Tag: Horror

Posted on in Film News

Edgar Wright’s ‘Last Night In Soho’ Bumped To Late October Because Of ‘Dune’

Director Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim, Baby Driver) has made a career making comedic projects from his British series Spaced to the Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End), but he’ll be attempting something much serious with his psychological thriller Last Night In Soho.

However, we’ll going to have to wait a little longer than expected to see it.

There seems to have been another release date change after multiple switch-ups, as the Focus Features website has listed the film’s new release date for October 29 instead of October 22, as the previous date could have put it in direct competition with Denis Villeneuve’s big-budget remake of the sci-fi epic Dune and hurt the film’s box office potential.

Having the film open during the weekend of Halloween isn’t the worst idea given the creepy elements.

Wright’s cast for Last Night In Soho consists of Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, The Queen’s Gambit, The Northman), Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Terence Stamp (Superman II), Diana Rigg, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, and Synnøve Karlsen.

Last Night In Soho’s lead Anya Taylor-Joy is a busy lady, as she is set to begin shooting George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa at Fox Studios Australia in August and will be seen in Robert Eggers’ Viking epic that will hit theaters on April 8, 2022.

Edgar Wright is working on a bunch of projects including a remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger dystopian sci-fi flick The Running Man, the new version at Paramount Pictures is expected to be more faithful to original source material and will be adapted from the Stephen King novel written under his pen name Richard Bachman. Before The Running Man, the filmmaker was developing a sci-fi about robots in 2054 with the Simon Stephenson adaption Set My Heart To Five at Working Title Films.

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO – A young woman, passionate in fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. However, 1960s London is not what it appears, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences.

SOURCE: UNIVERSAL/FOCUS FEATURES

Posted on in Film News

Amblin’s Dracula Flick ‘Last Voyage Of The Demeter’ Enlists ‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’ Cinematographer Roman Osin

The Ronin has been able to confirm that Amblin’s upcoming vampire film Last Voyage of The Demeter has added cinematographer Roman Osin. This will see Osin reunite with Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark director André Øvredal.

Zak Olkewicz (Bullet Train, Fear Street) has written the script, which is based on a single chapter, “The Captain’s Log,” from Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel Dracula, which tells the story of the Russian schooner, Demeter, which was charted to carry private cargo (twenty four unmarked wooden creates) from Carpathia to London. The film will detail the strange events that befell the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a terrifying presence onboard the ship. When it finally arrived near Whitby Harbour, it was a derelict. There was no trace of the crew.

The project has been around for ages with previous directors such as David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night, Hannibal, American Gods, Black Mirror) and Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones, Westworld, Hellboy, Lost In Space) attaching themselves to only exit. Viggo Mortensen, Noomi Rapace, Jude Law, and Ben Kingsley were reportedly once involved at various stages.

American actor Corey Hawkins has been officially announced by Amblin for taking the lead role in the new horror film. Hawkins’ credits are Kong: Skull Island, The Walking Dead, Straight Outta Compton, In The Heights, BlacKkKlansman, 6 Underground, Non-Stop, and had a brief role in Marvel’s Iron Man 3.

Filming is going to take place in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Other upcoming Amblin projects include Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Domination, James Mangold’s Indiana Jones 5, the WWII series Masters of The Air directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective, No Time To Die), and a series based on Stephen King’s The Talisman from The Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things).

A release date for Last Voyage of The Demeter has yet to be announced.

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‘A Quiet Place Part II’ Expected To Surpass ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’s Domestic Opening With An Impressive $57 Million Over The Memorial Day Weekend

It’s hard to deny that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape for various films to earn top-dollar and with the American box office struggling over the last year, you can’t blame movie fans for getting excited about the small victories concerning the box office slowly coming back to life. This weekend saw A Quiet Place Part II have an exceptional weekend at the box office despite all that and illustrates that appointment viewing is still key to getting asses in seats.

