Jenna Ortega joins the Addams Family in Tim Burton’s WEDNESDAY

Actress Jenna Ortega holding script to Tim Burton Netflix series Wednesday, cast as Wednesday Addams

Tim Burton has cast 18-year-old Jenna Ortega as the titular Wednesday Addams for Netflix’s upcoming Addams Family spin-off series, which is simply titled Wednesday.

The eight-episode show has been touted as a sleuthing, supernaturally inclined mystery that will reintroduce fans to Wednesday Addams as a student of Nevermore Academy. Also serving as a coming-of-age story, the Burton-directed and -produced series will see the beloved Addams family member learn to master her emerging psychic abilities, investigate the cause of a killing spree terrorising the local town, and solve a mystery from her parents’ past – à la gothic Nancy Drew, aided by a ragtag team of fellow students.

You may recognise Jenna Ortega from recent projects like the psychological thriller series You and Netflix’s family comedy Yes Day, in which she starred opposite Jennifer Garner and Édgar Ramírez. But rest assured, this won’t be Ortega’s first incursion into the supernatural or horror(ish) genres: she previously showcased her spooky acting talents in Insidious: Chapter 2 and The Babysitter: Killer Queen, and is sure to dazzle once again in the upcoming Scream 5 film. So, who better to entrust the cult character’s legacy to?

There is no word yet on who might be joining the young actress on Burton’s TV directorial debut, but it’s still very early days on the project; more casting announcements are sure to follow in coming months. Until then, fans can look forward to seeing Wednesday return to the big screen in The Addams Family 2, with Chloë Grace Moretz back to voice the character.

 

Horror Channel Goes RABID in June

horror june

The June line-up for Horror Channel has been unveiled and it includes the channel premieres of a pair of FrightFest alumni – the Soska Sisters’ reimagining of Rabid and Jon Knautz’s The Cleaning Lady, co-written and starring Alexis Kendra (The Goddess of Love).

Rabid

 

Rabid, a remake of the David Cronenberg classic, airs on June 12th. It follows a fashion designer who has a revolutionary plastic surgery procedure following an accident. Unfortunately, her the success her new-found beauty brings her comes with a blood lust.

The Cleaning Lady

The Cleaning Lady also includes a scarred woman who gets a little too involved with an unfaithful beautician (Kendra). It screens for the first time on the channel on June 26th.

Alexis Kendra (The Cleaning Lady)

For more information, head over to http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/ Tune in on Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 68, Freesat 138.

INDIANA JONES 5 Adds Two Marvel Actors to its Cast

indiana jones

The long-delayed and eagerly awaited (by the more forgiving fans at least) fifth entry in the Indiana Jones cinematic universe is all set to finally go before cameras this summer, meaning hang on to your potatoes – there’s a lot more casting announcements to come over the next month or so!

Following on from the recent, and quite wonderful, news that Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen will be along for the adventure (the latter praising the screenplay to be “everything I had hoped for”), comes news of two more additions: Boyd Holbrook and Shaunette Renée Wilson.

Boyd Holbrook in Logan (2017)

Shaunette Renée Wilson at the premiere of Black Panther (2018)

Holbrook will be very familiar to many us after his turns in Logan and The Predator, while Wilson is best-know for her roles in TV series The Resident and Billions. MCU fans will also know her as one of Wakanda’s warrior force, the Dore Milaje.

As we’ve come to expect, all further details such as who they’ll play and what dusty relic Dr. Jones will be chasing this time are completely under wraps for now, but what we do know is that Stephen Spielberg is letting director James Mangold (also Logan) crack the whip this time out (Spielberg will instead produce), Harrison Ford is raring to go, and John Williams will once again create a no-doubt iconic score.

Looking for something to tide you over until we get what looks to be Ford’s swansong as the character? Don’t forget that you can exchange a fortune for glory in the form of the lavish-looking 4K Blu-ray box-set hitting shelves on June 7th!

Indiana Jones and the No Confirmed McGuffin as of the Time of Writing will hit cinemas July 22nd, 2022.

