Halloween Returns set for July start date

There have been rumors and speculation about a new Halloween movie since Rob Zombie's H2 was released in 2009, but there is now official word from Dimension Films that Halloween Returns is set to begin filming in July.
In the directors chair will be director/screenwriter Marcus Dunstan. In addition to directing, Dunstan co-wrote the screenplay with longtime writing partner Patrick Melton. The pair previously wrote scripts for several Saw films, Piranha 3DD, and both Collector films.

Personally, I'm not as excited as just about everyone else seems to be. I saw what Melton and Dunstan did to destroy the Saw franchise and also remember how horrible Piranha 3DD was. I enjoyed The Collector for what it was, but The Collection was pretty bad in comparison. Seeing these guys attached to my favorite horror franchise doesn't give me much hope. Here's to hoping they don't give us something worse than H2.

Jessica Brown Findlay joins The Crow

British actress Jessica Brown Findlay has joined the reboot of The Crow. She will star opposite Jack Huston as Eric Draven's slain fiance, Shelly Webster. Huston was confirmed to be replacing Luke Evans earlier in the weekend.

Findlay is fairly new to Hollywood as her top credits are Downton Abbey and Winter's Tale. She also had a small role in Black Mirror. She was considered for the role of Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, but the role ultimately was given to Mia Wasikowska. I personally don't know this actress at all, so I can't really comment on how I feel about her joining the cast. Unless they have some severe changes from the original, Shelly doesn't last very long so I wouldn't even consider this a lead role. Sarah was more of a lead support so I'm curious to see who they'll cast in that role.

 

Jack Huston to star in The Crow

The Crow reboot has found the replacement for Eric Draven after Luke Evans left the project a few weeks back. Boardwalk Empire star Jack Huston will star in the reboot in Evans' place. The studio expressed interest in Huston a couple weeks ago so it seems like they got their wish.
Huston is a bit of Hollywood royalty despite not being a household name. He is the nephew of Anjelica Huston and Danny Huston. In addition to Boardwalk Empire he's been seen in American Hustle and Kill Your Darlings where he played Jack Kerouac. He's currently filming Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and will star in the new adaptation of Ben-Hur. 

This reboot has run into trouble since it was announced, so the fact that it's finally happening is just scary. It shouldn't even be happening.

First poster for Poltergeist reboot

We also got a teaser for the teaser trailer (barf) and it looks like a typical, jump scare romp. I'm not expecting anything great. Not to mention it's PG-13. 
Poltergeist is set to hit theaters in 3D on July 24th.

Cabin Fever is being remade

Yeah, let that sink in for a second.


It was announced that Eli Roth's 2002 horror film, Cabin Fever, is being remade and will begin shooting in Portland, OR next week. Roth has been brought on as an executive producer alongside Cassian Elwes. The film is apparently using the same script as the 2002 original and has a cast already set, including Teen Wolf star Gage Golightly. Travis Zariwny is directing this reboot.

Cabin Fever was set around a group of college students who rent a cabin and fall victim to a mysterious, flesh eating virus. It starred Ryder Strong, James DeBello, and Jordan Ladd and served as Eli Roth's directorial debut. The film spawned two sequels titled Cabin Fever: Spring Fever and Cabin Fever: Patient Zero. This will mark Eli Roth's return to the story as he had no involvement with either of the sequels.

The Conjuring 2 delayed until 2016

New Line has moved the sequel to James Wan's The Conjuring from October 23, 2015 to 2016 and have replaced the slot with an untitled horror film. Warner Bros. and New Line had announced the sequel for 2015 and said that Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga were expected to return as Ed and Lorraine Warren.

The Conjuring was a surprise smash at the box office as it brought in a total of $320 million and only carried a $20 million budget. Set in 1971, the film followed the acclaimed paranormal investigators as they were called to investigate a home in Rhode Island where a family of seven experienced hauntings and paranormal entities.
Annabelle, the film's spin-off, made somewhat of a dent at the box office with $166 million on just a $6 million budget.

Saw re-release gets a new poster and trailer

Just in case you've never seen Saw, you might want to skip the trailer. The 10-year anniversary trailer not only features the classic moments of the original Saw, but it spoils the ending. Just a heads up.




But anyway... the 10th anniversary re-release of Saw also comes with a new poster which looks pretty cool. You can catch it in theaters once more for a week this October beginning at 10pm on the 30th. It's also worth mentioning that if you catch a screening of Annabelle this weekend, some theaters are giving away free posters for the re-release.

Paranormal Activity 5 gets a title and a new release date

We were originally supposed to get the fifth installment of Paranormal Activity back in 2014, but Paramount decided to delay the installment and release a spin-off instead. We now have an official release date for Paranormal Activity 5 as well as the new title.

We can now refer to it as Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. Yes, they are breaking away from the numerical order and sticking it with a subtitle, which is fucking awful. Depending on if this release date will actually stick, we can expect to see this in theaters on March 13, 2015. Until now it still held an October 15, 2014 release which was obviously not going to happen. It will compete with the new Disney adaptation of Cinderella as well as the upcoming Chris Hemsworth flick, In the Heart of the Sea.

