Horror heavyweight Eli Roth is best known for spine-tingling flicks like Hostel and Cabin Fever, but he's dabbled in the world of television before. Last year, Roth executive-produced all 13 episodes of Netflix's Hemlock Grove, a show that, despite its mixed reception, has been renewed for a second season (due to drop this July). Now, with his long-anticipated The Green Inferno primed to hit theaters in September, Roth is jumping back into the small screen for South of Hell.
Though the mixed success of its three most recent releases, Cars 2, Brave and Monsters University, have caused some to wonder whether Pixar's golden age has drawn to a close, there's no denying that the animation giant has turned out some of the greatest family films of all time in its 28 years of existence. And with next summer's Inside Out, many are hoping that Pixar is gearing up for a creative resurgence. Now, an updated plot synopsis for the film has hit the web, and it sounds pretty exciting.
One of the 35 movies we're most excited about this summer is definitely action thriller Lucy, directed by Luc Besson (the super-producer behind action classic La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element) and starring Captain America: The Winter Soldier actress Scarlett Johannson. It's rare to see a female-led action thriller positioned as a summer tentpole, but that's what Universal has done with Lucy, which the studio just shifted up from its previously announced August 8th release date to July 25th.
Blumhouse Productions is best known for its horror work, having produced the Paranormal Activity and Insidious franchises, in addition to a slew of hugely successful horror flicks including Sinister, The Purge and Oculus. However, Blumhouse is beginning to step outside of that one genre, with news that it is moving forward with revenge Western In A Valley of Violence and has recruited Oculus star Karen Gillan for the lead role.
This week, audiences will finally get the chance to see Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West, the Family Guy funnyman's cinematic follow-up to 2012's smash hit Ted. At this point, it would be very surprising if the film didn't do well at the box office. Whether the comedy Western succeeds with critics, however, is a different question entirely.
I was completely enamored with the first two installments of Penny Dreadful, which established the show as a sexy, scary showcase for some tremendous performers - especially Eva Green as the mysterious Vanessa Ives. This week's episode, "Resurrection," busies itself with fleshing out a cohesive backstory for The Creature (Rory Kinnear), a character introduced ub the whiplash-inducing conclusion of "Séance," and the show suffers slightly as a result. As such, I have to say that "Resurrection" disappointed me quite a bit, though the episode isn't without its strengths.
Whether you have a good time with Pompeii depends entirely on what you demand from it. This historical disaster epic is loaded with CGI destructo-porn and thrilling action sequences but falls almost unbelievably short in the heart department. For many audience members, that will be perfectly acceptable.
I'm beyond pumped for The Strain, FX's vampire horror thriller series which premieres this July. Based on the bestselling trilogy by horror maestro Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and author Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves, which was adapted into The Town), the series will explore the high-stakes (sorry, couldn't resist) battle between a group of scientists and the evil creatures responsible for unleashing a deadly virus in New York City, one which turns the afflicted into vampiric monsters.
I was not a fan of Skyline, a 2010 alien invasion flick from The Brothers Strause (Alien vs. Predator: Requiem) which failed to add much of anything to its genre. Though trailers, which showed people getting sucked up by eery blue beams of light, were moderately intriguing, the final product was lazy and awfully written (audiences agreed, giving it a D- CinemaScore rating). Regardless, the flick grossed $70 million worldwide against a budget of $10 million, more than enough to justify a sequel. And now, with the announcement of the newly-named Beyond Skyline, we'll be getting one.
After Gawker's leaked script threw a massive monkey wrench into Quentin Tarantino's plans to direct The Hateful Eight, it's still unclear what the director's next project will be. The Hateful Eight lawsuit was dropped, a star-studded live reading took place and insider rumors suggested that Tarantino was ready to again move forward with the film. However, at a Cannes press conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of his landmark Pulp Fiction, the director was mostly silent about The Hateful Eight. Instead, he let slip that he was actually mulling a return to one of his previous films: slavery western Django Unchained.
