Yet another entertainment franchise on Ford’s belt.
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Soska Sisters Drop First Look At Psychosexual Thriller ON THE EDGE
On The Edge receives its world premiere at Frightfest Halloween.
Continue readingDavid Gordon Green Gives Update On THE EXORCIST
With Halloween Ends in cinemas, Green sets his sights on another iconic horror IP.
Continue readingRED SONJA Films Unveils First Look At Matilda Lutz
Check out Matilda Lutz in character as Red Sonja.
Continue readingLEGEND’s Evening Line-Up Gets Action-Packed
Weekday nights are going to be action-packed on LEGEND as a host of cult shows return to the air.
From Monday, October 17th, the evening schedule will include such stars as William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, David Hasselhoff, and Chuck Norris.
The action starts at 5pm with Star Trek: The Original Series and episodes from Season 2 from 1967. This is followed at 6pm with the return of Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the very first season from 1987. Season 2 of Knight Rider continues from 7pm. Topping things off at 8pm is the cult favourite Walker, Texas Ranger, starring action legend Chuck Norris. The show was first screened in 1993.
Find out more at https://www.legend-tv.co.uk/
You can tune into Legend via Sky 148 / Virgin 149 / Freeview 41 / Freesat 137
Cine-Excess Welcomes Maverick Directors
The 16th Cine-Excess International Film Festival takes place in Birmingham from October 18th to 23rd, with in-person events and online access. The theme of the festival this year is ‘Reframing the Monsters Outside: Mavericks, Rebels, and Rule Breakers in Cult Film’ and includes some very exciting guests.
Guests of honour include American writer-director Ti West (House of the Devil, X, Pearl), who will be the recipient of this year’s Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Award. Ti West joins the Cine-Excess family of previous award winners, which includes Roger Corman, Catherine Breillat, Dario Argento, Franco Nero, Joe Dante, and Pam Grier. Commenting on his award nomination West stated:
“I am honoured to be recognised by Cine-Excess. To be included in the company of so many great filmmakers that I admire is very humbling. I look forward to being able to interact with many of the University students.”
Ti West joins Cine-Excess on Saturday, October 22nd at 8.30pm for a live stream interview conducted at the Midlands Arts Centre, which will be followed by a screening of his acclaimed retro horror film X (2022).
Also attending in person is British director Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio, In Fabric, Flux Gourmet), whose films continually push the boundaries of cinema experimentation and are much-loved here at STARBURST HQ. As the recipient of the Cine-Excess 2022 Innovator of Horror award, Strickland will attend a special screening of his 2012 film Berberian Sound Studio at the Birmingham Electric Cinema on Friday, October 21st at 7pm.
Additionally, Peter Strickland will participate in an onstage discussion of his work at the Midlands Arts Centre on Saturday, October 22nd at 5pm, which includes a screening of his current film Flux Gourmet.
Cine-Excess 16 also welcomes celebrated Canadian filmmakers Jennifer and Sylvia Soska (American Mary [2012], Rabid [2019], On the Edge [2022]), who return to the festival in their role as Birmingham City University Honorary Fellows via a live stream. The Soska Sisters will be tasking MA Film Distribution students to devise marketing strategies for potential new remakes of horror film classics. This special panel will take place on Thursday, October 20th at 5pm.
As part of the event, Cine-Excess 16 will also be running the curated screening season Cult Mavericks on Screen. This highlights the work of new filmmakers from the UK, USA, Canada, Spain, Australia and Pakistan.
Also running across this year’s festival is the themed conference Reclaiming the Monsters Outside: Mavericks, Rebels and Rulebreakers in Cult Film, in which international academics discuss how maverick filmmakers seek to connect with underrepresented communities.
The Cine-Excess International Film Festival is led by Xavier Mendik, Professor of Cult Cinema Studies at Birmingham City University’s Institute of Creative Arts.
The festival also draws in the talents of established film festival programmers including Paul McEvoy (co-founder of FrightFest) and Natasha Marburger (The Los Angeles International Film Festival). Its annual schedule includes visiting filmmakers, a programme of UK film premieres alongside an online conference for international film scholars.
Cine-Excess 16 takes place at the Birmingham Electric Cinema, Midlands Arts Centre, Mockingbird cinema, and online from October 18th – 23th.
