It’s close to midnight, and something evil’s lurking from Illumination and Universal Pictures. Illumination’s Sing series is getting spooky with Sing: Thriller this Halloween season, inspired by Michael Jackson’s classic short film Thriller. The latest installment in the Sing franchise shuffles onto Netflix tomorrow, October 16, with Sing and Sing 2 director and writer Garth Jennings at the helm.

Here’s the official logline for Sing: Thriller courtesy of Netflix:

After staging a spectacular version of Thriller at the New Moon Theatre, Buster Moon and the cast of SING leave to celebrate at Clay Calloway’s Halloween party. But when our heroes arrive at the party they discover a mysterious, multi-colored ooze has transformed Clay and his guests into dancing freaks.

The Sing: Thriller cast includes familiar faces like Matthew McConaughey as Buster Moon, Tori Kelly as Meena, Nick Kroll as Gunter, Scarlett Johansson as Ash, Taron Egerton as Johnny, Garth Jennings as Miss Crawly, and more.

Chris Meledandri, Founder and CEO of Illumination and Producer of Sing: Thriller, said, “There are very few songs that have made as tremendous of a cultural impact as Thriller. With its infectious rhythm, iconic dance moves, and unforgettable beat, it continues to inspire people across generations. Our new short film, featuring the beloved characters from Sing, aims to enchant those who know and love the classic while inviting new audiences to discover it in a fun and exciting way. It’s a timeless celebration of music, creativity, and joy for people all around the world.”

Garth Jennings, who wrote and directed Sing: Thriller, said, “I don’t know if it is possible to enjoy making anything as much as I have done while working on ‘Sing: Thriller.’ Our awesome cast and team of geniuses at Illumination have gone above and beyond to take one of the biggest hits of all time and concoct a new and very special treat for Halloween.”

Illumination’s Sing: Thriller is a great way for fans of the Sing franchise to celebrate Halloween’s approach as thoughts of costumes, creatures, and candy dance in our heads. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” continues to inspire one generation after the next with its timeless energy, hypnotic visuals, and lasting appeal. It’s challenging to think of a song that better encapsulates the season, and we’re excited to see how Sing: Thriller honors the King of Pop’s chart-topping hit!

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Who’s the best boy? Krypto, that’s who! Superman’s forever-faithful canine companion, Krypto, is making his debut today for James Gunn’s Superman, with a moving image of the Man of Steel and his very good boy enjoying a moment away from the madness of planet Earth. Gunn shared the photo on social media on Tuesday alongside a brief history of how Krypto became a part of the filmmaker’s highly-anticipated film, starring David Corenswet as Big Blue.

Today’s image of Superman and Krypto shows the Last Son of Krypton and his favorite doggo, Krypto, enjoying a respite from crime-fighting on the moon. As the Earth rotates in the distance, the heroes take a moment to enjoy a job well done and listen for when they’re needed next. Surprisingly, the image is calming as the Earth spins on its axis, with Supes and Krypto observing their beloved blue dot.

In his post, Gunn says Superman‘s Krypto is inspired by his dog Ozu, whom he and Jennifer Holland (Peacemaker) adopted at the start of writing the upcoming film. Gunn details the growing pains of bringing Ozu into their home and the destruction that ensued, including eaten furniture, shoes, and Gunn’s laptop. Ozu’s arrival and unhinged disposition prompted Gunn to add Krypto to his Superman script.

Krypto arrives on screens in Superman this summer. Krypto was inspired by our dog Ozu, who we adopted shortly after I started writing Superman. Ozu, who came from a hoarding situation in a backyard with 60 other dogs & never knew human beings, was problematic to say the least. He… pic.twitter.com/zw8rVqv0n0

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) October 15, 2024

Superman will star David Corenswet (Pearl) as Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Ms. Maisel) as Lois Lane. The film will also feature Nathan Fillion (The Rookie) as Guy Gardner, a charismatic and slightly obnoxious member of the Green Lantern Corps; Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class) as Mister Terrific; Anthony Carrigan (Barry) as Metamorpho; María Gabriela de Faría (Deadly Class) as The Engineer, a member of The Authority; Sara Sampaio (At Midnight) as Eve Teschmacher; and Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) as Jimmy Olsen. Nicholas Hoult is also set to appear as Lex Luthor, which Gunn finally confirmed late last year.