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

The John Krasinski-directed horror sequel was able to muster an estimated $57 million over four days, according to Variety. This gives A Quiet Place Part II the new pandemic era domestic opening weekend record surpassing Godzilla Vs. Kong’s five day opening total of $48.5 million. It’s release had been delayed a full year because of the pandemic.

For some comparison, A Quiet Place opened to $50.2 million in the summer of 2018 and went on to earn $341 million on a budget of $17 million. There is a good shot that the second film is able to cross the $300 million, if not earn the studio even more.

This box office performance with these two installments should help bolster John Krasinski’s directing career and ability to get original projects picked-up by studios in the future. Krasinski hasn’t given up on acting as he’s still playing Jack Ryan on the popular Amazon Prime Video series with Season 3 coming out sometime this year.

A third movie is already in the works with filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special, Loving, Take Shelter) attached to write and direct it, as reported by Deadline last fall. Nichols had once been developing a feature film reboot of the sci-fi buddy cop film Alien Nation for 20th Century Fox before the merger with the Walt Disney company placed the project into limbo, he’s currently hoping to repackage Alien Nation as a series.

Disney also decided to release Emma Stone’s 101 Dalmatians prequel, Cruella, over the weekend using a hybrid model having it drop in both theaters and on Disney+’s Premier Access at the same time. Cruella was able to earn a projected $27 million for a solid second place spot given the Disney project was being marketed to an older audience, although, I’m sure Disney was hoping for a bigger turnout.

The other big movies coming this summer include F9, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, In The Heights, Black Widow, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Space Jam: Legacy, Jungle Cruise, The Green Knight, Free Guy, The Suicide Squad, and Candyman.

SOURCE: VARIETY

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‘Evil Dead Rise’: Aussie Actresses Alyssa Sutherland & Lily Sullivan Join HBO Max Horror Flick – Begins Filming Next Month In New Zealand

A new Evil Dead movie, titled Evil Dead Rise, is coming from New Line Cinema with franchise stewards Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell attached to produce. The horror project is heading to WarnerMedia’s streaming service HBO Max from Lee Cronin, who will write and direct.

We finally know the first two actors that have joined the cast of Evil Dead Rise, as The Hollywood Reporter mentions that Australian actresses Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings, The Mist) and Lily Sullivan (Jungle) will play sisters in the horror film. Traditionally, the films focus on murderous demons called Deadites that jump into the bodies of human hosts possessing them after being unleashed by reading from the Necronomicon aka Book of The Dead.

The new film’s synopsis mentioned in the report reveals the setting will move from the cabin in the woods to the city and takes place in a high-rise skyscraper.

Evil Dead Rise takes the undead action away from the cabin in the woods and into the city as two estranged sisters’ reunion is cut short when flesh-possessing demons thrust them into a battle for survival. 

Filming on Evil Dead Rise is said to begin sometime next month in New Zealand with previous crew members from Ash vs. The Evil Dead joining the production team including production designer Nick Bassett (Sweet Tooth, Guns Akimbo, Kung Fury 2) and stunt coordinator Stuart Thorp (Zero Dark Thirty, Avatar). Stuart recently worked on James Cameron’s Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 while they were shooting at Stone Street Studios in Wellington.

The Evil Dead franchise has led to three movies, a reboot film, and even a television series that brought back Bruce Campbell’s iconic Deadite slayer Ash. It also helped filmmaker Sam Raimi make an impact before tackling bigger movies down the line like the original Spider-Man trilogy for Sony Pictures.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Producers Fighting In Court To Remake Horror Classic ‘The Blob’

Producers Richard Saperstein (The Mist) and Brian Witten (American History X) have been developing a remake of the classic monster film The Blob, that effort goes back to 2009. The Blob originally starred a young Steve McQueen in 1958 version and eventually led to an extremely well-made reboot in 1988 that is easily one of the best examples of practical effects in the horror genre. In the original film, the gooey man-eating creature was an alien lifeform and in the 1980s remake it was a bio-weapon created by the U.S. government both taking place in a small town.

A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve (Steven McQueen) and his best girl, Jane (Aneta Corseaut), as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man and grow to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave (Earl Rowe) refuses to believe the kids without proof.

