The newly restored version of the 1910 Frankenstein is available on the Library of Congress YouTube channel and in the National Screening Room, a recently launched digital collection of films. And, like most films on the NSR, it’s freely downloadable in both ProRes LT and MPEG-4 formats, complete with the Sosin score.
While Hollywood has suffered one of the worst summers in years, the horror genre is laughing all the way to the bank. Universal kicked the year off with massive successes, including Jordan Peele’s Get Out and M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, both topping $250 million worldwide. Even David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation could topple $300m. While we’re all celebrating these successes none are as important as Warner Bros./New Line Cinema’s IT, which has shattered September records by topping $100 million during its opening weekend.
That $117 million is just in the States, with early international reports just coming in adding $62m to the total. Early Sunday morning estimates have the worldwide gross at $179 million. A $500+ million worldwide total would be some accomplishment, at this stage that looks likely and something no one was saying before last Thursday!
IT could initiate a revival in bigger budget horror…
I just saw this update from the Bernie Wrightson facebook page and am truly saddened to share the news posted by Bernie’s wife Liz. Bernie is one of my all time favourite artists, I am lucky enough to own 2 signed prints of his, of Frankenstein (pictured above) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A true gentleman and towering talent of the comic book industry.
Dear Fans and Friends,
I apologize for our silence for the past few months. Last November Bernie began falling again, and having obvious problems with perception. He had to undergo yet another brain surgery to relieve bleeding, and then spend several weeks undergoing in-patient rehabilitation. Unfortunately, it appears that he has lasting damage: he has extremely limited function on his left side, and is unable to walk or reliably use his left hand, among other limitations.
W…e have had to come to the sad conclusion that he is now effectively retired: he will produce no new art, and he is unable to attend conventions. Should this situation change I will happily announce it here.
He can still sign his name (in fact he was signing Kickstarter prints in the hospital!), and is otherwise pretty healthy and has good cognition. We expect to continue releasing signed prints, and offering occasional pieces of art for sale from the collection that remains. We both thank all of you for your continuing support and good wishes!
We’re used to remakes of every horror film we loved so I shouldn’t be surprised by the news that they are remaking the classic 1983 horror movie The Entity, according to Heat Vision.
James Wan, best known for directing Saw, Dead Silence, The Conjuring, Insidious and now Fast 7 will produce the remake with brothers Chad and Carey Hayes (House of Wax and The Reaping) on board to write the script. Roy Lee (The Ring, Godzilla, The Grudge, Poltergeist) will produce Entity with Wan.
The Entity told the true story of Carla Moran, a single mom who was abused physically and sexually by a supernatural demon. Barbara Hershey played Moran while Ron Silver played a doctor who believes the woman is actually abusing herself and experiencing delusions brought about by a troubled past. Also figuring into the proceedings was a young son, a boyfriend, and two parapsychologists.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer director John McNaughton’sThe Harvest, which stars Michael Shannon, Samantha Morton, Peter Fonda, Natasha Calis, and Charlie Tahan is set for a mid-April release:
“In his first film in nearly 15 years, the director of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer harks back to the depravity that made his 1986 debut a horror milestone. But less based in reality, The Harvest is closer to a fairy tale from Grimm’s darkest corners. Maryann (an impressive Natasha Calis) moves in with her grandparents after she’s orphaned. Desperately lonely, the preteen sets out to befriend a neighboring deathly ill, bed-ridden boy (Charlie Tahan), despite the outright disapproval of his mother (Samantha Morton). Maryann’s persistence pays off, however, and during a series of secret visits she gradually uncovers some seriously sinister goings-on in the house… Morton as the boy’s overprotective surgeon mom is the stuff of great screen villainy—at once utterly monstrous and tragically desperate—so much so that she makes even frequent heavy Michael Shannon, as the more subdued dad, pale in comparison.”
