Bandwagon Nerds News Report (10/17/2026): Batman Gets Soderbergh, Red Rising Lands Lawrence & Jennifer’s Body Lives

Steven Soderbergh steps into The Batman Part II, Francis Lawrence lands Red Rising and Diablo Cody says Jennifer’s Body 2 is imminent.

Thursday produced a surprisingly strong collection of movie news, led by one of Hollywood’s strangest temporary director swaps.

Steven Soderbergh is stepping in to help Matt Reeves complete The Batman Part II while Reeves handles a family matter, Francis Lawrence has found another dystopian world after years spent inside The Hunger Games, and Diablo Cody says the long-discussed Jennifer’s Body sequel is finally close to happening. Universal also gave Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz’s Mummy reunion an official title, while Zendaya is heading back into science fiction with Alex Garland.

It’s the Bandwagon Nerds News Report for October 17, 2026!

Steven Soderbergh Will Help Finish The Batman Part II

Steven Soderbergh is stepping in to help complete the final weeks of principal photography on The Batman Part II while Matt Reeves temporarily steps away to deal with an ongoing family matter.

Warner Bros. and DC Studios emphasized that Reeves remains the filmmaker behind the sequel and that Soderbergh will work closely with him, the cast and crew to complete Reeves’ vision. Soderbergh also praised Reeves’ work on the first Batman film and described the opportunity as helping another filmmaker finish something he already deeply admires.

This is about as unusual as major-franchise production changes get because Soderbergh is not being brought in to replace Reeves creatively. He is effectively functioning as an extremely accomplished relief pitcher while Reeves handles something more important away from the set.

That distinction matters. Any time another director enters a superhero production midway through filming, audiences understandably start wondering whether the movie is being rebuilt behind the scenes. Everything being said here points toward the opposite: finish the photography, protect the original plan and give Reeves enough space to take care of his family.

Soderbergh is also a fascinating person to call because very few filmmakers work as quickly and efficiently. If you need somebody to complete difficult production work without turning the situation into a second movie, Hollywood probably has worse options.

Francis Lawrence Is Taking On Red Rising

Paramount has attached Francis Lawrence to direct a film adaptation of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising, with Justin Rhodes writing the screenplay.

The story follows Darrow, a member of the lowest social caste in a future civilization where humanity has already colonized Mars. After discovering that his people have been deliberately kept in servitude, Darrow infiltrates the elite Gold caste and enters an institution designed to create the next generation of rulers.

Lawrence is an obvious fit after spending more than a decade directing Hunger Games movies. He understands stories built around oppressive systems, young people forced into violent competition and rebellions that gradually become much larger than the person who started them.

The important thing will be keeping Red Rising from simply looking like Hunger Games on Mars.

Pierce Brown’s books become significantly larger and more operatic as the series continues, moving from brutal competition into full-scale political and military science fiction. Paramount is therefore not just adapting one popular book; it is potentially buying its way into a substantial long-term franchise if the first movie works.

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Jennifer’s Body 2 Is Finally Getting Real

Diablo Cody says a sequel to Jennifer’s Body is happening “imminently,” providing the clearest indication yet that the long-discussed follow-up has moved beyond people simply saying they would like to make one.

Cody also suggested the new film will explore Jennifer Check as a more sympathetic character, digging further into the loneliness and damage underneath the possessed cheerleader played by Megan Fox in the 2009 original.

That approach fits the strange second life Jennifer’s Body has developed.

The movie was badly marketed and largely dismissed when it originally arrived, but the cultural reassessment over the following decade completely changed its reputation. What was initially sold like a straightforward movie about Megan Fox being sexy and killing boys is now much more widely recognized as a story about friendship, exploitation and trauma.

A sequel therefore has something most delayed horror continuations do not: the opportunity to respond directly to how audiences misunderstood the original.

Cody does not need to pretend Jennifer’s Body was always treated like a classic. The fact that people eventually discovered what it was trying to do is part of why another movie now exists at all.

The Mummy Reunion Has an Official Title

Universal’s new Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz Mummy movie is officially titled The Mummy: The Book of the Dead.

Fraser and Weisz will return as Rick and Evelyn O’Connell alongside John Hannah, Oded Fehr and Kevin J. O’Connor. Michael Johnston and Numan Acar are also among the cast, while the film remains scheduled for October 15, 2027.

That title immediately tells longtime viewers which version of The Mummy Universal is interested in revisiting.

This is not another attempt to turn the property into prestige horror or restart the abandoned Dark Universe strategy. The Book of the Dead is practically a neon sign pointing back toward the mythology, adventure and supernatural pulp of the 1999 movie and The Mummy Returns.

Bringing Weisz back is arguably as important as Fraser. Rick and Evelyn worked because the movies were never simply about one action hero fighting monsters; their relationship gave the adventure enough personality to survive all of the increasingly ridiculous supernatural material around them.

