Danny DeVito and Aubrey Plaza Teaming for Animated Horror-Comedy

Danny DeVito Aubrey Plaza

Well, this sounds all kinds of fun. As the headline suggests, a new animated horror-comedy will pair Danny DeVito and Aubrey Plaza.

Via Deadline, FX has order a pilot offering of an animated effort titled Little Demon. DeVito and Plaza are on board to headline the series, which comes from Louie’s Darcy Fowler, Stop the Bleeding’s Seth Kirschner, and Delinquent’s Kieran Valla.

The early word on Little Demon reads:

In Little Demon, 13 years are being impregnated by the Devil (Danny DeVito), a reluctant mother (Aubrey Plaza) and her Antichrist daughter (Lucy DeVito) attempt to live an ordinary life in Delaware, but are constantly thwarted by monstrous forces, including Satan, who yearns for custody of his daughter’s soul.

Danny DeVito’s Jersey Films 2nd Avenue banner are producing Little Demon with ShadowMachine, FX Productions, and Rick & Morty’s Dan Harmon.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK Sequel on the Way

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

With Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark having impressed upon its release last year, now comes word that a sequel offering is on the way from Paramount and Entertainment One.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, with the outlet also confirming that both Andre Ovredal, Guillermo del Toro, Dan Hageman, and Kevin Hageman will be returning. If you remember, Ovredal directed Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with del Toro producing and the Hagemans on writing duties.

Alvin Schwartz’s initial Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book was published back in 1981 and went on to become a huge favourite of many, with it soon becoming the first of a three-book series that was followed up with More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones. The first book was illustrated by Stephen Gammell and featured over two dozen terrifying tales of horror.

It’s presumed that this Scary Stores to Tell in the Dark sequel will again pull inspiration from Schwartz’s work.

Hex Studios Looking for One-Minute Ghost Stories

hex ghost

The Scottish horror masters Hex Studios, the filmmakers behind Lord of Tears, The Black Gloves, and The Devil’s Machine are seeking short films for their brand new Channel Hex Online Film Festival.

The festival, planned for early June, will stream the best entries live on Hex Studios’ YouTube channel, which has almost 400K subscribers.

From the press release:

The rules are simple. The short films must be one minute long, must be horror, and must be filmed either in your own home or garden, adhering to the relevant social-distancing measures in your area.

Anyone with a decent camera phone and a great idea can get involved, and filmmakers are welcome to submit multiple entries.

Lawrie Brewster of Hex Studios had this to say about the project: “At Hex, we’re passionate about making film accessible to all. Being based in Fife, Scotland, far from the traditional hubs of industry, we understand the difficulties of being a creative on the fringes. It can be very isolating. We’re very lucky these days to have the tools to collaborate together online, whatever our geography, so we wanted to harness those tools to connect aspiring creatives, and also to give their work a platform with our growing YouTube channel. That’s really what Channel Hex is all about.”

In these strange days, creativity can be a great way to stay positive, so if you’ve always wanted to try your hand at filmmaking, now is the perfect time.

The deadline for entries is Monday, May 25th. For the full rules and guidelines, join the Channel Hex Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/channelhex/ and start creating your next horror masterpiece!

Check out the pitch video for more info:

Quibi Announces Another New Horror Anthology Series

Quibi

With Quibi having already nabbed Sam Raimi’s 50 States of Fright horror anthology, the new streaming service has now announced a second such horror offering on the way.

As revealed by Quibi themselves, Divergent and Tomb Raider’s Evan Daugherty is developing a new horror series titled Horror Accidental.

Horror Accidental will be based on the Japanese series Horror Accidental 1 & 2, in which the potential horrors of regular everyday situations are explored.

For those still wondering what exactly Quibi is, this is a new streaming service designed specifically for smartphones. The app has already launched, with a 90-day free trial available for those who sign up at www.Quibi.com by April 30.

Uncertain Future for GREEN ARROW AND THE CANARIES

Green Arrow and the Canaries

While Arrow has now come to a close after a roller coaster eight-season run, one of the show’s final episodes served as a backdoor pilot for a new show titled Green Arrow and the Canaries. But now, the future of that new series is up in the air.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Green Arrow and the Canaries producer Beth Schwartz has explained how this future-set, hotly anticipated spin-off Arrowverse show may or may not happen.

As Schwartz put it, “Times are obviously very different and so we don’t really know when we’ll find out. We’re obviously super hopefully and I’m constantly having conversations. But I do not have an answer for you, unfortunately.”

For those unaware of this spin-off, Green Arrow and the Canaries would take place in the future setting that we’ve seen showcased throughout Arrow’s recent spate of flash-forwards. In that future 2040 landscape, we have Katherine McNamara’s Mia Queen as the Green Arrow, with Juliana Harkavy’s Dinah Drake and Katie Kassidy’s Laurel Lance at her side.

Right now, it’s a case of waiting for The CW to give the okay for Green Arrow and the Canaries to be taken to a series order. Adding further uncertainty to matters, of course, is that production on a slew of CW productions – including The Flash’s season finale – have had to be indefinitely delayed due to restrictions put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that is causing chaos across the globe.

From what we’ve seen of Green Arrow and the Canaries and its characters, this certainly looks like a show with so, so much promise. Here’s hoping that the show gets picked up for a full series order once regular service is resumed in the entertainment industry – but when that will be, who knows.

