Hayden Panettiere of Heroes, Scream 4, and Scream VI shares the screen with Tyler James Williams of Everybody Hates Chris,Abbott Elementary, and The Walking Dead in the thriller Amber Alert. Deadline reports that Lionsgate has acquired the worldwide rights to the film, which flew under the radar as it made its way through production and is now in post-production.
Amber Alert was directed by Kerry Bellessa, who also wrote the screenplay with Joshua Oram. Bellessa’s previous credits include the 2022 horror film Immanence and a 2012 thriller that was also called Amber Alert… so apparently this is a reimagining of Bellessa’s previous film. The new take on Amber Alert will show us what happens when an ordinary ride share becomes a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. The story follows Jaq (Hayden Panettiere) who is eager to get to her first day at a new job, and her driver, Shane (Tyler James Williams), who is just trying to earn a little extra at his side hustle. An alert of a child abduction on their phones will change all that when they discover they are behind a car that matches the description of the kidnapper’s. Unable to let a possible child trafficker escape, they begin a pursuit that will put their own lives at risk.
The 2012 version of Amber Alert, also written by Bellessa and Oram, had the following synopsis: When a group of friends decides to follow a car they’ve seen posted on an Amber Alert, things start to go very wrong.
The new Amber Alert is being produced by Joseph Restaino and Tony Stopperan of Hungry Bull Productions, which is best known for bringing us Michael Sarnoski’s Pig, starring Nicolas Cage and Alex Wolff. Kerry Bellessa is also producing, alongside Summer Bellessa (who starred in the original film) for Bluefields Entertainment. Leal Naim is a producer on the project as well. The film is being co-financed by Hungry Bull Productions and Three Point Capital. Panettiere and Williams serve as executive producers. Lionsgate will be handling the domestic distribution.
Are you interested in seeing Hayden Panettiere and Tyler James Williams in the new Amber Alert? Have you seen the original film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Alec Baldwin heads to court this summer after Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer set a date for the 30 Rock actor’s involuntary manslaughter case focusing on the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. If he’s found guilty, Baldwin could face 18 months to three years in prison with $5000 in fines for his part in Hutchins’ death.
“Jury selection is scheduled for July 9, 2024,” wrote Judge Sommer in an order made public Monday morning. With Baldwin present in the Santa Fe courtroom, the trial is expected to run from “July 10 to July 19, 2024.”
Baldwin shot Hutchins on October 21, 2021, on Rust’s Bonanza Creek Ranch set just outside Santa Fe after a gun he was holding during a rehearsal discharged a live round. Baldwin says he never pulled the trigger. A jury will investigate his claim in a court of law and decide his fate. Rust director Joel Souza was also injured in the incident.
Alec Baldwin was originally charged last year, but the charges were dropped just a few months later. However, they were dropped “without prejudice,” meaning the prosecutors could still refile charges as the investigation continued. Baldwin was again charged with involuntary manslaughter earlier this month, with the actor’s lawyers saying, “We look forward to our day in court.”
While Alec Baldwin is free without bail, the actor does have to adhere to several conditions passed down by New Mexico judge T. Glenn Ellington, including not possessing a firearm, drinking alcohol, or having contact with any witnesses involved in the case, except for business matters related to the movie. He’s also not allowed to leave the U.S. without the court’s permission.
“Defendant is permitted to have contact with potential witnesses only in the capacity laid out herein: In connection with the ‘Rust’ movie and other related and unrelated business matters: provided, however, that Defendant is not permitted to discuss the accident at issue, or the substance of his or the witness’s potential testimony in this case,” reads the conditions.
“‘Related business matters’ is designed to capture promoting the movie and other similar activities. ‘Unrelated business matters’ is designed to capture other business relationships between Baldwin and any of the witnesses. The Defendant is permitted to continue to utilize Matthew DelPiano as his agent. Discussion about the incident is permitted with the witnesses who are named as civil codefendants only so long as such conversations are held exclusively in the presence of attorneys for civil litigation purposes. The Defendant will not directly or indirectly solicit witnesses or members of the cast and crew to participate in the documentary with Moxie films or to obtain statements regarding safety on the “Rust’ set outside of standard investigative procedures.”
