Day: April 26, 2017

Star Wars: Episode 9 gets release date, Indiana Jones 5 gets pushed back

The Star Wars saga is moving from December to May, and the fifth Indiana Jones movie will be pushed back a year from July 2019 to 2020, according to a new rundown of release dates from Walt Disney Studios.

The young Han Solo movie, starring Alden Ehrenreich, is already breaking the winter cycle for the Star Wars stand-alones, with its release of May 25, 2018, but now we see the saga films will shift back to that traditional springtime berth with Episode 9. That follow-up to this December’s The Last Jedi will be in theaters on May 24, 2019.

The other major move in the announcement was the untitled fifth Indiana Jones movie, which director Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford have promised fans. Instead of July 19, 2019, it will be in theaters July 10, 2020.

Part of the reason for that is Spielberg keeps letting other new projects cut in line. In addition to Summer 2018’s Ready Player One, which he has already shot and is currently in postproduction, he’ll be starting the Pentagon Papers movie with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in a few weeks, with plans to have it in theaters by the end of the year.

He’s also planning The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, about the Vatican baptism of a young Jewish boy in the 1850s, before returning to his bullwhip-cracking archaeologist.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is out Dec. 15.

Jeff Goldblum Joins ‘Jurassic World’ Sequel

Jeff Goldblum is returning to the land of dinosaurs.

The actor, who co-starred in 1993’s Jurassic Park and 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, will appear in Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s next Jurassic World film.

J. A. Bayona (A Monster Calls) is directing the next installment in the studio’s hit franchise. Jurassic World earned $1.67 billion worldwide in 2015 and is the fourth-highest-grossing film in history.

Stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are returning for the sequel, which also stars Justice Smith, James Cromwell and Toby Jones. Colin Trevorrow, who directed Jurassic World, wrote the script for the sequel with Derek Connolly.

Producers Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley once again join executive producers Steven Spielberg and Trevorrow in the next chapter of the franchise. Belén Atienza is also producing. Vice president of production Sara Scott is overseeing production on behalf of the studio.

In 1993’s Jurassic Park, Goldblum first played Dr. Ian Malcolm, a know-it-all mathematician who came to Jurassic Park as an insurance consultant — and somehow survived both the original film and the sequel.

Goldblum will next be seen in Disney and Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, hitting theaters Nov. 3. His other recent credits include Independence Day: Resurgence and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Plus, he’s reuniting with director Wes Anderson on his upcoming film Isle of Dogs. He is represented by ICM, Industry Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson.