News

S​cream VI is now in theaters. It brings with it a love letter to the entire Scream franchise. With a shift from California, we settle with our remaining characters in New York City to gain a new experience for Ghostface to stalk victims. The film is jam-packed with fun references to other parts of the Scream franchise and other horror films in general. What Scream VI easter eggs did you possibly miss?

W​Arning!!!!! There will be spoilers for Scream VI and possibly other entries in the Scream Series.

F​riday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

W​hen Jason returns to his apartment, we see that the TV is on and the movie that is playing is Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. This is a fun joke as this movie was to take Jason out of his usual hunting grounds of Crystal Lake and...

Welcome to the Ghostface Glossary, a guide to every horror reference and nod throughout the first five films of the Scream franchise.

After a lot of pausing, rewinding, and zooming in, as well as researching, we’re catching all of the many horror-specific references Williamson, Craven, and Co. included in this beloved postmodern slasher franchise. If we’ve forgotten any glaring ones, kindly let us know.

This guide will exclude homages from previous Scream films and their respective sequels— we’re only looking at outside horror franchises and inspirations, because any red-blooded Ghostface fan is likely already aware of those. (Goes without saying that the beloved faux franchise ‘Stab’(s) 1-8 will also not be counted, since, even though our neon green ‘Stab’ t-shirts and mock VHS tapes feel very real, it’s still a very fake franchise). If we’ve forgotten any glaring ones, kindly let us know.

“You...

Doctor Who has a reputation as teatime horror designed to scare children, but a safe scare because ultimately the Doctor will win. Or at least that’s what usually happens. From time to time the Doctor doesn’t save the day, or their victory is tarnished somehow. Sometimes there’ll be a run of stories where this happens before Doctor Who reverts back to its format: the Doctor and friends having fun adventures. How the Doctor fails, and how the character responds to that failure, are key to the success of Doctor Who’s ongoing story.

The most obvious example of failure is the Doctor not ‘winning’, or doing so in a way that doesn’t meet their ideals succeeding in some way, or the Doctor only defeating them through violence). It’s rare that an antagonist will completely achieve their aims, but there are several victories that feel hollow or partial.

Exclusive: 42 management has signed celebrated immersive theater company Punchdrunk for global representation in all areas.

The company is currently hosting previews for new show Burnt City, which officially opens Thursday 21 April in London.

Founded in 2000 by Felix Barrett, the British firm has developed a passionate fanbase thanks to its unique form of immersive theater, which leaves audiences free to choose what to watch and where to go in vast, decorated spaces. The shows combine mass spectacle with intimate audience experience and the company has staged events in UK, U.S. and China.

Popular shows have included Sleep No More and The Downed Man: A Hollywood Fable. Burnt City is based around the fall of Troy and will be performed in Woolwich Arsenal, London.

The company, which launched Punchdrunk International in 2015, also has a track record for creative collaborations outside of their physical shows including with Sky, HBO and Samsung.

The...

In a Saturday Night Live tradition now nearly as beloved as the 5-Timers Club, John Mulaney’s return also signals the return of musicals to Studio 8H. Like its predecessors — Diner Lobster, Bodega Bathroom, Airport Sushi and New York Musical — Subway Churro is a masterpiece of over-the-top staging, bombastic scene chewing and a kind of high school theater production silliness that always charms.

For those of you who haven’t been bumping Broadway soundtracks in your car lately or just need a refresher, here are all of the songs parodied in the sketch.

More from TVLineSNL Opens With Ukrainian Chorus...

Exclusive: Yasmine Aker (FBI) has booked a major recurring role on the upcoming fourth season of Freeform’s Good Trouble in a recasting.

Created by Joanna Johnson, Peter Paige and Bradley Bredeweg, Good Trouble follows the residents of downtown Los Angeles’ The Coterie as they juggle career, love and the twenthysomething growing pains at a time in your life where your friends are your family.

Aker will play Angelica, a queer waitress who navigates her way through a complicated new relationship with Malika (Zuri Adele) while dealing with the fallout of her last relationship. She replaces Odelya Halevi, who was recently cast as a series regular in NBC’s Law & Order revival.

Johnson serves as showrunner and executive producer. Christine Sacani, Greg Gugliotta, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Maia Mitchell and Cierra Ramirez also executive produce.

Aker recurs as Mona Nazari on FBI. Her guest-starring credits include Tacoma Fd and Grey’s Anatomy,...

