Cover Reveal: The Splendid City

Something a bit different for a wet Tuesday. A cover reveal of award-winning author Karen Heuler’s latest work, The Splendid City.  The cover has been designed by Kate Cromwell, who recently redesigned the logo for publisher Angry Robot.

The blurb reads:

In the state of Liberty, water is rationed at alarming prices, free speech is hardly without a cost, and Texas has just declared itself its own country. In this society, paranoia is well-suited because eyes and ears are all around, and they are judging. Always judging. This terrifying (and yet somehow vaguely familiar) terrain is explored via Eleanor – a young woman eagerly learning about the gifts of her magic through the support of her coven.

But being a white witch is not as easy as they portray it in the books, and she’s already been placed under ‘house arrest’ with a letch named Stan, a co-worker who wronged her in the past and now exists in the form of a cat. A talking cat who loves craft beers, picket lines, and duping and ‘shooting’ people.

Eleanor has no time for Stan and his shenanigans, because she finds herself helping another coven locate a missing witch which she thinks is mysteriously linked to the shortage of water in Liberty.

Sounds really interesting to us. The book will be out via Angry Robot on the 12th of July 2022.


Karen Heuler is a literary sci-fi/fantasy author. Her stories have appeared in over a hundred literary and speculative magazines and anthologies such as Conjunctions to Tin House and Weird Tales. She has received an O. Henry award, and been a finalist for the Iowa short fiction award, the Bellwether award, the Shirley Jackson award for short fiction, among others. She has published four novels, four story collections and a novella. She also teaches fiction writing at NYU’s School of Professional Studies.

The Vought Universe Expands With DIABOLICAL Animated Series

The Boys: Diabolical animated series announcement

We might still be waiting a while for The Boys season 3, but there are good news for fans of the Vought universe: showrunner Eric Kripke is bringing to life an animated anthology series titled Diabolical for Prime Video.

This is the second The Boys spinoff to be ordered by Amazon, joining a Young Adult superhero college series that was greenlit in September. The announcement teaser, revealed at Brazil’s Comic-Con, gives very little away: there’s a dog (looking an awful lot like Billy Butcher’s English bulldog, Terror) licking his balls and… okay yeah, that’s it. But we do know it’s set in the same world as The Boys, and that’s reason enough to look forward to the show’s release.

Kripke assembled a varied group of fabulous creators to write the show’s eight episodes, including stories from original comic creator Garth Ennis, Awkwafina, Eliot Glazer and Ilana Glazer, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, Simon Racioppa, Justin Roiland and Ben Bayouth, Andy Samberg and Aisha Tyler.

“They blew the doors off it,” praised Kripke, “delivering eight completely unexpected, funny, shocking, gory, moist, emotional episodes. You think The Boys is nuts? Wait till you see this.”

The series was announced by The Boys star Karl Urban in the video below. Diabolical is due to premiere “early next year,” though no more precise date was given.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE Will Be Split Into Two Parts

Spider-Man Across the spider-verse part one teaser still

The MCU’s Peter Parker isn’t the only Spider-Man embarking on multiverse adventures; young Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) will also be slinging his way across dimensions in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The animated franchise kicked off in 2018 with the incredible and Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and, though we already knew a sequel was on its way, thanks to a brand-new teaser we also now know its title and (more excitingly) that it will be split into two films!

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One teaser

According to the official log line, Across the Spider-verse is an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy – aka Spider-Gwen, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld – and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered. The teaser also features an action-packed appearance by Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099, previously seen in Into the Spider-Verse’s post-credits scene. Every dimension will look and feel different from the others, embracing a range of artistic styles in what’s sure to be the most visually exciting film of the decade.

 

Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson are taking over the directors’ chairs from original trio Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, while returning writer-producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller wrote the script with Dave Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). Lord and Miller recently explained via Entertainment Weekly that “Miles’ story is an epic. We wrote what we thought the story needed to be, and to our surprise we realized it was two movies instead of one. We’re working on them both as we speak. Part Two will be out sometime in 2023. We will sleep again in 2024.”

