News Sublimation

Isabel J. Kim’s Debut Novel Sublimation Has Rights Picked Up for TV Adaptation

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 12, 2024

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Isabel J. Kim’s debut novel, Sublimation, has been picked up by Universal International Studios for a potential television adaptation. The book has yet to be released, though Tor Publishing Group has acquired the novel as part of a three-book deal with Kim.

Kim is a Shirley Jackson Award-winner who has written several acclaimed stories, including “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole,” which ran in the February 2024 issue of Clarkesworld.

Sublimation is her first novel, and here is the official synopsis for it:

In a statement, Kim described her book as “a story about identity in a world where it takes fifteen hours to fly across the world and a whole lifetime to live a culture. It’s about being able to see exactly what would have happened if you had stayed. It’s heavily influenced by how I grew up split between Korea and the USA, how there’s a lot of stories about immigration as a clean break and not a lot of stories about the messy return. It’s about how at some point during my adolescence, it started being cool to be Korean.”

“From the very first page, you feel drawn to these characters and this world that explores such rich themes through this paradoxical existence that Isabel has captured so sublimely,” Kelsey Balance, SVP, Global Scripted Series, Universal International Studios told Deadline. “It’s staggering that this is her first novel as it’s so compelling but also so fresh and creative. We can’t wait to bring her vision to audiences around the globe.”

The project is still in its early days, so no news on if/when the adaptation will make its way to the small screen. [end-mark]

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News Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Will Return With More Monsters, More Legacy—and Spinoffs

You can never have too many Titans

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 12, 2024

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One of last year’s best new SFF series is not over yet. Apple TV+ has renewed Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for a second season—and what’s more, it’s adding an unspecified number of spinoff series to the Monsterverse’s small-screen lineup.

That’s very vague, right? But the press release literally says “multiple spinoffs,” with no further details. Vagueness aside, the return of Monarch is very good news. Even if you have not been keeping up with the various Godzilla-related films of the last decade (I certainly have not), the series is a fascinating, character-driven drama with an appealing cast of both established actors and new faces.

The Russells elder and younger—Kurt and Wyatt—play the same character, Lee Shaw, in two time periods. In the 1950s, Shaw is part of a team that discovers titans. (Said team includes Mari Yamamoto as brilliant scientist Keiko Miura and Anders Holm as Bill Randa). Decades later, in the wake of the Titans’ battle in San Francisco, an older Shaw joins up with a younger generation of characters who have their own reasons to be invested in the secrets of the Titans and Monarch, the mysterious agency that has a connection to the giant creatures.

Monarch was co-created by Chris Black (Severance) and comics writer Matt Fraction, who also serve as co-showrunners. It is—and I cannot stress this enough—very good. It also stars Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Joe Tippett, and Takehiro Hira, all of whom I hope to keep watching for many seasons to come.

No production schedule has been announced for season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters or any of its mysterious spinoffs, but in the meantime, you can catch up on the first season on Apple TV+. [end-mark]

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News Transformers

G.I. Joe and Transformers Living Together (Maybe) in New Crossover Movie

A vital, nay, NECESSARY film, we’re sure.

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 11, 2024

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If you saw the end-credit scene from Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, you knew that a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover movie was likely in the works. At CinemaCon today, Paramount Pictures made it official (via Deadline): We’re getting a blockbuster at some point in the future that will include aliens who can turn into cars and/or mecha beasts AND G.I. Joe soldiers doing… whatever G.I. Joe soldiers do.

While the film is now official, Paramount didn’t share any news about who would be directing this, though the idea apparently came from Rise of the Beasts director Steven Caple Jr and it will be executive produced by none other than Steven Spielberg. The story for the film is also reportedly based on the 1980s run of comics based on the two Hasbro brands.

The first time G.I. Joe and Transformers shared a page was in 1987’s aptly named G.I. Joe and the Transformers. The four-issue mini-series saw the Autobots and the G.I. Joes (a.k.a. the good guys) face off against the Decepticons and Cobra (a.k.a. the bad guys). There also appears to be some friendly fire where Bumblebee gets destroyed(!) and reanimated/rebuilt under a different name, and the changing of sides by one key group, making it three against one in a battle to save Earth from sure destruction.

How closely the movie ties to this plot remains to be seen. But the comic run sounds like something that could make for a blockbuster film. They just better not fuck with Bumblebee too much (see the wonderful Transformer pictured above), as they are the best character in the franchise.

No news yet on when the movie will go into production or make its way to the big screen. [end-mark]

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News The Running Man

Glen Powell to Star in Edgar Wright’s Adaptation of Richard Bachman’s The Running Man

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 11, 2024

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It’s been over three years since we found out that Edgar Wright was directing another adaptation of Richard Bachman/Stephen King’s The Running Man. Today at the Paramount Pictures panel at CinemaCon (via The Hollywood Reporter), however, we found out not only that the movie is still happening, but that Glen Powell has signed on to star in the lead role, the part that Arnold Schwarzenegger took on in the 1987 adaptation.

The Running Man, which King wrote in 1985 under his Bachman pen name, takes place in a future dystopia (which, by the way, was the year 2025), where the U.S. government runs a gladiatorial game show where a group of killers try to hunt down and kill a contestant. The longer one lives, the more money one makes. One man, the titular running man, enters the game to try to raise money for his sick daughter and manages to rip the game apart from the inside.

