If we learned one thing from The Last of Us Part II, it’s that when you give gamers a functional musical instrument, they are going to deliver some wonderful renditions of popular tunes. So, when players discovered that the recently released demo for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth included a piano that you could sit down…
About eight months ago, we heard that Natasha Henstridge of the first two Species movies and John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars, among other credits, had signed on to star in Cinderella’s Revenge, which gives the classic fairy tale a horror twist. The film was in production in the UK at the time, with Andy Edwards (Zombie Spring Breakers) directing for Sobini Films. Cinderella’s Revenge has since made its way through post-production, and now The Wrap reports that it’s set to receive a theatrical release on April 26th, courtesy of Iconic Events. They note that this theatrical release is part of an exclusive deal with Regal, with Quiver Distribution handling all other rights in North America.
Starring Lauren Staerck (Curse of Jack Frost) as Cinderella, this gory twist on the fairy tale will show us what happens when Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters and stepmother push her too far, leading her to swap her glass slippers in pursuit of blood-soaked vengeance with the help of her Fairy Godmother. My immediate assumption was that Henstridge would be playing the wicked stepmother, but she actually takes on the role of the Fairy Godmother.
Henstridge and Staerck are joined in the cast of Cinderella’s Revenge by Stephanie Lodge (Jack & Jill: The Hills of Hell), Beatrice Fletcher (Wrath of Van Helsing), Megan Purvis (Cannibal Troll), Ricardo Freitas (Conjuring the Plastic Surgeon), Stephen Staley (Dinosaur Hotel), Mike Kelson (Dragon Fury: Wrath of Fire), William Marshall (Demons at Dawn), Peter Watson (Once Upon a Time in Hollyweird), Zach Devereux (Punch), and Darrell Griggs (Curse of the Scarecrow).
Cinderella’s Revenge is being produced by Mark L. Lester, Cami Winikoff, Jessica Mathis, and Sobini Films’ Mark Amin.
Lester (who is, yes, the same Mark L. Lester who directed films like Commando, Firestarter, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Armed and Dangerous, Class of 1984, Class of 1999, etc.) told The Wrap, “I’m so excited for audiences to see this newly imagined horror version of Cinderella in theaters. The picture is scary and fun at the same time and horror fans will love it.“
Are you interested in seeing fairy tales turned into horror movies? Will you be seeing Cinderella’s Revenge during its theatrical release? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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It’s Oscar night 1987, Jeff Bridges and Sigourney Weaver are dressed up all fancy, ready to tear open that majestic envelope and read the name of the best supporting actor of the year. The competition was tough but when but the victor of the night was that of Sir Michael Caine for his wonderful performance in the Woody Allen flick Hannah and Her Sisters. The audiences erupted with applause as they celebrated Mr. Caine’s triumphant Oscar glory. But then silence nothing… the actor is nowhere to be found. Where could he be? What event could drag him away from this ceremony? Unfortunately, it would turn out the Michael Caine was stuck in the furious jaws of Universal and was out battling stupid sharks instead. That’s right, Michael Caine missed this Oscars because of Jaws: The Revenge. Was it worth it? Of the universally panned sharkie fourquel, Michael Caine said, “I have never seen it, but by all accounts, it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.”
But that the thing with Michael Caine is that he can be perfectly placed in Oscar winners and silly stinkers. And Michael Caine isn’t even his real name. He took his stage name from The Caine Mutiny, he birth name is Maurice Micklewhite, which is way too British even for Michael Caine. But this actor did give everyone a new type of British leading man to root for… the Cockney kind.
Hollywood legend John Wayne once look Michael in the eyes and said, “You’re gonna be a star.” and boy howdy was The Duke right. But, with his retirement seemingly official, have we seen the last of the cockney legend?
Caine was born Maurice Micklewhite on March 14, 1933 in London, England. His family was relocated twice due to German attacks during World War II. He would struggle personally and financially and would later say he owes his survival at this time to the generosity of his friends. This gratitude and humility would carry forward, even as Michael Caine would go on to appear in movies that grossed over 8 billion at the worldwide box office.
