HIS DARK MATERIALS Trilogy Coming to Vinyl

dark vinyl

Demon Records has announced the release the full-cast BBC Radio dramatisations of the celebrated His Dark Materials trilogy. Pressed on 9 x 180g Heavyweight Daemonic Dustburst Splatter Vinyl, the box set will be snapped up by eager fans. The Amazon exclusive edition will also include a standalone art print signed by author Philip Pullman (limited to 500 copies).

From the press release:

Philip Pullman’s bestselling trilogy of books has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide and formed the basis of the major HBO/BBC TV series His Dark Materials. Now, this stunning 9LP box set presents BBC Radio’s full-cast dramatisations of all three novels. Follow the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and Willy Parry, two children catapulted into a life-or-death struggle to save the future of the Cosmos. In Northern Lights, 11-year-old Lyra discovers dark forces at work, involving kidnapped children and a mysterious substance called ‘Dust’. In The Subtle Knife Will finds an opening into a haunted world, where daemon-destroying Spectres roam. In The Amber Spyglass, Lyra and Will must find each other and journey into the World of the Dead. These thrilling adaptations star Lulu Popplewell as Lyra, Terence Stamp as Lord Asriel, Emma Fielding as Mrs Coulter, Daniel Anthony as Will and Bill Paterson as the Master, with a large supporting cast. Three lavish gatefold sleeves feature Dust-inspired illustrations, spectacularly realised in metallic copper ink, plus full cast and production details. Each of the nine heavyweight 180g discs comes on Daemonic Dustburst Splatter Vinyl and is housed its own illustrated inner pocket.

The set will be released on March 27th and is available to pre-order here.

Barry Keoghan Departs FX’s Y: THE LAST MAN

Y: The Last Man

In terms of long-gestating, it doesn’t get much more long-gestating than the live-action adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s Y: The Last Man that’s been spinning its wheels in development hell for years.

After an age being planned as a movie or more recently as a TV series, all looked well as FX was moving ahead with a TV take on the iconic comic book property. But now, in another twist for the adaptation, star Barry Keoghan has departed the FX show.

Via Collider, Dunkirk actor Keoghan has exited as Y’s titular Yorick Brown. No reason has been given for Keoghan’s departure, although it’s yet another bump in the road for the series. Scenes had actually already been shot with Keoghan as Yorick, meaning that reshoots will obviously have to take place once the show finds a new Yorick.

As alluded to, this is just the latest setback for Y, with showrunners Aida Mashaki Croal and Michael Green having both left the series previously. At the last count, Eliza Clark was on board to serve as showrunner.

Y: The Last Man centres on Yorick Brown as the sole human male survivor after the planet has been hit by a strange event that killed off all mammals with a Y chromosome.

The previous plan was for FX’s Y to premiere before 2020 was out, although it now looks like the series won’t hit TV screens until at least next year.

SUPERMAN & LOIS Finds its Super-Sons

Superman & Lois

With the Arrowverse’s monumental Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover revealing that Superman and Lois Lane now have two sons, the happy couple’s impending spin-off series has moved to cast said sons.

Via Deadline, relative newcomers Jordan Elsass and Alexander Garfin have been cast as Jonathan and Jordan Kent, respectively. Comic book-wise, Jonathan Kent has at times become Superboy, while Jordan Kent is a completely new creation solely for The CW’s Superman & Lois.

From what we’re hearing, Jonathan will be the more clean-cut, classic country boy of the two sons, and Jordan will be an intelligent, hot-tempered, anxiety-riddled character who prefers to spend time on his own.

Superman & Lois will see Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch reprising their roles of Kal-El and Lois Lane from the Arrowverse in a series which will premiere in the second half of the year.

Scott Lyus Announces Creature Feature Debut

Former STARBURST International Film Festival winner and all-round top bloke Scott Lyus has revealed new information on his eagerly-awaited debut feature film, Walking Against the Rain. Read on for more details! (And it’s worth noting that if you’re attending SIFF this year you’ll also get to see the ever-busy filmmaker’s brilliant new short, Black Mass. Get your tickets NOW!)