Darren Lynn Bousman was ready for a change. Between 2005 and 2007, he directed three sequels to the “Saw” franchise, all of which topped the box office on their opening weekends, before he turned 30. He spent the next decade parlaying that success into passion projects, like his gonzo musical “Repo! The Genetic Opera” and a Japanese horror series that he produced, but traditional filmmaking started to feel a little played out.

“I became desensitized to making movies,” he said over Zoom this month from his home in Los Angeles. “Everyone is so distracted. We live with a computer in our hands. I have a 100-inch TV but when I’m watching movies on it, I’m on my phone checking Instagram and Twitter, going to make coffee. You’re never truly present.”

During a trip to New York, Bousman visited “Sleep No More,” the dreamy, ‘30s noir variation of “Macbeth” that transforms...

Seasonal beach towns feel haunted once balmy temperatures start to tumble. Remove the cheery masses, ice cream vendors and sizzling sands overtaken by crowds, and you’ll be left with eerily quiet streets, alongside waves echoing with distant memories of summer days. Set on one such mostly vacant (and likely fictional) island getting ready to shutter before an impending storm, writer-director Mickey Keating’s unnerving “Offseason” comprehends the particular creepiness of an insular vacation spot braving the year’s colder months. Though thinly conceived overall with not much philosophy to back its daunting visuals, “Offseason” still offers some genuinely spine-tingling images and sounds that will keep midnight audiences on their toes until the end.

Indeed, once you shrug off its thematic emptiness and occasionally clumsy dialogue, Keating’s genre exercise proves to be an absorbing enough watch, with Jocelin Donahue’s resolute Marie leading the way in a survival tale made of nightmares.

The Jude Law-led HBO limited series “The Third Day” did something different to keep fans engaged as they wait for new episodes: a 12-hour live event.

“Autumn,” which ran on Facebook on Saturday, falls between “The Third Day” two parts. The first three episodes are considered the “Summer” section of the series. Those episodes have already aired and they serve as both the lead in for the “Autumn” episode as well as the limited series final three episodes, titled “Winter.”

And it really was 12 hours long, and yes, live. That’s a big time commitment to ask from viewers, but as co-star Katherine Waterston told TheWrap’s Steve Pond last week, they made an effort to make that commitment worth it.

“There will be all kinds of little Easter eggs for people to look for there, if they can stay awake for 12 hours and watch the whole thing,” she said.

If you’ve been watching HBO’s latest limited series “The Third Day,” then you’ve undoubtedly heard talk of a very special upcoming festival. The show’s lead, Sam (Jude Law), may have stumbled upon the island by accident, but everyone else — from his visiting bunkmate, Jess (Katherine Waterston), to the oddball locals Mr. and Mrs. Martin (Paddy Considine and Emily Watson) — are busy preparing for Osea’s annual autumnal celebration. Travelers come from far and wide to stay at the inn or camp out under the stars, dance around bonfires and consume untoward amounts of ale (among other things), all to honor the island’s ancient cultures.

Think of it like Burning Man, but for history buffs. Or “Midsommar”-lite.

Best of all, rather than merely watch the festival in the background of another episode, fans will be able to take part in an immersive live event dedicated to the music festival itself.

Having spent the last two decades pioneering what has become known as “immersive” theater, in which audiences are allowed to explore vast buildings as the drama plays out around them, Brit theater company Punchdrunk — best known in the U.S. for the show Sleep No More — has set its sights on a new medium.

The Third Day — a Sky/HBO production with Brad Pitt’s Plan B exec producing — which has been billed as the “world’s first immersive TV drama,” is a miniseries following Sam (Jude Law), a man drawn to a mysterious island off the English coast and ...

Having spent the last two decades pioneering what has become known as “immersive” theater, in which audiences are allowed to explore vast buildings as the drama plays out around them, Brit theater company Punchdrunk — best known in the U.S. for the show Sleep No More — has set its sights on a new medium.

The Third Day — a Sky/HBO production with Brad Pitt’s Plan B exec producing — which has been billed as the “world’s first immersive TV drama,” is a miniseries following Sam (Jude Law), a man drawn to a mysterious island off the English coast and ...

Want to get away? Well, watching the trailer for HBO’s new limited series “The Third Day” might just make you happy you can’t take a scenic road trip. Based on the latest trailer for the three-part limited series, starring Jude Law and Naomie Harris, nothing good ever happens from visiting a remote island.

