Kawamori has a new film, Labyrinth, which hits U.S. theaters on May 10th and 11th. If you have seen his previous works, music and technology have been important. With Labyrinth, a high school girl named Shiori (voiced by Atarashii Gakko!’s Suzuka) dreams of becoming an online sensation. After being in a viral but embarrassing video, she is trapped inside her smartphone and replaced by a doppelganger who becomes famous.

“When I think about my past work like Macross, or the Valkyrie, or even Transformers, they have a lot of physical power because they’re giant robots,” Kawamori tells Nerd Reactor. “But a smartphone, even though it’s so much smaller, I think it can have an equivalent or maybe even more power, because you can really affect someone on the other side of the world. So I think technology is very alluring, but also that is the part of the danger that most people don’t realize.”

Kawamori is influenced by growing up in a rural area like Toyama and the modern city of Yokohama. Fans can see the inspiration in his work.

“I was born in traditional arts, and nature was the core of our lives,” the director said. “Then I came to this technology-filled city. I don’t think one is better than the other. I think both are important, and both are very interesting to me. I wanted to always come up with ways where that duality could coexist, and also combine them to create something more interesting and fun. I think that journey of exploring that is really my more than 40 years of work, and it continues into Labyrinth.”

About Labyrinth

Synopsis: Shiori is a typical high school student who dreams of online stardom, but struggles to capture attention. After an embarrassing video of her goes viral, she gets trapped in her smartphone and replaced by a charismatic alter ego. As the doppelganger charms the internet and devises a nefarious plot to replace mankind with brainrot, Shiori must partner with other online outcasts to stop her digital counterpart and reclaim her life in the real world.

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The film follows a group of animals who rebelled against the humans to escape captivity and to prevent themselves from ending up in a slaughterhouse. Lucky, voiced by Gaten Matarazzo (Netflix’s Stranger Things), is a piglet who is torn between following Napoleon, a rebellious boar voiced by Seth Rogen, and Snowball, a sow voiced by Laverne Cox. With the animals running their own animal farm, following one leader blindly could lead to a disastrous end.

“We ultimately wanted to have young people sit with their parents and grandparents and then have a debate,” Serkis tells Nerd Reactor. “[George] Orwell wrote this innocent story to be able to talk about darker themes, but also to have a discussion about it. We have not made this for an algorithm. It’s not to hit from a marketing perspective. We’re not aiming at anything other than trying to tell a tale that will engage young inquiring minds to have a conversation with their adult parents and grandparents.

“Some people will love it, and some people will hate this film, and that’s great. That’s what we want. We want to encourage that, that being able to talk about something, rather than these are very subtle, nuanced discussions that we’re having through an entertaining, animated, young, innocent film.”

Iman Vellani voices two characters, Puff and Tammy, who are piglets and friends of Lucky.

“Teenagers notoriously don’t have a strong sense of self, and younger kids too,” Vellani explained. “They’re literally blindly following what their adults and parents are doing around them, and thinking that that’s the way to do it, because that’s how I’ve been taught and seen… So I think this movie gives younger audiences the tools to actually recognize these injustices and apply them to their own lives, too.”

The interview was edited for length and clarity.

About Animal Farm

Synopsis: A satirical allegory of revolution and power traces how a movement for equality is systematically corrupted. As the pigs consolidate control, truth is erased, dissent is crushed, and the farm descends into a ruthless dictatorship – fulfilling Orwell’s warning about the dangers of communism.

The film is directed by Andy Serkis and features the voice of Serkis, Seth Rogen, Woody Harrelson, Glenn Close, Gaten Matarazzo, Jim Parsons, Kathleen Turner, Kieran Culkin, Steve Buscemi, Laverne Cox, and Iman Vellani.

Animal Farm was released in the U.S. and Canada on May 1, 2026.

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“The most important thing for a producer, and I’m one of a few, you’ve got to take care of business in the background to support everything a director does,” Simmons tells Nerd Reactor. “Because the actors depend on him, the scenic designers, the cinematographers, and everything. So he’s got to put all the pieces together and get a performance that you care about.”