Michael Caine’s first credited movie appearance was in the 1956 war drama A Hill in Korea, a role he was well-suited to play as Michael served in the British Army and actually faced death in the Korean War, an experience that would shape him for the rest of his life. Fun Fact: Christopher Nolan would go on to use the same soundstage used for A Hill in Korea for Batman Begins.
Caine’s early years as an actor in the 1960s are among his most compelling. Take, for example, Caine’s breakout role in the epic war flick 1964’s Zulu. It would earn $8 million on a $1.72 million budget and remain in television circulation for decades. The movie and Caine’s performance as the redeemed Lieutenant were well-reviewed. It really was a big deal at the time for a Cockney actor to portray a posh officer, and that endeared Caine to the working class of Britain.
With his pay for spending three months in the mountains of South Africa, he bought his daughter a horse and set up his mother in a new flat. He takes care of his people. After finding out that he had a disabled half-brother that his mother hid from the rest of the family for over 40 years, Caine took care of him in his final years.
One of Michael Caine’s most iconic and enduring characters was borne out of his appearance as spy Harry Palmer in 1965’s The Ipcress File. Caine found comfort in the role. He said it was “more like the real me” than his showing in Zulu. Caine would reprise the role in 1966’s Funeral in Berlin and 1967’s Billion Dollar Brain. The Palmer character ran parallel to early Bond features, even overlapping some creative and crew. The character would come to be seen as the “anti-Bond”, more human, more relatable, more grounded, like Michael Caine himself. Palmer is like if Bond needed glasses and concerned himself more with paperwork and pay raises than saving the world. The character would be revisited with Caine’s portrayal in 1995’s Bullet to Beijing and 1996’s Midnight in St. Petersburg.
If Zulu was Michael Caine’s big acting break, 1966’s Alfie was his break-through. “To be a movie star, you have to carry a movie. And to carry a movie where you play the title role is the supreme example. The third thing, for a British actor, is to do it in America. The fourth is to get nominated for an award. That picture did all four things for me.” In Alfie, Caine portrayed the titular crass womanizer anti-hero to perfection, and the performance legitimized him as a leading man. It’s a poignant and engaging story that serves as snapshot of romance in the 1960s and shows that sometimes people really do get what they deserve.
The Alfie role earned Michael Caine his first Academy Award nomination. He would go on to be nominated for an Oscar for five consecutive decades from the 1960s to the 2000s.
Michael Caine stayed busy throughout the late-60s. Standouts include WWII film Battle of Britain from 1969 and the comic capers Gambit from 1966 and The Italian Job from 1969, which is a super fun exploration of British culture in the 1960s and features an awesome car chase, if that’s your thing. Caine’s charisma jumps off the screen in this movie. It’s probably the coolest he’s ever looked, in a film, and that’s saying a lot.
Then came those not-so-swinging 70s and Caine’s best movies of the 1970s include 1971’s Get Carter which would get a Stallone remake that featured Caine, 1972’s Sleuth (he also starred in that 2007 remake), 1975’s The Man Who Would be King, where he starred alongside longtime friend Sean Connery. Their chemistry is palpable in the film, and Caine plays off of Connery perfectly. Despite the star power of the leads and the film’s director John Huston, the film made just $13m on an $8m, budget. It was well-regarded by critics and certainly appreciated in the years to follow. 1977 saw A Bridge Too Far, which was a well-received all-star war epic that’s become a classic. But, as always the quality of his films were hard to predict, as that same year he made one of his worst films ever, The Swarm, whch he inexplicably followed up with 1979’s Beyond the Poseidon Adventure for the same director, which is a pretty good lesson in how not to do a sequel.
