News

Exclusive: Netflix has locked down rights to Hurt People, a legal thriller spec from Monarch creator Melissa London Hilfers, sources tell Deadline.

Details as to the plot of the film are under wraps. Written amid last year’s writer’s strike, it marks the rising scribe’s fifth feature spec sale to date. Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter are attached to produce for Berlanti/Schechter Films.

While Hilfers most recently created Monarch, a country music drama starring Susan Sarandon and Anna Friel for Fox TV, the writer is a self-professed justice junkie who more often than not, finds her way back to stories with the law at the center, as she has here. Previously a litigator at Cravath, Swaine and Moore Llp, she burst onto the scene with Undone, a legal thriller described as Gone Girl meets Primal Fear, which sold to Parkes + MacDonald and Black Bear in a competitive situation.

Amazon Prime Video is the place to go for movies this month, with a plethora of original films as well as new library additions for just about every movie fan. The Emma Roberts-led original Space Cadet hits the streaming service aptly on the Fourth of July, for anyone looking for a fish-out-of-water style comedy. My Spy the Eternal City, the newest film in the Dave Bautista-led family action series also drops on July 18.

Action film fans are also in for a treat with recent films The Beekeeper and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning coming to Prime Video in July.

As far as TV shows go, the most notable addition this month is the adult animated series Sausage Party: Foodtopia, a continuation of the 2016 film Sausage Party.

Here’s everything coming to Prime Video and Freevee in July – Amazon originals are designated with an asterisk.

New on Amazon Prime Video...

This July, beat the heat with the latest additions at Prime Video and Freevee!

It’s a light month for original series, films, and specials as we head into the summer lull, but there is still plenty to watch throughout the month: over 140 classic films between the two Amazon streamers will be added this month, from horrors such as the genre-changing “The Silence Of The Lambs” and last year’s newest “Evil Dead” franchise installment “Evil Dead Rise,” the first five films of the “Rocky” franchise, and comedies like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Animal House,” “13 Going On 30,” and much, much more.

But after the majority of the film load drops on July 1, don’t forget to head back to the services’ additions throughout the month, including Season 2 of the critically acclaimed “Troppo,” the new “Legally Blonde“-like comedy “Space Cadet,” and a new documentary from award-winning documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter,...

When was Bruce Willis at the peak of his popularity? It’s hard to say because, truth be told, the man has been a superstar for almost as long as I’ve been alive. When I was in Kindergarten, he was rockin’ the airwaves on Moonlighting and cutting an album, peddling Seagram’s Wine Coolers and starring in hit movies like Blind Date, and this was Before Die Hard. Yet, that 1988 movie took him to another level, with Die Hard 2 and The Last Boy Scout solidifying him as a major, major action star. Yet, one movie almost always overlooked in his filmography is a thriller he did for Sony Pictures that was sandwiched between two against-type turns, one being in Death Becomes Her, the other being in Pulp Fiction. The movie is Striking Distance, and it’s the subject of this month’s The Best Movie You Never Saw!

Not so long ago, it was in late May, we reported that George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga managed to win the Memorial Day weekend box office ahead of The Garfield Movie, but that the overall results were disappointing and that the whole weekend was the worst in 30 years, as far as the box office is concerned. We know that Furiosa has been praised by both fans and critics, but the box office numbers aren’t even close to justifying these praises and the movie is struggling to earn money in theaters.

This was recently evidenced by the fact that the movie was removed from almost 1,000 US theaters, and while the movie did earn something in theaters, many are wondering if the movie will ultimately be declared a flop, as far as the financial side of the deal is concerned, or not. We at Fiction Horizon have the numbers and answers for you.

One of the hottest tickets in the Great Lakes region this fall might be for the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point men’s basketball team. Not only will fans get to see the Pointers compete in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, but they may also get a chance to meet forward Josiah Gillie, a.k.a. J.P., the rising Milwaukee rapper known for his hit “Bad Bitty,” who released his mixtape, Coming Out Party, on Friday. The gregarious nature he displayed throughout his time in our Manhattan office earlier this...

In this first look from “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” — from the makers of slasher horror hit “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” — Martin Portlock plays an evil, murderous and disfigured version of the children’s character.

The Jagged Edge Productions film — being sold by ITN Studios in Cannes — follows Wendy Darling as she strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from “the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.” Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who in this twisted version of the story will be seen taking heroine, convinced that it’s pixie dust. Scott Chambers writes and directs while Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who directed “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” produces.

