Latest in Universal

Universal Pictures has renamed The Voyage Of Doctor Dolittle to simply Dolittle. The film will still be released wide on its previously announced date of January 17, 2020. . The move marks yet another shuffling for the film, which originally was slated for an April 12, 2019 release date, then moved to January 17…

EXCLUSIVE: Ashleigh Powell is adapting Kim Liggett’s novel The Grace Year which hits store shelves today, a project that Elizabeth Banks will direct for Universal. Back in January, we broke the news about Banks optioning the novel to direct for Universal and produce through her and Max Handelman’s Brownstone banner…

Universal’s Global Talent Development and Inclusion have unveiled the participants for the 2019 Directors Initiative. The initiative has also expanded their partnerships to include the American Black Film Festival and the New York Latino Film Festival. In addition, NBCUniversal Filmmasters will join veteran partners…

DreamWorks Animation has added two more feature toons to its 2021 slate, the Untitled Spirit Riding Free movie based on its Netflix series on May 14, and The Bad Guys on September 17 based on Aaron Blabey’s bestselling Scholastic book series. This raises the Glendale studio’s release count for that year to three…

Raising the stakes on the war picture subgenre, Sam Mendes’ 1917 is told in one long camera shot. The Universal release tells the story of two young British soldiers during WWI who are given an impossible mission: deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop their own men, and Blake’s own brother, from…

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Universal Pictures and Mandeville Films are in development on Treasure Island, a new feature take inspired by the 1883 Robert Louis Stevenson novel which two-time Oscar nominated How to Train Your Dragon filmmaker Dean DeBlois will direct. Beauty and the Beast scribe Evan Spiliotopo…

Universal Pictures has entered into a five-year exclusive production partnership with Oscar winner Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions, who were behind the studio’s combined half-billion-grossing successes Get Out and Us.  The commitment continues to speak to the studio’s emphasis on a diverse film slate, not…

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has acquired a pitch for an untitled romantic comedy from Home Again filmmaker Hallie Meyers-Shyer, for which she'll write and direct. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but we hear that the project will be a modern spin on the romantic comedy genre. Amy Pascal will produce through…

Universal has dated News of the World for December 25, 2020. Pic will go up against DreamWorks Animation’s Croods 2 and an untitled Paramount/Skydance event movie. The pic, which reteams Tom Hanks with his Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass, will come in the wake of pre-Christmas releases next year: 20th…

EXCLUSIVE: The Walking Dead actor Thomas Francis Murphy has joined Universal’s News of the World in the role of Merritt Farley opposite Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel. Based on the best-selling novel by Paulette Jiles, News of the World, set in the post Civil War period, follows the unlikely friendship between Captain…

Universal had already reserved Aug. 14, 2020 on the calendar, and today they announced that the title opening on that date will be the Bob Odenkirk feature Nobody, which is described as John Wick meets Falling Down.  Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell,  the guy you don't notice.  A suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing…

Following the success of their theatrical trinity — The Visit, Split and Glass — Universal and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan are back in business with two untitled thrillers that will be released on February 26, 2021, and February 17, 2023. Shyamalan independently financed these past three films with a combined…