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BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Hits Horror Channel

The classic ‘70s sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica makes its debut on Horror Channel tonight (Wednesday, March 24th). Fondly remembered by many and much-loved by fans, the show follows the last humans as they face-off against their robotic enemies the Cylons while trying to find Earth.

Starring Dirk Benedict as Lieutenant Starbuck, Richard Hatch as Captain Apollo, and Lorne Greene as Commander Adama, the series boasts fantastic special effects and plenty of action. If you haven’t ever seen it, now’s your chance.

You can check out the five key episodes of Battlestar Galactica here.

Battlestar Galactica screens weeknights at 8pm on Horror Channel.

For more information, head over to http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/

Tune into Horror Channel on Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 68, Freesat 138.

Horror Channel Lines Up Classic Marathons for Easter

Horror Channel has announced a host of classic films for Easter weekend.

The Classic Marathon starts on Saturday April 3rd with Classic Horror Day, featuring the Universal Monsters. Being screened in the order of which they were released, they are some of the most beloved films in cinema.

Saturday’s viewing starts at 1pm with Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931), starring Bela Lugosi in the role he would become synonymous with. Frankenstein (1931) follows, with Boris Karloff making his presence felt as the sympathetic but terrifying monster created by Colin Clive’s doctor. The Mummy (1932) once again stars Karloff, both in bandages and without in this atmospheric tale. Next up is The Wolf Man (1941) in which Lon Chaney Jr suffers the werewolf curse after being bitten by a transformed Bela Lugosi. The final legendary monster is the Gill-man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), the last of the Universal Monsters who ushered in the atomic age and a shift to sci-fi when it came to shocking cinema.

Which neatly brings us to the Sunday line-up, Classic Sci-Fi Day. Starting once again at 1pm, there’s a mix of monsters and aliens. First up is It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955), which showcases the genius stop-motion effects of Ray Harryhausen. This is followed by This Island Earth (1955), where a pair of scientists are taken to an alien world to hopefully bring an end to a war with a neighbouring race. Watch out for the unforgettable Metaluna mutant! Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956) once again has effects by Harryhausen, whose alien creations destroy even more of the US’ capital buildings than the insurrectionists did. Things get miniature with The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), a surprisingly poignant film written by Richard Matheson and directed by Jack Arnold. The Sunday line-up is concluded with another brilliant Harryhausen creation: the Ymir. 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) features the stunning effects we’ve come to expect from the master of stop-motion.

For more information, head over to http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/

Tune into Horror Channel on Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 68, Freesat 138.

Disney+ Adding THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL and More Lost STAR WARS Content!

If you’re a Star Wars fan, then Disney+ has already cemented itself as the one streaming service you can’t live without. Launching with The Mandalorian, its ‘making of’ series Disney Gallery, the 4K editions of the entire saga, the standalone movies, animated series The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, Forces of Destiny, The Freemaker Adventures and other Lego-based bits-‘n-bobs, there was enough content to keep a Sarlacc victim going while they were digested! (Okay, it doesn’t quite add up to a thousand years, but you get the picture. It’s a lot.)

But late last year, Lucasfilm doubled down, announcing that a breath-taking array of new live-action and animated shows are in development (including series focussing on Lando Calrissian, Boba Fett, and Ahsoka Tano to name a few), and will flood Disney+ over the next several years. Thank the Maker indeed!

How could they possibly top that announcement (which you can read in detail here)? Well, what if they added The Holiday Special on April 2nd?

As wildly unlikely as that ever was (the fabled programmed was of course so poor that George Lucas joked about tracking down and destroying every copy), Disney+ has just announced that the next wave of Star Warscontent to hit the platform will indeed include the infamous 1978 TV special… or at least some of it. Many would argue the only watchable portion…

The Story of the Faithful Wookiee is the 9-minute animated sequence featured in The Holiday Special, and is notable for being the first introduction of Boba Fett into the canon (make that Legends canon), and, well, frankly little else. Unless you’re a connoisseur of bafflingly butt-ugly animation. Still, for the millions of fans who never got to see The Holiday Special on its solitary screening; resisted acquiring a bootleg VHS; and have never done a deep dive on YouTube, this most curious of curios will be of great interest.

