Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton Returning to AHS

Dylan McDermitt Connie Britton American Horror Story

With Jessica Lange recently confirmed to be making her American Horror Story return in the upcoming AHS: Apocalypse, now comes news that two other AHS favourites will be returning.

Via The Wrap, both Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton will be reprising their roles of Ben and Vivien Harmon – two characters from AHS: Murder House. While McDermott did have a role to play in AHS: Asylum, Britton has been one of the few names from Murder House not to have appeared in any future seasons of the genre fave show.

Given how Apocalypse will be a crossover between the Murder House and Coven seasons, the inclusion of the Harmon family was half-expected to be key to this new year, but the fact that McDermott and Britton haven’t been as active in AHS seasons as certain other returning names had fans wondering whether the pair would indeed be back.

Already confirmed for American Horror Story: Apocalypse are the likes of Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Billy Eichner, Cheyenne Jackson, Billie Lourd, Emma Fox, Taissa Farmiga, Gabourey Sibibe, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy, and Stevie Nicks.

American Horror Story: Apocalypse is booked in for a September 12th premiere.

BOND 25 Delayed Following Danny Boyle’s Exit

James Bond

Following the news that director Danny Boyle had departed Bond 25 earlier this week, now comes word that the film itself has been delayed.

Previously, the plan for the next Bond movie was for it to start production later this year ahead of an October 2019 release. Many had wondered whether Boyle’s exit would have a knock-on affect on the picture, and that has indeed proved to be the case.

There’s no new release date confirmed at this stage, although The Hollywood Reporter speculates that Bond 25 is likely to be booked in for a second half of 2020 release. All of this, of course, likely depends on just how quickly the movie finds a new director.

Expect more on all things Bond as we get it.

Ron Cephas Jones Lands Mystery VENOM Role

Ron Cephas Jones

Despite hitting cinemas in just over a month, Sony Pictures’ Venom has added a new name to its ranks.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, Ron Cephas Jones has landed a currently-unknown role in the picture. Jones is likely best known to genre fans for his ever-charismatic appearances in Marvel’s Luke Cage.

To be directed by Ruben Fleischer, the Tom Hardy-headlined Venom is set for an October 5th release. If all goes well with that film, this will be the launching pad for Sony’s shared Spider-Verse realm that already has plans for a Jared Leto-starring Morbius flick, and solo outings for Silk, Silver Sable, Black Cat, Kraven the Hunter, and plentiful more.

Graham McTavish Joins LUCIFER

Graham McTavish

With Lucifer’s fourth season now in production, the genre fave has added a massive, err, genre fave to its ranks.

Courtesy of TVLine, Graham McTavish will be butting heads with Tom Ellis’ Lucifer Morningstar in this upcoming new season. McTavish has long been a favourite of many a genre fan, with him best known for his turns in the likes of The Hobbit, Creed, Outlander, 24, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Castlevania, and, of course, most recently as the Saint of Killers in Preacher.

In Lucifer, McTavish will be playing Father Finley, a well-meaning priest who is intent on protecting his people from the charismatic-yet-problematic presence of the show’s titular character.

Having been picked up by Netflix following FOX’s surprise call to axe Lucifer after three seasons, said fourth season will premiere on the streaming service at a to-be-confirmed 2019 date.

Brendan Fraser is DOOM PATROL’s Robotman

Brendan Fraser Robotman

With the majority of its core cast already announced, the upcoming DC Universe exclusive Doom Patrol series has found its Robotman.

Courtesy of Deadline, Brendan Fraser has landed the Cliff Steele gig. Fraser is no stranger to genre fans, of course, with him best known for the likes of The Mummy, Airheads, George of the Jungle, Crash, and The Passion of Darkly Noon.

The current word on the Steele character has him pegged as a former race car driver who was in a wreck so bad that it rendered his body uninhabitable. The leader of the Doom Patrol – Niles Caulder/aka the Chief – saves Steele’s brain and places it inside a swanky robotic body.

In Doom Patrol, Fraser will appear as Cliff Steele in flashback scenes, while also lending his vocals to Robotman in the present day of the show. Riley Shanahan will be providing the mo-cap work for Robotoman.

Fraser and Shanahan join a cast that includes Bruno Bichir as the Chief, April Bowlby as Elasti-Girl, and Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane, roles for Jack Michaels and Dwain Murphy, and Doctor Who’s Joivan Wade as Cyborg.

The current blurb on Doom Patrol reads:

Doom Patrol is a reimagining of one of DC’s most beloved group of outcast superheroes: Robotoman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and Crazy Jane, led by modern-day mad scientist Dr Niles Caulder (The Chief). The Doom Patrol’s members each suffered horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities – but also left them scarred and disfigured. Traumatized and downtrodden, the team found purpose through The Chief, who brought them together to investigate the weirdest phenomena in existence – and to protect Earth from what they find.

The Doom Patrol team will debut in the fifth episode of DC Universe’s Titans, before then spinning off to get their own thirteen-episode series.

Netflix Scribbling Another DEATH NOTE

Death

Though critics largely trashed it (its Rotten score isn’t pretty), the Netflix Original Death Note has recently been described as a huge success for the mighty streaming service, so much so that a sequel is now officially in the works.

Adapted from the wildly successful manga by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata, and following on from the equally popular Japanese film series, the 2017 US version was helmed by genre favourite Adam Wingard (The Guest), starred former Nickelodeon star Nat Wolff, The Leftovers’ Margaret Qualley, the brilliant Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out), and even boasted Willem Dafoe’s distinctive vocals as the voice of the demonic death god, Ryuk. For those unfamiliar, the basic premise sees a young man named Light coming into the possession of a mysterious book. Write a name in the book, picture that person as you do so, and Ryuk will see to it that they are toast. But, naturally, there’s a price to be paid for such magicks. It’s classic wish fulfilment stuff (whose name would you write?) and a whole heap of fun (at least this writer thought so!), so we urge anybody reading who may have been put off by poor word of mouth to fire up the Netflix and seek it out.