From the Press Release:

Award-winning filmmaker Scott Lyus set to direct debut horror feature film WALKING AGAINST THE RAIN early June 2020.

The apocalyptic Biblical monster movie, shot on locations in the UK over a three-week period, will star Cruel Summer’s Reece Douglas, newcomer Maisy Kay and James Swanton as monster creation ‘The Forsaken’.

Set six months after a biblical plague has fallen upon the world, WALKING AGAINST THE RAIN tells the story of two strangers, Tommy (Reece Douglas) and Blair (Maisy Kay) who are navigating their way across a barren landscape in a desperate attempt to find each other. With their only form of communication being two soon-to-die battery operated radio mics and with a new evil in the shape of ‘The Forsaken’ tracking them down, they must learn to confront loss and rediscover a trust in humanity. Or die.

Co-producers and long-term collaborators Scott Lyus and Chris Nials, have created several successful short films, including Silently Within Your Shadow, Echoes of the Passed and, most recently, the crowd-funded Black Mass.

Scott Lyus commentated: “The underlying theme of WALKING AGAINST THE RAIN is an exploration into loss, grief and how our characters are coming to terms with a new life in an empty, but at times beautiful, landscape and learning to endure shocking experiences beyond their comprehension. Gone is the quick access to constant communication, information and social media and, as a result, our protagonists have to start to reassess how they look at basic level human interaction, whilst surviving unspeakable horrors”.

The film is being funded by ROKiT Pictures, which is part of the ROKiT Group, and their Co-Founder & Chairman, Jonathan Kendrick, said today:

“We’re thrilled to go on this journey with Scott and Chris and their terrifying fresh take on the post-apocalyptic genre”.

WALKING AGAINST THE RAIN is a Crossroad Pictures production, written & directed by Scott Lyus and produced by Chris Nails & Scott Lyus. FX and special make-up is by BAFTA-nominated Kristyan Mallet (Ghost Stories, Autopsy of Jane Doe). Starring Reece Douglas (Cruel Summer, Waterloo Road), Maisy Kay singer/songwriter, feature film debut) and James Swanton (Frankenstein’s Creature, Double Date).

 

Sam Raimi in Talks for DOCTOR STRANGE Sequel

Sam Raimi

Well, this could be all kinds of brilliant. Yes, as the headline suggests, Sam Raimi is being lined up to direct Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange sequel.

It was only last month that Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson departed the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness over the ever-familiar creative differences. And now, according to Variety, Raimi is in talks to take over the director’s chair.

Sam Raimi is no stranger to superheroes, of course, for he helmed Sony’s Tobey Maguire-headlined Spider-Man trilogy and before that he’d tackled Darkman. Likewise, Raimi would be the perfect fit for the slight horror slant Marvel is looking at for Multiverse of Madness – with the director famously delivering chilling offerings such as his Evil Dead trilogy, The Gift and Drag Me to Hell.

What we know so far about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, bar serving up horror elements, is that Benedict Cumberbatch will be back as the Sorcerer Supreme and he’ll be joined in the picture by Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch.

With production expected to begin this May, the current plan is for the Doctor Strange sequel to be conjured up on the big screen on May 7th, 2021.

Update on Premiere Dates for New Disney+ Shows

WandaVision

With a whole host of hotly-anticipated shows heading to Disney+ at some point, we now have at least a better idea of when to expect these new series to land on the on-demand streaming service.

Straight from Walt Disney Studios, the Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan-headlined The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will premiere in August and the Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany-fronted WandaVision will arrive in December. Sandwiched between these in October will be the second season of the stunning The Mandalorian.

Exact release dates have not been announced just yet, although we know now when we can roughly see these Disney+ flagships.

In addition to these shows, 2021 will see What If…?, Loki, and Hawkeye landing on the streaming service. And if all goes well, we could even feasibly get a third season of The Mandalorian before 2021 is out.