Announced alongside The Story of the Faithful Wookiee were some legitimate gems though, as fans will now have access to the increasingly hard to find Lucasfilm series that was the precursor to The Clone Wars we know and love. Airing on Cartoon Network between 2003 – 2005, this 2D animated ‘micro-series’ (so called as episodes would average only a couple of minutes) was simply titled Clone Wars (no ‘The’) and would chronicle the action between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Produced by animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) and utilising his signature style, the show has a cult following among fans despite it being decanonised in favour of the Dave Filoni CGI series that followed three years later. Although it is no longer canon, like The Story of the Faithful Wookiee it did introduce us to characters who would go on to become huge fans favourites such as General Grievous and Nightsister-turned Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress. Unlike The Story of the Faithful Wookiee, however, fans will want to watch this more than once! It’s yet to be confirmed, but we fully expect both seasons of Clone Wars to be able to be viewed in volume form instead of the unsatisfying experience of 3-minte long episodes. This version (included on the out-of-print DVD releases) sees the episodes edited together to create two highly entertaining ‘mini-movies’.

But there’s more…

Ewok fans can finally get their yub-nub on, as both TV movies featuring the furry savages will be available too. Those of you who have yet to experience either Caravan of Courage or Battle for Endor are best to do so with caution. While nostalgia will play a large part in keeping these films alive in the hearts of many a fan, these projects were developed post-Return of the Jedi as the franchise’s spark was slowly dying out after a blisteringly successful 6-year run, and are noticeably of lesser quality than any previous live-action project, Holiday Special notwithstanding. The two seasons of the animated ‘80s series Ewoks will also be available. Ee chee wa maa!

Where’s its companion show Droids, you ask? Good question, it’s very noticeable in its absence. But perhaps we haven’t seen the last wave of ‘lost’ Star Wars content to drop on Disney+. Could the next one also contain the completed yet never-before-seen Star Wars Detours animated series from the creators of Robot Chicken? While fans are waiting for The Book of Boba Fett in December, now’s certainly the time to mine those murky depths.

As for the rest of The Holiday Special, if we’re honest, they can keep it.

For full details about the upcoming Disney+ STAR WARS shows, read here. If you’d like to catch up on everything we know about the live-action AHSOKA series, visit this page.

Delayed WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS Spin-Off Gets UK Release Date

It’s easy to forget that FX’s wonderful award-winning comedy What We Do in the Shadows is actually the second TV show to spin-off from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s similarly titled 2004 movie. In fact, Wellington Paranormal, the New Zealand-made mockumentary series centring on the further adventures of Officers Minogue and O’Leary (first seen in the original film investigating the vampire household… before succumbing to mesmerism), debuted an entire year before we even met Colin Robinson and co!

A mystery equal to anything Minogue and O’Leary investigate over the course of Wellington Paranormal’s three seasons (they’ve now branched out into ghosts, witches, aliens and the like) is why the UK and US have yet to see the show. And while we can’t provide any answers to that particular conundrum, we can confirm that we now know the show will finally drop in the UK in its entirety on April 5th courtesy of Sky TV.

For those of you without Sky subs, the increasingly popular streaming service NowTV will also carry all 19-episodes made so far and is a damn sight cheaper and infinitely more manageable!

What We Do in the Shadows Season 3, meanwhile, is currently scheduled for later this year, but will likely miss its original summer slot due to COVID setbacks. With that show regularly crossing over with the original movie, it would be nice to see it do the same with Wellington Paranormal down the line. A ratings boost may mean that we won’t have to wait three years for Season 4!

For more details, read Sky’s press release here.

WELLINGTON PARANORMAL Season 1 – 3 are released on Sky and NowTV April 5^th at 9pm.

New LET THE RIGHT ONE IN Remake Reveals First Casting

Despite the underwhelming reception to Matt Reeves’ 2010 remake, Let Me In – a good movie with great performances that suffered from some distractingly poor CGI effects – Hollywood are to adapt John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 vampire novel for a third time.

This time around, Let the Right One In will be coming to TV courtesy of Showtime, home of genre hits such as Twin Peaks: The Return and Dexter (also due for an imminent resurrection). Seith Mann, creator of the acclaimed drama Homeland (another Showtime smash), has spearheaded this new version for some time, and will direct at least the pilot while executive producing the rest of the series. Away’s Andrew Hinderaker will take showrunning duties.

Demián Bichir – soon to be seen in Godzilla vs Kong – has now been revealed to be playing the part of the father, dutiful protector of his forever 12-year-old vampire daughter, Eli. We’ll bring you news on who will be occupying that crucial role and Oskar, the bullied youngster she befriends, as soon as the casting is announced.