Earlier this month, we learned that Game of Thrones cast members Sophie Turner and Kit Harington will be reuniting for writer/director Natasha Kermani’s Gothic horror film The Dreadful… and close on the heels of that announcement comes the news that Turner has also signed on to star in a psychological thriller called Trust, which is coming our way from Twisted Pictures, the production company behind the Saw franchise.
Twisted Pictures has secured a multi-picture deal with Republic Pictures, with Republic Pictures acquiring the worldwide rights to Trust. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, “The Paramount Global housed Republic Pictures was revived in 2023 as an acquisitions only label, and has a slate that includes Samara Weaving starrer Azreal and Jon Voight action film The Painter.” The Republic Pictures name goes back to 1935 and the days when the company was a standalone studio that specialized in serials, Westerns, and B-movies.
Actress Carlson Young (genre fans may remember her from the Scream TV series) will be directing the film, having previously made her feature directorial debut with the 2021 genre film The Blazing World. Young also recently directed the romantic comedy Upgraded, which was released through Prime Video. The script for Trust has been written by novelist and screenwriter Gigi Levangie, whose previous credits include Stepmom (starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon), the Debra Messing series The Starter Wife, the Sarah Chalke mini-series Maneater, and We Are Family, which was an Indian/Australian remake of Stepmom.
Twisted Pictures’ Oren Koules is producing the film with Miles Koules of Koulest Production. Twisted Pictures’ Dan Heffner and Ketura Kestin serve as executive producers alongside Lena Roklin of Luber Roklin Entertainment, while Ethan Harari is a co-producer.
Details on the plot of Trust are being kept under wraps… so for right now, we can only evaluate this project based on the names involved and the psychological thriller description. Are you interested in seeing a psychological thriller from Twisted Pictures that stars Sophie Turner and is directed by Carlson Young from a screenplay by Gigi Levangie? Share your thoughts on Trust by leaving a comment below.
After back-to-back bombs like Morbius and MadameWeb, Sony‘s Spider-Verse needs a win. Thankfully, Kelly Marcel’s Venom 3 is nearing completion, and the symbiote is known to entertain audiences while bringing home the box office. Speaking with Variety at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Ted Lasso and Venom 3 star Juno Temple said filming for the threequel is nearly done. She described the experience of working on Venom 3 as a “wonderful ride,” adding the film is bound to please Venom fans.
“We’re coming close to an end at the moment,” Temple said. “It’s been a wild, wonderful ride. It’s so new to me. It’s a big set! This is crazy. It’s been so much fun and I got to work with such cool people. I’ve been so lucky in my career to just have the most incredible casts. I can’t wait for it to get out into the world. I think it’s going to be a good one.”
While confidence in Sony’s ability to deliver a solid Spider-Man-less film is uneasy after the dismal performance of Madame Web, it’s worth noting that Venom movies typically display a unique charm. Whether it’s Tom Hardy’s wacky and unpredictable performance as Eddie Brock or the symbiote coming out at a blacklight rave, Sony’s Venom movies are “awfully good” in the way you’d want a project like this to be. We don’t need every superhero movie to be severe or carry dire consequences. Sometimes, you want to swim in a lobster tank or scare the bejesus out of your neighbor who won’t turn their music down.
Kelly Marcel is the third director to helm a movie in Sony’s Venom franchise after Ruben Fleischer (Venom) and Andy Serkis (Venom: Let There Be Carnage). Reports indicate Marcel has a great working relationship with Hardy, and the duo has plenty of great ideas for Venom 3. Both creatives have been driving forces in bringing Venom’s adventures to screens, not to mention securing boatloads of cash for Sony and Marvel.
Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Clark Backo star alongside Tom Hardy in Venom 3 as primary cast members. Plot details remain a mystery, though we’ll hear more soon.
Are you excited about Venom 3, or has Sony burned you one too many times with its questionable direction for the Spider-Verse? Let us know where you stand in the comments below.