Paranormal Activity has pretty much been in limbo since the ridiculously dreadful, FaceTime and Kinect product placement model otherwise known as Paranormal Activity 4 back in 2012. The movie was the least liked by viewers and critics and also happened to make the least amount of money at the box office. We were supposed to get a fifth one in 2013 and it didn't happen. Instead, we received Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones back in January and the reception has seemed to kickstart the franchise back up a notch. I suppose instead of making people wait almost two years in between films, they decided to test the off-season horror market and put PA5 in the spring.

Lionsgate to re-release Saw

This Halloween viewers will have a chance to experience Saw in theaters all over again, or for the first time, as Lionsgate is re-releasing the 2004 horror hit. Saw will be shown at select theaters for midnight screenings on October 30th with a full release on October 31st.

Saw was released on October 29, 2004 and it went on to gross a total of $55.2 million and spawned a franchise with seven films which grossed $874 million worldwide. The top earning Saw film was Saw II in 2005 which brought in $87 million at the box office. The Saw franchise was a key moment in Lionsgate's history as it was the studio's first major franchise and paved the road for their global growth.
James Wan directed the first Saw film and co-wrote it with Leigh Whannell. The film starred Whannell, Cary Elwes, Shawnee Smith, Michael Emerson, and Danny Glover. Although Wan only directed one film, he stayed on as a producer for the following six films as did Whannell.

Underworld reboot in the works at Lakeshore Entertainment

I just...

Lakeshore Entertainment is in the process of a reboot of the 2003 vampire/werewolf story, Underworld. The movie spawned a franchise with a total of four movies with the last release just being in 2012. Back in March there were reports that Screen Gems had commissioned a script titled Underworld: Next Generation, but nothing has really come of it yet. Kate Beckinsale mentioned in interviews that it was unlikely for her to do another Underworld film, but that it was possible for them to do more films without her.
It was assumed, given the title of the script, that they were moving on from Beckinsale's character, Selene, and focus on her vampire/werewolf hybrid daughter, Eve. There is no telling if this is truly going to be a reboot of Underworld or if it will just be a new set of movies, but either way there is more Underworld on the way.

Universal acquires The Vampire Chronicles

Prepare yourselves for a reboot of Interview with the Vampire.

Universal announced that they have acquired the rights to Anne Rice's classic series, The Vampire Chronicles. The acquisition went to Image Entertainment and Brian Grazer. The rights include all existing novels and any future novels Rice releases. It even includes the screenplay for Tale of the Body Thief written by Rice's son, Christopher Rice. Interview with the Vampire and Prince Lestat were also included in the acquisition.
On board to produce anything that comes of this is Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (of course) and the President of Imagine Entertainment, Erica Huggins, will oversee production.

We have seen film adaptations of Anne Rice's novels already with the most notable being the 1994 adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. The film starred Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Kirsten Dunst and is considered a vampire cult favorite to this day. We also saw Queen of the Damned in 2002 which was based off the novel of the same name as well as "The Vampire Lestat." Rice has publicly expressed her dislike of the Queen of the Damned film stating that filmmakers mutilated her work.
Rice has also delved into television as well writing the 2001 Showtime series, The Feast of All Saints, and the 1997 CBS pilot, Rag and Bone. NBC had announced in 2002 that they wanted to adapt the "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" book trilogy for television, but it never went into production.

Personally, I have always loved Anne Rice novels and have read a lot of them. I liked Interview with the Vampire but I absolutely hated Queen of the Damned. The soundtrack was the best part of that movie. I am trying to be open to more Vampire Chronicles films, but I just can't jump on. Some things should just be left alone.

Fox delays Poltergeist reboot

Fox announced some release shifts today to go along with some announcements from Warner Bros. They have decided to delay both the Sam Raimi reboot of Poltergeist and the upcoming Matthew Vaughn film, Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Poltergeist was originally supposed to premiere opposite Fifty Shades of Grey on February 13, 2015 but it will now be released on July 24, 2015. Taking the February slot will be Kingsman: The Secret Service which was originally slated for this October.
I think Fox probably saw Kingsman as a more competitive film to go up against the sure to be box office hit, Fifty Shades of Grey. It isn't necessarily a Valentines Day movie, but neither is Poltergeist. I think more people would be apt to choose that one than they would a horror film.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies finally filming?

This movie has been in development hell for years. Actress after actress has passed on it, writers have left, directors have left... name it and it's happened. However, it now seems that the movie might finally make it into production this September.

The cast that has stuck around this time includes Sam Riley, Lily James, and Bella Heathcote and the film will be directed by Burr Steers. The film will be an adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's novelization. I personally have zero excitement left for this project as it has been way too long since it was first announced. Casting has gone from Natalie Portman to Emma Stone to Anne Hathaway to Blake Lively to Lily Collins, etc.

Girl bye.

Paranormal Activity 5 delayed until 2015

In a rather surprising turn of events, the monster franchise of Paranormal Activity has received yet another setback. We were set to get the fifth installment of the franchise this Halloween but Paramount has delayed the film until October 2015.