Powell will play that man. The actor is currently set to star in the upcoming tornado sequel Twisters (pictured above) and also had roles in Top Gun: Maverick, Hidden Figures and a recurring part in Scream Queens.

No news yet on when this version of The Running Man will make its way to theaters. [end-mark]

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News Star Trek

Star Trek Origin Film Is Finally Happening! Gets 2025 Release Window

So many possibilities!

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 11, 2024

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Star Trek is finally going to boldly head back to the big screen! During the Paramount Pictures panel today at CinemaCon (via /Film), news broke that a new Trek movie, which has been framed as an origin story, will be helmed by Toby Haynes. Haynes’ previous credits include directing episodes of Andor as well as the Black Mirror episode “USS Callister,” a brutal riff on the Star Trek franchise that explores the toxic side of the fandom. The writer for the film is Seth Grahame-Smith, whose previous credits include the underrated Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and The LEGO Batman Movie.

Even more exciting is the news that this origin film is officially happening in the near future (or a least is a much surer thing than the fourth movie starring Chris Pine as Kirk seems to be). Production on the film is set to start later this year and will premiere in theaters sometime in 2025.  

This prequel can’t help but raise questions about how it will affect the canonical Star Trek timeline(s). Will this story tie into the Star Trek: Enterprise series? As such, will Scott Bakula’s Jonathan Archer (pictured above) make an appearance, perhaps as one of the first presidents of the Federation? Or will this film completely rewrite the timeline/create a new one just like J.J. Abrams did with his films starring Pine as Kirk?

Time will tell! And it looks like we’ll get our answers sometime next year. [end-mark]

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News Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

We’re Getting an R-Rated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Because What Is Reality Anymore?

It’s time to order a pizza…of vengeance.

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 11, 2024

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During their CinemaCon panel today, Paramount Pictures burdened us with the news that an R-rated live-action film based on the comic run Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is in the works. The movie will be solidly in the adults-only camp, which means it will be chock full of violence, gore, and death! I feel bad for the parents, however, who miss the memo that these turtles ain’t for kiddos and take their eight-year-old to see it.

Granted, the original TMNT comics were darker, grittier affairs than the animated and live-action adaptions we’ve gotten on screen. But the average moviegoer doesn’t know that. The Last Ronin is also a more recent comic series—it ran from 2020 to 2022 and was penned by TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. According to Variety, Eastman and Tom Waltz (writer of two TMNT video games: 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 2016’s TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan) penned the script adaptation.

Here’s the synopsis, per Variety:

Uh oh, everyone’s dead! And to my uninitiated eye this premise reads like fanfic of the more family-friendly fare most people know, which I admit makes me more intrigued.

No news yet on who will play the surviving Turtle or when the film will go into production, much less make its way to a theater near you. [end-mark]

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News Dark Matter

Would You Like an Alternate Reality? The Dark Matter Trailer Has Plenty to Go Around

Where in the worlds is Jason Dessen’s real life?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 11, 2024

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First, clarification: This is not Syfy’s Dark Matter. This is Apple TV’s Dark Matter, which is not about a spaceship’s amnesiac crew, but about a guy who kidnaps himself from another reality. If you did not watch the other Dark Matter, this won’t be confusing at all. The rest of us will just suffer, mildly.

The new Dark Matter is based on the novel by Blake Crouch. It stars Joel Edgerton as Jason Dessen, who has a nice life with his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and son (Oakes Fegley). He does mysterious science work and seems happy enough, until one night he is abducted and wakes up in a world that’s very, very different.

The summary spells it all out:

The series also stars Westworld’s Jimmi Simpson and A Murder at the End of the World’s Alice Braga. Crouch himself is the series’ writer and showrunner—his third time working on an adaptation of his own work (he co-created Good Behavior with Chad Hodge, and was a writer for Hodge’s adaptation of Wayward Pines).

Get into the alternate-reality box on May 8th on Apple TV+. [end-mark]

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News Heroes: Eclipsed

Heroes May Be Reborn Again

We don’t need another Heroes

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 11, 2024

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Surely they can find another cheerleader to save. Deadline reports that—years and years after the fact—Heroes may get a third chance at life. The original Heroes, created by Tim Kring, ran from 2006-2010, and is infamous in my house for its very awkward product placement (“Nissan Versa!”). A limited sequel series, Heroes Reborn, was set years after the original, and ran for a single season.

The original run of Heroes was charming, for a time, but went off the rails fairly quickly. An entry into the “ordinary people get superpowers” category, it tried not to be the X-Men, but did not always distinguish itself. It did have a generally quite appealing cast, including Hayden Panettiere (as the superpowered cheerleader), Milo Ventimiglia, Masi Oka, Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Jack Coleman, and Greg Grunberg. Some of these people went on to greater fame (hello, Spock!) and some did not. The show’s writing staff also includes a few familiar names: Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), Jesse Alexander (also Hannibal), Aron Eli Coleite (The Spiderwick Chronicles), comics writer Jeph Loeb, Michael Green (Blue Eye Samurai), and Misha Green (Lovecraft Country).

The new series will be called Heroes: Eclipsed, and Deadline says it “is set years after the events of the original series as new evos are being awakened and discovering powers that will change their lives. Featuring familiar villains and new enemies who once again will be attempting to suppress this next step in human evolution, it will be up to this new group of heroes to save the world.”

