Whether you’re an expert of the Transformers universe or a total novice who can’t tell your Primes from your bots, Transformers One is arriving in cinemas on October 11 – right in time for half term.

Yes, it may feel like the kids only just went back to school but it’s once again time to fill the calendar with activities that’ll keep not only the little ones entertained, but the whole gang engaged -that includes mums, dads and grandparents, too.

Transformers One is the ultimate film for fanatics and casual fans of the universe alike that brings us the layered origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron – now enemies, but once the best of friends.

But worry not if you aren’t clued up on the lore – this expertly created CG animation is packed with edge-of-your-seat action and a laugh-out-loud script that’ll have you slapping your knee throughout or warmed by its spirit, powered by an ensemble voice cast of A-list superstars including Chris Hemsworth, Jon Hamm and Scarlett Johansson.

Whether it’s rainy-day pursuits you’re after or simply a moment to sit back and relax while someone else (or, something else, rather) takes the reins on amusing the kids for a couple of hours, the cinema provides the perfect mix of entertainment, relaxation, and family time.

Watching the latest releases on the big screen provides a sense of adventure and escapism, where everyone can immerse themselves in a different world, while still spending quality time together.

And nothing beats relaxing in some plush cinema seats with a giant box of popcorn for an action-packed, family-friendly flick that’ll have kids young and old drawn into every nail-biting moment.

Here’s why Transformers One is the perfect film to entertain the whole family this half-term…

It’s the ultimate origin story for Transformers fans

For the uninitiated, the fully CG-animated Transformers movie delves into the origins of the iconic characters Optimus Prime and Megatron, who you may know now as sworn enemies and leaders of the Autobots and Decepticons, respectively.

Here, we go back to the beginning, when they were actually the best of friends.

Follow the evolution of their relationship; a friendship that went on to change the fate of Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers, forever.

The rivalry between the two characters may be the stuff of legend now, but rewind to the beginning and we find dreamer Orion-Pax and his rule-following best friend D-16 (that’s Optimus Prime and Megatron…), joined by Elita-1 and Bumblebee, as they come together on a quest that will define the future of their civilisation forever.

Sounds serious, but this movie has something for everyone, with plenty of gripping action bolstered by CG animation not even our wildest imagination could replicate, laugh-out-loud comedy and heartwarming moments that’ll move you.

It boasts some serious star power

The film is led by superstars Chris Hemsworth and Bryan Tyree Henry, who play our protagonists, Orion-Pax and D-16, respectively. They’re joined by Scarlett Johansson as the plucky Elita-1, and Keegan-Michael Key as the entertaining, resilient and lovable Bumblebee (or, ‘Badassatron’).

The ensemble cast doesn’t stop there, with talent including Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm lending their recognisable voices to Starscream, Alpha Trion and Sentinel Prime.

Still, it’s not just the all-star cast that gives this film its might, but a team of powerhouse producers, including Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Michael Bay, and executive producer Steven Spielberg, while the film was directed by award-winning Josh Cooley.

You don’t need to be a Transformers mega-fan to enjoy it

Don’t fear, you don’t need to have prior knowledge of the franchise to follow every pivotal moment, with the origin story an accessible take for both newcomers and long-time fans alike.

As a self-contained story focused on the early relationship between these well-known characters, Transformers One makes a great entry point for anyone new to the wider universe.

It’ll hook a whole new legion of fans!

The action is out of this world

From phenomenal animation that shows you a version of Cybertron yet to be seen on the big screen, to incredible sequences that’ll have you on the edge of your seat until the very end, this is a must-see for lovers of action.

You may have seen a Transformers film before, but this is a truly fresh take on the franchise the whole family will love.

And if the early reviews are anything to go on, the film is a hit! Family-focused website Kidzcoolit labelled Transformers On ‘an instant classic’, giving it 5 stars and saying it’s ‘the perfect family entertainment for the big screen’.

Echoing similar sentiments, Film News gave it 4 stars and mused the film ‘successfully captures the essence of what a Transformers film should be—fun, action-packed, and full of heart’, while Comicbook added it is ‘one of the best Transformers movies to date, injecting new life into the franchise in an unexpected way’.

In cinemas October 11. Book tickets now at transformersmovie.co.uk

In a world seemingly obsessed with the director Wes Anderson, we have a new discovery to add to the list, which is his take on sci-fi space epic the Star Wars franchise – or so it would appear.

As a fever for Anderson rips across TikTok, seeing users uploading clips of their lives and experiences as if they were living in one of his movies (think pastel hues, symmetrical shots, quirky sets and set-ups and a distinct vintage vibe), we’ve now moved into a new sphere.

On Friday, Curious Refuge uploaded a meticulously crafted trailer for a new Star Wars film directed by Wes Anderson to YouTube, called The Galactic Menagerie.

However, Anderson has been nowhere it and this creation has been entirely produced through the power of AI, a reveal that is both amazing and slightly terrifying.

The Galactic Menagerie delights in including all of the traits of Wes Anderson’s filmmaking we’ve come to know and love in movies including Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch and The Royal Tenenbaums.

There’s a deadpan narrator, sweeping orchestral music, an equipment list and a transformation of the iconic orange of some Star Wars uniforms to a whimsical peach.

Alongside a Wes Anderson-ified C-3PO, Yoda and flock of droids, we are also introduced to Scarlett Johansson as Princess Leia, Timothée Chalamet as Luke Skywalker, Edward Norton as Han Solo and Jeff Goldblum as the Emperor.

There’s also Adrien Brody playing Chewbacca too, naturally, and Willem Dafoe and Bill Murray popping up too.

Perhaps the best reveal is saved until last though, as frequent Anderson collaborator Owen Wilson is revealed to be underneath the distinctive mask of Darth Vader thanks to a trademark ‘wow’.

The Galactic Menagerie subsequently went viral on Twitter on Sunday as millions of fans watched the short clip and reacted.

Subsequently, a fierce debate has emerged as for every fan keen on throwing their support behind Wes Anderson filming a Star Wars movie in the future, another was horrified by what they saw in the AI-generated trailer.

‘It’s Wes Anderson’s birthday, so I think a nice gift would be to nuke that “AI Wes Anderson Star Wars” thing from orbit and impose a prison sentence on whoever made it and whoever liked it,’ tweeted one passionate fan.

‘The only thing these awful lifeless Wes Anderson AI copies prove is even when a director has the most superficially identifiable style on the planet, computer algorithms still can’t come close to replicating the what the actual artist would have done. So maybe let’s stop this,’ added another.

A third argued: ‘An artificial intelligence will never be able to grasp the sincerity of the emotions, expression and humanity painted onto the screen by Wes Anderson.

‘All AI is capable of is mocking how an image is structured. It has no comprehension of Mise-En-Scène. It does not feel.’

‘You robbed *both* Star Wars and Wes Anderson films of what makes them charming and unique with this AI crap. Congratulations,’ fumed another social media user.

However, some viewers were tickled by The Galactic Menagerie, with one declaring: ‘Need this Wes Anderson Star Wars movie asap.’

‘‘Wes Anderson makes Star Wars’ is something I didn’t know I needed until today,’ admitted another.

One fan added: ‘I want to see this so much more than any contemporary official Star Wars project.’

‘I can’t believe how much I wish this were real,’ someone else confessed.

The real Wes Anderson is currently working on his upcoming film Asteroid City, which is set to premiere at Cannes Film Festival later this month.

Fittingly, there is a reflection of a galactic theme here as the Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie and Scarlet Johansson-led picture sees the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer convention spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

Asteroid City will premiere at Cannes before hitting UK cinemas on June 23. The Galactic Menagerie will premiere never.

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It’s quite possible that Wes Anderson has just made the most Wes Anderson film ever with new release Asteroid City.

At a time when the director is enjoying a bit of a moment as the internet’s favourite online thanks to TikTok trends and people making entirely AI-generated trailers for films such as Star Wars in his style, it’s a slightly uncanny coincidence.

Within the film’s first two minutes, audiences are treated to one of Anderson’s favourite tropes – the list of items, the more obscure the better, required to undertake a task.

He’s also, of course, assembled an impressive cast of all of his frequent collaborators including Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Tony Revolori, Scarlett Johansson and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Jeff Goldblum (he plays an alien, naturally).

If that wasn’t enough star power, Tom Hanks is also making his Anderson debut, and joyfully embraces the director’s stylised filmmaking with a slightly stilted and stiff delivery, where appropriate, alongside Steve Carell (delightful), Bryan Cranston, Margot Robbie, Maya Hawke and Liev Schreiber.

It’s an embarrassment of acting riches really, but naturally several of those stars don’t really get much of a look-in sadly, with the story focusing mainly on Schwartzman and Johansson as recent widower Augie Steenbeck and Bette Davis-type actress Midge Campbell respectively.

They meet at the Junior Stargazer convention, where soldiers like Jeffrey Wright and his impressive mile-a-minute delivery, scientists and parents have come together to discover the spectacular inventions of gifted students, of which Augie’s son (fabulous young Anderson favourite Jake Ryan) is one.

Hanks is Augie’s father-in-law, along for the ride, who shares a particularly sweet relationship with his three young granddaughters.

When the desert town (pop. 87) hosting the convention is suddenly visited by a very sweet stop-motion alien, who nicks their asteroid and vanishes (the last we see of both Goldblum and any extra-terrestrial action, sadly), everyone is placed under government-mandated quarantine.

That sounds familiar…

The problem is, for however funny and cute Asteroid City is in parts, it’s just a bit too much style-over-substance, as well as being quite difficult to penetrate as an audience member.

There’s a play within a film concept, where everyone is actually an actor playing their part, but it’s oddly handled and goes off on quite random tangents with poorly interwoven points, all of which are presented by the Host (Bryan Cranston, who is at least having fun).

Asteroid City is lovely to look at, with its retro 1950s setting obviously a natural fit for Anderson’s trademark pastel coloured palette, and its scored as usual by Alexandre Desplat.

However, there’s just not quite enough of an exciting caper going on as in his best work like Grand Budapest Hotel.

For those with no patience for Wes Anderson whimsy, it’s probably best to skip altogether – this alien encounter feature is sure to alienate most of those who aren’t hardcore fans.

Asteroid City will be released in UK cinemas on June 23.

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The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival kicks off today (Tuesday) and is set to dazzle film fans all over the world with its glamour, stars on the famous red-carpet steps outside the Palais des Festivals and, of course, a first look at many of 2023’s most anticipated films.

There’s the final return of Indiana Jones and another team-up between Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.

We’ve also got Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore teaming up together for Todd Haynes’ May December, a period drama with Alicia Vikander and Jude Law, and Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke steaming up the screen in a gay Western film from Pedro Almodóvar.

Here we look at the 10 films that will be showing at Cannes and are already generating a lot of buzz…

Jeanne du Barry

Johnny Depp’s first acting role since his court battles with ex-wife Amber Heard sees him play King Louis XV of France, who fell madly in love with the working-class courtesan Jeanne du Barry, also known as Madame du Barry, played by the movie’s director, Maïwenn.

Against all social rules, he scandalously moves her to his palace at Versailles where her arrival also scandalises the court.

The French-language film also stars Benjamin Lavernhe, Pierre Richard, Pierre Richard, Melvil Poupaud, Pascal Greggory and India Hair.

Featuring as the opening film of the festival, Jeanne du Barry has courted further controversy after Maïwenn reportedly admitted to assaulting a French journalist by pulling his fair and spitting in his face.

Cannes Film Festival boss Thierry Fremaux has also come out and denied actress Adele Haenel’s claims that the industry will ‘do anything to defend its rapist chiefs’, as well as touching upon criticism of a Depp-led film opening this year’s festival.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the festival’s opening night, as per Variety, Fremaux told journalists: ‘If you thought that it’s a festival for rapists, you wouldn’t be here listening to me, you would not be complaining that you can’t get tickets to get into screenings.’