“The Third Day” is a story about grief and pain, as evidenced by the anguish of Law’s and Harris’ characters, two separate people on personal journeys who find themselves drawn to a small island off the British coast. But once there, the townspeople — including those played by Katherine Waterston and Emily Watson — seem to be preparing for a lot of bad things to happen.

Here’s the official synopsis, according to HBO: “The show is divided into two parts: ‘Summer’ and ‘Winter.’ In ‘Summer,’ one man (Jude Law) visits a mysterious island off the...

Punchdrunk, the UK immersive theater company behind popular event Sleep No More and the planned accompanying experience to Sky/HBO’s Jude Law series The Third Day, is embarking on a new endeavor with Pokemon Go creators Niantic.

The two companies will develop new experiences that will combine live interactive entertainment and augmented reality (Ar). They say they are in development on several properties that will be original experiences not linked to previous productions.

Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, loosely based on Macbeth, was first staged in 2003 in London and eventually ran in Boston, New York and Shanghai. It allowed audiences to be immersed in a live theatrical performance, placing them among the actors in a series of dressed up rooms.

The company has staged a number of other productions in immersive forms, including Woyzeck and Faust, and teamed up with Sky, HBO and Plan B on their upcoming Jude...

The more I watch Dau—the ambitious multi-film project spearheaded by Ilya Khrzhanovsky—the more it becomes clear that there’s little in the history of cinema to compare it to. To give Dau its due, it’s more useful to think of not just film, or theater, but also of site-specific improvisational performances, such as Sleep No More. Performed by the British theater group Punchdrunk, Sleep No More was staged at a sprawling New York City warehouse, rebranded as McKittrick Hotel, where you walked through darkly lit rooms to watch vignettes loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Similarly to that macabre British show, which the New York Times called a “voyeur’s delight,” Dau can make you feel alternatively like you’re in a musty hall of curiosities, or can seriously mess with your head.To recap, Dau was shot mostly in Ukraine on a sprawling set, which reconstructs a Soviet scientific institute,...

Netflix has released the first official trailer for “Crip Camp,” the new documentary from executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama under their growing production company, “Higher Ground.” The crowdpleaser took home the coveted Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The award is sometimes a bellwether for a film’s Oscar chances, a possibility made more likely with the Obamas onboard, as well as “How to Survive a Plague” producer Howard Gertler shepherding the film.

The official synopsis reads: “In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination, and institutionalization. Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp ‘for the handicapped,’ in the Catskills, exploded those confines. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking and makeout sessions awaiting everyone, where campers felt fulfilled as human beings. Their bonds endured as they migrated West to Berkeley, California — a promised...

“Watchmen” was one of last year’s most acclaimed television series and is expected to be a significant awards contender at the 2020 Emmys.

But the HBO show, created by Damon Lindelof, made headlines last month when the premium cable giant announced that it would be treated as a limited series during the Emmys, rather than a drama series. Lindelof recently discussed the strategic shift during an interview with Collider and noted that although he was not directly responsible for the decision, his firm stance on only doing one season of “Watchmen” likely influenced HBO’s choice.

“That decision actually happened well above my pay grade,” Lindelof told Collider. “I think that when we went and pitched the show to HBO we said, ‘We’re just gonna do one season and then see where we are. And just so you know, it’s more of a ‘Fargo’ model or a ‘True Detective’ model where,...

Getting trapped on a secluded island paradise may not have sounded so bad a few weeks ago, but in a post epidemic-world, that mysterious premise may tap into some very relevant anxieties. At least, that’s as much as can be gleaned from the intriguing first trailer for “The Third Day,” a new HBO limited series starring Jude Law and Naomie Harris. The trailer features eerily upbeat music, some stunning aerial shots of a winding road submerged in water, and plenty of smoldering Law looks.

Here’s the official synopsis, according to HBO: “The show is divided into two parts: ‘Summer’ and ‘Winter.’ In ‘Summer,’ one man (Jude Law) visits a mysterious island off the British coast and discovers a group of inhabitants intent on preserving their home at any cost. In the second half, aka ‘Winter,’ a strong-willed outsider (Naomie Harris) comes to the island seeking answers — but instead...

Every year, Scream Factory gives horror fans a bunch of new home media releases to look forward to at their annual Comic-Con panel, and this year is certainly no exception, as they've announced an exciting slate of horror Blu-rays on the horizon, including Collector's Editions for Silver Bullet, Big Trouble in Little China, Pet Sematary II, and My Bloody Valentine (1981), as well as The Fly Collection and new Neca figure collaborations for Night of the Demons (1988) and The Slumber Party Massacre.

