Month: September 2026

The Ghost and the Darkness, the 1996 Val Kilmer thriller, is now streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S., according to Paramount+. That alone should put the movie back on people’s radar.

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If that’s not an option where you are, there’s another way to find it. The film is also available to rent or buy through Apple TV and Prime Video in several countries, according to listings on both platforms, which makes it easy enough to track down a movie that slipped from major studio release into forgotten-gem territory.

The Ghost and the Darkness stars Val Kilmer alongside Michael Douglas in Stephen Hopkins’ survival thriller, written by William Goldman and based on the 1898 Tsavo attacks in Kenya, when two man-eating lions terrorized railway workers. Kilmer plays engineer John Henry Patterson, and Douglas plays hunter Charles Remington. The movie pulls together historical drama, creature-feature suspense, and that old-school action-adventure style that used to be everywhere. Reviews were mixed when it came out, but it still earned about $75 million worldwide on a reported $55 million budget, won the Oscar for Best Sound Editing, and over time built a cult following for its atmosphere, practical effects, South African landscapes, and even the rough production history behind it.

If you like pre-CGI survival thrillers or just want to give an underrated 1990s adventure another shot, The Ghost and the Darkness is well worth grabbing. You can stream The Ghost and the Darkness now on Paramount+ in the U.S., or rent or buy the film digitally depending on your region.

“Days of Future Future,” the Season 25 Simpsons episode that aired on April 13, 2014, ended up as one of the show’s most argued-over future-set stories. It throws a lot at you: Homer Simpson dies and comes back as a series of flawed clones, Lisa Simpson gets stuck with zombie Milhouse Van Houten after a cosmetic procedure goes horribly wrong, and Bart Simpson is left in a busted future with Jenda and their child. For plenty of fans and critics, that whole pileup felt more exhausting than inventive, with the dark comedy, sci-fi parody, and family drama all pulling in different directions at once.

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Then the episode reveals that much of it was only a simulation inside Bart Simpson’s mind, which takes a lot of the air out of it. Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club called it “a pile of leftover Futurama jokes,” and when you put it next to “Lisa’s Wedding” or “Holidays of Future Passed,” it’s pretty easy to see why so many viewers felt the problem wasn’t the weird science fiction itself. The story just never comes together.

If you’re looking for Simpsons sci-fi with some real emotional grounding, this probably isn’t one to revisit. Looking back, the show seems to have taken the hint and saved its wilder ideas for self-contained episodes or Treehouse of Horror, never going back to this timeline, while most of the talk about its legacy stayed confined to English-language criticism.

You can watch it on Disney+.

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Disney+ has started developing The Kane Chronicles as a series with 20th Television, which would make it the next Rick Riordan adaptation after Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The story centers on siblings Carter and Sadie Kane, who learn they’re descended from pharaohs, get pulled into a hidden world of Egyptian gods and magic, and try to rescue their father while a conflict among the gods threatens to get much worse.

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For the short version, think Percy Jackson filtered through Egyptian mythology. Carter and Sadie discover their lineage, step into a secret magical world, race to save their father, and end up in the middle of a fight among the gods. There’s also a bit of Marvel’s Moon Knight energy in the setup, especially in the avatar-style connection to the gods and the focus on ancient belief systems.

The series draws from The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpent’s Shadow, all part of Rick Riordan’s universe. Riordan’s books have sold more than 190 million copies, so the appeal is pretty easy to understand. Rick Riordan and Rebecca Riordan are executive producing, and Angela Robinson is co-creating the series and executive producing as well. If you’ve been hoping for a version that stays close to the books, that’s an encouraging sign.

This project has already taken a few turns. The Kane Chronicles was previously in development at Netflix as a film trilogy before the rights reverted in early 2024, and even now there’s still no release date, no cast, and no series order. Rick Riordan has also been clear that development doesn’t mean a show is guaranteed.

If you were part of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians audience, this darker Egyptian version looks like one to watch.

For now, you can watch Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+ while The Kane Chronicles remains in development.

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Lucasfilm has finally shown the first footage from Ahsoka Season 2, its Star Wars series for Disney+, ahead of the January 20, 2027 premiere. The preview puts three things front and center: major space battles, Grand Admiral Thrawn’s war against the New Republic, and Hayden Christensen’s return.