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Part One) will be in cinemas October 7th, 2022. Check out the first teaser below:

MAN IN A SUITCASE Graphic Novel in the Works

man suitcase graphic

A new graphic novel is to be published in early 2022 featuring the hero of the cult 1960s TV series Man in a Suitcase.

In the late 1960s, British television brought us a glorious variety of weekly action-adventure series. The Saint, The Champions, Department S, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), The Prisoner, and many more. An exciting mix of secret agent, private detective, and sci-fi fantasy. One of the most underrated series was Man in a Suitcase, starring American actor Richard Bradford. Lasting only one series, we saw McGill, a disgruntled, world-weary but caring, ex CIA agent making a living as a private detective in swinging sixties London. He has a moral compass, and his clients always get the McGill they deserve.

The graphic novel will feature a brand new adventure for McGill, based on an un-filmed original script by legendary writer Roger Marshall, who worked on many top TV series, including The Avengers, The Sweeney, The Professionals, and also created the long-running and hugely popular Public Eye.

The Haunting finds McGill investigating strange goings-on in a sleepy English village, and will be adapted by Roger’s son, Rodney Marshall, with original artwork by Brian Gorman.

Brian’s previous graphic novels include Everyman: A Celebration of Patrick McGoohan and The Prisoner, New Dawn Fades: Joy Division and Manchester, Animus, and Borderliners: True Realties. He is also an award-winning actor for his stage production One Man Bond: Every Bond Film in 60 Minutes, which he performed at the STARBURST Media City Festival in 2018.

A new crowdfunding campaign gives fans a fantastic opportunity to be part of an exciting team, resurrecting one of British television’s most iconic, and much-missed cult heroes. Perks for contributors include signed copies of the book, their names immortalised in a special ‘Thanks To’ section, an opportunity to be drawn as a supporting character, original sketches, original pages of artwork from the book, and an invitation to a special launch party.

More details on the crowdfunder can be found at Man in a Suitcase: The Haunting.

Eat Peace, Motherf*****! PEACEMAKER Releases Official Trailer & Release Date!

Peacemaker starring John Cena power

After a fun teaser released at the HBO Max European launch event, Peacemaker has finally released its full official trailer. The series, written and directed by James Gunn and starring John Cena in the title role, explores the continued story of Christopher Smith/ Peacemaker in the aftermath of Gunn’s explosive The Suicide Squad. 

Peacemaker tv series starring John Cena

The upcoming eight-part series also stars Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, the series’ co-lead, Freddie Stroma as the district attorney and crimefighter Vigilante, Jennifer Holland as NSA agent Harcourt, Chukwudi Iwuji as the mercenary and Task Force X leader Clemson Murn, Steve Agee as the Belle Reve warden John Economos, and Robert Patrick as Peacemaker’s dad Auggie Smith, and is now confirmed to debut January 13th with its first three episodes.

It also looks like we’ll be getting a lot more of Peacemaker’s pet bald eagle, Eagly. Petition for more animal sidekicks in the DC and Marvel cinematic ‘verses!

Catch up with the world’s biggest douchebag as he and his team save the fucking world, on HBO Max January 13th. Watch the trailer below:

Dystopian Fantasy UGLIES Casts Laverne Cox

Uglies novel cover from Scott Westerfeld

Laverne Cox, best known for her roles in Promising Young Woman and the long-running Orange Is the New Black, is the latest addition to the cast of Uglies, a dystopian fantasy directed by McG (The Babysitter, Rim of the World) from a screenplay by Krista Vernoff (Charmed).

Based on Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 international bestselling novel of the same name, the upcoming Netflix adaptation is set in a post-scarcity dystopian world in which a compulsory, extreme cosmetic surgery operation at sixteen makes everyone pretty. It tells the story of a teenager named Tally Youngblood, who rebels against society’s enforced conformity and beauty standards after her friends show her the downsides of becoming a so-called “Pretty”.

