It can’t rain all the time…Even less frequent are 30th anniversary celebrations. But this month, Cinemark will be honoring one of the best films of 1994 — which is really saying something — by releasing The Crow back into theaters for a special engagement.
Cinemark recently announced that Alex Proyas’ adaptation of James O’Barr’s gothic comic series The Crow is being resurrected for the big screen on May 29th and 30th, just two weeks after its official 30th anniversary. The presentation is part of the “Scream Greats Series” courtesy of Paramount Scares and Fangoria.
The Crow would take in $50.6 at the domestic box office, positioning it as one of the highest-grossing R-rated movies of 1994. On opening weekend it grossed $11.8 million, making it number one, no doubt partly due to interest in the accidental shooting death of star Brandon Lee, whose own father Bruce also died prematurely (at 32). Brandon Lee was just 28 when he died as a result of an unfortunate shooting incident on the set, a tragedy that put The Crow back into the spotlight following the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Huthcins on the set of Rust.
1994’s The Crow would also have some renewed interest due to the upcoming version starring Bill Skarsgård as Eric Draven. But that movie has generated far less buzz than the studio and filmmakers hoped, with even original director Proyas criticizing the look of Skarsgård’s Draven. This version has been developing in some form or another for more than 15 years…and while it could surprise us, it’s probably safe to say that Rupert Sanders’ movie won’t be celebrated 30 years on.
Here is The Crow’s official synopsis, as per Cinemark: “The modern-gothic original that entranced audiences and critics alike, The Crow tells the tale of a young musician brutally murdered alongside his beloved fiancée, only to be risen from the grave by a mysterious crow. Seeking revenge, he battles a criminal underground that must answer for its crimes. Adapted from the comic book saga of the same name, this action-packed thriller from director Alex Proyas (Dark City) features hypnotic style, dazzling visuals, and a soulful performance by the late Brandon Lee.”
Are you a fan of 1994’s The Crow? Will you be checking it out when it hits Cinemark later this month?
Universal Pictures and Peacock forked over an amount somewhere in the range of $400 million to acquire the rights to distribute a trilogy of sequels to the 1973 classic The Exorcist, which we’re going to another collaboration between Blumhouse Productions and director David Gordon Green (who recently delivered a trilogy of Halloween sequels), they were definitely expecting the first entry in the new trilogy to go over better with audiences than The Exorcist: Believer did when it was released last October. (You can read our 4/10 review HERE.) The box office numbers were okay, the movie pulled in $137 million on a $30 million budget, but Universal was hoping for a lot better than “okay,” and viewer reactions were largely negative. Soon after the release of Believer, we heard that Universal and Blumhouse still intended to carry out the trilogy, but the follow-ups would be reworked – and Green had left the project. Now it looks like they’ve found the director who will be taking Green’s place on the next sequel, as Deadline reports that Mike Flanagan is in talks to direct the film.
Flanagan has a strong following in the horror community, as his previous credits include Absentia, Oculus, Hush, Before I Wake, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald’s Game, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher. He just finished post-production on his latest Stephen King adaption, the non-horror film The Life of Chuck.
While Universal and Blumhouse still expect to make two more Exorcist movies beyond The Exorcist: Believer, Deadline wasn’t able to find out if Flanagan is in negotiations to direct both of those films or just one. At one time, the first sequel had been given the title The Exorcist: Deceiver and it was scheduled to reach theatres on April 18, 2025, but it was removed from Universal’s release schedule when The Exorcist: Believer turned out to be a disappointment. So Flanagan won’t have to aim for a release date that’s just eleven months away. On his Letterboxd profile, Flanagan has both the original The Exorcist and The Exorcist III on his list of favorite horror movies.
Green had already worked out the screenplay for The Exorcist: Deceiver before he ditched the trilogy, but whatever he had planned was likely scrapped in favor of re-developing and trying to deliver an Exorcist movie that audiences will like better than Believer. After Green left, producer Jason Blum even said he had “no idea” what the next sequel is going to be. Now they’re turning to Flanagan to answer that question for them.
What do you think of the idea of Mike Flanagan directing the next Exorcist sequel? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
I didn’t like what David Gordon Green did with his Halloween trilogy, so I had no interest in his Exorcist trilogy. A Mike Flanagan Exorcist sequel? Now that’s something I’m interested in seeing.
The Dark Knight trilogy is one of the finest superhero franchises out there, and while The Dark Knight Rises did close the book on Christian Bale’s Batman, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan would eagerly return for more.