Do you have any fun “pet destruction” stories? My wife and I adopted a kitten roughly a year and a half ago, and she’s a handful! Her name is Loki, which could not be more fitting as she is an agent of chaos. She climbs on everything, loves to sing the songs of her people, and is a bottomless pit when it comes to chowing down on cat food. I wouldn’t change anything about her; she is family.

James Gunn’s Superman comes to theaters on July 11, 2025. What do you think about the first image of Krypto? Let us know in the comments below.

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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 few days away, the final trailer for Smile 2 has just dropped online. You can watch it in the embed 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.

Naomi Scott of Aladdin and Charlie’s Angels takes on the role of Skye Riley and 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. A featurette revealed that Drew Barrymore (Scream) also makes an appearance, playing herself and interviewing Skye Riley on her talk show.

Smile was produced by Temple Hill, and they are producing Smile 2 as well.

What did you think of the final trailer for Smile 2? Will you be catching this movie on the big screen in a few days? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Back in March, we heard that production had wrapped on the Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, which is coming our way from the team of producer / genre regular James Wan and director Osgood Perkins, whose credits include The Blackcoat’s Daughter (a.k.a. February), I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Gretel & Hansel, and the recent Nicolas Cage horror film Longlegs (you can read our review HERE). Longlegs was released by Neon – and they’ll also be giving The Monkey a theatrical release on February 21, 2025. We saw a short teaser for this one back in August, and now a new teaser trailer has dropped online to give us a look at more footage from the film. You can check it out in the embed above.

Perkins wrote the screenplay for The Monkey, working from a King short story. The film will tell the following story: When twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.

Theo James (The White Lotus) plays the twins in later years, while Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth) plays them in their younger days. Also in the cast are Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings), Tatiana Maslany (She–Hulk: Attorney at Law), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends), and Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek).

James Wan and Michael Clear are producing The Monkey for Atomic Monster, while Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan produce for C2 Motion Picture Group. Executive producers include Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger of Automatik, Peter Luo and Nancy Xu of Stars Collective, John Friedberg of Black Bear, and Chris Ferguson. Atomic Monster and Stars Collective developed the project, and C2 Motion Picture Group provided the financing.

Wan previously provided the following statement: “Stephen King is the godfather of the horror genre. He had a huge influence on me as a child and throughout my career and it’s always been a dream to help bring one of his stories to life. The Monkey is a personal favorite, with its simple, iconic, and incredibly marketable conceit. And I can’t imagine anyone better than a visionary and lifelong genre fan like Osgood to bring this to life.“

In addition to directing the films mentioned at the top of this article, Perkins directed an episode of the recent revival of The Twilight Zone. He has also worked on the screenplays for the thriller Removal, the crime thriller Cold Comes the Night, and the horror film The Girl in the Photographs.

What did you think of the new teaser trailer for The Monkey? Will you be seeing this movie in February? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Every studio and network is rolling out their genre offerings at that time of year. From horror to sci-fi to intense thrillers, everyone wants to scare you in October, and this new series by producer James Wan is at the top of the list. Based on the novel Stinger by Robert McCammon, Teacup is a perfectly scary story that is parsed out in thirty-minute chapters between now and Halloween.

Teacup tells the story of the Chenoweth family, who live on an isolated farmstead away from any populated areas. As Maggie and James deal with a rift in their marriage, their kids Arlo and Meryl are drawn into the fight as the neighboring Shanley family arrives with an injured horse. Soon, the two families are thrown into a mysterious conflict with a mysterious stranger who warns them that leaving their property could spell certain doom. As the story unfolds, we learn that what is about to happen to the Chenoweths has far-reaching implications for the entire world.