No casting has been announced. Kring is writing the series, and executive producing it. Deadline says that it has been pitched to NBC, the original show’s network, as well as streamers—but no one has bitten. Yet. [end-mark]

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News Speak No Evil

James McAvoy Is a Very Bad Host in the Trailer for Speak No Evil

Beware doctors offering vacation homes

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 11, 2024

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It’s all fun and games, kids, until you make James McAvoy mad. In Speak No Evil, James Watkins’s remake of the 2022 Danish film, McAvoy plays Paddy, a doctor (maybe?) who, along with his much younger wife (Aisling Franciosi), invites another family to his sprawling country home for a weekend getaway. Louise (Mackenzie Davis), Ben (Scoot McNairy), and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) are delighted to accept. (ed note: hello, unexpected partial Halt and Catch Fire reunion?)

And then everything goes wrong, starting with an unsatisfactory dance performance by the children. Also, what’s with Paddy’s son, who doesn’t talk? This is explained as the boy having trouble communicating, but that trouble might have come from, uh, outside. (The trailer is really not subtle at suggesting what might have been done to this poor child.) The horror takes a while to fully appear, in this trailer, but it appears in McAvoy’s eyes: He is alarmingly good at going dead-eyed and murdery at the bat of an eyelash. He’s so charming! Just kidding, he wants to kill you. Or do something very bad to you, at least.

Speak No Evil is written by director Watkins (The Woman in Black), based on the original screenplay by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup. It’s in theaters September 13th. Which, yes, is a Friday. [end-mark]

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News project hail mary

Project Hail Mary: Ryan Gosling to Star in Film Adaptation

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 10, 2024

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Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary is getting adapted into a movie, with Ryan Gosling (Barbie, pictured above) on board to star and produce, Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (the Spider-Verse films) directing, and Drew Goddard (The Martian, Netflix’s Daredevil series) penning the script. In addition to Gosling, directors Lord and Miller as well as Amy Pascal, Aditya Sood, Rachel O’Connor, and Weir are also on board to produce, with Pascal pulling the whole project together.

The movie comes from Amazon MGM Studios, which announced during CinemaCon today (per Deadline) that the film would premiere in theaters (rather than Prime Video) sometime in 2026. Gosling is undoubtedly playing the story’s protagonist, Ryland Grace.

Here’s the blurb for Weir’s book, to give you a sense of the story:

No news yet on who else might be in the film in a key role (if you know, you know), and no news on when exactly in 2026 we’ll see Project Hail Mary land at a theater near you. [end-mark]

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News The Blair Witch Project

Found Footage Is Back, Baby! A New Blair Witch Movie Is in the Works

But how will people appreciate your snot-coated sobbing if you apply face filters?

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 10, 2024

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This won’t be your mama’s Blair Witch! That’s what Lionsgate and Blumhouse execs Adam Fogelson and Jason Blum promised at CinemaCon today, where the studios announced a multi-film partnership that includes remaking (or making a sequel of?) the 1999 found footage phenom, The Blair Witch Project.

“I have been incredibly fortunate to work with Jason many times over the years. We forged a strong relationship on The Purge when I was at Universal, and we launched STX with his film The Gift. There is no one better at this genre than the team at Blumhouse,” said Fogelson (via The Hollywood Reporter). “We are thrilled to kick this partnership off with a new vision for Blair Witch that will reintroduce this horror classic for a new generation.” 

Blum also acknowledged that returning to Blair Witch was “a truly special opportunity” and he was “excited to see where it leads.”

I am also interested to see where this leads. Would the kids lost in the woods capture everything on their cell phones (and possibly uploaded to TikTok) instead of a camcorder? Other than that, will anything about it be markedly different than the original, which was captured via “found footage” from a cracked video camera that revealed some teens get stalked and murdered by a malevolent supernatural force? Time will tell! [end-mark]

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News Monopoly

From Barbie to B&O Railroad: Margot Robbie to Produce Monopoly Movie

Will there be people playing top hats? Will someone go directly to jail? Will everyone build a hotel on Broadway?

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 10, 2024

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Margot Robbie, who recently starred in and produced the blockbuster Barbie (pictured above), is setting her sights on another toy-related property. During CinemaCon today, Lionsgate, which owns the rights to the Monopoly IP, announced that Robbie’s company LuckyChap will be taking on a live-action film based on the board game. Hasbro Entertainment is also producing.

“I could not imagine a better production team for this beloved and iconic brand than LuckyChap,” Lionsgate chair, Adam Fogelson, said (per Variety). “They are exceptional producers who choose their projects with great thought and care, and join Monopoly with a clear point of view. We are tremendously excited to be working with the entire LuckyChap team on what we all believe can be their next blockbuster.”

Details on the plot remain murky beyond Fogelson’s comment above about Robbie’s studio having a point of view on what to do with the capitalistic game. What that means exactly remains to be seen. Will Robbie play a major role, like the shoe game piece? Or perhaps the iron? Will someone go to jail, directly to jail? Will anyone get $200? Will Baltic Ave. finally get its due?

