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Bond's Final Screen Test, a Holmes Doc Nearly Topples Clayface, House of Night Gets a Director — Pop Culture Digest — October 26, 2026
James Bond's last screen tests are running in London, and the deciding factor is not the acting. A three-hour Elizabeth Holmes documentary nearly beat Clayface at the box office. Plus House of Night finally has a director, Amazon MGM buys BookTok's serial-killer romance, Poison Ivy heads to HBO, and Halloweentown 5 is in development at Disney.
Bond's Last Screen Test Is Not Really About Acting
The final James Bond screen tests are happening in London this weekend, which means that somewhere in that city an actor is auditioning for a role that will define the next decade of his life. The bookmakers and the trades have Jack Lowden and Callum Turner at the front. Jack O'Connell and Josh O'Connor are reportedly somewhere in the mix — two names so similar that The Hollywood Reporter wonders whether a source simply conflated them.
Lowden is the everyman bet: six seasons of Slow Horses have functioned as a decade-long audition, and he would give writers a Bond they could actually surprise. Turner looks like he was grown in a lab for the part, which is either the best or worst thing about him depending on how original you want your 007.
But the interesting part of THR's reporting is what the test is actually measuring. Bond is a ten- or twelve-year commitment, and the actor becomes a brand ambassador for a franchise that cannot afford a scandal. No divisive political rants, no messy domestic fights, no public benders, and — to quote the piece directly — preferably not a jerk behind the scenes. The cautionary tale is Jonathan Majors at Marvel: one lead actor's legal trouble can erase an announced film.
Cubby Broccoli once called casting George Lazenby "the biggest mistake in 16 years," adding that the actor "just couldn't deal with success. He was so arrogant." Lazenby made one film. Barbara Broccoli, who ran the producing team until last year, put it plainly in 2022: "When we cast Bond, it's a 10-, 12-year commitment. Not everybody wants to do that."
The franchise now sits with Amazon MGM. Whoever wins the test inherits the role and the behaviour clause that comes with it.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter · The Hollywood Reporter
A Three-Hour Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Is Outgrossing a Superhero Movie
Clayface won the weekend, but only just. DC's R-rated body-horror movie opened to $24 million from 3,458 theatres, at the low end of projections, with another $19 million overseas for a $43 million global start. That would normally be the whole story.
Instead, the story is A24's You Can See Everything, a three-hour documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. In its second weekend it expanded from 855 theatres to 2,655 and made $19.5 million — 28% more than its opening, which almost never happens. It has now earned $45.1 million domestically on a $7 million production budget.
The opening frame of $15.6 million was already the best start for a non-musical documentary in 20 years. Variety reports that awards watchers are now floating the idea that it could become the first documentary ever nominated for best picture. The film does not open in Australia until November 12 and the UK until November 20, and Deadline reports that Palace Cinemas in Australia has already broken its single-day pre-sales record, doubling the mark held by the Taylor Swift Eras Tour film.
So the most commercially exciting movie in America this month is a three-hour nonfiction film about a disgraced biotech founder, playing in multiplexes. That is a stranger sentence than anything in the movie.
House of Night Finally Has a Director — and an AFM Sales Push
The first film adaptation of House of Night, P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast's YA vampire series, has a director again. Johanna Watts will make her feature debut on the project for Davis Films and Hassell Free Productions. She is a longtime collaborator of producer Victor Hadida, has directed a short called Career Girl that Condé Nast acquired, and is currently finishing a documentary called The Gathering.
The package is further along than the title suggests. Victor Hadida (Resident Evil) and Molly Hassell (Return to Silent Hill) are producing, P.C. Cast is executive producing, and Highland Film Group is handling international sales and will keep pre-selling at the AFM. Casting is underway with Denise Chamian, whose credits include Top Gun: Maverick. The crew includes production designer Clint Wallace, costume designer Mona May (Clueless), cinematographer Joshua R. Turner and first assistant director Brett Hodgkinson. Filming is being lined up for early 2027.
That is a real step forward for a series that went to market last year with Rain Li, a cinematographer, attached to direct. The books have sold more than 31 million copies in more than 40 countries and 30 languages, spent 153 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and 424 weeks on USA Today's, with four volumes (Awakened, Hunted, Burned, Tempted) hitting number one.
The premise is a boarding school for teenagers turning into vampyres, where Zoey is marked, arrives, and discovers she has rare powers. It is a horny, gothic, extremely 2007 premise, and it has been waiting for a film for nearly two decades.
Sources: Deadline
Amazon MGM Buys the Serial-Killer Romance That BookTok Made
Butcher & Blackbird, Brynne Weaver's dark romance about two competing serial killers who target other serial killers, is going to Amazon MGM Studios for a worldwide Prime Video release. Chris McKay — The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War, Renfield — will direct, with Emma Laird and Thomas Doherty starring.
Laird is having a moment: she is coming off 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, has Apple TV's Neuromancer and season two of HBO's War ahead of her, and is in A24's Elden Ring. Doherty currently leads Hulu's Paradise and came up through Tell Me Lies and the Gossip Girl reboot. Laura Kosann wrote the script, with revisions by Ari Berkowitz and Ava Tramer.
The book landed in October 2023 and went viral on BookTok before becoming a New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller. It is the first of the Ruinous Love trilogy, a number one New York Times bestselling series that has sold more than five million copies across 25 countries.
The hook is exactly as unhinged as it sounds: two killers compete over the same targets, then fall for each other. Amazon has been steadily buying in this space — the same week, Deadline reported the company is leaning harder into new-adult romance and book adaptations — and this is the one with the most obviously deranged premise.
Sources: Deadline
Nuggets
- Poison Ivy is getting her own HBO series. Lauren LeFranc, showrunner of The Penguin, is producing a Poison Ivy show in development at HBO. Uma Thurman played her in 1997's Batman & Robin; she has turned up in Gotham, Batwoman and animated series since, but has never headlined a film or show of her own. Variety
- Halloweentown 5 is in early development at Disney. Lily Houghton (Forbidden Fruits) and Ryan Koehn (the Gossip Girl reboot) are writing the fifth film, based on characters created by Paul Bernbaum for the 1998 original. No casting is confirmed, though original cast members have said they would return. If greenlit, it goes to Disney Channel and Disney+. Variety
- Charli xcx has a cameo in Scorsese's next movie. Her part in What Happens at Night is under wraps, but she joins Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Mads Mikkelsen, Patricia Clarkson and Jared Harris in the Gothic psychological drama about a couple trying to adopt a baby in a small European town. She is also on the cover of her new album, Music, Fashion, Film, alongside Scorsese. Variety
- Tom Skerritt has died at 93. The MASH, Alien, Top Gun and Picket Fences actor died Wednesday in Seattle of natural causes. He won an Emmy for Picket Fences* and worked with Altman, Ridley Scott and Robert Redford across a six-decade career. The Hollywood Reporter
- The Prestige is coming back for its 20th anniversary. Disney will re-release Nolan's magician thriller on January 29, 2027, with the first-ever 70mm and IMAX screenings. "I'm very excited to bring The Prestige back to the big screen," Nolan said, "and particularly thrilled to offer audiences the chance to see it on 70mm film, and on IMAX for the first time." Variety
Sources: Variety · Deadline · The Hollywood Reporter
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