We’re about done with the first month of the year, and 2024’s biggest game is already here in the form of Palworld. The colloquially named “Pokémon with guns” open-world survival crafting title is dominating both Steam and Twitch in spite of the controversy it’s courted, particularly around similarities in monster…
Nearly two years have gone by since we heard that Apple TV+ had ordered a sci-fi psychological thriller series called Constellation, with Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) and Jonathan Banks (Beverly Hills Cop) on board to star in the show. The show has since made its way through production and is now ready to start streaming on February 21st – and with that date just one month away, a trailer for Constellation has arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above.
Created by Peter Harness, whose previous credits include the 2019 period piece The War of the Worlds mini-series and episodes of Wallander and Doctor Who, Constellation is described as being a “conspiracy-based psychological space adventure that explores the dark edges of human psychology”.
The show follows one woman’s desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and for her to recover all that she has lost. Rapace’s character is Jo, “a woman who returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing.”
Rapace and Banks are joined in the cast by James D’Arcy (Agent Carter), Julian Looman (The Mallorca Files), William Catlett (Force of Nature), and Barbara Sukowa (Two of Us).
Michelle MacLaren, who has previously worked with Banks on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, directed the first two episodes of Constellation. This is her third series for Apple TV+, following Shining Girls and The Morning Show. MacLaren will also be executive producing the show alongside Harness, David Tanner, Tracey Scoffield, Caroline Benjo, Simon Arnal, Carole Scotta, Justin Thomson, and Rebecca Hobbs. Constellation is coming to us from Turbine Studios and Haut et Court TV. In addition to MacLaren, the directors were Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) and Joseph Cedar (Norman).
The first three episodes of Constellation will be available to watch on Apple TV+ as of February 21st. The remaining episodes will be released on a weekly basis, with a new episode showing up each Wednesday.
What did you think of the Constellation trailer? Will you be watching this show when it reaches Apple TV+? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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This week is getting started on a sad note, as it has been confirmed that David Emge – who played the role of Stephen, a.k.a. “Flyboy” in one of the greatest horror movies ever made, George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (get it HERE) – has passed away at the age of 77.
Pierre Funeral Home provides the following obituary for Emge: David Michael Emge, 77, of Evansville, Indiana, passed away Saturday, January 20, 2024 at the West River Health Campus.
David was born September 9, 1946 in Evansville to the late Richard Andrew and Gertrude Mary (Wipf) Emge. He was a member of the Boy Scout Troop at Sacred Heart and a proud Eagle Scout. David studied drama at the University of Evansville and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While attending U of E, David was drafted into the United States Army and served during the Vietnam War. David began his acting career on stage at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in 1971 and made his film debut in the lowbrow comedy The Booby Hatch. He briefly lived in Washington, D.C., where he performed in dinner theatre. In 1976, he moved to New York City. He was working as a chef in New York when he was cast as the helicopter pilot, Stephen, in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. He was also cast in two other movies, Basket Case 2 and Hellmaster.
Surviving David are three sisters, Sue (Bob) Berry, Kathleen (Bob) Wittgen and Barbara (Allen) Rexing and many nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. In addition to his parents, Dave was preceded in death by sisters, Sr. Judith Emge, OSB and Mary Pat Smead and brothers, Charles, Richard, Walter, Melvin Emge and by and infant brother, Wayne Emge.
Our sincere condolences go out to David Emge’s family, friends, and fans – and if you would like to send condolences directly to them as well, than can be done at the Pierre Funeral Home link.
Dawn of the Dead is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I have enjoyed watching David Emge’s performance as Stephen / Flyboy many times over the decades. I’m familiar with The Booby Hatch and Basket Case 2 as well, but I’ve never seen Hellmaster. I’ll need to seek that one out to have a first time viewing in memory of Emge.
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Even before it entered Early Access on January 19, Pocketpair’s monster-collecting survival game Palworld was widely being referred to as “Pokémon With Guns.” But mere days after launch, modders have already taken steps to really drive the comparison home by adding actual Pokémon characters to the mix.
Even before it entered Early Access on January 19, Pocketpair’s monster-collecting survival game Palworld was widely being referred to as “Pokémon With Guns.” But mere days after launch, modders have already taken steps to really drive the comparison home by adding actual Pokémon characters to the mix.
