Evening News · Sunday 18 October 2026
Taika Waititi has put his long-promised Star Wars film on ice — but he is not leaving the cinema. Tonight’s edition also has a genuine Sicario 3 update, Clive Barker’s new Hellraiser ideas, Prime Video’s tennis drama Rally, and Paul McCartney’s height note for Sam Mendes’ Beatles films.
The News That Matters
Taika Waititi puts his Star Wars film “on ice”
- New development: Waititi told Inverse during Klara and the Sun press that the project is paused; comments published Sunday 18 October
- Status: “It’s very iced.” He and screenwriter Tony McNamara are working on a different, unspecified project together instead
- Still possible: “Ice ages do come to an end,” Waititi teased — no new Lucasfilm timetable
- UK availability: Klara and the Sun is in UK cinemas from Friday 23 October. No release date for Waititi’s Star Wars film
After years of jokes about how long it was taking, Taika Waititi has made the pause official. “I hate to break this to you, but we’re going to actually put it on ice and we’re working on a different thing together,” he told Inverse, referring to his collaboration with The Favourite and Poor Things writer Tony McNamara. Asked for more detail, his publicist’s answer was a firm no.
Waititi already belongs to the galaxy far, far away as a director and voice on The Mandalorian, and fans had hoped McNamara’s script work meant the feature was finally moving. Instead, he says he has “about four other movies” in play, including a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory project and the What We Do in the Shadows sequel We’re Wolves. UK audiences can catch him sooner: Klara and the Sun, his Ishiguro adaptation, opens here on Friday — the same junket that produced today’s Star Wars news. Meanwhile Dave Filoni’s Ahsoka season two is still the next big Lucasfilm series date on the calendar.
Update: Sicario 3 locks Steven Knight’s script and a 2027 shoot
- What is new: Josh Brolin says Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight wrote the “undeniable” script; Padraic McKinley will direct; cameras planned for 2027
- Returning cast: Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin
- Earlier coverage: We reported the trio’s return on 7 October; today’s comments clarify the writer, director and timetable
- UK availability: UK cinema date not yet confirmed
The third Sicario film is no longer just a reunion rumour. Promoting Whalefall, Josh Brolin told The Hollywood Reporter that he, Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro had looked at different scripts and filmmakers for years without agreeing — until Steven Knight delivered one that was “incredible” and “kind of undeniable.” Padraic McKinley (The Weight) is attached to direct, and Brolin says they will shoot next year.
That is a clear step on from our 7 October report that the original trio was coming back. An earlier trade note had linked Taylor Sheridan — writer of the first two films — to the sequel; Brolin’s account puts Knight on the page instead. He also teased “a different side” of CIA fixer Matt Graver, without spoiling where the story goes after Day of the Soldado.
Clive Barker says Hellraiser: Revival has sparked “many ideas” for films
- New development: Barker spoke to Dread Central about the Saber Interactive game; Deadline carried his comments on Friday 17 October
- Franchise: Barker wrote and directed the 1987 original and reclaimed US rights in 2020; he produced the 2022 Hulu reboot
- What he said: The game is a “wake-up call” to revisit existing worlds “in a brand new way,” and he plans to “keep my fingers in that pie”
- UK availability: No new Hellraiser film date announced; the 2022 reboot streams on Disney+ in the UK via the Star hub in some territories — UK date for any new film not yet confirmed
Nearly forty years after Pinhead first opened the Lament Configuration, Clive Barker is thinking in cinema again. The recent release of Saber Interactive’s Hellraiser: Revival game, he told Dread Central, is “a wake-up call to anyone who’s been involved in the making of a franchise like Hellraiser.” He has “many ideas” he would like to see realised and intends to stay involved.
Nothing is greenlit yet — no studio, director or release date — so this is appetite, not a start date. Still, for a franchise Barker has spent decades protecting, a public promise to keep his fingers in the pie is the clearest film signal since the 2022 reboot.
Prime Video orders Julie Plec’s tennis drama Rally, with Andre Agassi producing
- New development: Series order announced Thursday 16 October
- Premise: Young players at a hyper-competitive elite tennis academy weigh winning against the relationships that make it matter
- Key creatives: Julie Plec writes, showruns and executive produces; Andre Agassi and Justin Gimelstob executive produce
- UK availability: Coming to Prime Video; UK date not yet confirmed
Julie Plec is trading vampires and doppelgängers for baseline winners. Prime Video has ordered Rally to series from Universal Television, Entertainment 360 and Amazon MGM Studios. The drama sits inside an elite tennis academy where ambitious juniors learn that “the loneliest sport in the world” may demand they sacrifice the very connections that make winning worthwhile.
Plec’s inspiration trail is personal for producer Guymon Casady, who has watched his own children train at IMG Academy. Agassi says he and Gimelstob want an “entertaining and most importantly, authentic” look at a “beautifully complicated sport.” No cast or premiere window has been named yet.
Paul McCartney worried Paul Mescal looks “markedly shorter” in the Beatles films
- New development: McCartney’s comments, reported across BBC, Deadline and The Guardian from mid-October, concern Sam Mendes’ four Beatles biopics
- The worry: After seeing an Abbey Road-crossing still, McCartney felt Mescal’s Paul appeared shorter than Harris Dickinson’s John and contacted Mendes
- Mendes’ reply: The difference was about stride pattern in the shot, not a permanent cast problem
- UK availability: The four films are aimed at April 2028; UK cinema dates not yet confirmed title by title
Even legends sweat the stills. Paul McCartney has said he was concerned that Paul Mescal looked “markedly shorter” than his co-stars in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles films, and that he reached out after spotting an Abbey Road-crossing image. Mendes reassured him that the frame was about how the actors were mid-stride.
Mescal is widely listed around 5 ft 11 in and Dickinson around 6 ft 2 in, so the gap is real on paper — and McCartney, who lived the original height dynamics with John Lennon, clearly cares how “little Paul” reads on a giant screen. The four Mendes films remain on track for 2028.
Movieversalfilm Takeaway
Sunday evening’s thread is projects that pause, projects that finally move, and projects that stay personal. Waititi’s Star Wars film is iced while Klara arrives in UK cinemas this Friday; Sicario 3 now has a writer, a director and a 2027 shoot; Barker wants more Hellraiser on film; Plec and Agassi build a tennis world for Prime; and McCartney is still minding how Paul looks next to John. The franchise that looks furthest along for UK ticket buyers this week is Waititi’s own Klara and the Sun.
Would you rather Waititi thaw his Star Wars film — or keep him on Klara-style originals?