The pair of producers are fighting in the Los Angeles Superior Court to get more time to made their incarnation of The Blob, as The Hollywood Reporter outlines the lawsuit as they argue they had an oral agreement with original rights holder, Worldwide Entertainment Corporation’s Judith Harris, to be given more time and are also falling back on using COVID-19 as reason why they weren’t able to make the film in a timely manner.

In Los Angeles Superior Court, Saperstein and Witten are now suing to retain rights. They claim that Harris orally agreed to an extension and then failed to put it in writing despite multiple emails and even a $50,000 offer. And if a judge doesn’t recognize this as an oral agreement, they are falling back on the claim that COVID-19 represents a force majeure event that “prevented them from attempting to produce the Picture,  and as a result, the Extension term must be tolled through the present date.”

Here is the original synopsis for the remake that had been making the rounds, it remains to be seen if they’ve changed these plot details since 2017-2019.

When a band of miners uncover something hidden deep beneath the earth they unwittingly unleash a hideous creature beyond imagination. Now the townsfolk must fightback, before it destroys everything.

Directors Rob Zombie and Simon West (Con Air, The Expendables 2) had been involved with various incarnations of the remake with Samuel L. Jackson attached to star at some point. Jackson talked-up his involvement back in August 2017 to the Toronto Sun during the promotion of Kong: Skull Island and mentioned that the producers had secured financing from China.

JACKSON: “I’ve been preparing to use it my whole life. I’ve been running from or chasing King Kong, Godzilla the Wolfman, whatever, since I was a kid (in Chatanooga, Tenn.). We’d go home and pretend to do all that stuff. So I’m doing Kong for the same reason I’ll probably be doing The Blob. I just got a call the other day (where the producers) said they finally got their money from China to do Blob. I mean, I do a lot of movies, a lot of independent movies, for different reasons. But I’m a fan, and a lot of times I choose a movie because it’s something I would have chosen to see when I was a kid. How do you say no to that?“

It wasn’t mentioned if Samuel L. Jackson is still going to star in the film as he’s aiming to shoot Marvel’s Secret Wars this fall in the United Kingdom and might also have a role in Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels. Production on The Blob was targeting a shoot in the United Kingdom years ago, but what ultimately happens is unclear.

The worst thing that could happen is if they pursue a generic film that focuses on weak CGI effects rather than doing some stuff in-camera.

I have fond memories of the 1988 version that was co-written by Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Walking Dead, Shawshank Redemption) and director Chuck Russell (A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), mainly because of it’s gore effects which sort of holds up while some of the miniature-work doesn’t.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Warner Bros. Taps Director Angela Robinson To Remake Tony Scott’s Erotic Vampire Thriller ‘The Hunger’

Warner Bros. has reportedly found a director and writer for their remake of the sexually-charged vampire thriller The Hunger. The original film released in 1983 had early hallmarks of goth culture added to an erotic tale of a female vampire seeking a new lover.

Deadline has revealed that Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S., True Blood) is in final talks to direct from a script penned by American Horror Story’s Jessica Sharzer.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of details on the reboot but the Tony Scott film is easily one of the best vampire films of the 1980s and helped to further expand upon the sexual narrative of the vampire lore. I have to assume they’ll set this version in a modern setting and I’m curious how erotic they’ll go with this one, as the original featured a lesbian affair between Miriam and Sarah.

THE HUNGER – John (David Bowie) is the lover of the gorgeous immortal vampire Miriam (Catherine Deneuve), and he’s been led to believe that he’ll live forever, too. Unfortunately, he quickly deteriorates into a horrible living death, and Miriam seeks a new companion. She soon sets her sights on Sarah (Susan Sarandon), a lovely young scientist, who quickly falls under Miriam’s spell. However, Sarah doesn’t warm up to the concept of vampirism easily, leading to conflict with Miriam.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Tomorrow War’ Director Chris McKay Tapped For Universal Monster Flick ‘Renfield’

A while back it was announced that Rocketman and Eddie The Eagle director Dexter Fletcher was circling a new Universal Monsters project focused on Count Dracula’s brainwashed lackey, Renfield. The script is penned by Rick & Morty’s Ryan Ridley based on an original outline from Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead, Invincible), Ridley’s involvement suggesting a comedic-bend to the horror movie.