Joe Cornish and John Boyega Back for ATTACK THE BLOCK 2

Attack the Block

It’s somehow ten years since Attack the Block first made its way to the silver screen. To be precise, John Cornish’s picture hit UK cinemas on 13 May 2011. And now, there’s confirmation that a sequel is finally on the way.

Via Deadline, Cornish and star John Boyega have both signed deal to return for what is currently titled Attack the Block 2.

On this news, writer/director Cornish enthused, “I’m thrilled we’re officially announcing our return to the world of Attack the Block on the tenth anniversary of the film’s release. I can’t wait to work alongside John again, bringing audiences an even bigger slice of inner-city alien action”.

In Attack the Block, Boyega’s Moses was the leader of a UK street gang who end up finding themselves positioned as the unlikely defenders as an alien invasion threatens Earth.

For his part, being able to bring Moses back to the screen has been labelled a “huge honour” by John Boyega, who stated how this character is one of the favourite roles of his career.

No plot details or further cast/crew members are known at this early juncture, but expect more on Attack the Block 2 as we get it.

MTV Movie Awards Premieres New MCU Sneak Peeks

mtv

Amongst the myriad teases at last night’s MTV Movie & TV Awards (including the encouragingly slick trailer for G.I. Joe spin-off Snake Eyes), came two new clips from forthcoming MCU projects worthy of your attention.

First up, ahead of its July 9th drop in cinemas and Disney+ Premier Access, Scarlett Johansson (winning the Generational Award) introduced this new sneak peek at an action sequence from Black Widow:

Looking forward to Loki? Us too. And with a few weeks away until its June 9th premiere on Disney+, we’ve just got enough time to squeeze in a few more teases like the following promo, which introduces us to Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius:

For more from the MCU, here’s a complete rundown of every MCU project heading our way over the next three years…

2021

  • Loki – (Disney+) June 9th
  • Black Widow – (in cinemas) July 9th
  • What If…? – (Disney+) August
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – (in cinemas) September 3rd
  • Eternals – (in cinemas) November 5th
  • Hawkeye – (Disney+) TBC
  • Ms. Marvel – (Disney+) TBC
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home – (in cinemas) December 17th

2022

  • Thor: Love and Thunder – (in cinemas) February 11th
  • Moon Knight – (Disney+) TBC
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – (in cinemas) March 25th
  • She-Hulk – (Disney+) TBC
  • Black Panther II – (in cinemas) July 8th
  • Captain Marvel II – (in cinemas) Nov 11th
  • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special – (Disney+) December

2023+

  • Secret Invasion – (Disney+) TBC
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – (in cinemas) TBC
  • Ironheart – (Disney+) TBC
  • Armor Wars – (Disney+) TBC
  • I Am Groot – (Disney+) TBC
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – (in cinemas) TBC
  • Blade – (in cinemas) TBC
  • Fantastic Four – (in cinemas) TBC
  • Deadpool 3 – (in cinemas) TBC
  • Untitled Wakanda Series – (Disney+) TBC

Aubrey Plaza and Danny DeVito Parent the Antichrist in LITTLE DEMON

Danny DeVito and Aubrey Plaza announced to star in new show Little Demon

Little Demon will see Danny DeVito – as none other than Satan himself – get Aubrey Plaza pregnant. Their wee bundle of joy? Only the Antichrist.

Take a moment to digest if you need to, and let’s dive into what we know. Plaza (Legion, Child’s Play, Parks and Recreation), DeVito (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Jumanji: The Next Level, Batman Returns) and Lucy DeVito (Mr. DeVito’s daughter in the real world and fellow actress) are among the voice cast of FXX’s upcoming half-hour animated horror sitcom, Little Demon.

