“Elio” is a flop, which sucks because the movie is actually rather fun. It’s got great alien designs, an entertaining story, and a Carl Sagan quote designed that will make you quite emotional about the possibilities and power of science while also just reminding you of one of the most fascinating minds to walk this planet in the last century.
Sure, it’s easy (and not unfair) to blame the marketing for the failure of “Elio” at the box office, combined with the competition from other, higher-profile films. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that this simply wasn’t Pixar’s best. What’s more, reports have surface that the movie suffered heavily behind-the-scenes, undergoing creative changes that resulted in a vastly different film hitting theaters than the one imagined by the project’s creator and original director.
An article by The Hollywood Reporter highlights the series of changes made to the film and its story, ranging from the erasure of its queer elements to the movie’s Latino representation being all but removed. This is also what led to voice actor America Ferrera and director Adrian Molina leaving the project, and reading the report, it’s hard not to be furious at how Pixar ruined what could have been a very special film (by turning it into one that’s just fine) because it was afraid of how the public would respond … yet no one bothered to see the movie anyway.
The queer erasure of Elio
Pixar
According to the report, Elio (Yonas Kibreab) was initially queer-coded and meant to reflect the fact that Molina is an openly gay filmmaker himself. Though sources say Molina didn’t envision the movie as a coming out story due to Elio being only 11 years old, there were nevertheless moments that quite clearly hinted at the character’s sexuality.
For instance, the report mentions a sequence shown to Pixar employees two years ago in which Elio “collected trash on the beach and turned it into homemade apparel that included a pink tank top,” as well as a scene that reveals Elio’s bedroom is adorned with pictures “suggesting a male crush.” As one former Pixar artist told THR, “It was pretty clear through the production of the first version of the film that [studio leaders] were constantly sanding down these moments in the film that alluded to Elio’s sexuality of being queer.”
Unfortunately, growing feedback from Pixar leadership led to Elio becoming more typically masculine instead, with the report citing an early test screening in which viewers indicated they liked the film but didn’t feel a strong desire to see it in a theater. This isn’t an issue specific to any one movie, either; rather, it’s a larger issue that Disney helped create (with Disney CEO Bob Iger having admitted that sending select Pixar movies straight to streaming was a terrible idea). Soon after the test screening, along with a separate screening for Pixar leadership, Molina exited the project, and the movie was reworked under its new co-directors Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi.
“I was deeply saddened and aggrieved by the changes that were made,” former Pixar assistant editor Sarah Ligatich, who is a part of the company’s internal LGBTQ group PixPRIDE, told THR. “The exodus of talent after that cut was really indicative of how unhappy a lot of people were that they had changed and destroyed this beautiful work.”
Elio ended up being a movie about nothing
Pixar
In addition to the queer erasure, there is something else missing from the final film — Elio Solís’s Latino identity. Given Molina’s background and the voice cast of “Elio,” one would naturally expect the film’s main characters being Latino would play a crucial role in the story. Instead, that’s not at all the case with the movie, which feels like a hugely missed opportunity.
Indeed, when “Elio” was first announced back in 2022, Ferrera took the stage at Disney’s D23 fan event to describe her role as Olga, Elio’s mom. But in the final film, Zoe Saldaña plays Olga, now Elio’s aunt. According to THR, sources at Pixar say Ferrera had already recorded dialogue for her role, but she exited the film after Molina’s departure. Specifically, one former Pixar source said, “America was upset that there was no longer Latinx representation in the leadership.” Which, yes, she should be. You don’t just name your main character Elio Solís, recruit a Latino voice cast, and include a parental figure who works in the military for absolutely no reason.
These two big changes take away enough from “Elio” that the final film feels devoid of an identity. As it stands, audiences got a fun but unremarkable film, a bland Pixar summer flick that — as test screening audiences reportedly said — you don’t really need to see in a theater.