The long-awaited third entry in the Tron franchise is finally heading into production. Six years after it was first announced that Jared Leto was in talks to star in a Tron project called Tron: Ares, the movie was all set to start filming last August – but then it had to wait out the writers and actors strikes. With those strikes over, the production is ready to go now – and Deadline reports that The X-Files star Gillian Anderson has signed on to join the cast. Details on the character she’ll be playing have not been revealed.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales director Joachim Rønning is at the helm of Tron: Ares. In addition to Leto and Anderson, the film also stars Evan Peters (Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Cameron Monaghan (Gotham), Sarah Desjardins (Yellowjackets), and Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim). We’ve also heard a rumor that Cillian Murphy might be reprising his Tron: Legacy role to be the villain in this film.
Scripted by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, Tron: Ares is said to tell the story of the emergence of a sentient program that crosses over into the human world that is not ready for contact. Leto is playing Ares, “the manifestation of the program.” As Deadline puts it, Ares is “a fictional character who crosses over from the world of videogames to planet Earth.”
For twenty-eight years, director Steven Lisberger’s cult classic Tron was a standalone sci-fi adventure. Then in 2010 Joseph Kosinski took fans back to the world of Tron with the film Tron: Legacy – and since then things have been a bit messy. Kosinski wanted to make a third Tron film, to be called Tron: Ascension, but Disney cancelled the project when their movie Tomorrowland underperformed. Apparently the script for Tron: Ascension would have featured a character named Ares… and somehow the idea for that character has evolved into Tron: Ares. Kosinski had said that he had nearly given Leto a cameo in Tron: Legacy, in the End of Line club where Lisberger did make a cameo.
Leto is producing Tron: Ares with Emma Ludbrook and Jeffrey Springer. Russell Allen serves as executive producer.
Are you interested in Tron: Ares? What do you think of Gillian Anderson joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Glen Powell’s star is on the rise since his fun, antagonistic performance in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. You can currently see him steaming up the screen with Sydney Sweeney in Anyone But You, plus he’s due to chase storms in the semi-sequel Twisters, and you can also now get a look at him in the new Richard Linklater film, Hit Man. While the generic-sounding title seemingly leads you to a kind of film you think you may have seen already, much like the similarly titled The Killer from David Fincher that starred Michael Fassbender as a hitman, the trailer is actually mysteriously an upbeat, fun romp with loads of critical praise plastered throughout. Glen Powell stars in the film as well as co-writing the screenplay with director Richard Linklater.
The trailer has been released from Netflix and the synopsis reads,
“A mild-mannered psychology professor (Glen Powell) interested in electronics takes a sideline bugging undercover cops in sting operations, specializing in setting up phony hits. When the usual undercover guy is suspended, he’s enlisted to pose as a hitman. He turns out to be a natural at undercover work, with the police using him to entrap people taking out contracts. Things get complicated when he falls for an abused wife (Adria Arjona) wanting to take out her husband.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, “Hit Man is based on a 2001Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth, whose journalism previously inspired another Linklater movie, Bernie.” Linklater told EW, “I asked Skip, ‘Is it true?’ And he goes, ‘There’s never been a case of someone arrested for being a hitman.’ That was 2001, so I have followed really closely over the years. Whenever I see an article about someone getting arrested for taking out a hit, I check it, and it’s always another person getting arrested by an undercover officer. But no one ever figures out from there that hitmen don’t exist.” Linklater remarked on what set his film apart from other contract killer movies, “We deconstruct the hitman film. Isn’t that funny? Those films are basically crime dramas, but we’re the one based on real events — and we’re a comedy!”
Our own Chris Bumbray glowed about this movie in his film review from the Toronto International Film Festival, saying, “Notably, despite being a movie about killing, the film is pretty non-violent and charming. If there was ever a feel-good movie to be made about murder-for-hire, this is it.” You can read the rest of his review HERE.
Hit Man is set to premiere on Netflix in select countries on Friday, June 7, after a limited theatrical release.
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I don’t know of many Christmas horror adaptations. Sure, I could probably look at the history of Krampus and piece something together but other than that I’m hard pressed so let me know in the comments what I could cover next holiday season. Winter in general has all sorts of movies and stories that they are based off of. The very first episode of this show was all about The Thing and its source material Who Goes There and now in the middle of winter, at least in Colorado, I think it’s time to look at one of the better vampire properties of the 2000s and a great limited series comic. 30 Days of Night was originally pitched as a movie but when it was turned down, the comic came out and put the author’s name on the map. As is the nature of Hollywood, it got adapted into a movie anyway and even received a direct to video sequel a little bit after. Both are dark, gritty, original pieces of media but how close does the movie stick to its pulpy counterpart? Find a place to hold up for 30 days of night as we find out what happened to this adaptation.