Complete special features will be revealed at later dates, and we'll be sure to keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are revealed. In the meantime, we have a look at Scream Factory's full announcement and images of their exclusive Neca figures for Night of the Demons and The Slumber Party Massacre. For more Comic-Con news, visit our online hub to catch up on all of our convention coverage!

Olive's new branded line reissues the Nicholas Ray classic with a full set of authoritative extras -- plus a never-before-seen widescreen transfer, in all of its Trucolor glory. Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden never looked better -- we can all compare theories about la Crawford's color-coded costumes. Just how masculine is Vienna supposed to be? Johnny Guitar (Olive Signature widescreen edition) Blu-ray Olive Films 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 but heavily discounted Starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Royal Dano, Frank Ferguson, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams. Cinematography Harry Stradling Film Editor Richard Van Enger Original Music Victor Young Written by Philip Yordan from the novel by Roy Chanslor Produced by Herbert J. Yates Directed by Nicholas Ray

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Wow, it's already been four years since Olive released a...

Clark Gable is still sufficiently frisky in this late career western to attract four well-chosen frontier women -- who in this case happen to be a quartet of robbers' wives, sitting on a rumored mountain of ill-gotten gains. Raoul Walsh abets the comedy-drama, as Gable's fox-in-a-henhouse tries to determine which hen can lead him to the promised golden eggs. The King and Four Queens Blu-ray Olive Films 1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date May 24, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Clark Gable, Eleanor Parker, Jo Van Fleet, Jean Willes, Barbara Nichols, Sara Shane, Roy Roberts, Arthur Shields, Jay C. Flippen. Cinematography Lucien Ballard Production Design Wiard Ihnen Film Editor Howard Bretherton Original Music Alex North Written by Richard Alan Simmons, Margaret Fitts from her story Produced by David Hempstead Directed by Raoul Walsh

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Olive's latest dip into MGM's United Artists holdings brings up the cheerful, not particularly...

Hong Sang-soo's Right Now, Wrong Then.The lineup for the 2015 festival has been revealed, including new films by Hong Sang-soo, Andrzej Zulawski, Chantal Akerman, Athina Rachel Tsangari, and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes dedicated to Sam Peckinpah, Michael Cimino, Bulle Ogier, and much more.Piazza GRANDERicki and the Flash (Jonathan Demme, USA)La belle saison (Catherine Corsini, France)Le dernier passage (Pascal Magontier, France)Der staat gegen Fritz Bauer (Lars Kraume, Germany)Southpaw (Antoine Fuqua, USA)Trainwreck (Judd Apatow, USA)Jack (Elisabeth Scharang, Austria)Floride (Philippe Le Guay, France)The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, UK/USA)Erlkönig (Georges Schwizgebel, Switzerland)Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre (Philippe Falardeau, Canada)Bombay Velvet (Anurag Kashyap, India)Pastorale cilentana (Mario Martone, Italy)La vanite (Lionel Baier, Switzerland/France)The Laundryman (Lee Chung, Taiwan)Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, USA) I pugni ni tasca (Marco Bellocchio, Italy)Heliopolis (Sérgio Machado, Brazil)Amnesia (Barbet Schroeder,...

By Doug Oswald

“Fraulein” begins with a close-up shot of the spires of a Gothic cathedral, organ music playing on the soundtrack and air-raid sirens blaring as a statement appears on screen: “Cologne on the Rhine during the last weeks of World War II.” The scene moves down to street level as German civilians and soldiers run for bomb shelters as destruction rains down on them. An American prisoner of war makes his escape during the chaos and he stumbles upon the home of a college professor and his daughter.

Mel Ferrer plays the American Pow, Captain Foster MacLain. He meets the Fraulein of the movie, Erika Angermann, played by Dana Wynter. She helps him evade capture during a search of her father’s home. We learn about a fiancé she has not seen in over two years. She learns later from a letter that he has been wounded and is in a hospital.

"TCM Remembers 2011" is out. Remembered by Turner Classic Movies are many of those in the film world who left us this past year. As always, this latest "TCM Remembers" entry is a classy, immensely moving compilation. The haunting background song is "Before You Go," by Ok Sweetheart.