We’ll have to wait and see, though LuckyChap is chuffed to take it on. “Monopoly is a top property—pun fully intended,” said a LuckyChap representative. “Like all of the best IP, this game has resonated worldwide for generations, and we are so excited to bring this game to life alongside the wonderful teams involved at Lionsgate and Hasbro.”

No news yet on when it will go into production or build a hotel on a theater near you. [end-mark]

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News Joker: Folie à Deux

Love Is in the Air, Maybe, in the First Trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux

Nobody sings, though

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 10, 2024

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Welcome to Arkham Asylum, folks. Here you will find Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) living a drab, incarcerated life—until he sees a girl who appears to be singing in the prison choir. When they meet, everything changes. Freedom! Performances! Dancing on the rooftops! So much love is in the air!

But how much of this is real? The first trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux is full of flashes of color (those umbrellas!) and razzle-dazzle, but there is a distinct suggestion that little of their fancy lives is actually happening—at least not exactly the way we’re seeing it. Probably Arthur and Harley (Lady Gaga) do break out of prison, but all the shiny-outfit glowing-lights parts seem… well, these two aren’t generally known for being the best-adjusted of folks, you know?

Joker: Folie à Deux is, of course, Todd Phillips’s sequel to 2019’s Joker, which was a massive hit: a billion bucks at the box office and 11 Oscar nominations. It was supposed to be a one-off. Surprise! The sequel has been described as a jukebox musical, though Variety points out that director Phillips has said that’s not entirely accurate: “I like to say it’s a movie where music is an essential element,” Phillips said at CinemaCon, where footage debuted. “It doesn’t veer too far from the first film. Arthur has music in him. He has a grace to him.”

The Joker and Harley dance into theaters on October 4th. [end-mark]

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News Control

Julianne Moore and James McAvoy to Star in Mind-Affecting Thriller, Control

The “clock-ticking thriller” is all about having a voice in your head telling you what to do…

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 9, 2024

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The film adaptation of the podcast Shipworm from Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie is fleshing out its cast. The thriller, which currently has the title Control, has had James McAvoy (pictured above in X-Men: Days of Future Past; other credits include Split, Glass, and His Dark Materials) on board to star for about a year, and today Deadline broke the news that Julianne Moore (May December, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2) will be joining him on screen.

Control is a “clock-ticking thriller” where a troubled doctor (McAvoy) wakes up one morning with a mysterious voice inside his head. The voice, perhaps from an untraceable device of some sort, mandates that McAvoy’s character do certain things or something very, very bad will happen (or maybe multiple bad things will happen… it’s unclear). We don’t know much about Moore’s character, though Deadline reports that she “plays a pivotal character with which the doctor must contend.”

The film enters production in Berlin this month and is spearheaded by StudioCanal and The Picture Company. Robert Schwentke, whose previous credits include The Time Traveler’s Wife, R.I.P.D., and the adaptations of Insurgent and Divergent, will direct. Read into that what you will.

No news yet on when the film will make its way to a screen near you. Perhaps we’ll all wake up one day with a voice in our head telling us the details. [end-mark]

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News Game of Thrones

Say It Ain’t So: There Won’t Be More Jon Snow

The spinoff with Kit Harington’s sad-eyed Stark is no longer in the works

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 9, 2024

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There have been a slew of Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works since the original series had its finale in 2019. And while House of the Dragon is about to come out with a second season and The Hedge Knight just cast its Dunk and Egg, there have been other projects that have fallen to the wayside.

The most notable one was the Naomi Watts-starring series that took place ten thousand years before the original show, which shot an entire pilot before getting axed in 2019. And today, Jon Snow actor Kit Harington confirmed that the potential series centered around his character is no longer in development.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Harington had this to say about the project:

Say it ain’t so! That doesn’t mean, however, that we won’t see more Game of Thrones-related shows coming to a television near you. In addition to The Hedge Knight and House of the Dragon, a series centered on King Aegon is still in the works as is an animated show about the Sea Snake. [end-mark]

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News Under Paris

It’s the French’s Turn to Face a Large Shark in Under Paris

Ne va pas dans l’eau

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 9, 2024

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Perhaps we have been hoarding the large shark movies. Is it fair to other countries, really? The French have decided it is their time for a large shark film, and have created Under Paris, in which the arrival of a “giant” (she’s no MEG) shark in the Seine coincides with a very important triathlon.

Yes, you read that right. The poorly punctuated and extremely brief summary offered on YouTube says only, “Sophia, a brilliant scientist comes to know that a large shark is swimming deep in the river.” But there’s a triathlon! Many people in the water! It will be a massacre! (A word the subtitles helpfully translate to “carnage,” in case its meaning was unclear.)

“Comes to know” is sort of hilarious here, given that the trailer makes it clear Sophia (Bérénice Bejo) is tracking the movements of said shark. But this is definitely a movie for which it’s better to not ask many questions.

Under Paris is directed and co-written by Xavier Gens, who has directed episodes of Gangs of London and Lupin. It stars Nassim Lyes (Julia) alongside the aforementioned Bérénice Bejo, who was an Oscar nominee for The Artist. (There are actually a surprising number of Oscar-nominated and winning actors in shark movies, especially if you count Shark Tale, which maybe you shouldn’t.)