He added: ‘To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule, it’s the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of speech and acting within a legal framework.

‘If Johnny Depp had been banned from acting in a film, or the film was banned we wouldn’t be here talking about it.’

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Harrison Ford is back for one final adventure as the derring-do archaeologist Indiana Jones in the fifth film in the franchise, directed by James Mangold, and premiering at Cannes.

The fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was not particularly well-received by critics or many fans back in 2008, although it was a box office hit, grossing over $790million on a $185million budget.

This time around, 80-year-old Ford has Phoebe Waller-Bridge in tow, playing his headstrong niece Helena, with the duo finding themselves in a race against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.

It’s 1969, meaning Indy is put into the context of the Space Race against the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, Jürgen Voller, played by Mads Mikkelsen, is a NASA member and ex-Nazi involved with the moon-landing program who wishes to make the world into a better place as he sees fit.

John Rhys-Davies is returning to his role of Sallah, while Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones and Boyd Holbrook also join the cast.

It marks the first Indiana Jones movie not written by George Lucas or directed by Steven Spielberg, although both serve as executive producers.

Asteroid City

We’re only just coming off the back of the Wes Anderson craze on TikTok and fans’ obsession over an AI-generated version of Star Wars directed by the auteur, and Anderson is now here with his latest film.

Asteroid City is a science fiction romantic comedy drama (of course) that shows the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer convention becoming spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

The trailer has teased The Grand Budapest Hotel director Anderson at his finest with his unique stylings, pastel shades and vintage vibe all in place.

He has also assembled perhaps the most impressive cast of his career to date – and that’s saying something.

Tom Hanks makes his deadpan Anderson debut alongside Margot Robbie, Steve Carell and Liev Schreiber.

They are joined by past Anderson collaborators including Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton and Jeff Goldblum.

Strange Way of Life

The trailer release for Strange Way of Life in April got many fans all hot and bothered, with the 30-minute queer Western triggering immediate comparisons to Brokeback Mountain – fitting considering Pedro Almodóvar was offered the chance to direct the 2006 Oscar-winning film with Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

The short tells the story of Pedro Pascal’s cowboy character Silva as he travels on horseback across the desert to meet his old friend who he hasn’t seen in 25 years, Sheriff Jake, played by Ethan Hawke.

The duo have been glimpsed in the clip beginning to unravel their surprising romantic past with one another in dramatically-scored and shot scenes, harking back to Hollywood’s glory days of Westerns.

There’s also gunslinging, horse riding, fighting in the dust and The Last of Us star Pascal tending to Hawke on his sickbed.

‘Years ago, you asked me what two men could do living together on a ranch. I’ll answer you now,’ Pascal tells him in a comment that likely single-handedly drove a large chunk of the online reaction.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese is back at Cannes, 47 years after he debuted Taxi Driver to boos, walk-outs and a condemnation from jury president, the playwright Tennessee Williams.

It then went on to win the festival’s top honour, the Palme d’Or.

Once more, his latest film stars Robert De Niro, as well as Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he has previously worked on The Aviator, Gangs of New York and The Departed.

Killers of the Flower Moon is an Apple Original film based on the non-fiction book by David Grann about a series of mysterious murders in Oklahoma in the 1920s of the Osage tribe, which sparked a major FBI investigation involving J Edgar Hoover.

The cast also features Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser.

It will be Scorsese’s first Western and his most expensive project to date with the movie reportedly having a budget of around $200million (£159million).

May December

Previous Cannes prize-winner Todd Haynes, for Velvet Goldmine in 1998, is back again with a romantic drama starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

Haynes has made a name for himself with movies including unconventional Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There and romantic period piece Carol with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

May December follows an actress (Portman) researching the real-life woman (Moore) she is set to play in a film, 20 years after her and her husband’s notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, thanks in part to their large age disparity.

Their relationship starts to buckle under the pressure of examination into their past.

Filmed in the atmospheric city of Savannah, Georgia, the film also features Charles Melton, Piper Curda, Elizabeth Yu and Gabriel Chung.

Firebrand

Firebrand is set to debut in competition at Cannes this month, directed by Karim Aïnouz and based on the 2013 novel Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle.

It stars Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander as Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who survived him.

Named Regent while Henry is fighting overseas, Katherine has done everything she can to push for a new future based on her radical Protestant beliefs.

When an increasingly ailing and paranoid King returns, he turns his fury on the radicals, charging Katherine’s childhood friend with treason and burns her at the stake, forcing Katherine to fight for her own survival.

Filmed on location at Derbyshire’s Haddon Hall for an era-appropriate vibe, the film features Jude Law as the latest in a long line of handsome men cast to play the Tudor king in his final days.

Sam Riley and Eddie Marsan play Thomas and Edward Seymour, while Simon Russell Beale, Ruby Bentall, Erin Doherty and Patsy Ferran also star.

The Zone of Interest

The Zone of Interest is loosely based on the 2014 Martin Amis novel of the same name, set in Auschwitz concentration camp.

An A24 co-production directed by Jonathan Glazer, the film follows commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig as they strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

It was filmed on location at Auschwitz in 2021, the location of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps of the Holocaust.

It stars Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller in the lead roles, alongside Daniel Holzberg, Sascha Maaz and Max Beck.

British-born Glazer has previously had critical success with his 2013 flick Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, and his film debut Sexy Beast in 2000 starred Sir Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone.

Monster

A drama written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, this marks his return to a Japanese-language project for the first time since the international success of 2018’s Shoplifters, which won him the Palme D’Or at Cannes that year.

He was also nominated for an Oscar for best international feature film.

The film stars Sakura Andō as a mother who confronts a teacher after noticing disturbing changes in her son Minato’s behaviour.

However, as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher and child, the truth gradually emerges.

It also features Eita Nagayama as the teacher, Hori, Soya Kurokawa as Minato, and Yūko Tanaka as the school’s headteacher.

Kore-eda will once again have a film showing in competition at Cannes, having also enjoyed the distinction with Like Father, Like Son in 2013 (which won the Jury Prize), Our Little Sister and After the Storm.

In 2021, he directed South Korean drama Broker, which once more competed at Cannes last year.

He also helmed The Truth in 2019 with Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke.

Elemental

Disney has the honour of closing the 2023 Cannes Film Festival with Pixar’s latest offering, Elemental.

Presented out of competition, it’s the latest in a long line of films from the studio that have debuted there, including Up, Inside Out and Soul.

Elemental is directed by Peter Sohn, who helmed The God Dinosaur back in 2015 and adorably voiced Buzz’s robo-cat companion SOX in last year’s Lightyear.

They official synopsis reads: ‘In a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: How much they actually have in common.’

Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie voice central characters Ember and Wade, while Catherine O’Hara and Wendi McLendon-Covey are also in the voice cast.

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Tom Cruise has reacted to fellow movie star Scarlett Johansson’s confession that she is keen to work with him – and it’s safe to say the feeling’s mutual.

The Mission: Impossible actor and producer has confirmed he would ‘love’ to make a movie with the Black Widow star just as much.

The 60-year-old actor is a huge fan of Scarlett it appears, labelling her as ‘enormously talented’, alongside saying that he was up for them to collaborate in a film one day as well.

‘I’d love to make a movie with her! I’ve been wanting to make movie with her,’ he shared.

It also sounded like he’d been pondering over an action vehicle for their team-up.

He added to Entertainment Tonight: ‘She is enormously talented. So charismatic, versatile. She has great physical ability obviously.’

Asteroid City actress Scarlett, 38, has certainly cut her teeth in action movies ever since she was cast in the Marvel franchise as one of the Avengers, Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, nine movies ago and back in 2009.

Tom made the comments shortly after Scarlett, 38, revealed that she’d also love to work with the Top Gun actor.

The actress has worked with a host of big-name stars during her career, including the likes of Javier Bardem, Robert Downey Jr, and Bill Murray, and she now wants to team-up with Tom on a film project.

Asked who else she wants to work with, Scarlett told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I’d love to work with Tom Cruise.’

Meanwhile, Tom previously revealed that he doesn’t take any time off from work to relax because he’s doing what he always dreamed of.

The actor has enjoyed huge success during his career, and he remains as enthusiastic as ever.

When asked what he does to take a break, Tom responded to the publication: ‘This is what I do. I make movies! This is it. I love it. I absolutely love it. This is a privilege.’

He has also described his starring role in 1986’s Top Gun as a ‘life-changing’ moment for him.

The veteran movie star told Hello! magazine: ‘All I ever wanted to be was a pilot or an actor, so Top Gun was a huge moment in so many respects, including my passion for aviation. It was life-changing for me.’

Last year he made a triumphant return to his breakout role in Top Gun: Maverick after over 30 years.

He also has an eighth Mission: Impossible film in the works, which will be a direct sequel to this summer’s movie.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hits cinemas on Friday July 14.

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I was ready to anoint Wes Anderson’s new film The Phoenician Scheme his best work yet if it followed in the fashion of its giddy, amusing and succinct trailer.

But unfortunately, after a promising start, it somewhat crashes and burns and I’ve been left wondering what could have been.

We were promised a cohesive and engaging comedy caper, just like his Oscar-nominated 2014 movie The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is regularly cited as among his greatest work.

Sadly, I don’t see this one making it into the filmmaker’s fans’ top tier either, the same as its predecessor Asteroid City – although there is always much to admire.

Even a weak Wes Anderson film is a visual treat for the eyes and a witty and off-beat adventure for the soul.

The opening section of the film promised a lot of action after business tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) dramatically escapes a sixth assassination attempt – firing his pilot midair as they try to land the beleaguered plane after a man is ripped clean in half.

Naturally, Korda starts grappling with his own mortality and decides to build bridges with his sole daughter (of 10 children), pipe-smoking novice nun Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who he also makes sole heir to his estate.

Acting isn’t any kind of issue in The Phoenician Scheme. Threapleton, daughter to Kate Winslet, more than holds her own in her first major movie role, turning in an assured performance of a cool-cucumber character that takes on some of Anderson’s most mannered quirks, such as marching towards a corner to deliver a question facing the wall.

She appears opposite Hollywood pros of many years’ standing, including Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, Jeffrey Wright and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Del Toro is able to create some empathy with his coldly charismatic and complex anti-hero as he attempts to build a relationship with his daughter, while Michael Cera completes the main trio as Korda’s meek tutor, Bjørn Lund.

Cera is exceptional in the film; I’ve never seen an actor who appears more immediately natural and in sync, working with Anderson in his very particular cinematic sandpit. Without giving anything away, the development of Bjørn also offers him the chance to later do something completely different with the character – which he also nails.

A major issue of Anderson having such a stacked supporting cast is lacking character depth and major under-utilisation of certain actors. Despite pretty small parts, Hanks and Bryan Cranston prove a fun double act, but the stand outs are Richard Ayoade, Riz Ahmed in his debut film for Anderson and Cumberbatch, who appears to be having the most fun of anyone from behind a large beard and messy eyebrows as an unhinged relative.

Ayoade is also really carving out a cinematic home for himself with Anderson, having also been confirmed by the director at the Cannes press conference to be co-writing the Fantastic Mr Fox filmmaker’s next project, alongside him and longtime collaborator Roman Coppola.

But the main issue with The Phoenician Scheme is that it runs out of a steam as the father-daughter duo go on their journey together to negotiate the film’s titular project. The film is split into segments courtesy of each meeting, but it distracted me as I tried to work out how much time was left of the film. Not exactly a great indicator of me being enthralled throughout.

Over the course of the movie, Korda keeps having visions of heaven and judgement in the afterlife, where God is naturally played by Bill Murray. But as the most abstract scenes of the film, they don’t end up adding anything other than overtly stylised interruption.

I also expected the film to be a little lighter and tongue-in-cheek than it actually ended up being – not that it needed to hugely humorous, but there was space to suggest that was the intention in some scenes which just didn’t work out that way.

