Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page to star in rom-com ‘Italianna’
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The Little Mermaid is set to swoon over the Duke of Hastings in an upcoming romance film.
Halle Bailey will star alongside Regé-Jean Page in the new movie Italianna, ABC Audio has confirmed.
The Universal Pictures film will be directed by Kat Coiro. Ryan Engle wrote the screenplay based on an original idea from him and Kristin Engle.
While plot details are being kept under wraps, the project has been described as a romantic comedy.
Coiro also directed the 2022 Universal romantic comedy Marry Me starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson.
Bailey is known for being part of the music duo Chloe x Halle, as well as her breakout acting role as Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid adaptation. Page is known for his starring role in season 1 of the period romance drama series Bridgerton.
Deadline first reported the casting news about Italianna.
The first batch of Oscars presenters have been revealed.
Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph will return to the Oscars stage to present awards at this year’s ceremony, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday.
All four actors are returning to the awards ceremony after winning Oscars last year. They’ll present the awards for best actor, best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress, respectively.
The producers for the Oscars will continue announcing the talent who will present at the show throughout the coming weeks, they announced.
Conan O’Brien will host the awards ceremony for the first time, while Raj Kapoor serves as executive producer and showrunner and Katy Mullan executive produces.
The 97th Oscars will take place on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. It will air live on ABC and will also stream live on Hulu.
A star-studded cast has been gathered for the new comedy Old Pals. Henry Winkler, Brian Cox, Emma Roberts and Evan Rachel Wood will star in the film, Deadline reports. The movie comes from director Wendey Stanzler and writer Rick Cisario, and follows two recent widowers, played by Winkler and Cox, who are forced to become friends when their daughters, played by Roberts and Wood, conspire to bring them together …
Ke Huy Quan and Lili Reinhart are set to star in Bad Boy, a horror film about a woman’s fight to escape a serial killer told through the eyes of the killer’s faithful pet dog. Deadline first reported the news of the project being underway from Dave Caplan, the producer of Longlegs. Jacob Chase will direct the movie from a script by Travis Braun. Casting is still underway for the dog, which will likely be a terrier. The film begins production in August …
Robert De Niro will star in an adaptation of the Alex North novel The Whisper Man, Deadline reports. The film, which will be made for Netflix and AGBO, will come from director James Ashcroft and producers Joe and Anthony Russo. The Whisper Man follows a widowed crime writer who looks to his estranged father, a retired police detective, for help after his young son is abducted …
Marvel announced the cast of Avengers: Doomsday during a livestream and on its social media channels on Wednesday. It also revealed that the film is now in production.
During the five-hour long livestream, many of the film’s cast members were revealed via their names appearing on the back of a long line of director’s chairs.
They include Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent, Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov, Winston Duke as M’Baku and Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr.
Superheroes that audiences have yet to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will also join this new ensemble. This includes the new Fantastic Four crew of Pedro Pascal, who plays Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby, who plays Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. All four actors make their Marvel debut in the upcoming film The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which releases in theaters on July 25.
Lewis Pullman also joins the movie in the role of Bob Reynolds, or Sentry. He debuts as the character in the upcoming film Thunderbolts*, which releases on May 2.
Notably, many actors from the X-Men franchise have joined the film, including Patrick Stewart. He famously played Professor Charles Xavier and previously made a cameo in the 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Kelsey Grammer has also joined the film’s cast. He previously reprised his X-Men role of Beast in the post-credits scene of the 2023 film The Marvels. Ian McKellen will also appear in the film. He previously played Magneto in the X-Men films. AlanCumming, who played Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, is also set to be in the movie, along with Rebecca Romijn, who played Mystique in the X-Men franchise and James Marsden, who played Cyclops.
Channing Tatum will also appear in the film. He previously appeared in the 2024 blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine as Gambit.
The livestream ended with an appearance from Robert Downey Jr. The only person to appear in the announcement, he turned to look at the camera, before gesturing to the long line of chairs representing the large ensemble cast.
It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024 that Downey would make his return to the MCU in the upcoming Avengers film. Instead of playing Iron Man, however, Downey will play the villain Doctor Doom.
Avengers: Doomsday finds brothers Joe and Anthony Russo back in the directors chairs. They return to Marvel after having helmed the two Captain America films Winter Solider and Civil War, as well as Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Avengers: Doomsday crashes into movie theaters on May 1, 2026.
Disney is the parent company of Marvel and ABC News.