Under Paris swims onto Netflix on June 5th. [end-mark]

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News Star Wars Outlaws

If Star Wars Outlaws Hurts Nix We Will Riot

Who wants to rob a space millionaire?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 9, 2024

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The story trailer for Star Wars Outlaws, the first open-world Star Wars game, is here, and I have only one thought: DO NOT HURT NIX. The floppy little alien is the best bud of the main character, Kay Vess, and he is a precious ball of sunshine who must not be harmed.

But there’s a lot more going on in this trailer, which looks, in a word, incredible. Outlaws is a heist game, following Kay as she tries to outwit a whole lot of shady underworld characters and pull off a major job. All she wants, she says, is to live free. But we all know how easy that is in the galaxy. You’d think there’d be enough planets to go around, but somehow, there’s always some greedy Imperial and/or crime lord looking to take over a place.

Here’s the very short synopsis:

I like “emerging scoundrel.” It implies something like “emerging artist”—a suggestion of fresh-faced, creative scoundreling that hasn’t been seen before.

Naturally, Kay encounters some familiar faces (including a carbonite-frozen Han and a sarlacc) and locations (who doesn’t love visiting the Outer Rim?). And since this is a heist, she has to put together a crew. But this trailer does a great job of balancing familiar Star Wars elements with new characters, strange vistas, and attitude. StarWars.com has a lengthy interview with creative director Julian Gerighty, which digs into the criminal syndicates, the design—so much about the design, from identity of every cantina to the personality of the ships. (Kay’s is “cross between a turtle and a pickup truck.”) In combination with the trailer, it makes the game even more enticing.

Star Wars Outlaws will be available August 30th for Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC. [end-mark]

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News David Lynch

Netflix Turned Down Snootworld, a “Wackadoo” Animated Project from… David Lynch?!

Lynch created the script years ago with Caroline Thompson, screenwriter for The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Addams Family

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 8, 2024

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David Lynch, the mastermind behind Twin Peaks and the Dune movie (pictured above) that came before Denis Villeneuve’s endeavors, started working on a script about Snoots with Caroline Thompson (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, and 1991’s The Addams Family) over two decades ago.

“I don’t know when I started thinking about Snoots but I’d do these drawings of Snoots and then a story started to emerge,” Lynch told Deadline. “I got together with Caroline and we worked on a script. Just recently I thought someone might be interested in getting behind this so I presented it to Netflix in the last few months but they rejected it.”

I also now can’t stop thinking about Snoots and what the hell these magical creatures from Lynch’s imagination might be like.

According to Thompson, the script is “wackadoo.”

“It takes my breath away how wacky it is,” she told Deadline. “The Snoots are these tiny creatures who have a ritual transition at aged eight at which time they get tinier and they’re sent away for a year so they are protected. The world goes into chaos when the Snoot hero of the story disappears into the carpet and his family can’t find him and he enters a crazy, magnificent world.”

Lynch had some thoughts on why Netflix made the dumb decision to pass. “Snootworld is kind of an old-fashioned story and animation today is more about surface jokes. Old-fashioned fairytales are considered groaners: apparently people don’t want to see them. It’s a different world now and it’s easier to say no than to say yes.”

Someone please make this and make Netflix rue the day they passed on it! I want to watch this lil’ Snoot get teenier and enter the quantum realm, or whatever world Lynch has concocted with his brain cells. Let Lynch be Lynchian! Bring on the Snoots! [end-mark]

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News evil

Hooray! Season 4 Evil Trailer Brings Us Witches, Hauntings, and the Birth of the Antichrist

The premiere date for season four just dropped along with the trailer

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 8, 2024

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The fourth season of Paramount+’s Evil will premiere in a few weeks, and while it’s a bummer that this will be the series’ final episodes, the trailer released today suggests the show will go out with a bang.

We’ve got witches! Creatures that leave big claw marks on walls! Leland and Kristen (played impeccably by Katja Herbers and Michael Emerson) going at it about the birth of their genetic progeny, who also is apparently the antichrist! Things are getting supernatural and staying on the right side of weird, and I feel good that the show will continue to be scary but also, as Reactor’s Leah Schnelbach notes in their first season review, “surprisingly nuanced and deep.”

New to Evil? Here’s the official synopsis of the show:

Herbers plays that “skeptical female psychologist” while Mike Colter plays David Acosta, a priest who has unholy thoughts about Kristen (and a succubus in her image that has camped out in his room). Aasif Mandvi plays the “contractor” Ben Shakir, who rounds out the investigative trio that the Catholic Church hires to investigate spiritual and/or supernatural cases. The supporting cast is also stellar and in addition to Emerson’s Leland includes Kurt Fuller as Dr. Kurt Boggs, Andrea Martin as Sister Andrea, and Christine Lahti as Kristen’s mom (and devil worshipper) Sheryl.

Season Four of Evil premieres on Paramount+ on May 23, 2024, with new episodes released every Thursday until August 22. That’s a lotta Evil! But if you need more/need to catch up, don’t fret: the first three seasons are now available on the streamer.

Check out the trailer for season four below. [end-mark]

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News MaXXXine

Mia Goth Takes Hollywood in the Trailer for Ti West’s Maxxxine

Stardom—or something—awaits

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 8, 2024

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This girl can’t catch a break. First she survives X, writer-director Ti West’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre homage. Then Maxine (Mia Goth) heads to Hollywood, ready to make a shift from adult film to super-classy horror flicks. But there’s a hitch in her plan: Hollywood has its own bloody threat looming in the form of a serial killer called the Night Stalker.