Per the logline, Little Demon takes place thirteen years after the maculate conception (yes, you can check the dictionary), and sees a reluctant mother (Plaza) and her Antichrist daughter (Lucy DeVito) try their best to live an ordinary life in Delaware. That could prove just a tad little difficult, as their plans are constantly thwarted by monstrous and mundane forces. Among said forces is evil incarnate, aka dear old dad, aka the Devil, who desires custody of his daughter’s soul. Not exactly your run-of-the-mill custody battle but, to greatly paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, family is messy.

Created by Darcy Fowler, Seth Kirschner, and Kieran Valla, the team will also welcome Rick and Morty and Community creator-writer Dan Harmon as one of the executive producers, alongside Aubrey Plaza and the DeVito’s. Little Demon is also the newest addition to FXX’s growing animated show family, which includes the long-running and greatly acclaimed Archer and short-form anthology Cake. The show has been in the works for a year now, but finally received a series order this week.

Little Demon seems to have all the delicious ingredients for a riotous show, and promises an exciting new entry to the ever-expanding genre of adult animated sitcoms.   Throw a little horror in there and you can count us sold, even if this writer would give a non-essential toe for this to be live action. Consider it a standing offer.

 

Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill return in ENOLA HOLMES 2

Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes reading newspaper

Some good news for fans of Millie Bobby Brown’s plucky sleuth-in-training, as Netflix finally confirms that Enola Holmes will indeed be returning for a sequel! Considering Enola Holmes remains in the top ten most-watched Netflix movies of all time, it seemed unlikely that the streaming giant would pass up another easy payday, but it’s still nice to see it in writing.

Enola Holmes 2 will of course see Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown return as the youngest of the Holmes siblings, with DCEU star Henry Cavill following suit in his role as the much drooled-over Sherlock Holmes.

Enola Holmes writer Jack Thorne and director Harry Bradbeer will reunite as the creative brains behind the sequel, and though Helena Bonham Carter and Sam Claflin have yet to be confirmed, it’s likely that they too reprise their roles as Holmes matriarch Eudoria and disapproving eldest brother Mycroft, respectively.

Just what the plot to this instalment might be is yet unknown but, considering the first film followed the events of the Nancy Springer’s The Case of the Missing Marquess, it’s likely that Enola Holmes 2 would adapt The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, namely the second entry in The Enola Holmes Mysteries. In this, Enola discovers a hidden cache of charcoal sketches belonging to a Lady Cecily, a girl who recently vanished without a trace.

If that proves true, then the next casting announcement will likely be for Lady C! Stay tuned.

US Remake of BBC’s GHOSTS Adds to Cast

bbc ghosts

For every mega-hit like The Office, there’s an aborted Spaced or Red Dwarf.  We’re talking US remakes of classic British sitcoms here, and while they can on occasion be incredibly successful, the humour more often than not gets lost in translation. (Not that we as a country fair much better, it has to said – ever see our remake of The Golden Girls? Oof.)

Showrunner Greg Daniels and The Office team successfully bucked this trend by wisely borrowing the universal archetypes of Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant’s 13-episode masterpiece, ditched the scripts after a single episode, and created a rich new universe that consistently delivered huge laughs and plenty of heart over the course of nine years. Attempts to port the idiosyncrasies of Spaced were anything but ‘fried gold’, and despite two cracks at it, Red Dwarf crashed and burned.

Next up is BBC’s hit genre comedy Ghosts, which shot its US pilot in December and has since been greenlit for a full series. It makes the headlines again this week as it’s been reported via Deadline that Doom Patrol’s Devon Chandler Long (Flex Mentallo) has joined the cast as a series regular, the Viking Thorfinn, one of the titular spirits. Long will join leads Rose McIver (iZombie), and Utkarsh Ambudkar (The Mindy Project). (And that’s it, so yes, basically we’ve just used Devan as an excuse to voice our trepidation on the project and pimp the original!)

bbc ghosts

Devan Chandler Long

For those who haven’t had the pleasure of checking out the BBC series yet (all available on iPlayer), it follows a young couple – Alison (the supernaturally likable Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike (Stath Lets Flats’ Kiell Smith-Bynoe) – who inherit a mansion. After Alison gets into an accident, she goes full-Hayley Joel Osment and can now see that their new home is riddled with a whole host of interesting dead folk, ranging from a monosyllabic Neanderthal to a Tory numpty. Written and co-starring the talented ensemble of comedians previously best known for bringing the Horrible Histories books to life – Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, and Ben Willbond – the show not only has a superb, potential-filled premise, but it’s damn funny to boot. It’s also rare in that its comedy has a wide-ranging appeal, it’s occasionally more adult-skewing gags never too blue for the younger members of a household.

