Director Lee Cronin is working on a secret project for New Line Cinema, as Warner Bros announces a host of upcoming release dates.
Warner Bros has staked a claim on several key release dates over the next few years, although for the most part, we can only speculate what the studio might be planning to release.
Let’s start with what we do know though: the dates have been set for ‘event’ films (although that can be a pretty elastic term) and begin with the first movie greenlit at James Wan and Jason Blum’s recently merged Atomic Monster and Blumhouse.
While the two companies collaborated on the rather fun M3GAN and then, the also fun Night Swim, this project marks their first official release since the merger. And while nobody is going to give us any prizes for guessing that it will be a horror film, we now learn that Evil Dead Rise filmmaker Lee Cronin will write and direct the film, which New Line Cinema will release on 17th April 2026.
Plot specifics for it are under wraps but Evil Dead Rise was an enjoyably vicious entry in the Evil Dead series (and a New Line Cinema film to boot) while Cronin has publicly stated he wants a crack at a sequel. Could this be it?
Everything else we learned is a little more uncertain, with the announcement revealing an untitled Warner Bros. event film is set for 26th March 2027, there’s an animated film hailing from the Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Locksmith Animation deal which opens on 23rd July 2027, and an untitled Warner Bros. family film sequel opening 17th December 2027.
Could Tom Cruise’s collaboration with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu be the March 2027 film? We’d expect that one to be looking at a 2027 release date given that Cruise is looking to remake The Gauntlet first. You can also see the studio wanting to get dates in early and secure the film a lengthy IMAX run but that March release date doesn’t feel right for that project.
We do know what the Locksmith Animation project will be though as it’s was announced last year. Bad Fairies, the previously announced subversive musical comedy set in contemporary London. The film – which hails from some of the Ron’s Gone Wrong creators – focuses on ‘a badass gang of fairies who break every rule in the book.’
When any of these dates receive firm title announcements, we’ll let you know. Until then, we’ll just have to wonder…