Sometimes, Caine’s reasoning for taking roles could be questionable. Alfred Hitchcock wanted Michael for 1972’s Frenzy, but Caine refused “the part of a sadist who murdered women…a real killer who cut women to smithereens”. Hitchcock would balk at the rejection and hold a grudge against Caine that would last the rest of the legendary horror director’s life and just cast a dude who looks like Caine. Caine’s reasons for turning down Frenzy are rather odd considering his performance in Brain de Palma’s masterpiece Dressed to Kill in 1980 which is basically a homage to Hitchcock and spoiler alert Caine is the killer. This Michael Caine shaped woman turned out to be Michael Caine in drag!
Other notable films include 1981’s Victory (opposite Sly!) and 1982’s Deathtrap. 1983 saw Educating Rita, which Caine says is his favorite of his films and features the performance he’s most proud of. He counts The Magus (1968), The Swarm (1978) and Ashanti (1979) among his worst. In Educating Rita, Caine’s genuine approach makes what would otherwise be a pretty unbelievable relationship believable. 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters would net Caine the only Academy Award for a Woody Allen- directed male actor. Caine portrayed honest love and affection in an endearing and sincere way.
Indeed, Caine would earn his first Oscar as Elliot in Hannah and Her Sisters in 1987 and as you know missed the ceremony due to filming for Jaws: The Revenge. It’s a shame that Caine missed that ceremony, because when he did make an award speech, it was usually a memorable one. In his 1999 Golden Globe speech, for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role in Little Voice, he quipped,
“My career must be slipping; this is the first time I’ve ever been available to pick up an award…I used to take every script that came in, and so I made a lot of crap. And a lot of money. So now I have enough money to be artistic and wait.” While some may not like Caine’s politics or may claim he comes off as arrogant, the peaks of his career are largely unassailable. If there’s any professional criticism that can be levied at Michael Caine, he was certainly never one to turn down a role, even if the movie was, as he said it, “crap”.
There was the genre-bending neo-noir Mona Lisa and 1988’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a fantastic comedic conman remake of the Marlon Brando-starring Bedtime Story from 1964. Frank Oz of Muppet fame ably tapped into the great dynamic between Michael Caine and Steve Martin. Caine held his own with and even at times exceeded Martin, when it came to the comedic aspects of the role. 1992 brought us The Muppet Christmas Carol. Caine carries the movie as the lead Ebenezer Scrooge, playing it straight while having Muppets as his supporting actors, which is the best way to tell this type of story.
And then Michael Caine took on Tom Cruise, Jude Law, Haley Joel Osment, Michael Clarke Duncan in an epic Oscar battle royal in the Best Supporting Actor category. Look at that, I think this is my favorite group of nominees, such an interesting and wonderfully unusual bunch. But it was old man Michael who would reign supreme with 1999’s The Cider House Rules. It is visually beautiful and endearing, but it can lose you at times during its over 2-hour runtime but never Caine is on screen. Its a gentle heartbreaking performance which comes off like a loving grandfather wishing you goodnight… he may very well be my favorite cinematic abortionist.
He was in the 2000 anti-censorship film Quills along side Miss Congeniality which saw financial success, as did 2002’s Austin Powers in Goldmember. Mike Meyers has said that his own character drew inspirations from Caine’s iconic characters. Caine’s role reflected his recurring spy character Harry Palmer. After the film Last Orders, Caine gave one of his best performances in 2002’s The Quiet American, adapted from a Graham Greene Novel. Caine gives his characteristic measured and seemingly effortless performance and aids in the film’s flow through his narration.
Caine would consider retirement in 2003 before leaning into his typecasting as a sage advisor for 2005’s Batman Begins and 2006’s The Prestige. Christopher Nolan, who would collaborate with Caine on an 18-year, 8-film streak, offered Caine his own poignant advice when pitching him 2005’s Batman Begins. “Read the bloody script.” Caine knew that at his age, he wouldn’t be playing the eponymous Batman, but didn’t know just how integral the role of Alfred was. With Michael Caine portraying him, the role, like many of his others, became iconic.
