VARIETY – Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Tom Waits have joined Brad Bird‘s “Ray Gunn” voice cast.

Johansson, Rockwell and Waits will join voice actor John Ratzenberger in the Skydance Animation feature.

According to the logline, “Ray Gunn” is set in Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, where private eye Raymond Gunn is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova.

Johansson who voices Nova said, ““Having the opportunity to collaborate with Brad Bird is a career milestone for me; I have loved his work my entire life. This project is so uniquely special because it is a total realization of where Brad is currently on his artistic journey. I can’t wait for audiences to see this extraordinary animation that looks like nothing else out there.”

Bird is on board as producer, writer and director. He helmed 2004’s “The Incredibles” and 2018’s “Incredibles 2,” and this marks his first film since 2018. Bird is also suiting up again to write and produce “Incredibles 3” slated for release in 2028. He said, “‘Ray Gunn’ has been in my mind for over 30 years. The film is a blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the ’40s…it’s Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. I’ve been a fan of both of those sort of genres, and blending them together seemed fun, and a chance to play with a lot of very cinematic elements, and extreme characters.” He added, “There’s a big chunk of people who don’t watch animation. That’s a group I’m anxious to persuade because it’s an amazing art form that is way too limited in people’s minds. Animation as a medium is too interesting to limit what kind of stories can be told.”

Skydance Animation’s John Lasseter, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg are set to produce the film which will be released by Netflix later this year.

In 2023, Skydance Animation struck a deal to exclusively release its animated movies directly to Netflix in an arrangement that spans multiple years.

Earlier this year, Netflix won the animated feature Oscar for “KPop Demon Hunters” which became its most-watched movie of 2025.

Also on its animation slate are the upcoming “Steps,” featuring Amanda Seyfried as the voice of Cinderella, and “Swapped,” abuddy comedy about a small woodland creature (voiced by Michael B. Jordan) and a majestic bird (voiced by Juno Temple).

Johansson was the recipient of Variety’s Legends and Groundbreakers Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2025. She worked her way up to being the industry’s top-paid female star, locking in (and later fighting to be fairly compensated for) that title as Marvel’s Black Widow character.

Last year, she appeared in “Jurassic World: Rebirth” and she brought her feature directing debut “Eleanor the Great” to Cannes. Next up, she’s set to appear in the “Exorcist” movie for Universal and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.

Scarlett visited Colbert and took The Colbert Questionert.

Scarlett stars in this year’s Super Bowl commercial for Ritz alongside Jon Hamm and Bowen Yang.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Mike Flanagan, who previously tackled Stephen King adaptations ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘Doctor Sleep,’ is writing and will direct the feature film.
Scarlett Johansson will star in Mike Flanagan’s “fresh, bold” take on The Exorcist.

Blumhouse and Universal are behind the latest attempt to revive the horror franchise, which follows the companies’ ill-fated effort to launch a franchise with 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer.

Flanagan wrote the script and is directing and producing the new feature that is not a remake nor a sequel but set in the Exorcist “universe,” whatever that entails.

The original Exorcist, based on the novel by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, focused on the demonic possession of a young girl and the priests that try to save her. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars. The various follow-ups mostly featured stories centered on the girl (now grown-up), the back stories of the priests or other demonic cases detectives from the first movie investigated.

“The Exorcist is one of the reasons I became a filmmaker, and it is an honor to have the chance to try something fresh, bold and terrifying within its universe,” is how Flanagan described the project when his involvement was announced in May 2024.

At the time, David Robinson, chairman and CEO of Exorcist rights holder Morgan Creek, said, “I think his vision for this franchise is going to stun audiences worldwide.”

Details on the take are being kept strapped to the bed.

Flanagan, who is known for directing Stephen King adaptations such as Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game as well as creating TV shows such as Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House, is producing via his Red Room Pictures banner. David Robinson is producing for Morgan Creek Entertainment while Jason Blum and Ryan Turek serve as producer and executive producer respectively for Blumhouse.

Johansson last starred in Universal’s Jurassic World: Rebirth, which grossed over $868 million worldwide and proved that the studio’s long-standing dino movie series still had the chomps when it came to attracting audiences.

If you missed it, watch the entire interview of Scarlett and June Squibb talking about Eleanor the Great with Kelly Clarkson.

PEOPLE – The pair play mother-daughter again in Scott Thomas’ moving directorial debut, ‘My Mother’s Wedding’
Kristin Scott Thomas has an onscreen family bond with Scarlett Johansson.

Back in 1998, when Johansson was just 13 years old, the pair played a mother-daughter duo in Robert Redford’s acclaimed drama The Horse Whisperer. Now, 27 years later, the Marvel star is back playing Scott Thomas’ onscreen daughter for a second time in My Mother’s Wedding.

The film marks the directorial debut from The English Patient Oscar nominee. As she tells PEOPLE, Johansson was her top pick for the role of a Royal Navy captain who reunites with her two sisters (played by Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham) for the third wedding of their twice widowed mother (Scott Thomas).

“She’s an extraordinary actress,” Scott Thomas, 65, says of Johansson, 40. “I was very, very happy to find her again.”

The two hadn’t kept in touch over the years, Scott Thomas says, save for bumping into each other “from time to time.”

“It’s very easy to lose touch when you are a film actor because you go from one project to the next,” she explains. “You swear to a never-ending friendship and then gradually something else distracts you.”

My Mother’s Wedding is an especially personal project for Scott Thomas, who co-wrote the film with her husband John Micklethwait. Similar to Johansson’s character, Scott Thomas herself suffered major tragedies in her childhood: at 5 years old she lost her father, and when she was 12, her stepfather died — both were Royal Navy pilots who were killed in service.

Scott Thomas says she “talked a lot” about her personal story with her three onscreen daughters to help inform their performances. “When you are playing family, you sort of become family,” she says.

Johansson especially had an “immediate” reaction to the film’s screenplay, Scott Thomas remembers.

“I literally gave it to her, and 24 hours later she said yes because she was very moved by the story.”

Over the weekend, it was announced that Scarlett’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great starring June Squibb and Erin Kellyman will be released theatrically nationwide in the US and Canada on September 26, 2025. Today, it was announced that the film will have it’s North American premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival earlier in the month.

The film follows Eleanor Morgenstein (June Squibb), who is trying to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.