Among those featured in "TCM Remembers 2011" are Farley Granger, the star of Luchino Visconti's Senso and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and Strangers on a Train; Oscar-nominated Australian actress Diane Cilento (Tom Jones, Hombre), formerly married to Sean Connery; and two-time Oscar nominee Peter Falk (Murder, Inc., Pocketful of Miracles, The Great Race), best remembered as television's Columbo. Or, for those into arthouse fare, for playing an angel in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire.

Also, Jane Russell, whose cleavage and sensuous lips in Howard Hughes' The Outlaw left the puritans of the Production Code Association apoplectic; another Australian performer, Googie Withers, among...

By my reckoning three masterpieces of the genre were released in 1960. All three involve a character with obsessions that eventually destroy him, but only after a string of other deaths. All three got, at best, mixed reviews on their release, as edgy horror movies almost always get. And the three stand up as proof of what the genre can be in the hands of the right artists.

The centrepiece of this triptych, of course, is Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho, which marks a turning point. Norman Bates goes in the list with Frankenstein’s monster and Nosferatu, but this time the monster had a perfectly normal, even likeable, face and voice, and an innocent charm. Many horror and crime movies since have been about characters with multiple personalities, but I struggle to think of any such movies made prior to this. Suddenly the danger had shifted from an external monster into...

Sometimes, second cinematic takes can be superb – and more 'original' than any number of standalone films

Of all the pantomime villains that stalk the movies, few are as loathed as the remake. The endless reheating of leftovers has come to symbolise everything rotten about Hollywood, a staple feature in trotted-out arguments that modern filmgoers have never had it so bad. But for all the odium hurled their way, they just keep coming: Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is about to be released and we're to be offered new spins on Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Lately, the very term remake has become so toxic that filmmakers are reaching for less unloved R words – reinterpretation, re-boot or (be still my delicate guts) reimagining. Others are quick to point out their movies aren't really remakes at all, but sequels or prequels to old...

Farewell to a lovely lady whose Body Snatchers costar Kevin McCarthy died just last year. The beautiful Ms Wynter acted in a handful of films (she was Burt Lancaster’s nagging wife in Airport) and did a ton of TV work including her own show The Man Who Never Was in 1966, but it.s for her role as Becky Driscoll in the 1956 Sci-fi classic Invasion Of The Body Snathcer for which she will always be best known.

From the L.A. Times:

Dana Wynter, an actress best known for her role in the 1956 science-fiction classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” has died. She was 79.

Wynter died Thursday of congestive heart failure at Ojai Valley Community Hospital’s Continuing Care Center, said her son, Mark Bautzer.

She portrayed Becky Driscoll, the love interest of Kevin McCarthy‘s Dr. Miles Bennell in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” director Don Siegel‘s tale...

What is Page 2? Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 46 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. If you have any interesting items that we might've missed that you think should go in /Film's Page 2 - email us [1]! This weekend, a German news station mistook [2] a Star Trek fan-made image for the emblem for the Us Navy Seal team which to killed Osama bin Laden. The anchor didn't notice the Klingon skull, bolted-on eyepatch, phaser, 3 Klingon bat’leth swords or the word “Maquis.” You can [3] now buy the book The Philosophy of Charlie Kaufman [4], a collection of "fourteen bold and engaging original essays on his screenplays and films, written by more than a...

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers star Dana Wynter has died. She was 79.

The actress passed away in Ojai, California on Thursday after suffering congestive heart failure.

Wynter, who was born in Germany and raised in England, trained to be a doctor before pursuing her acting dreams.

She racked up TV credits on shows such as The Man Who Never Was, Wagon Train, Cannon and The Rockford Files, and starred in films including Shake Hands With The Devil with James Cagney, Sink the Bismarck! and Airport.

She is best known for her role as Becky Driscoll in 1956 sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Wynter is survived by a son, Mark.

Actress Dana Wynter, who was best known for her role in 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, has died.Though she was born in Germany as Dagmar Winter, Wynter was British, raised largely in the UK until the age of 16, when her father, a respected surgeon went to Morocco to perform an operation. While there, he visited friends in Zimbabwe (then known as Southern Rhodesia) and fell for the place, moving his family across shortly afterwards.Despite kicking off her studies aiming to enter the medical field in her father’s footsteps, a love of drama and the theatre saw Wynter break off her studies and return to the UK in the hopes of pursuing an acting career. In 1951, she got her wish, starting with small roles, usually without a credit, in films such as Lady Godiva Rides Again. But after getting noticed by an agent, she decided to make the move to New York,...

