Aldis Hodge Joins Leigh Whannell’s INVISIBLE MAN

Aldis Hodge

With Universal and Blumhouse currently developing a new take on The Invisible Man, the Leigh Whannell-penned and directed offering has made another new addition to its ranks.

Courtesy of Deadline, Clemency and Black Mirror’s Aldis Hodge has landed an unknown role in the picture. Hodge joins a cast that currently includes The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elisabeth Moss and A Wrinkle in Time’s Storm Reid as the movie’s first confirmed cast members.

The early blurb on The Invisible Man reads:

The film follows Cecilia, who receives the news of her abusive ex-boyfriend’s suicide. She begins to re-build her life for the better. However, her sense of reality is put into question when she begins to suspect her deceased lover is not actually dead.

If you remember, The Invisible Man was initially being developed as part of Universal’s shared Dark Universe realm that began with the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy. After The Mummy was poorly received, all plans for the Dark Universe were put on hold and are now seemingly as dead as a dodo.

Back then, Johnny Depp was on board to play the title role in The Invisible Man, with this new report claiming that Depp has now departed the project. In addition to Depp at one stage to play the Invisible Man, Javier Bardem was to play Frankenstein’s monster; the pair joining a shared world that had Sofia Boutella as the Mummy and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Dwayne Johnson in talks to play the Wolfman, Scarlett Johansson lined up to play the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Angelina Jolie to play the Bride of Frankenstein, and with Tom Cruise along to battle such beasties.

From what we’ve heard, pretty much all of those projects have been shelved apart from possibly The Bride of Frankenstein and, of course, The Invisible Man.

Fresh off the success of Upgrade, long-time genre fave Leigh Whannell is serving as writer, director and executive producer on The Invisible Man, with the film due to start production in Sydney, Australia next month ahead of a March 13th, 2020 release.

Horror Channels Lines Up Hot Premieres for July

horror july

Summer is hotting up on Horror Channel as they bring a brace of UK TV premieres to chill and terrify.

Every Saturday throughout July there will be a new film that will chill you during the warmer (hopefully!) month. These include: Casey La Scala’s disaster shocker The Remaining, based on the Book of Revelations; Mark Young’s contagious chiller Feral; Robbie Pickering’s comedy horror Freaks Of Nature and Nils Taylor’s fearsome female thriller Quarries.

There will also be the usual array of great films and classic TV shows that you won’t want to miss.

Find out more at http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/. Tune in on Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138.

Scott Lyus to Make Feature Debut with WALKING AGAINST THE RAIN

Walking Against the Rain

In some fantastic news, we have an exclusive update on the next project for impressive, award-winning British filmmaker Scott Lyus.

STARBURST is delighted to reveal that Scott will be making his feature film directing debut with an offering titled Walking Against the Rain. From Crossroad Pictures and Kobal Productions, Lyus will be writing and directing the effort, with him also serving as producer alongside long-time collaborator Chris Nials.

A Kickstarter campaign will be launching for the feature on July 1st, but in the meantime you can find the official press release for Walking Against the Rain below:

Following on from the huge success of their BLACK MASS Kickstarter campaign, Crossroad Pictures, in association with Kobal Productions (the brand new production arm of the London Horror Society) are beyond excited to announce the debut feature film from award-winning producer team Scott Lyus and Chris Nials, WALKING AGAINST THE RAIN.

A horror film set 6 months after a biblical plague has fallen upon the world, the film tells the story of two strangers navigating their way across a barren landscape in a desperate attempt to find each other, with their only form of communication two soon-to-die battery operated radio mics; all while trying to avoid a brand new evil – The Forsaken.

The film promises to be the pair’s most ambitious project to date, having created several successful short films, including Silently Within Your Shadow, Echoes of the Passed and the soon-to-be-released, Black Mass. The time to bring their first feature film to life could not be more perfect, as Lyus explains:

“Walking Against the Rain is the film Chris and I have been working towards for several years now. We’ve been extremely lucky to build an incredibly supportive fan base ever since we broke onto the festival scene with Silently Within Your Shadow, and thanks to their amazing support we have been able to go bigger and better with each film that followed. And now, we’re ready to break into the feature film scene with our biblical horror tale that dives deep into grief, loss and the importance of human connection.”