To date, Disney+ already has a ludicrous 28.6 million subscribers since launching last November. For UK viewers, the service will be available on March 31st for a monthly fee of £5.99.

Director Johannes Roberts Confirms Plans for 47 METERS DOWN 3

47 Meters Down: Uncaged

With 47 Meters Down: Uncaged having just yesterday received its UK DVD release, we’ve got official confirmation from director Johannes Roberts that a third 47 Meters Down offering is already being lined up.

Ahead of Uncaged’s UK release, we managed to grab some time with Roberts to discuss the sequel to his 2017 picture. And it was in amongst this chatter that the director revealed that plans are afoot for a third entry in the 47 Meters Down franchise.

Johannes explained, “We haven’t officially announced a third, but we’ve now crossed over $110 million worldwide. There will definitely be a third. I think I personally, as a director, have taken my 47 Meters Down journey to its completion, but yes, we are definitely in talks at the moment for a third one.”

As alluded to there, that first 47 Meters Down took home an impressive $62 million from a budget of just $5 million. Likewise, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged took just shy of $50 million from a $12 million budget.

Expect more on this third 47 Meters Down movie as we get it – and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our full interview with Johannes Roberts appearing online shortly.

HOME in Manchester Launches Cult Films Strand

home cult

The glorious cinema/arts mecca in Manchester, HOME, has announced a new strand, Cult Films, and the first film is Brian Yuzna’s Society (1989). The biting satire of suburban life is famous for the over the top body horror of the climax.

HOME say of the season, “Deciding what makes a film a cult movie is relatively arbitrary. It can be a film that is so bad it’s good, a film that is in some way sexually or socially perverse or a title that has come to attain a sizeable following after being initially ignored by the masses. This new cult strand will explore all of the above. We aim to take you on some weird and wonderful journeys and to places both familiar and unknown.”

Society screens on Friday February 7th at 20.40. Tickets are available from the HOME website.

Guest and More Shorts Revealed for STARBURST Int. Film Festival

film festival

The STARBURST International Film Festival, which takes place on March 13th and 14th at Social7 at The Landing, MediaCityUK, Salford in Manchester has revealed even more short films that will be screened over the event.

We’re also delighted to announce that Laurence R. Harvey will be back with us following his popular appearance at our first festival, when we had the UK premiere of Frankenstein Created Bikers (2016, James Bickert). This year, we’re honoured to have Laurence provide a live commentary to The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) for the first time ever! Expect lots of behind the scenes nuggets and some very irreverent humour. It goes without saying, this won’t be for the faint of heart!

We can also confirm some more short films that will be part of the schedule: the supernatural Circle of Stone is directed by Mark Andrews (one of the directors of Pixar’s 2012 film Brave) and stars Vic Mignogna and Danielle Levine; Star Wars: Origins is Phil Hawkins’ impressive fan film that has archaeologists discovering something from a long time ago…. Oscar’s Bell stars Peaky Blinders’ Paul Bullion and is directed by Chris Cronin; we have the world premiere of Thursday Night, the latest short from Rebecca Melvin Phillips; Terminal Hospitality from Olly Philpott-Smith; David Newton’s The Last; we have the latest episode of the fun web series Demonologist for Hire: The Case of the Residential Evil; the hilarious Quiet Carriage, directed by Ben S. Hyland; SPECIAL* from Michael Stratigakis; Aaron Barrocas’ Half-Cocked; and Carles Jofre’s retired superhero short Capitán Kinesis. Watch this space for announcements of more feature films that will be included in the packed schedule.

The STARBURST International Film Festival takes place on March 13th and 14th at Social7 at MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester. For more information on the films, and to book tickets for the STARBURST International Film Festival, head over to starburstfilmfest.co.uk. Tickets are on sale now for the festival at the Early Bird price of £30 for the full event from here. This price will increase prior to day tickets going on sale.