The cast includes Megan Placito, Peter Desouza-Feighoney (“The Popes Exorcist”), Kit Green, Martin Portlock (“Wolf Manor”), Nicholas Woodeson, Kierston Wareing (“Fish Tank”), Olumide Olorunfemi (“Venom: Let There Be Carnage”), Teresa Banham, Charity Kase and Campbell Wallace.

Currently shooting in the U.

In news likely to simultaneously delight and appall across the cinema world, a third instalment of IP-bludgeoning slasher ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ has been confirmed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Chambers of prolific horror banner Jagged Edge Productions.

According to the producers, ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 3’ will have a bigger budget than the previous films and will introduce new characters from the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories, including Rabbit, the heffalumps and the woozles. All will no doubt be given sadistic, murderous twists.

The news comes with ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2’ now in U.S. cinemas as part of its 3-day theatrical run via Fathom Events, and just over a year after the release of the first of what is now a quick-fire three-part franchise.

Despite poor reviews, the original ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ became an unexpected box office smash and cultural talking point in early 2023 for a premise that saw...

The Story: A New York cop is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a top-secret government agency, Cure. Re-christened Remo Williams (Fred Ward), he’s sent on the trail of an unscrupulous weapons dealer, but first must survive his training with Chiun (Joel Grey) master of Sinanju.

The Players: Starring: Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Kate Mulgrew & Wilford Brimley. Music by Craig Safan. Directed by Guy Hamilton.

The History: The Adventure Begins…and ends, with this, the lone big-screen adventure of Remo Williams, the veteran of well over a hundred pulp novels (published as “The Destroyer” series – written by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir). This was an attempt by Dick Clark (of all people) and the then-fledgling Orion Pictures to launch their own James Bond-style series of adventures. While people may laugh at the attempt now, they definitely had reason to think this could work, with the brain trust at Orion the...

The makers of Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 1 & 2 are at work on another twisted take on A.A. Milne’s children’s story.

The prolific low-budget genre labels Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Films have unveiled plans to swing their bloody axe again with Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, a slasher horror pic set to shoot this year ahead of a 2025 release.

“It will be complete carnage. We are heavily influenced by Freddy Vs Jason and The Avengers. We would love to see a horror movie where the villains group together and are going after their survivors. We have some incredible set pieces in mind and some sequences I think will truly shock people,” Jagged Edge producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield said in a statement.

The original creature slasher Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey movie featured a 6-foot Pooh and his sidekick Piglet going on a murderous rampage through the Hundred Acre Wood after being left to...

Last year’s bizarre Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey slasher horror turned out to be a complete fiasco, but from a mere $100,000-budged, this morbid celebration of Milne’s Pooh entering the public domain earned the studio a $5.2 million, which is why they immediately announced a sequel, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, which is going to appear in theaters later this month; the premiere is scheduled for March 26, 2024.

The story of the original movie is a morbid take on the story, as Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet become slasher horror characters who keep murdering everyone and anyone who comes across their path. Critics have panned the movie as one of the worst ones ever made, and it “won” five Golden Raspberry Awards, including one for Worst Picture. But, with so much money, it doesn’t surprise us that the producers actually wanted more, and the sequel is seemingly just the beginning of it all.

A Winnie the Pooh slasher film is getting the sequel treatment, and the newly-minted “Twisted Childhood Universe (Tcu)” is getting its first major crossover event.

Just months after Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain in 2022, Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Studios made waves for producing Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a slasher film depicting A.A. Milne’s beloved characters of the Hundred Acre Wood as feral, blood-hungry killers. Despite very, very negative critical reception (it has a 3% on Rotten Tomatoes), the film made $5 million at the box office on a $50,000 budget, and led to other planned horror films featuring children’s characters now in the public domain like Bambi, Pinocchio, and the characters of Peter Pan.

Now, a grand cinematic crossover event with these characters is imminent: Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble will hit theaters in 2025. As reported by Variety, the Avengers-style low-budget horror crossover will see Winnie the Pooh join villainous forces with Bambi,...

Ah, the magic of the public domain. The arch nemesis of studios and corporations and copyright lawyers everywhere is nothing but a boon to the rest of us, allowing literally anyone to get their hands on famous properties and shamelessly twist and pervert them beyond all recognition. That's precisely what happened with the beloved character of Winnie the Pooh just over two years ago, allowing for a slew of knockoff (and frankly terrible) B-movie horror flicks like "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" and its upcoming sequel. Well, things are about to kick into another gear entirely as an entire shared universe is apparently now in the works.

Just when you thought it was safe to visit the Hundred Acre Wood again. In the bloodiest and most un-family-friendly news we'll probably get this week, Variety revealed that the creative team responsible for "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" is now...