Every move you make, every premiere you stake, he’ll be watching you… Sting, who portrayed Feyd-Rautha in 1984’s Dune, turned up at the New York premiere of Dune: Part Two to show support for the sequel. He even took a picture with Austin Butler, who now plays Feyd-Rautha in the series. You can check out the pic below:
1984’s Dune has a rocky reputation, with some loving it and others downright loathing it. Sting himself has his own take now that it has been 40 years, saying of David Lynch’s Dune, “We tried to cram far too much into it, but I still enjoy that one as well. It was a long time ago.” That’s fair…but what does he think about the 2021 Dune? “It’s wonderful. I mean, I’m looking forward to seeing Austin playing my role, which is fantastic. You know, I could have played his dad, actually.” Now that would have been incredible! Regardless of your own personal take on Dune, you have to admit it’s pretty awesome that Sting made the premiere.
But Sting isn’t the only one who has major praise for Dune: Part Two. In fact, he’s in a large legion, as the movie has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes based on nearly 150 reviews. Our own Chris Bumbray even bestowed it the prestigious 10/10, calling it a “real cinematic event”, a “stunning achievement” and a “masterpiece”. The film has had a number of premieres around the world but will finally hit theaters wide this Friday, March 1st.
On playing Feyd-Rautha, Butler would say, “It was just so much fun for me, especially playing this role, to get to do something so different from anything I’ve ever done before.” And while he’s known to take his roles pretty far (has he really shaken that Elvis voice?), he did have to dial down how much method work he put into his Dune character, with director Denis Villeneuve calculating that Butler was still 25-30% in character when cameras weren’t rolling.
What do you think Austin Butler will bring to Feyd-Rautha that Sting didn’t in the original Dune? Will you be catching it on opening weekend? Let us know below!
Playing families on screen is a challenge for any actors. Finding the chemistry between siblings, parents and their kids, and even spouses can be a matter of finding the right combination of talent and connection. Over the years, parents and their children have portrayed fictional dynamics similar to their own, notably Paper Moon starring Ryan and Tatum O’Neal. There are a lot fewer of these movies than you might think. Luckily, rising star Clara McGregor envisioned a film that echoed her relationship with her father, Ewan McGregor, and the actor was more than willing to step in as the dad on screen as well. The result, Bleeding Love, is a wonderful road trip film that takes the familiar tropes of the genre and adds to it.
Bleeding Love tells the story of an unnamed Daughter (Clara McGregor) being driven across the American Southwest by her Father (Ewan McGregor) after she recently overdosed. The Father, who has a history of substance abuse and left his daughter to start a new family, struggles with reforging a relationship with his troubled child years away from her life. The film follows the days as they drive from San Diego to a facility for the Daughter to restart her life. They meet some interesting people along the way and experience the highs and lows of connecting.
I got the chance to speak with the cast and creators of Bleeding Love. Jake Weary, who plays Kip, discussed his brief role in the film and how much talent he saw among his friends making the movie. Actress Vera Bulder, who co-developed the story with Clara McGregor, talked about the germination of the story and how she selected her memorable role in the film. Director Emma Westenberg, making her feature debut, talked about the films that inspired Bleeding Love and how they selected their filming locations. Stars Clara and Ewan McGregor talked frankly about working together, Clara’s bladder, and what it was like playing fictional versions of their real relationship. Check out the full interviews in the embed above.
PLOT: The love story between Rick and Michonne. Changed by a world that is constantly changing, will they find themselves in a war against the living or will they discover that they too are The Walking Dead?
REVIEW: It is hard to believe that it has been fourteen years since The Walking Dead debuted, changing the landscape of zombies on television as well as comic book adaptations on the small screen. After eleven seasons on the air, the flagship series in AMC’s franchise ended in 2022 but not before revealing three successor series featuring members of the original The Walking Dead cast. With Dead City and Daryl Dixon having debuted last year, fans have found the spin-offs to be a mixed bag. Anticipation for the return of Michonne and Rick Grimes has been high since Andrew Lincoln left in season nine and Danai Gurira departed in season ten, but the premiere of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live felt muted in the weeks leading up to its premiere. Now, with the first episode having debuted on AMC, fans have gotten a taste at the return of the fan-favorite couple. The Ones Who Live opens with an episode that is underwhelming in its familiarity as it sets the table to answer questions posed by The Walking Dead showrunners in other series but does not do much to reignite what made the early seasons of the zombie show such a mainstream hit.