Of course, the queer erasure in “Elio” isn’t entirely new. Just last year, it came to light that Pixar’s Disney+ series “Win or Lose” scrapped a transgender storyline at the behest of studio higher-ups. If Pixar is to save face, regain the trust of audiences, and enjoy success with something other than sequels, then it needs to start letting its creatives, well, create rather than robbing their art of the very things that make it meaningful.
The sequel to the beloved film The Devil Wears Prada is advancing, but one of the characters from the 2006 original movie won’t be in the follow-up.
Monday, it was announced on social media that the movie begins production this week. Filming takes place in New York and Italy. Stars returning from the first film include Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci. Meanwhile, Kenneth Branagh has joined the cast for the sequel. However, Adrian Grenier, who played Hathaway’s character’s boyfriend, Nate, in the first movie, will not be in the second film, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The 2006 movie is based on the book of the same name and follows Andy Sachs (Hathaway) a recent college graduate, working as an assistant for Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of fashion magazine, Runway. Nate (Grenier), complains about her demanding schedule and is often critical of her working in fashion. That leads them to break up.
At the end of the movie, Andy leaves fashion journalism behind to work at a newspaper as viewers see Andy and Nate reconciling and on good terms, again. So, when it came to casting, fans were wondering if the Entourage star was coming back, too.
However, what’s previously been reported is that the upcoming film will see Priestly deal with print magazines struggling. Her other former assistant, Emily (Blunt) is now a powerful advertising executive that works with Runway. Branagh will portray Priestly’s husband, while Tucci will reprise his role of Nigel, Runway‘s art director.
The Devil Wears Prada2 will hit theaters May 1, 2026. Below, see the announcement about production beginning.
Toho’s “Godzilla: Final Wars” gave its hated monster a humiliating second death in a fight against the real Godzilla. Between Matt Reeves’ “Cloverfield,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim,” and Legendary Pictures’ ongoing MonsterVerse franchise, Tinseltown has been establishing itself as a reliable hotspot of kaiju entertainment, and in 2006, Korean director luminary Bong Joon Ho of “Parasite” and “Snowpiercer” fame put his own spin on the theme with one of the greatest monster movies ever made, “The Host.”
There’s still always room in the market for another truly great monster movie, though, especially one with a truly unique premise. Fortunately, Netflix has precisely that on offer. Fans of Godzilla should absolutely check out Roar Uthaug’s 2022 Norwegian monster movie “Troll,” which dives deep into ancient Norwegian mythology about massive trolls living deep within the country’s mountains … and brings it to modern age when a 150-foot mountain troll wakes up and heads toward the country’s capital, Oslo. The movie boasts an impressive 90% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, and with “Troll 2” slated to arrive on December 1, 2025, this is the perfect time to hop in on this smart, Nordic take on the kaiju genre.
Trolls are a virtually untapped source of kaiju horror
Netflix
Trolls are, of course, heavily associated with the fantasy genre, but they have made the occasional appearance in movies that aren’t exclusively about swords and sorcery. Arguably, the most prominent “serious” troll movie in recent years is 2018’s “Border,” Ali Abbasi’s Swedish film about Tina (Eva Melander), a very strange customs officer who discovers an unexpected soulmate in the equally peculiar Vore (Eero Milonoff) and learns some extremely surprising things about herself. On the giant monster movie front, however, trolls have been comparatively underused. One example that springs to mind is another Norwegian offering. 2011’s comparatively crude but charming found footage-style film “Troll Hunter” (by “The Last Voyage of Demeter” director André Øvredal) features numerous troll threats of all shapes and sizes, including a very massive mountain troll.
Netflix’s “Troll,” on the other hand, focuses exclusively on the big guy, and as such is a better watch for a full-on kaiju fan. It goes through all the familiar monster movie beats, but the hefty infusion of Norway’s very real fixation with troll mythology keeps things fresh. The impending arrival of “Troll 2” is proof enough that the formula is a success … and while I wouldn’t necessarily put the first film’s impressive mountain troll up against the King of Monsters, the primal, “walking mountainside” threat it poses to humans makes it a very worthy giant monster.