Winnie The Pooh, Pinocchio, Peter Pan and more are set to appear in Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, a horror film from the makers of Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey. More on the story below.

It’s not exactly a secret that Marvel has been struggling recently with diminishing (but still sizable) box office returns, troubled productions and less-than-great reviews for its films. A more cynical writer might say that it’s about time Marvel was dethroned as the ruler of cinematic universes.

It will certainly face some stiff competition from the makers of Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey, who are now setting up their own cinematic universe.

A new film called Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, has been announced, and is set to be released in 2025 according to Variety. The film will see a team-up between familiar heroes such as Winnie The Pooh, Bambi, Tinkerbell, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Tigger, Piglet, The Mad Hatter and Sleeping Beauty.

Six years after “Avengers: Infinity War,” another film is vying to become the most ambitious crossover event in history, this time in the lower-budget cinematic realm.

The filmmakers behind “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” — the micro-budget slasher that sparked headlines for turning A. A. Milne’s jovial bear into a feral serial killer and made an incredible $5.2 million at the box office after costing under $50,000 to make — have unveiled “Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble,” bringing together Pooh and various other beloved children’s characters gone bad.

Where “Avengers: Infinity War” had Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Panther and Thanos, “Poohniverse” — from prolific horror collaborators Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Studios — will team Winnie the Pooh with murderous versions of figures including Bambi, Tinkerbell, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Tigger, Piglet, The Mad Hatter and Sleeping Beauty for an IP-bludgeoning frenzy due for release in 2025. Indeed, on the poster, which Variety is also able to exclusively reveal,...

The 1990s are regularly regarded as the era of the high-concept thriller. In the wake of eighties smashes like Jagged Edge and Fatal Attraction, audiences tended to flock to these kinds of movies, although it’s worth noting they quickly spun off into two different mini-genres. There was the erotic thriller genre, whose queen was definitely Sharon Stone, with movies like Basic Instinct and Sliver, but there was also the so-called yuppie thriller.

These movies often centred around upwardly mobile middle-class couples who wind up in the crosshairs of a maniac who wants to dismantle their lives. Fatal Attraction was arguably the first of these. Still, many more would follow, including Pacific Heights, which featured Michael Keaton in a memorably evil role, Bad Influence (with Rob Lowe), Internal Affairs (which revitalized Richard Gere’s career), Malice, and the great Single White Female. But, of the genre, one of the most effective was 1992’s Unlawful Entry,...

Kelly Rowland and Trevante Rhodes do some heavy lifting in an often hilariously messy attempt to recall classics like Jagged Edge and Basic Instinct

There are small pockets of low-rent fun to be had in Tyler Perry’s lurid erotic thriller Mea Culpa, some intentional, most less so. It’s a film that, yes, is about a woman called Mea who is also, yes, at fault, as women often are in the writer-director’s films. The mogul has gained a reputation for punishing his female characters, especially when they dare to stop believing in their husband, no matter how awful his behaviour might be, like in his atrocious 2018 thriller Acrimony, where he had the gall to waste, and chastise, Taraji P Henson.

His latest target is a powerful lawyer played by Kelly Rowland, making a convincing case as leading lady, trapped in a marriage with a letdown, a man fired...

Ready for another twisted tale? Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey II promises to be bigger, better and bloodier than the first film, with a higher budget allowing for both brand new creature designs and a higher kill count. Jagged Edge Productions previews those new creature designs in a series of character posters today.

Meet the team’s twisted takes on Piglet, Owl and Tigger below, along with the new look for their Winnie the Pooh slasher. The posters were debuted by Dread Central today.

Frake-Waterfield had teased the upcoming sequel last year, “This time Pooh and friends will be leaving the 100 Acre Wood to take their fight to the quiet community of Ashdown!”

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Deep within the 100-Acre-Wood, a destructive rage grows as Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Tigger find their home and their lives endangered after Christopher Robin revealed their existence. Not...

Within his deal at Netflix, Tyler Perry has found room to flex his narrative muscles, mixing his familiar brand of comedy and melodrama with other genres. “A Jazzman’s Blues” applied Perry’s usual formula to a 1930s period setting. Before that, his first film for the streamer, “A Fall from Grace,” found him trying his hand at a legal thriller. Now, with “Mea Culpa,” the prolific writer-director pushes that genre further, making a loopy 1980s-style erotic thriller with a distinctly Tyler Perry flair. The plot skews close to “Jagged Edge” with a lawyer falling for her client, a man accused of murdering his partner, while referencing another famous ’80s staple, “Fatal Attraction,” via a love nest accessed only by freight elevator.