Originally we were supposed to get Paranormal Activity 5 back on October 25, 2013. Then they decided to film the spin-off, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, as a set up to the fifth film and give that a January 2014 release. As a result, #5 was delayed until October 24, 2014. Now it has received its third delay pushing it into a very jammed 2015 schedule.
Problems with the plot and script were cited as the main reason for this new delay. Screenwriters Jason Pagan and Andrew Stark have had some issues and some mess to clean up after a terrible fourth film. Paramount is apparently fast-tracking the film at this point so it can even meet a 2015 release.

Paranormal Activity has become the Halloween box office powerhouse since the Saw franchise exited back in 2010. Since the first installment we have seen a rather steady decline in quality and it seems most people see them just because they've seen the other ones. I personally am not a big fan of the PA franchise. They are cheap films with a weak plot and are full of nothing but cheap scares and jumps. I have no respect for them.

Alex Kurtzman to direct Mummy reboot

Universal has hired director Alex Kurtzman to direct their upcoming reboot of The Mummy. This comes after Kurtzman was hired alongside Chris Morgan to lead the new Universal Monsters crossover series. He is now the third director to be given the job. Previously Andy Muschietti and Len Wiseman had been hired but both left the project after a short period of time.

This reboot has a 2016 release date set so it would be in Universal's best interest to get this project going. Kurtzman is best known for his screenwriting partnership with Roberto Orci where they wrote blockbuster films such as Transformers, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This will be his first project without Orci.
All that we know about this new interpretation of The Mummy is it will be set in the present day and will be an action-adventure type film. However, it will not be a direct reboot of the films that starred Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. There will be new plot points and new characters.

In addition to The Mummy, Kurtzman has been hired by Sony to direct Venom, an upcoming Spider-Man spinoff. However, with the recent disappointment with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 3 being delayed until 2018 the fate of Venom is kind of in limbo. No one really knows if it's even going to happen anymore.

Sinister 2 to hit theaters in 2015

Focus Features has provided us with a release date of August 21, 2015 for the sequel to the 2012 horror film, Sinister. Director Scott Derrickson will not be returning to direct, but he co-wrote the script and will produce alongside Jason Blum. Cirian Foy has been hired to direct the sequel.
Blumhouse is co-financing with Focus Features and it is expected this will be another micro budget horror project similar to Insidious and The Purge. However, we saw budgets increase for both sequels so it is possible that Sinister 2 will be a bigger production this time around. 

Despite a bad villain name and the fact that it looked like a member of Slipknot, I was surprised by Sinister and wound up really liking it. I don't know where they will go with a sequel, but if it carries the same properties as the first one I think it will be just fine.

First image for Insidious 3 confirms it is a prequel

We have the first image of Insidious Chapter 3 and it also comes with confirmation that the third installment will serve as a prequel.

The third film in this low-budget franchise will follow a teenage girl and her family as they dabble in the world of the supernatural and the other realm, The Further. The film stars Dermot Mulroney, Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Stefanie Scott, and director Leigh Whannell. A new release date is set for May 29, 2015 with production currently underway.

Mark Romanek to direct prequel to The Shining

Warner Bros. has hired Mark Romanek to direct Overlook Hotel. It will serve as a prequel to the horror classic, The Shining.

The prequel has been drafted by former Walking Dead showrunner Glenn Mazzarra and apparently his script is adapted from the original prologue written by Stephen King.King's prologue was cut from his novel just before it was published. It focuses on Bob T. Watson, a robber who was the hotel's first owner.
Romanek is no stranger to this sort of genre. His films include Never Let Me Go and One Hour Photo. However, he has mostly directed music videos and shorts. He's worked with artists such as Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, Madonna, Iggy Pop, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Fiona Apple, Linkin Park, and Coldplay. His music videos have always been considered visionary and very detailed. That includes setting a Guinness World Record alongside Michael Jackson for the most expensive music video ever made with "Scream." The video carried a $7 million price tag and was less than 5min long.
The first and most notable adaptation of King's novel was directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1980 and starred Jack Nicholson. It followed a struggling writer who brought his family to the Overlook Hotel during the off-season. An evil presence in the hotel takes hold of him and he attacks his wife and his psychic son. One of the most celebrated aspects of The Shining is the mystery and the fact that the audience never quite has anything laid out for them. You are left guessing which makes everything very unsettling.

I think Romanek will do just fine, but he has a history of just walking away from projects. He was hired to direct The Wolfman and he suddenly left right before filming and he also departed from Disney's new adaptation of Cinderella due to creative differences. He is also no longer attached to Boston Strangler starring Casey Affleck. It's all good if he manages to stick around.

Annabelle - First Trailer

Annabelle is not the official sequel to The Conjuring, but we have the first teaser for the horror spin-off set to hit theaters on October 3rd. It looks pretty crazy, too.




The only thing I will say, so far, is it definitely doesn't look like a prequel. It looks very modern. Either way I think this looks pretty promising. I will definitely see it.

Ouija - First Trailer

Well, I can't say I'm surprised that this looks horrible.





Ouija hits theaters on October 24th. I would expect since it's a Universal release that this will be a scare zone at Halloween Horror Nights in one or both of the Universal Studios parks. Just calling that one right now.