And, for better or worse, the Wes Anderson quirk is still extremely present and correct in The Phoenician Scheme – just as many fans adore it, detractors moan about his movies all seeming too similar because of it.

It’s not in dispute that The Phoenician Scheme is still gorgeous and polished, if you’re not too turned off by the filmmaker’s overwhelming aesthetic, as well as quality filmmaking.

However, the movie is just not as special as I expected or hoped it would be.

The Phoenician Scheme premiered at Cannes Film Festival. It’s released in the UK on Friday,May 23, and in the US on Friday, May 30.

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Maisie Smith has landed her first major film role after leaving EastEnders.

The star, who previously played Tiffany Butcher-Baker in the soap, is set to appear in gangster flick Bermondsey Tales: Fall Of The Roman Empire.

Maisie, 21, will star as Chloe, who is reported to be a leading player in a mobster family.

She will appear in the film alongside the likes of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels’ actor Alan Ford and Kidulthood’s Adam Deacon.

A source said it is an ‘exciting new venture’ for the actor, who left EastEnders last year after 13 years on the Square.

‘Maisie has secured her first big film role and shooting will begin later this year. It is an exciting new venture for Maisie and she can’t wait to dip her toe into a big new project,’ they continued.

The source told The Sun: ‘Since Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders she has kept her eyes open for her next on-screen job and the people behind Bermondsey Tales’ thought Maisie was the perfect fit.’

The film is slated to start shooting later this year with Maisie reportedly joining the cast in the summer when she finishes work on stage show Strictly Ballroom: The Musical.

Maisie previously made her feature film debut at the age of four when she appeared as a young Elizabeth I in 2008 film The Other Boleyn Girl alongside Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch and Scarlett Johansson.

She went on to land the role of Tiffany Butcher in EastEnders when she was just six – staying with the show for more than a decade before walking away in 2022.

Her exit storyline saw Tiffany leave Walford alongside her ex-husband Keegan Butcher-Baker (Zack Morris) to start a new life following the revelation that Gray Atkins (Toby-Alexander Smith) had abused and murdered Keegan’s sister Chantelle (Jessica Plummer).

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Scarlett Johansson offered a rare comment on her marriage to Ryan Reynolds, during an appearance on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop podcast.

The Marvel actress, 38, married the Deadpool star, 46, in 2008 after around a year of dating, but they eventually split in 2010 – with their divorce finalized in 2011.

Lifting the lid on her love life in the candid chat with her Iron Man 2 co-star, she described her first husband as a ‘good guy’.

‘You’ve been married two times?’ the host, 50, asked, to which she corrected: ‘Three times.’

‘Oh that’s right, because I forgot that you were married to Ryan Reynolds! Goals,’ Gwyneth laughed.

‘Yes! We weren’t married very long, but we were married when I first met you, for Iron Man or whatever,’ Scarlett explained.

Clearly a fan of the actor, Gwyneth added: ‘We love a good Ryan Reynolds in our house.’

Scarlett simply agreed: ‘He’s a good guy.’

Following their marriage, the He’s Just Not That Into You actress walked down the aisle with Romain Dauriac – who she shares daughter Rose with – in 2014, before tying the knot for the third time with Colin Jost in 2020, welcoming their son Cosmo the next year.

While Ryan went on to marry Blake Lively in 2012, with the couple recently welcoming their fourth child together.

Elsewhere on the podcast, Gwyneth questioned her guest on how her view on marriage had changed over the years, and what she had learned through the partnerships.

‘It’s funny. I knew Colin for a long time, but only through work. And when we first started seeing other, I would never have probably been ready for a relationship like the one that I have with Colin, at different times in my life,’ she continued.

‘Because I wasn’t comfortable with setting my own boundaries, and I didn’t know what I wanted or needed from somebody else.

‘One of the things that I realized is that there are certain fundamental things in your own personality that you need – for me, anyway – I needed to share with the other person.

‘Obviously, it’s hard to be in a relationship anyway because you have to compromise all the time and sometimes your lives separate and come back together,

‘I never realized, “Oh, it’s really important for me, I need to be with a compassionate person. That’s a fundamental characteristic that has to be there”.

‘Understanding what those fundamental things are that you need in a partner is a must – for longevity, anyway.

‘Identifying those things was a game-changer for me.’

‘That’s why it worked with Colin and I at that time,’ she added. ‘I was finally able to step back and actually respect myself enough to know what those things were and be okay with it. That was a life lesson.’

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Scarlett Johansson branded Disney’s response to her former lawsuit against them as ‘sad and disappointing.’

The 38-year-old actress sued Walt Disney Studios in 2021 alleging the company breached its contract with her by releasing Marvel blockbuster Black Widow on its streaming platform, Disney Plus, rather than having an exclusive theatrical release.

However, the legal dispute has been settled out of court and the Lucy star chose to focus on her projects at the time.

The statement read: ‘I am happy to have resolved our differences. I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in years to come.’ 

Reflecting on how she felt two years after the ordeal, she said: ‘I was sad and disappointed. But mostly sad. It was such a surreal moment because we were all isolated and just sort of emerging a little bit. I was also really heavily pregnant, too, which in a weird way was amazing timing.’

She added to Variety: ‘Suddenly, your entire attention is drawn to this miracle of life. So, I had the most wonderful distraction in the world and soon after had a beautiful baby.’

The acclaimed actress is now Hollywood royalty, having taken on a multitude of different roles, from Marriage Story to JoJo Rabbit, The Avengers to Lost In Translation.

As an Oscar-nominated actor and having been in the industry for decades, at this stage Scarlett is confident in her abilities and the roles she wants to play, however this was not always the way.

The star recently reflected on her early roles and says she was essentially ‘groomed’ into being a ‘bombshell’ actress where she was always playing the ‘object of desire.’

She told the Table For Two podcast that ‘young girls’ are ‘really objectified, and that’s just a fact.’

‘For me it was like I started down this path of being an ingénue, then I did Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring, and by that point I was 18, 19, I was coming into my own womanhood and learning my own desirability and sexuality.

‘I think because of that trajectory I had been launched towards I really got stuck in this… I was kind of being groomed, in a way, to be this what you call a bombshell type of actor.

‘I was playing the other woman and the object of desire and I suddenly found myself cornered in this place, I couldn’t get out of it.’

Metro.co.uk has reached out to Disney for comment.

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Scarlett Johansson has given her take on working with filmmaker Wes Anderson for the first time as a live actor on set, calling it ‘intense’ as Anderson creates such a specific environment with his movies.

The pair previously collaborated on 2018 stop-motion animation Isle of Dogs, in which the Marvel star voiced Nutmeg, alongside the likes of Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Jeff Goldblum.

In Asteroid City, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night, she plays actress Midge Campbell, part of a group of individuals that end up visiting the Junior Stargazer convention in the desert town with a population of 87, which is then rocked by an alien visitation.

She told Metro.co.uk and other titles at the film’s press conference in Cannes on Wednesday: ‘It’s intense. It’s funny because of course the world is sort of there, you’re in it. The whole environment is created.

‘This is my only experience of working with Wes as a live actor and not as a dog. But they very much create the whole environment, it’s a physical, tangible, useable space.’

Discussing the big difference between Anderson’s set and others in Hollywood, Johansson pointed out the similarities with theatre, which fits into the film’s slightly confusing play-within-a-TV-show-within-a-movie aspect, as well as how he has managed to cut out ‘downtime’.

‘In a way it’s kind of more like doing theatre because you have the whole tangible space and it’s not the familiar process of being on a soundstage and going back to your trailer, and all this downtime and all that stuff that just eats up the momentum – which is just part of the process [and] there’s not much you can do about it – but somehow Wes has avoided that.’

The 38-year-old was full of praise for the ‘vibrant’ way of working too, calling it ‘very fulfilling and exciting’.

She is joined in the cast by long-time Anderson collaborator Jason Schwartzman, who made his film debut 25 years ago in Anderson’s Rushmore, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Jeffrey Wright, Maya Hawke and many others.

Anderson has recently gone viral online (sort of) after a YouTube account started posting trailers entirely generated by AI for films such as Star Wars in his style, sparking a fierce fan debate, while TikTok has also been enjoying a bit of a moment with him too thanks to video craze.

Asteroid City will be released in UK cinemas on June 23.

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For 30 years, Scarlett Johansson has wanted to be in a Jurassic universe movie. So when she met Steven Spielberg, she said she had to do what she could not to appear to be a ‘a humongous weirdo’.

The Hollywood actress, 40, might have appeared in multiple Marvel films and in franchises like Transformers, but she told Metro the chance to appear in Jurassic World Rebirth was extra special.

Speaking to us at the London premiere on Tuesday night, she said: ‘I’ve been chasing the Jurassic universe for three decades. I would have happily played any kind of dino snack.

‘But I knew that they were doing a new one and that there was a part that I potentially could be right for – right age and otherwise – and so I got in there and was like “I’ve got to meet on this. I just want to share my enthusiasm”.’

Seeing her opportunity, Johansson set up a general meeting with Spielberg, executive producer of the latest film – the seventh feature-length instalment in the Jurassic series.

She explained: ‘I tried not to be a humongous weirdo and geek out, but after a couple of hours talking to him, he brought it up. He was like, “Oh, I think we’re supposed to be talking about Jurassic?”, and that was my in. So then I felt comfortable being a total nerd.’

Spielberg, who directed the original Jurassic Park in 1993 and 1997’s sequel, the Lost World, has reunited with original screenwriter David Koepp for the latest movie.

British filmmaker Gareth Edwards – known for his original sci-fi film The Creator as well as directing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – takes over at the helm for Jurassic World Rebirth.

He was the one who tipped us off about Johansson’s obsession with the franchise, revealing that Spielberg said she would kill him if he didn’t get the part of extraction expert Zora Bennett.

Johansson added: ‘He was basically forced to cast me.’

The double Oscar nominee also praised Jurassic World Rebirth’s wider team for coming together to deliver the film to cinemas less than 12 months after shooting wrapped – and only 16 months after Edwards was announced as director, with no cast in place.

She said: ‘We did shoot it for five months, so it wasn’t that fast, but I think Gareth knew… it’s all in the magic of post-production. He put the pedal to the metal.

‘I mean, we were just having a sound mixing conversation like 10 days ago. So, it’s really being delivered – it is hot off the presses.

‘And you do that with an extraordinary group of post-production specialists and a big, big team – that’s the way you do it.’

Johansson also produces on the film, in which she co-stars with Wicked actor Jonathan Bailey, two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, Homeland and Companion star Rupert Friend and Netflix star of The Lincoln Lawyer Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.

Set 32 years after dinosaurs were brought back from extinction thanks to the events of Jurassic Park, Jurassic World Rebirth follows a top-secret expedition including Johannson’s former military operative Bennett, Bailey’s bespectacled palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis, Friend’s pharmaceutical rep Martin Krebs and Ali’s team leader Duncan Kincaid.

The group braves the forbidden isolated equatorial regions where dinosaurs still roam freely to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures in the hopes of a major medical breakthrough.

Jurassic World Rebirth is released in cinemas on Wednesday July 2.

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Jurassic World Rebirth’s director ‘cranked up’ the scare-factor in the new dinosaur film, bringing the franchise back to its horror roots.

British filmmaker Gareth Edwards helms the latest movie in the Jurassic universe, which first hit screens in 1993 with original director Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.

The film had a huge impact on popular culture’s perception of prehistoric creatures, including Velociraptor and Triceratops – as well as the big baddie, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a 40-foot-long carnivorous dinosaur.

Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp kept audiences tense and terrified with the stealth and size of the T-Rex, as well as creating classic cinematic tropes, such as water rippling in a glass as the massive beast approached for its grand onscreen reveal.

Speaking at Jurassic World Rebirth’s London premiere on Tuesday, 50-year-old Edwards said he wanted to make the new movie as scary as possible.