I got the chance to talk with the creator and cast of Teacup about the new series. Yvonne Strahovski talked about starring in a horror series and what it felt like as a parent of a small child. Scott Speedman discussed comparisons between this series and his work in The Strangers. Chaske Spencer and Rob Morgan reflected on their work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how different this project was for both of them. Young stars Emilie Bierre and Caleb Dolden talked about playing kids in a horror story and how they forged a sibling bond. Series creator Ian McCulloch talked about long-term plans for the series past the first season and how he changed the narrative from the source material. Check out the full interviews in the embed above and read our review HERE.

Teacup is airing on Peacock now!

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Apple TV+ recently debuted a sneak peak of their upcoming programming which includes Slow Horses. Starring Gary Oldman, Slow Horses is a darkly humorous espionage drama that follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 known un-affectionately as Slough House. Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but irascible leader of the spies, who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes as they frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage world.

While season 5 is expected to debut sometime next year, Deadline is reporting that Apple has decided to stick with the show and renew it for season 6 ahead of the fifth’s launch. Per Deadline, “In Season 6, the spies head out on the run as Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) embroils them all in a fatally high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge. The sixth season will be based on Mick Herron’s novels Joe Country and Slough House, which are the sixth and seventh books in the series.”

Jay Hunt, who is the Creative Director, Europe for Apple TV+, said, “Audiences around the world have fallen in love with the Slow Horses, and I’m delighted that Gary Oldman will be leading this star-studded cast on another acerbic and action-packed adventure.”

He isn’t wrong about the response. The show sports an incredible 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.2 on IMDb. Our own Alex Maidy called Slow Horses “one of the most intriguing takes on spies in a very long time.” In his review of the second season, Maidy wrote, “This is a decidedly British series that never feels foreign or hard to follow and keeps things interesting every step of the way. There are elements of a workplace comedy, an espionage drama, and enough action to satiate even the most jaded viewer. Slow Horses is a solid addition to Apple’s growing library of marquee programming and I enjoyed this season even more than the first.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.

Are you excited about the upcoming season 5 of Slow Horses? And even more so for season 6? Sound off below!

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Harrison Ford may be 82 years old, but he has no intention of retiring from acting. He’ll soon be seen in season 2 of the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, which is set to premiere on October 16th, and on February 14th we’ll get to see him play the role of President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Brave New World. Playing Ross also involved him doing a motion capture performance, as the character transforms into Red Hulk, and Ford has described that process as “being an idiot for money.” During a new interview with GQ, Ford discussed his decision to enter the MCU and dismissed the idea that he’s a movie star.

When the interviewer brought up his Marvel work and the fact that he’ll often answer questions in ways other Marvel actors don’t, Ford said, “I mean, this is the Marvel universe and I’m just there on a weekend pass. I’m a sailor new to this town. Show me the way to go home. I understand the appeal of other kinds of films besides the kind we made in the ’80s and ’90s. I don’t have anything general to say about it. It’s the condition our condition is in, and things change and morph and go on. We’re silly if we sit around regretting the change and don’t participate. I’m participating in a new part of the business that, for me at least, I think is really producing some good experiences for an audience. I enjoy that.”

When asked how he chooses projects, he said, “It’s the quality of writing. It doesn’t matter what the genre is. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on television or in movies. It’s the writing, it’s the story, it’s the character, it’s the emotional experience for an audience or for myself. It’s people that I have some feeling that I want to work with, or it’s a quality opportunity. I suppose I should be sitting on my ass, but I actually love working.“

At the end of the interview, Ford was asked how he felt about the idea that we’re witnessing “the death of the movie star,” that there are no new movie stars stepping up to follow in the footsteps of himself, Tom Cruise, etc. He answered, “Oh, I think it’s rubbish. I don’t think the question is whether or not there are any movie stars. There’s wonderful actors coming up every day. Whether or not they become movie stars is really not the point. If movies need stars, they will find them. I’ve never understood being a movie star. I’m an actor. I tell stories. I’m part of a group of people who work together, collaborate on telling stories. I’m an assistant storyteller. That’s what I am.“

Are you looking forward to watching Harrison Ford in Shrinking season 2 and/or Captain America: Brave New World? Share your thoughts on this iconic “assistant storyteller” by leaving a comment below.

