Rosario Dawson (Star Wars: Ahsoka) is set to play a high-end celebrity attorney in the supernatural horror thriller Unmerciful Good Fortune, Deadline reports – and the person her character will be defending in the story is a psychic serial killer! A.C.E. film and TV editor Tirsa Hackshaw is making her feature directorial debut with this film, which is based on award-winning playwright Edwin Sanchez’s show of the same name.
Dawson is producing Unmerciful Good Fortune and taking on the role of Maritza Cruz, a high-end celebrity attorney, pulled into a headline-making case involving Fatima, a cunning young waitress who is accused of serial poisoning and murdering 28 people. Fatima’s defense takes a darkly mysterious turn when she claims to have the psychic ability to see how someone will die when she touches them and reveals she is killing people to prevent a “fate worse than death.”
Tom DeSanto, Corey Large, and Rising Tide Entertainment’s Brian Kirchoff are also producing the film. Hackshaw is executive producing with Jordan Wilson. Pia Patatian’s production and sales company Concord Studios is handling global rights.
Dawson provided the following statement: “Unmerciful Good Fortune is one of those truly rare projects that grabs you out of the gate and just doesn’t let go. It’s smart, scary, original and heartbreaking. From the drop, it struck me and I knew I had to come onboard to produce it as well because I simply couldn’t risk it never seeing the light of day because it—it’s not that it doesn’t fit into a box—it simply defies boxes.“
DeSanto added, “Unmerciful Good Fortune is one of those roller coaster rides which is the reason people go to the movies. It descends the audience into a shadowy world they have not seen before, like Se7en. With an ending that people will be talking about for days after, that is as iconic as ‘I see dead people’ from The Sixth Sense.” And Large said, “It’s a mystery that is going to keep everyone guessing and up the game for what audiences can expect from a thriller. I was hooked the moment I read it and kept thinking about it after and Rosario is the perfect person to bring it to life.“
How does Unmerciful Good Fortune sound to you? Share your thoughts on this Rosario Dawson supernatural horror thriller by leaving a comment below.
Mayan Lopez, who stars with her dad George Lopez on the NBC sitcom Lopez vs Lopez (which the Lopez duo also created with showrunner Debby Wolfe), has signed on to join the cast of the supernatural coming-of-age thriller The Evilry, Deadline reports. Lopez will also be an executive producer on the film, which sees her taking on the role of Aimee, a character who runs a spiritual bookstore.
Back in August, it was announced that Stargirl star Brec Bassinger, who also has a lead role in the upcoming, long-awaited Final Destination sequel Final Destination: Bloodlines (a.k.a. Final Destination 6), had signed on to star in this film, with her co-stars set to include Elena Kampouris (Children of the Corn), Dylan Walsh (Superman & Lois), Marissa Reyes (Ganymede), Evan Ross (The Loneliest Boy in the World), Tony Pierce (The Bodyguard), and Teri Polo (the Meet the Parents franchise). In September, we learned that Billy Zane (Dead Calm) had joined the cast, and in October it was revealed that three-time Oscar nominee (and one time winner) Faye Dunaway (Network) is also in there. In fact, Dunaway’s character Anastasia runs the spiritual bookstore with Lopez’s Aimee.
Alexander Garcia is directing The Evilry from his own script. The story involves a visiting relative, played by Kampouris, who is harboring a dark secret. Dunaway’s character is said to be a spiritualist in the town, who acts as a bridge of enlightenment coming to the aid of Crystal (Bassinger) guiding her to the revelation behind her cousin (Kampouris) and her Dark Secret.
Writer/director Garcia is producing The Evilry under his Multi-Valence Productions banner, alongside his producing partners Joanna Quezada, Mike Nease, and Chris Bradds. Anne Stimac, Fabian Alomar, David Bertolino, and Jason Baker are also producing, with Scott Huneryager of ZaZa Rev Motion Pictures and William Day Frank serving as executive producers. As mentioned, Lopez is an executive producer as well. Garcia is just getting his writing/directing/producing career rolling. He’s currently in post-production on a skateboarding romance called Crushed It! and has multiple projects in pre-production: the skateboarding fantasy film Skate God, the mystery Gallatin 6, and the horror film He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not.
