After a dearth of enjoyable frightfests this summer, October should reward horror aficionados for their patience with a slew of promising titles. V/H/S Viral, Ouija, Housebound, Stonehearst Asylum, The ABCs of Death 2 and Horns will all be competing for moviegoers' screams, but one title in particular seems to have the best shot at breaking out at the box office - Annabelle, a spinoff from horror hit The Conjuring that finds new characters menaced by the titular doll.
Though she's still undoubtedly best known for her role as lovelorn teenager Bella Swan in the blockbuster Twilight franchise, Kristen Stewart has been taking big steps to showcase her dramatic chops in recent years. First, in between the penultimate and final entries of that supernatural romance saga, she brought free-spirited Marylou to life in a surprisingly strong adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Then, Stewart went full action heroine for Snow White & the Huntsman, a mediocre title boosted by her convincing work.
Miles Teller seems to want to have it both ways. In recent years, the talented actor has taken on a host of great dramatic projects like Rabbit Hole, The Spectacular Now and the upcoming Whiplash, for which he's drawing rave reviews. However, he has also starred in a slew of less ambitious, almost lazy comedies like 21 & Over, Project X and That Awkward Moment. Which category will his upcoming romantic comedy Two Night Stand fall into? I think we all know the answer to that.
We've already seen one stunningly good film about Philippe Petit's illegal walk between the World Trade Center towers in James Marsh's Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire, and now we may be getting another. Next fall, Robert Zemeckis will unveil The Walk, which dramatizes the events of Petit's book To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers with 50/50 star Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing the daredevil.
Has an overabundance of vampire-centric movies and TV shows sucked all the life from bloodsuckers? Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Brian Grazer are hoping for a firm no on that one, having just grabbed the rights to every entry in horror author Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles in a rather massive deal.
They've sailed the high seas with Captain Jack Sparrow, put their d**ks in a box, sported killer turtlenecks and chains, and just had sex - now, musical comedy trio The Lonely Island, comprised of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, are making a movie. Universal has picked up the project, set in the world of music, which the three will star in and produce.
In an extremely unfortunate turn of events we didn't expect to see, Eli Roth's highly anticipated The Green Inferno, the horror helmer's first directorial effort in six years, has been unceremoniously dumped from its previously planned September 5th release date. Now, it appears that the film may not hit theaters in the near future, if ever.
Lately, there has been next to no news about Bond 24, which is currently set to arrive next November, but that may be changing in the coming weeks now that screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have been recruited to punch up writer John Logan's script, a reversal of the situation on Skyfall, where Logan was enlisted to tweak a treatment by Purvis and Wade. Despite the massive success of Skyfall, the still untitled Bond 24, which director Sam Mendes calls a continuation of the last film, has been a long time coming. Now, we're hearing that producers may finally be zeroing in on a new Bond Girl.
"You know what this is like - this is like one of those '80s movies." No one could accuse writer-director Jesse Zwick of being absent-minded in putting together About Alex; this is one indie that wears its main inspiration - The Big Chill - on its sleeve, like a beloved accessory. Luckily, Zwick's knack for naturalistic dialogue, coupled with his easily charming cast, is more than enough to make up for the film's lack of originality. While it covers familiar ground, About Alex still feels decidedly comfortable and easy to slip into.
With True Detective poised to provide serious competition for awards heavyweight Breaking Bad at this year's Emmys, neither HBO nor creator Nic Pizzolatto were too happy yesterday when accusations of plagiarism were lobbied at Pizzolatto. A rather detailed report over at The Lovecraft E-zine highlighted extensive similarities between scripts for the first season of True Detective and Thomas Ligotti's "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race," with other works including ones by William S. Burroughs and Alan Moore also noted in the site's argument.
