Casting finalised for Shyamalan's "The Happening"
Betty Buckley (
Carrie),
Robert Bailey Jr., Spencer Breslin (
Zoom, The Kid),
Jeremy Strong, Frank Collison (
The Village, Suspect Zero) and
Victoria Clark (
Cradle Will Rock) will round out the cast of
M. Night Shyamalan's
The Happening, which goes behind the lens in Philadelphia next week. They join the previously announced
Mark Wahlberg, Zoey Deschanel, John Leguizamo and
Ashlyn Sanchez.
The pic, which will mark Shyamalan's first R-rated effort, is a paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.
Check it out on June 13, 2008.
Poster released for MGM's "Pathology"
ComicCon was the venue for the debut of the teaser poster for MGM's
Pathology, which stars
Milo Ventimiglia, Alyssa Milano, Lauren Lee Smith, Johnny Whitworth, Keir O'Donnell, Michael Weston and
Mei Melancon.
Written by Neveldine and Taylor, the story centers on a young intern (
Ventimiglia) who is studying pathology at Philadelphia's University Hospital and encounters an attractive but murderous group of colleagues who have devised a deadly game to see who among them can commit the perfect murder, while the others compete to determine the cause of death.
Take a peek at it
here.
Paul Schneider completes "The Wall" production
Production has wrapped on thriller-horror pic "
The Wall," produced by
Michael Grais, Gavin Wilding and
Paul Pope.
Lindy Booth ("
Dawn of the Dead") stars along with
Lawrence Dane, Suzie Pollard and
James Thomas.
Story concerns a woman who returns to her small town in Maine after she learns that local realtors want to develop the land that includes the lighthouse in which she grew up and where her mother was murdered; her father was convicted of the crime.
The pic, penned by
Michael Bafaro and
Anna Singer, is directed by
Paul Schneider ("
Cries in the Dark").
Grais' writing and producing credits include both "
Poltergeist" films.
Wicker Man companion gets ready to roll in Scotland and Texas
The long-awaited
Wicker Man re-imagining/companion piece is finally about to get underway. Tentatively titled
Cowboys for Christ, from writer/director
Robin Hardy (the original “
Wicker Man”), the movie has set itself a September 10 start date and has booked locales in Scotland and Texas to shoot.
Starring
Christopher Lee and
Faye Dunaway, the film tells of a Christian singing star and her chaste fiance, a Texas cowboy, who travel to Scotland for a music festival that is merely the curtain-raiser for a horrific pagan ritual of sacrifice and murder, and it's uncertain if the power of the Americans' Christian faith will be strong enough to survive the assault of the pagans.
New Regency bringing vampires and zombies from Afghanistan
New Regency is taking the current wave of films set amid the war and terrorism in the Middle East and adding a twist: vampires and zombies. It's optioned the Virgin Comics title
Virulents and set
John Moore ("
The Omen") to direct the adaptation.
The movie will be distributed by 20th Century Fox.
The story, to be adapted by
John Cox ("
Sergeant Rock"), revolves around a ragtag group of soldiers who search for a lost patrol in Afghanistan. The soldiers, some from an American military unit, some from an Indian military unit, stumble into a nest of vampire zombies.
It will be produced by
Gotham Chopra and
Sharad Devarajan of Virgin Comics, along with
Seth Jaret and
Moore.
"Ronin" producers aiming it big with "Ocean"
Hollywood Gang's
Gianni Nunnari and
Nick Wechsler have teamed to option screen rights to
Ocean, a graphic novel by
Warren Ellis that is a template for a big-scale alien thriller.
Nunnari and
Wechsler will produce, and
Craig J. Flores is exec-producing.
The story concerns the thousands of coffins containing angel-like bodies, and a giant weapon of mass destruction, discovered by a scientist on Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa. A U.N. weapons inspector sent to investigate uncovers a chilling secret about the history of humanity.
Nunnari produced "
300," based on the
Frank Miller graphic novel, and he recently teamed with
Wechsler to produce the
Miller title "
Ronin" at Warner Bros., with
Sylvain White ("
Stomp the Yard") directing.
Wechsler called the graphic novel "
an alien thriller with a fresh take on the origin of man."
Skinny Puppy lead singer to sing opera in Bousman's "Repo!"
Nivek Ogre (aka
Kevin Graham Ogilvie) - the lead singer of the band "Skinny Puppy" - is in final talks to star in
Darren Lynn Bousman's hotly anticipated horror-musical,
Repo! The Genetic Opera, which begins production September 10 in Toronto, Canada.
He joins
Alexa Vega, Bill Moseley, Paul Sorvino and the luscious
Paris Hilton.
"Repo!" focuses on a cruel entrepreneur who creates genetically perfect organs that everybody needs in 2056, and who is content to send in a repo man if the recipient can't make payments.
Lionsgate will release this unique blend of genres in theaters on April 25, 2008.
"Hellraiser" remake - happening or not happening
One remake that might never get off the ground is the one-time full-speed ahead
Hellraiser redo. Creator
Clive Barker says that nobody seems to know whether Pinhead will return to the silver screen or not.
“I have waited for a long time to see somebody give me a clue. You know, “Are we doing this or are we not doing this?” “Is it happening or is it not happening?” Nobody seems to know and I’m not going to hold my breath while I wait, because it’s frustrating”, says
Barker. “I’m very lucky, I’ve got control over a lot of my artistic life. I’ve got control over my movies. I’ve got control over my books. I’m sorry, I don’t have control over my movies, but I do have control of my paintings and of my books.”
The original "
Hellraiser," which spawned umpteen sequels, was released in 1987. It still holds up quite well.
So no, it doesn't need to be remade.
(References - variety.com, bloody-disgusting.com, davisdvd.com, hollywoodreporter.com, moviehole.net, movies.yahoo.com, movies.aol.com, aintitcool.com)