He went decidedly off-type for the excellent 2006 film Children of Men. Michael Caine farting and smoking weed on camera was unprecedented. Batman Begins marked the beginning of a series that stands as the best depiction of Batman on the silver screen. Caine’s depiction of his confidant Alfred helps ground the Christian Bale rendition of the superhero and the story. The Prestige is Christopher Nolan in rare form, featuring a masterful blend of period and modernity and supplying genuinely surprising twists that are even more fun upon rewatch. Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men stretches across genres and nails them all while deftly exploring themes that are both relevant and timeless.
Caine reprised the role of Batman’s butler Alfred in 2008’s The Dark Knight, the best in a fantastic 3-movie series. While his passing and performance drew a lot of the focus on the movie toward Heath Ledger, Alfred continued to represent the audience’s perspective and father figure to Bruce. But Alfred is also more than that. He creates and enables logistical aspects of Batman’s plans and offers insight when Batman can’t see the bigger picture. “Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They’ll hate you for it, but that’s the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.” Michael Caine was “the right choice” for Alfred, expressing love and loyalty through delivery in a way few can.
Michael Caine started the 2010s with another Christopher Nolan blockbuster: 2010’s Inception, wherein he portrayed (shocker) sage advisor Miles. Inception was well-received for its original concept and innovative visual style. Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon Levitt are largely the focus of the film, but Caine, as he so often has been throughout his career, is the glue that holds the crew and story together. Caine would venture into voice acting for 2011’s Gnomeo and Juliet and Cars 2 before returning as Alfred to close the Nolan Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. He portrayed Arthur Tressler in 2013’s magic heist film Now You See Me and its 2016 sequel. He subtly and gradually introduced a subversive turn in a way that maximized what the script offered. Caine saw great box office success in 2014 with Nolan’s Interstellar and Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service. Caine brought a sense of urgency to a character that was committed to his goals, no matter the fallout. Interstellar is a visually stunning exploration of common Nolan concepts: memory, the passage of time, perceptions and conceptions of reality. It’s a film that really makes you feel and think.
Caine’s portrayal of Fred Ballinger in 2015’s Youth might be the best thing about the movie, though the movie is impressive visually, as well. It just sometime feels like the actors, Michael Caine included, are doing the best they can with what they have, rather than telling a fully realized story. Following voiceover work for 2017’s Dunkirk, Caine’s last collaboration with Christopher Nolan as of early 2024 was in 2020’s Tenet, which didn’t break even financially and was met with mixed reviews. It just often feels in watching that the stunning visuals and intense plot are happening around the characters rather than to them. It’s not a bad movie, but Nolan sets an incredibly high bar, especially for his fans. I’m sure its a head of its time but we are still in its time.
Caine once said, “The basic rule of human nature is that powerful people speak slowly and subservient people quickly, because if they don’t speak fast nobody will listen to them.” He would combine these approaches to form his unique and influential voice. he gets what he wants. like he saw this woman in a coffee commercial, thought she was beautiful, tracked her down, married her and now they are celebrating their 50th anniversary cuz true love.
This fricking legend of a man considered himself retired in 2023, perhaps finishing strong with The Great Escaper, which was well received by critics and audiences. He has said that roles portraying 90-year-old supporting characters don’t excite him like they used to. He’s also said “I retire all the time, and then a script arrives and tempts me out of retirement.” Michael Caine not being featured in 2023’s Oppenheimer seems to have come down to a scheduling conflict. Or maybe he really is serious about retirement. Who knows? Maybe Christopher Nolan or the right script can tempt him out of retirement for another go-round.
Nolan kept Caine on his sets for so long because of his immense acting ability, but also for the example he sets for other actors when it comes to preparation and professionalism. Whether we’ve seen the last Michael Caine film or not, he has left an indelible legacy on the world of television and film. And through his perseverance through his early struggles, he has reminded us all, “Why Do We Fall, Sir? So That We Can Learn To Pick Ourselves Up.”
