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'Avatar' and 'Star Wars' Films Revealed at Disney Event

Every two years, thousands flock to a California convention center, dressed as their favorite Disney princesses and heroes, for D23. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File
Every two years, thousands flock to a California convention center, dressed as their favorite Disney princesses and heroes, for D23. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File
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'Avatar' and 'Star Wars' Films Revealed at Disney Event

Every two years, thousands flock to a California convention center, dressed as their favorite Disney princesses and heroes, for D23. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File
Every two years, thousands flock to a California convention center, dressed as their favorite Disney princesses and heroes, for D23. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File

Disney lifted the lid on "Avatar: Fire and Ash" and presented new footage from "Star Wars" and Pixar movies at a giant showcase in front of 12,000 fans in California on Friday.
"Avatar" director James Cameron took the stage at the company's biennial D23 fan gathering to announce the name of the latest installment of his sci-fi franchise, due out December 2025, said AFP.
"The new film is not what you expect. But it's definitely what you want," teased Cameron of his third visit to Pandora.
The previous two "Avatar" films are the highest and third-highest grossing movies of all time, earning $5.2 billion combined.
Images from the new movie, currently in production in New Zealand, showed its blue Na'vi characters dancing around a campfire, as well as images of giant floating ships and flying beasts.
The director promised higher emotional stakes, and "new cultures and settings and creatures and new biomes."
"You'll see a lot more Pandora, the planet, that you never saw before," he said.
The fourth and fifth "Avatar" films are scheduled for 2029 and 2031.
Also in Friday's presentation, Disney fans saw a first glimpse of "The Mandalorian and Grogu."
Out in May 2026, it will be the first "Star Wars" film since 2019's divisive "The Rise of Skywalker."
Disney, which had been churning out a new "Star Wars" film every year to that point, dramatically slammed the brakes in the face of diminishing box office returns.
"We're putting 'Star Wars' back on the big screen,'" said Dave Filoni, producer of the new movie -- which is spun off from streaming series "The Mandalorian," and will feature its beloved Baby Yoda.
Footage showed the cutesy creature and his mercenary friend speeding around a snowy planet.
On the television side, Jude Law plays a Jedi in "Skeleton Crew," streaming in December.
The kid-centric show is "in the spirit of... coming-of-age films of the '80s like 'The Goonies' and 'E.T.,'" promised Law.
'Who else?'
The giant D23 fan gathering caters to and showcases the obsessive loyalty of Disney's most die-hard devotees.
Every two years, thousands flock to a California convention center, dressed as their favorite princesses and heroes.
Tickets -- ranging from $80 to an eye-watering $2,600 VIP pass -- allow attendees to spend yet more money on rare merchandise, and watch starry presentations unveiling new films, shows and theme park rides.
"Who else but Disney could pull off a weekend like D23, right?" CEO Bob Iger asked the packed crowd at Anaheim's NHL professional ice hockey arena, to cheers.
Seconds later, the suited executive was replaced on stage by a troupe of hula-ing Polynesian dancers and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, promoting "Moana 2."
But beneath the euphoria, Friday night's presentation of new movies and TV shows comes at a key time for Disney.
The company's Pixar and Marvel franchises have suffered uncharacteristically poor runs in recent years, with high-profile flops like "Lightyear" and "The Marvels."
Disney's stock price remains well below half its 2021 peak. Rounds of cost-cutting have seen thousands of jobs cut since last year, mirroring trends across Hollywood.
This summer has brought welcome relief, with monster hits "Deadpool & Wolverine," and "Inside Out 2" -- already the biggest animated film of all time.
'Toy meets tech'
Pixar on Friday announced "Hoppers," a new animated movie about a young girl who can "hop" her brain into a robotic beaver.
Out in spring 2026, it will follow her undercover adventures into the animal world, where she befriends a "regal beaver" called King George, and helps battle an evil mayor voiced by Jon Hamm.
And Pixar's "Toy Story 5," out a few months later, will see the beloved toys vie with electronic devices like phones and tablets for children's attention.
"This time around, it's toy meets tech," said director Andrew Stanton.

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Movie Review: ‘Cuckoo’ Is a Stylish Nightmare, with a Wonderfully Sinister Dan Stevens

This image released by Neon shows Dan Stevens in a scene from "Cuckoo." (Neon via AP)
This image released by Neon shows Dan Stevens in a scene from "Cuckoo." (Neon via AP)
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Movie Review: ‘Cuckoo’ Is a Stylish Nightmare, with a Wonderfully Sinister Dan Stevens

This image released by Neon shows Dan Stevens in a scene from "Cuckoo." (Neon via AP)
This image released by Neon shows Dan Stevens in a scene from "Cuckoo." (Neon via AP)

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: I did not entirely understand everything that happens in “Cuckoo," a new indie horror in theaters Friday.

This could be more of a me problem than with the storytelling, but there are a lot of strange things happening at this particular Alpine resort. It's run by a bespectacled German hotelier named Herr König, played with an off-kilter menace by Dan Stevens.

Some of the occurrences are underexplained, others underexplored. Herr König seems particularly worried about things that happen after dark, but not so much about guests wandering into the reception and general store in a wobbly stupor and vomit. Are they drunk? Sick? Should someone help them? All we get is: “It happens.” The hospital, too, is eerily empty.

Sonic vibrations often ripple through the land, causing scenes to repeat until reaching a violent crescendo. And no one seems to listen to or care about anything 17-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) has to say, no matter how banged up she gets. The quick escalation of her injuries, and the widening disinterest of her father, approaches comedy.

Ambiguity can be wonderful for mystery and worldbuilding; It can also be frustrating. And more often than not, detailed explanations just make everything lamer. “Cuckoo” dips into all of the above. Even so, it is undeniably fascinating, original and even occasionally fun, in a very twisted and deranged way in which laughter is your involuntary response to something horrifying. In her captivating lead performance, Schafer really goes through it, both physically and emotionally.

It also features Stevens sporting tiny, rimless glasses with sinisterly scandi-cool monochrome outfits, and a screaming ghoul with Hitchcockian glamour in a hooded trench and white-framed oval sunnies. Rarely is it a bad idea for a horror film to lean into style, and “Cuckoo” fully commits.

“Cuckoo” is the brainchild of German director Tilman Singer, but credit also goes to Singer’s predecessors: The works of David Lynch and Dario Argento among them. Gretchen is a reluctant resident in the idyllic, modern home with her detached father (Martin Csokas), stepmother (Jessica Henwick) and mute half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu). She leaves increasingly desperate messages on her mother’s answering machine in America.

It’s certainly an exaggerated but apt portrait of a new family where the remnants of the old are treated like a nuisance. When Alma starts having seizures during the vibrations, which no one but Gretchen seems to remember or acknowledge, the parents’ attention turns fully to the young girl. They can barely be bothered to care about Gretchen's miraculous survival of a horrifying car wreck; Alma is in the same hospital because of the episodes.

As with many horrors, the big reveals were, for this critic, a little underwhelming — a strained attempt at a unifying theory for this weird place that doesn’t add much ultimately. And yet the emotional connection to Gretchen and her complex relationship with Alma does pay off in unexpected ways.

Also, Stevens deserves special acknowledgement for his contributions to “Cuckoo.” This is a man who could have easily languished in blandly handsome leading man roles and instead is becoming one of our great character actors. He is regularly the best and most memorable part of whatever he’s in just by his sheer commitment to going there, whether it’s his Hawaiian shirt wearing titan veterinarian in “Godzilla x Kong,” his Russian pop star in “Eurovision” or any number of his deranged horror characters. He and Schafer, always a compelling presence, make “Cuckoo” very much worth it. They exist far too comfortably in this dreamy, nightmarish world dreamt up by Singer that is well worth a watch.