Exclusive: 'Michael' Moonwalks Out of 2025; Plus, CinemaCon Report Cards for Warner Bros. and Lionsgate

It’s Wednesday morning in Las Vegas, and we begin the day with some sad news that broke late last night — Val Kilmer has died at 65 following a well-publicized battle with throat cancer, which may have stripped him of his voice but never stripped him of his spirit.

I’ll have more to say about Kilmer’s passing later this week, but for now, R.I.P. to one of the greats whose movies I actually grew up watching.

It was a crazy day at CinemaCon, where Lionsgate and Warner Bros. offered up their slates, though I could barely focus during WB’s presentation due to the breaking news about David Fincher, Brad Pitt, and possibly Leonardo DiCaprio teaming up on a sequel/spinoff of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It took a little while for the trades to confirm that one, but I’m glad they did, as I quickly got sick of explaining to people on Twitter that the story wasn’t an elaborate April Fool’s joke.

Poor Warner Bros. just can’t catch a break — and it seems like Lionsgate can’t either.

For all the John Wick projects that the studio announced on Tuesday, there was a gaping hole in the middle of its presentation, which concluded with a billion-dollar question mark — what’s going on with Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic from director Antoine Fuqua?

Lionsgate’s Adam Fogelson barely mentioned the movie at CinemaCon, where he told the crowd that the studio would make some exciting announcements about the project soon.

Well, let me just tell you now that Michael is definitely moonwalking out of 2025… and likely heading to 2026. I can’t imagine it would be delayed beyond next year.

The studio still has Michael slated for October as of this moment, but if it was going to actually make that date, it would have to start marketing the movie, well, now, basically. So the mere fact that Lionsgate didn’t show a Michael trailer, and barely mentioned the fact that it exists at all, tells me that there isn’t a chance in hell that the film will be released this year.

You can safely remove it from your Oscar predictions — a bummer, I know!

I’ve heard all kinds of rumors about Michael, from the rumor that it’s being shelved — it’s not — to the rumor that Lionsgate may try to carve a concert film out of it in the hopes of making back some of its money. However, all I’m confident in saying at this point is that Michael will not make its current October 2025 release date.

I don’t really need to get into why that is, as the film’s problems have been well-documented, both by myself and Puck’s Matt Belloni, who sounded the alarm early on.

Perhaps Lionsgate will move the movie to March, where many of Hollywood’s “problem movies” have wound up of late, though April may be a better fit. After all, Michael still has a ton of potential and a high box office ceiling despite the legal drama involving its provocative third act. But the studio needs time to sell this movie, hence the inevitable delay.

I haven’t had time to watch any movies while here at CinemaCon — I’m skipping this morning’s screening of How to Train Your Dragon — but as soon as I’m back home in LA, I look forward to checking out the links for Freaky Tales and Sacramento that are currently waiting in my inbox.

Tonight, you’ll read my CinemaCon report cards for Lionsgate and Warner Bros., and I also weigh in on Scott Rudin’s rumored return while sharing a humorous exchange I once had with the power producer, who has always reminded me of Bluto from Popeye.

There are also items about Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s latest Amazon deal, a re-release of one of Kevin Smith’s movies, a Dexter-themed renewal, and the trailer for the Philippou brothers’ new A24 movie, Bring Her Back, starring Sally Hawkins.

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