Wes Craven, the iconic horror director behind Last House On the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream, is partnering with 30 Days of Night co-creator Steve Niles, to adapt Niles’ upcoming comic The Disciples, drawn by Christopher Mitten, a sci-fi horror story set in space. Reported by The Hollywood Reporter HERE
Universal Cable Productions, which produced shows such as “Being Human” and “Defiance”, is in the process of picking up the rights to the title, which is due to hit stands in May from Black Mask Studios.
Craven, who is not writing or directing, will exec produce along with Sara Bottfeld of Industry Entertainment.
Here’s a description of the debut comic:
Dagmar, Rick, and Jules, intrepid private eyes/bounty hunters, have been hired by a high ranking Senator to retrieve his teenage daughter who’s run off to join a mysterious religious cult.
This is no ordinary cult though. In the near future of “The Disciples,” the ultra-wealthy have become true Masters Of The Universe by colonizing moons throughout the solar system. Billionaire industrialist McCauley Richmond is one such colonist: he’s built a new society on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, where his flock of cultists can have the religious freedom to worship him.
But when the team reaches Ganymede in their Starship Venture, they discover something has gone horribly wrong…
This ghost story in space reunites comics’ king of the macabre Steve Niles with his longtime collaborator Christopher Mitten, whose stylish mix of grit and flow matches Steve’s sharp characterizations and taste for screams.
Great news for fans of Australian horror. Enzo Tedeschi, producer of Australian indie horror The Tunnel, has established Deadhouse Films as a new Australian production and distribution company for genre films with the aim to overcome Oz audiences’ reluctance to see genre movies in theatres.
Deadhouse says that it is “focused on boutique online global day and date distribution of genre movies and shows.” It will launch with Distracted Media’s science-fiction series, Airlock, at an unspecified date in the first half of the year. It expects to provide “unique and tailored guidance on production and release strategies to ensure the success of each project.”
“With an aim to provide independent film makers with a production and distribution avenue, Deadhouse Films’ scope will be to connect the many great Australian genre films out there with a dedicated and established audience,” said Tedeschi in a statement.
Australia has a long history of producing cult horror and genre films, including Mad Max, Saw, Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones and Razorback, but the country’s theatrical audiences have largely turned their back on the segment. Last year’s The Babadook, which got a launch at Sundance, was hailed by critics and genre fans, but grossed only US$200,000 (A$256,000) on local release. In contrast The Babadook earned $1.09 million in France and $2.03 million in the U.K.
High releasing costs, steep ticket prices and competition from English-language Hollywood are among the issues facing Australian genre films in their home market.
“The kind of film that we made, it’s kind of an art house film and a psychological thriller slash horror. These don’t traditionally do that well in Australia,” “Badadook” producer Kristina Ceyton told The Guardian recently
Eli Roth’s cannibal horror The Green Inferno was slated for release last September/October, it was pulled from distribution due to financial issues. Since then, it’s been in release limbo, or maybe even Hell for that matter.
In an interview with IGN, Roth got candid about the pic that sends Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Daryl Sabara and Kirby Bliss Blanton into the Amazon jungle to protect a dying tribe, but are taken hostage by the very natives they saved.
“No there’s not [any updates], but I will say this: All I hear on Twitter and Facebook – no matter what I Tweet now, people say ‘Yeah shut up, where’s Green Inferno?’ Trust me when I say there are no less than four lawyers from different companies on conference calls and email chains every single day trying to work this out,” Roth revealed. “I was hoping to have it resolved today or by Monday so we could do something to hopefully have it out this summer. That’s what everyone’s working towards. To have it out August or September. But I was 90 days out from a release, there was a trailer and posters in theatres, and it got pulled. So please don’t hold me to anything, but trust me when I say everybody is all over it working it out.”
The good news, adds Roth, is that it’s close to being resolved. “We’re at the one-yard line, but I’ve also been there before so I don’t want to say anything, but I just thank everyone for their patience and understanding. And it really helps when people Tweet ‘Please release it, please release it’ – it keeps the fire burning, but everyone is working to resolve it.”