The film will be written and directed by Lyus and produced by both Lyus and Nials, with an award-winning team once again joining them to help bring the film to life. In addition to this, there is a soundtrack deal currently in the works from a MAJOR record company.

Walking Against the Rain introduces a breed of brand new monsters, known only as The Forsaken. They will be created with full practical effects, with the world they live in being fleshed out with incredible VFX. Full details on the cast and crew will be revealed with the launch of the first stage of their Kickstarter campaign on July 1st.

With their last short film Black Mass being such a runaway success on Kickstarter (at one point, it was the 5th most popular film project in the world!), we can only imagine what a huge hit Walking Against the Rain will be. And with an award-winning team behind it, a major soundtrack deal in the works and a strong topical theme of grief, loss and human connection at its core, this is one horror project you will want to be a part of. Horror fans take notice.

For more on Walking Against the Rain and to help support this feature, be sure to keep an eye on Crossroad Pictures’ Twitter page ahead of the project officially launching its Kickstarter campaign on July 1st.

Walking Against the Rain

Animated HARLEY QUINN Series Finds its Catwoman

Catwoman Sanaa Lathan

With the animated Harley Quinn series heading to DC Universe later this year, now comes word on a new addition for the animated adventures of Harleen Quinzel.

Via Blackfilm, it’s been revealed that Sanaa Lathan will be lending her vocals to the show’s take on Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. Lathan – best known for her voice work on the likes of Family Guy and The Cleveland Show – announced the news at the American Black Film Festival.

No specifics are known at this stage on just what role Catwoman will have to play in Harley Quinn, but expect plenty of claws ‘n’ whips as Harleen embarks on her mission to join the Legion of Doom.

Already on board to voice the titular Maid of Mischief is Kaley Cuoco, with the Big Bang Theory star being joined by Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk as The Joker, Diedrich Bader as Batman, and undisclosed roles for Wanda Sykes, Jason Alexander, Jim Rash and Giancarlo Esposito.

Harley Quinn will premiere on the on-demand DC Universe streaming service at a to-be-confirmed date later this year.

Rosamund Pike in Talks for Amazon’s THE WHEEL OF TIME

rosamund pike

With Amazon in the midst of adapting several famed book series, now comes an update on who could be headlining the upcoming take on James Oliver Rigney Jr’s The Wheel of Time tales.

Courtesy of Discussing Film, Die Another Day and Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike is in talks to join the series as Moiraine. That character is a part of the Aes Sedai sisterhood, and the show will see Moiraine travelling the globe with a small group; one of which could well hold the key to the very survival – or destruction – of mankind.

The Wheel of Time is the latest set of novels to get the adaptation treatment courtesy of Amazon, following in the footsteps of the likes of American Gods, Good Omens and the impending new take on The Lord of the Rings.

In terms of The Wheel of Time series itself, Rigney Jr. penned the first of these stories, The Eye of the World, under the pen name of Robert Jordan back in 1990. Before his death in 2007 at the age of just 58, James Oliver Rigney Jr. had written ten sequel offerings and a prequel to The Eye of the World. Since then, Brandon Sanderson has written a further three follow-up books.

For Amazon’s take on The Wheel of Time, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Last Amazons’ Rafe Judkins is on writing and showrunner duties.

FX’s Y: THE LAST MAN Series Gets a New Showrunner

Y: The Last Man

It was only this past April that FX’s long-gestating adaptation of Y: The Last Man was rumoured to have been canned, but now we thankfully have news to say the series has brought in a new showrunner.

Those April reports suggested that there were some significant problems with the small-screen take on Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s beloved Y: The Last Man. Titled Y, depending on what you believe, the series was either completely cancelled or was undergoing some major creative changes. Well, it looks as if it is indeed the latter of those two scenarios.

