rich and entitled characters their just desserts, so Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc facing up to some more wealthy wrong-doers in Wake Up Dead Man wouldn't be too out of the ordinary.

As for the video, we already had an idea that Wake Up Dead Man would be set somewhat in a church, as the movie’s first look, which you can see below, shows Craig and newcomer Josh O’Connor standing inside a church. However, the new look at the building from the outside suggests the third movie could well be set in England. But this is not a huge shock as production did take place in the UK last year.

Netflix is keeping its cards pretty close to its chest in terms of what Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will entail. The movie’s logline simply reads, "Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet," which gives nothing away other than that Craig’s detective is returning. Let’s hope that the movie drops more cryptic clues ready for us to crack.

Directed by Rian Johnson, the movie also stars Challengers’ O’Connor, Pricilla’s Cailee Spaney, Scandal’s Kerry Washington, and Fatal Attraction’s Glenn Close.

Knives Out and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery are both available to watch on Netflix. For more, check out our list of the best Netflix movies, or keep up to date with the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025.

The internet is debating the most perfectly cast movies - and we're inclined to agree.

Per a Reddit post under r/Movies, one user wrote that watching Lord of the Rings got them thinking about which movies have perfect casting. They posed the question: "What are other movies where every character is exactly right for their role?"

"The 90s version of The Addams Family. Especially Anjelica and Raul but the entire cast were just perfection for me," someone wrote.  Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia played Morticia and Gomez Addams in The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values, both directed by Barry Sonnefeld. The third movie saw Daryl Hannah and Tim Curry take over as the leads after Julia's passing (and, in my opinion, were miscast).

"Back to the Future. Thank god they replaced Eric Stoltz with Michael J Fox. The perfectly cast Christopher Lloyd and Fox have great chemistry. With Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and a really great Thomas F Wilson, they nailed it," another person said. 

In Still, the 2023 documentary about Michael J. Fox's career and Parkinson's diagnosis, we get some early footage of Stoltz as Marty McFly... and it just doesn't hit the same. Fox filmed Back to the Future at night, while also filming the hit sitcom Family Ties by day. He showed up to set delirious and sleep-deprived, which added to Marty's rather chaotic nature - and it's hard to imagine him any other way.

"Knives Out. Wasn’t sure who did it to start with how stacked the cast is. I feel the way about all the characters that I’m supposed to by the end. It does feel weird to see Daniel Craig as a detective from the American South is a perfect choice, but it works for me," someone commented.

"I'm shocked that I got here this late and am still the first person to mention Clue," one user said. "Martin Mull, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKeen, Lee Ving...plus all the ones I'm forgetting because I'm going off the top of my head. I mean, that's an All-Star cast. They cast Lee Ving as Mr. Body for the pun! And he nailed it anyway despite never acting in anything else before or since."

"Pulp Fiction. Samuel Jackson was so good as Jules Winfield he is still playing that character to this day, and I don’t think anybody else could have pulled off Christopher Walken’s short monologue better. Add to that, Travolta, Thurman, Rhames, and Thurman all gave career-best performances," someone else wrote.

For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025 and beyond.

The first look at Rian Johnson's next Knives Out movie, which is officially titled Wake Up Dead Man, has been revealed... and just like Benoit Blanc when he stumbles across a corpse, we've got a lot of questions.

Posted by the sequel's social media pages on June 10, the image sees Daniel Craig's detective wearing an expectedly dapper ensemble: a three-piece suit, with a crisp shirt and dressy tie. No neckerchiefs in sight this time around... Blanc looks to be holding a fedora hat, too, and sporting a new longer hair 'do and facial stubble.

But it's the fact that the snap, taken by Johnson himself, is in black and white that has caught our – and fans' – attention, it seems. Might the film be in black and white?! We'd be so here for it, if so.

"Aaaaand we're off! Today is day 1 of shooting on the next Benoit Blanc mystery Wake Up Dead Man - see you on the other side," Johnson, who is directing the flick from his own original script, said in his own post. 

The third Knives Out installment, which will once again see Blanc try to solve a head-scratchingly twisty whodunnit, has been confirming cast members thick and fast over the last few weeks. So far, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Josh O'Connor, Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Josh Brolin, and more have joined the flick – and there could be further announcements in store. We'll be sure to keep you posted.

Last time we saw Blanc, he was flexing his sleuthing chops in 2022's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, where he and several others were invited to the secluded Greek island of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). When one of the guests winds up dead, Blanc must identify the killer before it's too late. 

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to hit theaters and Netflix in 2025. Production is set to begin this month in the United Kingdom. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.

Thomas Haden Church is the latest actor to join the cast of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

Per The Wrap, Haden Church joins the cast alongside A-list actor Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, and Andrew Scott. Daniel Craig is back as Detective Benoit Blanc. Character and plot details for the upcoming film remain a mystery.

Haden Church is perhaps best known for his role as Flint Marko aka Sandman in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 and reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home. He can be seen as Agent Stone in the live-action video game adaptation Twisted Metal and is currently filming parts 1 and 2 of Kevin Costner's four-part epic western Horizon: An American Saga.

Knives Out grossed $312 million against a budget of only $40 million, and was followed by the 2022 sequel Glass Onion – which had a limited theatrical run before hitting Netflix and received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Annual Academy Awards. The first film saw Benoit Blanc investigate a murder surrounding a wealthy dysfunctional family, with the second seeing the detective attend a murder mystery party thrown by an eccentric tech billionaire played by Edward Norton.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to hit theaters and Netflix in 2025. Production is set to begin this month in the United Kingdom. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.

Josh Brolin has joined the ever-growing list of stars who have joined the cast of Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Brolin joins the cast alongside A-list actors Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, and Andrew Scott. Daniel Craig is back as Detective Benoit Blanc. No other character or plot details have been disclosed.

A third Knives Out movie was inevitable seeing as the sequel, Glass Onion, received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Annual Academy Awards. The first saw Benoit Blanc investigate the murder of the patriarch of a wealthy dysfunctional family, with the second seeing the detective attend a murder mystery party thrown by an eccentric tech billionaire.

Brolin has played everyone from former United States President George W. Bush in W. to a young version of Tommy Lee's Agent K in Men in Black 3, and Cable (yes, that Cable) in Deadpool 2. Younger generations know him best as Thanos, the supervillain to end all supervillains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and as War Master of the House Atreides Gurney Halleck in Dune and Dune: Part Two.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to hit theaters and Netflix in 2025. Production is set to begin this month in the United Kingdom. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.

