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Disney thrills fans at D23 with 'Incredibles 3' announcement, footage from 'Moana 2'

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Disney thrills fans at D23 with 'Incredibles 3' announcement, footage from 'Moana 2'
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Disney thrills fans at D23 with 'Incredibles 3' announcement, footage from 'Moana 2'

2024-08-12 06:27 Last Updated At:06:30

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Disney teased its upcoming movies and television series including “Moana 2” in a rousing showcase featuring sneak peaks, live performances and surprise appearances from actors including Dwayne Johnson, Zoe Saldaña and Jude Law.

Fans at Disney’s D23 convention welcomed CEO Bob Iger with a standing ovation Friday at the top of the showcase. “The world needs to be entertained maybe even more so now than ever before and we take that responsibility seriously,” he said before presentations teased new movies in the “Avatar,” “Toy Story” and “Incredibles” franchises.

In the evening’s first surprise, Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson of “Moana” jolted the crowd of over 15,000 at the Honda Center with a performance of a song featuring drummers and dancers in costumes styled after the beloved animated movie.

The actors are reprising their roles as Moana and Maui, respectively, in “Moana 2,” which is set to hit theaters Nov. 27. Before showing an extended sneak peek of the film, Johnson said that working on the films has been special to him, noting that his daughters, who are 6 and 8 years old, were in the crowd.

Disney subsequently released the film’s first full-length trailer online. The footage introduces characters new (Moana now has a little sister) and familiar, like her pet pig Pua and the Kakamora, a band of dart-blowing coconut-clad pirates.

Johnson also announced that he’d be continuing his long-running work on Disney projects to create a “Monster Jam” live-action movie. The studio did not announce any updates to Johnson’s other Disney project, the live-action “Moana,” that is in development.

Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni teased the May 2026 Star Wars film “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” which they said only started filming recently. Favreau said he felt compelled to “put something together” for the showcase and showed a brief clip featuring the title characters, as he put it, “on a whole new journey.”

Law spoke about “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” announcing it will be coming to Disney+ on Dec. 3.

“I fell in love with 'Star Wars’ when I was a 10-year-old boy,” Law said before sharing footage from the show, which has been billed as a coming-of-age tale.

Pixar Animation Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter announced the studio is developing a third “The Incredibles” movie, with Brad Bird returning as director.

“Toy Story 5” director Andrew Stanton said it'll be toys versus tech in the summer 2026 film featuring Woody, Buzz and the rest of the crew.

Jennifer Lee, the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, shared concept art from “Frozen III” that features Anna, Elsa and Olaf looking onto the horizon with an ominous creature lurking close behind them. The film will arrive in 2027.

Director James Cameron and actors Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington reunited on stage to announce the official title of the third “Avatar” movie: “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

“The new film is not what you expect, but it’s definitely what you want,” said Cameron, who will be bestowed “Disney Legends” status in a ceremony to close out D23 on Sunday.

Fans got a look at “Zootopia 2,” coming to theaters November 2025. The film’s star Ginnifer Goodwin also announced Ke Huy Quan will be joining the cast as a snake.

Following the blitz of announcements from Marvel at Comic-Con International, the studio's president Kevin Feige came out after a welcome video from Ryan Reynolds, who thanked the crowd for supporting his box office record-breaking “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

Ryan Coogler, the director of the “Black Panther” movies, joined Feige to discuss “Ironheart," starring Dominique Thorne and Anthony Ramos. The cast introduced a first look at the series that follows Thorne’s character, Riri Williams, who was first introduced in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

Feige also spoke about “Marvel’s first family,” the Fantastic Four. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach said hello to the audience in a short video clip in their costumes from the set in the U.K., where filming began late last month.

Fans also got a glimpse of the first look at “Daredevil: Born Again,” set to start streaming on Disney+ in March. Feige said the new series will channel the essence of the Netflix original, with Charlie Cox reprising his role as Matt Murdock, but will also set the characters on a new path. A second season is in the works.

Music will be a key part of “Mufasa: The Lion King,” the upcoming prequel to the 2019 photo-realistic film, a remake of the 1994 animated classic. Director Barry Jenkins and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created original music for the new movie, introduced a clip featuring a new song, “I Always Wanted a Brother,” which depicts the early relationship between Mufasa and Scar.

Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot took to the stage to promote their live-action “Snow White” movie, which is scheduled for March 2025. Zegler plays the original Disney princess and “Wonder Woman” Gadot plays the evil queen. The film will feature new songs from duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known for “La La Land” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”

Jared Leto and Jeff Bridges took to the stage to promote “Tron: Ares,” which will be scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' Nine Inch Nails.

Kathryn Hahn performed a new song from her upcoming Marvel series “Agatha All Along,” another earworm for fans of the 2021 “WandaVision” musical number. She praised the songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who wrote the hit song from “WandaVision” that the series is named after and previously penned hits from “Frozen” and “Coco."

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan announced the official title for the highly anticipated “Freaky Friday” sequel, “Freakier Friday.”

Curtis, who will be honored as a Disney Legend on Sunday, said she felt like no time had passed since they filmed the 2003 movie as they shared the first images from the new film.