"Can't you see, everyone?! They're here already! You're next!" Kevin McCarthy, who issued that frantic warning in the 1950s sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, died Saturday, it was reported today. He was 96.  McCarthy was nominated for a 1951 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Death of a Salesman, and employed in enough TV shows and movies to leave behind one of IMDb.com's lengthier pages. But no single screen credit of McCarthy's left a greater legacy than Body Snatchers.   The low-budget, low-tech, black-and-white flick, in which McCarthy reaches the unbelievable conclusion that his small-town friends and neighbors have been coopted by space aliens...

Shadows of Film Noir will unearth some of the treasures known as film noir, so dubbed by the French after the ravages of WWII. In America, it was not so much a genre as a mood, as soldiers returned home and the enthusiasm of victory wore off. It was not easy to return to normal life, and sometimes men became discouraged, morose, and tempted. The fear and paranoia they might have felt was not reflected in Hollywood musicals and comedies. In most stories of film noir, a man finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes this predicament is of his own making, and sometimes it's just bad luck. He must make a decision, and inevitably, it's the wrong one. Sometimes this decision has to do with a female, or sometimes the promise of wealth or fame. Or sometimes it's just the promise of simple survival. It's...

I'm not sure what has inspired Eli Roth's newfound alien kick, but I think it's a big step up from pooping out another Hostel installment. We already know about his one probably-about-aliens project, Endangered Species, but he’s now involved in producing another one titled Invasion, which is said to be "Cloverfield-esque." Do Not confuse this with Nicole Kidman’s horrendous remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, it’s a new project based on a script...

Top Ten Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic Films It seems Hollywood's infatuation with the end of the world has found its place in 2009 with releases such as Knowing this past March and upcoming releases such as 9, The Road and 2012 later this year. I never saw The Horsemen, but I know it had an apocalyptic theme, and films such as Terminator Salvation and even Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen threaten the continued existence of the human race. So, with such a situation at hand what better time than now to take a look at what I believe to be the best apocalyptic films of all-time... or at the very least of those I have seen... We all have a morbid curiosity when it comes to the world's end. Will it go with a whimper or a bang? Will the apocalypse be man-made, ape-made, E.T.-made, nature-made, or God-made? Will I be holding Nicolas Cage...

HONG KONG -- A comic trio formed by a poor workman, his son and his alien pet drive the story of CJ7, a hyperactive, wishful-thinking special effects fantasy suitable for family outings. It is the long-awaited brainchild of Stephen Chow, the comedian-writer-director who pioneered the unique Hong Kong genre of mo lei tau (nonsensical) comedy in the early 1990s.

Despite Chow's self-professed desire to salute E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and oblique borrowings from Japanese anime Doraemon, the sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers springs foremost to mind as Chow's one-of-a-kind magnetic screen persona seems to have been abducted by aliens, who replaced him with a pod spouting moral platitudes and CGI-enhanced emotions.

A joint effort by Chow's Star Overseas and Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, "CJ7" has worldwide release ambitions; it bows stateside Friday. Even with Chow's trademark smart-ass Cantonese neologisms and Hong Kong's ineffable local color filtered out while proficiently rendered visual effects stand in for gags, Chow's strong Asian fan base is still flocking to the theaters. Convincing a North American audience more familiar with Jackie Chan and Jet Li and more likely to prefer Chow's more exotic and action-packed Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle won't be so easy, though.

This is Chow's first directorial work shot entirely in China, but geographic and cultural character look fuzzy. He plays Ti, a construction laborer who pays through the nose to send his only son Dicky (Xu Jiao) to an elite school. Dicky's street urchin looks make him a target for bullying. Only his teacher, Miss Yuen (Kitty Zhang), shows some kindness.

Dicky wants his classmate's cyber toy CJ1, but the impoverished Chow finds him a scrap-yard substitute that he names CJ7. The florescent green blob morphs into a creature with a fluffy mane and a bouncy, squishy torso. Dicky dreams of impressing his classmates with alien high-tech gizmos but ends up thoroughly humiliated. However, when an accident happens, CJ7 reveals its hidden powers.

The first half-hour depicts father-son relations with a mischievous charm reminiscent of Chow's early films. Xu, a girl who impersonates the boy Dicky, is the one who holds the film together. A natural in front of the camera, she has a wealth of facial expressions even in solo scenes with a computer-generated figure. Zhang, who wears a cheongsam tight enough to moonlight in a hostess bar, never stirs as a love interest.