This is in stark contrast to how Simmons works in the music industry.

“Being in a band, it’s your show,” the musician/producer said. “You’re in front of the stage. You control a lot of stuff.”

Deep Water follows survivors of a crashed plane as they try to survive in shark-infested waters.

“The key to any movie is that you care about the characters,” Harlin explained. “You can blow up the planes, you can crash them, and you can have sharks attack from left and right. But if you don’t really root for the characters and care about them, then you don’t have anything.”

Renny Harlin’s life has changed now that he is married and has children.

“I feel that I was more equipped to do this now that my life has changed so much in just the last few years,” he added. “I got married. I have three kids. I think I’m a better person than I was before, and I know that I care more deeply than I ever did. I would like to think that’s reflected in how I handle the characters, how I directed the actors. We have little kids in the story. We have a grandmother in the story. And I think that I paid attention to those things more than I’ve ever done before in my life.”

About Deep Water

Synopsis: A flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific. After surviving the crash, the survivors soon discover they’re not alone and they must survive the shark infested waters.

The film is directed by Renny Harlin and written by Pete Bridges and John Kim. Producers are Gene Simmons, Ying Ye, Neal Kingston, Grant Bradley, Dale Bradley, Adrián Guerra, Xavier Parache, and Bob Yari.

It stars Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Kelly Gale, and Li Wenhan.

Deep Water releases in theaters nationwide on May 1, 2026.

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The film, starring Ranbir as Rama and Yash as Ravana and directed by Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal), is based on the ancient and epic tale that follows Prince Rama and his journey to save his wife, Sita. The story has been adapted many times into movies, TV series, novels, and comic books.

Yash also serves as the film’s producer, and he aims to have Ramayana reach a global audience.

“I think it’s important to understand there are two possibilities in this kind of scenario,” Yash tells Nerd Reactor. “You don’t take the risk at all and say, ‘Listen, people are so critical about it. People are so sensitive about it. Let’s not go there. We have better ways to make money, or you know, you can go on with a safe zone where you do films.’ And there’s another way, whether it should be told or put on a global platform or not. If the answer is yes, then we should not worry about it because by the end of the day, it’s a good problem to have. People are rooting for it. We should understand where it is coming from.”

Namit Malhotra, the CEO of DNEG, serves as the film’s screenwriter and producer. He discusses the importance of writing as the film’s foundation.

“I think it always starts in the writing,” Namit Malhotra said. “Ramayana is already written to be an epic, and it is bigger than anything else out there. So all we’re doing is faithfully trying to just reproduce it based on what’s been written into what we can present on screen. And that is actually fun because you have such a good base material to work with and really build on. So I think the artists are having a great time, really bringing it to life because you’ve got so much richness in the way it’s been written and what’s been created. Originality of thought, design, all the things that you crave for are all embedded in Ramayana and have been for thousands of years.”

Check out the full interview below:

About Ramayana

Synopsis: From visionary producer and filmmaker Namit Malhotra comes Ramayana, a sweeping, two-part cinematic event inspired by one of the world’s most enduring epics.

Since the beginning of time, the Trinity Gods rule the three worlds; Brahma – god who creates; Vishnu – god who protects; and Shiva – god who transforms. As the realms of heaven, earth edge toward chaos, the Trinity god Vishnu descends to earth in an avatar to restore balance. This time, Vishnu is reborn as RAMA (Ranbir Kapoor), a human prince destined to restore balance. Opposing him, stands the most formidable, learned, undefeatable and immortal demon king RAVANA (Yash), blessed by the Trinity themselves, driven by pride and a vengeance powerful enough to shatter the cosmos.