After making a cameo as the face of his own hot sauce brand in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Jeremy Renner is joining the cast of Wake Up Dead Man in an undisclosed role.

Per Deadline, Renner joins the cast alongside newly added members Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, and Andrew Scott. Daniel Craig is back as Detective Benoit Blanc.

The third installment in Rian Johnson's massively successful Knives Out franchise marks Renner's first feature-length project following the 2023 snow plow incident that nearly claimed his life. The actor has since made a miraculous recovery, filming a Super Bowl commercial, a commercial for running shoes (in which he recounts the fact that doctors told him he likely wouldn't walk again), and season 3 of his successful Paramount Plus series Mayor of Kingston. 

We're hopeful Renner will also return to the Marvel world in the next Avengers movie (despite handing over the Hawkeye mantle to Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop in the Hawkeye series finale).

Kunis recently starred in Luckiest Girl Alive and reprised her role as Jackie Burkhart in That '90s Show, a spin-off of the popular sitcom That '70s Show. She can be seen next in the comedy Goodrich, where she plays the daughter of a divorced art dealer (Michael Keaton).

Knives Out grossed $312 million against a budget of only $40 million, and was followed by the 2022 sequel Glass Onion – which had a week-long theatrical run before hitting Netflix. The streamer has scooped up distribution rights, with the third pic also heading to streaming after a brief theatrical run.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to hit theaters and Netflix in 2025. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.

Rian Johnson continues to assemble his latest cast of sleuths, suspects, and possible stiffs for Netflix's Knives Out threequel Wake Up Dead Man.

As per Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter respectively, Scandal’s Kerry Washington and Fatal Attraction’s Glenn Close are joining Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc in the murder mystery.

As has become tradition for a Knives Out Mystery, Wake Up Dead Man features a who’s who of must-see talent. Those already announced include Ripley and Fleabag actor Andrew Scott, Civil War’s Cailee Spaeny, and Josh O’Connor – who is fresh off of serving up a storm in steamy tennis drama Challengers. 

Their roles in the whodunnit aren’t yet clear but if past Knives Out movies are any indication, it’s going to be a mix of contemporary archetypes and well-rounded characters poking fun at the bad and the beautiful of modern-day society.

Wake Up Dead Man – a name taken from a 1997 U2 track – was first announced earlier in May, complete with a Daniel Craig-narrated teaser that proclaimed Benoit Blanc's "most dangerous case yet is about to be revealed".

Whatever comes next, expect something radically different to the frosty reception Benoit Blanc received by the Drysdales in 2019’s Knives Out and the sunny getaway-turned-mystery in Glass Onion.

"I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is," Rian Johnson wrote on Twitter prior to the announcement of the third Knives Out movie. “There’s a whole tonal spectrum from [John Dickson] Carr to [Agatha] Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies."

For more on what’s coming your way, check out our guide to upcoming movies.

Andrew Scott is the latest star to join the cast of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third installment in Rian Johnson's Knives Out franchise.

Per Variety, Scott joins the pic alongside Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War) and Josh O'Connor (Challengers). Johnson shared a brief teaser on his social media accounts last week, announcing the title, release window, and Daniel Craig's return to the role of Benoit Blanc.

"I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is," Johnson tweeted ahead of the title and teaser announcement. "There’s a whole tonal spectrum from Carr to Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies."

Knives Out grossed $312 million against a budget of only $40 million, and was followed by the 2022 sequel Glass Onion – which had a limited theatrical run before hitting Netflix.

Scott starred alongside Craig in Spectre, his second-to-last film as James Bond. The actor is perhaps best known for his role as cunning villain Moriarty in Sherlock (which inspired the Billie Eilish song 'You Should See Me in a Crown') and as the 'Hot Priest' in Fleabag season 2. He most recently starred in the critically acclaimed romantic fantasy film All of Us Strangers, starring opposite Paul Mescal.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is set to hit theaters and Netflix in 2025. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.

Knives Out 3 is filling out its cast. The next installment in the murder mystery series will see Josh O'Connor and Cailee Spaeny star alongside Daniel Craig, who returns as detective Benoit Blanc. 

Production on the movie, which is officially titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, is due to start next month. Other actors like Tom Hardy and Lindsay Lohan have been rumored to be involved with the project, but Craig, O'Connor, and Spaeny are the only confirmed stars. No plot details have been revealed, but it sounds like it might be going in a different direction from 2019's Knives Out and 2022's Glass Onion. 

"I love everything about whodunnits, but one of the things I love most is how malleable the genre is," director Rian Johnson recently tweeted. "There’s a whole tonal spectrum from Carr to Christie, and getting to explore that range is one of the most exciting things about making Benoit Blanc movies."

O'Connor's recent projects include tennis drama Challengers, opposite Zendaya and Mike Faist, and Italian drama La Chimera alongside Isabella Rossellini. He's also known for his role as Prince Charles in Netflix series The Crown, for which he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe. 

Spaeny, meanwhile, most recently starred in Alex Garland's actioner Civil War and Sofia Coppola's biopic Priscilla and can next be seen in Alien: Romulus, the next movie in the Alien franchise.  

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will be released sometime in 2025. For more, check out our guide to this year's biggest movie release dates.

Rian Johnson has officially announced the third installment in his massively successful Knives Out franchise – and yes, Daniel Craig will be back to solve another mystery.

Johnson shared a brief teaser on his social media accounts, revealing that Wake Up Dead Man is slated for a 2025 release date – and that Craig will indeed return as Detective Benoit Blanc.  

“In the beginning, the knives came out. Then, behold, the glass was shattered. But my most dangerous case yet is about to be revealed,” Craig narrates in the teaser. Plot details have yet to be revealed.

Knives Out followed Benoit Blanc as he investigated the murder of a wealthy patriarch in a dysfunctional family. The film grossed $312 million against a budget of only $40 million. Glass Onion, which had a one-week limited theatrical release before heading to Netflix, saw Blanc end up on a remote island in Greece for what appears to be a harmless 'murder mystery weekend' held by a tech billionaire – before, of course, a murder occurs. The sequel received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Annual Academy Awards.

The first movie, Knives Out, took its name from a Radiohead song. Glass Onion is a song off The Beatles' White Album, and the film included plenty of Beatles Easter eggs. 'Wake Up Dead Man' is a deep cut from the 1997 U2 album Pop.

Wake Up Dead Man is set to hit theaters and Netflix in 2025. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.

Prolific voice actor Tara Strong has responded to the new trailer of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, saying Mario's voice "should be Charles [Martinet]", Mario's voice actor from the games.