Picking up after the bridge explosion that left Rick Grimes a memory for the main series characters, five years have elapsed and Rick is living in the thriving city of the Civic Republic, formerly Philadelphia. Run by the military known as the CRM, Rick is repeatedly recruited by Donald Okafor (Craig Tate) to join as a soldier. Rick spends much of the early part of the episode pining after Michonne and his family he left behind and plots multiple escapes. In a depressed spiral and unable to escape from the Civic Republic, Rick considers suicide and makes a brash escape attempt that results in an act using an axe that leaves the former sheriff in a physical situation that replicates something from the early run of the comic. Nevertheless, Rick learns again that he may not be able to get away unless he plays by the rules. That is when he decides to join Okafor and the CRM. Rick then spends the next months training as a soldier under the watchful eye of Okafor and CRM Major General Beale (Terry O’Quinn). O’Quinn, who always seems to be playing the same character with slightly different facial hair, is always a welcome addition to any series but does not bring anything new to The Ones Who Live.
Over the season premiere, much of the time is spent orienting us to the Civic Republic and its structure. So much of the story is spent with Andrew Lincoln reprising his gruff Southern accent as Rick talks about wanting to find Michonne. When Rick isn’t spouting expository narration, the various characters are telling us tons about how and why the CRM is the way that it is. Whether it be Rick’s friend Esteban or his fellow CRM recruit Pearl (Lucifer‘s Lesley-Ann Brandt), everyone just talks about the superficial good of the Civic Republic while others talk about the hidden underbelly of the closed city. It gets tiring and repetitive after a while culminating in a fight sequence that gives the episode some much-needed energy. The entire episode goes by with the only appearance from Danai Gurira in the form of dream sequences between Rick and Michonne meeting cute at a park bench in a wonderful what could have been setting. Danai Gurira finally makes her true entrance in the close of the episode which sets up the true direction for where this series is going to go.
Things finally begin to heat up in the closing minutes of the episode as a character dies, setting up a new path for where the rest of this truncated season will go. We have yet to spend much time with Pollyanna McIntosh, returning as Jadis Stokes from the main series and a role in World Beyond, nor have we gotten time with Andrew Bachelor, Breeda Wool, or the other new members of the cast. This first episode is centered on Andrew Lincoln who seems to be a shell of the leader he was for nine seasons. I don’t know if this is just a daze that Rick Grimes needs to awaken from but I was left disappointed by how he appears in this premiere chapter. I was also underwhelmed by yet another story about a group in control who have become corrupt battling against the upstart rebels who want to rebuild society via utopian ideals. The zombie element remains secondary to the human drama even though the corpses should be all but gone after a decade of the undead.
No one knows Rick and Michonne better than Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, so it is refreshing to see they are both credited as co-creators of the series alongside Scott M. Gimple, the longtime head of The Walking Dead universe. Gimple is credited as the lone writer on the premiere episode which was directed by Hawkeye helming duo Bert & Bertie. Future episodes are credited to writers Nana Nkweti, Channing Powell, Gabriel Llanas, Matthew Negrete, and Danai Gurira herself while directing duties also fall to Michael Slovis. Despite the shifted location to Philadelphia, The Ones Who Live rarely feels different from any other Walking Dead shows. We have seen the city setting before in Dead City and we have seen characters go up against organized enemies in World Beyond and Daryl Dixon. In the early going, The Ones Who Live feels like just another entry in The Walking Dead despite focusing on two of the most interesting characters in the franchise. Maybe the problem comes from the fact none of the other characters are remotely as intriguing.
I want to like The Ones Who Live, but I have felt so let down by the repetitive nature of The Walking Dead in the last five or six years that it was hard for me to feel much during the first episode of this series. As much as I enjoy seeing Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira reunite on screen, I cannot help but feel it is a few years too late for this show. Regardless of how exposition-heavy this premiere episode is, there is still something great about seeing zombies on screen, and the make-up work by The Walking Dead crew never disappoints. I just hope that this first episode was a requisite recap on the way to bigger and better storytelling in the chapters to follow. For now, I am lukewarm on The Ones Who Live, and that is being generous.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live airs Sundays on AMC and AMC+.
Sorting through America’s history is a Herculean task. Humans built the nation with blood, sweat, and tears, watering the soil with memory, pain, and perseverance. Today, Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga trailer explores the settlement of America’s Western frontier from the Indigenous groups who blessed the land to those who occupied it by force. Horizon will be Kevin Costner‘s first time directing a movie since Open Range in 2003. He also busted out his directing chops for The Postman and Danceswith Wolves, the latter of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director.