The Movie
The journey for 30 Days of Night (watch it HERE) was not an easy one. The original concept from author Steve Niles was pitched as a comic but there were no takers. He then tried to move it as a film or TV property which also fell through. After he had to shelve the idea for a time, publisher IDW came around and wanted to publish the idea as a limited miniseries of comic books. Once it was a published property, Niles found it much easier to shop the idea around. There was bidding on it and finally horror royalty Sam Raimi won the rights to make an adaptation of it in 2002. His company that would later become Ghost House hired Niles to write the screenplay which was completed in March of 2004. The next month he was asked to re-write it and Stuart Beattie was brought in to do an additional draft which Niles ended up really liking.
Director David Slade was attached to the movie in September of 2005 with yet another writer brought in to do yet another script in March of 2006. Brian Nelson’s script was approved and the movie was shot that summer. Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, and Danny Huston were the lead cast members but it also starred Ben Foster, Mark Boone Junior, and Mark Rendall. Rendall made his debut in kids TV that included a sizable chunk of time on Arthur and for horror also appeared in the incredible TV adaptation of Hannibal. He still does quite a bit of TV into the early 2020s. Mark Boone Junior has become one of the best THAT GUY character actors we have. Depending on the type of stuff you watch, you could know him from his best-known property of Sons of Anarchy or like me know him from that time he was split down the middle in John Carpenter’s Vampires. Ben Foster is a powerhouse of a performer that I feel doesn’t get enough credit. He’s incredible in 3:10 to Yuma and Hell or High Water and for horror showed up in things like Pandorum and the Dead Zone TV series.
Danny Huston is another fantastic actor that I don’t think gets discussed enough and is wonderful as the main vampire here. He is also in The Number 23 and American Horror Story for us gore fans and great other movies like Children of Men and The Proposition to name a couple that I really like. Josh Hartnett has had an interesting career that has come back into focus with his part in Oppenheimer but started his career in Halloween H20. He has worked in Penny Dreadful, The Faculty, and Black Dahlia with a ton of other movies thrown in too. Finally, Melissa George is an Australian actress who I first saw in Dark City but is also great in Alias, The Amityville Horror, and a cool indie horror called Triangle. Behind the camera, director David Slade was a music video guy first, but his movie Hard Candy really got him noticed and three years after this movie, he directed an entirely different type of vampire movie with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Stuart Beattie also wrote Collateral and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie while Brian Nelson also did Hard Candy and Devil. The movie opened in October of 2007 and received decent reviews but more importantly 75 million on its 30-million-dollar budget.
The Story
30 Days of Night started out as a 3 issue short series written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith. IDW is the publisher, and all 3 entities own the rights to the IP. As stated above it was shopped first as a comic and then as a movie before coming back around as a comic again. Steve Niles hadn’t done too much up to the release of 30 Days of Night but did write a graphic novel adaptation of Richard Matheson’s seminal I Am Legend which became popular again after the release of today’s work. He really took off and published 12 titles in 3 years after the release of Night and worked steadily into 2020. Templesmith has worked with Niles on a few other projects but also worked heavily on the 30 Days of Night universe. He is a multi-Eisner award nominee and has done other things like game books and what I didn’t know at the time but found out after doing the research is he did one of my favorite Dead Space graphic novels too.
The actual 30 Days of Night property has done very well for itself. It had 10 comic collections released between 2002 and 2009, two film adaptations, an audio adaptation, a novelization of the movie, and two mini-series added after the fact too.
What is the Same?
The story takes place in the Alaskan town of Barrow where the residents prepare for the time of year where darkness rules for nearly 30 days. Sherrif Eben starts finding strange things happening around the town such as all cellular phones being destroyed and the appearance of a vagrant stranger to the town who warns the residents but also is the one that scouted ahead and led a group of killers to their town. It turns out that this group of killers is actually a group of vampires led by Marlow who decided to take advantage of the long-lasting darkness to feed on the poor residents of barrow. They also take out some of the power stations and slowly close in on the rest of the townsfolk who hide away and slowly get picked off one by one.
Sheriff Eben decides that there is really no other way to deal with the vampires than becoming one himself and injects some of their blood into his own stream. He turns but has enough humanity left to realize he needs to take out the vampire group and goes for their leader. After a fight in which some of the other vampires are killed too, Eben emerges victorious and saves the remaining townsfolk before admitting he doesn’t want to remain the undead forever. He sits with his wife Stella and watches the sunrise only to die like vampires do. In addition to the basic overall plot with mostly similar names, the movie and book share a very similar dark tone. The art style of the comic is almost minimalist in what it shows while still being an incredibly violent and gory piece of literature. The movie matches this tone with the vampires looking lifeless but simultaneously brutal. There is a washed-out tone that fits with the forever night feeling.
What is different?