The lawyer in this scenario is Mea Harper (Kelly Rowland), and her possibly guilty client is artist Zyair Malloy (Trevante Rhodes), who’s accused of murdering his girlfriend.

"It was as if the Earth itself was allowing this horror to rise up..." Jagged Edge Productions has revealed the main official trailer for Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey 2, (or Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey II), the follow-up to the previous slasher horror involving the former Disney IP honey-loving bear and his friends. The current release date is March 2024, though it might shift once Jagged Edge figures out how to get this into more theaters. In Blood & Honey 2, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Tigger decide to head to the town of Ashdown to get revenge on Christopher Robin for revealing their existence. Even more bloody carnage when the gang shows up! The film stars Tallulah Evans, Scott Chambers as Christopher Robin, Ryan Oliva as Winnie-the-Pooh, and Peter DeSouza-Feighoney as Young Pooh. There's a rumor this sequel will open up the door to more public domain horror, "teasing upcoming Pinocchio, Bambi and Peter Pan-based horror movies.

Killer Mike is gearing up to release his new album, Michael, this Friday, and he’s shared a collaboration with fellow Atlanta rappers André 3000 and Future called “Scientists & Engineers” as a final preview. Stream it below.

Also featuring a contribution from R&b singer Eryn Allen Kane, the “Scientists & Engineers” instrumental contains futuristic synths that contrast with the soulful backing vocals about living forever as all three rappers spit introspective verses. Whereas André hopes he’ll get a “second wind” at 80 and Future talks about turning “a trap house to a ranch,” Mike closes out the track by promising to keep it “a hundred percentage authentic.” He adds, “I got no gimmicks, so I ain’t protectin’ no image.”

Along with “Scientists & Engineers,” Mike shared the full list of features for the album, which includes Ty Dolla $ign, Curren$y, 2 Chainz, 6Lack, Kaash Paige, CeeLo Green, Jagged Edge, Mozzy,...

Made on a budget of less than $100,000, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s movie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (watch it Here) earned more than $6 million during its global release earlier this year. So of course we’re getting a sequel – and The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Premiere Entertainment has already secured multiple international distribution deals for this sequel, which will have a substantially larger budget than its predecessor.

A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh and the characters in it lapsed into the public domain at the start of last year, and that’s how Frake-Waterfield was able to make this movie happen, no permission required. The filmmaker explained to Variety that Pooh and Piglet (go) on a rampage after being abandoned by a college-bound Christopher Robin. “Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult.

The story of Basic Instinct begins with the writer, Joe Eszterhas. At the time, he was one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood, known for writing provocative films like Flashdance, Jagged Edge and Betrayed. Eszterhas had written three movies in a row where his male lead had emotionally manipulated the woman who loved him, so the writer wanted to flip the dynamic, to write a thriller where an evil woman controlled a man effortlessly through mind games and sex. He was fascinated and frightened by the notions of thrill killings and homicidal impulses, and delved into writing the thriller, a combination film noir and detective mystery. Three weeks later, he was done, a script he called “Love Hurts” until changing the title to Basic Instinct the day he sent it to his agent.

His agent was knocked out by it, and soon enough they were holding an auction for every major studio in Hollywood.

Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s movie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was given a nine day theatrical release in the US back in February, and now it has received a digital release! Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is available for rent or purchase on Amazon’s Prime Video at This Link.

A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh and the characters in it lapsed into the public domain at the start of last year, and that’s how Frake-Waterfield was able to make this movie happen, no permission required. The filmmaker explained to Variety that Pooh and Piglet (go) on a rampage after being abandoned by a college-bound Christopher Robin. “Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult. Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral. So...

Two years ago, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield was producing micro-budget horror movies such as “Dinosaur Hotel” and “Firenado” in between working for a British electricity supplier. Now, he is poised to become the helmer behind what may soon be one of the most profitable movies in the last decade in terms of budget-to-box office ratio.

Next week, “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey,” his directorial debut, will open across 1,500 screens in the U.S., followed by 1,300 in Latin America, 100 in Canada and countless more in the U.K., Japan, Australia and Benelux. (Premiere Entertainment is handling international sales.) In Mexico, where the film was released on Jan. 29, “Pooh” hit number 4 at the box office in its first week, nestled between “M3GAN” and “Avatar 2,” taking in over 700,000.

Sure, those other films had already been out for some time, but “Pooh” was made for less than a hundredth of “M3GAN’s” 12 million budget.

