RIP TORN 1931 – 2019

Rip Torn who portrayed the amiable Zed in the Men In Black films, passed away at the age of 88. Born Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. on February 6, 1931 in Temple, Texas, Mr. Torn adopted the family name, ‘Rip’ as his first. Studying animal husbandry at Texas A&M, but defected to the drama department, Mr. Torn decided to hitchhike to Hollywood to become a movie star in order to make enough money to buy a ranch. When he arrived he had to work a series of odd jobs until he got a break as the dentist in an uncredited role in Elia Kazan’s, Baby Doll.

After service in the Army as a military police officer he became serious about learning his craft moving to New York City where he appeared in plays as well as in the Golden Age of television between 1957-1960 on Omnibus and Playhouse 90 where he received a Tony nomination in Sweet Bird of Youth.

Some of the feature films he appeared in were Pork Chop Hill, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Cincinnati Kid, and Dodgeball, but his greatest performance was in an obscure film entitled, Payday which should have made him a star. If you have never seen Payday, seek it out. Mr. Torn’s performance is stellar.

Television appearances include 30 Rock and the Man From U.N.C.L.E., but his comedic flair exploded on the Larry Sanders Show as the show’s producer, Artie, where his last name was never revealed. He was nominated six times for the role and finally won an Emmy for it.

One of his best quotes was when he was at the Academy Awards where he received his first Oscar nomination: “People are finally realizing that I’m one of the few actors that never missed a performance. I’ve worked with broken arms, legs, ankles and even passed a kidney stone on the opening night of a show.”

He was quite a character. We will miss him.

STARBURST sends our good thoughts out to his family and friends.

Felicity Jones Joins Clooney’s GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT Adaptation

Good Morning, Midnight - Felicity Jones

Fresh off last month’s news that George Clooney was to direct and star in Netflix’s adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight, now comes word that Felicity Jones has joined the picture.

Via Deadline, the Rogue One star has landed a to-be-revealed role opposite Clooney in the movie take on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s 2017 sci-fi tale.

For those not familiar with that hugely popular novel, the official blurb on Good Morning, Midnight reads:

The post-apocalyptic tale follows the parallel stories of Augustine, a lonely scientist in the Arctic, and an astronaut on board the Aether spacecraft, which is trying to return home to Earth, as Augustine races to make contact with the spaceship.

Clooney will be playing Augustine in the Netflix movie adaptation, with The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith penning the project.

Expect more on Good Morning, Midnight as it continues to develop.

Sam Raimi Teases a New EVIL DEAD Movie

Evil Dead 2

Could there be life in the old Evil Dead dog yet…? Maybe.

With barely a week going by these days without some mention of further possible Evil Dead offerings, now Sam Raimi has chimed in on the chance of fans seeing something Evil Dead in the future.

If you remember, Ash vs. Evil Dead was cancelled last year and star Bruce Campbell stated how he’d officially retired as Ashley J. Williams. Now, Raimi has offered up hope that early work has already begun on a new Evil Dead picture.

Speaking to Bloody-Disgusting during press work for Alexandre Aja’s Crawl (which Raimi is producer on), the horror fave teased, “I’d like to make another one. I don’t think TV is in its future, but we’re talking about – Bruce, Rob [Tapert] and myself – one or two different ways to go for the next movie. We’d like to make another Evil Dead feature and, in fact, we’re working on some ideas right now.”

With Campbell having hung up his chainsaw, Raimi revealed that there is currently a plan in place should he be able to coerce Campbell out of Ash retirement, then there is another idea in place to move ahead with a sequel to Fede Alvarez’s impressive Evil Dead reboot should Campbell not be keen, and even a third plan should either of these projects not be able to move forward.

Raimi ended this chat by added, “I think you may see some action on the Evil Dead movie in the next six months.”

So, it certainly looks, whether with Bruce Campbell involved or not, there’s certainly something brewing on the Evil Dead franchise.

As ever, expect more on all things Evil Dead as we get it.