As first reported by Deadline, FX has signed up Extant and Animal Kingdom’s Eliza Clark as Y’s new executive producer and showrunner.

On this news, Clark enthused, “A decade ago I devoured the complete Y: The Last Man series cover to cover, imagining how it might take shape on screen. It introduced me to the amazing work of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra and the complex, fascinating world of Y. I’m thrilled to tell this story and to be working with this immensely talented cast.”

Previously, Aida Mashaki Croal and Michael Green were in place as showrunners before departing the project earlier this year. According to Y executive producer Nina Jacobsen, Eliza Clark was somebody they’d long been interested in bringing in to work on Y in a writing capacity.

The last we’d heard, regardless of these creative changes, the current plan is to move forward with the same cast that have already shot a pilot episode for Y. On board for that pilot were Barry Keoghan, Diane Lane, Amber Tamblyn, Imogen Poots, Juliana Canfield, Lashana Lynch and Marin Ireland.

The early blurb on the show reads:

All of the men are dead. But one. Based on the DC comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, Y traverses a world of women – exploring gender, race, class and survival.

For those not familiar with Y: The Last Man, the 60-issue comic book series ran from 2002 to 2008 and focussed on Yorick Brown, the titular “last man”. When the world suffers a tragic event that kills off every creature with a Y chromosome, Yorick only has his monkey, Ampersand, for company until he finds himself teaming up with a government operative to make sense of what’s happened and why he’s somehow managed to stay alive.

Previously, several attempts have been made to get an adaptation of the property off the ground, most notably with ultimately-doomed live-action movies in 2007 and 2013.

As ever, expect more on the future of Y as we get it.

Issue 462 – Out Now!

In the new issue of STARBURST, we head back to the decade of big hair and even bigger movies, as we celebrate the return of Stranger Things with a look at the hit Netflix series and speak to the director Shawn Levy. That’s not all, we countdown the STARBURST writers’ favourite 80 films from the decade, where will your fave be?

With Ol’ Web-head returning to the big screen in Spider-Man: Far From Home, we get under the dome of his new friend/foe Mysterio. Annabelle Comes Home and the Child’s Play remake prompt us to investigate the creepiest dolls in movies.

And that’s not all, we also take a look at how rockers KISS have crossed over into genre via comics and film, we chat to Thunderbirds are Go’s Parker, David Graham, and screenwriter David McGillivray spills the beans on his shocking autobiography.

Plus Horror Obscura looks at another overlooked shocker and in Independents Day, we talk to the director of X.

Plus all your favourite COLUMNS, NEWS, REVIEWS and much MORE from the worlds of SCI-FI, HORROR and FANTASY!

Marvel Studios’ SHANG-CHI Eyeing Ludi Lin and Ross Butler

Shang-Chi Ludi Lin Ross Butler

With the landscape-changing Avengers: Endgame now in their rear-view mirror, Marvel Studios and Disney are beginning to push forward with several new additions for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And now, we have an update on one of those upcoming projects: Shang-Chi.

Towards the end of last year, it was announced that a Shang-Chi movie was in development, and just this past March we saw Short Term 12’s Destin Daniel Cretton brought in to direct. In this latest news story, two names have emerged as being candidates to play the role of Shang-Chi’s titular Master of Kung Fu.

Courtesy of That Hashtag Show, Power Rangers’ Ludi Lin and Shazam!’s Ross Butler are said to be two names who are interesting Marvel Studios for the Shang-Chi gig. In addition to this, there’s also reports that all-round badass Donnie Yen is wanted for a role in the film; a major part of that being due to Yen’s huge popularity across Asia.

For those not overly familiar with Shang-Chi, he is a character who debuted back in 1973’s Marvel Special Edition #15 as a creation of Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin. The son of Fu-Manchu, Shang-Chi is brought up to be the true master of kung fu – only for that to all take a surprise turn when he realises that his father was actually up to no good. Of course, the creation of this character was done as a way to capitalise on the martial arts boom ushered in by Bruce Lee in the ’60s and ‘70s, and like those kung fu movies of the day, Shang-Chi wasn’t quite so popular by the time the ‘80s rolled around. In fact, his own title – Master of Kung Fu – was cancelled in 1983, leaving him as simply a supporting character who would occasionally turn up in other heroes’ stories. That was until more modern times, though, with Shang-Chi having featured as part of the Secret Avengers and even the main Avengers team more recently.