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures confirmed last night that Bruce Willis will co-star with New York stage veteran Elizabeth Marvel (Other Desert Cities, House Of Cards) in a new stage version of Misery as the successful romance-novel author rescued and held captive by his “Number One Fan.” William Goldman’s play is an adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel and the 1990 film that the Princess Bride screenwriter co-wrote with King, starring James Caan, Oscar winner Kathy Bates and directed by Rob Reiner.
Will Frears (Omnium Gatherum) will direct the play, which was tried out in the fall of 2012 at the Bucks County Playhouse. Dates are not set and no theatre has been booked for the “strictly limited engagement,” which is being co-produced by the Warner Bros. arm with Castle Rock Entertainment and Raymond Wu.
The casting of Willis is certain to add excitement to the Broadway fall season as well as certify the trend of star-driven shows with brief, ultra-high-priced runs.
Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the writers behind some of the installments of the hit Saw movies, have been tapped to pen the latest entry of the Halloween horror franchise for Dimension Films.
Malek Akkad, who has been associated with the franchise since the mid-1990s and producing the movies since the 2007 reboot, is producing with Matt Stein. He is the son of Moustapha Akkad, the man who executive produced the original batch of movies.
Rob Zombie directed the reboot and its 2009 follow-up, but no director is attached to the new installment, which has been in development for several years now. Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine) and Todd Famer were at one point working on a Halloween 3D, but since they departed years ago, it’s been quieter than a night in Haddonfield, Illinois.
In fact, it’s been so long since the last movie, it is unclear what to call the latest project that will tell the bloody tales of Michael Myers, the seemingly unstoppable killer who stalks the Halloween holiday.
Sources say it’s not a remake, not a reboot, and not a reimagining. One source said the project is a “recalibration.”
Whatever it is, Melton and Dunstan should be suited to the task. The pair wrote four of the seven Saw movies (numbers IV to VII), Piranha 3DD as well as an adaptation of The Outer Limits, which is in development at MGM. They also worked on God of War for Universal and most recently wrote Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which they sold as a pitch to CBS Films.
In news that is only mildly interesting to me because I recently rewatched the original The Omen film, it was announced that Merlin star Bradley James has landed the title role in Damien, Lifetime’s straight-to-series drama follow-up to 20th Century Fox’s classic horror film The Omen. In his TV directing debut, Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) will helm and executive produce the first episode.
Produced by Fox TV Studios, the six-episode Damien follows the adult life of Damien Thorn (James), the mysterious child from the 1976 film who has grown up, seemingly unaware of the satanic forces around him. Haunted by his past, Damien must now come to terms with his true destiny — that he is the Antichrist, the most feared man throughout the ages.
Damien, slated to premiere in 2015, is written and executive produced by Glen Mazzara via his 44 Strong Productions. Ross Fineman, who developed the project alongside Mazzara, executive produces through his Fineman Entertainment. Pancho Mansfield also serves as executive producer.
Great news for Australian film, IFC Midnight has acquired U.S. rights to Australian zombie horror Wymwood. Filmed as a DIY project over a period of four years, the film was directed by Kiah Roache-Turner with a screenplay from Roache-Turner and his brother Tristan Roache-Turner.
The story involves a mechanic who struggles to rescue his kidnapped sister on the eve of a zombie apocalypse. Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradey and Leon Burchill star.
Wyrmwood premiered at Fantastic Fest and continued a festival career in Toronto After Dark and at the Busan festival in South Korea. The film was produced by Tristan Roache-Turner and executive produced by Jamie Hilton and Josh Pomeranz.
In the kind of move not generally seen, ‘serious’ director Lee Daniels is taking a turn toward the horror genre. The helmer who last directed Lee Daniels’ The Butler, The Paperboy and Precious will direct the fact-based film currently titled Demon House. The film is based on Latoya Ammons and her family, whose life rights made this film possible. They claim to have been victims of a demonic possession that has spanned over two years and counting. Ammons and her family have received international media attention for their accounts, which have been witnessed and documented by the Department of Child Services, the Gary (IN) Police Department and hospital staff.