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PLOT: Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh) fall in love but have to grapple with a grim diagnosis that threatens their future. 

REVIEW: One of the ironic things about TIFF is that, due to schedule quirks, you sometimes end up seeing movies that cover a lot of the same territory back to back. This happened to me this year with Nightbitch, and We Live In Time, with both films taking a look at 21st-century family life and the need to juggle family and career. Yet, while Nightbitch took a mostly unflinching look at the fact that relationships often become strained under the pressure, We Live In Time goes for an almost fairy tale-esque approach, with the impossibly beautiful couple at its heart having a picture-perfect life where both are fulfilled, in love and happy raising their cute child, who’s impeccably well mannered.

Not every film has to be Nightbitch though, and there’s something comforting in the idyll presented in John Crowley’s We Live In Time, which seems like it’s trying to be Love Story for 2024. To be sure, Garfield and Pugh are a gorgeous pair. The movie embraces a kind of fractured narrative that jumps back and forth in time, following their courtship, marriage, parenthood, and the eventual illness that threatens to rip the family apart.

It’s not giving anything away to note that Pugh’s Almut is the one who receives a potentially terminal diagnosis, with it given away near the start of the film. While many movies would be about the illness, We Live in Time instead devotes itself to chronicling the individual moments the two share. In a departure from the norm, Garfield’s Tobias is shown to be the one seeking marriage and commitment, with Pugh’s Almut more of a wandering sort, who works as a top chef in London and is unwilling to back-burner her career, no matter how much she loves Tobias. 

It’s a good role for Pugh, who plays the type of part that would have once been reserved for the male half of the couple, with her shown to have more trouble compartmentalizing her life than her more nurturing spouse. For his part, Garfield turns up the charm, leaning into his puppy dog eyes and softer nature, although the movie is guilty of making Tobias too idealistic a character. At one time, female roles were criticized for the same thing, but here, the roles have been reversed in a way that feels somewhat pandering. 

Whether or not you go for We Live in Time totally depends on how amiable you find the leads. I found it easy to invest in their story, but I must admit that I was disappointed in the fact that director John Crowley leaned into the slicker style he began using with his big arthouse hit, Brooklyn. While he had a misfire with The Goldfinch, We Live In Time still feels like a big studio effort and somewhat conventional for a movie being released by A24. The lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the leads here seems a little too idealized, making the movie feel a bit too much like a more polished (and better photographed) variation on the kind of fare you might find on Lifetime. Then again, a lot of folks might be yearning for that kind of escapism. 

In some ways, this struck me as a bit of a letdown, as Crowley and Garfield once made one of the most affecting dramas I’ve ever seen – the shockingly underrated Boy A. I hoped for a bit of a return to that kind of raw, emotional storytelling, but We Live In Time too often felt like a romantic fantasy. Even still, the chemistry and performances of the two leads make it an ultimately ok tearjerker and date movie. But, one can’t help but feel that considering all the talent involved, it could have been more than what it is. 

We Live In Time

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The post We Live in Time Review: A decent enough tearjerker with winning performances appeared first on JoBlo.

The second-week drop-off of Joker: Folie à Deux was a massive blow to Warner Bros. As Joker: Folie à Deux is bombing at the box office, Variety reports it could lose the studio at least $150 million to $200 million. However, Warner Bros. isn’t about to admit to anything at this point. “Any estimates suggested by anonymous ‘insiders’ or ‘rival executives’ are grossly wrong and continues a trend where rumor is reported as fact.” It is even recently revealed that the studio is dumping it on digital early – October 29th – in the hopes of recouping some of its $200 million investment.

The first Joker was heavily inspired by works of Scorsese, notably Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. According to Deadline, Paul Schrader, the writer of the former, recently sat down with Interview Magazine, where he illustrated just how much he disliked the movie. “I don’t like either of those people,” he said. “I don’t like them as actors. I don’t like them as characters. I don’t like the whole thing. I mean, those are people who, if they came to your house, you’d slip out the back door.” Schrader explained,

I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough.”