Docter also announced an original Pixar film, “Hoppers,” starring Bobby Moynihan and Jon Hamm, and shared exclusive looks at upcoming film “Elio.” The young star of “Elio,” Yonas Kibreab, brought Saldaña back onstage and announced her as a lead character, joining America Ferrera and Jameela Jamil in the cast. The movie will hit theaters in June 2025.

Pixar will also have two new series hitting Disney+ in a first for the studio. Following the record-breaking success of “Inside Out 2,” the studio is creating “Dream Productions,” a show set in between “Inside Out” and “Inside Out 2,” that will start streaming on Disney+ in 2025. “Win or Lose,” the first Pixar longform series, will hit Disney+ Dec. 6.

This image released by Walt Disney Animation Studios shows a scene from "Moana 2," expected in theaters November 2024. (Walt Disney Animation Studios via AP)

This image released by Walt Disney Animation Studios shows a scene from "Moana 2," expected in theaters November 2024. (Walt Disney Animation Studios via AP)

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Bitcoin soars past $109,000 ahead of possible early action on crypto by Trump

2025-01-20 23:49 Last Updated At:23:52

WASHINGTON (AP) — The price of bitcoin surged to over $109,000 early Monday, just hours ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, as a pumped up cryptocurrency industry bets he'll take action soon after returning to the White House.

Once a skeptic who said a few years ago that bitcoin “ seems like a scam,” Trump has embraced digital currencies with a convert’s zeal. He's launched a new cryptocurrency venture and vowed on the campaign trail to take steps early in his presidency to make the U.S. into the “crypto capital” of the world.

His promises including creating a U.S. crypto stockpile, enacting industry-friendly regulation and event appointing a crypto “czar” for his administration.

“You’re going to be very happy with me,” Trump told crypto-enthusiasts at a bitcoin conference last summer.

Bitcoin is the world’s most popular cryptocurrency and was created in 2009 as a kind of electronic cash uncontrolled by banks or governments. It and newer forms of cryptocurrencies have moved from the financial fringes to the mainstream in wild fits and starts.

The highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies as well as their use by criminals, scammers and rogue nations, has attracted plenty of critics, who say the digital currencies have limited utility and often are just Ponzi schemes.

But crypto has so far defied naysayers and survived multiple prolonged price drops in its short lifespan. Wealthy players in the crypto industry, which felt unfairly targeted by the Biden administration, spent heavily to help Trump win November’s election. Bitcoin has surged in price since Trump's victory, topping $100,000 for the first time last month before briefly sliding down to about $90,000. On Friday, it rose about 5%. It jumped more than $9,000 early Monday, according to CoinDesk.

Two years ago, bitcoin was trading at about $20,000.

Trump’s picks for key cabinet and regulatory positions are stocked with crypto supporters, including his choice to lead the Treasury and Commerce departments and the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Key industry players held a first ever "Crypto Ball” on Friday to celebrate the first “crypto president." The event was sold out, with tickets costing several thousand dollars.

Here’s a look at some detailed action Trump might take in the early days of his administration:

As a candidate Trump promised that he would create a special advisory council to provide guidance on creating “clear” and “straightforward” regulations on crypto within the first 100 days of his presidency.

Details about the council and its membership are still unclear, but after winning November’s election, Trump named tech executive and venture capitalist David Sacks to be the administration’s crypto “czar.” Trump also announced in late December that former North Carolina congressional candidate Bo Hines will be the executive director of the “Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets.”

At last year’s bitcoin conference, Trump told crypto supporters that new regulations “will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry.” Trump's pick to lead the SEC, Paul Atkins, has been a strong advocate for cryptocurrencies.

Crypto investors and companies chafed as what they said was a hostile Biden administration that went overboard in unfair enforcement actions and accounting policies that have stifled innovation in the industry — particularly at the hands of outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

“As far as general expectations from the Trump Administration, I think one of the best things to bet on is a tone change at the SEC,” said Peter Van Valkenburgh, the executive director of the advocacy group Coin Center.

Gensler, who is set to leave as Trump takes office, said in a recent interview with Bloomberg that he’s proud of his office’s actions to police the crypto industry, which he said is “rife with bad actors.”

Trump also promised that as president he’ll ensure the U.S. government stockpiles bitcoin, much like it already does with gold. At the bitcoin conference earlier this summer, Trump said it the U.S. government would keep, rather than auction off, the billions of dollars in bitcoin it has seized through law enforcement actions.

Crypto advocates have posted a draft executive order online that would establish a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” as a “permanent national asset” to be administered by the Treasury Department through its Exchange Stabilization Fund. The draft order calls for the Treasury Department to eventually hold at least $21 billion in bitcoin.

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming has proposed legislation mandating the U.S. government stockpile bitcoin, which advocates said would help diversify government holdings and hedge against financial risks. Critics say bitcoin’s volatility make it a poor choice as a reserve asset.

Creating such a stockpile would also be a “giant step in the direction of bitcoin becoming normalized, becoming legitimatized in the eyes of people who don’t yet see it as legitimate,” said Zack Shapiro, an attorney who is head of policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

At the bitcoin conference earlier this year, Trump received loud cheers when he reiterated a promise to commute the life sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the convicted founder of the drug-selling website Silk Road that used crypto for payments.

Ulbricht’s case has energized some crypto advocates and Libertarian activists, who believe government investigators overreached in building their case against Silk Road.

FILE - Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference July 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference July 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

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