Can’t she just follow in the footsteps of Jamie Lee Curtis, becoming a famous actress via horror films? Probably not. Maxxine is the third film in the Ti West/Mia Goth powerhouse partnership, following X and Pearl (the origin story of one of the characters from X). It’s set in 1985 (six years after X), which you don’t need me to tell you if you watch the trailer: All the style and musical cues are right there. (Laura Branigan’s “Self Control” is a nice touch.)

Kevin Bacon lurks around as a private dick hired to find Maxine; Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan are detectives who—reasonably, I think—get interested in Maxine when it turns out she knows three of the Night Stalker’s victims. Being that Maxine does get some work as an actress, she winds up on the studio lot with the Bates Motel set. Totally normal. Nothing weird about that.

Maxxxine also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Halsey, Lily Collins, and Giancarlo Esposito. It’s in theaters July 5th. [end-mark]

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News Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap Will Leap No More

The past will just have to take care of itself

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 8, 2024

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That’s it for Dr. Ben Song and his adventure with the Quantum Leap program. Deadline reports that NBC has cancelled their Quantum Leap reboot after two seasons.

In an interview in February, not long before the second season finale, star Raymond Lee seemed to hint that the end of the line might be approaching, saying, “Everything that we’ve worked towards in the past thirty-some-odd episodes, it’s all building toward something that’s going to be a very, I think, healing end. Or a beginning.”

The rebooted series premiered on NBC in September 2022, and stars Lee as Dr. Ben Song, a physicist in charge of restarting the Quantum Leap project from the original series—who then takes himself off on a totally unauthorized Leap. Caitlin Bassett plays as Addison, Ben’s love interest (and the hologram who helps him navigate the past), and Ernie Hudson is Herbert “Magic” Williams, the head of the whole operation.

Lee posted about the cancellation on Instagram, saying, “If and when another group gets a hold of the accelerator and its capabilities, may they find us floating in time, still striving to put right what once went wrong.”

Meanwhile, Law & Order: SVU was renewed for its twenty-sixth season. [end-mark]

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News Star Wars

Andor Writer Beau Willimon Will Co-Write James Mangold’s Star Wars Movie

When you write “One Way Out,” Star Wars wants you back

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 8, 2024

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Beau Willimon is going back to that galaxy far, far away. Willimon (who also created the series House of Cards) shares writing credit with Andor creator Tony Gilroy on three episodes of that excellent series, including the unforgettable prison break episode “One Way Out.” Now he’s headed to a very, very different Star Wars era: The Hollywood Reporter has the news that he’s working with writer-director James Mangold on Mangold’s Star Wars film, which has the working title Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi.

The Mangold film was announced, like several other tantalizingly vague future Star Wars, at Star Wars Celebration last April. As THR explains, it will “will trace the origins of the Force and be set 25,000 years before any of the timelines and stories told by the movies and shows so far.”

Little else is known about the project, which has no release date. But one Star War is definitely coming to a theater near you on a specific date: Last week, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu got the premiere date of May 22, 2026. Two other upcoming Star Wars films are still mysterious and undated: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s film about Rey, which takes place some years after the sequel trilogy, and Dave Filoni’s film, which is intended to bring together all the post-Return of the Jedi plot threads from various Disney+ series.

Disney has two more dates on their calendar saved for Star Wars films: December 18, 2026, and December 17, 2027. These dates are so far in the future that they sound fake, but there are series to tide us over: The shorts collection Tales of the Empire arrives May 4th, and The Acolyte on June 4th. [end-mark]

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News The Mummy

1999’s The Mummy Starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz Is Heading Back to Theaters!

Strike a match on your best buddy’s beard and grab your tickets now

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 5, 2024

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Are you, like me, a huge fan of 1999’s The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz? If so, I’ve got fantastic fucking news for you: The film is headed back to theaters this month to commemorate its twenty-fifth anniversary.

That’s right folks, starting Friday, April 26 (well, the evening of Thursday, April 25 actually, because that’s how things work these days) you can get a big ol’ bucket of popcorn, settle into a cinema near you, and see Fraser and Weisz dominate the big screen and dazzle your bisexual proclivities.

It looks like it’s playing in theaters across America, including AMC, Cinemark, and Alamo locations. At the AMC near me in southern California, I can buy a ticket for a measly five dollars. Five dollars! That’s less than the cost of a coffee these days—quite the deal to give yourself just over two hours of unmitigated joy.

If you haven’t been blessed to see 1999’s The Mummy before, the film follows the adventurer Rick O’Connell (Fraser) as he pairs up with a librarian named Evie (Weisz) and her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) to uncover the treasures buried at Hamunaptra, an ancient Egyptian city of the dead. They inadvertently wake up a sexy mummy named Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) and fight to stay alive as he hunts down all who awakened him. It is, in short, the best movie ever, and Universal Pictures knows it.

“Over the past twenty-five years, The Mummy has become a cornerstone of adventure cinema and has set the bar high for blockbuster entertainment,” Jim Orr, president of domestic theatrical distribution for Universal Pictures, said in a statement. “As we celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring it back to the big screen. It’s a fantastic opportunity for both devoted fans and newcomers to immerse themselves in the exhilarating adventure and timeless story that made The Mummy an unforgettable cinematic experience.”

