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'Lilo & Stitch' Live-action Remake Brings Human Connection to the Fore

File photo: This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)
File photo: This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)
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'Lilo & Stitch' Live-action Remake Brings Human Connection to the Fore

File photo: This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)
File photo: This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)

"Lilo & Stitch" is the latest Disney animation to get a live-action remake, with the medium allowing a closer look at the main characters' relationships, its makers say.

Like its predecessor, the new movie, which begins its cinema rollout on Wednesday, tells the story of a young Hawaiian girl called Lilo, played by newcomer Maia Kealoha, who befriends a fugitive alien who crash lands on Earth, and names him Stitch.

After the death of her parents, Lilo is under the care of her sister Nani, who is struggling to juggle all her responsibilities - all while new family addition Stitch wreaks havoc around them.

"It has the same heart and it has the same fun and Hawaiian rollercoaster ride of chaos that is Stitch," actor Sydney Agudong, who plays Nani, told Reuters.

"But at the same time, I think the beautiful thing about being able to do a live-action is that you get the nuance of human connection. And I think with Maia and I’s bond...hopefully (audiences) get that true sense of family and that it doesn't actually always have to be blood."

Director Dean Fleischer Camp said the 2002 animation's characters and setting allowed for scope to work in a new form.

"Unlike so many other Disney movies...it stars mostly humans, it takes place in a real contemporary setting...it just felt like something like 'oh that will benefit and be different in a live-action setting'," he said.

"Live-action affords you the opportunity to dig deeper on some of the human relationships and the emotions."

Several cast members from the 2002 animation return in the new film, including Chris Sanders, who once again voices Stitch. Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani, plays new character Mrs Kekoa, with co-stars Amy Hill and Jason Scott Lee also in new roles.

“I think we grew the ‘ohana’ for this film," Fleischer Camp said, referring to the Hawaiian word for family and the movie's central theme.

"It was great because so many of the people that worked on the original were game and excited to come back...it was just great to see those people...also having a bit of a reunion themselves."

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Entertainment

‘Snow White’ and ‘War of the Worlds’ Lead Razzie Nominations

Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)
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‘Snow White’ and ‘War of the Worlds’ Lead Razzie Nominations

Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Cast member Rachel Zegler attends a premiere for the film "Snow White", in Los Angeles, California, US, March 15, 2025. (Reuters)

With Oscar nominations a day away, Hollywood’s annual reckoning with its film failures took shape on ​Wednesday as Disney’s live-action “Snow White” and the remake “War of the Worlds” tied for six nods for the Golden Raspberry Awards.

Popularly known as the Razzies, the awards are an annual Oscar spoof that spotlights what voters deem Hollywood’s worst performances. The 46th ‌Golden Raspberry ‌Awards are set for ‌March 14, ⁠the ​day ‌before the Oscar awards.

Disney’s "Snow White," a 2025 remake of the 1937 animated classic, scored a worst picture nod along with nominations for worst remake, director and screenplay. The fantasy film stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White ⁠and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, and its seven ‌computer-generated dwarf characters were ‍also cited for both ‍worst supporting actors and screen combo.

Tying with “Snow ‍White,” the 2025 science fiction film "War of the Worlds," starring rapper Ice Cube and actor Eva Longoria, based on H. G. Wells' 1898 ​novel, also scored six nominations, including worst picture, actors, remake, director, screenplay and screen ⁠combo.

Other nominees include the psychological thriller “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” science fiction film “Star Trek: Section 31,” and the action-adventure Netflix film “The Electric State,” starring “Stranger Things” lead Millie Bobby Brown.

More than 1,100 Razzie members from across the United States and about two dozen other countries vote on the awards, according to the Razzie website. Voters are members of the Golden Raspberry Foundation ‌that consists of film critics and movie experts.

Entertainment

Netflix Intensifies Bid for Warner Bros Making Its $72 Billion Offer All Cash

A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
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Netflix Intensifies Bid for Warner Bros Making Its $72 Billion Offer All Cash

A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)

Netflix is now offering to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business in all cash — in an effort to win over the Hollywood giant's shareholders for its $72 billion merger and potentially thwart a hostile bid from Skydance-owned Paramount.