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It’s also pretty clear why this has started the Lucasfilm movie-strategy debate all over again. Ahsoka Season 2 looks bigger in scope and far more cinematic than The Mandalorian & Grogu, a film many critics and fans said felt more like an extra-long Disney+ episode than a theatrical event people had to see, even with Din Djarin and Grogu as the draw.

That argument carries more weight after what happened with The Mandalorian & Grogu. It opened on May 22, 2026, made $345.7 million worldwide against a reported $165 million budget, became the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie, and then dropped 70% in its second weekend.

If you follow Star Wars closely, the Ahsoka Season 2 footage is worth a look for that reason alone: it adds to the case that Lucasfilm may have sent the wrong story to theaters, even if Jon Favreau said the jump from The Mandalorian season 4 to a feature was shaped by the end of the 2023 labor disputes and by a broader interconnected plan with Dave Filoni.

You’ll be able to watch The Mandalorian & Grogu on Disney+ starting September 2, 2026, while Ahsoka Season 2 premieres there on January 20, 2027.

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One Piece Film: God Valley was reportedly announced at One Piece Day 2026, with a reported summer 2027 release window. If that holds, it would be the biggest change the One Piece film series has made in almost 30 years.

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The timing lines up with the manga’s 30th anniversary, and the movie is said to tackle the God Valley Incident instead of sending Monkey D. Luffy through another largely standalone adventure. Reports tie the story to the Rocks Pirates, the Roger Pirates, the Marines, Gol D. Roger, Monkey D. Garp, and Rocks D. Xebec.

For anyone who keeps up with One Piece lore, that’s a big deal. The Straw Hat Pirates wouldn’t make much sense as the leads in a story set decades earlier, so this could end up being the series’ first major theatrical prequel built around canon, with Gol D. Roger serving as the main point-of-view character. Early reaction has reportedly been strong, and some of the buzz has even been connected to a bump in Toei Animation’s stock.

You can’t watch or download One Piece Film: God Valley yet, but it’s reportedly aiming for summer 2027. There’s also a second reported movie, One Piece Film: Baad, penciled in for 2029, though details on that one are still thin.

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One week after its Gamescom Opening Night Live reveal, The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past had already passed 900,000 wishlists. It’s a paid expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, currently targeting 2027, and analytics firm Alinea says it was the most wishlisted Steam game shown during the event.

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For an add-on showing up more than a decade after the base game, that’s a very solid start. The reason isn’t hard to see. CD Projekt RED says the Witcher franchise has sold 90 million copies in total, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt alone makes up more than 65 million of those sales. Songs of the Past is also being co-developed by CD Projekt RED and Fool’s Theory, with developers on the project who previously worked on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

CD Projekt RED says the story leans toward Dandelion this time, digging into his family and his past, while also setting this up as Geralt’s last major adventure before Ciri takes over in the next mainline game. You’ll also get Letten, Dandelion’s homeland, described as an idyllic new open-world region with a darker secret underneath it. Combat gets a new tool too: a silver chain.

If you’re still playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, this already looks like an easy one to grab when it arrives. Especially because it requires The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered, which CD Projekt RED says adds revamped combat animations, new finishing moves, and a reworked skill tree.

As for the rollout, CD Projekt RED has Songs of the Past lined up for 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered comes first on September 29, 2026 as a free upgrade for existing owners on qualifying platforms. If that schedule holds, the order is straightforward: the remaster in 2026, this expansion in 2027, and The Witcher 4: Polaris in 2028.

Drew Goddard’s 2018 thriller Bad Times at the El Royale has started getting another look on streaming and home media after a theatrical run that pulled in about $31.8 million worldwide against a $32 million budget.

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Set in 1969, Bad Times at the El Royale throws a flashy ensemble cast into a faded, once-glamorous hotel on the California-Nevada border and lets the night unravel from there. Over the course of one tense evening, strangers carrying secrets, fake identities, and their own buried motives slam into each other in violent, unpredictable ways. Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth all make an impression, though Erivo and Bridges are still the two names that draw the most praise.

The movie runs on sharp dialogue, stylish direction, and a non-linear mystery that keeps shifting the ground under your feet. The Tarantino influence is hard to miss: the chapter-like structure, the morally messy characters, the Pulp Fiction comparisons, and the one-location tension that brings The Hateful Eight to mind. Beneath all that, it’s still digging into guilt, redemption, and innocence.