Uglies casts Laverne Cox

Cox joins a cast led by Joey King – who also executive produces – as the protagonist Tally, which also includes Keith Powers (The Tomorrow War), Brianna Tju (I Know What You Did Last Summer) and Chase Stokes (Outer Banks) in as-of-yet undisclosed roles.

Though no release date has been announced, Uglies’ current production status suggests an estimated release in late 2022.

 

THE PALE BLUE EYE Adds Gillian Anderson, Robert Duvall & More

The Pale Blue Eye casts Gillian Anderson, still from The X Files

Scott Cooper’s Netflix film The Pale Blue Eye has added a crowd of wonderful actors to its slate, which had already announced Christian Bale and Harry Melling.

Based on the Louis Bayard 2006 novel of the same name, the Gothic thriller centres on a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe, as he gets wrapped up in a series of murders at the United States Military Academy in West Point, in 1830. Melling with play Poe, while Bale will lead the cast as Augustus Landor, a former police detective who the Academy calls upon to keep the case quiet. Poe and Landor find themselves working in close contact to unravel this mystery, which takes them into a world of secret societies, ritual sacrifice, and  more death.

Joining Bale and Melling on the call sheet are – and here’s where we advise you to take a deep breath – Gillian Anderson (The X Files, Hannibal), Lucy Boynton (Murder on the Orient Express, Bohemian Rhapsody), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist, Nymphomaniac: Vol I & II), Toby Jones (The Hunger Games, the MCU), Timothy Spall (Electric Dreams, Harry Potter franchise), and Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now), as well as Hadley Robinson (Moxie), Joey Brooks (Molly’s Game), Harry Lawtey (Industry), Simon McBurney (Carnival Row), Brennan Keel Cook (Encounter), Gideon Glick (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Fred Hechinger (Fear Street, The Woman in the Window), Matt Helm (The Tragedy of Macbeth), Steven Maier (The Plot Against America), and Charlie Tahan (Ozark).

The Pale Blue Eye marks Cooper’s third collaboration with Bale, following Hostiles and Out of the Furnace. Other than Bale (who also produces the film) and Melling, there has been no information disclosed as to the roles which the newly-added cast members will play.

Scott Cooper most recently directed the horror indie Antlers, and is best known for the Jeff Bridges-starrer Crazy Heart. 

 

 

Stan Lee Horror Stories Are Getting Their Own Cinematic Universe

Stan Lee at the Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo by Gage Skidmore

A new cinematic universe is in the works, based on the little-known horror works by Marvel’s Stan Lee. Timur Bekmambetov (Abram Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Wanted) will helm the overall project and produce with his company, alongside ZQ Entertainment.

“Some fans may not know this, but Stan Lee wrote several horror comic book series in the 1940s and 1950s before superhero comics became big in the 1960s,” explained Gill Champion, POW! Entertainment’s president – a company co-founded with Lee himself, which will executive produce the project. “Stan relished revisiting the genre a few years ago when he wrote these stories, and we are excited to bring them to life with a director as visionary as Timur Bekmambetov. We think fans will be surprised to experience a darker side of Stan Lee that they’ve never witnessed before!”

Stan Lee

The first two films announced in this deal are Carnival of Killers, with a script by Starry Eyes and Pet Sematary filmmakers Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, and Sawbones, to be written by Matt Greenberg (co-writer on Pet Sematary as well as Reign of Fire and 1408).

Carnival of Killers is set amid the Dust Bowl storms that ravaged the American Great Plains in the 1930s. The horror movie centres around a young girl with psychic abilities who senses that the traveling carnival she and her mother sought refuge in is ground zero for a looming alien invasion. Aliens and creepy clowns? Sign us up.