Joe Taslim is MORTAL KOMBAT’s Sub-Zero

Mortal Kombat Joe Taslim Sub-Zero

As the long-gestating Mortal Kombat movie reboot gets set for its 2021 release, the film has found its first cast member.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Taslim has signed on to play Sub-Zero in the picture. After getting his start in The Raid, Taslim has gone on to have roles in Star Trek Beyond, Fast & Furious 6 and The Night Comes For Us. In addition to his acting career, Taslim is a real-life badass with a martial arts background and he has also represented the Indonesian Judo squad.

Sub-Zero, of course, is one of the poster boys of the Mortal Kombat franchise, with the Lin Kuei icon able to manipulate ice in all kinds of cool ways. There have, however, been two different versions of Sub-Zero. First, we had Bi-Han as the original Sub-Zero. That character would be killed by Scorpion, although death isn’t exactly a permanent move in the realm of Mortal Kombat. After that death, Bi-Han’s brother Kuai Liang has taken on the moniker of Sub-Zero.

Having been in serious development since 2015, Halo’s Simon McQuoid is on directing duties for Mortal Kombat. The movie has already begun pre-production ahead of shooting in Australia later this year.

The Mortal Kombat video game franchise sprung to bloody and brutal life back in 1992, forever changing the landscape of fighting games. With elements of sci-fi, fantasy and horror, gamers were given an experience that was full of the sort of bloodshed and brutality never before seen.

Of course, not just a hugely successful video game series, Mortal Kombat fans have since been, err, treated to two Mortal Kombat movies and the genuinely impressive Mortal Kombat: Legacy webseries.

At this stage, Mortal Kombat is set for a March 5th, 2021 release.

FrightFest Looking for New Blood Again

frightfest 2019

With FrightFest entering its 20th year, the search is set to resume for new writers in the horror genre. For the third year running, New Blood reunites FrightFest with Giles Edwards of Queensbury Pictures with its mission to find emerging UK-based writers dedicated to the genre and nurture their projects from script to screen. Queensbury is ultimately interested in buying the finished script rather than the idea, and so, this year all successful final candidates if selected should be able to send even a rough draft of the first ten pages of their script through with their acceptance.

Already the scheme has delivered one new project Broadcast Signal Intrusion. Written by Phil Drinkwater and Tim Woodall, it’s directed by Jacob Gentry (The Signal) and goes into production in early autumn.

The successful shortlisted applicants will workshop their ideas in a group setting under the guidance of top industry professionals and genre experts. Among this year’s panel are two-for-the-price-of-one directors The Soska Sisters, producer Jen Handorff (Prevenge, The Chamber), novelist and critic Kim Newman, and Queensbury Pictures’ Giles Edwards.

Giles Edwards of Queensbury Pictures said, “Having already achieved the initial aim of New Blood, with the discovery of the phenomenal script Broadcast Signal Intrusion from Phil and Tim that’s going into production in Chicago in September, we’re more adamant than ever that the cream of UK genre writing talent is out there, just waiting for the opportunity to wrench our collective gut with their visions of true terror.”

Greg Day, co-director of FrightFest added, “For FrightFest to help and enable aspiring scriptwriters to have this opportunity is very gratifying, especially as Giles and Queensbury Pictures have proved that they really mean business and are not just playing industry lip-service.”

The New Blood networking and workshop event will be held on Thursday August 22nd the opening day of this year’s festival, in a Central London venue

Applications are open from Wednesday July 10th with potential participants asked to submit a 400 word proposal through the dedicated New Blood page on the FrightFest website and if selected, each writer is expected to submit the first ten pages of their script idea. The deadline is Wednesday July 31st. All successful applicants will be notified by early August and then will be requested to send over their sample script pages. All participants are expected to pay for their own travel and accommodation.

For full application requirements and to apply: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/newblood.html

Arrow Video FrightFest runs August 22nd to 26th.

Sarah Paulson Not Returning for AHS: 1984

Sarah Paulson

With American Horror Story: 1984 set to premiere this September, it now appears that one of the genre favourite’s mainstays won’t be returning for this ninth season of the show.

Courtesy of Variety, it’s being reported that Sarah Paulson will not be a part of AHS: 1984. Paulson, of course, is one of only two people to appear in every single season of American Horror Story to date. That other person? That’d be Evan Peters, who’s also not going to be involved in 1984.

The outlet does add that Paulson may possibly make a cameo appearance at some point in AHS: 1984, yet that is very much a maybe at this stage.