Jonathan Nolan, who co-wrote both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, was asked by Showsha if he’d like to return to the Batman franchise. “Wouldn’t that be a dream?” Nolan said. “That period was 10 years of my life [from] when I got the call to work on Batman Begins, and it was epic. Working with Christian [Bale], Heath [Ledger], Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and to honor an American icon. If I had the chance to go back and work on that again? Absolutely.“
Getting that bang back together would be a tall order, as Nolan admitted, “We’ve moved onto other things,” and “other people have picked up the mantel and moved on with those characters.” Following the conclusion of The Dark Knight trilogy, Ben Affleck took on the role of Batman, beginning with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and continuing with appearances in The Suicide Squad, Justice League, and The Flash. Robert Pattinson then took on the role for The Batman and will reprise the role in The Batman Part II, due to hit theaters in 2026. Another actor is set to play the character in The Brave and the Bold for the new DC Universe.
Whether Jonathan Nolan ever returns to the Batman franchise remains to be seen, but he’s currently busy with the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. Nolan executive produced the series and also directed the first three episodes. Based on the video game series from Bethesda Game Studios, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them. The series stars Ella Purnell as Lucy, an optimistic Vault-dweller; Aaron Moten as Maximus, a young soldier looking to advance in the Brotherhood of Steel; and Walton Goggins as Cooper Howard, a legendary Ghoul who still retains some of the person he used to be.
The series is the second most-watched title on Prime Video (behind only The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) and was quickly renewed for a second season.
Cocaine Bear surprised everyone with its box office haul. For fans of animal attack movies, this is not a shock. People love animal attack films and can’t get enough of them. I’m not sure if it’s the man vs. nature theme of the films, the animals themselves getting revenge on humans, or just the all-around fun these films bring. No matter what, they are enjoyable for audiences in theaters. There has been a long history of animals attacking humans on film. Some films that are classified as ‘classic’ cinema fall into the animal attack category. We can always use more movies of animals rampaging through humans on the big screen. What are some of the best animal attack movies?
Since bears seem to be on everyone’s brain this weekend; then we might as well start with this classic. A fifteen-foot tall grizzly bear kills hikers and campers in a state park. When the supervisor refuses to close the park (sound familiar?), a park ranger and a military helicopter pilot take it upon themselves to kill the giant bear. This horror film has lots of bear savagery, which makes it a favorite among animal attack fans.
When the Earth’s ozone layer begins to be depleted, animals above five thousand feet start to act aggressively. Their rage focuses on any human that comes in contact with them. Before a quarantine can be implemented, a group of hikers is dropped off on a mountain. Now they have to descend the mountain to get to safety, but can they trust each other? Leslie Nielsen, Christopher George, and Lynda Day George play the hikers fighting off animals.
From the novel of the same name written by Stephen King. A woman takes the family car to a mechanic. With her husband out of town, she takes their son Tad with her. She doesn’t know that the family Saint Bernard has gone rabid and killed everyone it has come in contact with. Now she is trapped in her broken-down car while the summer sun beats down on them. No one else knows they are stuck there. They have little chance of being rescued. The St Bernard keeps trying to get inside the car, so she has to protect herself and her son. It’s an interesting single-location thriller. There are talks about remaking the film, but I’m wondering if it would work with modern technology.
A giant wild boar is wreaking havoc in the Australian outback. Locals scoff at the story of the giant boar as nothing but a made-up story. A hunter and the husband of one of its victims set out to find the swine while trying not to fall victim to its wild rampage. Nothing like giant pigs to make for a great film.
Sure we’ve seen sharks attacking people in movies. What would happen if the man-eating sharks were genetically modified to be highly intelligent? Well, then we’d be in big trouble. A group of scientists is looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. They increase the size of sharks’ brains to collect the disease-fighting enzymes found in them. Unfortunately, the sharks escape and begin to hunt down their captors. The film is star-studded, with Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane, and LL Cool J leading the charge.
Based on the urban legend that someone flushed a baby alligator down the toilet in New York City, and it grew up to be a giant in the sewers. What if it actually happened? Well, this creature feature will tell you. Robert Forster is a cop looking into bodies showing up that appear to have been eaten by a giant creature. A reptile expert accompanies him as he tries to figure out what is killing people and how do they stop it.
This self-admitted rip-off of Jaws has weirdly spawned more films in its franchise than Jaws did. Joe Dante directed this Roger Corman classic. A tank of veracious piranha at a military base accidentally gets released into a river. These genetically engineered fish can survive in both fresh water and salt water. If they reach the ocean, they will multiply out of control and eat everything in their path. More importantly, the stream runs right by a summer camp on its way to a fancy country club. Carnage properly ensues. Alexandre Aja’s Piranha 3D (2010) is also well worth checking out… and speaking of Aja, his alligator movie Crawl (2019) is another great one.
Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense, and his entry in the animal attacks genre is no different. Only could make a gathering of birds on a school jungle gym seem ominous. Birds begin attacking people for unknown reasons. Anyone that is outdoors quickly becomes a target. Those still in the small town have to find a way to survive. A classic of Hitchcock’s filmography fits rights in. It even got a sequel called The Birds II: Land’s End in the nineties. This one is not remembered as a classic.
Most would probably discount this one as it features more in the giant animal category, but it still fits. A film crew heads to a remote island to shoot with their cast. They discover that the island has a giant ape that takes a liking to the lead actress in their film. Realizing they could make more money showcasing the giant gorilla, they capture and take him back to New York. When the primate breaks loose of his chains, he kidnaps the actress and takes refuge on top of the tallest building in the city. A true classic.
It had to be the last one on the list, right? This Universal Pictures / Steven Spielberg classic is responsible for creating the summer blockbuster. The entire movie industry changed its release strategy purely based on this film. It was that big of a deal. A great white shark begins to attack people off the coast of Amity Island. The local Sheriff decides to hunt the killer down when the mayor won’t close the beaches down. The amazing part of this movie is how much went wrong during filming, which caused them to edit it in such a way that it made the film way scarier for the viewing audience. Nothing has touched the greatness of this one… but we still get several shark movies every year.
What are some of your favorite animal attacks films? Let us know in the comments. Would you have included Piranha 3D, Crawl, the true story-inspired Open Water, or the “plane crash survivors vs. wolves” film The Grey?
Tomorrow brings the much-anticipated release of The Fall Guy. The action comedy looks like a hell of a lot of fun, and fun is the name of the game for Ryan Gosling moving forward. The actor recently told The Wall Street Journal (via THR) that he’s been avoiding taking on dark roles for the sake of his family.
“I don’t really take roles that are going to put me in some kind of dark place,” Ryan Gosling said. “This moment is what I feel like trying to read the room at home and feel like what is going to be best for all of us. The decisions I make, I make them with [wife] Eva [Mendes], and we make them with our family in mind first.” The Fall Guy star added that La La Land was the first project he took on with this new perspective.
“It was just sort of like, ‘Oh, this will be fun for them, too, because even though they’re not coming to set, we’re practicing piano every day or we’re dancing or we’re singing,’” Gosling said. “Their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken was an inspiration. I thought they were already making little movies about their Barbies on the iPad when it happened, so the fact that I was going off to work to make one too, we just felt like we were aligned.“
Gosling added that he became “way more conscious of everything” once he had children, and now that he doesn’t have to take roles purely to make money, he wants to focus on passion projects. “I want to make stuff that’s inclusive, and that’s not for an audience of one,” he said. “I think for so long I was just trying to pay the bills and work. It’s only recently that I feel like I realized that I have this opportunity to actually make the kind of films that made me love movies.“
Gosling stars in The Fall Guy as Colt Seavers, “a battle-scarred stuntman who, having left the business a year earlier to focus on both his physical and mental health, is drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie—being directed by his ex, Jody Moreno. While the film’s ruthless producer, maneuvers to keep the disappearance of star Tom Ryder a secret from the studio and the media, Colt performs the film’s most outrageous stunts while trying (with limited success) to charm his way back into Jody’s good graces. But as the mystery around the missing star deepens, Colt will find himself ensnared in a sinister, criminal plot that will push him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt.“
Our own Chris Bumbray loved The Fall Guy in his review. “The Fall Guy really is a terrific summer action movie and a throwback to a different (better) time in genre movie-making,” Bumbray wrote. “More than anything, it’s a tribute to the stunt industry and a demand that it gets the recognition it deserves, with the point made over and over that CGI action is lame and can’t hold a candle to the old ways. I’m inclined to agree.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here. The Fall Guy will hit theaters on May 3rd.
Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) is set to join the cast of Now You See Me 3, the upcoming sequel to the magical heist franchise.
Exactly who Rosamund Pike will play in Now You See Me 3 is being kept under wraps, but it’s said to be a “pivotal role.” Perhaps she will be the latest target of the Four Horseman? Original cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Morgan Freeman are expected to reprise their roles. It was also announced last month that Justice Smith (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), and Ariana Greenblatt (Borderlands) would be joining the project.
Now You See Me 3 will reintroduce audiences to “the thieving illusionists known as the Four Horseman while introducing audiences to a new generation of magicians.“ The studio is also envisioning the sequel as the launching pad for the future of the franchise.