The hotly anticipated first trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s next film, The Odyssey, has been released into the wild.
Universal has placed the trailer for the film — billed as a “mythic action epic” — in front of Jurassic Park Rebirth, which has its first screenings Tuesday evening.
The trailer wasn’t officially released online. Nolan prefers his trailers to be a cinematic experience, and the first teaser trailer for his Oscar-winning 2023 blockbuster Oppenheimer likewise debuted only in theaters.
Yet, unfortunately for Universal and Nolan, smartphones exist. So almost immediately, the trailer popped up on X (and the resulting video is, needless to say, less than cinematic in quality). The Hollywood Reporter is not linking to the leaked trailer, though there’s a description of it below.
Releasing the trailer so early is a bit unusual, as The Odyssey is still filming and not being released until July of next year. But giventhat the new Jurassic World film is expected to open to at least $100 million at the box office and represents Universal’s biggest and safest bet on its release docket for months, coupling Jurassic with the first push for Nolan’s big event film makes sense.
Since the adaptation of the ancient Greek epic poem isn’t finished, it’s perhaps no surprise the resulting trailer is very much a teaser. The teaser opens with shots of a dark ocean along with the voiceover: “Darkness. Zeus’ law smashed to pieces. I’m without a king since my master died. He knew it was an unwinnable war. And then, somehow, he won it.”
Then the trailer shows a scene with Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son Telemachus having a conversation with an as-yet-unnamed character played by Jon Bernthal.
“I have to find out what happened to my father,” Telemachus says, to which Bernthal’s character says loudly to a room, “Who has a story about Odysseus? You? You have a story? Some say he’s rich. Some say he’s poor. Some said he perished. Some said he’s imprisoned.”
Then the trailer shows driftwood at sea with a man laying on it — presumably Matt Damon as the Greek king.
In addition, the celebrity-filled cast includes Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Mia Goth.
The Odyssey has a budget of $250 million, which will make it the most expensive film of Nolan’s career. It will be shot entirely using Imax cameras, making it the first film with a major scope to do so. While one is tempted to use the word “gamble” to describe the project, the billion-dollar success of Nolan’s atomic energy biopic a couple years back proved yet again he’s one of the few directors who can reliably open a film, and The Odyssey‘s epic scope and star-filled cast should prove a major draw.
The classic story follows the king of Ithaca as he undertakes a long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War. The original story has Odysseus encountering a succession of mythical beings such as the Cyclops Polyphemus, the Sirens, the enchantress Circe, and travels to the Underworld.
Filming got underway in February at locations in Greece, Morocco and Italy. The film is slated to be released July 17, 2026.
Those familiar with author Tom Robbins will likely understand how unusual his books tend to be and how non-conducive they seem to be to filmic adaptation. He wrote his second novel, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” in 1976, and it was considered striking by readers, a kind of earlier, more whimsical version of Ken Kesey.
The main character, Sissy, was born with abnormally large thumbs that extend as far as her index fingers. Her thumbs, it turns out, make her an exceptional hitchhiker, giving her a near-supernatural control of vehicles. She aims to hitchhike to New York City to become a model for a powerful tampon company overseen by a dandyish man who goes by the title The Countess (John Hurt).
In the book, Sissy marries a young, handsome Mohawk man named Julian. In Van Sant’s adaptation, Reeves plays Julian, although he plays a smaller role. Sissy meets him in New York, but the two have no real fling, which is different from the book. He merely remains a man she desires. Later in the film, Sissy will have an affair with the bisexual cowgirl Bonanza Jellybean (Rain Phoenix). The two also, in turn, have their own affairs with a cave-dwelling sage played by “The Karate Kid” star Pat Morita.