Unaware of his true purpose as the only opponent destined to stand up to Ravana in a fateful cosmic design; Rama is the idol of Dharma (duty above all) and the most loved crown prince of Ayodhya, the greatest human dynasty of the time. Rama tries to build a life of quiet honor with his beloved wife Sita (Sai Pallavi) and loyal brother Lakshman (Ravie Dubey) amongst others, until a twist of fate drives him into exile and toward an inevitable clash with Ravana in a reckoning so cataclysmic, it will decide the destiny of gods and mortals.

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“I always enjoy fighting with Cush,” Capaldi tells Nerd Reactor about his scene partner. “There’s always a point where we’ve been simmering for a while, and not saying what we want to say. And there are scenes that come along where we actually tell it the way it is. So we’ve had enough. And I always enjoy those because we can sort of let go of those.”

“Yeah, I like simmering with Peter,” Jumbo added. “And then going and hitting bad guys, and then coming back and yelling at Peter, and then going and hitting bad guys. So it works for me really well.”

The action thriller features high-stakes moments, but it’s the dialogue that Jumbo cherishes.

“Oh, I love the action, but I think the dialogue on our show is amazing,” she said. “We have the most amazing scripts. We have the most amazing teams of people who sit around thinking about story and about the way these characters speak and how they place an argument. And it’s a joy to put that language in your mouth. So I would do the dialogue any day, probably over the action.”

About Criminal Record

Synopsis: From BAFTA Award nominee Paul Rutman, “Criminal Record” is a powerful, character-driven drama set in the heart of contemporary London, exploring the impossibility of policing when the truth is up for grabs. In season two, when a young man is stabbed to death at a political rally, rival police officers June Lenker and Daniel Hegarty are forced into an uneasy alliance. But what starts as a hunt for a murderer escalates into an undercover operation to foil a Far-Right bomb plot in the heart of London. Season two reunites Capaldi as ‘Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty’ and Jumbo as ‘Detective Sergeant June Lenker.’

Dustin Demri-Burns, Luca Pasqualino, Luther Ford, Lyndsey Marshal and Peter Sullivan join the cast in addition to the returning ensemble that includes Shaun Dooley, Stephen Campbell Moore and Charlie Creed-Miles.

The eight-episode, season two of Criminal Record debuts the first episode on Wednesday, April 22, with new episodes weekly until Wednesday, June 10.

The post Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo on Tension, Chemistry, and ‘Simmering’ Through Criminal Record appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Isabella Gomez has been capturing fans’ hearts, going all the way back to the Netflix hit series One Day at a Time. She joins Shrinking Season 3 as Marisol, Sean’s (Luke Tennie) first love, who is now reentering his life, and brings the perfect energy and chemistry to even further enhance the show’s dynamic cast. She was handpicked for the role by showrunner Bill Lawrence after they previously worked together on Head of the Class, and from her first appearance this season, it’s easy to see why.

We got to talk all about building her chemistry with Luke, her character’s possible backstory, where we hope to see the couple go next season, and much more.

“Luke and I talked quite a bit about what it looks like to be first loves with someone and to have that kind of history,” said Gomez. “With all that has gone down with Sean, and also we don’t know much about Marisol, what does that look like to love each other and have that kind of history and then come back to each other at this point in life? And the different coping mechanisms like how much he wants to talk things out and be very by the book and Marisol is more free spirited. It’s very art imitates life.”

The end of Season 3 leaves Sean in a very hopeful and optimistic place starting a new job and moving into a new apartment, which is extremely rewarding after following his therapy journey the past two seasons. So where could things go for the couple from here?

“I’ve been pitching a wedding from day one,” said Gomez. “Shrinking seems to have a wedding per season. But there’s so much going on. Sean moves in with his friend Jorge (Trey Santiago-Hudson), and what does that mean for this couple? I think those conversations and conflicts aren’t always modeled for us in media, showing how even when you’re in a happy, loving relationship, there will still be a lot of trial and error.”

There’s one more idea Gomez has up her sleeve. “My real dream is for Marisol and Sean to have couples therapy next season so that we have to go to Harrison Ford to fix us,” she added.

I think we’re all fully on board with that possible storyline, and Season 4 can’t come soon enough.

