Madison Meeks 

Editor-in-Chief

mvm7037@psu.edu

Pixar’s ‘Soul,’ ‘Turning Red’ and ‘Luca’ coming to theaters 

Pixar will be releasing films in theaters that, since COVID-19, have been labeled as Disney Plus originals. Coming to theaters in 2024, ‘Soul,’ ‘Luca,’ and ‘Turning Red’ will be released in the first three months of the new year. Tickets for these movies are going on sale on January 2. ‘Soul,’ which was released in 2020, was the very first Pixar film that came out exclusively on Disney Plus during the 2020 quarantine when theaters were closed. ‘Luca’ was released in 2021, and ‘Turning Red’ in 2022 on the streaming service before Pixar made its return to theaters with ‘Elemental’ during summer 2023. According to Variety, ‘Soul’ will be released in theaters on January 12, ‘Turning Red’ on February 9, and ‘Luca’ on March 22. These three films will lead fans to the Pixar release of the new film ‘Inside Out 2’ in June 2024. 

‘Barbie’ gets a Max release date.

 Everyone’s favorite doll is coming to streaming. Streaming giant Max announced that the highest-grossing 2023 film will be hitting the service on December 15, 2023. The film was not only the 2023 highest-grossing film but also took over the music charts with ‘Dance the Night’ by Dua Lipa and “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish. 

Movies and TV show release dates get moved around due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

According to Vulture, “…for the first time in 63 years, the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild were on strike at the same time”. While the writers hit the picket lines at the beginning of May, the screen actors started striking in mid-July. Both strikes had caused movies and television productions to be pushed back. Here is a list of some major productions that were affected by the strike:

“Deadpool 3” – the anticipated superhero film was delayed to pausing during filming was slated to be released on May 3, 2024. Now, it has been pushed back two months until July 26, 2024

“Captain America: Brave New World” – originally slated for a July 26, 2024 release. The pausing of the filming for “Deadpool 3” caused this film to give up its date and be rescheduled to be released on Valentine’s Day 2025.

“Venom 3” – is yet another sequel film to be delayed. This film originally was supposed to be released on July 12, 2024, but it was announced that the release would be pushed back just hours after SAG-AFTRA had reached a deal to end the strike. The new release date of the film is November 8, 2024, so fans only have to wait a few months extra to see the film.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” – this prequel film follows the story of Simba’s dad before he became king. Planned for a July 5, 2024 release date, the film was pushed back a few months till December 20, 2024.

“Minecraft” – the film based on the popular video game, was set to start filming in August 2023. But the strike had caused production to be suspended. The date of the film is still currently set for April 4, 2025, but it might be delayed depending on how long production will be shut down.

“Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” – had a scheduled release date of March 29, 2024, but due to the strike, it now has an unknown release date.

“A Murder at the End of the World”- The FX limited series had been delayed from its original August 29 release date. The series was finally released on November 14 after SAG-AFTRA had struck a deal.

“Andor” – Filming for the popular ‘Star Wars’ show was paused until the strike ended. According to Vulture, the show was originally planning to keep filming with the actors working under agreements with the British acting union but could not continue filming without the cast members who work under SAG-AFTRA.

Glee cast reunites to finish unreleased Naya Rivera track for charity.

According to Entertainment Tonight, Naya Rivera’s co-stars from her time on ‘Glee’ have honored the singer-actress by performing one of her unreleased tracks. Co-Stars Kevin McHale, Heather Morris, Ashley Fink, Vanessa Lengies, Amber Riley, and Jenna Ushkowitz had reunited to add some finishing touches to Rivera’s unreleased song “Prayer for the Broken,” which was originally recorded in 2012. The track was released on Friday, December 1. The song was released a little over three years after Rivera’s tragic death. Proceeds from the track will be donated to charity, as stated by Entertainment Tonight.

Sandra Day O’Connor Died

Famous for being the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor unfortunately has passed away. According to Entertainment Tonight, she died of complications related to having dementia and a respiratory illness. The news of her death was released in a statement by the Supreme Court. O’Connor was diagnosed with dementia in 2018 and then withdrew from the public eye. She revealed her diagnosis in an open letter in 2018. After more than 15 years of being on the Supreme Court, O’Connor had stepped down from her position. 

Two ‘Scream 7’ stars are not returning to the film.

Is ‘Scream 7’ going to happen? Two of the film’s main cast members have left the production. According to Entertainment Weekly, Melissa Barrera, who played the role of Sam Carpenter, had been fired from the film franchise after posting a series of posts on social media about the Israel-Hamas war, which the company Spyglass Media who owns the Scream franchise, had called ‘hate speech.’ Jenna Ortega has now revealed that she will not be returning to the franchise. Ortega played the part of Tara Carpenter in the two most recent films. Deadline has reported that Ortega’s exit has to do with a scheduling conflict with the second season of the Netflix series ‘Wednesday.’ This is not the first time that the film franchise has lost stars before. Most recently, Neve Campbell announced that she would not be returning to the franchise due to a salary dispute.