"No one should be judging Chris, he’s a fantastic actor…this is only about what’s right and Charles should have been offered the role," Strong tweeted, after commenting publicly on Pratt's casting in the lead role. 

"Voice actors - I’m gonna put my heart and soul in this for at least 20 years, help sell billions in merch, make the studios millions of dollars and make generations around the world happy. Hollywood - We don’t care," she tweeted.

After asking her 430,000+ followers to share their favorite stories about Martinet because "a certain earth angel could use some love tonight", Mario himself popped up in her mentions.

"I love you, Tara! Thank you so much!" Charles Martinet tweeted in reply. "Thank you, everybody!  Your love and kindness mean more than you could ever know and genuinely touched my heart. My little eyes seem to be leaking today… with tender affection. Thank you…"

"I love [Charles Martinet] so much that now we insist on being next to each other at all [conventions]," Strong added.

Have you seen The Super Mario Bros Movie trailer yet? One character that we didn't expect so many people to instantly fall in love with was the penguin king - at least, that's what Hope thinks.

The trailer starts off with a scene where Bowser is attempting to infiltrate the penguin's kingdom and although this scene is probably pretty standard if you're not very familiar with Mario's catalog of games, most Super Mario fans spotted that this group of penguins has actually been part of Mario's adventures for several years now. 

Can't get enough and want to know even more about the upcoming film? Jack Black says The Super Mario Bros. Movie has "musical aspects" 

Check out our guide to all of 2022's major movie release dates for everything else this year has in store.

Nintendo got everyone talking with the reveal of the first Super Mario movie poster, but probably not about what it was expecting.

In case you missed it, today Nintendo announced a new Direct for this Thursday all about the Mario movie, and in doing so revealed our very first look at the adaptation. The image shows a town of Toads and mushrooms and Cheep Cheeps and all sorts of Nintendoness, and front in center is an ass so flat it looks concave. You can just make out the pouch of air in the back of Mario's jeans where a vacuum of space exists in place of his derrière.

If there's one thing that never goes unnoticed on the internet, it's an ass of disagreeable proportions. Overwatch's Tracer ushered in the original "Buttgate" back in 2016, drawing valid criticism around the sexualization of a female video game character, but the 2022 version of this caboose-centered controversy is a lot more silly, thankfully.

Behold, Buttgate '22.

As you can see, some folks are simply poking fun at the plump-less plumber, while others are arguing against Nintendo's logic here. It's true that you'd expect a far more robust ass from someone that does as much legwork as Mario, but you also have to keep in mind that he's been butt-stomping hard surfaces for like, 26 years. I can only imagine the kind of damage that's done to his ischial tuberosity.

Anyway, hopefully we'll see if Chris Pratt's take on the character is any less or more flattering when the first Mario movie trailer debuts at New York Comic Con on Thursday.

The Mario movie is set to premiere in April 2023.

In the meantime, check out the best video game movies ever made.

Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline has been cast in Knives Out 2, reports Deadline.

Cline joins an ever-growing roster of high-profile talent to join the currently untitled Knives Out sequel. As Deadline notes, we don't know a whole lot about the plot of Knives Out 2, and likewise Cline's role in the sequel is unknown right now. 

In case you haven't heard all the exciting casting news to come out of Knives Out 2, so far the all-star cast includes Dave Bautista, Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., and, reprising his role as the brilliant private detective Benoit Blanc from the first Knives Out, Daniel Craig. 

With all of those big names attached, it's natural to want to know how exactly everyone's involved, how they're connected, and since Knives Out 2 is likely to be another whodunnit, well... who dun it? But as I mentioned, the only thing we know about Knives Out 2 is that Craig's Benoit Blanc is back at it with another big mystery to unfold. We also know production is scheduled to begin this summer in Greece, but that hardly tells us much about the story.

Rian Johnson is coming back to write and direct Knives Out 2, despite having a fairly loaded schedule. The Last Jedi director is still cooking up another Star Wars movie, and plans are already underway for a third movie in the Knives Out saga. Then there's the upcoming Peacock mystery series starring Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll), which Johnson is also writing and directing.

Cline found breakout success in the 2020 Netflix series Outer Banks, in which she stars as Sarah Cameron, AKA princess of the Kooks, daughter of Ward Cameron and John B's love interest. Cline also has acting credits in movies including Savannah Sunrise, Boy Erased, and This Is the Night, as well as TV series like Vice Principals, The Originals, and Stranger Things.

While we wait for Netflix to nail down a release date for Knives Out 2, check out our roundup of 2021's upcoming movie release dates - and read all about the best Netflix movies to stream now.

The first Monster Hunter movie trailer has arrived, showcasing Milla Jovovich's epic new action-adventure.

Unlike the games, the Monster Hunter movie's not pure fantasy: Jovovich's character leads a team of US army soldiers who are transported to a planet filled with monsters after a strange electrical storm. "Are we the Guardians of the Galaxy now?" jokes one of the soldiers. On that planet, the squad are recruited by Tony Jaa's Hunter to assist in their mutual survival. Watch the trailer below.

The Monster Hunter movie was originally due out earlier this year but was delayed until April 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, despite other movies being pushed back, Monster Hunter has been brought forward to this December. So we'll be escaping the cold and heading to the cinema to see this one. A teaser released earlier this year revealed a little more information.

The Monster Hunter movie has been written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who has brought multiple games to the big screen. Previous works include 1995's Mortal Kombat and the Jovovich-starring Resident Evil series. Anderson has also directed 1997's Event Horizon and 2004's Alien vs. Predator.

While we await Monster Hunter to arrive on December 30 in the States, December 4 in the UK, make sure to check out the best video-games movies of all time. Because there have been good movies based on games, we promise.

There's not long to go now until we finally get to see the live-action Monster Hunter movie, and to whet your appetite, director Paul W. S. Anderson took to New York Comic-Con – virtually, of course – to share new information about the upcoming film.

In the interview, Anderson talks about the movie's monsters, how Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa "dealt with those giant swords", Capcom's involvement, plus other "burning questions about his career".

In a separate interview also shared over the weekend, we also got a peek at the film's versions of Diablos and Rathalos in action. Here, take a peek (thanks, VG24/7):

The movie – which stars Milla Jovovich – was delayed from its original September release to April 23, 2021. However, last week Capcom dropped a new teaser that ended by promising the movie is out "only in theaters December", intimating the team has made up some of the time initially lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anderson is known for his work on various video game adaptations including 1995's Mortal Kombat and the Resident Evil film series that ended with Resident Evil: Final Chapter in 2016. Anderson also directed 1997's Event Horizon and 2004's Alien vs. Predator.

