Steven Allerick Joins SNAKE EYES

Steven Allerick

As Paramount’s Snake Eyes movie continues to amass its core cast, the picture has now added Steven Allerick to its ranks.

Via Deadline, the Star Trek: Enterprise, Westworld and The Expanse star will be playing the father of the titular badass in the film.

In the G.I. Joe spin-off, Allerick joins Henry Golding as Snake Eyes, Andrew Koji as Storm Shadow, Ursula Corbero as The Baroness, Iko Uwais as The Hard Master, and Samara Weaving as Scarlett.

To be directed by R.I.P.D. and Insurgent’s Robert Schwentke, Snake Eyes is currently booked in for an October 16th, 2020 release.

STARBURST Film Festival Tickets On Sale!

Festival

The 2020 STARBURST International Film Festival is go! Tickets are on sale now for the event of the year at a special Black Friday Super Early Bird price (save £10 on Early Bird admission).

The event will take place at Social7 at the Landing at Media City, Salford, Manchester on March 13th and 14th. Details of films and guests will be revealed in due course, but we are working on bringing you a fantastic line-up of independent films and beloved classics.

2019’s festival was a riot, with Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman and filmmaker Luigi Cozzi (Starcrash) in attendance as well as dozens of directors, actors, and producers of the films we screened.

Don’t miss out on this fun-filled festival at a very special price. Buy your pass now: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Salford/The-Landing/STARBURST-International-Film-Festival/13697053/

Albert Hughes to Direct Warners’ Remake of THE FUGITIVE

The Fugitive

With Warner Bros. rejigging The Fugitive, now comes news that that redo of a 1993 movie that was based on a 1963 TV series has found a director.

Via Deadline, The Book of Eli’s Albert Hughes has been tasked with helming this latest incarnation of The Fugitive for The WB. Broken City’s Brian Tucker is on writing duties for the film.

For those not familiar with ’93 take on The Fugitive, the loose premise saw Harrison Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble accused of murdering his wife. Going on the run as he seeks to track down the real killer, Kimble has to fend off the presence of US Marshals led by Tommy Lee Jones’ Samuel Gerard – a performance than won Jones an Oscar.

That movie itself was a take on the 60’s show of the same name, which largely followed the same broad story arc. The only notable difference in the originals series is that Philip Gerard was a police lieutenant rather than a US Marshal. Said TV show aired for four seasons and a total of 120 episodes up until 1967.

Not just that, but there was also a 2000 TV take on The Fugitive starring Tim Daly and Stephen lang. The last said about that one-season canned wonder, the better.

This now big screen The Fugitive is not to be confused with Quibi’s upcoming The Fugitive series that will star Kiefer Sutherland and Boyd Holbrook.

Elizabeth Banks to Star in and Direct THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

Elizabeth Banks

With Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man one of the most hotly anticipated genre movies of 2020, we now have word that Universal is also developing a new Invisible Woman picture.

Courtesy of Deadline, Elizabeth Banks made an original pitch to Universal, who have since tasked her with starring in and directing this new Invisible Woman. Banks, who has starred in the likes of BrightBurn and Power Rangers, made her directing debut with the 2011 short Just a Little Hart Attack, and has since gone on to direct Pitch Perfect 2 and Charlie’s Angels. For The Invisiable Woman, The Girl on the Train’s Erin Cressida Wilson is on writing duties.

Early rumblings on the film have it pegged as Thelma & Louse meets American Psycho – which sounds all kinds of fantastic to us!

Whannell’s The Invisible Man is hitting cinemas in February, and then Universal has recently green-lit Saw and Aquaman’s James Wan to produce a new Frankenstein, and Bohemian Rhapsody’s Dexter Fletcher is to direct a movie centred on Dracula’s long-time assistant, Renfield.

Expect more on all of these projects as they continue to develop.

Will Patton Joins THE PURGE 5

Will Patton

As Universal, Blumhouse, and Platinum Dunes’ fifth Purge movie continues to establish its core cast, the picture has moved to add a familiar genre face to its ranks.

Via Heat Vision, this latest Purge offering has brought in Halloween’s Will Patton. Patton joins the previously announced Ana de la Reguera and Tenoch Huerta in this to-be-titled film.

At this stage, no major plot details are known on this new Purge feature bar the fact that the action will be taking out of the using city-set landscape of the franchise. While the metropolitan setting won’t be a part of the picture, this fifth Purge film will still look to showcase the usual tropes of class and race issues.

Franchise creator James DeMonaco has written this next Purge movie, although directing duties will be handled by Luke Cage’s Everardo Gout. With four films and a TV series to its name, DeMonaco has suggested that this fifth picture will be the final outing for The Purge.

At present, this next Purge movie is booked in for a July 10th, 2020 release.