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Since even before Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launched, there’s been a lot of drama surrounding a pivotal scene featuring Batman. Rocksteady’s loot shooter is the continuation of the Batman: Arkham storyline, so fans were naturally interested in how the game uses the caped crusader. Well, a newly discovered…
Since even before Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launched, there’s been a lot of drama surrounding a pivotal scene featuring Batman. Rocksteady’s loot shooter is the continuation of the Batman: Arkham storyline, so fans were naturally interested in how the game uses the caped crusader. Well, a newly discovered…
Based on the IDW comic book by Beau Smith, the Syfy series Wynonna Earp was “a fast-paced, contemporary thriller” that followed Wyatt Earp’s great-granddaughter as “she battles demons and other supernatural beings. Wynonna is a witty and wild modern day gunslinger, using her unique abilities and a dysfunctional posse of allies to bring the paranormal to justice.” The show did well, running for four seasons and 49 episodes from 2016 to 2021. Three years later, it’s set to get a 90 minute follow-up special called Wynonna Earp: Vengeance, which will be released through the Tubi streaming service.
Vanity Fair broke the news of the follow-up special, which has been written by the show’s creator and executive producer, Emily Andras. They were also able to confirm that Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna herself), Tim Rozon (Doc Holliday), Dom Provost-Chalkley (Waverly Earp), and Katherine Barrell (Nicole Haught) are all reprising their roles, and “other familiar faces are likely to return as well.” Paolo Barzman, who directed many episodes of Wynonna Earp, will be directing Wynonna Earp: Vengance as well. Production will take place in Calgary, where the show was filmed, and the special is expected to be released sometime in late 2024.
Andras told Vanity Fair that the special will catch up the characters sometime after the events of season 4. “Doc and Wynonna have been on an adventure, and Waverly and Nicole have been at home in [the Earp hometown of] Purgatory, doing their thing. I think it’s going to be really interesting to see, hopefully, what gets everybody home—maybe facing a challenge they’ve never faced before, something pretty intense. It’s all your favorite—hopefully—character moments, but also a little bit about growing up and sort of, like, being who you are now and earning all your choices.” While fans will enjoy seeing Wynonna and her cohorts in action again, Andras is hoping this special will also serve as a “gateway drug” that will get viewers who hadn’t watched Wynonna Earp before this to check out the four seasons of the show (which is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.) The writer/executive producer even offered a description of what the show is all about, saying it begins when Wynonna “inherits this magic gun that can kill demons from her great-great-great-grandfather Earp. And then it’s about her kind of being with this other posse of dipshits—the kind of people who are usually kind of on the margins of Westerns. An immortal Doc Holliday, her little baby sister, this kick-ass sheriff of the town, [all] forming this family to fight evil in a very dysfunctional, fun, real way. We have lots of feels, lots of dirty jokes, and lots of tears, and maybe a little bit of disgusting Tarantino gore, if you’re lucky.“
I have never seen an episode of Wynonna Earp, but that sounds good to me.
This follow-up special came about because Andras has stayed in contact with former Syfy executive Josh Van Houdt, who is now Tubi’s vice president of scripted original content. Andras and Van Houdt discussed the idea of a Wynonna Earp special, and when Van Houdt brought it to Adam Lewinson, Tubi’s chief content officer, it got the greenlight.
Are you a Wynonna Earp fan? Will you be checking out Wynonna Earp: Vengeance when it reaches Tubi? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Before you even set off to scale Mt. Nibel with Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s demo, there are a number of settings you should consider tweaking. While many of the base settings are fine to leave alone, some, like the graphics option, really demand your attention before you dive in (yes, we recommend the…
Before you even set off to scale Mt. Nibel with Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s demo, there are a number of settings you should consider tweaking. While many of the base settings are fine to leave alone, some, like the graphics option, really demand your attention before you dive in (yes, we recommend the…
The story of Robert Downey Jr.’s comeback is possibly one of the greatest in Hollywood. When he was down and out, he was a cautionary tale and a punchline, but now the Oscar contender from Oppenheimer couldn’t be any richer with an amazing legacy, legions of fans, a renewed reputation and a mountain of earnings from Marvel Studios. It was Jon Favreau’s decision to fight for Downey Jr. for the part of Tony Stark that turned out to be a Hollywood and a cultural game changer.