RUSSIAN DOLL’s Leslye Headland Developing New STAR WARS Series

Leslye Headland

While the famed Skywalker Saga has now concluded after nine movies, there are still so, so many more things to explore in a galaxy far, far away. And now, you can add another TV series to the list of Star Wars projects in development.

Courtesy of Variety, Disney and Lucasfilm have tasked Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland to put together a new Star Wars show for the Disney+ streaming service. For her work on Russian Doll, Headland and co-creators Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler nabbed themselves a pair of Emmy nominations, in addition to a whole host of plaudits from those who watched the series.

The early word on Headland’s Star Wars offering is that it will be a female-centric effort that is set in a different timeline to any of the other various Star Wars projects currently in development.

Where those ‘other various Star Wars projects’ are concerned, Ewan McGregor will be back in the saddle as Obi-Wan Kenobi gets his own small-screen outing that will seemingly explore his time on Tatooine between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope; Diego Luna is reprising his Rogue One role to headline a Cassian Andor show; Sleight director J.D. Dillard has recently been confirmed to be working on a mystery Star Wars movie; The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson has long been at work on a fresh new trilogy of films; Shutter Island’s Laeta Kalogridis is rumoured to be writing a movie based on the beloved Knights of the Old Republic video games; MCU head honcho Kevin Feige is teaming with Kathleen Kennedy on something Star Wars; and Jon Favreau is already at work on a second and third season of The Mandalorian.

And even then, it kinda feels like we’re forgetting about a project or two. The point being, there is still plenty more to come from the Star Wars IP over the coming years.

HBO Renews WESTWORLD For a Fourth Season

Westworld

With Westworld’s third season now airing here in the UK, HBO has quickly moved to renew this modern-day genre favourite for a further year.

On the news that Westworld will be back for a fourth season, HBO’s Casey Bloys enthused, “From the western theme park to the technocratic metropolis of the near future, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every twist and turn from the minds of master storytellers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. We can’t wait to see where their inspired vision takes us next.”

Obviously, at this stage there are zero details on what we can expect from Season Four, and clearly the lay of the land for that new season will have been put in place by the time the current third year comes to a close.

Despite many questioning whether there was any need or reason to create a Westworld TV show, those concerns were instantly put to bed as soon as the series’ very first episode aired. Seriously, if you’ve yet to check Westworld out, you really are missing out on something special.

Sony Developing a Live-Action ONE-PUNCH MAN Movie

One-Punch Man

Well, this is some great news for genre fans. Yes, as the headline suggests, a live-action One-Punch Man movie is on the way.

Courtesy of Variety, Sony Pictures is adapting the ridiculously popular and beloved manga and anime series for the silver screen. And not just that, but Sony has already moved to bring in Venom and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle writers Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner to pen the picture.

For those not entirely familiar with One-Punch Man, the property began life as a web comic from the artist ONE. Following that, Yusuke Murata redrew the series and expanded the IP to a manga series, before an anime series was soon on the horizon.

Plot-wise, One-Punch Man centres on Saitama, a superhero who is able to defeat the majority of any villains with a single, solitary punch. Unfortunately for Saitama though, his biggest enemy is his own boredom – which thus sees him desperately looking to challenge himself and stay entertained.

At this extremely early stage, Sony has yet to find a director or set a release date for this project.

SCOOB! Set for May Digital Release

scoob

Here at Moonbase Alpha were absolute suckers for the antics and adventures of Scooby-Doo. As such, we were eagerly anticipating seeing new animated movie Scoob! on the silver screen. Unfortunately though, as has been the case with several other releases, Scoob! is heading straight to digital.

Instead of getting its planned big-screen release on May 15, the ongoing global pandemic means that Scoob! is instead getting a US and Canada digital release on that same date. The current listing has the film available for a 48-hour rental at $19.99 or for a permanent purchase at $24.99. At this stage, there’s no word on when the movie will be made available for other international territories.

The official synopsis on Scoob! reads:

Scoob! tells the never-before-told stories of Scooby-Doo’s origins and the greatest mystery in the career of the group known as Mystery Inc. The film is set to reveal how lifelong friends Scooby and Shaggy first met and how they joined with young detectives Fred, Velma and Daphne to form the famous Mystery Inc. Now, with hundreds of cases solved and adventures shared, Scooby and the gang face their biggest, most challenging mystery ever: a plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world. As they race to stop this global ‘dogpocalypse,’ the gang discovers that Scooby has a secret legacy and an epic destiny greater than anyone imagined.

Talent wise, Scoob! sees Frank Welker as Scooby-Doo, Will Forte as Shaggy, Zac Efron as Fred, Amanda Seyfried as Daphne, Gina Rodriguez as Velma, and roles for Jason Isaacs, Mark Wahlberg, Mckenna Grace, Kiersey Clemons, Tracy Morgan, and Ken Jeong – with Tony Cervone on directing duties.

VENOM 2 Gets a New Title… and is Delayed

Venom

For those eagerly waiting for Sony’s Venom sequel, there’s some good and bad news.

On the good, the follow-up offering for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock has the swish new title of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. On the bad, Sony has pushed the film back from this October to June 25, 2021.

One other thing sure to please Venom fans, is this swanky title reveal that dropped on social media.

In addition to Hardy back as the Brock/Venom, Let There Be Carnage will see Woody Harrelson as the crazed, maniacal Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage, Michelle Williams will be back as Anne Weying, Dan Lewis will return as Reid Scott, and Naomie Harris is on board to play the villainous Shriek.

Taking on directing duties for Venom: Let There Be Carnage will be major genre fave Andy Serkis.