Demián Bichir

In a statement, Showtime Executive Vice President of Scripted Programming Amy Israel says this about the project, “Let the Right One In quickly establishes itself as a thrilling, high-stakes drama that asks the question: How far would you go to save your child from the monsters out there – would you risk becoming a monster yourself? Demián Bichir is one of the world’s most dynamic and engrossing actors, and his charisma and vulnerability will surely bring Andrew Hinderaker’s exquisite script to life, guided by Seith Mann’s deft direction. We couldn’t be more excited about the potential of this show.”

Although, yes, this is yet another remake that some of us may very well be rolling our eyes at, in this particular case there is much narrative potential to be explored in a longer form retelling of the Swedish source material.

For those unfamiliar, here’s the official synopsis of the original 2004 novel:

“Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12-year-old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city’s edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he’s frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn’t go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200-year-old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood.”

Will you be inviting Let the Right One In into your home? Let us know on Twitter @STARBURST_mag.

Source: Deadline

Psychological Horror EVIE Wraps

Evie, the latest film to be directed by Dominic Brunt (Before Dawn, Attack of the Adult Babies) has entered post-production.

The film, which is co-directed by Jamie Lundy (making his feature debut), is a brooding psychological horror thriller and stars Holli Dempsey (After Life), Michael Smiley (Kill List), Jay Taylor (Donkey Punch), Honey Lundy, Liam McMahon (Snatch), Joanne Mitchell (Bait), and Danny-Lee Brunt.

The official synopsis is: Witness to a family tragedy when they were younger and ripped from an idyllic life by the sea, both Evie and her older brother Tony (Taylor) were put into care. Twenty years later they are reunited, but something terrible from their past follows…

Dominic Brunt said of the film: “I was drawn to the allegorical aspects of the story and the stunning locations of Yorkshire and the Llyn Peninsula. I’d known Jamie Lundy as a brilliant stills photographer and knew that his skills would be borne out as a director and I very much enjoyed the experience of co-directing with such an exceptional talent. It was also a fantastic opportunity to work with my producer wife Joanne Mitchell again. For myself, I wanted to expand on my fascination for natural storytelling and placing horror within an everyday context. Evie is very much a psychological thriller with a wicked horror twist in its tale.”

Co-director Jamie Lundy added: “For most filmmakers, I’m sure it’s safe to say that most will never forget shooting their first feature film, for both the good reasons and the bad. For me, Evie was not only my debut film, but an emotional experience I will never forget. Producing a film in normal circumstances is of course very difficult but producing it in a global pandemic was tougher than we expected. I can only give credit to our amazing producer and the crew who started and finished the production with no COVID cases. Evie is something very special and celebrates great British landscapes, great British acting and great British filmmaking.”

EVIE is a Paper Clip Pictures and Mitchell-Brunt Films Production, produced by Joanne Mitchell and exec-produced by Jamie Lundy. Written and directed by Jamie Lundy and Dominic Brunt. Associate Producer is Julie Foy and DOP is Edward Ames. Prosthetic make-up is by Shaune Harrison.

Expect more news when we get it.

Norman J. Warren 1942 – 2021

STARBURST was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of British film director Norman J. Warren.

Known for his horror and sci-fi films of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Norman had been in the film business since 1960, when he worked on The Millionairess as a runner. He directed his first short, Fragment, in 1965, which led to Norman getting the chance to helm two sexploitation films, Her Private Hell (1968), and Loving Feeling (1969), the former later had the accolade of being released on Blu-ray as part of the BFI’s Flipside series.

The trio of horror films he made in the ‘70s have become cult classics, and still play all over the world: Satan’s Slave (1976), Prey (1977), and Terror (which went to the number one spot in the UK box office for a week in 1978) all have a devoted fan base who love their exploitative charms. As the decade was coming to a close, Norman turned his attention to sci-fi, directing a space sex comedy (thus melding two hit box office genres), Spaced Out (aka Outer Touch, 1979), and perhaps his best known film, Inseminoid (1981). For the latter, he teamed up with veteran US producer Richard Gordon and Hong Kong legends the Shaw Brothers, and despite being perceived as an Alien ‘knock-off’, the script was finished before the Ridley Scott film was released, and even 20th Century Fox agreed it wasn’t a clone.

UK boutique label Indicator released a collection of Norman’s genre films several years ago in the box set Bloody Terror: The Shocking Cinema of Norman J. Warren 1976 – 1987, which sold very well.