"CJ7" revels in a cartoon-like depiction of abject poverty with a priceless scene where cockroach swatting is an alternative to PlayStation. However, such social issues as education, employment and inequality of wealth are glossed over by slogan-like mottos of being poor but virtuous. The storybook ending is artificial and offers no antidote to Ti and Dicky's problems.

CJ7

Sony Pictures Classics

Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia/the Star Overseas/China Film Group

Credits:

Director: Stephen Chow

Screenwriters: Stephen Chow, Vincent Kok, Tsang Kan-cheong, Lam Fung, Sandy Shaw, Fung Chih-chiang

Producers: Stephen Chow, Chui Po-chu, Han Sanping

Director of photography: Poon Hang-sang

Production designer: Oliver Wong

Music: Raymond Wong

Co-producers Vincent Kok, Connie Wong

Costume designer: Dora Ng

Editor: Angie Lam

Cast:

Ti: Stephen Chow

Dicky: Xu Jiao

Miss Yuen: Kitty Zhang

Mr. Cao: Lee Shing-cheung

Building Site Foreman: Lam Tze-chung

Running time -- 88 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...

The Judd Apatow comedy combine has struck again. Sony Pictures' rude, R-rated teen sex comedy "Superbad" burst out of the starting gate Friday, grossing an estimated $12.2 million in 2,948 theaters. Following in the wake of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up", which Apatow directed, the new film that he served on as producer looks as if it will exceed initial expectations for the weekend, grossing in the high $20 million range, possibly even hitting the $30 million mark.

Directed by Greg Mottola, "Superbad" stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as a couple of teens looking for their first score.

The weekend's other two wide arrivals, however, hardly created a ripple at the boxoffice.

Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Invasion", the latest remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and officially directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, debuted in fourth place with a weak, estimated $2 million.

The Weinstein Co.'s "The Last Legion", a twilight-of-the-Roman-Empire action pic directed by Doug Lefler and produced by Dino De Laurentiis Prods., finished outside of the top 10 with a meager estimated tally of $883,000.

Few movies come into the market as radioactive as The Invasion. Bloggers declared the movie DOA months ago. Even its studio, Warner Bros. Pictures, didn't give the film a premiere, despite a starry cast of Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

The film was intended as the English-language debut for German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who made Downfall, the utterly compelling dramatization of the last days of the Third Reich. After production wrapped in early 2006, the Wachowski brothers of Matrix fame were brought in for reshoots. They in turn hired their V for Vendetta director James McTeigue to direct new scenes they wrote.

One can play the game of who shot what and how a potential masterpiece of creeping paranoia was ruined by Hollywood suits forever. But what we have is this: an involving sci-fi action-thriller, probably longer on chase sequences than the original director wanted and shorter on the "ick" factor than the studio wanted.

Unless pre-word-of-mouth already has sullied the title beyond redemption, Invasion should see a solid two weeks of boxoffice in theatrical release, both domestic and foreign, and then establish itself as a robust title on DVD.

This is, as you probably know, the second or third remake -- depending on what you count -- of Don Siegel's 1956 sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Based on the novel by Jack Finney, that film deservedly is credited as being one of the screen's pre-eminent commentaries on the McCarthy era in America. This new version, scripted by David Kajganich, makes a feeble stab at contemporary relevance by interjecting President Bush, Iraq, Darfur and Hurricane Katrina into the mix through background news reports. But in this version at least, this political context a nonstarter.

What Invasion -- like all its remakes and imitators -- has going for it is a mortal fear of microbes, going as far back as the Black Plague or as current as AIDS. And there is always that anti-establishment tone in the material, which sees government, police and all authority as untrustworthy. This time a space shuttle cracks up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and strews wreckage across America along with a strange substance. All the scientists know is that "it ain't from around here."

The film's protagonist, somewhat arbitrarily, is Carol Bennell (Kidman), a shrink. A patient complains that her husband is not her husband. Emotionless people stalk the streets. Her beloved son Oliver (Jackson Bond) comes home from Halloween trick-or-treating with this strange substance in his candy.

She takes the substance to an infatuated doctor friend, Ben Driscoll (Craig), who immediately gives it to lab technician Galeano (Jeffrey Wright), who right away knows something is wrong. Meanwhile, the government and media report that this is nothing more than a flu strain.

To cut to the many chases, a spore from outer space is attacking human DNA while people sleep and usurping their bodies. This is seen in hooky 3-D animation inside the body that looks like those Let's Learn Chemistry exhibits at Disneyland many years ago. Swiftly everyone around Carol and Oliver turns into pleasant though malevolent humanoids.