Tickets are now on sale. Go buy one! [end-mark]

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News A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: A Hedge Knight

Game of Thrones Prequel The Hedge Knight Casts Its Dunk and Egg

The casting would seem to indicate that production is moving forward of the Game of Thrones spinoff

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 5, 2024

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Almost a year to the day that we found out that the Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, was moving forward at HBO, we have news on who will be taking on the roles of the series’ two main characters, known to those who know as Dunk and Egg.

The show is based on a series of novellas that George R.R. Martin put out in the universe of A Song of Ice and Fire (check out our readalong we did of it in 2013 here) and centers on Ser Duncan the Tall (a.k.a. Dunk) and his faithful squire who answers to the name Egg. Peter Claffey, whose credits include Bad Sisters and a part in the upcoming third season of Vikings: Valhalla, is taking on Dunk, while Dexter Sol Ansell, who recently played Young Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, will play Egg.

The two actors, based on their headshots above, also fit in well with the look of the characters we know from the books.

Here’s the official logline for the show:

The series is written and executive produced by Martin and Ira Parker. Other executive producers include Ryan Condal (co-showrunner of House of the Dragon), Vince Gerardis, Owen Harris, and Sarah Bradshaw.

No news yet on when the series will go into production or make its way onto HBO. [end-mark]

The post <i>Game of Thrones</i> Prequel <i>The Hedge Knight</i> Casts Its Dunk and Egg appeared first on Reactor.

News Avengelyne

Margot Robbie, Olivia Wilde, and Simon Kinberg Are Teaming Up to Adapt Rob Liefeld’s Avengelyne

But who will wear this outfit?!?

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 5, 2024

Credit: Image Comics

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Credit: Image Comics

Just take a second to wrap your head around this odd stack of people: Margot Robbie (Barbie herself), Olivia Wilde (the director of Booksmart), and Simon Kinberg (co-creator of Star Wars Rebels and the writer of not one but two messy X-Men/Dark Phoenix films) are at work on an adaptation of the comic book Avengelyne, created by Rob Liefeld.

If you are familiar with Liefeld’s work, you either already know Avengelyne or you have a pretty good idea what she looks like. Liefeld, of course, is responsible for (among other things) that infamous image of Captain America where it looks like someone inflated his pecs.

The character is a fallen angel—one with impossible proportions and very small outfits, naturally—who, having been cast out of Heaven, fights demons here on Earth. This is at least the third time someone has tried to get an adaptation off the ground. (Get it? Angels have wings? I’ll see myself out.) Gina Carano was once attached to star, and in 2016 Paramount was planning a movie version directed by Akiva Goldsman.

This new crack at an Avengelyne movie will have Wilde as director, with Kinberg and Robbie (with her company LuckyChap) producing. Variety doesn’t say anything who might be writing the film, and it does not have a studio or streamer behind it—yet.

As for a star, that too is unknown. I just hope for her sake that her outfits get a… let’s just call it a modern update. [end-mark]

The post Margot Robbie, Olivia Wilde, and Simon Kinberg Are Teaming Up to Adapt Rob Liefeld’s <i>Avengelyne</i> appeared first on Reactor.

News Avatar: The Last Airbender

Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender Has Another Change in Leadership

Showrunner Albert Kim is leaving the series

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 5, 2024

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The long-awaited Avatar: The Last Airbender debuted in February to generally mixed reviews; there were things to like, but it wasn’t quite what fans were hoping for. Emmet Asher-Perrin wrote, “It’s imperfect, but it’s enough for hope’s sake.” It was also popular enough that Netflix immediately renewed it for two more seasons.

Behind the scenes, though, there’s been a bit of a shuffle—again. Once upon a time, the original creators of the animated Avatar were on board the live-action adaptation. In 2020, they parted ways with the project, with Michael Dante DiMartino saying, “whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan [Konietzko] and I had envisioned or intended to make.”

Enter Albert Kim, an executive producer and writer on Sleepy Hollow, who joined the project as showrunner for the first season. Now, though, he’s stepping down. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Sources say Kim’s intention was to lay the foundation for season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender after stepping in for the beloved franchise’s creators.”

Variety notes that Kim also has many more opportunities on his plate: “According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, Kim wanted to explore new opportunities following the multi-year development process on Last Airbender and has signed a deal with Disney to work as an executive producer on the Percy Jackson series while also developing new projects for that company.”

The two people stepping up to the showrunner role were both hired by Kim. Christine Boylan was a co-executive producer (and writer) on the first season, while Jabbar Raisani already wore three hats: executive producer, director, and VFX supervisor.

Boylan has a lot of SFF on her resume, working as a producer and writer on Once Upon a Time, The Punisher, Cloak and Dagger, and the Constantine series. Raisani’s background is largely in visual effects (for shows including The Flash, Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things), but he was also an executive producer for Netflix’s Lost in Space.

Netflix hasn’t said anything about when Avatar will return for its second season, but it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the changes behind the camera ultimately influence the show. [end-mark]

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News Dune Messiah

Denis Villeneuve Is Doing Dune Messiah

Please ready your best “dune it again” jokes

By Molly Templeton

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Published on April 5, 2024

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There could’ve been an infallible prophecy about this. That’s how inevitable it was. Last year, Denis Villeneuve said he only wanted to do one more Dune movie, making Dune Messiah to close out a trilogy. A wise man, he told Empire, “After that, the books become more… esoteric.”