A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh and the characters in it lapsed into the public domain at the start of this year – and as soon as that happened, writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield was right there to take advantage of their public domain status. For his feature debut, Frake-Waterfield has dropped the iconic characters of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet into a slasher called Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. A trailer for the film has now been released, and you can watch it in the embed above.

Frake-Waterfield explained to Variety that Pooh and Piglet

(go) on a rampage after being abandoned by a college-bound Christopher Robin. “Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult. Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral. So they’ve gone back to their animal roots.

A.A. Milne’s original “Winnie the Pooh” stories only lapsed into the public domain five months ago but the tubby little cubby has already made his foray into slasher films.

“Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” wrapped earlier this month and the first stills – showing a demonic looking Pooh and Piglet about to pounce on a scantily-clad young woman relaxing in a hot tub – have already set the internet on fire.

In an interview with Variety, director Rhys Waterfield – who is in post-production on four other films including “Firenado” and “Demonic Christmas Tree” – said the response to the stills has been “absolutely crazy.”

“Because of all the press and stuff we’re just going to start expediting the edit and getting it through post production as fast as we can really,” said Waterfield. “But also, making sure it’s still good. It’s gonna be a high priority.”

According to Waterfield,...

“Basic Instinct” was a landmark for erotic thrillers, and few of its kind have bested it since.

Paul Verhoeven’s twisted murder mystery debuted March 20, 1992, and grossed over $352 million worldwide as audiences fell for the psychological game between an overworked and under-loved cop (Michael Douglas) and a novelist (Sharon Stone) who might be an ice pick-wielding murderer. Jeanne Tripplehorn marked her film debut as Dr. Beth Garner.

Yet the true mystery remains just how intense the behind-the-scenes production for “Basic” really was. The San Francisco-set psychological whodunnit led to backlash, nightmares, and intense set confrontations.

Even after Stone previously starred in Verhoeven’s “Total Recall,” she had to fight her way into the audition room for “Basic Instinct.” And that famed leg-crossing interrogation scene? Well, it lacked consent about the Nsfw camera angle.

While Verhoeven later teamed up with “Basic Instinct” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for 1995’s “Showgirls,” “Basic Instinct” spawned a 2006 sequel,...

Stars: Rebecca Finch, Peter Cosgrove, Mark Sears, Rita Di Tuccio, Georgia Wood | Written by Tom Joliffe | Directed by Rebecca Matthews

Proportion Productions are back with a slice of apocalyptic horror directed by Rebecca Matthews, flying solo this time without her partner in crime Scott Jeffrey; and writer Tom Joliffe, who some may know from his work on the website Flickering Myth but has also penned a number of British genre films in recent years, including Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction, The Legend of Jack and Jill and The Leprechaun’s Curse. So we should know what to expect from Reign of Chaos, whose plot seems a bit more extravagant (i.e. larger scale) than the typical Proportion Productions film.

Reign of Chaos sets its stall out from the get-go, with an opening narration that explains that chaos has ravaged earth, literally (its the god Chaos), with a plague of the gods that is overwhelming mankind,...

Almost as soon as The Woman in the House‘s central mystery is resolved, a second mystery reveals itself involving The Woman in Seat 2A.

The limited series’ finale begins with Anna convinced that Buell is the killer. But upon entering Neil’s home, she finds the simple-minded handyman bleeding out on the floor (don’t worry, he lives) and a slain Neil past the point of resuscitation (R.I.P.). That leaves just one possible culprit: Neil’s 9-year-old daughter Emma (played by Samsara Yett), who confesses to Anna that she killed her pregnant mother, her unassuming teacher and her father’s girlfriend Lisa.

2021 is nearly in the books and Hulu is celebrating by heading back to the past…like, the way past. With its list of new releases for December 2021, Hulu is going positive Medieval with two swords and shield original series arriving this month.

Animated comedy Crossing Swords premieres its second season on Dec. 10. This stop-motion style tale follows Patrick (Nicholas Hoult) as he works his way up the feudal latter of The Kingdom. This will be complemented by Dragons: The Nine Realms on Dec. 23. This series is set in the How to Train Your Dragon universe and takes place over 1,000 years after the events of the films. In it, a group of modern day kids uncover the secret truth about dragons.

Hulu also has some more current options for TV this month. Original comedy Pen15 premieres the second half of its second season on Dec. 3. Watch it to relive the trauma...