A surprising amount was changed here considering both how shorth the source material is and the fact that the author had a lot to do with the movie. The book stranger that comes into town seems to be almost vampire already and is killed by Eben and his team while in the movie, he talks about how he expects the vampires to turn him and make him one of their pack. He is also killed by Marlow when the vampires go to investigate the jail. Marlow in the movie is the leader of the vampire crew but in the comics, he is actually killed by Vicente who comes to Barrow to clean up the mess that Marlow has made. He finds out about the mission through emails and there is a whole other group that is trying to prove the existence of vampires. Eben kills Vicente in the climactic fight instead of Marlow.
The movie also focuses on a handful of other side human characters while the comics just focus on the vampire’s story and lore and Eben and Stella on the human side. Speaking of Stella and Eben. In the Comics they are happily together but the movie adaptation has them separated and Stella almost getting out of dodge on the last flight before missing it and coming back. Ebens family is also a much stronger presence in the movie and ties back to what I said about the other characters getting more screen time and story. This gives the movie much higher stakes in my opinion and is almost more tragic as we care about the people of Barrow and their families more on screen.
Legacy
This is a tough one because if we are just talking about legacy in terms of entries, the comic has the movie beat by a mile. It’s universe was expanded by multiple authors and the lore of the vampires within creates an entire universe to explore. The movie got a direct to video sequel that really isn’t too bad and sits in a weird time for vampire movies with it’s ultra violence being juxtaposed with the Twilight movies romantic teenager nonsense. When I think about which one I prefer, I go with the movie. While the comic is much deeper and a good, original story, its also just a lot to get through and keeps asking new questions with each new entry. The movie is a solid snow/winter tale that I can just throw on without much thought and is a fun movie to recommend to people looking for something a little different. It expands enough on the story in it’s relatively lengthy runtime of 114 minutes while delivering on the gore and monster action we crave. The comic is good, original, and extensive but the movie is just a lot more fun to get through.
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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Soon after the release of M3GAN back in January, it was announced that the team behind the film – Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and James Wan’s production company Atomic Monster – were aiming to replicate M3GAN‘s January theatrical success by setting a January 2024 release date for their supernatural thriller Night Swim. The movie reached theatres at the start of this month – and didn’t manage to go over as well or get as much attention as M3GAN did. While M3GAN earned over $180 million during its theatrical run, Night Swim (read our review HERE, check out our Night Swim interviews HERE) has only pulled in about $37 million at this point. Now the movie is heading to the small screen, as it’s getting a VOD and digital release this week, on January 23rd. If you want to watch the movie in the comfort of your own home tomorrow, it will set you back $29.99 on Amazon.
Bryce McGuire wrote and directed Night Swim, which is based on a short film he made with Rod Blackhurst back in 2014. The feature version of the story is built around the hidden source of terror found in an iconic backyard swimming pool. The film has the following logline: No running. No diving. No lifeguard on duty. No swimming after dark.
Here’s the synopsis: Ray Waller, a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, moves into a new home with his concerned wife Eve, teenage daughter Izzy, and young son Elliot. Secretly hoping, against the odds, to return to pro ball, Ray persuades Eve that the new home’s shimmering backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids and provide physical therapy for him. But a dark secret in the home’s past will unleash a malevolent force that will drag the family under, into the depths of inescapable terror.
The feature version of Night Swim stars Wyatt Russell (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin), Amélie Hoeferle (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), and Gavin Warren (Fear the Walking Dead).
James Wan and Blumhouse founder Jason Blum are producing Night Swim while working on merging their companies. Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear and Judson Scott serve as executive producers alongside Blumhouse’s Ryan Turek. Alayna Glasthal is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster.
The 2014 short film version of the story starred Megalyn Echikunwoke (Night School 2018) and had the following synopsis: What better way to relax after a hectic day in the office than a long and cool night swim under the stars? Immersed in the aqueous element like a fetus inside the mother’s womb, the unsuspecting Eve enjoys the water in the privacy of her house; however, she is not alone. Apart from Margot, her cat, an intangible menace in the form of a shadowy night watcher observes from afar–invisible like the midnight breeze, yet very real. Is Eve in danger? Is this her last dive? It had a running time of just 4 minutes.
Will you be watching Night Swim now that it’s getting a VOD and digital release? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and if you have already seen the movie, let us know what you thought of it!
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Brotherhood is a theme so overt in Final Fantasy XV that it’s the title of the game’s five-episode prequel anime. An outlier in a series that usually leverages expansive and diverse casts, FF15 instead focuses entirely on a road trip with four lads. Tehy spend most of their time cruising around in a convertible,…