The experience began with unusual occurrences in her home over two years ago, including swarms of flies around her porch in the winter and unexplainable creaking sounds in her basement. The events progressed to possessive incidents including her oldest daughter unconsciously levitating above her bed, medical staff witnessing her middle son gliding backward on the floor, wall and ceiling. According to Relativity, the DCS case manager witnessed her youngest son growling with his teeth showing and eyes rolled back, locking his hands around his older brother’s throat with no recollection of the incident. Initial psychological exams and exorcism attempts failed to provide explanation or solution for the bizarre events.
The Evil Dead movie franchise has officially crossed over to television with a 10-episode straight-to-series order from Starz for a 2015 premiere. Titled Ash Vs. Evil Dead, the followup to the classic film franchise reteams the original filmmakers, director Sam Raimi, longtime producing partner Rob Tapert and star Bruce Campbell
who will serve as executive producers. Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.
Raimi will direct the first episode of Ash Vs. Evil Dead, which he co-wrote with his brother Ivan Raimi (Darkman) and Tom Spezialy (Chuck). “Evil Dead has always been a blast,” Raimi said. “Bruce, Rob, and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to tell the next chapter in Ash’s lame, but heroic saga. With his chainsaw arm and his ‘boomstick,’ Ash is back to kick some monster butt. And brother, this time there’s a truckload of it.”
Ash Vs. Evil Dead also reunites Sam Raimi and Tapert with Starz where they executive produced the pay cable network’s first scripted hit, drama Spartacus. Ivan Raimi will co-executive produce the series, and Aaron Lam (Spartacus) will serve as producer.
Fans have been buzzing about an Evil Dead series since Sam Raimi announced at Comic-Con — where he and Campbell are hugely popular — that he was working on it. “I’m really excited to bring this series to the Evil Dead fans worldwide – it’s going to be everything they have been clamoring for: serious deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humor,” said Campbell.
The original Evil Dead film followed Ash and his friends who travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release demons intent on possessing the living. It was a hit, spawning a franchise that included two sequels directed by Raimi, produced by Talpert and starring Campbell, as well as video games and comic books. There was also a recent feature reboot produced by Raimi and Talpert and directed by Fede Alvarez.
Anthology Horror is doing well at the moment, the V/H/S and ABC’s of Death both doing solid business, now we have Tales of Halloween which will consist of ten segments from eleven directors. Tales of Halloween will bring together directors like Neil Marshall (The Descent) and Darren Bousman (Saws II-IV) in celebration of that most macabre of holidays.
In addition to Marshall and Bousman, there’s Joe Begos (Almost Human), Axelle Carolyn (Soulmate), Adam Gierasch (Night of the Demons), Andrew Kasch (Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy) and John Skipp (Stay at Home Dad), Mike Mendez (Big Ass Spider!), Dave Parker (The Hills Run Red), Ryan Schifrin (Abominable), and Paul Solet (Grace).
All of the interconnected segments will take place during Halloween night in one quiet American town. Well, one typically-quiet American town. On this particular evening it’s being terrorized by all manner of horrifying creatures, from ghouls and aliens to good-old-fashioned murderers.
Carolyn was the one to come up with the project, and will serve as producer alongside Mendez. Many of the filmmakers come from the same Los Angeles scene and are such good friends they even have a cute name for themselves, The October Society.
“It’s so great to be working with such a unique and talented group of directors,” said Marshall. “Many of The October Society have been friends for years, so when Axelle had the idea of combining our talents for an anthology based on our mutual love of Halloween and all things scary, it was a no-brainer.”
Pre-production on Tales of Halloween is already underway, and shooting is expected to begin in November. There’s no release date for this one yet, but it seems a safe bet that we can expect it out in time for the holiday next year… cool poster.
Any excuse to post a picture of Kate Beckinsale as Selene… Lakeshore Entertainment is moving forward with a reboot of the Unerdworld vampire action franchise. Lakeshore’s Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing the film tentatively titled Underworld: Next Generation which seems toindicate that it will focus on Eve (India Eisley), the hybrid daughter of vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) and Michael (Scott Speedman).