A full schedule of the Cine-Excess Film Festival and Conference can be found here https://www.cine-excess.co.uk/cine-excess-16-2022.html.
Tickets for the event are available here https://www.cine-excess.co.uk/tickets.html.
Found Footage Ghost Story MISTER HOWL Illustrated Novel Crowdfunding
Mister Howl, the latest graphic novel from T.W. Burgess, known for the indie hit Malevolents and Early Haunts, is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter and is close to smashing the initial target.
The premise of Mister Howl is:
A book containing old photos of film footage and notes is unearthed in a private lockup, forgotten for over twenty years.
As the reader turns the pages, a story soon becomes apparent. A young boy, confined to his bedroom, bearing witness to a horrific haunting in an adjacent city block.
The boy’s only means of recording the supernatural occurrences, his camcorder and photographs. But the medium is far too basic to record the incidents clearly. The horror lying almost concealed between the shadows and the scanlines
Now, after 20 years you’re invited to bear witness to these cursed frames too.
Mister Howl will be a 100+-page Found Footage illustrated novel/art book, following a transcript of Jay’s documenting of the haunting as observed from his bedroom window. The reader is thrown into the centre of this haunting mystery, giving a whole new angle to following a traditional ghost story.
For more information, and join in on the Kickstarter, head over here.
New BARBARELLA Movie in Development
We’ve gotten close to a new Barbarella adaptation several times over the years, with the likes of Drew Barrymore and Rose McGowan both coming close to slipping on the space boots in 2000 and 2008 respectively. High-profile filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Nicolas Winding Refn have also been attached along the way, the latter having envisioned it as a TV series for Amazon in 2014 with James Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade on scripting duties. Despite all the best efforts none of these projects ever escaped Development Hell, but it isn’t stopping Hollywood from having yet another crack at it…
Following on from her celebrated roles in the award-winning HBO double-whammy of Euphoria and The White Lotus, Sydney Sweeney (below) is the latest contender to follow in the footsteps of Jane Fonda, and will also produce the film. There’s currently no writer or director attached, but with Sweeney sweeping awards season recently we’re certain they’ll be a rush of major talent falling over themselves to join her on the adventure.
As with previous attempts to revive the property, this Barbarella won’t technically be a remake of the classic 1968 Roger Vadim vehicle and will instead look to the original source material for inspiration – Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 French comic book series.
Will Sweeney prevail in resurrecting the iconic space heroine, or will her project go the way of the dozen other attempts? With so much potential in the source material, we’re hoping for the former – wouldn’t it be nice to have another space franchise to look forward to that doesn’t have the word Wars or Trek in its title! We’ll update on this new Barbarella as it develops…
Did you know that the original BARBARELLA made it into our recent TOP 100 COMIC BOOK MOVIES OF ALL TIME mega feature? Well, it did – look at her right there on the cover below! If you didn’t pick the issue up when it was released, we still have a limited number of copies left in the official STARBURST store. Click HERE to be whisked there and treat yourself to one before stock runs out!
Kitschies Winners Announced
The Winners for 2021’s Kitschies have been announced. The Kitschies are a “prize for the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining novels containing elements of the speculative and the fantastic”. The award is famous for its unique Tentacle trophies. You can find out more about each prize via the award’s sponsor, Blackwell’s Books, here.
The awards were announced via a special ceremony online on 12th of October, 2022. The winners are below:
The Red Tentacle (Novel)
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within – Wayfarers by Becky Chambers
The Golden Tentacle (Debut)
- Temporary by Hilary Leichter
The Inky Tentacle (Cover Art)
- The Seep by Chana Porter, Cover Art by Julia Lloyd (Vintage)
The Glentacle (Special)
A discretionary award in memory of Glen Mehn, aka The Glentacle, for services to the SF/F community.
This year it was awarded to Ra Page, who is the CEO and Founder of Comma Press, a not-for-profit publisher and development agency specialising in short fiction from the UK and beyond.
Someone Just Drew EVERY Nic Cage Role and It’s Glorious!
Milton Keynes-based artist Paul Payne has just completed his ode to Nic Cage by drawing the iconic actor in every one of his cinematic roles and we can’t get enough of it! Check it out for yourselves below…
Coming hot off the heels of his indie four-part Rambo vs Blair Witch comic series and The Shining one-shot, it looks like Payne’s one-man production company Evil Genius Artworks is going to be one to look out for.