As Fortnite turns seven years old, Epic’s cash cow has grown in scale and scope in ways that can make approaching the game feel daunting. Isn’t it just for kids? Aren’t you supposed to be playing PUGB instead? No! Because as nauseating as the infinite merch and all-pervading presence of the game may seem, it’s…
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the 1999 hit The Blair Witch Project (watch it HERE) and to mark the occasion, Lionsgate announced that they’re developing a reimagining of the film with Blumhouse Productions. Lionsgate and Blumhouse have made a multi-picture pact that will see Blumhouse producing new takes on horror classics from the Lionsgate library, and The Blair Witch Project is the first project on that slate. That announcement was made several months ago, and now, during a conversation with Film Stories, Blair Witch creators Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick let it be known that no one at Lionsgate or Blumhouse has consulted them about the reimagining.
Sanchez and Myrick had their own ideas for how to expand the world of The Blair Witch Project, but Joe Berlinger’s Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was made without their participation. They later spent years trying to develop a third film in the franchise, but their script was set aside and the 2016 Blair Witch was based on a concept Lionsgate had in place before director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett got involved.
Myrick told Film Stories that seeing the franchise go on without them is “always a little bittersweet. I mean, Ed and I have always had subsequent ideas that expand on the universe and the world that was created for Blair. We’ve always thought that there’s a lot to mine in that whole universe.“
Sanchez added, “Like Dan said, it is bittersweet. We still love the IP and we’ve been thinking about it for more than 25 years now. And again, we don’t expect to write and direct these movies. We understand how Hollywood works and they’re always looking for the shiny new object, the new filmmaker. And there’s a lot of super talented people out there that can make a great Blair Witch movie. To be included again would be nice. Even if they don’t listen to us. Just to pick our brains – and again, like Dan was saying, we have a little bit of a fan base that’s dedicated to the original movie and it would be good press for them to bring us back in. But, we’ll see what happens.“
Blumhouse founder Jason Blum will be producing the new Blair Witch with Roy Lee, who previously produced the 2016 Blair Witch. The idea is that this reimagining could kick off a series of Blair Witch movies, taking the franchise into a new era.
Do you think Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick should be consulted about the new The Blair Witch Project? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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While Nobody 2 was recently confirmed to be wrapped, Bob Odenkirk continues his action career with the upcoming film, Normal. The movie is written by John Wick and Nobody screenwriter Derek Kolstad, and Ben Wheatley takes up the directing duties with this one. Now, Variety is reporting that Happy Days and Barry star Henry Winkler is set to join the cast along with 300 and Game of Thrones star Lena Headey. It is yet to be announced on what roles that they will be playing.
The film finds Odenkirk playing Ulysses, a lawman “who is thrust into the temporary role of the sheriff for the small sleepy town Normal after the previous one’s untimely death. When the town’s bank is robbed by an out-of-town couple, Ulysses arrives on the scene to find that the town is hiding much more sinister deep-seated secrets under its surface and everyone – from the bartender to the priest – is in on it. And now Ulysses, who’s up-till-now focused only on running away from the demons of his past, must uncover the full extent of this criminal conspiracy.“
Odenkirk recently conveyed that he was equally impressed with the concept behind Normal as he was with Nobody. “It just had this quality to it I don’t think I’ve seen in an action movie in forever. I’m going to call it suspense mystery,” he said. “You could argue that the Bourne films, especially the early ones, have that element, where he’s trying to explore and solve a mystery, the mystery of his own past. There’s that sort of dimension in this story, something that Derek expanded on, which I think was the reason Ben Wheatley came on board.”
He would also explain why he thinks an against-type of actor like him is an ideal candidate for these type of action roles. “A lot of action movies, where the guys are too handsome and built, it’s hard for the audience to buy into the idea that they’re in danger. I don’t have that problem,” Odenkirk said. “Audiences genuinely see me and go, ‘Oh, jeez, this guy is screwed. He’s going to get his ass handed to him.’ He doesn’t get to win by sheer muscle because he doesn’t have that. He gets to win through tenacity and cleverness.“
The post Bob Odenkirk’s upcoming action film, Normal, adds Henry Winkler and Lena Headey to the cast appeared first on JoBlo.
Pokémon TCG Pocket is proving to be rather successful. App Magic, a website that estimates mobile app earnings (via Mobilegamer.biz), claims the “free” card game has made over $20 million in its first week on sale from over five million downloads. The app has just launched its second in-game event, and likely the…
Pokémon TCG Pocket is proving to be rather successful. App Magic, a website that estimates mobile app earnings (via Mobilegamer.biz), claims the “free” card game has made over $20 million in its first week on sale from over five million downloads. The app has just launched its second in-game event, and likely the…
Back in 2021, Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and director Scott Derrickson brought us an adaptation of the Joe Hill short story The Black Phone (check out our review HERE) that appeared to tell a complete story that would stand on its own… but the film was made on a budget of around $16 million and earned over $160 million at the global box office. So, on October 17, 2025, we’ll be getting The Black Phone 2 – and with the release date eleven months away, Derrickson has now confirmed on social media that Black Phone 2 has started filming!