The first Underworld film, directed by Len Wiseman and starring Kate Beckinsale, was released in 2003. Playing the strong vampire Selena made Beckinsale into a bankable action star, and three films followed in 2006 (Underworld: Evolution), 2009 (prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) and 2012 (Underworld: Awakening).
The vampires versus werewolves franchise has so far grossed $458.2 million worldwide.Underworld: Awakening, the 3D film that saw Beckinsale reprise her role as Selene, was the highest earner in the franchise, taking in $160 million worldwide.
Cory Goodman wrote the script for the 2011 film Priest, starring Paul Bettany. He also penned the script for the upcoming Summit film The Last Witch Hunter starring Vin Diesel and Rose Leslie, and directed by Breck Eisner of The Crazies remake, which is currently in pre-production… not holding out much hope.
Lionsgate has announced it will re-release its gruesome 2004 franchise-launcher Saw in a limited nationwide run this Halloween, giving horror fanatics something to mark their calendars for. Saw will open for a one week 10th anniversary engagement on Friday, October 31 with Thursday midnights in select locations. The serial killer pic spawned a seven-film, $874 million franchise with a simple high concept premise: Two men wake up in the lair of a serial killer named Jigsaw, forced to do the unthinkable to survive while figuring out their captor’s identity.
The gory thriller not only gave birth to the most successful horror franchise in history, it also launched the career of director James Wan, who went on to helm recent hits Insidious, The Conjuring, Insidious: Chapter 2, and Universal’s upcoming Fast & Furious 7. Wan’s Saw co-writer Leigh Whannell starred in the first film and is now set to make his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3.
It appears to be a smart move by Lionsgate, as the Halloween weekend is otherwise light on horror offerings. October 31 even falls conveniently on a Friday. Only Clarius Entertainment’s Nicole Kidman thriller Before I Go To Sleep and Open Road’s crime drama Nightcrawler are hitting wide release that weekend, while more traditional horror titles The ABCs of Death 2 (Magnolia), Horns (Radius-TWC), and genre-bending import Why Don’t You Play In Hell? (Drafthouse) are opening in limited theatrical runs.
We await the inevitable 4K, 10th Anniversary Remaster on Blu-Ray…
Sony Pictures is negotiating with Jeremy Lovering to direct The Bringing, the horror script by Brandon and Phillip Murphy based on actual events. Matt Tolmach and Daniela Cretu are producing. This has been top priority at Sony, and at one time had Nicolas Winding Refn circling. The pic is based on Elisa Lam, who was found dead in the water tanks on the roof of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. That’s the place that killers like Richard Ramirez called home at one time or another, and where suicides have occurred. Footage of Lam’s bizarre, inexplicable behavior in an elevator before her death became a massive Internet sensation, and this has been turned into the story of the man investigating her death, and the nightmare he stumbles into. Cretu’s First Born Films developed the script that was brought in by Kate Checchi and Brad Zimmerman.
Lovering directed In Fear, an Irish psychological horror film that premiered at Sundance 2013. It stars Iain De Caestecker and Alice Englert as a young couple terrorized by an unknown assailant.
Here’s the video of missing Canadian Elisa Lam from the LAPD.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre seems to be in the news quite a bit of late, with the imminent re-mastered 4K 40th Anniversary rerelease and sadly, the death of Marilyn Burns. Now more news of yet another film to the Chainsaw canon…
Up-and-coming genre scribe Seth M. Sherwood has been hired to write a prequel to the original 1974 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre titled simply Leatherface, (haven’t we already had that title..?) an individual familiar with the Millennium Films project has told The Wrap.
Official plot details are being kept under wraps, though the new film is expected to serve as an origin story that follows Leatherface’s early years in the 1970s (Didn’t we already see that in TCM:The Beginning..?)
