Nolan's Odyssey Arrives — and Critics Are Calling It the One to Beat

The first reactions to Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey are in, and they're exactly what Universal was hoping for. Following early 70mm IMAX screenings that sold out over a year in advance, critics and fanboys alike are describing the Homeric adaptation as a "spectacle mixed with emotions" — with Matt Damon's Odysseus already generating genuine Best Actor buzz.

Deadline reports the film is eyeing an $80M–$100M opening weekend at the U.S. box office, while one critic went so far as to call it "the Best Picture contender to beat." The ensemble is, predictably, absurd: Zendaya as Athena, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, with the world premiere red carpet drawing crowds that haven't been seen since Oppenheimer. The film opens wide July 17.

Why it matters: Nolan hasn't missed since The Dark Knight Rises a decade and a half ago. If The Odyssey lands, we're looking at a second consecutive Best Director race with his name on it.

The $750K Horror Film That Just Crossed $400 Million

In an era where "mid-budget" has come to mean $80 million, a horror thriller called Obsession — shot for $750,000 — has quietly become one of the most profitable films of the year. It crossed $400 million globally this week and just hit streaming services, meaning the word-of-mouth wave is about to get even bigger.

Details about the plot remain deliberately cryptic (the marketing has leaned heavily on "the less you know, the better" — a strategy that clearly worked), but the numbers speak for themselves: a 500x return on budget. For context, Paranormal Activity did roughly 430x. The Blair Witch Project did 400x. Obsession has beaten them both.

Why it matters: This is the kind of breakout that reshapes what studios are willing to greenlight. Every exec in town is now asking "what's the next Obsession?"

Max's Big Bang Spinoff Goes Full Multiverse

The official trailer for Stuart Fails to Save the Universe dropped in late June, and it's… not what anyone expected from a Big Bang Theory spinoff. Kevin Sussman returns as Stuart Bloom, the perpetually unlucky comic book store owner, who — in this ten-episode Max series — somehow winds up navigating alternate universes populated by familiar faces.

Quick glimpses in the trailer confirm Christine Baranski (Beverly Hofstadter), Riki Lindhome (Ramona Nowitzki), and Teller (Larry Fowler) among the cameos. Jon Cryer also appears in what the trailer describes as a "kaleidoscope" visual. The multiverse premise is about as far from the original sitcom's apartment-bound comfort zone as you can get — and honestly, that's what makes it interesting.

HBO's Harry Potter Is Already Recasting Major Roles

Season 1 of HBO's Harry Potter series hasn't even aired yet (it's slated for Christmas 2026), but production is already recasting for Season 2. The actress playing Ginny Weasley is departing the show, and a public casting call has gone out for her replacement with a July submission deadline. Separately, Deadline reports that the role of Colin Creevey — the Gryffindor first-year with the camera — is also being cast for Season 2.

This kind of early recasting is unusual for a prestige HBO production. While no official reason has been given for the departure, the fan discourse has already split into two camps: concern about behind-the-scenes turbulence, and relief that the creative team is willing to make hard calls rather than lock into casting they're not confident about.

Sanderson's Cosmere Lands at Apple TV+

In what may be the most significant fantasy-rights deal since Amazon acquired The Lord of the Rings, Brandon Sanderson's interconnected Cosmere universe — spanning Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, and a dozen other series — has been picked up by Apple TV+. The Hollywood Reporter broke the exclusive in January, and development has been quietly underway ever since.

The scale here is hard to overstate: the Cosmere is arguably the most ambitious worldbuilding project in modern fantasy, with interlinked magic systems, shared cosmology, and a fanbase that rivals any franchise not named Potter or Tolkien. Apple, which has been building its genre slate with Silo, Foundation, and Monarch, now has a property that could anchor the service for a decade.

No casting or release timeline has been announced.

Enola Holmes 3: Sherlock Goes Missing

The third installment of Netflix's Enola Holmes franchise just dropped its trailer, and this time it's personal: Sherlock Holmes has been kidnapped, and Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) has to find him. The premise flips the dynamic of the first two films — Enola as the capable lead, Sherlock as the damsel in distress — and the trailer suggests a darker tone than its predecessors.

Henry Cavill returns as Sherlock, with Helena Bonham Carter back as their mother Eudoria. The film hits Netflix later this summer.

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