This weekend, Universal will launch the start of their brand new Dark Universe monsters franchise with a reboot of The Mummy. Directed by Alex Kurtzman, the film will bring together some of our favorite classic monsters in an all new shared universe involving Universal Monsters. It will be followed up by the Bill Condon-directed Bride of Frankenstein, starring Javier Bardem; Creature of the Black Lagoon from screenwriters Jeff Pinkner and Will Beall; The Invisible Man, starring Johnny Depp; and Van Helsing, from Prometheus scribe Jon Spaihts, Arrival writer Eric Heisserer, and Dan Mazeau.

But that is just the beginning. Because Kurtzman says there are more Dark Universe films on the way. In a new interview, the man responsible for building this new Universal Monsters shared universe says Dracula, Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Phantom of the Opera are being developed. More on the story below.

This year, Sony started to develop spinoffs based on Spider-Man supporting characters. This has been something that Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman and the studio has been cooking up for quite some time. While Sony has the authority to approve these spinoffs, they won’t officially be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – even though Spider-Man has already joined it.

Venom will reportedly be the first of the spinoffs to be released, with a Black Cat and Silver Sable film to follow. And now we know who will play Venom and who will direct the film as well. According to various reports, Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road) will play the title character, while Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Gangster Squad) will direct. More on the full story below.

According to longtime Transformers director Michael Bay, there’s 14 more movies in the franchise on the way including the spinoffs, and he’s interested in making one of those spinoffs. Now, before we shake our heads in (not so surprised) disbelief, let’s just get one thing out of the way first. Transformers: The Last Knight is supposed to be Bay’s last film in the franchise. At least that’s what he’s said. Remember, he previously told the press that for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. So it doesn’t come as a shock when he also says he’d like to do one of the spinoffs.

Secondly, 14 more Transformers films was not unexpected. At least not when Bay, Akvia Goldsman, and Steven Spielberg gathered a group of writers to pitch ideas to expand the franchise into a shared universe. More on the story below.

Filming has begun on Jumanji, the next movie in the fantasy adventure series starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black.

To mark the occasion, The Rock has shared the first image from the movie, with the cast in full costume standing in the jungle. Johnson has said that the movie is more of a continuation of the story told in the original 1995 movie starring Robin Williams than a remake, and judging by the image it looks like at least part of the movie will be taking us to the other side of the mysterious board game.

Grab a peek at the first Jumanji image below.

Last December, Paramount Pictures announced the development of a shared cinematic universe based on their Hasbro properties – including G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand), Micronauts, Visionairies, and ROM – similar to the one they are currently working on for their extremely lucrative Transformers franchise. The next logical step was to assemble a team of creative samurai to help them foster Hollywood’s latest attempt to one-up Marvel to the silver screen.

The studio just announced that they have put together a jaw-dropping writers’ room that includes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon (The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Wonder Boys) and Eisner Award-winning comic book writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Saga).

This past summer, Paramount Studios hired 12 writers to write out the bible for the Transformers cinematic universe. The plan was for the writers to come up with ideas that would expand beyond the canon films with spinoffs and prequels. Of the proposed works there were plans for a Bumblebee spinoff, Beast Wars, and more.

Of the nine pitches that were sent to the Transformers brain trust — Michael Bay, Akiva Goldsman, Steven Spielberg, Mark Vahradian, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura, as well as Hasbro’s Brian Goldner — only five were approved. Of those five, a Transformers Cybertron animated origins film will be helmed by Ant-Man co-writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, while Goldsman is confirmed to be scripting Transformers 5. Bay has yet to announce if he will return to direct the fifth untitled Transformers film. It’s still not clear if the other three unnamed projects are spinoffs or prequels, but Hasbro announced that there will be four more Transformers films in the next decade. More on the story below.

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Pacific Rim 2 writer Zak Penn, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Lost‘s Jeff Pinkner, Ant-Man co-writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, Lindsey Beer (The Fugitive remake), Christina Hodson (the re-imagining of Wizard of Oz), former Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight, Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down), and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Black List script Hibernation) are all members of the Transformers shared universe writing team. Led by Akiva Goldsman, the plan is to take the franchise beyond the films we have seen so far. Rumors of this expansion include spinoffs centering on Bumblebee, a Cybertron origins film, and possibly Beast Wars. But there is one certainty: Paramount wants to have a Transformers 5, and they want Michael Bay to direct it.

The plan was to have a script ready in time for Bay when he completes his work on the Bengazhi film 13 Hours. While nothing is official yet, it appears that the Armageddon director is interested in coming back to direct his fifth Transformers film. But there is more. A new report is coming out that give us a look at what the writing teams have come up with in four short months. More on the story below.

A movie adaptation of Stephen King‘s popular book series The Dark Tower has been set up and developed at multiple movie studios over the years before being eventually dropped and moving on to the next studio willing to give it a shot.

The latest studio to take on the ambitious adaptation is Sony, who seems to have a lot of faith that it could be one of their next big franchises after we found out back in April that the first movie was being fast tracked by the studio.

Now comes word that Sony has found the spot they want to release the first movie on, setting a release date of January 13, 2017.

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Pacific Rim 2 writer Zak Penn, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Lost‘s Jeff Pinkner, and Ant-Man co-writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, Lindsey Beer (The Fugitive remake) and Christina Hodson (the re-imagining of Wizard of Oz) currently make up the writing team of the Transformers Shared Universe, and now that team is about to add three more.

Joining the team will be former Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight, Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Black List script Hibernation). The team will be led by Akiva Goldsman, who talked a little bit about the upcoming universe and what to expect from him and the team. Read what he had to say below.

In the past few weeks, the Transformers shared universe story trust has grown. But fans have taken issue with the team’s lack of diversity, and in response to that Paramount Pictures has hired a pair of female writers, Lindsey Beer and Christina Hodson.

The duo will be joining the writing team made up of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Pacific Rim 2 writer Zak Penn, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Lost‘s Jeff Pinkner, and Ant-Man co-writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. The team will be led by Akiva Goldsman.