Kevin Costner’s Horizon will “span 15 years in the settlement of America’s Western frontier, and focus on both the settlers as well as the Indigenous groups that first occupied the land.”
Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Houston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, and Jamie Campbell Bower join Kevins Coster as primary cast members.
Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 and Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2 will open in theaters on June 28, 2024, and August 16, 2024.
Costner directs both chapters of Horizon: An American Saga from a script he co-wrote with Jon Baird. Costner leads the cast with Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, Jamie Campbell Bower. Producers are Costner, Howard Kaplan, and Mark Gillard.
With multiple attempts to adapt Marvel’s first family for the big screen, the casual Valentine’s Day news drop of the casting for The Fantastic Four has fans buzzing. As the Fantastic Four finally get the MCU treatment, there is a natural excitement that the superhero team will get the faithful translation that fans have been waiting for. The casting announcement was made with a simple illustrated photo that features the likenesses of the cast actors in their respective roles in a very retro picture. This also led to speculation that the movie may take place in the 60s.
One thing that seems obvious with larger-than-life characters in the MCU is how The Thing will be integrated. As we’ve seen in the past with the Hulk and Thanos, Marvel has been a champion for using motion capture for certain characters. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who has been cast as Ben Grimm aka The Thing has confirmed that he will not be using a practical suit, but will be doing motion capture for The Thing. Variety reports that Moss-Bachrach appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live when he said, “In the past, I think they’ve done a suit. Michael Chiklis wore a suit that apparently was really uncomfortable, and it’s kind of… we’re past that. It’s a little kind of cosplay, kind of amateur that kind of stuff now with the technology we have.”
Josh Trank’s Fantastic 4 would first utilize CGI for The Thing’s appearance and despite the overall reception of the movie as a whole, one thing audiences weren’t critical about was the look of The Thing in the film. Details of The Fantastic Four are still yet to be announced, but one element that was teased with the illustration was the setting of the film. Jimmy Kimmel would inquire if Moss-Bachrach could confirm if the movie would indeed take place in the 60s and, in usual Marvel tight-lipped fashion, Moss-Bachrach would give a vague answer. As Kimmel pointed out the retro style of the picture, Moss-Bachrach slyly replies, “That image does seem to be ’60s themed.”
Moss-Bachrach joins Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. No word on who the team will be tangling with in the film, but there is talk that Javier Bardem is possibly being considered to play Galactus, the planet-eating villain who was portrayed as a space cloud in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Variety reports that Kenneth Mitchell, the actor known for his multiple roles in Star Trek: Discovery and Captain Marvel as Joseph Danvers, has passed due to ALS complications on Saturday. He was 49. Mitchell portrayed Klingons Kol, Kol-Sha and Tenavik, as well as Aurellio on Star Trek: Discovery. He also lent his voice to portray several characters in an episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks. The actor also appeared in the 2004 Olympic hockey film Miracle, starring opposite Kurt Russell. Mitchell would also appear in 27 episodes of the 2006 show Jericho.
According to Variety, a statement was released on Mitchell’s Instagram account. The statement read, “For five and a half years, Ken faced a series of awful challenges from ALS. And in truest Ken fashion, he managed to rise above each one with grace and commitment, to living a full and joyous life in each moment. He lived by the principals that each day is a gift and we never walk alone.”
Back in 2020, Mitchell went public with his condition, revealing that he had been diagnosed with ALS in 2018. The actor had been using a wheelchair since 2019. He would share, “I think it, over time, became the theme of us accepting this with grace. Trying to see the beauty in it, in a way. I’ll never forget, one of my ‘Star Trek’ co-stars told me, because they had dealt with some trying times with illnesses and stuff, and I remember them communicating to me, saying, ‘You have a choice. You can look at this in many different ways, but maybe try to look at this like a gift where you get to experience life in a way that most people don’t.’”
Mitchell revealed to People Magazine that he would give up a lead on a television series that required him to film in Newfoundland. He turned down the opportunity, saying, “Being lead of the show, I really wanted that responsibility. But in the end, it just wasn’t the right thing to continue on.”
