Latest in Illumination

“Don’t get excited,” Despicable Me franchise star Steve Carell told a filled Colosseum at Caesars Palace before Universal’s presentation of Minions: The Rise of Gru. “I have no gifts for you and no jokes about my balls,” quipped Carell, a reference to Jo Koy’s stand-up bit before him for Uni’s Easter Sunday, and the…

Universal/Illumination's Minions: The Rise Of Gru has been set to open the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in a world premiere on June 13. The fest is returning to a fully in-person event after last year's hybrid edition. Annecy and the Minions franchise have a long history, going back to 2010's Despicable…

Illumination and Universal have set release dates for their forthcoming animated films Migration and Despicable Me 4. The former original will be released wide on June 30, 2023, opening against the untitled fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The latest installment in…

Before the first Sing movie was finished, writer-director Garth Jennings had already begun planning the sequel. With the success of the first film, it was inevitable that he would go on to create Sing 2. Directed by Garth Jennings, Sing 2 follows after the events of the first movie as Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey)…

Well, just as Omicron threatens to torpedo our holiday comes the perfect antidote, a bright lively musical animated sequel to 2016’s delightful Sing. If the original was all about chasing your dreams, this edition is all about seeing how far you can take them. Do we believe? Yes, we do, at least in this “hey kids let…

Feeling bullish about Sing 2, the animated sequel hitting theaters December 22, NBCUniversal and parent company Comcast are using it for their annual Thanksgiving promotion for Xfinity. Much longer than the usual 30 seconds of most TV commercials, Comcast’s cinematic spots for its flagship broadband and TV brand have…

Sing 2 writer-director Garth Jennings still doesn't know "what magical fairy helped me" secure pop music icon Bono for a crucial role in the sequel to his blockbuster animated musical-comedy, but he suspects it's all about the eclectic spectrum of songs the film employs. "When we went after him, I didn’t think he…

During its presentation at CineEurope in Barcelona, Universal celebrated the success of the past weekend's James Bond pic, No Time To Die, which grossed $121.3M across 54 Uni and MGM markets, setting a new pandemic record as the first film to cross $100M overseas in its opening without China in the mix. In keeping…

Illumination and Nintendo have put together a powerhouse voiceover cast for their upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated movie which will hit cinemas on Dec. 21, 2022; that date also being news today. Playing the fraternal, mushroom digesting plumbers and squashers of turtles are Chris Pratt as Mario and Charlie Day as…

Universal joins Disney and 20th Century Studios in planning a theatrical release schedule for 2024, however, the studio didn’t name any titles. The only hardcore titles that has been dated in 2024 is Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s Mad Max spinoff Furiosa on May 24, Memorial Day weekend, starring Anya Taylor-Joy…

Heading into the opening remarks of CinemaCon on Tuesday morning, Illumination founder and CEO and Despicable Me franchise producer Chris Melendandri gave an impassioned speech about moviegoing and why the big screen is vital. Among his sentiments: Without the big screen, there would be no streaming. The two go hand…

On Tuesday, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group announced that it is launching a new Animation Writers Program, aimed at uplifting underrepresented voices in film and television. The writers selected for the program’s inaugural cohort are Shari Coleman, Kiana Johnson, Senibo Myers, David Ngo and Joe Winters. Each was…