Fletcher has exited the project to focus on Paramount’s The Saint reboot starring Chris Pine and Universal has hired Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War) to replace him as director, according to Deadline.

Renfield believed if he was loyal enough, his master Dracula would give him immortality and is institutionalized. The incarnation of Renfield that standouts personally for me is Tom Waits’ take in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula from 1992 that starred Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, and Keanu Reeves.

The studio attempted to re-brand the Universal Monsters by launching their own modern cinematic universe, Dark Universe, starring with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy only for the film to flop. Leading the studio to kill the Dark Universe and retool their plans by getting Leigh Whannell to direct a new take on The Invisible Man with the help of Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. Renfield is part of a wave of new Universal Monsters projects, the next one is expected to be a Wolfman remake from Whannell and starring Ryan Gosling. Some of the other movies include a genre-hybrid Dracula remake from Chloe Zhao (Eternals, Nomadland), Van Helsing from director Julius Avery (Overlord), talk of the studio still trying to get a director attached for a Bridge of Frankenstein remake and other various films in development.

McKay’s sci-fi action flick The Tomorrow War starring Chris Pratt was recently sold by Paramount to Amazon for a hefty $200+ million and will be released on July 2, 2021.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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Yorgos Lanthimos Nabs Emma Stone & Willem Dafoe For His Next Film ‘Poor Things’ – A Satirical Postmodern Revision of ‘Frankenstein’

Deadline reports that filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite) is moving foward with his next film Poor Things at Searchlight Pictures and Film4. The project is an adaptation of the Alasdair Gray novel that is sort of a satirical take on the Victorian novel and a postmodern spin on the Frankenstein tale, as Bella Baxter is a beautiful young woman brought back to life after drowning with the aide of science and the brain of an infant.

Emma Stone, who worked with Yorgos on the Oscar-winning film The Favourite has landed the role of of Bella and Willem Dafoe has taken another undisclosed role as he’s currently in discussions.

One of Alasdair Gray’s most brilliant creations, Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter – a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter’s scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless’s jealous love for Baxter’s creation.

The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be “the whole story” in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland’s most accomplished author.

It’s unclear when production will begin.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Army of The Dead’: Watch Teaser Trailer For Zack Snyder’s Zombie Action Flick Coming To Netflix On May 21st

Earlier today, Netflix released the first teaser trailer for Zack Snyder’s Army of The Dead, a Las Vegas heist movie set within the zombie horror genre. Zack you might remember teamed-up with screenwriter James Gunn on the fantastic remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of The Dead and seeing him return to the genre should be exciting for horror fans.

Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

The film stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Raúl Castillo, Michael Cassidy, Tig Notaro, and Garret Dillahunt.

Army of The Dead will be released on Netflix May 21st.

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Timo Tjahjanto To Direct New Line Cinema’s ‘Train To Busan’ Remake Produced By James Wan

New Line Cinema and producer James Wan have seemingly found the director for their remake of the South Korean zombie flick Train To Busan as Deadline reports that Timo Tjahjanto is currently in negotiations for the gig.

Timo is likely known for the action film Headshot that starred Iko Uwais.

Sang-Ho Yeon was behind the original that spawned a action-packed sequel that released in 2020. They’ll really have to knock it out of the park with this remake given that the original is beloved and most people are puzzled why a studio is even attempting it.

TRAIN TO BUSAN – Life-or-death survival in train bound to Busan. A divorced man, Seok-woo is always caught up at work, leaving him no time to spare with his daughter Su-an. He offers to take her on the train to see her mother in Busan. As the train departs, an abnormal virus spreads from a girl who is infected, and people start to transform to zombies. Will Seok-woo and Su-an make it out alive? 

SOURCE: DEADLINE