There has been a fair amount of news on geek-related movie projects in the last week, and we round that up here.

Fox has named Simon Kinberg as director for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Deadline is reporting. Despite his long involvement with the franchise, as both writer and producer on various X-Men films, this will be his directorial debut. Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee will all reprise their roles in the feature. Jessica Chastain (The Martian, Crimson Peak) is in talks to play Shi’ar Empress Lilandra, the main villain of the movie. The film is set to debut in theaters on November 2, 2018 (see “Best in Shows--Q4 2018”).

Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp has cast Hannah John-Kamen in an undisclosed role, THR reported. John-Kamen has mostly appeared in small roles on shows like Game of Thrones and Black Mirror, but she has roles in two major geek films debuting in 2018, Ready Player One and Tomb Raider. Paul Rudd as Ant-Man/Scott Lang [corrected June 26, 2017, ed.], Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas and Michael Pena will return for the sequel, which will release on July 8, 2018 (see “Best in Shows--Q3 2018”).

Sofia Boutella, who starred in the title role for Universal Pictures’ The Mummy, will be playing Clarisse, the female lead, in an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopia novel Fahrenheit 451, THR is reporting. Boutella will star with Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon in the HBO Films adaptation of the 1953 novel.

It’s been 20 years since Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers debuted in theaters, and now a new animated sequel, Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars will appear in theaters for one night only, THR reports. Stars Casper Van Dien (Johnny Rico) and Dina Meyer (Dizzy Fores) will reprise their roles for the CGI film, which is written by Ed Neumeier, who penned the original Starship Troopers screenplay. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Fathom Events will show the feature in 500 theaters across the U.S. on Monday August 21.

The trailer can be seen below.