Heavy hang the heads who wear the crowns, and that goes for Skydance Pictures Co-Chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, who’ll be tasked with getting under the hood and tuning up the incoming Warner Bros. theatrical 2027-2029 slates.

The first fire to put out: ensuring that Barbie 2 becomes a reality with its original franchise director Greta Gerwig and leads Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. There are other projects to look at as well, read the Jonah Hill directed reportedly finished comedy The Cut Off which was originally dated against The Odyssey this year and then undated. What’s up with that movie?

One of the next big auteur swings greenlit by the previous regime was director Baz Luhrmann’s next project Jehanne d’Arc. The director is currently waiting on a new draft of the script in hopes of a spring start.

While we’ve told you about the dated titles that Warners is delivering to the new Skydance, some of these are in various forms of production and development, read: the Sept. 8, 2028 dated New Line Weapons prequel, Gladys. That one is awaiting a final draft before attaching a director.

Going back to the desert days of Hollywood, it’s prime for any new administration to go through the previous regimes’ pickings and determine whether there are horses still worth getting behind. This went on when Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy arrived at Warner Bros. in June 2022 (the shot Batgirl was shelved, while WBD CEO David Zaslav wrote down and sold Coyote vs. Acme) and it occurred when Goldberg and Greenstein arrived at Paramount in the late summer of 2025 (read: one of the most prolific projects from the previous Brian Robbins regime which didn’t move to a greenlight was was the R-Rated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Last Ronin. In exchange, a new live-action feature of the sword carrying reptiles is in the works aimed at families).

And despite the recent bomb that is Warners’ $160M Tom Cruise political satire, Digger, Skydance co-CEO David Ellison says he’s not anti-big swing. At Tuesday’s Day One Skydance presser, he reminded everyone that Sinners was his favorite movie from last year.

In addition to franchises, “We’re going to make a complete diverse slate,” asserted Ellison. “One of the things I’m a big believer in is original storytelling.”

“One of the areas to be very cautious about is doing anything that jeopardizes the quality of these pictures, and anything that would jeopardize the quality of the marketing campaigns,” said Ellison, who believes that there’s a way for this two-headed monster of a studio to win, specifically the pro-forma content spend of $30 billion-plus annually, despite the burden of $79B in net debt.

Those are hard numbers for some financial analysts to wrap their heads around, but Ellison and his new co-CEO Ynon Kriez are out to prove to the town that their anomaly of a merger can indeed keep both legacy studios alive and grow product while paying down debt. While co-financing is always a solution, particularly on risky bets, it remains to be seen whether the new Paramount-Warner Bros. sometimes takes the easy way out. How’s that? Rather than risk a $300M feature gamble in production cost and marketing, will they simply accept the stage AGs’ penalties and shell out $30M for any film they’re unable to deliver in a 30-picture slate? It’s a cheaper alternative.

Ellison also underscored yesterday that when he took the reigns of Paramount a year ago, they overdelivered on synergies with $2.7B while doubling the slate to 15 films annually and greenlighting four new series.

For the many who feared the consolidation of the two historic studios, what should come as some balm is that with Warner Bros operating separately from Paramount Pictures under Jesse Ehrman and Mike Ireland, the two studios will respectively be able to compete against each other on projects.

“But there will be coordination,” emphasized Kriez in that regard.

He expounded, “The plan is to keep the studios independent creatively, so that each will have its own slate, its own relationship, same opportunities, and then we will choreograph the release schedule, and optimize it by genre and by audience demographic to achieve the best for the company as a whole.”

While we’ve told you what has been dated before, below is a sampling based on our previous reports of the kit and caboodle that’s coming Goldberg and Greenstein’s way. We’ve sussed what is ready and real on the 2027 and 2028 slates. Excluded from this list are myriad lit acquisitions made during the previous De Luca and Abdy regime.

PRIORITY
Barbie 2
Ideally Greta Gerwig return to direct and co write with Noah Baumbach and Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling returning to star in a sequel to Warner Bros’ highest grossing movie ever at $1.44B.