Stars: Sarah T. Cohen, Megan Purvis, Barbara Dabson, Bao Tieu, Nicola Wright, Stephanie Lodge, Sam Woodhams, Antonia Johnstone, Amanda-Jade Tyler, Jamie Robertson, Ryan Davies, May Brown, Ben Reid, Max Been, Kate Sandison | Written and Directed by Scott Jeffrey

UK horror uber-producer Scott Jeffrey is back behind the camera as writer and director of Conjuring the Genie, aka Evil Genie, aka Devil Djinn, the latest film from his Jagged Edge Productions. This time round we’re following a formula the Jeffrey started in last years Cupid and continued in the last Jagged Edge film I reviewed, Rise of the Mummy… A bunch of students get tangled up in the supernatural and pay the price. Cupid saw teenagers summon Cupid and get killed one by one; Rise of the Mummy had a student steal a mummy’s amulet awakening it and unleashing it on the rest of the students at a college,...

James Hampton, best known for his roles in “F Troop,” “Teen Wolf” and “The Longest Yard,” for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination, died Wednesday due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, his agent confirmed to Variety. He was 84.

An award-winning actor, director, writer and producer, Hampton enjoyed a career in entertainment that spanned half a century before retiring to his native Texas.

Born in Oklahoma City and raised in Dallas, he served in the Army after attending North Texas State College. Shortly after, he landed a role in the hit television series, “Gunsmoke.”

On “Gunsmoke,” he met and developed a close relationship with Burt Reynolds. The pair worked together on “The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,” “The Longest Yard,” “W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings” and “Hustle.” Hampton also wrote and directed several episodes of Reynolds’ CBS sitcom, “Evening Shade.”

Throughout his career, Hampton played supporting roles in films like “The China Syndrome,...

Lance Henriksen has been one of the screen’s most distinctive character actors and overall badasses for going on 50 years. A genuine working actor who always seems to be showing up in a film or TV show, the New York-born Henriksen’s early film career featured small roles in some of the most iconic films of the 1970s, including Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Even though his long and varied run on the big and small screen was just getting underway, he managed to work with directors like Sidney Lumet and Steven Spielberg.

He also didn’t have a clue at the time that those films would endure decades later as classics of their era.

“I had no idea,” he says while speaking to us on the phone about his latest film, Falling. “I was just grateful to have a job and do my best and try.

Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to an untitled country music family dynasty drama from writer Melissa London Hilfers, Jason Owen’s Sandbox Entertainment and Fox Entertainment-owned SideCar Content Accelerator. The project is a co-production of SideCar and Fox Entertainment.

Written by Hilfers, the Untitled Country Music Dynasty Drama, inspired by one of the most fascinating family dynasties in history, is described as an epic, multi-generational musical drama about America’s first family of country music. The Romans divide their time between Austin, where their home is, and Nashville, where the business is. They’re passionate and fiercely talented, but while their name is synonymous with heartfelt honesty, the very foundation of this family’s success is a lie. When dangerous truths bubble to the surface, the Romans’ reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy leading to more lies, betrayal and murder.

Hilfers executive produces with...

Fox is looking to stay in the music drama business.

Variety has learned that the broadcaster is developing a one-hour drama series set in the world of country music. The untitled project has received a script commitment with a penalty attached. Inspired by the Romanoff dynasty, the series is described as a multi-generational musical drama about America’s first family of country music. The Romans divide their time between Austin, where their home is, and Nashville, where the business is. They’re passionate and fiercely talented, but while their name is synonymous with heartfelt honesty, the very foundation of this family’s success is a lie. When dangerous truths bubble to the surface, the Romans’ reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy leading to more lies, betrayal and murder.

News of the development comes as Fox prepares to say goodbye to hip hop music drama “Empire,” which is set...

Exclusive: Shrink, a original IP based on Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld’s story about a female psychiatrist with a superhero clientele is being produced by Doug Belgrad and his production company 2.0 with producer Adam Fields and Liefeld at Sony Pictures. The project would mine the same comedic action vein as the R-rated Deadpool franchise, which is a wise-cracking, subversive twist on superhero movies.

The story has been described as a high-concept twist on Analyze This, and we hear that this was a mid-six against a seven figure deal for the comic book creator. Sony had no comment.

The project was found by Fields who basically dived into Sony’s 30 years of abandoned development and pulled out what looks to be a plumb project and potentially huge action/comic franchise for the studio from one of the signature names in the comic book industry — Liefeld, who became a fan-favorite artist in...

Jeff Bridges grew up with show business in his veins. His father, the late Lloyd Bridges, was a gregarious sort who not only loved the making of movies, but the selling of them as well. He would encourage his children to give it a go. “This is a great life,” he would tell them.