On a personal level, anyone who met and had spoken to Norman will agree that he was the most charming, open, and giving person. He would often appear at film festivals as a guest or even just as an attendee and would be happy to talk film with everyone. He will be greatly missed.

STARBURST sends its thoughts to Norman’s family and friends.

New SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT Movie Announced…

Back in 1984, Charles E. Sellier Jr.’s Silent Night, Deadly Night caused a bit of a stir among parents for depicting its killer swinging axes in full Santa garb…but that didn’t stop it from becoming a cult christmas horror and spawning 4 further sequels and a loose 2012 remake. In fact the film enjoyed great success before it was pulled from cinemas and continues to be cherished by a number of horror audiences to this day.

The film depicts a traumatised kid who loses it all at christmas and his hatred turns to violence, as he dons a santa costume and goes on the rampage. And you just can’t stop this Santa from slaying because Black Hanger and Orwo studios, the team behind the upcoming (and pederast free) Jeepers Creepers: Reborn, have acquired the rights for the seasonal slasher and are looking to jingle more folks’ bells at the most wonderful time of the year again.

This new reboot of Silent Night, Deadly Night will welcome back the original film’s producers Scott Schneid and Dennis Whitehead, and is looking for a 2022 release. Fellow producers Anthony Masi (of MasiMedia) and Orwo/Black Hanger’s Jake Seal, Terry Bird, and Jamie R. Thompson, were all delighted to announce this revival of the cult christmas chiller. With Masi saying, “We are thrilled to be working with the original producers as well as Orwo and Black Hangar and are committed to honouring nostalgia for the original while offering surprises for new audiences to discover and embrace.”

Here’s Ho Ho Hoping, this will be a reboot to celebrate!

Huge Names Rumoured to be Joining STAR WARS ANDOR and OBI-WAN KENOBI….

Bless the maker! Since the saber was passed over to the house of mouse, Star Wars has far expanded just the main episodic saga. That said, despite Disney becoming an Empire themselves in charge of this successful (if sometimes controversial) new generation of Star Wars, the innovator himself George Lucas has not been entirely absent from it, corresponding with filmmakers on Rogue One and The Mandalorian for instance, but if rumours are to be believed, George just might have been caught in a tractor beam and be heading back to his creation.

Floated some time back last year and since being called a myth by some, George Lucas is still being rumoured to be returning behind the scenes, as he is supposedly penning some episodes for the much anticipated Andor series, landing on Disney+ in 2022. Adding some fuel to these flames is the fact that insidethemagic.net is reporting it to be the case, and in fact Lucas is listed as a writer on the Andor series production credits on IMDB. Obviously firm confirmations have yet to be made but much like a returning Jedi master hacking his way through Dark Troopers, we would certainly welcome the Godfather of Star Wars back with open arms.

Speaking of returns though, the rumours do not end there, as Ewan McGregor – who is all set for his long-awaited return in Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi – is also being rumoured to play a big part in the Andor show. And according to The Illuminerdi, it will be a recurring and sizeable role on the series, with speculation being that Obi-Wan Kenobi will help to connect the universes depicted in these shows and be an aid of sorts to the budding Rebellion. We await further details but if all this is in fact true, the Andor series is becoming more star-studded than a Max Rebo Band concert at Jabba’s Palace.

And as we mention all this speculation, lets actually get a little confirmation in, as Game of Thrones star Indira Varma has officially being announced as joining the cast for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Details on her part obviously remain tightly under wraps but as we approach the series’ 2022 release, we’ll undoubtedly get a clearer picture of her character. But what we know right now is that she is a very interesting piece of casting and will join McGregor and Hayden Christensen (back as Darth Vader) in the series.

What an increasingly exciting time to be a Star Wars fan.

New Movie Added to Paramount’s STAR TREK Slate

Kalinda Vazquez, co-executive producer of Fear the Walking Dead, is teaming with JJ Abram’s Bad Robot to pen an original Trek movie script for Paramount.

No word yet on the story or if any existing Trek-lore characters will feature, but Vazquez is well-credentialed having recently written a Trek Short featuring Captain Pike, as well as an episode of Discovery set in the mirror universe.

If the script gets the green light it would make Vazquez the first woman in history to write a feature-length Trek film. Paramount has a number of other Trek-franchise properties in development, although widely reported projects from Quentin Tarantino and Noah Hawley have cooled in recent months.