Writer/director Parker Finn’s sequel to his 2022 horror film Smile (read our review HERE, watch the movie HERE) is aiming for an October 18th theatrical release date, and with that date just a couple of weeks away, a new featurette has arrived online to give us a behind-the-scenes look at Smile 2. To find out what Finn and the film’s star, Naomi Scott of Aladdin and Charlie’s Angels, had to say about this follow-up, check out the video embedded above.

Smile was based on Finn’s short film Laura Hasn’t Slept (watch it HERE), which won the Special Jury Recognition Prize in SXSW’s Midnight Short category. Caitlin Stasey (Neighbours) played the title character in that short, and reprises the role in Smile, making it a follow-up of sorts. Smile has the following synopsis: After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.

Here’s the Smile 2 synopsis: About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.

Smile was produced by Temple Hill, and they are producing Smile 2 as well. Scott is joined in the cast by Lukas Gage of The White Lotus and You, Rosemarie DeWitt of La La Land and the Poltergeist remake, Dylan Gelula of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Dream Scenario, Raúl Castillo of Army of the Dead and Knives Out, Miles Gutierrez-Riley of The Wilds and On The Come Up, and Kyle Gallner (Red State), reprising the role he played in the first movie. The featurette reveals that Drew Barrymore (Scream) also makes an appearance, playing herself and interviewing Skye Riley on her talk show.

Are you looking forward to Smile 2? Take a look at the featurette, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Grab your marmalade and a red-stained bucket hat because the latest Paddington in Peru trailer is here, and as the title suggests, the lovable bear is about to embark on another grand adventure! Paul King, who directed Paddington and Paddington 2, sits out for this sequel, with music video and commercial director Dougal Wilson taking the helm. Audiences and critics consider the Paddington franchise among the purest cinematic experiences, and the timing for the adorable bear to return could not be better.

Today’s Paddington in Peru trailer finds the affable bear searching for his Aunt Lucy after she mysteriously disappears. During his quest, Paddington learns she left in search of the city of El Dorado, a mythical city made of gold many explorers have longed to discover. With his supportive family at his side, Paddington hires a shifty boatman named Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) to take the search party into the heart of Peru, where Paddington hopes to find his Aunt and bring her back safe and sound. Naturally, things go awry, and before long, Paddington and his friends become part of a search and rescue mission filled with peril, double-crosses, and delicious sandwiches.

Dougal Wilson directs Paddington in Peru from a screenplay by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont, based on a story by Paul King, Simon Farnaby, and Michael Bond. Ben Whishaw returns to voice Paddington, along with Emily Mortimer, Olivia Colman, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, and more. Imelda Staunton also voices Aunt Lucy.

Dougal Wilson has his work cut out for him regarding taking over the Paddington reins after Paul King’s Paddington 2 was hailed by many as the greatest movie of all time. Paddington 2 holds a 99% Fresh Critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience score of 88%. Thankfully, today’s Paddington in Peru trailer has Wilson’s movie looking positively delightful, high-spirited, warm-hearted, and filled with adventure. Paddington appeals to children and adult audiences alike, with his popularity growing exponentially since his first appearance in the 1958 novel A Bear Called Paddington.

What do you think about the latest Paddington in Peru trailer? Are you excited about the beloved bear’s return? Let us know in the comments section below.

Paddington in Peru opens in theaters on January 17, 2025.

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Ryan Murphy is no stranger to having to defend his works, especially when it comes down to real-life portrayals. With his latest venture, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, taking some heat from Erik Menendez himself, Murphy has gone on the defensive yet again, saying the brothers should be thanking him for the series.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter amid Erik Menendez’s dismissal of the second season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, the creator stated, “I’ll tell you my thoughts about the Menendez brothers. The Menendez brothers should be sending me flowers. They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years. And it’s gotten the attention of not only this country, but all over the world. There’s sort of an outpouring of interest in their lives and in the case.” Murphy added that the outcome for the brothers has been nothing short of positive. “I know for a fact that many people have offered to help them because of the interest of my show and what we did. There is no world that we live in where the Menendez brothers or their wives or lawyers would say, ‘You know what, that was a wonderful, accurate depiction of our clients.’ That was never going to happen, and I wasn’t interested in that happening.”