Does The Evilry sound interesting to you? What do you think of Mayan Lopez joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
2024 has been a solid, if somewhat strange year for movies. This year saw the release of some great films across both streaming platforms and in theaters.
2024 has been a solid, if somewhat strange year for movies. This year saw the release of some great films across both streaming platforms and in theaters.
PLOT: Taking place in between the events of Inside Out and Inside Out 2, it follows the studio inside Riley’s mind where dreams really do come true—every night, on time and on budget. Riley is growing up and when her memories need some extra processing, Joy and the rest of the Core Emotions send them to Dream Productions.
REVIEW: Since the premiere of Disney+, the House of Mouse has mined all of their various properties for streaming adaptations, spin-offs, or tie-ins. Pixar, who are no stranger to creating quality short films, have offered a few projects that stretch the definition of what we would consider a series. The Toy Story spin-off Forky Asks a Question, Cars On the Road, and Up series Dug Days all had episodes that ran under ten minutes each, with the Monsters Inc. sequel series Monsters At Work reaching full half-hour installments but without the main actors that led the films. The new series Dream Productions falls somewhere in the middle, with episodes clocking in at the half-hour mark but a full season comprised of only four episodes. While it does center on different characters inside Riley, the talents of Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, and others from the films make appearances, giving Dream Productions the feel of an organic expansion of the world of Inside Out.
Both Inside Out films gave us a look inside the mind of a young girl, Riley Andersen (voiced by Kensington Tallman, reprising her role from the sequel). In the first movie, Riley’s basic emotions are a struggle between Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith), vying to be the young girl’s primary feeling as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. In the sequel, Riley’s emotions became more complex with the introduction of Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and her crew of teenage feelings. Dream Productions fits between the two films as twelve-year-old Riley and her best friends Grace and Bree try to convince her to go to a school dance. A lot of the conflicting thoughts in the pre-teen’s mind are visualized while she sleeps by the Hollywood studio-esque Dream Productions. The series, presented in a mockumentary style, follows the creative talents in the dream department of Riley’s mind. Led by Paula Persimmon (Paula Pell), the various directors of Riley’s different dreams try to grow with Riley’s shifting personality as she gets older. When Paula’s trusted assistant Janelle (Ally Maki) is promoted, she must contend with whether she is still a capable director that fits Riley’s needs.
The core conflict at the center of Dream Productions echoes the same plot from Inside Out and Inside Out 2 as well as Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., which all follow a central character who must realize they cannot do things alone and must open themselves up to others with their own ideas. Those other personalities include Xeni (Richard Ayoade), a hipster daydream director hoping to move into night dreams. Paula, Janelle, and Xeni all work for studio head Jean Dewberry (Maya Rudolph) who demands better dreams that Riley will actually remember when she wakes up. Paula, riding on successful dreams made when Riley was much younger, is resistant to Janelle and Xeni’s input, which sets them at odds with one another and leads to a series of disastrous dreams. While Riley’s experience verges on nightmare territory, we get glimpses of Joy, Sadness, Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira), and Fear (Tony Hale) as they watch the dreams unfold from their headquarters. The Inside Out crew does not amount to much more than cameos, but they also fit into the plot rather than being shoehorned in as a cash grab.
Paula Pell, who had voice roles in Netflix’s Big Mouth and Monsters at Work and the series Girls5eva, is a hilarious comedian and lends an earnest performance as the director struggles to remain relevant as she reprises her role seen briefly in the original movie. Paula appears in virtually every scene of Dream Productions and serves as the anchor character here, as Amy Poehler was in Inside Out. Both Paula and Joy start as resistant to change and insist they know what is best for Riley. However, Paula is not an emotion but a director, so her connection to Riley is presented slightly differently. All of the characters in these projects want what is best for Riley, but Paula and her coworkers do not always understand the impact of what they do until it is too late. Richard Ayoade also has Pixar experience, having been in Monsters at Work and the film Soul. His recognizable voice adds a hilarious lilt to playing Xeni, something younger viewers may not appreciate as much as their parents. Overall, the voice cast is all good, and the distinction of this series being a spoof of Hollywood and film productions gives it an extra boost in separating the similar plot structure from the Inside Out movies.
