movies

‘The Nightingale’ Movie News & Updates: Everything We Know So Far

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Kristin Hannah’s best-selling historical fiction book The Nightingale will be made into a movie after all.

The project was first sparked before the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed momentum on the making of the film. Now the movie has a theatrical release date set and a growing cast attached to the story.

For everything we know about The Nightingale movie, read on.

When will The Nightingale movie come out?

TriStar first set February 12, 2027 as the release date for the film, but then the adaptation was pushed to March 19 so that it has Easter weekend (March 28) to capitalize on. In Feb., the film would have competed with Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film set to release that weekend as well.

Has The Nightingale started production?

Yes, Kristin Hannah posted at the end of March that the film had started production. Elle Fanning did press for Margo’s Got Money Troubles in April before the show’s premiere on Apple TV, but she had hinted as had her sister Dakota, that they would start shooting in a few weeks when Deadline spoke with them at SXSW Film Festival 2026.

Deadline also recently interviewed Lauren Neustadter, President of Film and Television at Reese Witherspoon’s Production Company Hello Sunshine while she was on set in Budapest, where the film is shooting

Who will be in The Nightingale movie?

Sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning, who have been attached to star and produce since the adaptation started gaining traction in 2019, will portray sisters Vianne and Isabelle.

Deadline exclusively reported that Edmund Donovan (Late Fame) landed a starring role alongside the sisters in January 2026. Details of his role are under wraps.

Next to join as first reported by Deadline are Mark Rylance (The BFG, Ready Player One) and Shira Haas (Unorthodox, Captain America: Brave New World).

Deadline broke the news of a quartet of castings that round out the film’s ensemble: Albrecht Schuch, Douglas Hodge, Gwilym Lee and Vinette Robinson.

What is Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale about?

The story centers sisters Vianne Mauriac and Isabelle Rossignol, who experience German-occupied France during World War II in their own ways. Vianne, the older sister, is more cautious while Isabelle boasts a rebellious spirit. The sisters split up during the war, “resisting in different ways” as Fanning put it when she did Deadline’s Take Ten interview series.

Who else is behind The Nightingale movie?

Michael Morris is directing the film. Dana Stevens (The Woman King) wrote the script for the film. Elizabeth Cantillon will produce for The Cantillon Company, alongside the Fannings and Brittany Kahan Ward for the Fanning sisters’ production company Lewellen Pictures, and Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter for Hello Sunshine. The Nightingale was the Reese’s Book Club selection for March 2023. Nicole Brown and Shary Shirazi are overseeing for TriStar Pictures.

TriStar first acquired the film rights in 2015 with Ann Peacock attached to write. Writer-director Michelle MacLaren and co-writer John Sayles were involved in a later iteration, with the Fannings initially boarding to star in a version helmed by Mélanie Laurent from Stevens’ script. At first, the film was set to hit theaters Christmas Day of 2020, and then it shifted a few more times landing on Dec. 22, 2022, but when the Covid pandemic kept delaying the making of the movie, Laurent stepped back to attend to other projects.

movies

Peter Van Norden Dead: ‘Police Academy 2’ Actor Was 75

Published

6 minutes ago

July 11, 2026

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Peter Van Norden, the actor who appeared in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment and The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, has died. He was 75.

The actor’s wife Wendy was by his side as he died peacefully on Thursday morning in a Southern California hospice facility, where he was struggling with multiple health conditions, according to TMZ.

Born Dec. 16, 1950 in New York City, Van Norden graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University in Upstate NY, before moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, making his onscreen debut in the Lloyd Kaufman-helmed ’79 comedy Squeeze Play!.

Van Norden later appeared in the Troma Entertainment founder’s 1981 comedy Waitress!, also starring in films like Headin’ for Broadway! (1980), Hard to Hold (1984), Roadhouse 66 (1984), The Accused (1988) and Gigli (2003).

In 1985, he joined the Police Academy franchise with the second installment, playing Officer Vinnie Schtulman. Van Norden later played George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff John H. Sununu in The Naked Gun 2½ (1991).