Carol's estranged husband, a doctor at the Centers for Disease Control who already is a humanoid, forcibly infects Carol. On the run, searching for Oliver, who turns out to be mysteriously immune, and linking up with the dashing Driscoll, Carol has the main goal of staying awake for as many hours -- or days -- as it takes to reach the safety of unaffected humans.

This involves chases, car crashes, shootings and hideouts as she gulps uppers. What is never clear is why the humanoids think this shrink and her son are so important. They still have the rest of the world to infect.

From the peeks at "the Hirschbiegel movie," one can perhaps glean amid all the action that the director -- who still is the director of record -- appears to have wanted a much more claustrophobic film, a paranoid nightmare about a frantic need to stay awake rather than sleeping oneself into a placid, lotus-eating nonexistence.

Maybe some day Warners will release both versions on DVD. For now we have an effective action thriller that only hints at the psychological complexity the director might have wanted.

THE INVASION

Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Village Roadshow Pictures

a Silver Pictures production in association with Vertigo Entertainment

Credits:

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Screenwriter: David Kajganich

Based on the novel by: Jack Finney

Producer: Joel Silver

Executive producers: Roy Lee, Doug Davison, Susan Downey, Steve Richards, Ronald G. Smith, Bruce Berman

Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann

Production designer: Jack Fisk

Music: John Ottman

Costume designer: Jacqueline West

Editor: Hans Funck, Joel Negron

Cast:

Carol Bennell: Nicole Kidman

Ben Driscoll: Daniel Craig

Tucker Kaufman: Jeremy Northam

Galeano: Jeffrey Wright

Oliver: Jackson Bond

Wendy Lenk: Veronica Cartwright

Dr. Belicec: Joseph Sommer

Ludmilla Belicic: Celia Weston

Yorish: Roger Rees

Running time -- 99 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

Nicole Kidman is in final negotiations to topline Invasion, a sci-fi thriller being directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel for Warner Bros. Pictures. Joel Silver is producing. The story takes place after a mysterious epidemic alters the behavior of human beings and follows a Washington psychiatrist (Kidman) who discovers that its origins are extraterrestrial. She must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping the invasion. The project is neither a reimagining nor a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The project originated as a remake, but when writer David Kajganich turned in his take, the studio thought it had something fresh on its hands.

Nicole Kidman is in final negotiations to topline Invasion, a sci-fi thriller being directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel for Warner Bros. Pictures. Joel Silver is producing. The story takes place after a mysterious epidemic alters the behavior of human beings and follows a Washington psychiatrist (Kidman) who discovers that its origins are extraterrestrial. She must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping the invasion. The project is neither a reimagining nor a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The project originated as a remake, but when writer David Kajganich turned in his take, the studio thought it had something fresh on its hands.

Elizabeth Banks and Michael Rooker are toplining Slither, a horror movie written and being directed by James Gunn. Strike Entertainment has stepped up to co-produce with Gold Circle Films. A creature feature in the vein of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Slither revolves around an alien plague that infects a small town, setting a local (Rooker) on a murderous spree. His wife (Banks) teams up with an old flame to combat the situation. Producing are Paul Brooks and Eric Newman. Executive producers include Marc Abraham, Tom Bliss, Scott Niemeyer and Norm Waitt. Universal is releasing domestically via its first-look distribution deal with Gold Circle. Production is scheduled to start next month in Vancouver. Banks, repped by UTA and Untitled Entertainment, appeared in Seabiscuit and the Spider-Man movies. She next appears in indie feature The Sisters. Rooker's credits include The 6th Day and The Bone Collector. He is repped by Innovative Artists and Erik Kritzer of Fenton/Kritzer Entertainment.

Platinum Studios, the comic book company that moved into film production with Men in Black and the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens, has entered into an exclusive deal with UFO Magazine to develop the publication's extensive library for feature films, video games and comic books. The deal encompasses more than two decades' worth of content related to UFOs and unexplained phenomena. The first two projects acquired under the deal will be developed as both feature films and graphic novels. Based on a story by Scott O. Brown, Escape Velocity is a present-day action-adventure in the vein of The Fugitive about a reporter and a pilot who steal a working alien spacecraft recovered by the Air Force. The second project, Hive, based on a story by Andrew Foley, is a thriller in the vein of Invasion of the Body Snatchers about a woman attempting to escape from a mysterious cult.