If you missed adult thrillers like Bad Times at the El Royale in theaters, it’s an easy one to pick up now, even if the same things that made it distinctive also kept it from turning into a larger property: the nearly 2.5-hour runtime, the layered storytelling, the lack of franchise branding, and a soft $14 million international haul that more or less shut down any immediate sequel or spin-off hopes. There’s still no official follow-up, no major re-release, and no expanded franchise, though Drew Goddard has stayed active in Hollywood.

You can catch Bad Times at the El Royale now on streaming and home media.

Samson: A Tyndalston Story lands on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on September 21, 2026. Liquid Swords is bringing its noir action game to consoles with the most complete version so far, after Samson: A Tyndalston Story had a wobbly PC launch on April 8.

On day one, the console release includes all seven updates and both content drops. So the technical fixes and balance changes are already there, along with a wider parry window, uninterruptible takedowns, three difficulty settings, new jobs, and the Lone Line Circuit racing zone.

The timing makes sense. The Steam version still sits at a Mixed rating, with 55% positive reviews from more than 3,200 reviews, according to Steam. Player feedback keeps hitting the same points in Steam user reviews: bugs, technical problems, and gameplay that starts to feel repetitive. Sales also haven’t lived up to the early interest so far. Estimates put the game at 50,000 to 78,000 copies sold, despite clearing 250,000 wishlists, which works out to roughly $1 million to $1.2 million in gross revenue.

If you liked the idea of Samson: A Tyndalston Story but skipped the rough PC debut, this looks like the version worth picking up.

It’ll cost $24.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For that, you’re getting a mid-budget action-adventure from Just Cause creator Christofer Sundberg, mixing driving and beat-’em-up combat in Tyndalston with a story about debt and survival.

Hugh Jackman says he’s in talks to invest in Championship club Norwich City. If it goes through, English football gets another ownership story with a Hollywood name attached.

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This wouldn’t be Wrexham all over again, even if that’s the first comparison most people will make. Norwich have a more recent Premier League past, a bigger stadium, a higher profile, and they’re already owned by Mark Attanasio, who also owns MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers. Still, the Wrexham model is hard to ignore. Their promotions, along with Welcome to Wrexham, turned celebrity ownership into bigger sponsorship deals, a broader international fan base, stronger merchandise sales, and real cultural pull. Jackman says his interest is personal too: his mother is from Norwich, and he’s been a supporter for life.

If you pay attention to football ownership stories, this one’s got plenty to hold onto. Philippe Clement is already backing the global exposure, branding boost, and media upside. Then there’s the ready-made Jackman versus Reynolds Championship rivalry angle. But the risk is obvious as well. Celebrity projects can bring a rush of attention, then start leaning too heavily on star power, or drift away from the club’s local identity if the whole thing isn’t handled carefully.

Any official announcement will come through Norwich City’s own channels. For now, nothing’s signed.

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In June and August 2026, two of Europe’s most closely watched launch startups, Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), picked up new funding and backing from the European Space Agency (ESA). That gives Europe’s push for sovereign launch access some real weight.

Isar Aerospace said in June 2026 that it had raised €270 million in a Series D from new investors Island Green Capital and Molten Ventures, with HV Capital, Lakestar, and UVC Partners also taking part. That brings its total funding to about €870 million and gives the company more room to scale Spectrum rocket production toward 40 rockets a year.

RFA’s position looks stronger too. KKR invested €30 million in August 2023, OHB completed a capital increase that Rocket Factory Augsburg announced in June 2026, and ESA awarded the company a €186.9 million European Launcher Challenge contract in August 2026.

ESA also selected Isar Aerospace and Spain’s PLD Space. Private investors and public institutions are both putting money behind a tougher, more resilient European launch market after years of relying on established providers outside Europe.

If you follow Europe’s launch sector closely, this is one to watch. The real test, though, is still getting to orbit and doing it reliably.

The next markers to watch are Isar Aerospace’s next Spectrum flight from Andoya in Norway, its planned second site in Nova Scotia, and Rocket Factory Augsburg’s inaugural RFA ONE launch from SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland.