Netflix is hailing a Crazy Taxi film, Slow Horses is back on duty, and genre television has taken a commanding turn at the Emmys. This week’s entertainment news connects fresh casting and production commitments with two things audiences can judge now: a returning spy series and the opening result for Practical Magic 2.
Entertainment News and Casting
Crazy Taxi: Netflix and SEGA put a film adaptation in gear
- Development: Netflix and SEGA collaboration announced on 14 September.
- Writers: Dan Gregor and Doug Mand.
- Platform: Netflix; release date and cast still to be announced.
The arcade cab is heading for a different kind of screen. Netflix and SEGA have announced a Crazy Taxi feature, with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand writing and Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher and Toru Nakahara producing. The wider collaboration also includes a new animated Sonic series and a live-action STRANGER THAN HEAVEN film in development.
The interesting test is adaptation rather than recognition: frantic fares and reckless shortcuts provide comic movement, but a feature needs characters who can sustain the journey. For now, this is a project to follow, not a release to put in the diary.
Outback: Netflix unveils its mystery-noir ensemble
- Development: Greenlight and cast announcement on 11 September.
- Cast: Ryu Jun-yeol, Hong Kyung, HOYEON, Won Ji-an and Justin H. Min.
- Creator: Han Jun-hee. Director: Jeon Du-gwan. Platform: Netflix.
A journey to Australia becomes a search for answers in Outback, the working title of Netflix’s newly announced mystery-noir series. Hong Kyung plays Zion, who arrives after his sister’s sudden death and begins questioning what happened. The adaptation draws on the webtoon G’Day, with Han Jun-hee creating and executive producing.
Its strongest hook is the distance between an unfamiliar place and an intensely personal loss. Ryu Jun-yeol, HOYEON, Won Ji-an and Justin H. Min complete the announced principal ensemble. A release date is still to be confirmed, so the news here is the series commitment and casting, not imminent availability.
Slow Horses: season six arrives on Apple TV
- UK and US: Season-six premiere on Apple TV, 16 September.
- Schedule: Six episodes, released weekly through 21 October.
- Stars: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden. Director: Adam Randall.
For something to watch now, Slough House is the practical pick. Slow Horses begins its sixth season globally on 16 September, with Gary Oldman returning as Jackson Lamb. Gaby Chiappe adapts Mick Herron’s Joe Country and Slough House, while Adam Randall returns to direct.
The new run puts the team on the run amid Diana Taverner’s dangerous retaliation. Olivia Cooke returns and Lenny Rush joins the cast. This is a weekly appointment rather than an immediate full-season binge; the first five seasons are already available for anyone catching up.
Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror: This Week’s Four Developments
Ranked by their significance this week: awards recognition and audience results lead, followed by new casting and active production. These are developments to weigh, not a ranking of films or performances.
1. Widow’s Bay and Pluribus: genre television takes the Emmy spotlight
- Development: 78th Emmy Awards results, 14 September.
- Widow’s Bay: Outstanding Comedy Series; 14 wins across this year’s ceremonies.
- Pluribus: Rhea Seehorn wins lead actress in a drama; Vince Gilligan wins drama writing.
- Platform: Both series are on Apple TV.
The week’s biggest genre signal came from television. Comedy-horror Widow’s Bay took six awards at the main Emmy telecast, including Outstanding Comedy Series, bringing its overall haul to 14. Matthew Rhys, Kate O’Flynn and Stephen Root won acting awards, alongside writing recognition for Katie Dippold and directing recognition for Hiro Murai.
Pluribus added wins for Rhea Seehorn and Vince Gilligan. Our takeaway is not that awards settle questions of taste, but that unsettling, imaginative television can command the centre of a major ceremony. For viewers who missed either series, this is a useful prompt to investigate rather than a reason to expect the same experience from both.
2. Practical Magic 2: the Owens sisters open at number one
- Result: Number one at the US/Canada box office for 11–13 September.
- Domestic weekend gross: $30,002,526, approximately $30.003 million.
- Director: Susanne Bier. Stars: Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.
Last week’s release story has become this week’s audience result. Practical Magic 2 topped the domestic weekend chart with $30,002,526 from 4,146 cinemas. That is a US/Canada weekend figure, not a worldwide total or a UK result.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return under Susanne Bier’s direction, with the Owens family again confronting a dangerous inherited curse. The opening provides a concrete sign of interest in the reunion; it does not yet tell us how strongly the film will hold. For fantasy fans, the useful distinction is that this is now a cinema choice, not merely a nostalgic promise.
3. 2048: Anthony Hopkins joins an underground dystopia
- Development: Anthony Hopkins casting reported on 10 September.
- Director: Timothy Woodward Jr.
- Status: In development; no confirmed US or UK release date.
Anthony Hopkins is set to star in 2048, Timothy Woodward Jr.’s post-apocalyptic science-fiction film. Its premise places humanity beneath a dying planet, inside a society governed by the authoritarian Collective. Hopkins will play Bryant, the figure enforcing that system, as a worker becomes entangled with resistance.
The casting is the reason to pay attention: Hopkins offers a sharply defined centre of power for a story built around control and dissent. An underground setting alone does not establish a distinctive film, however. Treat this as an intriguing casting development while further production and release details take shape.
4. Wrong Number: Kid Cudi and Barbie Ferreira enter horror territory
- Development: Los Angeles production reported on 11 September.
- Writer, director and star: Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi.
- Co-star: Barbie Ferreira. Release date: Still to be confirmed.
Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi is directing and starring opposite Barbie Ferreira in Wrong Number, a horror thriller already filming in Los Angeles. Mescudi plays a lonely self-help author whose new relationship becomes entangled with stalking and a murder investigation. Lucy Barrett, Dewayne Perkins, Clifton Powell and Laura Harrier also appear.
The promise is intimate unease rather than a giant horror franchise: a relationship turns threatening, and the protagonist’s own credibility becomes part of the tension. Production makes this a firmer milestone than a project announcement, but there is not yet a confirmed release date to recommend.
Movieversalfilm Takeaway
Start with what is available: Slow Horses offers a new weekly chapter, while Practical Magic 2 has moved from anticipation to an audience-tested cinema run. The Emmy results make a persuasive case for exploring stranger television. Keep Crazy Taxi, Outback, 2048 and Wrong Number on the longer-term radar without mistaking momentum for a release date.
Which belongs first on your watchlist: the return to Slough House, the Owens sisters’ reunion, or the Emmy-winning worlds of Widow’s Bay and Pluribus?