Shrinking Season 3 is now streaming in full on Apple TV.

The post Isabella Gomez Breaks Down Her Shrinking Love Story appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Starring in the role of young Michael is Juliano Valdi, who has the talent to bring the voice and energy of Michael to the biopic.

“My mom told me that I got the role being young [Michael],” Valdi tells Nerd Reactor. “I was at my grandmother’s house again, and she told me, ‘Hey, you’re going to be young Michael Jackson.’ And I was like, ‘What, really?’ She was like, ‘Yeah.’ I was really excited, but I knew that it was a big responsibility, so I had to focus and work hard on my craft. I started practicing my Michael Jackson voice.”

Michael Jackson is known for his singing and dancing, and Valdi talks about which talent was the hardest.

“Well, I would say dancing, but it’s also his mannerisms,” the actor said.

Portraying Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson, is Nia Long (Friday, Are We There Yet?), who serves as the glue to the family.

“I think the feminine energy always has that responsibility, whether it’s conscious or subconscious,” Long said. “It is just part of the journey. But I absolutely had a kinship with my young man who played my child. And obviously, to my leading man, who played my husband. We took care of each other. It’s a reciprocal exchange of energy. And we have a responsibility to support each other to be the best in that moment.”

Colman Domingo plays the controversial father figure, Joe Jackson.

“There have been versions of Joe Jackson portrayed before,” Domingo explained. “If I know anything, I know that sometimes people will take an idea or a trope and let that run wild throughout an experience. And I don’t think that’s the truth for anyone… any human being. It is just not their truth. They act differently in different spaces when they’re conducting business, or they’re at home with their wife or with one of their kids, compared to when they’re with the rest of their kids. And so for me, I wanted to show the different Joe Jacksons in different spaces. You know what I mean?

“He has a bit more vulnerability when he’s with his wife. Even sometimes when he’s just with adult Michael, he can show a different part of himself that he probably wouldn’t show if he were in a stadium with other people around. He’s got to be the top dog. He’s got to be the businessman because other people are watching. I’ll find that humanity in every character. There is. What connects us? And so I feel like it was my job to really look through the lens of Joe Jackson and see how he sees the world and what his actions are and what he’s about.”

About Michael

Synopsis: Michael is the cinematic portrayal of the life and legacy of one of the most influential artists the world has ever known. The film tells the story of Michael Jackson’s life beyond the music, tracing his journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world. Highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career, the film gives audiences a front-row seat to Michael Jackson as never before. This is where his story begins.

The film is directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by John Logan, and produced by Graham King, John Branca, and John McClain.

It stars Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Juliano Valdi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, special appearance by Mike Myers, with Miles Teller, and Colman Domingo.

Michael releases in U.S. theaters on April 24, 2026.

The post The Moment Juliano Valdi Found Out He Was Playing Michael Jackson appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

We talked about how she portrays a mental health condition with equal parts comedy and respect, getting used to making intense eye contact with Jason Segel, her favorite day on set when Wally “accidentally” kidnaps her neighbor’s dog, and much more.

Reflecting on when she joined the show at the beginning of season one, Condict said, “I went and did my part on the first day of the first season, and at the beginning of the day, so it was like everybody’s first day of school. And that was a really cool, fun vibe to be there right at the beginning. I felt like I was in on it. It was my first time ever working with Bill [Lawrence]. It was my first time working with Jason, of course. And they were just so warm. I think I was nervous to meet Jason because he’s so famous, and when I went into the room, I met him, made eye contact with him, and hugged him. I could feel his energy, and he was just very grounding and wonderful.”

As a viewer, I am always impressed by how laugh-out-loud funny the therapy scenes are in Shrinking while still treating these very real mental health conditions in a very delicate and thoughtful way. I think that it all goes back to the impeccable writing and casting, and Condict agrees. She commented, “I’m a person who in my life has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and so I think it feels like a very near thing. It’s just a different mirror in the fun house we’re all trapped in. I think a lot of OCD is a product of anxiety or vice versa. So I think I mainly just channeled my own anxiety and fears and nervousness about stuff, but it’s so well written that it feels very natural to say all the stuff that they’ve crafted.”