In short: please don’t ruin it, CBS.

And don’t get us started on their planned remake of This Country.

BRING IT ON Getting Slasher Spin from SYFY

bring it on

While it may not be on all of our radars, many good things were born from 2000’s cheery cheerleader hit, Bring it On. It further cemented its young star Kirsten Dunst as an actor to watch out for, it proved Eliza Dushku didn’t need to be wielding a stake to be a badass, and its writer/director, newcomer Peyton Reed, would later go on to gift us two awesome Ant-Man movies and multiple episodes of The Mandalorian, including that one featuring the return of that beloved character. (Go vote for it in this year’s BAFTA ‘Must See Moments’ poll if you were as bowled over as us!)

On the flipside, Bring it On also introduced five not-so-great things in its wake, too: namely, the series of cheap, unconnected direct-to-DVD sequels that followed. While there’s clearly a fanbase for the films, the same critics who lauded the original Bring it On were soon asking Universal to Knock it Off.

Why, then, would STARBURST bother reporting on a Bring It On sequel, you ask?

Give us a B! Give us an L! Give us an O! Give us another O! Give us a D! Give us an B! Give us an A! Give us a T! Give us an H! Gooooo… BLOODBATH!

Yes, the franchise is taking a surprising left-turn and receiving a horror make-over next year courtesy of SYFY, in Bring it On: Halloween. In a recent announcement regarding their upcoming slate, the channel described the film’s story:

“Held down by restrictive rules, an embattled cheerleading squad seeks the freedom of a creepy, closed school gym to practice for regionals, but when members of the squad start to disappear, the cheerleaders must unmask their assailant to save themselves.”

Although she clearly wasn’t interested in reprising her character in any of the five Bring it On sequels, given Eliza Dushku’s experience with battling a Hellmouth’s-worth of monstrosities and the hillbilly wrong’uns of Wrong Turn, might we suggest SYFY give her a call? Unlikely, sure, but then again Syfy did pull off that insane The Banana Splits Movie, so all bets are off!

There’s no current release date for Bring it On: Halloween other than ‘sometime in 2022’, but we’ll go out on a limb and bravely say look out for it around October time.

Check Out This Exclusive Clip from THE UNHOLY

exclusive unholy

Cinemas open up once more on May 17th, and among the films on offer is The Unholy, the directorial debut from Evan Spiliotopoulos (writer of films such as Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast and Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins). The official synopsis is:

Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a disgraced journalist turned stringer-for-hire, of supernatural tabloid fodder, is sent to investigate a strange occurrence in a small farming community. A born skeptic, Fenn quickly dismisses the incident as just another benign story. But, before he writes it off as a hoax; Fenn witnesses a deaf, teenaged girl, Alice (Cricket Brown), whispering next to a petrified oak tree in the middle of a field. What follows, to his disbelief, is a series of inexplicable events that has the locals convinced Alice can perform miracles. When word spreads that Alice’s power to heal is attributed to the Virgin Mary, it fans the flames of curiosity from those near and far to witness the miraculous occur first hand. As the hopeful masses descend upon this off-the-beaten-path town, Fenn sees this as an opportunity to redeem his reputation and resurrect his career. However, when a mysterious death befalls the church’s priest, Fenn believes that something more sinister is afoot. With the help of a local doctor, Natalie Gates (Katie Aselton), Fenn rushes to unlock the secrets of long ago to determine if Alice’s gift is divine or evil.

Watch the exclusive clip below:

THE UNHOLY will open at cinemas across the UK on Monday, May 17th.