Alexandra Daddario starred in last year’s Texas Chainsaw movie as Leatherface’s long-lost cousin, but it’s currently unclear whether she would return, given the bloody timeline of the series. If she does, it would likely be a cameo appearance as another character, such as a different member of Leatherface’s extended family.
Carl Mazzocone is producing Leatherface, while Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman will serve as executive producers. Campbell and Grobman fought hard to resurrect the franchise and being self-professed genre buffs they are excited to get started on the next installment.
Millennium Films is financing the project and will sell international rights. Millennium executives Beth Bruckner and Christine Crow are overseeing Leatherface for the studio. Production could start as soon as this winter, with a director expected to sign on in the coming weeks.
Sherwood has several projects percolating around town including a supernatural thriller at Blumhouse that will be directed by Greg Plotkin (Paranormal Activity 5). He also wrote a psychological thriller titled Interstate 5 that was voted to the 2012 Blood List. Described as a cross between Jacob’s Ladder and Natural Born Killers, the story follows a serial killer’s son and the daughter of one of his victims as they team up to find the maniac, only to be haunted by demonic forces intent on driving them mad.
I hope it’s good, it probably won’t be, but we live in hope. Some originality would be great…
It’s been 20 years since Neil Jordan’s film version of Interview With the Vampire saw Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt sucking blood, and now Universal is getting back into monsters in a big way. Not only are Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan spearheading a relaunch of the old Universal Monsters line, beginning with a new Mummy movie, the studio has snapped up rights to all of Anne Rice‘sVampire Chronicles books.
So the whole 13-book series starting with Interview With the Vampire and ending with the forthcoming Prince Lestat novel, and the screenplay for Tales of the Body Thief, adapted by Rice’s son Christopher Rice, all belong to Universal for the time being.
The Wrap reports that Brian Grazer will produce for Imagine Entertainment with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, while Bobby Cohen will executive produce.
Reports of Universal getting into business with Anne Rice actually go back years; in 2009 reports came out that the studio had picked up rights to the author’s books. Imagine optioned that Body Thief script a couple years back, too. There was even a point when Robert Downey Jr. was apparently attached to play Lestat in a new film based on Interview With the Vampire.
Regardless, nothing was done with them at the time. Now, with Imagine Entertainment and the old Kurtzman/Orci producing team working on the project, we could see pretty swift movement.
Ironically, the Kurtzman and Morgan-produced Mummy reboot sounds like an action-adventure film, which is pretty far from the original Universal Monsters. But Anne Rice’s vampire books have a really romantic angle to them. The Vampire Chronicles films could end up being better standard-bearers for the old Universal Monsters identity than the new Universal Monsters films will be!
Sam Raimi was at comic-con with Neil Druckmann, creator of the Naughty Dog game The Last Of Us, to talk about how that PlayStation 3 survival horror action game is being turned into a feature with Raimi producing and Druckmann now writing the screenplay. Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper, whose previous big videogame-to-movie transfer was Resident Evil, basically has given over big creative controls to Druckmann in the movie transfer. That includes casting, and choice of director.
At this point, Hugh Jackman and Josh Brolin have been the consensus fan favorites to play the role of Joel, and the choice most heavily favored to play Ellie is Maisie Williams, the Game Of Thrones star who’s so sparked about this prospect that she would have shown up for today’s panel were she not waylaid by being part of an Entertainment Weekly cover shoot for Game Of Thrones.
Said Raimi: “It’s gonna be a great character journey, a great love story, and great horror fiction.” Raimi also took a moment to tease the prospect of more Evil Dead: “I always loved working on that series with Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert, and my brother and I are writing the Evil Dead TV show right now… with Bruce Campbell.” They even toyed with the idea of having Campbell be in the Last Of Us film adaptation, Campbell has been intertwined with Raimi since 1981′s The Evil Dead. That film, by the way, is a touchstone for Druckmann and the creatives behind the Naughty Dog vidgame empire.
Not sure how I feel about this, I’m still scarred from that vile Van Helsing movie… Universal Pictures most enduring legacy is its library of classic movie monsters that include Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, Creature Of The Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Bride Of Frankenstein, and The Mummy. Universal is now dedicating renewed resources and an unprecedented, far-reaching commitment to revitalise its monster heritage.