There’s no word currently as to whether any of the above will return, but considering how much story the first tried to cram in to its runtime, and how much was ultimately left over, we certainly hope Netflix had the foresight to sign everybody for multiple films. Given he’s on Godzilla vs. Kong duties, we can probably rule out Wingard’s return as he gears up for that creature feature’s 2020 drop. That, and we can’t imagine he had that great a time watching Death Note be savaged upon its release. That kind of reception would sour the thickest skinned of filmmakers. Only the screenwriter has been locked down at present, with relative newcomer Greg Russo (his only credits are the upcoming reboots of Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil) currently hammering away on the sequel.

As always, more as Death Note 2 takes form…

Source: THR

Prepare to Ascend JACOB’S LADDER in 2019

Ladder

Released 28 years ago, Adrian Lyne’s Jacob’s Ladder explored the effects of PTSD through a genre lens, giving audiences a genuinely harrowing experience as we watched the life of a post-war (and post-Howard the Duck) Tim Robbins’ unravel before his eyes after returning from Vietnam. Its depiction of paranoia and terrifying hallucinatory imagery made for an unrelentingly bleak 113 minutes, and might go some ways to explain the film’s largely unsung nature. Naturally, we at STARBURST think it’s a masterpiece! And whether we need this remake or not, at the very least news on it gives us the opportunity to sing the original’s praises and urge any who hasn’t yet seen it to seek it.

The new version will be helmed by David M. Rosenthal, director of the Netflix Original How It Ends, from a screenplay by Jeff Buhler (The Midnight Meat Train), and newcomer Sarah Thorpe. Cast-wise, we have Michael Early (Almost Human), Karla Souza (How to Get Away with Murder), Nicola Beharie (Sleepy Hollow), and Guy Burnet (Hollyoakes). We know what you’re thinking, but let’s remember that Tim Robbins was hardly a household name yet, and Macaulay Culkin (playing his dead son – told you it was cheery!) had yet to be left Home Alone. Courtesy of Bloody Disgusting, we now have a release date, and can expect to see this drop as early as February 2019.

Original Synopsis:

After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rapidly falls apart as the world and people around him morph and twist into disturbing images. His girlfriend, Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña), and ex-wife, Sarah (Patricia Kalember), try to help, but to little avail. Even Singer’s chiropractor friend, Louis (Danny Aiello), fails to reach him as he descends into madness.

The Launch Trailer is Here for RAVERS – Premiering at FrightFest August 25th!

Ravers

With Bernhard Pucher’s hugely anticipated Ravers pegged as a must-see highlight of this month’s FrightFest, here at Moonbase Alpha we’ve got the honour of launching the trailer for this most unique of movies.

Already, FrightFest’s co-director Paul McEvoy has praised the film for its cast, its soundtrack, and for the mayhem seen on screen – and you can get a glimpse of all of this for yourself by checking out the trailer below:

The official synopsis for Ravers reads:

Set in an illegal night-time rave, in a factory where contaminated energy drinks caused a worker to go fatally berserk, that turns into a nightmare. As a forgotten batch o the drink is found and consumed by drunken ravers, a truly terrifying physical transformation takes over and those unaffected try to escape in panic. Becky (Georgia Hirst), a germophobic journalist, reluctantly there to cover the event, is trapped among the increasingly hostile crowd of dancers, and to save herself and her friends, she must overcome her deepest phobias to help them get out alive.

Also starring  Danny Kirrane, Maria Volk, Kamal Angelo Bolden, Manpreet Bambra, Eve Connolly, Orson Chaplin, and Natasha Henstridge, Ravers is will receive its world premiere at FrightFest on Saturday, August 25th – and full details can be found here.

Brent Spiner Replaced by Bruce Boxleitner on SUPERGIRL

Brent Spiner Bruce Boxleitner

In some news that’s sure to come as a blow to many genre fans, Brint Spiner has had to exit Supergirl.

It was only last month that Spiner – best known as Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation – joined the show as the vice president of the United States, and now he’s had to leave the series over scheduling conflicts. But fear not, for another genre fave has already been brought in as a replacement.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, TRON and Babylon 5’s Bruce Boxleitner will replace Spiner as Vice President Baker – a character currently pegged as “an unlikely leader who will nonetheless step up in a big way when his country needs him.”

The current blurb on Supergirl’s upcoming fourth season reads:

Season 3 saw Supergirl stop Reign and the other Worldkillers’ threat to humanity and our planet, and in the process, Kara was shocked to find her mother Alura alive and living in a salvaged Argo City that survived the destruction of Krypton. Reconnecting with her past caused Kara to realize that her true home is now here on Earth, where big changes are taking place for her and all of her friends in National City – and also, it appears, for a doppelganger in Russia!

Supergirl returns to screens October 14th.

Danny Boyle Departs BOND 25

Danny Boyle

Well, this is a kick in the 00-wostits. As the headline suggests, director Danny Boyle has departed Bond 25.

The news was actually revealed via the official James Bond Twitter account, and the reason for Boyle’s departure is down to the ever-familiar creative differences. Seemingly, it was Boyle’s choice to exit the picture.

Having been rumoured for the gig for years now, this year saw Boyle finally confirmed to direct the next Bond movie. Now though, it’s back to the drawing board for MGM and EON Productions as they look to fill Bond 25’s director’s chair.

The plan was for the film to start shooting this December, with an October 2019 UK release date already booked in. It remains to be seen whether Boyle’s departure will cause any delays on what will be Daniel Craig’s last outing as this most iconic of characters.

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