‘I feel like the original Jurassic Park is really a horror movie on the witness protection programme, pretending to be a family adventure – but we all know it’s a scary horror film,’ he told Metro when asked about returning to the franchise’s horror beginnings.

‘It was just a really good excuse – especially as being an adult now, it’s harder to get scared. So we just cranked that up a little bit and wanted to go as far as we could.’

However, he confessed that he didn’t think Universal would let him get away with as much horror content as they did.

‘I kept waiting for the studio to come along and say, “No, no, no – think of the kids, stop” – and they never did! I think they felt the same way and kids are a lot more mature than we give them credit [for and they want to be scared.’

Edwards likened the thrills and scares of Jurassic World Rebirth to a theme park ride.

‘It’s like a rollercoaster where you’re safe, a dinosaur’s not going to come out and get you after you finish the film, I don’t think – but you never know.’

‘The movie felt like that; you want to be afraid. You want to go in and feel the tension and get the anxiety. I’ve probably failed at my job if not.’    

Edwards, who is also known for helming 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as well as original sci-fi The Creator, was announced as director for the film in February 2024 before its cast – including self-confessed Jurassic ‘total nerd’ Scarlett Johansson and Wicked star Jonathan Bailey – later came onboard for a five-month shoot.

Jurassic World Rebirth has teased dinosaurs such as Mosasaurus, Spinosaurus and Quetzalcoatlus, as well as, of course, the return of the T-Rex.

There’s also a new main antagonist, the Distortus rex, the design of which was inspired by the xenomorphs of the Alien franchise.

Set 32 years after dinosaurs were brought back from extinction thanks to the events of Jurassic Park, Jurassic World Rebirth follows a top-secret expedition including Johannson’s former military operative Zora Bennett, Bailey’s bespectacled palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis, Rupert Friend as pharmaceutical rep Martin Krebs and Mahershala Ali’s team leader Duncan Kincaid.

The group braves the forbidden isolated equatorial regions where dinosaurs still roam freely to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures in the hopes of a major medical breakthrough.

Jurassic World Rebirth is the seventh feature-length film in the series, which also includes sequels 1997’s The Lost World and 2001’s Jurassic Park III as well as a rebooted phase started with 2015’s Jurassic World.

This was followed by Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), which brought together stars from across the years including Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Koepp returned to pen the new film after exiting following The Lost World, while Spielberg remains on board as an executive producer.

Jurassic World Rebirth is released in cinemas on Wednesday, July 2.

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The internet has been in a confused, angry, (slightly horny) frenzy ever since Jonathan Bailey and Scarlett Johansson locked lips at the Jurassic World: Rebirth world premiere. 

Then, stoking the controversy, the Bridgerton actor, 37, and the Marvel star, 40, locked lips again as they appeared alongside castmates Mahershala Ali and Rupert Friend at the New York premiere of the film yesterday.

Flurries of opinions quickly followed, with X user @Huffman4758 writing, ‘If I’m Colin Jost I’m concerned. 😳’

@GlowMetax agreed with the criticism, ‘I thought she was married???’ while @CalRizzerected: chimed in, ‘WTF Colin, you just gonna let him kiss her on the lips like that?’

But others rolled their eyes at the pearl clutchers, with @emellghostlight posting: ‘Some of y’all have never had a gay bestie, and it shows.’

@Lorenitacardena agreed: ‘Jonathan Bailey is gay, I don’t see what the problem is, it’s a game without consequences.’

Bailey then told Entertainment Tonight about the viral smooches: ‘I believe in being able to show love in all different ways. And if you can’t kiss your friends… life’s too short not to.’

Exactly. Bailey is openly gay, and Johansson has been married to Colin Jost, a Saturday Night Live star, for four years. Jost and Johansson even wore matching outfits to the premiere.

The Colin Josts of the world – those solid, thin-lipped husbands with their pastel button-ups and Sims-default facial features – know exactly what’s up.

They know that their marital agreement includes standing back and smiling politely as they watch their bombshell wife light up like a Christmas tree as she locks lips with her gay best friend on sight. 

Jost clearly has nothing to worry about from the famously gay actor, and we should all pray we never live to see the day when a beautiful, straight, married woman can no longer mouth-kiss her beautiful, gay best friend.

It’s elegant, theatrical, and just the right amount of bitchy – like the leads of the high school musical greeting each other with a casual lip-kiss at rehearsal, a subtle power move that says: we’re worldly, we’re inseparable, and no, you can’t sit with us.

Any girl who grew up going to musical theatre camp knows it’s Jonathan Bailey’s god-given right to sample Scarlett Johansson’s lipstick whenever she feels like planting one on his gorgeous, chiselled face.

In fact, it is the sacred birthright of every Jonathan Bailey and every Scarlett Johansson to kiss each other square on the mouth, whether it’s pre-brunch or pre-red carpet photocall.

It’s chic, it’s continental, it’s effortlessly cosmopolitan.

And, jokes aside, it’s the kind of flagrant affection for our friends that we should all be exhibiting in a post-COVID world in which connection is more precious than ever.

Bombs are falling, Chat GPT is coming for all of our jobs, and I, for one, plan to follow Scar-Jo’s example and go out smooching as many of my loved ones as I can get my lips on – social convention be damned.

So relax, internet. This isn’t infidelity, this is cultural healing.

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The first reviews of Jurassic World Rebirth have landed and it’s been a decidedly mixed bag for the creature feature, with some calling for the franchise ‘to go extinct’.

With critical responses totted up on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes it’s currently sitting at a rotten rating of 54% from 98 professional reactions.

But while this is far from ideal for filmmaker Gareth Edwards’ seventh feature-length entry in the franchise, it is not a series low point.

Starring Scarlett Johansson as former military operative Zora Bennett, Jonathan Bailey as bespectacled palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis, Rupert Friend as pharmaceutical rep Martin Krebs and Mahershala Ali as team leader Duncan Kincaid, Jurassic World Rebirth starts afresh, 32 years after dinosaurs were brought back when public interest is waning.

This rag-tag group braves the forbidden isolated equatorial regions where dinosaurs still roam freely on a secret mission to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures in the hopes of a major medical breakthrough.

But in the wreckage of the park and previous human experiments, life has also continued to find a way in unexpected forms too.

‘How can a movie about mutant dinosaurs be this forgettable to look at? It’s a shame,’ wrote critic Danny Leigh for the Financial Times, also describing the movie as ‘a lumbering beast’.

‘The Jurassic sequels were bad enough when they made an effort to evolve – they’re even less worth seeing now that they already come pre-fossilised,’ added Indie Wire’s David Ehrlich, while The Cinematic Reel’s review suggested: ‘If this is the franchise’s big reset, maybe it’s time Universal finally let the dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park franchise go extinct.

Caryn James for the BBC observed in her two-star review: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth has major stars in Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, and better-designed creatures than ever, but so few thrills that it may be the weakest of the Jurassic franchise.’

However, other critics were much more effusive in their praise.

For The Independent, Clarisse Loughery insisted that Rebirth ‘is making the dinosaur cool again’, while Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian wrote in his four-star review: ‘Now, against all odds, these dinosaurs have had a brand refresh: a brighter, breezier, funnier, incomparably better acted and better written film.’

The Telegraph’s Tim Robey went even further, awarding a full five stars and adding: ‘It’s easily the best-looking, best-sounding film since the first. But it takes a deep, personal love of the medium for a director to deliver such crunchy impact, thrills, spills and euphoric highs.

These more positive reactions have saved Jurassic World Rebirth from ranking as poorly as some of its predecessors.

Kicking off with the original Jurassic Park back in 1993 – which revolutionised how dinosaurs are viewed in popular culture as well as being a roaring good time – it was legendary Steven Spielberg who was initially at the helm as the director, returning for sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997.

Unsurprisingly this first outing boasts an impressive 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, although the sequel plunges down to 56%.

This initial trilogy was capped off with Jurassic Park III in 2001 before a second trilogy began with a fresh cast in 2015 with Jurassic World.

While this reboot earned 72%, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion followed in 2018 and 2022, respectively, and received the lowest ratings of all at just 47% and then 29%.

Jurassic World Rebirth is out in cinemas on July 2.

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Filmmaker Gareth Edwards is back at the helm once more of a major franchise (although he hates that word, he tells me) with sequel Jurassic World Rebirth, following his foray into Star Wars with 2016’s Rogue One.

This time he’s fulfilling a childhood dream by working on one of the most influential ‘creature feature’ series of all time, alongside Steven Spielberg – ‘I call him Steve,’ he grins, acknowledging the surrealism of that scenario.

Coming onboard to direct the next instalment in such a popular run of films Edwards, 50, did have lots of little ways he wanted to put his stamp on it  – but also one clear desire to ground the movie in reality, despite the fact it’s set ‘on an island in the middle of nowhere with dinosaurs on it’.

‘One of the great things about Jurassic was that it wasn’t that we’d gone back in time to see dinosaurs, it was that they’d come to our time, and so I wanted some iconography of some location that was now,’ he explains.

‘I wanted, at one point in the movie, there to be dinosaurs in something that was very familiar to us, like the kitchen scene in the original Jurassic Park. So I needed to somehow crowbar into this scenario some imagery that you would watch it and go, “I know that, that’s where I live” – even though it’s not.’

Without giving too much away before people have seen the movie, Edwards plays clear homage to that terrifying scene from the 1993 film with the hunting Velociraptors, as well as including plenty of fun Easter eggs from that era.

‘I think that’s important for people to relate to and feel like these things have come to us,’ he adds.

David Attenborough’s influence on Jurassic World Rebirth

Edwards also reveals the way he was inspired by legendary broadcaster and biologist Sir David Attenborough, 99, and wanted to bring his influence in Jurassic World Rebirth to another pivotal scene.

He admits ‘the way it was written probably wasn’t aspiring to this’ – but for the filmmaker it was clear.

‘Being from the UK, I grew up with David Attenborough documentaries, and on a Sunday night on the BBC or wherever, one of the great things is sitting and watching a natural history show, [where] there’s beautiful majesty and awe-inspiring nature,’ he recalls. ‘And I was like, to get through a Jurassic and not have this awe and wonder moment somewhere…’

That was obviously not an option for Edwards, and the result is glimpsed in the movie’s trailer when Scarlett Johansson’s mission specialist Zora Bennett and Jonathan Bailey’s palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis are seen glimpsing the 50-foot Titanosauruses for the first time.

It nicely acts as a throwback to the first film too, when Sam Neill and Laura Dern’s expert characters are thrilled to see their first live dinosaur (coincidentally accompanied by Sir David’s late actor brother Lord Richard Attenborough as Dr John Hammond, the owner of the park and the company that originally cloned the dinosaurs).

‘That’s what you’re trying to do, is just navigate it so that you feel like it’s that journey that you would want as an audience member.’

Gareth Edwards’ ‘blissful’ collaboration on Jurassic World Rebirth

Alongside his previous Star Wars responsibility, Edwards is known for original projects as screenwriter and director like Monsters and 2023’s The Creator. He appears comfortable switching between studio-led franchise blockbusters and more indie fare, ceding complete creative control for the prior.

‘There are certain franchises where I feel like I don’t know what I’d do with that, and also I think we’d all disagree about what that is. And there are other ones where you go, the best version of that, I think, is exactly what the studio would want as well.’

Jurassic World Rebirth fortunately fell in this latter category and Edwards was delighted to be surrounded by a team who ‘challenged’ him.

‘You want people who go, really? And double check what you’re saying and go, how about this? Or throw in new ideas. But you also want to agree on what’s a good film. And if they list ones that are your favourites, then you’re probably in a good place.’

That is something he fortunately found with screenwriter David Koepp too, who was returning to pen a Jurassic film for the first time since 1997’s The Lost World. It was initially suggested that meeting with producer Frank Marshall and Spielberg wasn’t the conversation he should be most nervous about.