Still, like any rebellious kid, the younger Bridges — who will receive the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 6 — was resistant to chasing his father’s chosen trade. He wanted to be a musician instead, or an artist. “I had maybe 10 movies under my belt before I thought I could do this for the rest of my life,” he said in 2009.

Eventually the passion kicked in. Six decades into a movie career that technically began when he was a 6-month-old infant on...

Few producers and songwriters have a more impressive resume than Jermaine Dupri. When Kriss Kross’ “Jump” topped the Hot 100 in 1992, Dupri became the youngest studio-wiz in history to craft a Number One hit. That gave him the chance to helm his own label, So So Def, which he used to help break acts throughout the Nineties, including Xscape, Jagged Edge and Anthony Hamilton. He also broke other labels’ acts with his writing and production: Usher owes his first major hit — and eight subsequent ones — to Dupri. Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together,...

Halle Berry is producing, starring in, and making her feature directorial debut on martial arts drama “Bruised,” which is planned for a March start of production.

Other producers are Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Pictures, Entertainment 360, and Linda Gottlieb. Riverstone is financing and Erica Lee is executive producing. The film is being developed with the Eis company.

Berry will direct from a script by Michelle Rosenfarb, portraying a disgraced Mma fighter who has to face one of the rising stars of the Mma world and deal with the return of her 6-year-old son to the mother he deserves. She will work with the team that executes fight choreography for the “John Wick” series.

Berry first broke into show business in 1989 on the series “Living Dolls” and was cast in her first movie role in Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever.” She became the first black woman to win the best...

Exclusive: Oscar winner Halle Berry is making her directorial debut with Bruised, a mixed martial arts action drama in which she’s also starring. Berry, currently in production on John Wick 3 starring opposite Keanu Reeves, will reteam with John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Pictures, who is also producing Bruised along with Entertainment 360 and Linda Gottlieb.

Written by Michelle Rosenfarb, the plot follows Jackie “Justice,” a disgraced Mma fighter who has failed at the one thing she’s ever been good at – fighting. When 6-year-old Manny, the son she walked out on years ago, returns to her doorstep, Jackie has to conquer her own demons, face one of the fiercest rising stars of the Mma world, and ultimately fight to become the mother this kid deserves.

Berry will work with the team that does the fight choreography for the John Wick franchise.

Production starts next year in March,...

Glenn Close got her start on Broadway in the ‘70s, appearing in such shows as “Barnum,” and made-for-tv movies including “Too Far to Go” and “The Orphan Train.” She was 35 at the time of her big-screen debut in 1982’s “The World According to Garp.” But Close swiftly made up for lost time by racking up three back-to-back supporting actress Oscar nominations for “Garp,” “The Big Chill” and “The Natural.” With “Fatal Attraction,” “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Albert Nobbs,” she would add three lead actress nods to her total, and currently holds the record as a living actress with the most Academy Award nominations – six – without a win.

That Academy Award losing streak might come at the 2019 Oscars, thanks to Close’s tour de force star performance as the put-upon spouse of a womanizing, self-absorbed novelist (Jonathan Pryce) who wins the Nobel Prize in literature in “The Wife,” opening Aug. 17. An early...

Exclusive: Paramount Players has set Erin Cressida Wilson to script a new version of Indecent Proposal, the 1993 Adrian Lyne-directed film about the consequences of a financially strapped couple young couple that succumbs to a $1 million offer from a rich man to sleep with the wife. Robert Redford, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson starred in the hit. The original grossed $266 million worldwide.

Cressida Wilson scripted Secretary and The Girl on the Train. It will be interesting to see how the politics of the #MeToo movement dovetail into this narrative. In the original, the young husband cannot handle the results of the Faustian bargain as jealousy threatens to destroy the marriage.

This follows Sony setting a remake of Jagged Edge as a vehicle for Halle Berry based on the 1985 sexually charged thriller. Melissa London Hilfers was just hired to write the script.

In today’s film news roundup, Sony hires a former attorney to write the “Jagged Edge” script, “Anderson Falls” rounds out its cast, and “Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks” is sold.

Development

Sony is moving ahead with its remake of “Jagged Edge,” hiring attorney-turned-screenwriter Melissa London Hilfers to pen the script for the Halle Berry-starrer.

Doug Belgrad’s 2.0 Entertainment banner is co-financing the film. Belgrad is producing with Matti Leshem. Berry plays a defense attorney in the pic.

The original 1985 thriller “Jagged Edge” starred Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges. Bridges’ publisher character was accused of murdering his heiress wife. Close portrayed the lawyer for Bridges’ character and Robert Loggia was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a private detective.

