JOKER Finds its Bruce Wayne and Alfred

Alfred Bruce Wayne

With the Joaquin Phoenix-headlined Joker currently filming, the movie has brought in its Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth.

Courtesy of ComicBook.com, You Were Never Really Here’s Dante Pereira-Olson will be playing the young Master Bruce, while The Night Manager’s Douglas Hodge has landed the Alfred role. They join a cast that features Phoenix as the titular Harlequin of Hate, Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne, and roles for Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, and Marc Maron.

Titled simply Joker, the Todd Phillips-directed movie will exist outside of the DC Extended Universe, instead being the first picture from the DC Dark banner of more adult-driven comic book films being developed by Warner Brothers.

Set in the ‘80s, Joker will be an origin story for the titular Clown Prince of Crime. Already pegged as a mixture of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, the film will seemingly look to tie the Clown Prince of Crime’s story to that of the Waynes.

At present, Joker is booked in for an October 4th, 2019 release.

HAMMER Reigns in November with Horror Channel

hammer november

How do you follow a fantastic Halloween season? By screening four landmark Hammer films obviously! That’s just what Horror Channel is doing this November!

Kicking it off on November 3rd is The Abominable Snowman (1957), it’s a spectacular widescreen excursion into terror as Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker head out in search of the legendary yeti.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) follows on November 10th; it’s the film that kickstarted the Hammer Gothic trend and retells Mary Shelley’s 200-year-old story in the inimitable Hammer style.

Another classic is retold on November 17th as arguably the most celebrated Hammer film receives its Network Premiere. Christopher Lee stars as the Count in Dracula (1958), cementing his place in the hearts of many and in the nightmares of so many more.

The season concludes with The Mummy (1959) on November 24th, with Cushing and Lee once again on opposite sides of good and evil.

Also screening are John Carpenter’s unsurpassed The Thing (1982), sci-fi thriller Splice (2009), a shark infested supermarket in Bait (2012), the remake of The Eye (2008) starring Jessica Alba, and Jennifer Lawrence being terrorised in House at the End of the Street (2012).

For more information, head over to http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/.

Tune into Horror Channel on Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138.

Robert Englund Teases an ELM STREET Return

Robert Englund Freddy Krueger

One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…

With Robert Englund reprising his iconic Freddy Krueger role for an episode of The Goldbergs this Wednesday, the genre favourite has teased fans that he may – just may – have one more Elm Street picture left in him.

Speaking on Access Live, Englund tantalisingly teased fans by saying, “I think they want to reboot the franchise, but they’re gonna new a new actor. They’re gonna need a new actor to play Freddy because they’re gonna have to do eight of them. I might have one left in me.”

From chatting to Englund at several points over the past few years, he’s often ruled out any more A Nightmare on Elm Street films for him, citing his age and the physicality needed for the Freddy role. And that’s essentially what he’s saying here, that he wouldn’t be able to commit to the likely plentiful further movies that would be lined up. But one more picture? That’s not out of the realms of possibility for Robert.

Of course, the Elm Street franchise was rebooted with 2010’s largely awful Jackie Earle Haley-headlined new take on Wes 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.

Early last year, it was revealed that New Line is again rebooting the Elm Street franchise, with The Conjuring 2’s David Leslie Johnson currently working on a screenplay. At one point, Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation’s David F. Sandberg threw it out there that he’d be interested in tackling Freddy Krueger, but that was just some casual comments during a Reddit chat.

Whether anything comes of Englund’s comments, we’ll have to wait and see. There’s no disputing that Freddy Krueger – and Robert Englund for that matter – is an iconic horror figure, and one way to get fans back behind the Elm Street franchise would clearly be bringing Englund back to his most famous role.

First Look at GOTHAM’s Bane

Bane Knightfall

With Shane West now confirmed to be playing the nefarious Bane in the fifth season of Gotham, we’ve now been given our first look at West decked out as the rogue.

Writer and producer Tze Chun took to Twitter to reveal West as the show’s take on the villain who famously broke the Bat:

A little different, right? We’ll let you make your own mind up on whether that’s a good different or a bad different…

In Gotham, we’ll get a slightly different spin on the famed Knightfall arc – the tale in which Bane broke Batman’s back and put Bruce Wayne out of the superhero game for a while – in which the show will have Bane break the back of Sean Pertwee’s Alfred.

Gotham’s fifth season will premiere early next year.

Syfy Developing New KILLER KLOWNS and CRITTERS

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

We’d heard rumblings for a little while now that there may be something in the works regarding a new Killer Klowns project, and now we have a huge update on that front.

Via Bloody Disgusting, it’s been revealed that Syfy is in talks to license the rights for new movies based on the Chiodo brothers’ Killer Klowns from Outer Space and Stephen Herek’s Critters. Ever since Killer Klowns was released back in 1988, many have been clamouring for a further outing for these alien harlequin sorts – not least our own boss man here at Moonbase Alpha! – and now it looks as if a follow-up will finally be on the way. As for Critters, of course, that 1986 effort has already spawned several sequels, all varying from okay to turd-tastic.