Murphy would go on to say that critics – particularly the Menendez brothers and their team – are missing the point that the series isn’t just about them but also about the journalists and attorneys that played a key part in how the story was presented in the first place. With this, he said the brothers are yet again playing victim to the tune of “poor pitiful us.”

One of Erik Menendez’s key points in his take on Murphy’s series is that he is supporting a slanderous narrative that doesn’t properly take into account the abuse they went through. Reacting to this, Murphy stated, “I think they could have killed their parents, and also had been abused. They could have been of ambiguous moral character as young people, and be rehabilitated now. So I think that story is complicated…”

Do you think Ryan Murphy has misrepresented the Menendez brothers? How will he come out looking when all is said and done?

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Wolfs, the action comedy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, has become the most-viewed movie in Apple TV+ history. The streaming service hasn’t released specific numbers, but Deadline has heard that its release “boosted viewership by nearly 30% week over week.” It was particularly popular in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany.

“When George, Brad and Jon approached us with the idea for Wolfs, it was an easy call — a crackling, fun movie starring two Oscar winners who everyone knows are iconic together,” said Matt Dentler, Apple Original Films’ head of features. “Now, audiences have chosen in droves to make Wolfs part of their weekend, making the movie a global blockbuster. We always consider Apple TV+ to be the home for the world’s most talented artists to create and deliver their best work, and it’s exciting to see audiences embrace that so overwhelmingly.“

Wolfs finds Clooney and Pitt reuniting for the first time since Burn After Reading. Clooney plays a professional fixer hired to cover up a high-profile crime. But when a second fixer (Pitt) shows up and the two “lone wolves” are forced to work together, they find their night spiralling out of control in ways that neither one of them expected. The film was originally intended for a wide theatrical release, but that was later changed to a limited release, with most of the attention paid towards its debut on Apple TV+. A sequel is already in development.

Our own Chris Bumbray enjoyed the film. Although he admits that the premise isn’t exactly original, the film’s success is largely due to the wonderful chemistry between Clooney and Pitt. “Both actors play to their strengths here. They’re famous for playing cool and collected, albeit with human touches and a sardonic sense of humour. This served them well in the Ocean’s Trilogy, and Wolfs is very much in the same vein, albeit with a bit of a harder edge. Like those movies, this is a crime caper, but Watts has an R-rating to play with, meaning lots of F-bombs, and some violence,’” Bumbray wrote. “This is the two of them having fun, and with a contained setting, it’s a great hangout flick. Watching the two of them do their thing together has always been a blast, and Wolfs is their best as a combo since the original Ocean’s Eleven.” You can check out the rest of his review right here. 

Did you watch Wolfs on Apple TV+?

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Everybody farts. That’s just a fact. Some do it more than others, but I don’t know how many people can cause an actual evacuation with one. While speaking on the Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast, Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld revealed that Will Smith once caused a three-hour-long evacuation with one of his farts on the set of the 1997 movie. That’s… impressive?

Barry Sonnenfeld said that the fart in question occurred during a scene in which Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were “hermetically sealed” in a pod used for filming the transforming car. “There are locks to prevent it from opening and falling,” Sonnenfeld said. “I say, ‘Roll camera.’ And I hear Will Smith go, ‘Oh Jesus, so sorry. Tommy, so sorry. Baz, get the ladder.’ And you hear Tommy saying, ‘That’s fine, Will. No worries, Will. Don’t worry, Will.’ Anyway, I don’t know what’s gone on, right?“

Sonnenfeld continued, “So we race the ladder over. Yeah, Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, races down the stairs. And what happened was, Will Smith is a faster. It’s just some people are. And you really don’t want to be inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart. You don’t even want to be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch. We evacuated the stage for about three hours. And that’s incredible. No, he’s, you know, a lovely guy. Just, he farts. Some do, some don’t.“

Tommy Lee Jones would return to star alongside Will Smith for Men in Black II and Men in Black 3, so clearly, those intense farts weren’t a deal breaker. The last film in the franchise, Men in Black: International, was the first not to feature Smith or Jones. It starred Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson and moved the location to the London branch of MiB. Unfortunately, the film was a critical and financial disappointment and spelled the end of the Men in Black franchise, at least for now. There was a potential Men in Black/21 Jump Street crossover movie in the works, but it was ultimately scrapped.

