By Nick Vivarelli According To The variety James Franco is tucked away in the corner of a five-star hotel lobby on Rome’s Via Veneto, sipping an Americano coffee. Wearing a chocolate brown hoodie he proudly says he co-designed, the actor and filmmaker looks relaxed and flashes his signature smile. He’s in the Eternal City for the Rome Film Festival launch of Italian director Claudio Giovannesi’s “Hey Joe.” In the gritty drama, Franco plays Dean, an alcoholic American WWII vet who winds up back in Naples in the early ’70s in search of a son he fathered there before absconding to New Jersey. The film is his first to surface on the fest circuit since his career went on hiatus following a now-settled 2019 lawsuit alleging that he sexually exploited young women who took his acting...

By Katcy Stephan According To The variety Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man will swing back into theaters on July 24, 2026. The untitled Columbia Pictures project from director Destin Daniel Cretton will debut shortly after “Avengers: Doomsday,” which comes out on May 1, 2026. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” was similarly released just two months after “Avengers: Endgame,” and the third Spidey film grossed over $1 billion globally. During an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Tuesday night, Holland confirmed that his fourth “Spider-Man” movie will begin production in mid-2025. “Next summer, we start shooting. Everything’s good to go — we’re nearly there,” Holland said. “Super exciting. I can’t wait!” During a recent interview on the “Rich Roll...

By Michaela Zee According To The variety The first reactions for “Venom: The Last Dance” are in, with members of the press calling the Sony Pictures film a “feast for the fans” and a “fitting end” to the trilogy. Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock, better known as the symbiote Venom from the “Spider-Man” comics, for “Venom: The Last Dance.” Per the official logline, “Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.” Screen Rant’s Joseph Deckelmeier wrote on X that the film “takes you on a wild and exhilarating journey from start to finish.” “It’s a fun popcorn movie that reminds me of the early 2000’s comic book m...