The Oscar-nominated director stated plainly that the film was a “really bad musical.” Schrader was actually pitched an idea to do a Taxi Driver sequel from De Niro and Scorsese had urged him to hear him out. “Now, I don’t want to slag De Niro, but a lot of his decisions sometimes have financial motivations. I’m sure someone had said to him, ‘You know, if you do ‘Taxi Driver 2,’ they can pay.’” Apparently, director Martin Scorsese — of course a close friend and collaborator of De Niro — talked Schrader into sitting down with the actor over the potential for a Taxi Driver sequel. “So we had dinner at Bob’s restaurant and Bob was talking about it. I said, ‘Wow, that’s the worst f*cking idea I’ve ever heard. That character dies at the end of that movie or dies shortly thereafter. He’s gone.’”

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At the world premiere of the recently released Terrifier 3, franchise writer/director Damien Leone said there will be a Terrifier 4 – and he later said he thinks that will be the last entry in the franchise, because he doesn’t want it to wear out his welcome. But during new interviews with Variety and Coming Soon, Leone has admitted that, if he has trouble fitting the remaining story he has in mind into a reasonable running time, he might need to make Terrifier 5 to properly wrap things up… and even then, there’s always the chance Art the Clown could return again down the line, just like his fellow slashers Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees always do.

Speaking with Coming Soon, Leone said, “No, so when I wrote part 2, I knew what the end of this franchise was. So, then it just became a matter of, ‘Well, how many puzzle pieces do I need to get from here to there?’ So it should just be one more movie unless it turns into something too big again. Because nobody could deal with, like, a two-and-a-half hour slasher film. It’s just too much to ask of people. So, I mean, if it gets out of control, who knows where it’s gonna go? It wasn’t even my intention to really announce that there was gonna be a part 4. The way that happened was we were at the Fantastic Fest screening. It was like 2:30 in the morning. We did a Q&A afterwards, and now I’m in a room with people who have eyes in their head. They’ve just seen the end of Terrifier 3, clearly it’s the most blatant Empire Strikes Back cliffhanger ending. Like, there’s gonna be another one. So the person asked me, is there gonna be more? I’m like, ‘Well, of course, there’s gonna be more.’ I would never do that to the audience. Like, how can you leave the audience there? Then next day it’s like, ‘Damian Leone Announces Terrifier 4,’ ‘Terrifier 4 Greenlit.’ This, that. I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Let’s just get through Terrifier 3.’ So, yeah, I mean, there is. You will know the end of this franchise. It is a like concrete solid sort of ending. When you see it, you’ll know what it is. You’ll know when this thing is put to bed for a while, at least. I mean, we’ve opened up the door to the supernatural, so I could always figure out a way to bring Art the Clown back if I wanted to. But I want to have a solid franchise, a saga that I could tell with a beginning, middle, and an end. You know what it is. You could walk away feeling satisfied. I don’t want to just kind of get lost in the woods and you just meandering and kind of fall into like the category of just diminishing returns, and you’re just tarnishing everything that’s come before it, or characters who you thought should have played a major part, really had nothing to do in the grand scheme of things. It’s like, ‘Well, why did I invest all that emotion, all that time and energy into what came before it?’ So I don’t wanna run into that trap, which happens to a lot of franchises. So, I think maybe one more film and that’ll really tell the story that’ll put an end to the saga for a while anyway.“

He told Variety, “There is no definitive answer at this time regarding how many more films I will make before concluding the Terrifier saga. Personally, I can’t see it going further than one or two more films, but only time will tell. For now, all I can say with certainty is that I know how it ends, and it will be epic. It will certainly be an epic showdown, an epic closure to this Art the Clown saga. The idea I’m toying with in my head would probably be in some regards the most experimental, so I can’t dive into it too much. Some really, really crazy things will happen in the next one.“

So Terrifier franchise fans can look forward to a crazy, experimental Terrifier 4 that could either wrap up the story, or lead into a Terrifier 5 that will wrap it up… and then, thanks to the supernatural, there could still be more sequels after Art takes a bit of a rest.

Are you looking forward to seeing Terrifier 4, Terrifier 5, and beyond? Share your thoughts on this franchise by leaving a comment below.

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