The plot is truly odd. After Sissy models for the Countess, she moves to his “beauty ranch,” called the Rubber Rose Ranch, overseen by Jellybean. The cowgirls who live there are hellbent on drugging the local crane population (!), so they cease migrating and remain out of danger. Cops and other agencies all try to invade the ranch, but the women scare them off with their, uh, feminine odors. The picture ends with a shootout.
“Even Cowgirls” is peppered with cameos from notable actors in addition to Reeves, such as Ed Begley, Jr., Angie Dickinson, Rosanne Arnold, Sean Young, Heather Graham, Carol Kane, Udo Kier, Lin Shaye, and Edward James Olmos. Ken Kesey plays a small part, and William S. Burroughs (who also appeared in Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy”) has a cameo as himself.
Watch it if you can. Sadly, it’s not on streaming.
Inevitable Foundation continues to ramp up its efforts to platform disability in Hollywood with the launch of its own production company.
The first-of-its-kind Inevitable Studios will serve as the content wing of the advocacy and research non-profit, focusing on the development, production and marketing of film and television told through a specific diversity lens. Key to the initiative is the hiring of disabled writers and filmmakers, which make up a fraction of the entertainment industry workforce, but the programming goals are hardly niche.
“We’re looking for commercial projects across all genres that have disability in the DNA,” says Inevitable co-founder Richie Siegel. “That can mean a lot of things, but these are not projects that have disability slapped on — checking some box, where it feels performative. Think about a film like A Quiet Place. If you remove deafness and sign language, there is no movie. The whole thing falls apart. That’s a litmus test for how to build a story where disability is baked in.”
Across three films, that horror franchise has grossed more than $900 million at the global box office. But the fact that there are few examples beyond A Quiet Place, though Siegel eagerly praises Ramy Youssef-produced Ramy and Mo, underscores the dearth of intrinsic diversity in storytelling.
Such inadequacies are more noticeable when taking the scope of disability into account. Inevitable cites a disability community — covering those with physical disabilities, invisible disabilities, chronic illnesses, neurodiversity and mental health conditions, in addition to their family, friends and caregivers — that represents more than 70 million Americans across 20 million households. “It is such a large audience that you’d think someone must have already done this,” adds Siegal.
Siegal and his fellow co-founder, screenwriter Marisa Torelli-Pedevska, have envisioned a production arm since the foundation launched at the top of 2021. “We always knew we wanted to make stuff,” he says. “But we wanted to spend a lot of time building up the relationships with writers, filmmakers, agents and managers. I think we’ve developed our tastes and have a really strong understanding of what the audience wants. Now we can really cook.”
With substantial development fund to commission projects and invest in IP, Inevitable Studios will focus on stories with disability and caregiving baked into the narratives. Siegal and Torelli-Pedevska will lead the production company, with Paramount and Overbrook alum Clarence Hammond serving as senior advisor. The goal is to invest significant time and money into development before seeking financing for filming and partners for distribution and then, when the time comes, lend Inevitable’s understanding of the disability audience to market the projects.
“The early phase is so incredibly important for us,” says Siegel. “We want the space for writers and filmmakers to build the foundation in ways that have real commercial legs. Once that is in place, then we’ll go find those partners. Development is a beast and it’s so easy for the soul of a thing to get lost as more hands come in.”
Talking about the push, Siegel seems particularly eager about theatrical releases, though streaming and television across all genres are also part of the Inevitable Studios plan. The inaugural development slate is still being narrowed down, and the group is bullish on what happens after that — even if the industry headwinds aren’t exactly in anyone’s favor at the moment.
“Yes, in some ways, it is a very wild time to be doing this,” says Siegel. “At the same time, there’s a lot of opportunity. I think that with a lot of the challenges that the industry is facing, whether it’s ticket sales or fickle attention spans, we’re here saying, ‘Hey, there’s this audience no one is paying attention to.’ And maybe that’s part of the solution.”