‘They said, “Oh, if you think this was tricky, wait ‘til you meet David Koepp – if you can get your ideas past him”.’

But it ended up a ‘blissful’ partnership Edwards says, from ‘the second we started talking’ on Zoom and found that they loved ‘exactly the same movies’.

Edwards also admits he was expecting the screenplay to be locked, with no way for him to suggest any of his own ideas and tweaks.

‘That’s what I thought was going to happen. And instead, it was like, “Okay, you know this scene where this happens – what if we did it in this location instead? And what if this happened during it?”’ he shared of his discussions with Koepp. ‘And he was like, “Great!”, and would write it and give it his own flourishes, and you’d go, “Oh, that’s better than what I would have written!”’

But there were also sections where Edwards felt Koepp had things ‘dead right’ and he didn’t want to touch it.

‘We were really on the same page.’

This was also of great benefit considering the condensed timeline of making the movie, with Edwards only announced as director in February 2024, before any casting was done, and filming beginning that June.

Star and producer Johansson even revealed to me that sound mixing conversations were still happening just days before the London premiere.

Even with such a tight turnaround though, they managed to assemble a cast including Johansson, Bailey, two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali and Rupert Friend, as well as Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer star, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.

‘You worry when you’ve got not much time that you’re going to get the bottom of the barrel, a lot of people that didn’t get a job!’ laughs Edwards of the situation. Luckily, the films are so definitive – and come with Spielberg attached (‘I think when he calls, people pick up the phone’) – that it wasn’t an issue.

Hilariously though, Edwards was not aware of Jurassic super-nerd Johansson and how she had already pitched herself to Spielberg.

‘I remember being in one of those early conversations at Universal, and there’s Steven Spielberg and Donna Langley and everybody, and all these actors [on pieces of paper] and all these names being said. And then Steven goes, “Well, if I don’t give it to Scarlett, she’s going to kill me.” And I’m just like, “What do you mean?” And he goes, “Scarlett’s a massive Jurassic fan and I went for a meal with her,” and he started saying how much she loved it and wanted to be in one. And I was like, “Hang on, why are we doing this meeting? Scarlett Johansson wants to do this film? Like, what are we talking about? Can you call her?!”’

With Bailey, too, Edwards recalls an enjoyably unsuccessful first meeting when he had been prepped with questions from the producers for the actor but instead spent the entire three-hour chat over a meal in LA just ‘joking around’ and talking about ‘random stuff’ before the Wicked star realised he had to go.

‘And so he left, and I hadn’t said a word to him about Jurassic. And then the producers were like, “Did he like the screenplay?” And I’m like, “Yeah, no, it’s all good, we’re all good, no he didn’t have any notes, he loves the character…”. The director laughs about his bluffing.

‘But it’s the kind of movie. There’s only a couple of things like this where you just get everyone’s full attention.’

Jurassic World Rebirth is in cinemas from July 2.

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Just seconds into this interview and someone’s already vocalising John Williams’ classic earworm of a theme for Jurassic Park.

‘That music still gives me chills because it’s so evocative of that first film and the feelings that I had when I saw it, which was sort of awe and wonder and spectacle and adventure all rolled into one,’ reminisces actor Rupert Friend, who’s part of the cast for new dino-stuffed adventure Jurassic World Rebirth.

For his co-star Mahershala Ali, his first impression of the eminently popular film series is also audio-based, remembering how you would hear dinosaurs ‘before you would see them’ and how it added to the impression of their size.

‘And just that feeling – I had never felt or heard that in a theatre before.’

While Jurassic World Rebirth might be the seventh film in the long-running franchise of over 30 years, it still provided unique opportunities to its actors.

‘With [my character] Duncan [Kincaid], I liked that he was active and decisive, and that the story required him to be, and so therefore it felt very different from anything that I have gotten to do up until this point,’ Ali, 51, shares.

This comes after a career that’s already encompassed two Oscar wins and films ranging from Moonlight and The Place Beyond the Pines to Alita: Battle Angel, Hidden Figures and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.

‘But I also feel like the character had something that had happened to him or something that he had experienced that was very grounding – so there was something pulling him externally and something grounding him internally. That felt like a nice balance,’ he adds.

On Friend’s part, he was drawn to the ‘moral ambiguity’ of pharmaceutical rep Martin Krebs, who recruits covert opps expert Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to help with a top-secret mission to retrieve samples from dinosaurs on their forbidden home island near the equator for a groundbreaking heart disease drug.

‘That you’re sort of ostensibly looking for a drug that will help people and save lives, but you’re also interested in making billions of dollars – a slightly conflicting thing!’

The mission also includes Jonathan Bailey’s conflicted palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis and Ali’s Kincaid, the tough team leader.

Humanity’s hubris in Jurassic movies

We muse on the franchise’s classic lesson of foolish humans meddling and never seemingly learning from their mistakes, and humanity’s hubris.

‘That’s right on, the idea that we can just with impunity enter a landscape and an environment that we have no real place being,’ agrees Friend. ‘I think Jonathan’s character says something like, we’re going into their world, we’re entering their space, and to not respect that is always the beginning of the end. It’s the pride before a fall, the hubris.’

I point out that Rupert also has an excellent line in Jurassic World Rebirth: ‘I’m too smart to die’.

That not everybody is going to be alive still by the end credits is one of the hallmarks of these films.

People are going to get picked off, and often in grisly and shocking fashion (let us not forget Jurassic Park’s Donald and his demise on a toilet at the claws – well, jaws – of a T-Rex).

In the newest film, returning screenwriter David Koepp, who penned both the 1993 original and 1997’s follow-up The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and director Gareth Edwards have certainly provided some gruesome and ‘fun’ new deaths – which brings it back to the franchise’s roots as a suspenseful horror-influenced film.

‘Seeing it, I was really satisfied with how propulsive the film felt,’ shares Ali. ‘Shooting something over the course of four months, and the way you have to do it – in bits and across multiple countries – it’s very hard to tell how the film was going to move. What the energy is that it’s going to carry? Because you’re just, in the most disciplined fashion possible, trying to make sure your moments connect from day to day, scene to scene.’

But he needn’t have worried.

‘I was relieved and so excited that it fit together the way it did to tell the type of story we were trying to tell.’

What Jurassic movies’ dinosaurs look like in 2025

It’s understandable that the cast wouldn’t be entirely across the final product given that, thanks to further advances in CGI since ‘93, we’re now almost entirely beyond the era of practical dinosaurs like Stan Winston’s remarkable full-size T-Rex animatronic for Jurassic Park.

The first thought that Ali now has when someone mentions any of the films is ‘a stick and a tennis ball that you’re screaming at!’.

However, there was still one animatronic dinosaur they could interact with on set – fan favourite Dolores, the Aquilops.

‘I think it’s augmented by visual effects in the finished thing, but it was an incredible puppet with three – if not four – guys controlling the various things. And it would walk around and sit on people’s shoulders, and it could eat,’ recalls Friend.

‘And we would see renderings of things after we shot something from time to time of that and be like, “Oh, okay, that’s how big it is!”’ chimes in Ali. ‘But there wasn’t anything physical really to respond to other than a tennis ball and a stick.’

However, the actors still got to enjoy real-life locations as diverse as Thailand, Malta and the UK, at the insistence of filmmaker Edwards, who didn’t want to be overly reliant on green screens.

And the levels of practical, physical prep for that were quite astounding, Friend tells me when we catch up on the red carpet at the film’s world premiere in London’s Leicester Square.

‘In Thailand, they cleared a field and replanted it with a crop that we could then walk through after two months of that crop growing. There were levels of prep that were agricultural, not just cinematic, that I had never heard of before – how to make a rock face safe for abseiling down, how to make a waterfall for Johnny [Bailey] to jump into and come out of that wouldn’t kill him!’

And for those who were wondering, yes, self-confessed nerd Friend went back to watch the previous films before the shoot, having also been a fan of Michael Crichton’s original books growing up.

‘The evolution of it is fascinating. It’s a franchise that we’ve had with us for 30 years, and it’s really interesting to see how much love there still is for this world.’

Jurassic World Rebirth is in cinemas from today.

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After pretty bruising reviews of Jurassic World Rebirth from the critics, fans have praised the new film for never having a dull moment.

With critical responses totted up on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes it’s currently sitting at a rotten rating of 51% from 240 professional reactions.

While this is far from ideal for filmmaker Gareth Edwards’ seventh feature-length entry in the franchise, it is not a series low point.

Audiences have also polled significantly better, with their reactions totting up to a very healthy 72% since the movie was released on Wednesday, already grabbing $30.5million (£22.3m) at the box office on day one.

‘My stomach is still clenched after leaving the theatre. Edge of your seat kind of action. 10/10. The actors did a great job. Scarlett and Jonathan are incredible per usual,’ wrote Anastasia S, while cinemagoer David agreed, adding: ‘Starts out on the edge of your seat. Not a dull moment. Has a great plot. Probably one of the best ones.’

Justin P also insisted in his audience reaction on Rotten Tomatoes that Jurassic World Rebirth was ‘easily in the top 3 Jurassic movies’.

‘It was back to basics: just stranded on an island, trying to survive. Most important thing of all: the dinosaurs are scary again!!’ he enthused, next to a five-star rating.

Other fans also praised the movie for delivering what people would want from a film in this popular series, as Josiah shared: ‘Great cinematography and dinosaur mayhem. Exactly what you’ve come to expect from a Jurassic World movie.’

‘Jurassic World Rebirth delivers exactly what fans of the franchise crave: a fun, popcorn-munching good time,’ Andre S insisted. ‘The action sequences are genuinely tense, keeping you on the edge of your seat, and the characters are well-developed, making their perilous journey all the more engaging. It’s a solid, enjoyable entry that reminds us why we love the world of dinosaurs.’

Nick chimed in to say he could ‘see a lot of hate for this online and don’t understand [why]’.

‘It was everything it needed to be. It didn’t want to be over the top and better then the originals,’ he suggested.

Not everyone was impressed however, with Andrew labelling it ‘a disgrace to the series’ and Michael calling it ‘absolutely unacceptable’ in brutally brief takedowns.

‘Disappointment is an understatement. I saw the homages to the original, they didn’t hit right. A sloppy mess of jump scares and absurd attempts at comedic breaks,’ complained Cindy Loo.

Starring Scarlett Johansson as former military operative Zora Bennett, Jonathan Bailey as bespectacled palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis, Rupert Friend as pharmaceutical rep Martin Krebs and Mahershala Ali as team leader Duncan Kincaid, Jurassic World Rebirth starts afresh, 32 years after dinosaurs were brought back when public interest is waning.

This rag-tag group braves the forbidden isolated equatorial regions where dinosaurs still roam freely on a secret mission to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures in the hopes of a major medical breakthrough.

But in the wreckage of the park and previous human experiments, life has also continued to find a way in unexpected forms too.

What have critics said about Jurassic World Rebirth?

‘How can a movie about mutant dinosaurs be this forgettable to look at? It’s a shame,’ wrote critic Danny Leigh for the Financial Times, also describing the movie as ‘a lumbering beast’.

‘The Jurassic sequels were bad enough when they made an effort to evolve – they’re even less worth seeing now that they already come pre-fossilised,’ added Indie Wire’s David Ehrlich, while The Cinematic Reel’s review suggested: ‘If this is the franchise’s big reset, maybe it’s time Universal finally let the dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park franchise go extinct.

Caryn James for the BBC observed in her two-star review: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth has major stars in Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, and better-designed creatures than ever, but so few thrills that it may be the weakest of the Jurassic franchise.’

However, other critics were much more positive.

For The Independent, Clarisse Loughery insisted that Rebirth ‘is making the dinosaur cool again’, while Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian wrote in his four-star review: ‘Now, against all odds, these dinosaurs have had a brand refresh: a brighter, breezier, funnier, incomparably better acted and better written film.’