A third Dune movie wasn’t official until now, in the wake of Dune 2 doing exceedingly well at the box office. And yet the announcement that he and Legendary are developing Dune Messiah was still so much of a foregone conclusion that it is tucked into a Deadline piece about an entirely different movie.

But it’s nice to have a level of certainty!

Dune Messiah takes place some years into Paul Atreides’ rule. As the book synopsis says:

There are political machinations, clones, children, deaths, and more politics. And philosophical musings, too.

It takes a while to make a sandworm saga, so Dune Messiah won’t be on screens any time soon. [end-mark]

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News Among Us

More Among Us Casting Announced, Including Patton Oswalt & Debra Wilson

which one is Benoit Blanc playing?

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 4, 2024

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The series adaptation of Among Us has had a lot of casting announcements over the last few weeks! Today we have even more actors among us who are lending their voices to Among Us.

Among them, according to Deadline, are Patton Oswalt (credits including Manhunt and Ratatouille), Debra Wilson (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League), Phil LaMarr (MADtv), and Wayne Knight (Jurassic Park, Seinfeld).

Here’s a reminder of what the series (and the game) are all about:

What color is the murderer?! With this round of casting, we have four new suspects. Here are their descriptions:

Oswalt will voice ‘White’ – Contest Winner
No trauma, no drama
Task: Someone else will get to it.
Fun Fact: wealth can be a personality trait

Wilson will voice ‘Yellow’ – Ship Cook #1
Indignant, opinionated, prankster
Task: pizza
Fun Fact: Best friends with Brown

LaMarr will voice ‘Brown’- Ship Cook #2
Chill, supportive, accountable
Task: also pizza
Fun Fact: Best friends with Yellow

Knight will voice ‘Lime’ – Engineer
Doomsday prepper, conspiracy theorist
Task: Getting stuff pretty much mostly fixed-ish
Fun Fact: Afraid of intimacy

The animated series comes to us from Owen Dennis, who has an overall deal with CBS Studios. No news yet on what network or streaming platform will house the series, much less when it will premiere. [end-mark]

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News Abigail

New Abigail Trailer Confirms Splitting Up When Hunted by a Child Vampire Is a Bad Idea

also, never taunt a caged vampire

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 4, 2024

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The would-be kidnappers who find themselves trapped in a house with a child-sized vampire don’t seem to be the sharpest tools in the shed. In the latest trailer for Abigail, the group thinks they’ve trapped their future murderer in a cage, but soon find out that they’re the ones trapped, alive only because Abigail likes to play with her food.

The trailer also highlights a second fatal mistake the group makes. They split up! Have they ever, ever watched a horror movie?! Never split up! This decision—and I’m guessing here but I’m pretty sure I’m right—will likely result on more than one of them becoming a snack for the vampirena. (And based on the swamp of bodies we see decaying in the basement in this trailer, it also seems that this house is a place where Abigail regularly dines.)

Abigail stars Melissa Barrera (Scream, In the Heights), Dan Stevens (Godzilla x Kong, Legion), Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Freaky), William Catlett (Black Lightning, True Story), Kevin Durand (Resident Evil: Retribution, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Angus Cloud (Euphoria, North Hollywood) as the kidnappers, and Alisha Weir (Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical, Darklands) as Abigail. The first trailer for Abigail also gave us a glimpse of Giancarlo Esposito, who locks the group inside the house for imminent consumption.

The movie comes to us from Radio Silence, the group behind the latest Scream movies, and premieres in theaters on April 19, 2024.

Check out the trailer below. [end-mark]

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News Star Wars: Tales of the Empire

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire Trailer Sees Morgan Elsbeth & Barriss Offee Grappling with the Dark Side

and is that Lil Grievous we see?

By Vanessa Armstrong

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Published on April 4, 2024

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We’ve got another Star Wars animated series coming our way! This one, Tales of the Empire, centers on two characters we’ve seen before in the Star Wars universe, specifically in Ahsoka and The Clone Wars.

We get a glimpse of both these characters—Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee—in the trailer released today. If you’re confused because these two characters live in different time periods, don’t fret: the series, which is comprised of six shorts, takes place in two respective timelines. In Morgan’s case, it’s well before the events of Ahsoka and chronicles how she becomes involved with Thrawn and the Empire. For Barriss, she’s being recruited to the Dark Side, with the end of the trailer showing her meeting her new boss… Darth Vader!

Here’s the official synopsis:

The voice cast for Tales of the Empire includes Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, Meredith Salenger as Barriss Offee, Rya Kihlstedt as Lyn (a.k.a. Fourth Sister), Wing T. Chao as Wing, Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn, Jason Isaacs as Grand Inquisitor, and Matthew Wood as General Grievous.

Tales of the Empire is created by Dave Filoni (no surprise there, especially since it features two characters he created), who also acted as the supervising director. He along with Athena Yvette Portillo and Carrie Beck executive produced the show.

All six episodes of Tales of the Empire will be unleashed on Disney+ on May 4, 2024.

Check out the trailer below. [end-mark]

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