Ironically, while 2008’s Iron Man became a huge hit and planted the seeds for the juggernaut that is the MCU, as well as brought Downey Jr.’s career back from the dead, Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight would take over that summer. During the promotion for Oppenheimer, Nolan and Downey Jr. would show great respect for each other. Variety reports that while on Stephen Colbert, Nolan outlined what had motivated him to cast Downey Jr. in the film. Nolan explained, “I’ve always wanted to work with him. […] He has such charisma as Tony Stark. Him playing Iron Man is one of the most consequential casting decisions that’s ever been made in the history of the movie business. I wanted to give him the opportunity to lose himself in a part, lose himself in another human being the way great actors love him.”
The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker had also dug deeper by expounding, “With anybody you work with, with actors…you’re looking for some kind of connection emotionally, empathetically. You’re looking for some kind of generosity. He has this incredible generosity of spirit. It means when he’s in a scene with other people he’s making sure they are all doing their best, that they are all able to bring their best to the table. He’s helping them clarify those emotional connections.”
Although they finally found the perfect role for him, Downey Jr. once tried to pitch himself to Nolan back when he was casting for Batman Begins, and he was looking for an actor to play Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow. Nolan didn’t seem to be keen on him as Downey Jr. recalls, “I remember meeting [Nolan] for tea and I was like, ‘He doesn’t seem like he’s really in on this interview.’ And he was polite and all that. But you can tell when someone is kind of like, ‘It’s not going to go anywhere.’”
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After making the little-seen 2009 thriller Absence, the filmmaking duo of Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer went on to make the impressive 2014 horror film Starry Eyes, which led to them getting the chance to direct the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary. That movie didn’t become as popular as the original film, but it did earn over $100 million at the box office. Five years later, Kölsch and Widmyer have finally set up their next feature: the survival thriller The Swallow, which is set to star Grace Van Dien, who had a memorable role in season 4 of Stranger Things.
Kölsch and Widmyer wrote the screenplay for The Swallow, which was previously featured on the Bloodlist, a list assembled through a survey of industry professionals, who recommend their favorite unproduced thriller and horror scripts. Thanks to producers James Harris and Mark Lane of Tea Shop Productions, John Finemore of Lost City, Adam Goldworm of Aperture Entertainment, and Josh Goldbloom, The Swallow will be heading into production soon. In fact, they’re aiming to get rolling on this one in the summer. Architect is also involved with the project. The company previously worked (as executive producers) with Tea Shop on the survival thriller The Bayou, which was financed by their sister company Creativity Capital.
The story of The Swallow centers on a group of teens who are abandoned in a deadly forest. Van Dien is taking on the role of Ziggy, who, along with her four friends, journeys out on a camping trip to a picturesque remote forest. But trespassing into an off-limits area, they awaken an uncanny terror in the woods… and a ravenous hunger from within the Earth. Soon, the ground itself is trying to swallow anything and anyone it comes into contact with and Ziggy and her friends have nowhere to run as every trembling step they take could be their last.
Kölsch and Widmyer are producing the film alongside the producers mentioned above. James Hoppe of Lost City serves as an executive producer.
Kölsch and Widmyer provided Deadline with the following statement: “The Swallow is a lean, mean horror film that never lets its foot off the gas. Essentially, one extended set piece of tension and primal horror that just keeps ratcheting up. Daring audiences to endure it until the end.“
Architect’s Calum Gray added: “The Swallow is everything we want in an Architect movie: a gloriously entertaining, escapist rollercoaster with a strong high concept and super clear audience: this is a breathless and ingenious survival thriller with which to completely envelop contemporary global cinemagoers. We are furthermore blessed to have a cutting edge team of outstanding genre creatives shepherding this film into the light and just as per The Bayou, we can’t wait to partner up once again with Tea Shop.“
How does The Swallow sound to you? Are you looking forward to the next Kölsch and Widmyer movie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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