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Mark Chavez, one of the doctors being charged in the death of Matthew Perry, has pleaded guilty to one federal count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison, with sentencing set for April 2nd.

“Chavez has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and has signed a plea agreement,” the Justice Department said. “At his arraignment [United States Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth] will set a date for Chavez’s change of plea proceeding – or direct the parties to contact the chambers of the federal district judge assigned to the case to set the hearing date.“

During a previous hearing, Chavez was released on a $500,000 bond and was stripped of his medical license. His attorney, Matthew Binninger, has said that Chavez is “incredibly remorseful” for his role in Perry’s death. The actor was just 54 years old when he died last October from the “acute effects of ketamine.” The autopsy report also mentioned contributing factors, including drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder.

Chavez is one of five defendants who are being charged in connection with the death of the Friends star. Erik Fleming has also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in assistant, also pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. However, the two other defendants, Jasveen Sangha, aka the Ketamine Queen, and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, have pleaded not guilty to one count each of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and are tentatively scheduled to go on trial on March 4th.

Matthew Perry is best known for playing Chandler Bing on Friends, one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time. The show recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, but series co-creator Marta Kauffman said that Perry’s absence made the event bittersweet. “It’s a huge loss, and it does make the 30th a little fraught,” she said. All eleven seasons of the series were released on 4K Ultra HD last month (buy it here). The set includes all 236 original broadcast episodes released for the first time in 4K, with over 20 hours of special features, including some all-new bonus content.

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The legendary Shelley Duvall sadly passed away back in July at the age of 75 – but not long before she passed, she returned to acting after a twenty year break to take a role in the creature feature The Forest Hills (and, by the way, the creature in question is a werewolf). That movie is now set to reach theatres in the United States and Canada on October 4th, and with that release just a couple of days away, we’ve gotten our hands on some clips and promos, which you can check out in the embed above. Our review of the film can be read at THIS LINK.

Written and directed by Scott Goldberg, The Forest Hills tells the story of a man who is tormented by nightmarish visions after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill woods.

Duvall is joined in the cast by Chiko Mendez (Smothered by Mothers), Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Dee Wallace (Critters), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Stacey Nelkin (Halloween III: Season of the Witch), Marianne Hagan (Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers), and Linda Flores (Cops and Robbers). Duvall’s character is “the mother of the mentally and emotionally disturbed Rico (Mendez), who serves as his inner voice.”

Goldberg told Deadline he was inspired to cast Duvall in The Forest Hills because she “contributed to The Shining being an absolute masterpiece by giving her all, and performing in a way that really showcased the fear and horror of a mother in isolation.“

Goldberg has previously directed multiple short films, a few documentaries (including the Scream Factory Blu-ray bonus featurette Underground: A Look Into the Day of the Dead Mines), and the horror feature Dead End Massacre.

Scott Hansen produced The Forest Hills with Dreznick Goldberg Productions and Digital Thunderdome Studios. Goldberg serves as co-producer.

To find out if The Forest Hills will be showing in your area (and to purchase tickets if it is), head over to TFHScreenings.com.

What did you think of the clips and promos? Will you be heading out to see The Forest Hills on the big screen this weekend? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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It’s been a while since we last had a major update on Amazon MGM’s live-action Voltron movie, but THR has reported that newcomer Daniel Quinn-Toye is set to star in the project. The actor doesn’t have any film credits to his name, but he served as Tom Holland’s understudy in the West End production of Romeo and Juliet and also played Paris, a suitor of Juliet.

Rawson Marshall Thurber (Red Notice) is directing the Voltron movie, which is gearing up to shoot this fall in Australia. Thurber also co-wrote the script with Ellen Shanman. The basic premise of Voltron is centered around five young pilots whose vehicles join together to form the mega mech known as Voltron. The show was edited together from several Japanese anime series, including Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, and originally ran in the mid-80s. Voltron went on to spawn several sequel series, including Voltron: Legendary Defender, which spanned eight seasons on Netflix.