The Telegraph’s Tim Robey went even further, awarding a full five stars and adding: ‘It’s easily the best-looking, best-sounding film since the first. But it takes a deep, personal love of the medium for a director to deliver such crunchy impact, thrills, spills and euphoric highs.

These more positive professional reactions have saved Jurassic World Rebirth from ranking as poorly as some of its predecessors.

Kicking off with the original Jurassic Park back in 1993 – which revolutionised how dinosaurs are viewed in popular culture as well as being a roaring good time – it was legendary Steven Spielberg who was initially at the helm as the director, returning for sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997.

Unsurprisingly this first outing boasts an impressive 91% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, although the sequel plunges down to 56%.

This initial trilogy was capped off with Jurassic Park III in 2001 before a second trilogy began with a fresh cast in 2015 with Jurassic World.

While this reboot earned 72%, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion followed in 2018 and 2022, respectively, and received the lowest ratings of all at just 47% and then 29%.

From fans, Jurassic World Dominion, the last release, has a surprisingly strong 78% score from over 10,000 audience ratings, but Fallen Kingdom has just 48% and Jurassic Park III, 37%.

Jurassic World Rebirth is out in cinemas now.

This article was first published on July 1.

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Is it possible for Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost to look any more besotted with each other than they already do?

The power couple dressed to the nines as they made their way to the lavish and esteemed Cannes Film Festival, posing on the red carpet while attending the premiere for Wes Anderson’s new flick Asteroid City.

Scarlett, 38, who last made waves at the film festival in 2005 while promoting Woody Allen’s Match Point, wore a blush pink dress for the event, featuring white detailing leading up to the gown’s thin straps.

Saturday Night Live comedian Colin, 40, looked suave in a black tux, and couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off his face as he beamed at his wife of three years.

The couple appeared to share a giggle, acting as if they were completely alone as the photographers snapped away, with the Black Widow star placing a hand on the lapel of her husband’s jacket.

At another point, she placed a hand gently on Colin’s face, showing off her metallic silver manicure, which matched her dazzling, star-shaped earrings.

A splash of bold red lipstick and a huge diamond engagement ring completed Scarlett’s subdued yet standout look, while her signature shoulder-length blonde hair was brushed behind her ears.

In one photo, she couldn’t take her eyes off her spouse – with whom she shares one of her two children – as he cast an eye over the spectators watching their every move.

The pair were joined on the red carpet by Scarlett’s Asteroid City castmates, including The Young Victoria star Rupert Friend, Stranger Things actor Maya Hawke and Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston.

Rupert, 41, twirled Maya, 24, on the red carpet while wearing a white dinner jacket and black trousers.

Maya, on the other hand, took an old-school approach to her premiere look, donning a 1950s-esque olive-green dress, blue elbow-length gloves and white retro-looking heeled boots.

Asteroid City is making its world premiere at Cannes, and is competing for the Palme d’Or prize.

Previous winners of the accolade have included Parasite, The Tree of Life, The Pianist and Pulp Fiction.

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Matt Damon has given fans an insight into an, um, hellish experience with his co-star Scarlett Johansson where the pair had to kiss.

The Oppenheimer actor, 52, starred alongside Black Widow star Johansson, 38, in 2011 comedy film We Bought A Zoo in which Damon’s character Benjamin Mee buys a dilapidated zoo following the death of his wife.

Though the feel-good film is packed full of touching moments, it turns out it could be unpleasant and a bit awkward behind the scenes.

During a game of Agree to Disagree for LadBible, Damon and his Oppenheimer co-star Emily Blunt had to agree or disagree with statements provided to them, leading to some interesting revelations.

The pair spoke about kissing co-stars when they were hit with the statement: ‘You should tell someone if they have bad breath.’

This prompted Damon to tell a particularly cringe-worthy tale after he and Blunt both agreed with the statement.

Damon joked that it was ‘hell’ having to kiss Johansson during a scene after she had eaten an onion sandwich (yes, an onion sandwich!) before filming, saying: ‘Can you imagine how horrible that was for me?’

‘We went to lunch and she and I both thought it was over. She ate an onion sandwich for lunch, and she came in and Cameron Crowe had set the camera up and it was a tight shot of the kiss, and she goes, ‘Oh shit, I literally just had an onion sandwich,’ he continued.

He then said that, as all good scene partners do, he rinsed her for having onion breath for the rest of the scene.

Damon’s latest role is in Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer which tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb.

He stars as Leslie Groves, alongside Cillian Murphy in the titular role, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Jack Quaid, and Rami Malek.

The actor recently revealed that he was going to take a break from acting before Oppenheimer came along – but had luckily negotiated a ‘Christopher Nolan clause’ in the agreement with his wife Lucianna Barroso.

He told Entertainment Weekly: ‘I had – not to get too personal – negotiated extensively with my wife that I was taking time off. I had been in Interstellar, and then Chris put me on ice for a couple of movies, so I wasn’t in the rotation, but I actually negotiated in couples therapy ­- this is a true story – the one caveat to my taking time off was if Chris Nolan called.’

‘This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything, because he never tells you. He just calls you out of the blue.’

Oppenheimer is in cinemas now.

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Comedy, horror, romance, action. You name it, Netflix has got it. But it can take a while to trawl through the endless listings to find a true gem, which is why we’ve done the hard work for you.

While Netflix has plenty of ‘so bad they’re good’ films on offer – you know, the ones you love to hate – the streaming service is also home to a fair few critically acclaimed films too.

But, despite this, we often find ourselves scrolling aimlessly through the streaming service’s catalogue, struggling to find anything that catches our eye. If that sounds familiar to you, save this list for your next movie night.

Here are 10 films on Netflix that you just have to watch if you haven’t already…

1. Past Lives

When two childhood friends reconnect decades later, they are forced to confront the deep feelings between them that struggle to co-exist with the current state of their lives, leaving them to choose between then and now.

Past Lives boasts a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with one critic writing: ‘It is a heartbreaking film that is so masterfully made and profoundly sincere that you want to stay in its world regardless of the emotional cost’.

2. Society of the Snow

This one is a harrowing retelling of a true story. In 1972, a Uruguayan rugby team’s flight crashed in the Andes mountains, leaving them to become each other’s best hope of survival.

Society of the Snow scooped up handfuls of awards and is third on the list of Netflix’s most popular non-English movies of all time, racking up an enormous 98.5 million views in its first three months on the streamer.

Since its release in December 2023, fans have expressed their anger that the drama didn’t land an Oscar.

3. Parasite

From a film that didn’t bag an Oscar to one that cleaned up at the awards. It’s unlikely you haven’t already seen – or at least heard about – Parasite, but for newcomers or repeat watchers, it’s always worth experiencing.

It follows the struggling Kim family, who identify an opportunity for themselves when their son gets a job working in a wealthy home.

They each manage to create a new role for themselves, while pretending not to know one another, but everything changes when they discover a dark secret within the household that employs them.

4. Submarine

A quirky watch that may have sailed a little under the radar, Submarine can be considered one for Netflix’s ‘hidden gem’ list.

It carries a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 88% and is brilliantly summed up by one critic who wrote: ‘While emotionally powerful and incredibly affecting, Submarine doesn’t lack for laughs, even, if at times, you’ll not be ready for them.’

It’s a coming-of-age tale, following 15-year-old Oliver Tate, who is determined to make his own love life a success while simultaneously destroying his mother’s chances with an ex flame.

5. All Quiet on the Western Front

Based on the world renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front flips the usual perspective, telling the story of a young German soldier during World War I.

We watch as his initial euphoria and excitement at becoming a war hero turns to desperation and fear as reality of life on the front line turns out to be very different from the promises made.

The film won four Academy Awards, making it the joint most-awarded foreign language film in the Oscars’ history alongside three others – one of which is Parasite.

6. Four Lions

This dark-comedy, British satire film directed by Chris Morris follows a group of young Muslim men who hatch an inept plan to carry out a terrorist attack, including a disastrous visit to a training camp and a failed attempt to teach birds to carry bombs.

It’s been branded a work of ‘satirical brilliance’ with one critic writing: ‘I laughed out loud a lot, and by the time the plot catches up to the plotters and people start dying, there’s genuine poignancy amid the ridicule’.

7. My Neighbor Totoro

In a change of pace, this animated tale follows two sisters who move to live in a country house with their father while their mother recovers from an illness, only to encounter playful spirits in the home and nearby forest.

It’s rated at 94% by Rotten Tomatoes critics and is perfect if you’re on the lookout for something a little more relaxing, with one critic’s verdict reading: ‘A magic that, from the beginning of the action to the end, delivers [a] sublime 86 minutes of footage whose charm is impossible to resist’.

8. Marriage Story

Starring the combined forces of Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story is a stark look at the end days of a relationship.

It follows a stage director and his actor wife as they struggle through a grueling divorce that pushes them to their limits as they confront where it went wrong.

One viewer said: ‘I’ve never sobbed and related to a movie so much. Like I genuinely cried with a passion, I cried like not take a pic and save it to snap type of way. Just emotionally unable to breathe. Must watch movie! Too good’.

9. Nightcrawler

No list is ever complete without a few thrillers, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nightcrawler from 2014 is one that may have passed you by.

His character, Louis Bloom, finds a new career as a cameraman, using police scanners to document grisly crime scenes across Los Angeles. When his work is noticed by a news director, she becomes reliant on it to raise her struggling ratings.

But as both become increasingly hooked on finding the next big story, the line between fact and fiction begins to warp in their relentless pursuit of viral fame.

10. Emily the Criminal

Okay, so the title might make it sound like a daytime kids’ TV show, but it’s far from it.

We’re in LA again as Emily finds herself spiraling into debt and unable to land a job, before a co-worker points her in the direction of a credit card scam to make a quick buck.

Emily (now a criminal – see it’s a clever title really) finds herself descending deeper and deeper into the underworld as she begins to be shaped and hardened by her new career.

Milan Fashion Week is. in full swing with celebs flocking to the Italian city to support their favourite designers including Prada darling Emma Watson.

After Emma took a chic stroll with her dog Sofia around Milan, she got glammed up for the Prada Spring/Summer ’24 fashion show.

Keeping things sleek, the 33-year-old opted for a timeless little black dress, witha high neck and black patent heels.

She was on trend, wearing minimal accessories save for delicate jewellery and a Prada handbag.

As with all these star studded fashion week events, such as Fendi’s supermodel stacked show on Wednesday, Emma wasn’t the only celeb at the show.

The Harry Potter alum was joined by Marvel stars Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Letitia Wright.

Scarlett, 38, twinned with Emma as she also chose a flattering and elegant little black dress, this time with a cross neck design giving a peak at her ribcage tattoo.

Again her accessories consisted of dainty bracelets, some black kitten heels and a Prada handbag, keeping things monochromatic.

Benedict, 47, put his own spin on the sleek black trend, wearing black trousers – we’re sure he would have looked great in a minidress though.

The Dr Strange star mixed things up with a cream shirt that had a large art print on one side, which appeared to include flowers and a bird.

He wore a long trench coat over the look, which was again a neutral stone colour, and popped on some sunnies too.

Rounding out the Marvel crowd was Letitia, 29, who was leaning into her androgynous vibes with a brown suit.

She styled the plaid suit, buttoned up with no shirt underneath and black loafers and black sunglasses, looking effortlessly cool.

Letitia previously told Metro.co.uk she does not label her own style as androgynous but thinks it is ‘cool’ when other people do.

‘People love to put labels on things and I think that’s dope but I’m just really myself,’ she said earlier this month.

Media personalities Sofia Ritchie and Charli D’Amelio also were spotted at the event with Sofia flying in the face of the neutrals trend in a bright red top.

She covered this with a long wrap around coat which matched her grey suit trousers.