The plot of Monster Hunter follows Jovovich as Captain Natalie Artemis, a member of a US military team who falls into a portal and enters a foreign planet filled with hostile monsters. There, Jovovich and her military squad recruit Jaa's Hunter to assist in their mutual survival.

This isn't the only Capcom IP being translated into other forms of entertainment, of course. In addition to the Resident Evil Netflix series that was recently announced after reports last year indicated that a live-action show was in the works, the streaming service also recently confirmed yet another Resident Evil show is on its way – Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness.

In the meantime, check out some of the best shows on Netflix.

Here's our first cinematic trailer for Capcom's upcoming Monster Hunter movie.

The movie – which stars Milla Jovovich – was delayed from its original September release to April 23, 2021. However, this new teaser ends by promising the movie is out "only in theaters December", intimating the team might have made up some of the time initially lost to the COVID-19 pandemic (thanks, IGN).

The project is being written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who's known for his work on various video game adaptations including 1995's Mortal Kombat and the Resident Evil film series that ended with Resident Evil: Final Chapter in 2016. Anderson also directed 1997's Event Horizon and 2004's Alien vs. Predator.

The plot of Monster Hunter follows Jovovich as Captain Natalie Artemis, a member of a US military team who falls into a portal and enters a foreign planet filled with hostile monsters. There, Jovovich and her military squad recruit Jaa's Hunter to assist in their mutual survival.

This isn't the only Capcom IP being translated into other forms of entertainment, of course. In addition to the Resident Evil Netflix series that was recently announced after reports last year indicated that a live-action show was in the works, the streaming service also recently confirmed yet a Resident Evil show is on its way – Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness.

The surprise announcement was scuppered somewhat by a premature tweet from Netflix Portugal, but the show was officially revealed a short while later at Tokyo Game Show. Not much is known about the new venture, but the CGI series is thought to debut sometime in 2021 and looks to star the protagonists from Resident Evil 2, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. 

In the meantime, check out some of the best shows on Netflix.

Elementary, my dear Netflix. The streaming service appears to have cracked the code when it comes to knowing exactly what we want to watch. First Tiger King; now Enola Holmes – a detective movie starring Millie Bobby Brown as the child sister of the iconic Sherlock Holmes. Henry Cavill will be donning a deerstalker as the iconic detective, while there’s another name that might just whet the appetite: Helena Bonham Carter.

The new Sherlock Holmes movie will be an adaptation Nancy Springer’s book series The Enola Holmes Mysteries, which features Enola, sister of Sherlock and Mycroft, hunting for her missing mother after she disappears on Enola’s 16th birthday. Bobby Brown will star as Enola with Cavill as Sherlock.

Outside of that premise, not much is known about the upcoming Netflix movie. It’s simply “coming soon” and the cast also includes Bonham Carter and Peaky Blinders actor Sam Claflin. As if it couldn’t get any more British, it’s also being directed by Harry Bradbeer, who helmed all 12 episodes of Fleabag.

In fact, this might be the next time we see Henry Cavill or Millie Bobby Brown on Netflix. Cavill is set to return as Geralt in The Witcher season 2, though that has paused production for the time being. Stranger Things season 4, meanwhile, had only partially filmed scenes and completed table reads before the COVID-19 pandemic and is still without a release date.

In case you need to bulk out your watchlist in the meantime, here’s our round-up of the very best Netflix has to offer.

• Everything new on Netflix this month 
• The best Netflix movies 
• The best Netflix shows 

Surprise! To celebrate director David Lynch's 74th birthday, Netflix has uploaded a new short film from the auteur filmmaker, in which he interrogates a talking monkey. Yes, it's as weird as it sounds.

The short – titled What Did Jack Do? – sees Lynch's smoking detective exchange barbs with the animal, named Jack, at an apartment near a train station. According to the credits, the monkey is played by Jack Cruz, who appears as himself. The film comes it at just over 17 minutes, and makes for a remarkably strange watching experience.

What Did Jack Do? was filmed in 2016, and screened at Lynch's New York event, Festival of Disruption, in 2018. However, it has never previously been available online before, and is essentially a Netflix original. Anyone with a subscription and a passing interest in Lynch's filmography should search the short out immediately.

Birth.Movies.Death points out that, a few months ago, rumours swelled that Lynch and Netflix may be working together, as the director was spotted around the streaming service's HQ. Unfortunately, nothing has been announced as-yet regarding any new releases, though the release of the short film certainly shows that they have a working relationship. Whatever the case, it's exciting that Netflix are trying out weird and wonderful things like releasing a surreal short on one of our favourite filmmaker's birthdays.

Want more Netflix content? Then check out our list of the best movies on Netflix.

Monster Hunter fans started to worry about the series' upcoming movie adaptation after lead actress Milla Jovovich - who you may know from the Resident Evil movies - shared some curious set photos on Instagram which looked more like a modern military shooter than a Monster Hunter game. So the movie's latest photo (via IGN) comes as a relief, as it looks much more authentic and will hopefully calm some disgruntled fans. 

The photo features Jovovich as original character Natalie Artemis, and actor Tony Jaa (who's starred in Furious 7 and several martial arts movies like Ong Bak) as the aptly named Hunter. Both are done up in gear taken straight from Monster Hunter: World, with Jovovich sporting what seems like a mix of Odogaron, Alloy, and Hunter armor with a pair of dual blades that look to be from the ore tree. Jaa, meanwhile, is styled after the Field Leader from World, and is wielding the Giant Jawblade greatsword and the Great Hunter's bow, with what appears to be a bone sword on his back. Dual-wielding would be one thing, but where'd you get that hybrid loadout, mate? 

Speaking with IGN, director Paul W.S. Anderson described Jovovich as "the audience's avatar," so her armor is meant to represent the mixed sets Monster Hunter players routinely craft in their pursuit of the best stats and armor skills. Anderson also discussed some of the areas in the movie, including the Wildspire Waste-inspired desert in the new photo; the film will also feature rocky landscapes, lush jungles, and ancient ruins. 

Production house Screen Gems also released the official plot synopsis. Here's the full blurb: 

"Behind our world, there is another: a world of dangerous and powerful monsters that rule their domain with deadly ferocity. When Lt. Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her loyal soldiers are transported from our world to the new world, the unflappable lieutenant receives the shock of her life. In her desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers and unstoppable, revolting attacks, Artemis will team up with a mysterious man who has found a way to fight back." 

Personally, all I want from the Monster Hunter movie is to see people smack cool CG monsters with oversized weapons, optionally while delivering cheesy B-movie one-liners. If it at least has that, I'll be happy. I'd also love to see the Guildmarm from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate make an appearance, and I'd still be down for a more conventional story about an up-and-coming hunter climbing the hunting guild ladder, but you can't have everything in life. 

In 2016, Anderson said the Monster Hunter movie is meant to kickstart a new film franchise, and that the sequel is already in planning. 

Between The Walking Dead’s decline and goofy filler like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the pressure’s on to sharpen zombies’ bite. Colm McCarthy’s The Girl With All the Gifts managed it; so did Yeon Sang-ho’s rattling-good Train to Busan. Now, writer/director David Freyne’s feature debut tackles its revivalist task boldly, splicing a zombies-as-allegory premise with the ‘infected’ sub-genre’s untamed instincts and plenty of raw-nerve feeling to toothsome ends.

Despite some rough edges in the plot and character departments, Freyne’s blend of kitchen-sink pungency, charged politics, and pummelling shocks harnesses the conviction needed to hold up besides its more obvious precedents. Echoing 28 Days Later via the BBC’s dearly departed In The Flesh, Freyne conjures a set-up in which 75 per cent of those infected by Ireland’s zombifying Maze Virus have been cured, the ‘resistant’ remainder quarantined. Discharged to live with sister-in-law Abbie (Ellen Page) and her son, recovered zombie Senan (Sam Keeley) faces close monitoring and deep social prejudice. And his wobbly position is not steadied by secrets pertaining to what happened between him and Abbie’s husband.

But Senan is not alone. There’s Conor (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), a barrister-turned-cured-zombie lumbered with custodial work. And a resistance group has formed of ex-zombies dead set on incinerating zombie-phobia, making the threat of internecine conflict seem inevitable.

Terror and terrorism, bombs and bite, resentment and reintegration: even if the powder-keg subtexts aren’t subtle, Freyne deploys the tools at his disposal to land them with a wallop. Jens Rosenlund Petersen’s fluent sound mix ranges from suspense-building near-silence (hungry panting aside...) to slamming shocks with an assaultive clout that makes the jump-jolts hit home. Adding emotional ballast to his metaphors and something-around-the-corner scares, Freyne works in the fertile idea that the cured can recall their time as drooling beasties, every guilty (and messy) chow-down included.

If these densely layered themes aren’t always fully integrated with the demands of characterisation, the compensations are many. Piers McGrail’s crisp cinematography, some sharp set-design conceits (watch out for the bus posters...) and a mordant gag about McDonald’s combine nicely to create a well-wrought realisation of a traumatised Ireland, whose history lends the unmistakable punch of specifics to Freyne’s take on nations scarred by division.

Against this persuasive backdrop, the cast give it their all. Between this and the rootsy assurance of Freyne’s handling, the dead just banked another lunge at redemption.

• Release date: Out now (US)/May 11, 2018 (UK)
• Certificate: 15 (UK)/R (US)
• Running time: 93 mins

It was recently reported that although David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a critical and financial success, Sony were going to reboot the franchise with a new actress (possibly Alicia Vikander) rather than continue with a sequel. But it looks like Rooney Mara did not get that memo.

Mara - who earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander - was speaking to E! Online ahead of the release of her upcoming romantic drama Carol, and by all accounts the actress is determined to play the resourceful hacker again: "As far as I know I’m doing it until someone tells me otherwise. I’m doing it unless someone tells me that I’m not, and then I still might do it".

It seems a little strange that Sony producers Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin haven't reached out to Mara to let her know the status on a Dragon Tattoo sequel or otherwise. If the previously reported reboot is going ahead, replacing the lead actress would make sense. At the same time, considering how good Mara was in the role - and how resolved she seems to be in wanting to reprise it - it would make an equal amount of sense for Sony to keep her on. Looks like someone has a decision to make...

David Fincher's adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a critical success back in 2011, with Rooney Mara even bagging as Oscar nomination for her performance as the resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. But its $233 million box office take was a slight disappointment given the film's $90 million budget so, Sony have opted to reboot the franchise rather than move forward with the sequel.

The second book in the series is The Girl Who Played with Fire, but according to The Hollywood Reporter Sony are skipping straight to the fourth book, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight has been tapped to write the screenplay, and Mara and her co-star Daniel Craig won't be returning. That leaves the door open for other talented thespians to join the popular franchise, and The Wrap is reporting that Alicia Vikander is an early favourite to claim the role.

Vikander's involvement is not surprising as over the past two years she's established herself as one of Hollywood's brightest young stars with films such as Ex Machina, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Danish Girl. Plus, with a major role in Bourne 5 coming up soon, her star is only set to rise. As Mara replacements go, you could do far worse.

Out on Friday 25 September

Dane DeHaan is James Dean. Andrew Garfield has a twist on househunting. Craig Roberts is the director, writer and star of his own film. Yes, heres this weeks new releases. Click on for our reviews of Life, 99 Homes, Just Jim, Arcade Fire: The Reflektor Tapes, Orion: The Man Who Would Be King, Palio, Miss You Already, Mia Madre, McFarland, USA, Captive, Solace and Lessons In Love. For the best movie reviews, subscribe to Total Film.

LIFE

According to Ansel Adams, there are always two people in every photograph: the person whos in it and the person who took it. That description springs to mind watching Life, snapper-turned-director Anton Corbijns study of the relationship between photojournalist Dennis Stock and 50s teen icon James Dean. Avoiding the obvious angles, Corbijn frames Life (as in Life Magazine) as a snapshot of Stock and Dean at their most interesting moment both teetering on the cusp of fame and fortune, and both reluctantly using and abusing each other to try and get ahead. Set in a few wet weeks before the release of East Of Eden in 1955, it paints Dean (Dane Dehaan) as a man unsure he even wants to be a film star. Mumbling through interviews, playing the bongos in a cow field and taking speed with Eartha Kitt in seedy New York nightclubs, Dehaans Dean is a strung-out beatnik who likes to keep reminding himself that hes a rebel without a cause. Even more conflicted is Stock (Robert Pattinson), the over-eager agency hack whos washed-up at 27, constantly shelving his personal problems to try and dig himself out of his creative rut. With the balance of their friendship hinging on whos getting the most out of it, Life amounts to an elegantly crafted, intensely cynical, double portrait of the artist as a young man. Dehaan winces and whines through Deans hipster lingo, delivering a mesmerising, twitchy performance that somehow still gets overshadowed by Pattinsons quiet background presence. Its tempting to read the Twilight stars turn as deeply personal, given hes playing someone hankering to be taken seriously in his field. Intimately played but shot at a professional distance, Life chills everything with a steely winter palette; the effect is to bring Stocks most famous frames to life with slightly more depth of field than depth of feeling. Cold but cutting, its a sad, beautiful Beat biopic THE VERDICT: DeHaan and Pattinson are both on career-best form in Anton Corbijns stylish, chilly love letter to his favourite photographer. Life is beautiful even when its full of ugly ambition. Director: Anton Corbijn Starring: Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Paul Bradshaw

99 HOMES

An Englishmans home is his castle, even if the Englishman in question (Andrew Garfield) is playing an American one Dennis Nash, a single dad who is kicked out of the Orlando house he shares with mum Lynn (Laura Dern) and son Connor (Noah Lomax) when they fall behind on the mortgage payments. The man wielding the eviction notice is one Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), a real-estate broker who is making a killing refurbishing repossessed residences (at uncle Sams expense!) and selling them on for a profit. Yet instead of contemplating a killing of his own, Dennis goes to work for this pitiless scumbag, discovering along the way he has a talent for inflicting the same humiliations he himself has suffered. A Faustian morality tale with topical trappings, 99 Homes is an indignant film about a pressing societal imbalance whose sympathies are clearly with the people whose belongings end up on the sidewalk. Yet its also one in which the devil gets all the best lines. Shannons Carver justifies his conduct with America is for winners! rhetoric Gordon Gekko might have spouted three decades hence. Stood next to this sneering, vaping, grandstanding powder keg, Garfields conflicted, wavering everyman cant help but seem the lesser character, even if he does have the more significant arc. Given its a story about odds being stacked against the little guy, its strange that director Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo, Man Push Cart) lets his nominal hero be so comprehensively outgunned. Then again, as Training Day showed, there is always a fascination in watching a callow novice get seduced by a charismatic scoundrel, especially one who knows how to manipulate the law to feather his own nest. Yet perhaps Bahranis greater achievement is to make the minutiae of property foreclosure no less compelling: a scene in which Garfield steals a vacated homes air conditioner has all the sweaty tension of a bank heist or drug raid. THE VERDICT: Whos that knocking at the door? Pray it isnt Shannon, icily magnetic as a man who collects houses like hes playing real-life Monopoly. If only Garfield had a part to match. Director: Ramin Bahrani Starring: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Tim Guinee, Laura Dern, Noah Lomax, Clancy Bro Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Neil Smith

JUST JIM

Hugely influenced here by his role in Richard Ayoades Submarine, actor Craig Roberts makes his debut as writer/director at the grand old age of 23, no less with this oddball coming-of-age yarn set in rural Wales. Roberts plays Jim, a social outcast at school who, out of the blue, is taken under the wing of his new neighbour, the American-born Dean (Emile Hirsch), who promises to make him cool. Despite the debt to Ayoade, it still feels personal: the dialogue is sharp, the humour wicked and the atmosphere off-kilter. While the final act unravels, for a first feature its impressive. Director: Craig Roberts Starring: Craig Roberts, Emile Hirsch, Nia Roberts, Richard Harrington, Aneirin Hughes Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 James Mottram

ARCADE FIRE: THE REFLEKTOR TAPES

Fusing fancy dress, Caribbean carnivals and Kierkegaard in a dizzy kaleidoscope of sounds and images, The Reflektor Tapes is exactly the sort of concert film youd expect from alt-rockers Arcade Fire. Recontextualising the album experience, its a sub-sonic nosedive through the bands collective subconscious as they write, record and perform their 2013 LP, Reflektor. About as abstract as it sounds, Kahlil Josephs experimental doc also finds space for some intimate interviews with the band. Essential watching/listening/chin-scratching for any fan. Director: Kahlil Joseph Starring: Will Butler, Regine Chassagne, Richard Reed Parry, Win Butler, Tim Kingsbury Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Paul Bradshaw

ORION: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING

After 2013S The Great Hip Hop Hoax, Brit docu-maker Jeanie Finlay excavates a forgotten rocknroll swindle in her haunting reverie on fame and ambition. Finlays subject is Alabamas Jimmy Ellis, an Elvis Presley-ish singer who enjoyed late-70s success as masked mystery man Orion. Grieving Elvis fans swallowed the fantasy that the King lived, until dodgy management and creative frustration Ellis hated being masked killed the dream. Her approach isnt radical, but Finlay explores fames wicked game stylishly, conjuring sly truths about the intangibility of success. Director: Jeanie Finlay Starring: Jimmy Ellis, Shelby Singleton, Jim Ellis Jr, Nannette Uselton Clark, Michael McCall, Nancy Crowson Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Kevin Harley

PALIO

In Siena, a horse race exists that (depending on your capacity for cynicism) either makes a complete mockery of the sport or a fun fetish of its potential for illicit goings-on. As Cosima Spenders dazzling documentary makes clear, the centuries-old Palio, comprising 17 competing districts, is a game of legitimate corruption, where bribery is near-compulsory, riderless horses can still win (even if the jockey has fallen off mid-race), and riders are allowed to flay one another alive with dried ox penises making these 90-second races more akin to Rollerball with hooves. Frenetic, startling and brutal. Director: Cosima Spender Starring: Gigi Bruschelli, Giovanni Atzeni Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Ali Catterall

MISS YOU ALREADY

It would be easy to be cynical about this cancer-centric dramedy given the recent spate of weepies wringing the subject for every last tear; sadly, Miss You Already does itself few favours as it follows rebellious Milly (Toni Collette) and her struggle with the disease, supported by jolly best bud Jess (Drew Barrymore). Director Catherine Hardwickes (Twilight) middle-class vision of London life grates, and much of the humour falls flat. Collette, though, delivers an upsetting, vanity-free turn that cuts to the truth of this devastating disease. If only the rest of the film had followed her lead. Director: Catherine Hardwicke Starring: Drew Barrymore, Toni Collette, Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Josh Winning

MIA MADRE

Both a film about filmmaking and a shrewdly understated character study, Italian writer/director Nanni Morettis Mia Madre focusses on middle-aged director Margherita (Margherita Buy), whose mother (Giulia Lazzarini) lies terminally ill in a Rome hospital. margherita is also in the thick of a problematic film shoot, in which the temperamental star (an amusing John Turturro) is struggling to even remember his lines. Moretti sensitively explores the unexpected feelings thrown up by an impending bereavement: its his most satisfying work since 2001s The Sons Room. Director: Nanni Moretti Starring: John Turturro, Margherita Buy, Giulia Lazzarini Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Tom Dawson