Now You See Me 3 will be directed by Ruben Fleischer, with Eric Warren Singer, Seth Graham-Smith, and Mike Lesslie having penned various drafts of the script. Earlier this year, Jesse Eisenberg told Collider that he’s already read the script and hopes production will begin within the next six months. “Yeah, I did [read the script]. Hopefully it will happen in the next six months. I think it will, it seems like it will. Yeah, it’s really great,” Eisenberg said. “For me, the thing I love about it so much, having just read the script, it celebrates intelligence and it’s non-violent but exciting, and it’s so weird to see that because it sounds so obvious, and it sounds like that would be common, but it’s actually quite uncommon to have a movie that’s this franchise, this Hollywood-style movie that’s really just about teamwork and intelligence, rather than just violence.“
Rosamund Pike has several projects on her slate, including Babak Anvari’s psychological thriller Hallow Road, as well as a small role in Guy Ritchie’s action thriller In the Grey. She also stars in Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time series, with the third season of the fantasy series set to premiere next year.
Starfield, Bethesda’s large open-world space RPG released last year, is set to receive a big new update later this month. One of the big features being added is 3D surface and city maps, something the game has needed since its launch. But these new maps also reveal that Starfield’s biggest cities are actually pretty…
Starfield, Bethesda’s large open-world space RPG released last year, is set to receive a big new update later this month. One of the big features being added is 3D surface and city maps, something the game has needed since its launch. But these new maps also reveal that Starfield’s biggest cities are actually pretty…
Per THR, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes star Kevin Durand will join Liam Neeson in the upcoming reboot of The Naked Gun.
Liam Neeson has long been attached to star in the Naked Gun reboot, and it was announced last month that Pamela Anderson would be starring alongside him. It’s not known precisely who Anderson will play, but it’s expected that she’ll be the romantic lead, similar to Priscilla Presley’s role in the original movies. Paul Walter Hauser has also signed on to play Captain Ed, the role played by George Kennedy in the previous Naked Gun movies. Production will kick off later this month with Akiva Schaffer directing from a script by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand.
Although Liam Neeson has experience in the realm of comedy, he’s never led one himself. He explained why he wanted to take on The Naked Gunearlier this year. “It’s funny because right before Christmas, my sons and I were looking through the Academy screeners and trying to find something silly, some silly, stupid movie that we could giggle at,” Neeson explained. “There was none, of course, as they were all very heavy and international. I mean, brilliant movies but all very heavy. When Seth MacFarlane approached me about it — this was about two years ago, now — I thought, yeah, I guess I could do that as long as I play it dead seriously and not try and imitate Mr. Leslie Nielsen. He was wonderful. Akiva Schaffer is directing it and he’s from the [Saturday Night Live] world. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a good script, and there’s a few laugh out loud moments in it.“
Neeson has also confessed that he’s a little nervous about the project. “I’m honored to be offered the part of Frank Drebin, and a little bit nervous about it because I’ve done a couple of skits before that were just very short TV things, but this would be, I don’t know, 95, 100 minutes of a film,” Neeson said. “They’re still casting it so hopefully my other cast members will be funny and sexy so that I could just be dead absolutely straight.“
Kevin Durand will next be seen as Proximus Caesar in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Directed by Wes Ball, the film “breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.” Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will hit theaters on May 10th.
Fresh off the success of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and with Face/Off 2 in development, director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett have just set up another project together – but this isn’t another entry in an established, blockbuster-level property. Instead, Wingard and Barrett are going back to their roots with this one. Deadline reports that their new project, which is called Onslaught, is “in the vein of Wingard and Barrett’s cult classics like The Guest and You’re Next.“
As they note, Wingard and Barrett made the horror thrillers You’re Next (2011) and The Guest (2014) together before they ventured into franchise territory with the 2016 Blair Witch movie. They also made the 2010 horror film A Horrible Way to Die together, and while that movie does have its own cult following, the cult isn’t as large as the ones that follow You’re Next and The Guest.
A24 has come out the winner of a competitive auction over the rights to make Onslaught, beating several studios in the process. A24 will be producing the film with Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett of Ryder Picture Company, Alexander Black of Lyrical Media, and Barrett. Wingard will also be producing alongside Jeremy Platt, under their new shingle Breakaway Civilization. Lyrical’s Jon Rosenberg and Natalie Sellers serve as executive producers.
Lyrical Media and A24 are co-financing the project and A24 will handle worldwide distribution. Onslaught is expected to go into production this fall.
Details on the plot are being kept under wraps. So let’s revisit the synopses of previous Wingard / Barrett collaborations. A Horrible Way to Die told the following story: An escaped murderer is in pursuit of his ex-girlfriend, who has fled to start a new life in a small town.
You’re Next: When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.
The Guest: A soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.
I’m a fan of those movies, so I’m glad to see Wingard and Barrett doing something in that vein again before they get back to the blockbusters.
Are you interested in Onslaught? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