Peter Van Norden in ‘The Stand’ (1994) (CBS via Getty Images)

On TV, Van Norden appeared in shows like Cheers, TJ Hooker, St. Elsewhere, Family Ties, Hill Street Blues, Newhart, Matlock, LA Law, The Stand, Tales from the Crypt, Murder She Wrote, Nash Bridges, Family Matters, ER, Days of Our Lives and 9-1-1.

Van Norden is survived by wife Wendy and son Robert.

movies

Meta Disables Its New AI Image Generator After SAG-AFTRA & CAA Trash Tool

Published

59 minutes ago

July 11, 2026

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Just days after Meta introduced its Muse Image AI generator, the Mark Zuckerberg-run company has done a complete U-turn.

Under pressure from a now-victory-lap-taking CAA and SAG-AFTRA, the tech giant late Friday revealed that the Instagram-trolling Muse Image is essential DOA.

“Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they want to reference,” Meta said in an IG post Friday. “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”

Meta added, “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”

A quick scan of Instagram shows that Meta has, in fact, disabled Muse.

At its core, a Muse user just needed to tag a public or unprotected IG feed, and it instantly becomes meat for the AI generator to create its own images or “remixes,” as they are sometimes called, after which the images are available online permanently.

Friday’s announcement comes after CAA called for Meta to implement guardrails for Muse, despite the agency rolling out its own AI Vault program to archive its members’ likenesses forever. “No one’s name, image, likeness, voice, or creative work should be used by any third party, including AI models, without clear, documented consent,” the uber-agency said Wednesday.

In a statement on Friday, CAA said: “We commend Meta for its swift decision to remove the Muse Image feature. Putting individual rights and consent at the forefront is essential to building responsible technology. We look forward to ongoing conversations to ensure creators stay protected as technology evolves.”

The actors union echoed CAA’s concerns about what appears to be a case of Big Tech overreach. In a statement issued Friday, SAG-AFTRA said: “With the dangers of nonconsensual digital replicas well known to all, a feature that encouraged that behavior is unwise. We appreciate its discontinuance. It is the responsible thing to do.”

The use of AI in Hollywood continues to be a hot-button topic in recent years. SAG-AFTRA has endorsed the Trump administration’s AI policy framework, which calls for Congress to enact legislation that includes parental controls, intellectual property rights protection, First Amendment protections, expanding AI workforce development, allowing data centers to generate their own power and removing legal barriers that limit AI innovation.

Last month, Trump signed an executive order for voluntary framework in which AI companies would provide the government with access to new models for a 30-day review period before their release.

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.

movies

Randolph Mantooth Dead: ‘Emergency!’ Star Who Appeared On Soap Operas Was 80

Published

2 hours ago

July 11, 2026

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Randolph Mantooth, who starred as a Los Angeles paramedic on the NBC series Emergency! along with turns on soap operas including As the World Turns, One Life to Live and The City, has died. He was 80.

His family told our sister site The Hollywood Reporter that Mantooth died July 9 in hospice in Ventura, CA, after a long illness.

Born on September 19, 1945, in Sacramento, Mantooth began his screen career in the early 1970s, guesting on episodes of such popular series as The Virginian, McCloud, Adam-12, Marcus Welby, M.D. and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. His big break came when he was cast as LAFD paramedic John Gage in Emergency, which was executive produced by Jack Webb and played like a fire department take on Dragnet.

Debuting as a midseason replacement show in January 1972, Emergency! was shot in a near-documentary style and followed the adventures — and mundane downtime firehouse banter — of Squad 51. Each week, Mantooth’s Gage, partner Roy De Soto (Kevin Tighe) and their firefighter colleagues would answer calls both routine and calamitous. Viewers knew it was one of the latter when an extended alarm would sound at the station. The cast also featured Robert Fuller, Julie London and Bobby Troup.

Running for five seasons into September 1977, the hourlong drama with comic elements never was a ratings hit, only denting the year-end primetime Top 30 once in the three-network universe. But it was solid counterprogramming against its 8 p.m. Saturday competition of CBS’ All in the Family and later that Norman Lear classic’s spinoff The Jeffersons.

During its run, rock band The Tubes named-checked Mantooth in the song “What Do You Want From Life?” from its 1975 debut LP. In it, singer Fee Waybill was rattling off a list of things the listening is “entitled to” as an American citizen. Among them was “a personally autographed picture of
Randy Mantooth.”

MORE TO COME…