Universal finally seems willing to acknowledge that audiences did not just miss The Mummy. They missed this Mummy.

Zendaya Teams With Alex Garland for a New Sci-Fi Movie

Zendaya will star in an untitled science-fiction film written and directed by Alex Garland for A24.

Plot details are being kept completely secret, with production expected to begin in 2027. The project continues Garland’s relationship with A24 following films including Ex Machina, Men, Civil War and Warfare, while the studio is also backing his upcoming Elden Ring adaptation.

That is enough information to make the project interesting even without a logline.

Garland has spent much of his career using science fiction to examine identity, technology, power and the ways human beings behave once the normal structures around them begin breaking down. Zendaya, meanwhile, has increasingly moved toward filmmakers willing to put her into stranger material rather than treating her primarily as a franchise star.

The combination could go almost anywhere.

Garland making a science-fiction film with absolutely no information available is also one of those rare cases where knowing less genuinely makes the project more appealing. Ex Machina would have been much less interesting if audiences had known every philosophical and narrative turn before walking into it.

Grand Theft Auto VI Has Its Composer

Rockstar confirmed that French electronic duo Justice is composing the original score for Grand Theft Auto VI.

The announcement accompanied another piece of the game’s increasingly elaborate music rollout, including “Flower in a Hurricane,” a new Justice track featuring SZA, Tame Impala and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. GTA VI’s accompanying album will contain 34 original tracks when it launches alongside the game on November 19.

We already knew Rockstar was treating GTA VI’s soundtrack like an event, but naming Justice as the actual scoring team is a different level of commitment.

Grand Theft Auto has always treated music as more than background noise. Radio stations became one of the defining pieces of driving through Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City because the music helped establish each place as much as architecture or dialogue.

Justice brings exactly the kind of neon-soaked electronic identity that sounds almost suspiciously appropriate for Vice City.

The interesting part will be hearing how that style works outside the radio stations. A composed score following Jason and Lucia through missions gives Rockstar another way to make modern Vice City feel musically distinct even when nobody is sitting inside a car.

Shrek 2 Remastered Appears to Have Leaked Early

An unannounced Shrek 2 Remastered listing appeared on the Microsoft Store Thursday, seemingly revealing a modernized version of the 2004 licensed game before its planned announcement.

Aspyr is listed as the developer, with the remaster promising upgraded visuals and additional features. The timing strongly suggests the official reveal may be planned for the October 20 ID@Xbox Showcase, where Shrek briefly appeared in promotional material.

Of all the games that could have suddenly returned in 2026, Shrek 2 is certainly one of them.

The original became one of those licensed games that was considerably better remembered than its movie tie-in status would suggest, particularly because of its cooperative structure and character-specific abilities.

There is also something very 2026 about remaster culture reaching this deep into the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox era.

Publishers spent years assuming only prestige classics deserved restoration. They are increasingly realizing nostalgia does not care whether something originally won Game of the Year. Sometimes people just want the weird game they played repeatedly when they were 12 years old to work on a modern television.

Street Fighter Starts Fighting at the Box Office

Paramount and Legendary’s Street Fighter earned approximately $4 million from Thursday preview screenings as the video-game adaptation begins its opening weekend.

The movie stars Andrew Koji as Ryu and Noah Centineo as Ken, with Callina Liang as Chun-Li and an enormous supporting cast that includes Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, 50 Cent, David Dastmalchian and Eric André.

Early tracking has the movie positioned for an opening above $30 million domestically, giving Paramount another opportunity to demonstrate how much the commercial ceiling for video-game adaptations has changed.

There was a time when Street Fighter itself was one of the exhibits people used to argue video-game movies simply did not work.

That argument is dead now.

The more interesting question is whether modern adaptations can maintain what made these games distinctive while still becoming mainstream movies. Street Fighter does not need to apologize for being colorful, ridiculous or filled with people whose entire lives revolve around punching each other.

If anything, pretending otherwise would probably be the bigger mistake.

Thursday’s news offered several different examples of Hollywood realizing that the right filmmaker matters just as much as the recognizable title sitting on the poster.

Soderbergh is helping Reeves finish Batman without trying to turn it into a Soderbergh movie. Francis Lawrence gets Red Rising because Paramount knows he understands dystopian scale. Alex Garland gets Zendaya and an original science-fiction blank check because audiences already know what his name implies.

Even Jennifer’s Body is returning largely because people eventually recognized what Diablo Cody and Megan Fox were doing the first time.

Franchises still matter. Intellectual property still matters.

But sometimes the reason people care about any of it is because a particular creative person knew what to do once somebody handed them the keys.

This report includes information from: Variety.com, TheWrap.com, RockstarGames.com, Gematsu.com and Warner Bros.-related reporting.