MCFARLAND, USA

Hot on the heels of Draft Day and stirring fond memories of Bull Durham, Field Of Dreams and Tin Cup comes yet another Kevin Costner sports movie. He plays Jim White, a disgraced football coach whos no sooner moved to McFarland, CA than he spies the running potential of some of his dirt poor Mexican students, and starts a crosscountry team. Its a true story, albeit clichd and Disneyfied as Kev learns to embrace the Latino culture en route to a predestined finale. But hey, the manipulations work and Costners homely charm is very much in evidence. Director: Niki Caro Starring: Kevin Costener , Maria Bello, Morgan Saylor, Martha Higareda, Michael Aguero, Sergio AvelarTheatrical release: 25 September 2015 Jamie Graham

LESSONS IN LOVE

Richard (Pierce Brosnan) is a Cambridge prof whose love of Byron extends to his Lothario lifestyle, yet a move to America with new flame Jessica Alba sparks belated growing up. Tom Vaughans farce is a tonal misfire, its soft-focus satire marooned between outdated, offensive British bawdiness and banal Californian self-help platitudes. Only a suitably louche Brosnan anchors an unsettled plot that desperately scrambles Duis, deportations and unconvincing romantic complications with Salma Hayek (Albas disapproving sister). Vaughan once nailed this genre in Starter For 10, but fails his university challenge here. Director: Tom Vaughn Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, Malcolm McDowell, Ben McKenzieTheatrical release: 25 September 2015 Simon Kinnear

CAPTIVE

Veteran TV director Jerry Jameson fails to think bigger than the small screen with this flat, preachy true story drama about a killer on the run (David Oyelowo) connecting with the recovering drug addict he takes hostage (Kate Mara). Both leads fully commit, but they cant save a film lacking in drive. With focus given to both characters finding faith during their confinement, their road to redemption seems implausible, and dubious morals abound. Not least because we are expected to sympathise with a multiple murderer just because he starts paying attention to a self-help book. Director: Jerry Jameson Starring: Kate Mara, David Oyelowo, Mimi Rogers Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Matt Looker

SOLACE

Any film in which an FBI agent asks Anthony Hopkins to help him track down a serial killer risks comparisons to a certain 1991 Oscar grabber. This time around, he plays a resting clairvoyant whose psychic powers are the only thing standing between a loony toon who offs terminal cases and his next victim. Throw in Abbie Cornish as a Clarice-alike and some Matrix-aping slo-mo, and its clear Brazilian director Afonso Poyart is struggling for new ideas. Hopkins breezes through it all with a twinkly charm, but he is all that props up this derivative grab-bag of gotcha shocks. Director: Afonso Poyart Starring: Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish Theatrical release: 25 September 2015 Neil Smith

It's not easy filling the shoes of someone like Jason Statham, but that's exactly what Game of Thrones actor Ed Skrein will be doing when he gets behind the wheel in The Transporter Refueled, the first new film in the Transporter franchise since 2008. It's out on Friday 4th September on both sides of the Atlantic (and spelt Refuelled with a British double L in the UK). Of course, that's not all he's involved in at the moment, as Skrein will also be playing the role of villain in the Deadpool movie.

GamesRadar+ caught up with Skrein at San Diego Comic-Con 2015 to find out more, and in the process learned about martial arts, how The Transporter is like Doctor Who, and Skrein's favorite superhero. (Personal sidenote: solid choice, Mr. Skrein) You can watch the entire interview below:

THE TWO JAKES...

Jake Gyllenhaal gives not one magnetic, alert yet opaque performance here. He gives two.

As history prof Adam Bell, Gyllenhaal is a dry, corduroy sad-sack. As doppelganger actor Anthony St Claire, he’s all sunglasses, leather jacket and sex appeal. When Bell fixates on St Claire after seeing him on DVD and dreaming of him, director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) tips us into dream-state cinema. As Bell stalks St Claire, identities blur, pregnant/not pregnant lovers (Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon) look on suspiciously, and the shadows of two movie giants loom heavily: Lynch for surrealism, Hitchcock for suspense.

Anyone expecting clarity might be alienated right from the sex-club intro. But Enemy isn’t just an exercise in obscurity. The sound mix alone induces shudders, ranging from a nerve-tensing hum to a score (from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans) that never lets its grip slip.

Villeneuve directs with a similarly tight fist, his hold becoming more decisive as ambiguities mount up. He knows how to use humour (Isabella Rossellini’s knowing cameo) and humanity (Gadon’s anchoring performance) to stave off charges of pretension. He knows the value of juggling provocative themes – about masculinity, infidelity, duplicity – without dropping. And he recognises the value of Gyllenhaal, sharpened by working for a director who knows he can withstand a bit of stretching.

If you leave wondering if Enemy is a study in identity’s slippery boundaries, a riff on urban unease or just an arachnophobe’s hell, you’ll also leave knowing you’ve watched something that merits repeat viewing.

A PHAROAH TO REMEMBER...

After two middling installments, the third Night At The Museum is finally one to remember – though not perhaps for the reasons Ben Stiller and director Shawn Levy might have hoped for when they began shooting their London-based trilogy-closer last February. Since then, of course, we’ve bid farewell to both Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams, lending a poignancy to proceedings that, if unearned, still makes for a more touching finale than fans of the film’s 2006 and 2009 predecessors may have been expecting.

There's also an element of genuine jeopardy this time around, a weird “green rust” on the series’ Egyptian relic-slash-MacGuffin threatening to rob it of its exhibit-animating powers. That’s bad news for Williams' Teddy Roosevelt mannequin, Owen Wilson’s miniature cowboy and the rest of Stiller’s nocturnal buddies, though not for a series that benefits hugely from a plot-mandated change of locale, a new (British) museum and a fresh bunch of waxworks for night-owl Larry to hang with.

Ok, so we could have done without Stiller’s caveman doppelganger ‘Laaa’. But this is more than compensated for by Dan Stevens’ Lancelot, a swaggering newbie straight out of Python with a Buzz Lightyear-like aversion to admitting he’s not real. The scene in which he gatecrashes a revival of Camelot is a particular hoot. But the most inventive sequence has Larry and Teddy plunge into an MC Escher painting, an interlude so dazzling you can almost overlook the weeing monkey.

Throw in Ben Kingsley as a Pharaoh, a giant serpent and some living Elgin Marbles and this is a surprisingly decent send-off for a saga that’s taken a while to come to life. One question though. Is it a legal requirement that every montage of the English capital be scored with ‘London Calling’?