With season four of Shrinking officially underway, I’m eagerly awaiting any news on the future of Wally’s character. One of my favorite questions to ask actors is to throw out their ideas for a dream spinoff for their character. Condict had two great concepts in mind – either Wally doing immersion therapy by going to work somewhere deep in nature like Yosemite, or turning some of her OCD traits into a successful organization business a la The Home Edit. I would absolutely tune in for countless episodes of either one.

Tune into our full conversation in the video above. The 11-episode third season of Shrinking is now streaming in full on Apple TV.

The post How Kimberly Condict Made Wally a Fan Favorite on Shrinking appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The Exit 8 film follows The Lost Man, played by Kanunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima), as he discovers that he’s trapped in a loop in a Japanese subway station.

“What gave me a hint on how to approach this film was that I had a panel with Nintendo’s Miyamoto Shigeru about 10 years ago,” Kawamura tells Nerd Reactor. “On this panel, he said, ‘Really good games will entertain the players, but they’ll also entertain the people watching the player and watching the screen.’

“From that, I looked at the video game landscape at large, and we have the video game players, and we also have streamers. And we have people who watch other streamers. I thought if there was some way to take what’s happening in the video game world and capture it in this movie, it would provide this unique and new type of experience within movie theaters.”

The Corridor as a Character

The supernatural element is this corridor that traps the humans in an endless loop, unless they are able to identify the anomalies.

“First, we were following our human characters, and then we’re invested in their stories,” the director explained. “But more and more, as I got invested in the film, I began to see the corridor itself as one of the characters, if not the main character of the film. It’s almost like a giant monster or creature. And within it is this yellow, Exit 8 sign that’s overlooking like a god or divine being watching different humans wander into its domain.”

Building Two Identical Corridors

One of the techniques in capturing the endless loops in the film is the use of two identical corridors on the set.

“With the POV of video games, there aren’t going to be any cuts,” Kawamura said. “That’s the nature of video games. They’re constantly viewing the world through your perspective and camera. I wanted to capture that expression in that oner, that super long shot. In order to do that, we actually built two identical corridors in one set and linked them in the middle. So the shot you’re probably talking about was physically looped and shot practically during production.

“An instance of that is The Walking Man walking past the camera at the end of the corridor. He actually had to get on a bicycle, ride to the beginning of the first corridor, catch his breath, and come walking down again. And that’s how we were able to do it, by doing it in a very analog way, and having him walk as though he’s a CG character. We gave it that feeling of a video game loop.”

About Exit 8

Synopsis: A man trapped in an endless sterile subway passage sets out to find EXIT 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversights will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

Exit 8 released in U.S. theaters on April 10, 2026.

The post How Exit 8 Turns a Viral Horror Game Into a Mind-Bending Film appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

In the revival series, Malcolm has been living a peaceful life away from his birth family. He has a daughter and a girlfriend, and life couldn’t be better. Kiana Madeira portrays Tristan, Malcolm’s girlfriend, who is thrust into the chaos that is Malcolm’s childhood family.

“I was such a huge fan growing up, so I knew what I was getting myself into,” Madeira told Nerd Reactor. “But I just love that they didn’t lose that. It’s been almost 20 years, and the actors themselves just jumped into the character so effortlessly. The writing, like Linwood Boomer, our creator and executive producer, stayed so true to the heart of the original series. I think fans are gonna love it for that reason, like we really don’t lose that chaos and that energy, which is like what makes Malcolm in the Middle what it is.”

While Malcolm’s family isn’t perfect, at the heart of it, the family still cares for each other.

“Your family doesn’t have to be perfect, because no family is perfect,” she explained. “There’s going to be dysfunction, there’s going to be chaos, but at the heart, if you just have love for one another, you can overcome anything. That’s what I love about this family, it’s so relatable.”

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is now available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.

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