The cast of Top Gun 2, officially titled Top Gun: Maverick, has added Jon Hamm and Ed Harris. But they won’t be alone.

The veteran actors will be accompanied by some new faces, some of whom are new to the game. Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), Charles Parnell (A Million Little Pieces), Jay Ellis (Insecure), Bashir Salahuddin (GLOW), Danny Ramirez (Assassination Nation), and Monica Barbaro (The Good Cop), are also joining the cast in a variety of roles. More on the story below.

Original Top Gun stars Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer are returning for Top Gun 2, but now a newcomer is joining the cast.

It’s being reported that Whiplash star Miles Teller has signed on for the sequel, which is officially titled Top Gun: Maverick. But while he wasn’t in the original—in fact, he hadn’t even been born when the original was released—he is playing a character very much tied to the original. Teller will be playing the protege of Cruise’s Maverick, and the son of Maverick’s co-pilot in the original, Goose, who was played by Anthony Edwards.

After many years of rumors and whispers and a lengthy stay in development hell, and 32 years after the original was released, Top Gun 2 has officially begun production.

The news was shared by original star Tom Cruise, who’s set to reprise his role as Maverick in the follow-up, in a tweet sent out last night. More info on the sequel and Cruise’s tweet can be found below.

The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau
Screenwriter: Justin Marks
Cast: Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Neel Sethi
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
Rated PG | 106 Minutes
Release Date: April 15, 2016

There is a fine line that filmmakers walk when reimagining a classic like Disney’s The Jungle Book. The animated film, released in 1967, has a special place in the hearts of fans who enjoyed watching a boy who lived in the jungle and was raised by wolves become a man. Though there have been many iterations and adaptations, that film is probably the most recognized. Now we flash forward to 2016, nearly 50 years since the release of the film where Disney has already created a successful formula of turning those animated classics into live-action blockbusters.

The film is storytelling come to life in every sense of the word. Like a parental figure reading a story to their child. Jon Favreau (Iron Man), faithfully adapts the film for the newer generation, while still paying respect to those who loved the original. Some might consider that his vision for this surpasses the original. Others might think it succeeds in its own right. In the end, the film is nostalgically joyous and a romping good time.

Disney’s recent turn to modernize their animated classics by giving them a live-action adaptation has been a successful product thus far. With Maleficent and Cinderella already proving to be box office hits, the studio shows no signs of slowing down, by releasing more of these adaptations. Perhaps the most interesting of all the adaptations would be The Jungle Book. Now, it’s not interesting in a perplexing manner, but in how they approached the production of the film. The adaptation combines live-action and CGI to form a beautiful story, based on the animated film and Rudyard Kipling’s classic novel.

During the film’s presentation at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA, today, director Jon Favreau talked about the production of The Jungle Book, with his cast Ben Kingsley, who voices Bagheera; Lupita Nyong’O, who voices the protective mother wolf Raksha; and newcomer Neel Sethi, who plays the human lead Mowgli.

More on the production of the film as well as description of the footage here below.

Walt Disney has a new adaptation of the 1894 Rudyard Kipling classic The Jungle Book on the way, and it appears that they’ve found a director for the project.

It’s being reported that Jon Favreau, director of movies like Elf, Zathura, Iron Man 1 & 2, and Cowboys & Aliens, has entered into negotiations for the job.

You didn’t think the wave of new versions of your favorite animated fairy tales and children’s stories was over already, did you? We still have a live-action Cinderella on the way, and the new take on Sleeping Beauty titled Maleficent. We’ve heard about possible darker new takes on Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. We can expect to see more Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and Wizard of Oz soon, as well.

Now comes word of another live-action reboot. Disney is developing a new adaptation of The Jungle Book, the classic Rudyard Kipling collection of tales, many of which focus on a young boy named Mowgli who was raised by wolves and hangs out with anthropomorphic animals, such as a bear named Baloo and a panther named Bagheera.

Fans of He-Man have not been thrilled with the way things have gone in trying to make a new movie based on the powerful prince hero these past few years. Nevertheless, studios keep on trying, and Columbia Pictures has hired Mike Finch and Alex Litvak to write a shiny new script for Masters of the Universe.

A new, re-envisioned take on the He-Man character using modern filmmaking technologies has been floating in purgatory for quite a while now. At one point we even had a script that was getting great feedback and being compared to The Lord of the Rings as well as Kung-Fu Panda co-director John Stevenson set to captain the movie, but alas, even that was killed, revived, and killed again within the gears of the Hollywood machine.

Bloody-Disgusting is reporting that Stephen Susco (The Grudge) has been hired to write the script for Hack/Slash, the upcoming movie based on the Tim Seeley comic book. Back in April of 2008, the project had Justin Marks writing the script that was to be directed by Todd Lincoln. Lincoln was also replaced back in July when Fredrik Bond was brought in to helm the movie (Read: ‘Hack/Slash’ Gets A New Director In Fredrik Bond)

Hack/Slash follows Cassie Hack, a girl who never had it easy growing up. When her evil Lunch Lady mother — who was murdered after it was discovered that she had been killing children and processing them into the food — comes back from the dead and resumes her murderous habits, Cassie takes her own mother out. After that, she begins her life as a slayer of Slashers, the vicious living and dead beings who walk the Earth, slaughtering all who cross their paths. She is joined by a giant named Vlad who acts as her bodyguard and strength.

For the second time in the last year or so, Warner Brothers recently killed off their planned new live-action He-Man movie, which was preferably called Greyskull for a while, and then back to Masters of the Universe. Both moves came as a surprise as, even though it is He-Man, a review of the Justin Marks script by Latino Review claimed that it had a ton of potential and a real Lord of the Rings vibe to it. The reasoning behind Warner Bros. ultimately dispatching the classic property? It looks as if the studio and the creative sides of the project just could not see eye to eye, and decided it would be best to drop it and move on.

Now comes word that Columbia Pictures didn’t wait too long to go right after the property, and at last notice, they are in negotiations to acquire it. If this deal does move through without a hitch, though, there’s a good chance it could come with a price those of you looking forward to the project won’t swallow easily.