In terms of what we know about American Horror Story: 1984, the only real information on the new season is that Emma Roberts will star in it and that the latest AHS offering will be influenced by the slasher subgenre.

American Horror Story: 1984 will premiere on September 18th.

GHOSTBUSTERS 2020 Adds Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim

Ghostbusters

Fresh off the news that Paul Rudd has joined Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters 2020, two further names have been added to the movie.

Via Variety, Irreplaceable You’s Celeste O’Connor and newcomer Logan Kim have joined GB2020. At this stage, no details are known on just what roles the duo have landed in the film. They join a cast that includes Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace, with the majority of the original two Ghostbusters films’ surviving cast expected to reprise their famed roles.

Ignoring the female-fronted 2016 Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2020 will pick things up decades down the line with the world and characters of Ivan Reitman’s legendary pictures. Plot-wise, Coon and Wolfhard will be playing a single mother and son who become terrorised by things that go bump in the night.

At this stage, Ghostbusters 2020 is booked in for a July 2020 release.

Jon Watts Wants Kraven for the MCU

Kraven the Hunter

With Spider-Man: Far From Home now in cinemas and impressing any and all who have seen it, the attention has turned to which villain(s) may be next in line to face off with Tom Holland’s Web-head. And if director Jon Watts gets his way, we may see Kraven the Hunter sooner rather than later.

Speaking to Uproxx about that very topic, Watts enthused, “I would love Kraven. It’s just the trick of how do you do Kraven in a movie? But no, I don’t know who’s next. I always like to think about in terms of what’s going to be the most difficult thing for Peter. So that’s going to be the trick.”

Many savvy Spidey fans were half-expecting Kraven to turn up in Far From Home once Numan Acar was cast in the movie. Despite striking a massive resemblance to Sergei Kravinoff, Acar instead ended up playing a character called Dimitri who worked alongside Nick Fury and Maria Hill.

As a character, Kraven is one of Spider-Man’s most long-standing foes. The character’s roots go back to 1946’s The Amazing Spider-Man #15 and the master huntsman was even a part of the original Sinister Six.

Whether we get Kraven in the inevitable Far From Home follow-up, we’ll have to wait and see. What we do know, though, is that many fans would absolutely to see Sergei make it to the silver screen.

Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson to Star in New SAW Movie

Samuel L. Jackson Chris Rock

With Chris Rock on to board to produce a new Saw movie, we now have some new casting news on the film.

Via Bloody Disgusting, Samuel L. Jackson and Rock himself will be starring in the reboot. This story originally began as a rumour on Reddit, before BD reached out to a source to get confirmation on the Jackson and Rock news.

Darren Lynn Bousman – director of Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV – is on directing duties for this ninth Saw offering, and Jigsaw’s Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg put the script together based on a story from Chris Rock.

Plot specifics on this to-be-titled new Saw effort are being kept hush-hush right now, although the film is being pegged as looking to expand the world of Saw rather than serve as any sort of remake.

At present, this next Saw picture is booked in for an October 2020 release – which, if the rumours are true, will see it being going up against the next installment in the Halloween franchise.

BRIGHTBURN Sequel Talks Have Already Happened

Brightburn

This May, Sony Pictures carved up a different spin on the played-out superhero formula with David Yarovesky’s Brightburn. And now, we have word that there have at least been talks of getting to work on a sequel.

In case you missed Brightburn, the horror offering took the cliched story of Superman and put a dark and sinister twist on it. As in, young superpowered Brandon Brever decides to use his god-like powers to cause all kinds of chaos.

While Yarovesky directed the picture, genre fave James Gunn was on board as a producer – and it was Gunn who updated on the chance of a sequel. Replying to a comment on his Instagram, Gunn explained, “I think I’m tied up for the next few years with Suicide Squad and then Guardians, but we’re talking about the sequel.”

So, could we get a sequel? Most certainly. Would it be any time soon? Not likely.

As Gunn alluded to, he’s currently working on Warner Brothers’ Suicide Squad sequel – still strangely titled The Suicide Squad – for an August 2021 release, before then returning to Marvel Studios for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Expect more on a possible Brightburn sequel if and when we hear more.