FINISHED (or nearing finish for release).

Clayface (Oct. 23) (DC)

The Cat in the Hat (Nov. 6)

Cut Off
Jonah Hill directed comedy which he stars in with Kristin Wiig

Dune: Part Three (Dec. 18)

Animal Friends (Jan. 22, 2027)

Remain (Feb. 5, 2027)
M. Night Shyamalan just screened at BeyondFest.

Panic Carefully (April 9, 2027)

F.A.S.T (May 14, 2027)

POST-PRODUCTION

The Revenge of La Llorona (Feb. 27, 2027)

Godzilla x Kong: Supernova (March 26, 2027)

Bad Fairies (May 21, 2027)

Man of Tomorrow (July 9, 2027)
-James Gunn’s sequel to Superman.

A Minecraft Movie Squared (July 23, 2027)
Jared Hess returns to direct.

Shiver (Aug. 13)

The Conjuring: First Communion (Sept. 10, 2027)

The Great Beyond (Oct. 1, 2027)
-J.J. Abrams’ Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega original sci-fi film.

Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (Dec. 17, 2027 release)
-Directed by Andy Serkis off a screenplay by Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson, Phoebe Gittens and Arty Papageorgiou.

Evil Dead Wrath (April 7, 2028)

IN PRODUCTION

Untitled Ocean’s Prequel (June 25, 2027)
-Bradley Cooper co-wrote, directs, produces and stars alongside Margot Robbie, who produces via LuckyChap.

Margie Claus (Nov. 12, 2027)

Untitled Nancy Meyers Movie (Dec. 25, 2027)
-Nancy Meyers directing from her own script
-Owen Wilson, Jude Law, Kieran Culkin and Erin Doherty star

The Batman Part II (Feb. 18, 2028) (DC)
Matt Reeves directed production is paused.

The Lunar Chronicles (Nov. 3, 2028)
animated

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (May 17, 2028)
Jon Chu’s animated feature take of the classic Dr. Seuss children’s book.

Hello Kitty (July 21, 2028)
animated

Dynamic Duo (Sept. 22, 2028) (DC)
animation with puppets

PRE-PRODUCTION

Final Destination 7 (New Line) (May 12, 2028)
Michael Blanchart directing.

–Nasty (Clockwork)
Mary Bronstein directed Jenna Ortega and Rose Byrne off Isabella Jarosz screenplay. LuckyChap producing.

Sean Baker’s Ti Amo! (Clockwork)

Jehanne d’Arc (Nov. 22, 2028)
-Baz Luhrmann directing
-Schuyler Weiss and Catherine Martin producing. Currently awaiting next draft.

GREENLIT
By previous administration

Gremlins 3 (Oct. 6, 2028)
Chris Columbus directing. Awaiting rewrites.

The Jetsons Live-Action Movie
-Jim Carrey starring
-Colin Trevorrow attached to direct

Sean Penn’s Untitled January 6th Movie (Clockwork)
-Penn writing, directing and producing
-Bradley Cooper to star

The Brigands of Rattle Creek (Clockwork)
Park Chan-Wook domestic acquisition

GREENLIGHT CANDIDATES (or nearing):

The Flood (Aug. 2028)
Zach Cregger’s next movie with New Line starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Gladys (Weapons prequel set for Sept. 8, 2028)
In rewrites

Matrix 5 – Drew Goddard writing. (a 2029 release candidate)

DEVELOPMENT

Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman Reimagining
-Tim Burton directing

Blow Up the Chat
– Temple Hill producing

Care Bears
-Josh Greenbaum directing
-Good Fear, GoldDay producing

City of Angels Reboot
-Ashley Avis writing and directing
-Atlas Entertainment, Perez Pictures producing

Constantine 2

The Executioner
-Peter Safran producing

Forbidden Planet
-Emma Watts producing

Frank Bullitt Movie
-Steven Spielberg directing

Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest (June 1, 2029)

The Goonies 2
-Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Holly Bario and Chris Columbus producing