Hilfers was a litigator for Cravath, Swaine & Moore before becoming a screenwriter. She’s repped by UTA, and Alan Gasmer and Friends. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

Exclusive: Sony Pictures is moving forward with Jagged Edge, the thriller being crafted for Halle Berry to play the heroine lawyer role originated by Glenn Close in the 1985 hit. The studio has hired Melissa London Hilfers to write the script, and Doug Belgrad’s 2.0 Entertainment banner has been set to co-finance the film. Belgrad is producing with Matti Leshem.

Scott Strauss is supervising for the studio. Creative Executive Michael Bitar is also working on the project.

The project was set up in April by Steven Bersch, the Sony Worldwide Acquisitions Group head who took over the genre arm Screen Gems. They haven’t figured out which arm will release it, but it’s a priority project. Hilfers sold her spec Unfit to Amazon Studios as a potential vehicle for Dakota Johnson, a fact-based tale about Carrie Buck, a young Virginia woman who became a lightning rod for the movement to...

Lionsgate, along with John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, have made it clear that Halle Berry is high on their list for the next chapter in the John Wick saga.

According to That Hashtag show, who broke the story, Berry is wanted for the role of Sofia and is described as a woman between 20-40, has a small child and is the film’s female lead.

Only last week, the synopsis for the third movie was revealed;

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is on the run for two reasons… he’s being hunted for a global $14 million dollar open contract on his life, and for breaking a central rule: taking a life on Continental Hotel grounds. The victim was a member of the High Table who ordered the open contract. John should have already been executed, except the Continental’s manager, Winston, has given him a one-hour grace period before he’s “Excommunicado” – membership revoked,...

Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 50th anniversary screening of Hy Averback’s 1968 film I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! The 92-minute film, which stars the late, great Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Joyce Van Patten, will be screened on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 7:30 pm.

Please Note: At press time, Actress Leigh Taylor-Young is scheduled to appear in person for a discussion about the film following the screening.

From the press release:

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968)

50th Anniversary Screening

Followed by Q&A with Actress Leigh Taylor-Young

Wednesday, April 25, at 7:30 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of the hit Peter Sellers comedy from 1968, 'I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!' The Establishment meets the counterculture...

Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone are due to team up yet again for New Line’s action comedy project Super Intelligence.

The outing will be the married filmmaking duo’s fourth collaboration together; McCarthy is set to star and Falcone takes up the directors chair. The pair have worked on comedies Tammy (2014), The Boss (2016) and the upcoming Life of the Party.

Also on the news – Sony lines up Halle Berry for possible remake of thriller Jagged Edge

McCarthy will play Carol Peters, a former corporate executive whose earnest yet unfulfilled life is turned upside down when she is selected for observation by the world’s first super-intelligence — an artificial intelligence that may or may not take over the world.

The pair also reunite with The Boss scribe, Steve Mallory, who has also penned the script for Super Intelligence.

McCarthy will next be on screen in May in comedy Life of the Party,...

Sony Pictures are looking to remake the 1985 Jagged Edge as a vehicle for Halle Berry. Although development on the project is still in its fledgling stages, Sony have made the project a priority and are on the hunt for a scribe.

The decision to remake the thriller was that of Steven Bersch, Head of Sony’s Worldwide Acquisitions Group. Details are still to be worked out on how to move the project forward, but Sony has made it clear this is one project they want to put into motion.

Also in the news – Adam Driver and Jon Hamm in talks to join CIA thriller The Torture Report

The 1985 original focused on the brutal murder of a San Francisco heiress. The murdered heiress handsome newspaper publisher husband Jack was accused of committing the gruesome crime. He hires the lawyer, Teddy Barnes to defend him, and their chemistry spills into an affair.

In today’s film news roundup, Sony’s working on a “Jagged Edge” remake with Halle Berry, Al Sapienza is playing the brother to Tom Hardy’s Al Capone and MoviePass partners with Flix Brewhouse.

Castings

Halle Berry will star in a remake of courtroom thriller “Jagged Edge” for Sony Pictures in a project that’s in the early stages of development with Matti Leshem and Doug Belgrad producing.

Sony had no comment. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions topper Steven Bersch and Scott Strauss are supervising.

The original 1985 thriller “Jagged Edge” starred Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges and involved Bridges’ publisher character being accused of murdering his heiress wife. Close portrayed the lawyer for Bridges character and Robert Loggia was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a private detective.

Berry is represented by Wme and Management 360 and appeared in last year’s “Kingsman: the Golden Circle” and the thriller “Kidnap.