Based on a short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone centered on Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney. If you’d like to read the short story that The Black Phone is based on, it can be found in Hill’s collection 20th Century Ghosts, which you can buy HERE.
Derrickson wrote the screenplay for the first film with C. Robert Cargill, and Derrickson and Cargill have written the screenplay for The Black Phone 2 as well. They’re also producing the sequel with Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Ryan Turek. The sequel will see the return of Mason Thames (How to Train Your Dragon) as Finney Shaw, Madeleine McGraw (Secrets of Sulphur Springs) as Finney’s sister Gwen, Jeremy Davies (Justified) as their dad Terrence, and Miguel Mora, whose only previous credit is The Black Phone, as Robin, a friend of Finney’s who was killed in the first movie. Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight) will be reprising the role of the child-killer known as The Grabber. One new addition to the cast is Demián Bichir of The Hateful Eight.
Derrickson recently told New York Comic Con attendees, “I didn’t really feel any obligation to do a sequel to The Black Phone, but I got excited by an idea that [author] Joe Hill sent me shortly after the release of the first film. And what I can also tell you is that in the same way that The Black Phone was a middle school coming-of-age film, this is a high school coming-of-age film.” He added that, “I’m hoping to make a film as good as, if not better than, the first one.“
Are you looking forward to finding out what’s going to happen in The Black Phone 2, and are you glad to hear that filming has begun? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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The Switch 2 is still nowhere in sight, but Nintendo promises that it hasn’t changed its announcement timeline for the new console. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said on Tuesday in an online press conference that a reveal of the new hardware was still on track for this fiscal year ending March 2025.
The Switch 2 is still nowhere in sight, but Nintendo promises that it hasn’t changed its announcement timeline for the new console. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said on Tuesday in an online press conference that a reveal of the new hardware was still on track for this fiscal year ending March 2025.
Back in 1986, David Cronenberg directed a remake of Kurt Neumann’s 1958 sci-fi horror classic The Fly (which was based on George Langelaan’s short story) – and the result is considered to be one of the best remakes of all time. 20th Century Fox, now the Disney subsidiary 20th Century Studios, has been wanting to replicate that success with another remake for a couple of decades now… but the project has never managed to escape from development hell. Cronenberg wanted to come back and make another Fly movie, but it fell apart over budgetary issues. Screenwriter Todd Lincoln wrote a remake of The Fly that he described as a “dark, twisted, grounded re- imagining… Part Val-Lewton, part J.G. Ballard, part Neal Stephenson with some Horror Manga touches.” The studio wasn’t into it. J.D. Dillard was attached to direct a new version of The Fly for years, then stepped away from it. Now, Deadline reports that Nikyatu Jusu – who recently made her feature directorial debut with the horror film Nanny – is set to write and direct a new version of The Fly for 20th Century Studios and Chernin Entertainment, but sources say that this isn’t a straightforward remake. Instead, it’s a story that’s “set in the universe of Cronenberg’s film.” So it seems this is some kind of sequel or spin-off.
The Fly told the story of a brilliant scientist who becomes obsessed with perfecting a device that can transmit matter from one location to another. Successful in his initial tests, he experiments with a human guinea pig – himself. But an ordinary housefly makes the journey with him, and when they merge both creatures have been extraordinarily changed. This is the chilling story of a man fighting to retain his humanity, and a desperate woman’s attempt to save the man she loves.
The 1958 film received two sequels, Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly. Cronenberg’s film got a sequel as well, The Fly II, before the franchise sputtered out again. The Fly ’86 co-star Geena Davis was going to star in and produce a sequel called Flies, but that’s another Fly project that never made it into production.
Nikyatu Jusu’s The Fly is set to be produced by Chernin Entertainment’s Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping. Jusu is also developing a project for Universal Pictures and Jordan Peele’s company Monkeypaw that’s said to be based on her short film Suicide by Sunlight, about day-walking Black vampires who are protected from the sun by their melanin, and she’s attached to direct a sequel to the George A. Romero classic Night of the Living Dead for MGM. For that film, she’ll be working from a screenplay by LaToya Morgan, whose credits include episodes of Shameless, Parenthood, Into the Badlands, and The Walking Dead. Details on the plot are being kept under wraps.
Are you glad to hear there’s a new The Fly back in the works? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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It would always be a tough call, following the deeply Starship Troopers-inspired Helldivers 2 into the online co-op multiplayer space. However, through its early access, Offworld’s licensed horde shooter has performed impressively well. But how is it fairing with the harsh critics on Steam?