New Zealand special effects house Weta has been at the forefront of motion capture since it threw Andy Serkis in a white jumpsuit and turned him into Gollum. And they once again worked on the performance capture for this year's Gary Oldman-starring Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Directed by Matt Reeves and written by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the movie (the eighth cinema release in the Apes franchise) also stars Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. For its Blu-ray release (already out in the UK and Australia, out Tuesday 2 December in the US) GamesRadar+ got to travel to their Wellington studio to see firsthand how they turned actors into apes.

Some things change, while others stay the same. While motion capture has come a long way since The Lord Of The Rings, the tight lycra body suit is a staple of motion capture.

Thats because the reference points those shiny balls that reflect the infrared light thats used to record mocap data cant move around on the actors body or else they throw the mocap data all out of whack.

For Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, the team at Weta created a robust, active mocap jumpsuit. Instead of using reflective balls located around the body, it instead uses a series of infrared LEDs powered by a compact battery pack worn on the back of the suit.

This system allowed the Weta team to record motion capture data on location in the Vancouver rainforest rather than their warehouse mocap studio in Wellington, giving the cast and crew a much more natural recording environment.

Once the actors are all suited up, they stand on a small stage and get scanned for a series of bodily movements. These scans are recorded in real time to test the actors range of movement in a variety of poses and actions.

Some software then compresses the actors dimensions to that of the digital character they are playing, be it a slightly shorter, more muscular chimp in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, or a taller, lankier Navi in Avatar.

Wetas mocap studio consists of several rooms, with an array of special cameras carefully set up around each room. Each camera lens is surrounded by powerful infrared LED lights, which beam out invisible light that reflects off the balls on the actors lycra suit. The cameras then record that information in three dimensions in real time.

The software is intelligent enough that it can superimpose characters on set into the shot with a low-resolution model of the actors character in real time, giving the team the opportunity to record the action in multiple takes, all without leaving the studio.

Because ape biology is somewhat different to human biology, what with the longer arms and powerful shoulders, for certain scenes the actors needed to walk around on set using special crutch-like arm extensions.

According to some of the actors used in the film, it took about an hours worth of intense training to get the hang of ape-movement, and was a pretty incredible thigh workout.

What makes the Weta motion capture technology so impressive isnt just the characters movement, but the emotive performances the actors give. To capture that performance, the lead actors would often wear a head-mounted face camera, that captured every minute detail of the actors facial performance in real time.

This performance gave the animators a detailed reference that they could use to make the apes in the movie convey the wide gamut of emotions needed.

Theres a lot more to creating the final apes performance than just recording the actors face though. The team at Weta create highly detailed computer models of each character, based on real human and ape biology, with the ability to control every part of the apes face.

The model for Andy Serkis Ceasar, for example had over 240 muscle sets to control, giving the animators the tools to recreate every aspect of Serkis performance.

Once the facial model has been completed, its up to the animators to fine-tune the end result. Often, its a case of adding imperfections to create a level of believability, from leaves and dirt in the apes hair, to developing a system to display the effects of rain on the apes face and body.

In many cases, viewers wont actually notice many of the things the animators add to the frame, which is exactly what the effects team wants once you stop seeing a CGI creation and instead watch the digital character, their work is done. Thanks to Fox Australia for organising the trip to Weta to see the magic happen!

THE HAIRY FIGHTERS

What’s the difference between a dawn and a rise? If you assume that the dawn of something is its first appearance and the rise is its ascension, then the titles of 2011’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and this latest instalment should really have been swapped. Setting aside this semantic rabbit hole, though, it’s fair to say that Andy Serkis has been front and centre for both the dawn and the rise of motion capture.

Gollum was the first fully realised character performed through motion capture, but he was one compelling figure out of many in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, whereas Serkis’ wounded, dignified ape Caesar represents the first mo-cap character to surpass his human counterparts. In Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, it’s Caesar and his fellow primates who bring the suspense, the stakes, the emotional payoff and even much of the humour, in contrast to the underwritten people in the mix. In short, the apes are the reason to watch.

That’s a double-edged sword for Matt Reeves’ hardened sequel, which takes place 10 years on from its predecessor, in a world where a killer virus has wiped out most of human civilisation and allowed apes to rule. Interspecies tensions run high, but a small band of survivors, led by Jason Clarke’s Malcolm attempt to reconcile with Caesar and his kind, in the hopes of securing a power source for the San Francisco tower in which they live.

While the script from Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver is never heavy-handed in its allegory, the real-world weight of Dawn’s conflict is tangible: humans carry guns out of fear, which only fosters hostility in the apes who encounter them, leading inevitably to messy standoffs. It’s via a handful of misunderstandings that the war escalates, with rage-fuelled ape Koba (Toby Kebbell) spinning lies in a bid to snatch power from Caesar. Even as the conflict becomes more and more clearly exposed as a farce, the aggressors on both sides – Gary Oldman’s essentially decent but fearful Dreyfus being the human equivalent to Koba – only grow more determined to win by any means necessary.

The production was beset early on by troubling behind-the-scenes rumours, with Rise director Rupert Wyatt bowing out over creative differences and (reportedly) a too-tight production schedule. Whatever the truth, there’s nothing remotely rushed about Reeves’ imposing and brutal depiction of a gutted San Francisco. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was all about good intentions, and Dawn paints an effectively hellish portrait of where that paved road has led.

Clarke’s hollowed-out yet hopeful Malcolm is the most nuanced of the human characters, largely by virtue of his touching dynamic with Caesar who shares his optimism and desire for peace. But Keri Russell is wasted as former CDC nurse Ellie, whose sole role is to tag supportively along behind Malcolm before disappearing for the final act, while Caesar’s simian love interest Cornelia (Judy Greer) has barely two minutes of screen time.

This is a dystopian future in which the Y chromosome holds absolute power, which you can see either as an intentional foible, or an irritating blind spot. Between the time jump and Reeves’ washed-out, bleak visuals, the more innocent world of Rise feels very distant indeed, but the emotional significance of those events is sustained. In one key moment Caesar watches decade-old footage of himself with his former human owner Will (James Franco), a bond that has echoes in the relationship that forms with Malcolm.

It’s just one of many moving, thrillingly detailed pieces of acting from Serkis, who has never been better served by the mo-cap technology. Despite its thinly drawn humans, DOTPOTA is a soulful, thrilling blockbuster packed with genuine tension and subtle political commentary, leading to a climax that elegantly combines payoff and setup.

Blu-ray offers Reeves chat-track, eight quality featurettes and deleted bits including an ape in a twiggy wig.

Extras

• Commentary (BD)
• Featurettes
• Deleted scenes (BD)
• Gallery