Dixie opted for a grey jumper over a floor length white tulle skirt with floral details – somewhat reminiscent of a wedding dress.

Ayo Edebiri, who stars in cult smash hit Bottoms, looked glam in a sleek lavender top and silky pencil skirt.

She grinned at the camera as she strolled into the show, wearing 90s sling back kitten heels and black sunglasses.

Also in attendance was Hunter Schafer, who rocked a busy peachy toned shirt and black skirt, with chunky loafers completing her business casual vibes.

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Asteroid City boasts the largest, starriest cast of the year – a problem when it comes to trying to squish into one screen for a group online press call.

With that in mind, it’s perhaps good news Margot Robbie, Matt Dillon, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton and Steve Carell couldn’t make it today for what’s already resembling an Oscars’ night selfie.

Who we do have is Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright and Bryan Cranston, plus the director himself, Wes Anderson.

So, what makes this quirky comedy-romance-sci-fi set around a 1955 junior stargazer competition in the desert such a hot ticket? Well, it’s a Wes Anderson movie.

Johansson, who took a pay cut (to a mere $4,131 a week) to work with him again (she voiced Nutmeg the showdog in Isle Of Dogs), explains what makes that experience so special.

‘It’s that sense of camaraderie that you have,’ she says, of playing the female lead, the fragile Hollywood actress, Midge Campbell.

Instead of jostling for the limelight, the many performers support each other to make ‘this beautiful sort of orchestra’.

Today her Breton top even perfectly complements the light blue stripes on Anderson’s typically dapper suit (accessorized by canary yellow socks).

That on-set harmony extended off-set too. Sat in the back row today, befitting her status as an Anderson newbie, Hawke (daughter of Ethan) recalls how, when she asked about getting to know the regulars, ‘Wes is like “Why don’t we just have dinner every night together?”’ ‘And then we all stay in the same hotel,’ chimes in Brody (a five-times Anderson player), often ‘fully dressed in character’.

Another newcomer is Hanks, who plays ‘a retired Ronald Reagan type.’ He admits he’s wanted to join Anderson’s ever-expanding troupe for years. ‘I haven’t seen a Wes Anderson movie that I didn’t wish that I was in. So it was great to be a part of this.’

He’s not alone in wanting to climb into the director’s exquisite, over-stylised world – just look at the current TikTok-led craze for constructing homages to it.

Yet if Anderson’s irresistible visual aesthetic and attention to detail is remarkable, his extraordinary precision comes at a cost. And it’s not for everyone.

‘Actors do say no to me,’ an eternally sheepish-looking Anderson admits.

Wright (The French Dispatch), who plays the US army general hosting the junior stargazer awards, recalls one particularly testing day. ‘We were doing the inserts [a close-up shot focusing on a specific detail]. Normally those take say five or 10 minutes and, boom, you’re done.

‘We did an insert for this film in which my hand touches the gun holster, flips up the flap and grips the weapon. That took about 60 takes and four hours. But I understood why. It was really about trying to find a certain cleanliness to the thing.’

‘Four hours?!’ says a mind-boggled Johansson. ‘You guys should’ve called me! I’m great at inserts.’

‘I’ll tell you what the problem is’, Anderson himself inserts. ‘There was no flap in the cartoon.’ By ‘cartoon’ he’s referring to the infamous, much-sought-after, super-detailed animated storyboards he always creates before he starts shooting. And that he sticks to like glue.

‘I wondered whether that meant we were able to have ideas,’ says Hanks. ‘I asked some of the veterans, and they said, “Yeah, sure.” I remember suggesting something and Wes agreed. I called home straight after and said: ‘He took the idea!’.

Not all the cast loved Anderson’s prescriptive auteur style. Another newbie, Breaking Bad star Cranston, who plays the narrator, has confessed he found making Asteroid City a ‘very difficult’ experience and was often left thinking ‘what does it mean? It’s so specific and so dense with detail that I had to read the script a few times to really get a sense of what we’re doing.’

You sense Cranston may not become an Anderson regular, yet he found the resulting movie ‘a nice surprise’.

Asteroid City is, in the end, another, quintessentially Wes Anderson creation. And it’s Cranston who nutshells its unique quality. ‘We can only take a glimpse into the head of Wes Anderson,’ he says. ‘We can’t live there. That’s his domain. We can only visit.’

Asteroid City is out today in cinemas

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Michael Douglas was left reeling after learning his ‘DNA cousin’ was an A-list actress and former co-star.

The 79-year-old exclaimed ‘you’re kidding’ after discovering Scarlett Johansson, 39, was a relative on PBS series Finding Your Roots.

Michael and the Under the Skin actress previously starred alongside each other in 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame.

Delivering the news to the Basic Instinct actor, the show’s presenter Henry Louis Gates Jr, 73, said he shared ‘identical branches of DNA on four different chromosomes.’

Henry said the branches of DNA ‘appear on Scarlett’s maternal lines, which stretch back to Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.’

Michael was thrilled to learn he was related to the Lost in Translation actress, remarking: ‘Are you kidding? Oh, that’s amazing. All right. This is cool. This is so cool.’

He described the revelation as ‘incredible’ and said he ‘looks forward’ to seeing Scarlett again.

Elsewhere in the episode, Lena Dunham also discovered she was related to a big star.

While delving into her ancestry on the programme, the Girls creator, 37, found out comedy legend Larry David, 76, is her cousin.

She said: ‘My husband’s going to freak out! It’s Larry David! The other LD!

‘This is the hottest information I could have ever gotten.’

Henry told Lena that she and her mother, Laurie Simmons, share ‘multiple long identical segments of DNA with the Curb Your Enthusiasm creator.

He explained: ‘This means that you share at least one common ancestor somewhere on your mother’s side of your family tree.’

Lena replied: ‘This is incredible. You saved the best for last.’

Michael and Lena’s extended family trees are not the only shocking revelations to have been made on Finding Your Roots.

Breaking Bad legend Bob Odenkirk learned that he was related to King Charles... after branding monarchies ‘twisted.’

Before it was revealed King Charles was his eleventh cousin, he declared: ‘I’m an American. I’m not a monarchist. I don’t believe in that.

‘You know, I feel like it’s a little twisted. I understand why society built itself around monarchs and leaders, and they passed them down through generations. I understand that goes through every society, every civilisation.

‘But I think that we’ve gotten to a better place with democracy and we should keep going down that road,’ Bob added.

When the Better Call Saul star was informed of his links to the current king of the United Kingdom, he laughed and said: ‘Well maybe I’ll change my mind on that.’

Meanwhile, Pretty Woman icon Julia Roberts discovered she was not Julia Roberts after all after a test revealed the Roberts were all descended from one man, her great great grandfather, Henry McDonald Mitchell Junior.

‘So we’re Mitchells?’ Julia asked incredulously.

Henry confirmed: ‘You’re Julia Mitchell,’ prompting the Oscar winner to burst into laughter.

Finding Your Roots premiered on PBS in 2021 and sees celebrities presented with a ‘book of life’ that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists to learn about familial connections and discover secrets about their lineage.

Finding Your Roots airs on PBS in the US.

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When ‘Her’ was released in 2013, it depicted a vision of the future where it could be possible to have a relationship with a machine.

Eleven years on, the film in which Joaquin Phoenix’s character Theodore falls in love with his AI assistant is getting old – but the story it depicts is eerily current.

You might even think his virtual girlfriend had appeared in real life, after OpenAI unveiled the latest iteration of its large language model ChatGPT, which offers the ability to chat via speech, not text.

A video demo of the new technology had many mistaking the ‘flirtatious’ voice for that of Scarlett Johansson, who voiced AI interface Samantha in the film.

The actress herself was unhappy, saying she had declined for ‘personal reasons’ when asked to be the voice of Sky.

She said the voice was so similar to hers that even family were confused, and contacted OpenAI via lawyers to ask them how they obtained it.

The company denied they had used her voice, saying it was trained on a different professional actor, but amid the controversy they removed Sky from the five voices used in the app.

It highlights the potential problems with AI being able to mimic someone’s voice in real life, an issue we will have to grapple with more and more.

It is now possible to fake someone’s voice entirely from just a few seconds of audio of them speaking, such as from someone’s answerphone message, AI ethics expert Nell Watson told Metro.co.uk.

She said that the issue is becoming urgent as legislation has not caught up with the technology, particularly in the UK which lags behind other countries such as France and Canada.

There is currently no law in this country specifically allowing people the rights to their own voice.

So you own the copyright to a quick selfie you took on holiday and could take legal action to stop others using it, but would have to rely on secondary laws like harassment or GDPR if you wanted to stop someone using your actual voice.

A law on deepfakes is working its way through Parliament, but this only looks at pornographic fakes of real people, not the creation of synthetic media of their likenesses in general.

In the past, it wasn’t necessary to copyright personal characteristics as people had very limited ways to use them, and certainly could not manipulate the recording into making it seem you had said something you had not.

But now, the issue is a big one. Actors in particular are concerned, as they could lose out on work if companies were able to simply pay them once, and then use those initial recordings to make them say anything they wanted to without it costing them anything further.

Scammers are also already using ‘voice phishing’ technology, with a finance worker in Hong Kong recently tricked into paying £20 million of his company’s money to fraudsters after joining a video call where his boss and colleagues were all deepfakes.

We’ve all had WhatsApp text messages from scammers claiming to be family members, but manipulated audio where a loved one could sound distressed is much more difficult to dismiss, such as when scammers convinced a mother they had kidnapped her daughter using faked audio.

Nell, whose book Taming the Machine looks at responsible use of AI, said: ‘The UK has an opportunity to learn from other nations in how how it engages in publicity rights, now more than ever when it becomes so trivial for people to create these fakes.

‘It may be very difficult to track down who has actually done something, and so it’s important that there are some investigatory powers which typically civic law doesn’t provide.’

There are some positives to being able to create such natural-sounding likenesses, for example allowing people to play lifelike games where they can remix or expand on content.

But if not regulated, it creates the risk of people losing control of their own identities.

There are now ‘off the shelf technologies’ that can be bought or rented for as little as £20 that give people the capability to make such convincing fakes, Nell said.

Referring to Scarlett Johansson’s spat with OpenAI, Dominic Lees, a deepfake expert at the University of Reading, said: ‘AI developers need to be careful.

‘High-profile cases like this demonstrate the many problems that can be caused through the misuse of deepfake technology, and highlights calls for new regulations to protect individuals from unauthorised digital replication.

‘Ethical AI development should prioritise consent, transparency, and respect for personal rights to prevent exploitation and preserve public trust.’

Scarlett Johansson’s husband Colin Jost has showed off a gruesome foot injury he sustained while reporting on the Olympics 2024.

The Saturday Night Live star said that he hurt himself on the reef shortly after arriving in Tahiti for the surfing competition.

After revealing a couple of gruesome pictures, fans have urged him to stop sharing pictures of the injury online, calling the wound ‘disgusting’.

The 42-year-old posted a picture of his foot with bloodied toes on Instagram and captioned the post: ‘This might ruin my WikiFeet score but I just arrived in Tahiti for the surfing Olympics and the reef was excited to greet me.’

Colin later shared an image of his foot with three of his toes in bandages and quipped: ‘You know it’s going great when you’ve been to the Olympic medical tent more than any of the athletes.’

The performer’s fans empathised with him over his injury but also could not resist making a few jokes in the spirit of the funnyman.

On Instagram, @marias.nat quipped: ‘I will give you money to stop showing your feet. Please.’

@mymorningbrews joked: ‘This is the worst OnlyFans page.’

@maryinstafamous also added: ‘You can use the “It’s an old Olympics injury” for the rest of your life now,’ while @genelafunk quipped: ‘Colin this is disgusting.’

It was announced earlier this year that Colin would cover the Olympics from Tahiti for NBC, thousands of miles away from the games’ primary location in Paris.