This all rings true with Syfy’s recent plans to reboot existing franchises as part of their continued output. Example in case, the Leprechaun Returns movie that’s heading to the channel in March.

As ever, expect more on both of these projects as we get it.

Paloma Faith is PENNYWORTH’s ‘Big Bad’

Paloma Faith

On the back of Epix’s Pennyworth series having began to amass its key cast, the series has now found the ‘big bad’ of its debut season.

Via Comic Book Resources, Paloma Faith has been cast as a villain called Bet Sykes. This no-good sort is described as “sadistic and sharp tongued.” Other than that, very little is known about this bad gal right now. As well as a hugely successful music career, Faith has impressed many in the likes of St. Trinian’s and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

In Pennyworth, Faith joins Jack Bannon as Alfred Pennyworth, Ben Aldridge as Thomas Wayne, and Ryan Fletcher and Hainsley Lloyd Bennett as two of Alfred’s army pals.

The early blurb on Pennyworth reads:

Pennyworth follows Bruce Wayne’s legendary butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a former British SAS soldier in his 20s, who forms a security company and goes to work with a young billionaire Thomas Wayne, who’s not yet Bruce’s father, in 1960s London.

Production on Pennyworth begins tomorrow.

Lex Luthor to Appear in SUPERGIRL

Supergirl Lex Luthor

While Superman has made fleeting appearances in Supergirl over the show’s past two seasons, now comes word that his greatest foe is set to appear in the Melissa Benoist-headlined Maid of Might series.

Courtesy of Deadline, executive producers Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller have revealed that Lex Luthor will soon be popping up in National City during the show’s fourth season. Of course, Lex has been referenced in Supergirl at certain points, plus Brenda Strong has played Lex’s mother Lillian in the series, not to mention Katie McGrath’s Lena Luthor – Lex’s sister – has become a regular character on the genre favourite.

On this news, Rovner and Queller enthused, “We’re beyond excited to introduce iconic villain Lex Luthor to Supergirl and to weave him into our story this season. We’ve talked about having Lex on the show since it’s inception, and we’re excited to have him finally arrive. We can’t wait for him to shake things up in National City and watch him go toe-to-toe with not only Supergirl, but his sister, Lena Luthor.”

The role of Lex has yet to be cast – at least publicly – but if the powers-that-be can manage to serve up an incarnation of Lex that matches up to Tyler Hoechlin’s pitch-perfect Superman, then we could well be in store for something truly special.

As ever, expect more on this as we get it.

Netflix Cancels MARVEL’S LUKE CAGE

Marvel's Luke Cage

Well, this is a bit of a kicker. While you could possibly say that it wasn’t all that much of a shock to hear that Netflix had recently cancelled Marvel’s Iron Fist after two seasons, hearing that Marvel’s Luke Cage has also been canned is a bit of a surprise.

Courtesy of Deadline, that is indeed the case. Making this even more surprising is the fact that it was pretty much a given that the Mike Colter-headlined Luke Cage was to get a third year. Seemingly not. The early word is that Netflix and Marvel were experiencing some creative differences on how to move forward with the series.

Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker took to Twitter to give his thoughts on all of this:

Of course, one way forward from all of this could well be to combine the Iron Fist and Luke Cage characters in their own show as the Heroes for Hire tandem they have so often worked as in the comic books. Given that Disney has their own streaming service on the way – complete with a whole slew of new Marvel-driven properties – there’s certainly the chance that this isn’t the last we’ve heard from Power Man.

As ever, expect more on all of this if it develops further.

ISSUE 454 – OUT NOW

454

STARBURST goes all temporal with our TIME TRAVEL ISSUE, in which we countdown the Top 50 time hoppers. We also take a look at DOCTOR WHO’s importance in the history of fantasy time travel.

There’s the second part of our HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN, and the first instalment of some spectacular interviews with the creators of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, including creator PAUL DINI. With FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD hitting screens, we present the complete history of HARRY POTTER.

Looking forward to new releases, we get the skinny on Netfix’s CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA as well as delving into the history of the channel.

If that’s not enough, we talk to PANOS COSMATOS, director of MANDY and TONY NEWTON tells us about his love of old video tapes that led to his documentary VHS LIVES!

In our regular features, we take a look at Horror Channel’s Haunted Halloween season and Independents Day focuses on TYLER SAVAGE, director of INHERITANCE.

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

Demián Bichir Joins GODZILLA VS. KONG

Demián Bichir

As the hotly anticipated Godzilla vs. Kong continues to flesh out its core cast, the crossover effort has moved to add Demián Bichir to its ranks.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, the Alien: Covenant, The Hateful Eight, and The Nun actor has landed a to-be-revealed role in this coming together of two of cinema’s most legendary creatures. Bichir joins a cast that includes Millie Bobby Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, Julian Dennison, Danai Gurira, Kyle Chandler, and Ziyi Zhang.

To be directed by Adam Wingard, Godzilla vs. Kong will serve as a sequel of sorts to last year’s Kong: Skull Island and next year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. At present, the crossover is booked in for a May 2020 release.