Meanwhile, Sawbones follows a frail 12-year old named Alex Covin, who reads a mysterious comic book and is suddenly transported into its terrifying world: a haunted Juvenile Detention Centre overrun by demonic forces led by Sawbones, a homicidal entity who preys upon the troubled inmates. Has Alex gone insane? Or is this nightmarish world his new reality? If he is to escape, Alex must find a way to defeat Sawbones – but he quickly comes to realize that the entity is the keeper of his darkness, and the personification of all his fears.

These can’t come soon enough! Further details as we get them.

 

Medusa Horror Takes A Closer Look At The Snake-Haired Gorgon

Uma Thurman as Medusa in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

An untitled horror movie based  on the Gorgon Medusa is being developed at Fangoria Studios (which launched January of this year), which aims to take a closer look at the popular Greek mythical figure whose gaze turns men to stone. Deadline reports that Anna Chazelle (Narrow, Anemone) will write, direct, and executive produce on the project.

“It’s easy to demonise Medusa, but her story is filled with justifiable feminine rage, both at the gods who created her and the mortals who seek to destroy her,” stated Chazelle. “I’m excited to dive into the tale of her nascence into the Greek pantheon and hopefully challenge the widely-accepted definition of Medusa as a mere monster.”

Medusa has indeed been a long-misunderstood figure. Most popularly regarded and depicted as a monstrous creature (see for example 1981’s Clash of the Titans, or The Lightning Thief), she was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who used her head as a weapon until he gifted it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses however, hints at a much darker origin story: originally a beautiful maiden, Medusa was raped by Neptune/Poseidon in Minerva/Athena’s temple. Upon learning of the act, Athena chooses to punish the victim, transforming her beautiful hair into hideous snakes.

Medusa as depicted in 1981 Clash of the Titans

The myth has been altered and retold many times throughout history to reflect contemporary sentiments. In the 19th century for example, Medusa became a symbol of liberty post-French Revolution and was used as a popular emblem of Jacobinism; regarded as a victim of tyranny, she held her own kind of revolutionary power.

More recent portrayals and analyses of Medusa, particularly post-#MeToo, have tended to look more kindly upon her – a statue by Luciano Garbati depicting the Gorgon holding Perseus’ decapitated head, for instance, became an avatar of female rage for the MeToo movement. Things have moved a little slower in pop entertainment, but a recent example of changing views appears in the rebooted series Charmed, where Medusa is summoned to punish members of a fraternity for slut-shaming a young girl; instead of killing or banishing her, Macy (one of the protagonists) expresses empathy with her pain as a rape victim and convinces Medusa to undo her damage.

Let’s just say that we’re looking forward to seeing what Chazelle does with this blank canvas.

 

Cyberpunk Indie THE DRESDEN SUN Adds Steven Ogg

Steven Ogg as Simon in The Walking Dead will star in The Dresden Sun

Snowpiercer and Westworld actor Steven Ogg will star alongside Christina Ricci (The Matrix Resurrections) and Samantha Win (Army of the Dead) in The Dresden Sun, a cyberpunk indie film from writer-director Michael Ryan (Interpreters, The Silencer & the Sky) said to combine elements of science fiction, thriller, and action genres.

The premise is as follows: A heist goes south when a brilliant, principled mercenary (Ogg) with a traumatic history works with an insider to steal a valued commodity from Peredor Corporation called “the sphere”. The C & Earth corporation vying for global dominance seeks to find a solution to an otherworldly technology for a scientist’s project.

Meanwhile, a financial analyst, who despises his job at the powerful investment firm Mutual One, is caught in the middle between deadly corporate rivals, financial fraud, and technological espionage, forcing him to run from the most psychopathic military contractor in the world.

While Deadline reports that Ogg plays The Dresden Sun’s protagonist Crilenger,  Win stars as the mysterious ‘Z’ and Ricci plays Dr. Dresden Corliss, the inventor of a cosmic technology who is grieving over the recent death of a loved one.