What makes Shang-Chi so intriguing is that Marvel Studios is looking to put the spotlight on Asian-Americans and their cultures; much like the stunning Black Panther did for African-Americans and African customs. Shang-Chi will feature an Asian lead as the titular hero, with Asian-American screenwriter Dave Callaham having already begun work on the script.

As ever, expect more on Shang-Chi as it continues to develop.

New AMITYVILLE Prequel Movie in Development

Amityville

In the pantheon of long-running, multiple-movie horror franchises, there is no franchise that has as many outings as the Amityville series. And now, you guessed it, yet another Amityville offering is on the way.

As first reported by Deadline, The Wonderfilm Media Corporation is developing a prequel film titled Amityville 1974. The Remaining’s Casey La Scala is on writing and directing duties for the feature.

In terms of the early word on Amityville 1974, that reads:

The focus shifts back to the traumatic murders that reputedly set the supernatural stage for the nation’s most notorious haunted-house legend. In November 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot all six members of his family in a spree killing that took on even more horrific hues a year later when a family bought the notorious property and lived in it for 28 days – a four-week window that became the core story of the Anson novel and its three big-screen adaptations.

Said novel, of course, was Jay Anson’s 1977 The Amityville Horror; a tale that would then be turned into a 1979 James Brolin and Margot Kidder-starring movie from director Stuart Rosenberg.

On this new movie installment, Casey La Scala enthused, “This is a story that takes its jumping-off point from the true events surrounding the Defeo tragedy, but also focuses on the human drama that took place inside a family as they were relentlessly stalked by a terrifying evil.”

In case you were wondering, to date there have been nine Amityville books and a ridiculous 23(!) movies – the majority of which have been straight-to-video fodder.

As ever, expect more on Amityville 1974 as it continues to develop.

BATWOMAN Gets an October Premiere

Ruby Rose Batwoman

After constantly having to refer to it as “premiering at a to-be-confirmed date later this year”, we now have official confirmation of when The CW’s Ruby Rose-headlined Batwoman series will make its bow.

Courtesy of The CW’s Fall 2019 schedule, Batwoman has been booked in to premiere on Sunday, October 6th. That same night will see Batwoman’s first episode followed by the Season 5 premiere of Supergirl.

Looking at the rest of the The CW’s shared Arrowverse of shows, The Flash will premiere its sixth season on Tuesday, October 8th, while Arrow’s eighth and final season will begin on Tuesday, October 15th.

Elsewhere, Season 5 of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has yet to be given a set premiere date, although the show has already been renewed for a fifth year. And finally, while not existing in the Arrowverse, the DC-driven Black Lightning will see its third season premiere on Monday, October 21st.

To circle back to Batwoman, this official blurb on this hugely anticipated new show reads:

Kate Kane (Rose) never planned to be Gotham’s new vigilante. Three years after Batman mysteriously disappeared, Gotham is a city in despair. Without the Caped Crusader, the Gotham City Police Department was overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia. Years before, Jacob’s first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm, by kidnapping his best Crow officer Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy). Although remarried to wealthy socialite Catherine Hamilton-Kane (Elizabeth Anweis), who bankrolls the Crows, Jacob is still struggling with the family he lost, while keeping Kate — the daughter he still has — at a distance.

But Kate is a woman who’s done asking for permission. In order to help her family and her city, she’ll have to become the one thing her father loathes — a dark knight vigilante. With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary (Nicole Kang), and the crafty Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson), the son of Wayne Enterprises’ tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for her ex-girlfriend, Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice (Rachel Skarsten), who’s always somewhere slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, she must first overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.

Expect more on what lies ahead for all of these shows as we get it.