Are there any Stephen King novels left to adapt? We’ve got news about three stories from the Kingverse being developed, but we’ve also got big news about the new Zach Cregger, Nick Cassavetes, and Osgood Perkins films, the re-release of an absolute classic, and a whole lot more.
An exceedingly tatted-up Maika Monroe and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau run afoul of a Satanic cult in Nick Cassavetes’ latest, God Is A Bullet, and we have the latest trailer for the film here.
Co-starring Jamie Foxx, January Jones, Paul Johansson, David Thornton, Jonathan Tucker, Ethan Suplee, and Brendan Sexton III, God is a Bullet tells the story of “detective Bob Hightower (Coster-Waldau), who finds his ex-wife murdered and his daughter kidnapped by an insidious cult. With the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin (Monroe), Bob and Case go down the rabbit hole with The Ferryman (Jamie Foxx) to save his daughter and find closure for Case from the cult – and its maniacal leader (Karl Glusman) – that took so much away from her.”
Check out the trailer for God Is A Bullet ahead of its theatrical release on June 23, 2023! The film will also have a digital release on July 11.
James Wan’s Atomic Monster will be producing an adaptation of the classic Stephen King short story The Monkey, according to Deadline this week. Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel, Longlegs) will direct and Theo James will star.
In the story, “twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.”
James Wan shared a statement about the project which stated that “The Monkey is a personal favorite, with its simple, iconic, and incredibly marketable conceit. And I can’t imagine anyone better than a visionary and lifelong genre fan like Osgood to bring this to life.”
We’ve got a sneak peek at the production of Andy Muschietti’s IT prequel series which is set to land on MAX. Sent via Muchietti’s Instagram, the behind-the-scenes image depicts the office of police chief Clint Bowers, who of course shares a last name with the sniveling Henry Bowers from the movies who bullies the Losers Club and murders his abusive father Butch (also a Derry police officer).
Welcome to Derry is set 20 years before the IT novel, which takes place in 1989. It’s set to explore the origins of Pennywise the Clown and the dark past of the town of Derry. Bill Skarsgard will not play Pennywise, but so far the cast will include Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, James Remar, Chris Chalk, Madeleine Stowe, and Stephen Rider. All we know about the release date is that it’s set for MAX in 2024, though the ongoing writers strike may push that back.
In the last of our Stephen King trifecta this week, Deadline announced that King’s short story The Life of Chuck from 2020’s If It Bleeds anthology will be adapted by Mike Flanagan. M-Flan, as he prefers to be called, is no stranger to the anthology, having adapted Mr Harrigan’s Phone last year.
In even bigger news, Flanagan has signed up both Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill to star in the project. The concept is “three separate stories linked to tell the biography of Charles Krantz (Hiddleston) in reverse, beginning with his death from a brain tumor at 39 and ending with his childhood in a supposedly haunted house.” Flanagan is both writing and directing.
Moving away from the Kingverse, our pals at Raven Banner will be distributing a new horror from John Pata called Black Mold. It stars Agnes Albright and Andrew Bailes as artists who infiltrate off-limits areas. “When they break into Franklin Hill, a large facility with history, they encounter a volatile threat that holds them captive. The longer the friends are held at the facility the more they realise something is very wrong with the place.”
The hallucinogenic horror had its premiere at Panic Fest last month and received positive reviews. Check out a clip from Black Mold!
Netflix dropped some news this week that a sequel to Galder Gaztelu-Irrutia’s 2020 sci-fi horror The Platform is on the way. In the movie, a vertical prison contains a platform of food which begins at the top floor and descends, meaning that less and less is available once the mechanism reaches the bottom.
Gaztelu-Irrutia will direct the sequel. We don’t have any details about the plot yet, but I thought the first Platform was an outstanding social satire and I’m interested to see where the story goes from here.
Speaking of Netflix, after dropping a trailer for the sixth season of Black Mirror a couple weeks ago, we now have episode titles and summaries for each of the five titles in this year’s edition, which premieres next month on the streaming service.
- Joan is Awful
“The story of an average woman who is stunned to discover a global streaming platform has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life, in which she is portrayed by Hollywood A-lister Salma Hayek. In addition to Hayek, the episode stars Annie Murphy, Michael Cera, Rob Delaney, Ben Barnes, and Himesh Patel. The episode’s directed by Ally Pankiw.”
- Loch Henry
“A young couple travel to a sleepy Scottish town to work on a genteel nature documentary but find themselves drawn to a juicy local story involving shocking events from the past. It stars Samuel Blenkin, Myha’la Herrold, Daniel Portman, John Hannah, and Monica Dolan.”
- Beyond the Sea
“Takes place in an alternate 1969, where two men on a perilous high-tech mission wrestle with the consequences of an unimaginable tragedy. Directed by John Crowley, it stars Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Auden Thornton, and Rory Culkin.”
- Mazey Day
“Directed by Uta Briesewitz, a troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the consequences of a hit-and-run incident. It stars Zazie Beetz, Clara Rugaard, and Danny Ramirez.”
- Demon 79
“Takes place in northern England in 1979, where a meek sales assistant is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent disaster. It stars Anjana Vasan, Paapa Essiedu, Katherine Rose Morley, and David Shields. It’s directed by Toby Haynes.”
We’ve reported on Weapons, Zach Cregger’s follow-up to Barbarian a couple of times now, and our latest update is that everyone’s favourite daddy Pedro Pascal will be heading up the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cregger is writing and directing this one, and New Line will be handling the release.
One of my favourite trailers this week comes from the upcoming Poor Things from Yorgos Lanthimos. What looks to be his most ostentatious project yet, the film stars Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in what is rumoured to be a Frankenstein-esque story set in the future.
Poor Things is “the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”
Check out the trailer for Poor Things ahead of its theatrical release on September 8 from Fox Searchlight.
Finally, in some of the biggest news of the week, the re-release of Park Chan-Wook’s classic Oldboy is set to hit theatres on August 16 from NEON Films. Just in time for the film’s 20th anniversary, NEON is hitting us with a restored and remastered print of the stone-cold classic.
Oldboy stars Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung, Ji Dae-han, Kim Byeong-ok, and Yoon Jin-seo. It follows Oh Dae-su, a South Korean businessman who has been kidnapped and forced into captivity for fifteen years. He’s released without any warning or explanation, and vows to track down both his captors and his daughter who may have forgotten about him. The film builds to a climax that has burned itself into the minds of filmgoers for two decades, mine included.
Check out the trailer for Oldboy, which looks like it could’ve been released this year from the quality of NEON’s restoration.