With each of the four episodes of Dream Productions clocking in at a half-hour, the entire series works almost like a feature film. Despite being episodic in nature, there is enough momentum to keep the story moving and engaging while expanding on Riley’s mind’s inner workings that complement both of the Inside Out films. There are several callbacks to characters introduced in Inside Out and teases of where Riley will eventually go in Inside Out 2, making Dream Productions the first inbetweenquel I can recall that works as well as either of the movies it is connected to. All four episodes of the series are written by Mike Jones (Luca, Soul), who makes his directorial debut as he helms two episodes of the series alongside Valerie LaPointe and Austin Madison. All three directors, echoing the three main characters in the series, bring their distinct experiences to a cohesive and unified story that could easily have worked as a feature film rather than an episodic release.
Dream Productions is the strongest Pixar production for Disney+ to date, which may not be saying much. As a big fan of the Inside Out films, I enjoyed Dream Productions much more than I thought I would. By keeping the episode count limited and focusing on delivering high-quality animation and a structured story, Dream Productions is a nice binge-watch that may not be as emotionally resonant as Inside Out but still tells an important story about growing up and what it means to be a person. Shifting the focus to dreams rather than emotions could also open the door to exploring other parts of Riley’s consciousness, maybe even those of other characters. I never expected to be as affected by an animated franchise as I have been with both of the feature films in this franchise and now with Dream Productions as well. A fun series that will work for kids and adults alike.
Dream Productions premieres all four episodes on December 11th on Disney+.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a fantastic time, and I’m playing it in every spare second I can find. But another thing it is, on PC at least, is buggy. I’ve had a bunch of freezes, which suck, but worst was the moment when companion Gina just refused to follow her script, and my game—which offers no way to…
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a fantastic time, and I’m playing it in every spare second I can find. But another thing it is, on PC at least, is buggy. I’ve had a bunch of freezes, which suck, but worst was the moment when companion Gina just refused to follow her script, and my game—which offers no way to…
Sony’s Marvel Comics adaptation Kraven the Hunter is set to reach theatres on December 13th. This movie is, along with Morbius, Madame Web, and the Venom trilogy, part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (which was formerly known as the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters), which consists of Marvel adaptations that doesn’t have the creative team of Marvel Studios behind them, so therefore they’re not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sony is able to make these films because they own the movie rights to all characters that were originally introduced in the pages of Spider-Man comics. The financial success of the Venom movies aside (and that trilogy has had diminishing returns), these movies haven’t tended to go over well with movie-goers, something which Kraven director J. C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year) has had to address, asking that people give his movie the chance to wash away the bad taste left by Morbius and Madame Web. As noted by The Wrap, Sony’s surprise panel for Kraven the Hunter played to a half-empty room at Brazil’s Comic Con Experience, and the studio has decided to release the film on a thousand less screens than Venom: The Last Dance. It’s becoming clear that Sony is losing confidence in their Spider-Man Universe, now considered a “failed experiment.” That’s why, according to The Wrap, Sony has decided that Kraven the Hunter will be the last film in this Spider-Man Universe. For now, anyway.
As The Wrap reports, For Sony, the future appears to lie in projects more directly connected to Spider-Man himself. A source informed that them Sony has “developed what they want to develop for now. It’s really about the next Spider-Man film.” According to a second Sony insider, the studio is now focusing its efforts on [Tom] Holland’s highly anticipated fourth Spider-Man film, the next installment in the acclaimed Spider-Verse animated film series with Beyond the Spider-Verse, and a Spider-Noir television series featuring Nicolas Cage — projects that lean into, rather than away from, the web-slinger’s central appeal.
Directed by Chandor from a screenplay by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, Kraven the Hunter is the action-packed, R-rated, standalone story of how one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the title character and is joined in the cast by Ariana DeBose as voodoo priestess Calypso Ezili, Fred Hechinger as Kraven’s estranged brother and master of disguise Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon, Alessandro Nivola as Russian mercenary and human-rhino hybrid Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino, Christopher Abbott as a mercenary and assassin known as the Foreigner, and Russell Crowe as Kraven’s estranged father, the ruthless crime lord Nikolai Kravinoff.