GODZILLA VS. KONG Delayed

Kong: Skull Island

For those anticipating the cinematic battle between two of the biggest powerhouses in the game, you’re going to have to wait a little longer to see Godzilla vs. Kong.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Adam Wingard’s picture has been pushed back by eights month. No longer will the film be arriving on the silver in screen on March 13th, 2020, for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have moved the movie back to a November 20th, 2020 release.

This news isn’t hugely surprising, as that original release date is only four months away and we’ve not seen any stills or any trailers for the crossover offering.

Godzilla vs. Kong will be the fourth outing for Warners and Legendary’s shared Monsterverse, with the most recent adventures being this year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. This next movie will serve as a follow-up to both King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island.

The last we’d heard on Godzilla vs. Kong, the film wrapped principal photography this past April. In terms of cast, Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, Zhang Ziyi, Demian Bichir, Brian Tyree Henry, Rebecca Hall, Jessica Henwick, and Julian Dennison have been announced as starring.

GODZILLA VS. KONG release date PUSHED to LATE 2020

Warner Bros. and Legendary have today confirmed, via Variety, that the hotly anticipated fourth entry in the Monsterverse, Godzilla vs. Kong has had its original release date of March 13th 2020 pushed back eight months to November 20th 2020.

It has not been revealed why this is the case, however, Kaiju-fans the world over have expected this sort of announcement considering a trailer or any other marketing material has been suspiciously absent as of late. One reason may be the fact that this year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters was deemed a commercial disappointment only making approximately $386 million worldwide with a $200 million budget and studio execs are making sure that this film marks an improvement in regards to budget and profit.

When the film does finally release, it will pit arguably the two most famous giant monsters in history against each other for the first time since Toho’s 1962 film King Kong vs. Godzilla. It is directed by Adam Wingard (The Guest, Blair Witch, You’re Next) and stars Millie Bobby Brown, Julian Dennison, Brian Tyree Henry,  Alexander Skarsgard and Eiza Gonzalez.

Godzilla vs. Kong‘s new release date also sets it up for a box office battle with Marvel’s Eternals which launches two weeks prior on November 6th 2020.

BLAIR WITCH Heading to PS4

Blair Witch

For those PS4 gamers who felt like they’d missed on earlier this year when the Black Witch video game hit Xbox One and PC, there’s some good news.

Bloober Team has now announced that Blair Witch is to finally get a PlayStation 4 release on December 3rd. Not just that, but this release will also feature the Good Boy Pack as an additional extra.

In terms of the game itself, Blair Witch takes place three years before the events of the iconic 1999 movie. Players take control of a former cop called Ellis, as he explores the strange disappearance of a young boy in Black Hills Forest… near the eerie locale of Burkittsville.

John Turturro is THE BATMAN’s Carmine Falcone

John Turturro Carmine Falcone

As Matt Reeves’ The Batman continues to amass its cast, John Turturro has now joined the picture.

Director Reeves took to Twitter to confirm the casting, with the Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski favourite to play Carmine Falcone opposite Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader.

Falcone is a comic book character created by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli for 1987’s iconic Batman: Year One. A mob boss who’s always looking at power plays to gain control of Gotham City, The Roman has been played by Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins and John Dorman in Gotham.

Turturro joins a cast that includes Pattinson as the titular Bat, Zazie Beetz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as The Riddler, Colin Farrell as The Penguin, and Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon.

At present, The Batman is set for a June 2021 release.

Wes Craven’s Estate Taking ELM STREET Pitches

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Ready to revisit Elm Street? We hope so, for the nefarious figure of Freddy Krueger could soon be looming large once again.

Courtesy of Bloody Disgusting, the estate of Wes Craven is actively listening to pitches for a new take on A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Craven’s estate gained the US rights to the Elm Street property and Freddy a couple of months ago, and now said estate is interested in hearing what ideas people have for the knife-fingered child killer. It’s believed that these pitches could be for either a movie or a long-form TV series.

This isn’t the first time that rumblings of a new Elm Street have reared their head in recent years, of course. Two years ago, The Conjuring series’ David Leslie Johnson was working on an Elm Street screenplay for New Line, while Lights Out and Shazam!’s David F. Sandberg had shown some interesting in directing any such new movie.

Likewise, Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah have been very public in making it clear that tackling A Nightmare on Elm Street through their SpectreVision banner is something they’ve dreamed of.

Starring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street was released back in 1994. The main franchise itself would span seven movies, before 2003 served up the Freddy vs. Jason crossover offering.

Of course, the Elm Street franchise was rebooted with 2010’s largely awful Jackie Earle Haley-headlined new take on Craven’s original classic. Haley himself is a fine actor and a favourite of many, but that A Nightmare on Elm Street just failed on several fronts.

As ever, expect more on all things Elm Street if and when they develop further.