Following up her Best Picture-nominated Past Lives, Celine Song has officially unveiled her next feature. Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, The Materialists is a romantic comedy that follows “a professional matchmaker who gets involved with a wealthy man but still harbors feelings for the broke actor-waiter she left behind,” Deadline reports. Once again backed by A24, producers Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler of Killer Films, and 2AM’s David Hinojosa, the project is aiming to start shooting this spring, so expect a 2025 release.
Also on the 2025 release calendar is likely Kogonada’s third feature following Columbus and After Yang. Reteaming with Colin Farrell with Margot Robbie also starring, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is said to be an “imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them,” Deadline reports. With production beginning this spring in California, it’ll be Robbie’s second project after Barbie, following her reteam with Ryan Glosing for an Ocean’s Eleven film prequel.
Following Tori and Lokita, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne are embarking on their next film, with casting now underway ahead of a shoot beginning this August, IONCINEMA reports. While no plot details have been unveiled yet, the casting notice is for teenagers.
Paul Greengrass has a star for his next project. Matthew McConaughey is boarding The Lost Bus, Deadline reports, a Brad Ingelsby-scripted adaptation of Lizzie Johnson’s book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire. With Apple circling, McConaughey would play bus driver Kevin McKay, who, along with school teacher Mary Ludwig, led a school bus full of children through safety during the deadliest fire in California history, 2018’s Camp Fire.
The first image has been unveiled for Tom Tykwer’s first feature in nearly a decade, following 2016’s A Hologram for the King. Set in contemporary Berlin, The Light follows “a family on the verge of collapse and new beginnings that deals with the big issues of our times, in a world that is reeling.” With a cast featuring Tala al Deen, Lars Eidinger, Nicolette Krebitz, Elke Biesendorfer, Julius Gause, and Elyas Eldridge , the family “seemingly have nothing left to hold them together when housekeeper Farrah enters their lives. The mysterious Syrian woman puts the Engels’ emotional world to an unexpectedly wild test.” See the first look below via Deadline.
Gia Coppola has already wrapped production on her latest film, The Last Showgirl. Starring Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, and Billie Lourd, Deadline reports the film “follows a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. As a dancer in her fifties, she struggles with what to do next. As a mother, she strives to repair a strained relationship with her daughter, who often took a backseat to her showgirl family.”
Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones have boarded the latest film from Jockey director Clint Bentley, an adaptation of Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams. Scripted by Bentley and Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing), Deadline reports the film follows “Robert Grainier (Edgerton), a day laborer employed as a logger helping to expand the railways across America. Forced to spend prolonged periods of time away from his wife, Gladys (Jones), and their young daughter, Grainier struggles to make sense of his place in a rapidly changing world. As his story unfolds, he experiences great love, unspeakable loss and unique bonds, on a journey that is both distinct and universal.”
Stephen Frears is set to begin shooting his next feature Wilder & Me in early 2025, Deadline reports. Maya Hawke will play Calista, a young musician whose life takes on a whole new meaning while working on the set of Billy Wilder’s (Christoph Waltz) film Fedora. John Turturro will play Wilder’s collaborator and friend I.A.L. Diamond and Jon Hamm will play William Holden.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson will star in the next feature from his Outlaw King director David Mackenzie, titled Fuze. Written by Ben Hopkins, the film opens on the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb in a London construction site, sparking a mass evacution – the perfect cover for a heist.
Last, and certainly least, Chris Rock is remaking Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, Deadline reports.