Live-Action Hot Wheels Movie
– Bad Robot and Jon M. Chu’s Electric Somewhere producing
Last Friday
– Ice Cube starring

Meerkat Manor (Warner Bros. Pictures Animation)
– The Green Room producing

Shibumi
-87North producing

Space Invaders (New Line)
– Weed Road Pictures, Safehouse Pictures producing

Them! Remake
-Michael Giacchino directing

EARLY DEVELOPMENT

Batman Brave and the Bold (DC)

Crazy Rich Asians 2

Savage Hunters aka Deathstroke & Bane Movie (DC)

Live-Action Flintstones reboot
-Ryan Gosling’s Open Invite producing

Free Willy Reimagining
-AGBO producing

Get Smart Reboot
-John Mulaney to star
– Charles Roven and Andrew Lazar producing

The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past
– Stephen Colbert, Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee writing

Prehistoria (Warner Bros. Pictures Animation)
– Vivienne Medrano writing and directing

Powerpuff Girls

Live-Action Teen Titans (DC)

Swamp Thing (DC)

Wonder Woman reboot (DC)

Bob Persichetti, a director of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, concedes that the audience bar is rising ahead of the third outing in the Oscar-decorated blockbuster franchise.

“Expectations are kind of limitless and we have to try to meet them,” he told Sony Pictures Animation President Kristine Belson with a grin during a panel discussion at the Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum.

Even though the chat took place at the Javits Center, where New York Comic Con will be held over the next few days, the point of the session was not plot teases or fan service. (Persichetti did show attendees the same work-in-progress footage from the film that screened at Cinema Con in April but Sony is holding back for now on an official teaser for the June 2027 release.)

The discussion instead focused on process and also, in keeping with the theme across other Crunchyroll sessions, about creating an animated work that draws on a multitude of influences but retains its originality.

Belson asked Persichetti, who directs the films with Justin K. Thompson, about how things have changed since the first installment in 2018.

“There were all these questions of, like, ‘Wait, who is it really for?!’” he recalled. “Because it’s not an outright comedy. There’s going to be action in it and Spider-Man guys – what are you doing?! And I think it was at that moment when we were in the room together and we screened it. It was made very clear to us that, ‘Oh, we have been underestimating the general audience for a long time in terms of what the sophistication of an animated film can be.’”

The first film wound up winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature en route to a global box office haul of $395 million. The follow-up, Across the Spider-Verse, took in $690.5 million in 2023 and was nominated for Best Animated Feature, losing out to The Boy and the Heron.

Since the franchise left its unique mark, Persichetti said, “The animation industry is going, ‘Oh, you can make choices that seem unorthodox and still make money and still succeed.’”

In the sequel, he said, “we piled on like five different looks and wondered if it was working and people said, ‘not only is it working, but we want more,’” the director said. “What we learned is that the audience is fine with the image changing every shot. … That’s ultimately how we were able to do so many things in one movie. The narrative throughline was creating this incredible visual extravagance.”

Technology has evolved dramatically since a decade ago when the franchise began. The filmmakers and crew are “seeing more creative choices” at a preliminary stage of the process, Persichetti said. “We’re able to think about a movie, holistically, creatively, much earlier.”

The collaborative way of making the film revolves around keeping an open mind, with writer/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in the mix and material taken from real-life experiences. For all of its visual energy, Persichetti said, the original film “was really a movie, in my eyes, that was about Miles and his family. It was also sort of a love letter to New York. It’s also a love letter to hip-hop music and, ultimately, a love letter to Spider-Man.”

The filmmakers have “never said no to an idea,” the director continued. “If it’s an idea we’re doing in the movie, it will be stress-tested repeatedly, and then maybe the real idea ends up being not that thing but pieces of the stuff, pieces of that idea might fall into place on something else.”

The breakthrough of the first film earned the directors considerable leeway, Perischetti said. “We are very fortunate because we’re now on our third movie. The first two movies were successful, and the studio trusts us to make these movies. So we get to explore, probably way more than others do. But I will say, even on that first movie, we were exploring things that nobody believed in, and at first we weren’t even sure worked.”