The production has been conducting screen tests for the male and female leads. While Quinn-Toye made the cut for the male lead, THR says that the female lead hasn’t been selected despite three actresses testing for the role. With filming aiming to get underway, we should be hearing some more casting news soon.

Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman will produce along with Bob Koplar, the head of World Events Productions, owner of the Voltron IP. Hollywood has been trying to develop a Voltron movie for many years, so fingers crossed this one actually makes it across the finish line.

In addition to Voltron, Thurber also has two Red Notice sequels in development for Netflix, which he’s planning on writing and shooting back-to-back. The first movie starred Dwayne Johnson as John Hartley, an FBI profiler who is forced to partner with the world’s greatest art thief (Ryan Reynolds) to track down the world’s most wanted art thief (Gal Gadot). The first film has become Netflix’s biggest original movie of all time, so the streaming service was obviously eager to get the ball rolling on more sequels.

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Wes Craven made some very underrated movies. There was Deadly Friend, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and The People Under the Stairs, all of which have found new appreciation as the years passed. However, one of his movies that I always thought should have been a major hit was his 1989 flick Shocker. This was Craven’s attempt to make his own Freddy Krueger-style slasher, Horace Pinker (future X-Files star Mitch Pileggi), who, upon his execution, becomes an unstoppable force of energy who goes on a massive killing spree. The only one who can stop him is a teenager (Peter Berg – long before he became a director) whose girlfriend was among Picker’s victims and has a psychic connection to the killer. 

While Craven and Universal probably hoped the film would become a hit, it whiffed at the box office, only making about $16 million, although it became a horror favourite on VHS. That’s too bad because it’s a great time capsule of gory eighties horror, complete with a killer hair metal soundtrack that includes an Alice Cooper cover by Megadeath (ironic because Cooper is in the movie) and tracks by a short-lived hair metal supergroup called The Dudes of Wrath.

Happily, the good folks at Scream Factory are giving Shocker a deluxe 4K re-release with some pretty rad extras: 

Bonus Features for UHD/Blu-ray

DISC ONE (4K UHD):

• NEW 4K Restoration From The Original Camera Negative
• Presented In Dolby Vision And Dolby Atmos
• Audio Commentary With Director Of Photography Jacques Haitkin, Co-Producer Robert Engelman And Composer William Goldstein
• Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Wes Craven

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Thommy Hutson has had a hand in the making of multiple documentaries about popular horror films: the 90 minute documentaries His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th and Scream: The Inside Story, the 2 hour documentary More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead and its shorter companion pieces They Won’t Stay Dead: A Look at the Return of the Living Dead Part II and Love Beyond the Grave: A Look at the Return of the Living Dead III. He was a producer on the 4 hour documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy and the 6 and a half+ hour documentary Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th. Now he has turned his attention to the Child’s Play / Chucky franchise, resulting in the 295 minute (that’s 4 hours and 55 minutes) documentary Doc of Chucky! Doc of Chucky will be released through the Shudder streaming service on November 1st, and a poster for the film has now made its way online. You can check it out at the bottom of this article.

Directed by Hutson, the documentary has the following synopsis: The ultimate account of the Child’s Play film franchise and Chucky, a horror villain for the ages. With contributions from cast, crew, critics, historians, and experts, as well as clips, photographs, archival documents, behind-the-scenes footage, and more, experience the making-of story that proves you can’t keep a good guy down in a series of films that have created an icon.

It features interviews with Don Mancini, Brad Dourif, Jennifer Tilly, Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, John Waters, Fiona Dourif, Perrey Reeves, Gerrit Graham, David Kirschner, and more.

The original Child’s Play was released in 1988 and has spawned a franchise that includes six sequels – Child’s Play 2 (1990), Child’s Play 3 (1991), Bride of Chucky (1998), Seed of Chucky (2004), Curse of Chucky (2013), Cult of Chucky (2017) – a 2019 remake, and three seasons of a TV series that ran on USA Network, Syfy, and the Peacock streaming service. The Chucky TV show was recently cancelled, but the cast is holding on to hope that it will find a new home for season 4. A new feature sequel is also in the works.

Are you a Child’s Play fan, and will you be watching Doc of Chucky? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and take a look at this poster while you’re scrolling down:

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