The studio is in early stages of developing a substantial new production endeavor that will expand and unify a network of classic characters and stories. The architects of that narrative will be Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan. Kurtzman recently broke with partner Roberto Orci, but his big-scale projects have included Transformers, Star Trek and The Amazing Spider-Man. Morgan is the writer behind five installments of The Fast And The Furious, which has been Universal’s most reliably lucrative franchise. It’s not set in stone yet if either will write, but they will soon be going around town enlisting talent to bring new cinematic life to these enduring characters from lore, literature and Universal’s own library. While Universal has selectively tapped its Movie Monster library for The Mummy, Van Helsing, The Wolfman, and the upcoming Dracula Untold, this will be the first time that the studio has formalized an approach to these classic characters in a cohesive, connected way rather than as a series of stand-alone projects by disparate filmmaking teams.
They’ve begun the meetings to put together an interconnected slate of Monster films, and the first will be a reboot of The Mummy, which will be released April 22, 2016. Part of their duty will be to work closely with production, marketing, promotions and consumer product to support the revival. They will also reevaluate projects which have preexisting attachments, and bring it under one cohesive strategy.
Obviously some of those monster pictures haven’t panned out. With Marvel Studios and Disney building a billion-dollar business relying on the Marvel Comics superhero character library, Universal seems to be trawling it’s heritage and is looking to dust off and modernize the classic movie monsters that inspired many of the movie monsters we see today.
For all those fans of creepy dolls in movies, your wish has been granted. Warner Bros and New Line have made an October 3 date with Annabelle, the doll from their horror hit The Conjuring. The companies had set aside the frame for an Untitled New Line Horror Film, making the date and title official with their Conjuring spin-off. WB/New Line also have sequel The Conjuring 2 set to be released October 23, 2015. Annabelle, directed by John R. Leonetti and written by Gary Dauberman, is neither a prequel nor a sequel but centers on the doll seen in the 1970’s Rhode Island-set Conjuring, which starred Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson and was directed by James Wan. Peter Safran and Wan are producing Annabelle , which stars Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders), Ward Horton, and Alfre Woodard.
Back in November, 2013 Paramount said its latest take on the Friday The 13th franchise would be unsheathed on March 13, 2015… Paramount, being followers of current trends, have now announced that it has pushed the horror flick back to November 13 — the next Friday the 13th on the 2015 calendar — and instead of Friday the 13th Jason, the studio will launch Scouts Vs. Zombies on March 13. Scouts Vs. Zombies… How many ‘Insert whatever’ Vs. Zombies flicks do we really need..? Maybe they should have made Jason Vs. Zombies and be done with it.
While Hollywood has suffered one of the worst summers in years, the horror genre is laughing all the way to the bank. Universal kicked the year off with massive successes, including Jordan Peele’s Get Out and M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, both topping $250 million worldwide. Even David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation could topple $300m. While we’re all celebrating these successes none are as important as Warner Bros./New Line Cinema’s IT, which has shattered September records by topping $100 million during its opening weekend.
I just saw this update from the Bernie Wrightson 
We’re used to remakes of every horror film we loved so I shouldn’t be surprised by the news that they are remaking the classic 1983 horror movie The Entity, according to 
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer director 
Eli Roth’s cannibal horror The Green Inferno was slated for release last September/October, it was pulled from distribution due to financial issues. Since then, it’s been in release limbo, or maybe even Hell for that matter.
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures confirmed last night that Bruce Willis will co-star with New York stage veteran Elizabeth Marvel (Other Desert Cities, House Of Cards) in a new stage version of Misery as the successful romance-novel author rescued and held captive by his “Number One Fan.” William Goldman’s play is an adaptation of the classic 
Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the writers behind some of the installments of the hit Saw movies, have been tapped to pen the latest entry of the Halloween horror franchise for Dimension Films.
socialpsychol 