Taylor-Johnson, who is rumored to be in the running to play James Bond, recently recommended the film to fans of the Bond franchise as well.
What do you think of Sony putting their Spider-Man Universe on hold after Kraven the Hunter, focusing only on projects that feature Spider-Man himself (or versions of the character)? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
It was announced earlier this year that Sam Mendes was undertaking an ambitious project involving one of the biggest bands in history: The Beatles. Instead of just one movie, Mendes is set to direct four movies, each telling the story from the point of view of a different member of the Beatles. It was then rumored that Mendes was considering the potential cast to feature Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw) as John Lennon, Paul Mescal (Gladiator II) as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) as Ringo Starr, and Charlie Rowe (Rocketman) as George Harrison. Starr recently confirmed that Keoghan is indeed playing him and Ridley Scott has seemingly confirmed Pascal.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scott let the cat out of the bag when the director revealed that his chances are slim on reuniting with his Gladiator II star. Scott participated in a conversation with Christopher Nolan after a screening of Gladiator II at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Scott revealed his next project was a thriller titled The Dog Stars and Nolan inquired if Mescal was slated to star in it. Scott initially responded, “Yes.” Then added,
Maybe. Paul is actually stacked up, doing the Beatles next. So I may have to let him go.”
Last month, Mescal was asked how he would feel playing Paul McCartney in the movies about the Fab Four after rumors had been circulating. He responded, “It would be an incredible story to be attached to. The fact that Sam Mendes is attached to direct, like truly, it would be a dream come true.” When asked point blank if he was playing McCartney, Mescal distanced with, “No, no, no — we’re not going there.”
Sam Mendes’ production company, Neal Street Productions, has partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment for the movies. It’s been said that this is the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and the members of the Beatles — Paul McCartney, Ringo Star, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison — have granted the full life story and music rights for a scripted movie.
Sony hopes to start shooting in the U.K. in mid-2025, with a planned 2027 release for all four biopics. Studio head Tom Rothman knows this is a big gamble, but said, “You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy. There hasn’t been an enterprise like this before, and you can’t think about it in traditional releasing terms.“
With Christmas fast approaching, there’s really only one thing we all want: for Netflix to function with issue. After the utter debacle that was the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight — and we’re talking the streaming glitches here… — Netflix is now down to less than a month to get their act together before some major NFL games stream on Christmas Day. But don’t worry, Ted Sarandos has it under control! Or at least that’s what we wants us to think.
Speaking on the streaming issues that hounded the undercards and the main event last month, Sarandos said that Netflix had a challenge that had never been seen before. “We were pushing the [internet service provider], every ISP in the world, right to the limits of their own capacity. We were stressing the limits of the internet itself that night. So we had a control room up in Silicon Valley that was re-engineering the entire internet to keep it during this fight because of the unprecedented demand that was happening.”
Sarandos went on to continue praising Netflix for the draw that the Paul/Tyson had, making it the most-watched live streaming sporting event ever. “It’s really phenomenal. It’s a Super Bowl-like audience that we were able to draw for this fight. This is a combination of our content team recognizing that this was going to be a thing, our marketing and publicity teams and our social media teams and everybody making it a thing that you are not going to miss, no matter where you were in the world.”
That’s all good and well, but what’s the game plan for Netflix when it comes the future of the live sporting events they plan on streaming? Sarandos would cite the Love Is Blind reunion, which despite breaking records, was a mess when it came to the presentation. Even still, he remains optimistic, saying there was “a lot of positive trajectory in a very short amount of time” from Love Is Blind to last month’s bout. Just to break that one down, the Love Is Blind special in question came out in April of last year. So by Sarandos’ vision, April 2023 to November 2024 would be a “very short time.” Going off of that, what could he possibly call November 2024 to December 2024? And what will actually be done in that extremely limited amount of time?
With around 90,000 complaints reported during the Paul/Tyson event, Netflix has a lot of work to do to ensure that the two NFL games set for Christmas go smoothly. Added to that, Netflix has WWE coming to streaming in the first week of January, a $5 billion deal they don’t want putting them into submission.
What are you expecting from future live sporting events streaming on Netflix? Do you think it will take more time to perfect the issues than they have allowed?
