Interested in learning about a new TV series and films for the entire family? Here are details about upcoming releases this spring:
“GIRLS STATE” TO PREMIERE ON APPLE TV+ APRIL 5, 2024
“Girls State” follows 500 teenage girls from across Missouri as they gather for a week-long immersion in an elaborate laboratory of democracy, where they build a government from the ground up, campaign for office and form a Supreme Court to weigh the most divisive issues of the day. In “Girls State,” the country is now deeper into democratic crisis, with civil discourse and electoral politics increasingly fragile under ever more extreme political polarization. As questions of race and gender equality in a representational democracy reach a fever pitch, these young women confront the complicated paths women must navigate to build political power. Following a distinctly female perspective and filled with teenage insecurity, biting humor and a yearning for true friendship, the young leaders of “Girls State” win hearts and minds—not just elections.
An Apple Original Film hailing from Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheims’s Concordia Studio and Mile End Films, “Girls State” is directed and produced by award-winning filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (“Boys State,” “The Mission”). Executive Producers: Nicole Stott, Jonathan Silberberg, Davis Guggenheim and Laurene Powell Jobs. Subjects: Emily Worthmore, Maddie Rowan, Tochi Ihekona, Faith Glasgow, Cecilia Bartin, Nisha Murali and Brooke Taylor.
“Girls State” will premiere on Apple TV+ April 5, 2024.
FAMILY FILM IF: MAY 17 RELEASE
Paramount Pictures recently announced that it has renewed its first-look development deal with Ryan Reynolds‘ Maximum Effort Productions for an additional 3-year term, taking the studio’s partnership with the production company through December 2026.
As part of Maximum Effort’s deal with the studio, Ryan Reynolds is attached to star in and produce the previously announced feature film Boy Band, with Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps also producing. The story is by Reynolds with an original script co-written by Reynolds and Jesse Andrews, with Levy attached to direct. Paramount Pictures and Maximum Effort are also in development on several projects including: Starter Villain, based on the New York Times-bestselling book of the same name by John Scalzi, with Jesse Andrews attached to adapt; an adaptation of the beloved family book series, Eloise, with partner MRC; an original action comedy, Gaslight Express, with Reynolds teaming up with Deadpool scribes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese.
Next up, Ryan Reynolds produces and stars in the Paramount Pictures all-audience family film IF, also starring John Krasinski, who is producing and directing the film, Cailey Fleming and Fiona Shaw. The voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr. and Steve Carell are featured. The family film IF centers on a girl who discovers she can see everyone’s imaginary friends, and what she does with that ability, as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their creators.
IF is slated for theatrical release May 17, 2024.
THE WILD ROBOT – IN THEATERS SEPTEMBER 20
From DreamWorks Animation comes a new adaptation of a literary sensation, Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, The Wild Robot.
The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.
The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, this summer’s The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island.
The film also features the voice talents of Emmy winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise) and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction).
A powerful story about the discovery of self, an examination of the bridge between technology and nature and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things, The Wild Robot is written and directed by three-time Oscar® nominee Chris Sanders—the writer-director of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch—and is produced by Jeff Hermann (DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby 2: Family Business; co-producer, Kung Fu Panda franchise).
Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot, an illustrated middle-grade novel first published in 2016, became a phenomenon, rocketing to #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. The book has since inspired a trilogy that now includes The Wild Robot Escapes and The Wild Robot Protects. Brown’s work on the Wild Robot series and his other bestselling books have earned him a Caldecott Honor, a Horn Book Award, two E.B. White Awards, two E.B. White Honors, a Children’s Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year, two Irma Black Honors, a Golden Kite Award and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award.
The Wild Robot, from DreamWorks Animation, is scheduled for release on September 20, 2024.