Reacting to Colin’s appointment, his wife Scarlett, 40, previously joked: ‘I’m like, how did he get this gig?’

She told Today’s Savannah Guthrie: ‘When they announced the Paris Olympics, he immediately found out that they were doing the surf competition in Tahiti, which is so cool. He loves to surf, we have a place in Montauk, he’s always out there surfing

The Fly Me To The Moon actress added while drawing a fake tear on her cheek: ‘And somehow the dream became a reality, and now he’s going to be in Tahiti for two weeks, and I’m like, “Poor you.”‘

Scarlett continued: ‘He’s like, “Poor me, I’m going to be all over the place,” and I’m like, “Are you?”

‘I think if you can have a pina colada on air while you’re working, that’s not technically work.’

Colin and Scarlett tied the knot in a low key wedding in 2020 after three years of dating, which they revealed through a statement from Meals on Wheels America.

The following year they welcomed their first child together, a son called Cosmo.

Announcing their baby’s birth on Instagram, the comedian said: ‘Ok ok we had a baby. His name is Cosmo. We love him very much. Privacy would be greatly appreciated.’

Scarlett is already mum to nine-year-old daughter Rose with her ex-husband Romain Dauriac.

The Marriage Story actress was also previously married to Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011.

Colin, who fronts Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, dated Parks & Recreation star Rashida Jones for three years until 2016.

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One of Scarlett Johansson’s most controversial films has soared into Netflix’s global top 10 chart, more than a decade after it was initially released.

Lucy – also starring Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik and Amr Waked – hit the big screen in 2014 and was met with mixed reviews, and currently has a 47% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The flick followed student Lucy (Scarlett) as she’s tricked into becoming a drug mule, before getting a bag of a synthetic drug sewn onto her body when she’s captured.

She gets kicked in the stomach, causing the bag to rupture and the drug to leak into her system, gifting her with ‘superhuman’ powers.

Despite being released 10 years ago, it has had a resurgence on the streaming platform and has become the eighth most-watched film globally in the last few days.

According to Netflix, it has racked up more than 6,500,000 hours viewed and over 4,400,000 total views between August 19 and August 25.

The Union has taken the top spot for the second week in a row, with Incoming, Migration, The Emoji Movie, Night School and the Kingsman franchise also in the chart.

However, the recent success hasn’t prevented Lucy from being it from being destroyed on Rotten Tomatoes, with many viewers branding it ‘the worst movie’ in years.

In fact, Annie A said: ‘Just about the worst movie I’ve seen in years. I’m not even sure what the point of it was by the end. Morgan Freedman barely had a role in the movie. The trailer is deceptive. Spare yourself.’

‘It was just awful from start to finish,’ Joshua H agreed. ‘Too outlandish and corny. Storyline was terrible. Honestly can’t believe Morgan Freeman agreed to be in this. It was just bad.’

Nathan W fumed: ‘Honestly one of the worst movies I’ve seen. Boring, poorly done, and just hard to watch.’

‘Really bad. Laughably bad. “I feel violated” bad. Thank God for fast forward bad,’ Stephen G wrote.

Colin M penned: ‘Stunning slick visuals with jubberish dialogue in search of a plot. Gorgeous to look at, but quite nonsensical [sic].’

As Joey added: ‘One of the worst action movies I have ever seen. The only movie in my life I wanted to just leave.’

Although Lucy has been slated, it has been claimed that there is a sequel series in the works, with Morgan reprising his role – but very few other details around.

One person wanting more information is director Luc Besson, who penned and was behind the camera for the original.

‘I heard that [was happening],’ he recently told the Playlist. ‘I even read that. Yeah, I was glad to hear [it.] I said, “Oh? Give me the script.”

‘That’s the problem sometimes with the internet is I don’t know where [the information] comes from. Sometimes, I see that my name is on a movie that I haven’t been aware of.’

That’s not a no…

Lucy is available to stream on Netflix now.

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We’re used to seeing Jonathan Bailey wearing tailcoats and tophats in Bridgerton and, most recently, frolicking around as Fiyero on the set of Wicked.

However, for his latest movie role, the actor has undergone somewhat of a geeky transformation, having already started hitting the gym last year to bulk up for the part.

The 36-year-old stars in Jurassic World Rebirth, the fourth instalment in the Jurassic World series and the seventh instalment overall in the Jurassic Park film series.

He plays Dr Henry Loomis, a palaeontologist, with a first-look image already causing fans to swoon in anticipation of the movie’s release.

A photo of Bailey in action was shared on X, in which he sports a checked shirt, backpack, and a sweet pair of glasses.

Digging his new aesthetic, cinephiles have heaped praise on him for being a ‘versatile’ performer.

‘Jonathan Bailey in a Jurassic World movie? This is going to be epic!’, wrote mehak_ali63121.

‘this nerdy look is so perfect omg’, said donoing of his transformation/

‘sound like a broken record at this point but jonathan bailey as a gorgeous nerdy palaeontologist is going to change my life forever’, declared an unashamedly dramatic manesbeloved.

‘A hot scientist, what’s not to like?’, squealed dreamingofuuuu.

Others made it clear that Bailey is what will entice them to buy a cinema ticket when the film hits theatres in July.

As for the movie itself, the plot is simple and probably what you’d expect: A woman and a family get stranded on an island home to ferocious dinosaurs.

Where Bailey comes in is when Zora Bennett, a covert operative, played by Scarlett Johansson, is hired to work alongside the palaeontologist and his team leader, Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) on a top-secret mission.

They must ‘locate the three largest creatures in the tropics and acquire their DNA, which contains the key to a drug that will miraculously save human lives’, as per a synopsis.

During their adventure, the team crosses paths with a family of civilians who are then forced to ‘confront a terrifying, ominous revelation that has been kept secret from the world for decades.’

He may have switched up his look especially for the part, but Bailey really is on a roll right now, what with Wicked receiving multiple Oscar nominations, including in the major categories.

Film bosses clearly can’t get enough of him, as he’s also said to be in the running to take over from Daniel Craig as the next James Bond.

The heart-throb joins the likes of hot favourite Aaron Taylor-Johnson and ex-Superman star Henry Cavill in the betting odds, while 007 fans are still awaiting an official announcement on who will play the secret agent next.

Bailey was catapulted to international stardom in 2020 when he first portrayed Anthony Bridgerton in the Netflix period drama, later setting hearts racing with his on-screen chemistry with Simon Ashley’s Kate Sharma.

His other notable roles include BBC’s W1A and ITV’s Broadchurch, plus various dalliances on the West End stage, hence his genius casting in Wicked alongside Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

Jurassic World Rebirth is released into cinemas in July 2025.

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New movie Jurassic World Rebirth is out this June and there’s half a dozen new Lego sets to accompany it, including a Scarlett Johansson minifigure.

Lego would be making dinosaur sets whether Jurassic Park was a thing or not but combining the two has been great for everyone, including fans.

A few weeks ago, Lego unveiled a new giant-sized set aimed at adults, that recreates the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton from the first movie, but now they’ve announced six more modestly priced sets aimed at everyone, for the new movie Jurassic World Rebirth.

What’s been a problem in the past though, for Lego and other toy lines, is that because they have to be made so far in advance, they often give away spoilers about the film’s plot just by virtue of what’s in them. But thankfully these sets don’t reveal what that big weird looking monster Is at that the end of the trailer.

Although it’s not a reboot, Rebirth doesn’t star Chris Pratt or any of the main characters from the last three films. Instead, it features Scarlett Johansson as a mercenary hired to escort a palaeontologist, to take samples from three of the biggest species at an abandoned Jurassic Park research facility.

No doubt chaos ensues but the trailer clearly shows some kind of monster that does not look like a dinosaur, but whatever it is these new Lego sets don’t spoil the surprise.

Baby Dinosaur Dolores: Aquilops (76970)

The sets are all aimed at a variety of different age groups but since a lot of the dinosaurs are custom moulds, made up of just a few pieces, that means even young fans can get involved. One of the coolest though is this brick-built baby Aquilops, which looks great and is fully posable.

RRP: £19.99; Ages: 7+

Raptor Off-Road Escape (76972)

Baby Dolores must be a pretty prominent character (or just a very cute one) because she’s also in this set as a moulded figure, along with a Velociraptor, two human characters called Reuben and Isabella Delgado, and a neat looking off-road jeep.

RRP: £29.99; Ages: 6+

Raptor & Titanosaurus Tracking Mission (76973)

It’s not clear from the trailer why exactly anyone needs a sample from the three biggest dinosaurs, but they don’t get much bigger than a Titanosaurs, which is the first time that particular species has appeared in Lego form. You also get a Velociraptor, three human minifigures, an off-road vehicle with trailer, a motorcycle and a run-down charging station that is no doubt a plot point in the film.

RRP: £89.99; Ages: 7+

Brick-Built Mosasaurus Boat Mission (76974)

Unlike all the other dinosaurs in the minifigure scale sets, the Mosasaurus (which is not technically a dinosaur, but merely a prehistoric reptile) is made up entirely of normal Lego bricks. That makes it much more interesting to more adult fans but it’s also the reason why this one has a slightly higher age rating.

RRP: £54.99; Ages: 9+

T. rex River Escape (76975)

This is the set with the lowest age rating, because while it comes with a highly desirable Tyrannosaurs Rex figure it’s very easy to put together and the rest of the set, which also includes two minifigures, is also simple enough for Lego novices to construct.

RRP: £44.99; Ages: 5+

Spinosaurus & Quetzalcoatlus Air Mission (76976)

The most expensive of the sets features not just two very large dinosaurs but also a six-wheel off-road vehicle and a ruined temple which, to judge from the movie trailer, is where the Quetzalcoatlus’ nest is. Also included are the four main human characters, in minifigure form.

RRP: £139.99; Ages: 8+

All of the sets will be available to purchase from June 1, while the movie itself opens in the UK on June 11.

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Netflix viewers can now watch an ‘utterly enchanting’ Wes Anderson film starring a string of Hollywood actors.

First released in 2023, the science fiction comedy drama Asteroid City was written, directed and produced by Anderson based on a story he wrote with Roman Coppola.

The plot follows a play about a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, but ‘it becomes metatextual because the making of the play is the subject of a television documentary’.

‘The story is about extraterrestrials and UFOs witnessed in the American Southwestern desert in close proximity to atomic test sites after World War II,’ it’s been teased.

The movie features an ensemble cast including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum.

During its cinematic run, Asteroid City grossed $54 million (£40 million) worldwide on a $25 million (£18 million) budget.

The movie – which holds a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – was largely praised by critics and audiences.

‘Asteroid City’s eccentricity, its elegance, its gaiety, and its sheer profusion of detail within the tableau frame make it such a pleasure,’ The Guardian wrote in its review.

‘There has always been a method to Wes Anderson’s madness, but Asteroid City reminds you that there is also a madness to his method. And that, ultimately, is what makes him a great artist,’ New York Magazine wrote.

‘Asteroid City is visually arresting but with a grounded, charming, and considered script that confronts themes of parenthood and grief, as well as the transporting power of both stargazing and daydreaming. It is an easy film to love,’ Vogue added.

Meanwhile viewers called it ‘unique’ and ‘spectacular’.

This week it was made available on Netflix, with fans and new viewers able to watch it just in time for the weekend.

In an interview with Metro Cranston, best known for starring as Walter White in Breaking Bad, admitted he was often left confused by Anderson’s prescriptive auteur style.

The actor, who plays the narrator, confessed he found making Asteroid City a ‘very difficult’ experience and was often left thinking ‘what does it mean?’.

‘It’s so specific and so dense with detail that I had to read the script a few times to really get a sense of what we’re doing,’ he said.

‘We can only take a glimpse into the head of Wes Anderson. We can’t live there. That’s his domain. We can only visit.’

However, he added the movie was a ‘nice surprise’.

Asteroid City is now streaming on Netflix.

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