Back in December, Netflix struck a cash and stock deal with Warner valued at $27.75 per share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt. But on Tuesday, the companies announced that they would be revising the transaction to simplify its structure, provide more certainty of value for Warner stockholders and speed up the path to a shareholder vote — which they said could arrive by April.

The all-cash transaction is still valued at $27.75 per Warner share. Warner stockholders will also receive the additional value of shares of Discovery Global, which would become a separate public company following a previously-announced separation from Warner Bros.

Warner leadership has repeatedly backed a merger with Netflix and the boards of both companies approved the all-cash deal announced Tuesday. In a statement, Warner CEO David Zaslav said the revised agreement “brings us even closer to combining two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world.”

A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Unlike Netflix, Paramount wants to acquire Warner's entire company — including networks like CNN and Discovery — and went straight to shareholders with all cash, $77.9 billion offer last month.

Warner stockholders have until 5 p.m. ET Wednesday to tender their shares in support of Paramount's bid, which has an enterprise value of $108 billion including debt. But that deadline could be pushed back further. While Paramount declined to share further details on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that the company was planning another extension.

Beyond its tender offer, Paramount has promised a proxy fight. Last week, the company said it would nominate its own slate of directors before the Warner's next shareholder meeting, the date of which has still not been set.

Paramount also filed a suit in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to compel Warner Bros. to disclose to shareholders how it values its bid and the competing offer from Netflix. But a judge on Thursday denied Paramount's request to expedite that proceeding.

In a statement at the time, Warner applauded the court’s decision and called Paramount’s lawsuit “yet another unserious attempt to distract.” Paramount, meanwhile, maintained that the ruling wasn't about the merits of its allegations and said Warner shareholders “should ask why their Board is working so hard to hide this information.”

Regardless of who eventually wins the upper hand, a Warner Bros. Discovery sale could be a long, drawn-out process that is almost certain to attract tremendous antitrust scrutiny. On Tuesday, Netflix and Warner maintained that they expect to close on a merger 12 to 18 months from December's agreement.

Entertainment

New James Bond Actor Revealed ’Soon’, Frontrunners Emerge

Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
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New James Bond Actor Revealed ’Soon’, Frontrunners Emerge

Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 

An industry insider has revealed when the next James Bond film could begin shooting with its all-new 007, according to METRO newspaper.

The search for the next Bond has been on since Daniel Craig’s version of the character was killed off in No Time To Die, rather definitively vacating the role.

Since then, the franchise has been acquired by Amazon MGM Studios, who have begun work on the secret agent’s next era.

This has included hiring Dune director Denis Villeneuve to helm the next instalment of the long-running series.

While we know that Villeneuve will direct a script by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Amazon has yet to pick its next leading actor – although they have reportedly narrowed their search down to eight names.

Sharing his thoughts on when our new Bond could be revealed, senior Deadline film reporter Justin Kroll has hinted that the announcement everyone’s waiting for may be imminent.

Appearing on the My Mom’s Basement podcast, Kroll shared his prediction for when Villeneuve’s Bond might begin rolling.

“I am predicting summer, if I had to be a betting man,” Kroll said. “Because I think production will likely start [at the] end of this year/top of next.”

He continued: “Obviously, it could be a little sooner, but from everything people have said since I’ve been back, Bond is more likely middle of the year than first quarter.”

If true, this means that Bond fans could finally get some major news any day now.

This comes as producers have reportedly narrowed their search to include some of the hottest names in Hollywood right now.

Dua Lipa’s husband-to-be and Eternity actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge – according to the star himself, if a source for the Daily Mail is to be believed.

Turner is confident that his license to kill is already in the post, with an insider sharing how he’d been ‘blabbing’ the news all over town.

“Callum is the new Bond; it’s been confirmed,” they said. “Everyone in his circle is talking about it. It’s the worst-kept secret going.”

They finished: “Dua is over the moon for Callum. She’s been saying she’d love to record the Bond theme.”