Andi Matichak Joins David Gordon Green’s HALLOWEEN as Laurie Strode’s Grandaughter

Andi Matichak Halloween

With excitement at a high for next year’s return for the Halloween franchise, the picture has moved to find another of the poor souls who’ll be in the crosshairs of the infamous Shape.

As per Tracking Board, relative newcomer Andi Matichak has landed one of the lead roles in David Gordon Green’s Halloween. Matichak will be playing the granddaughter of Laurie Strode.

Already confirmed for the movie are the iconic Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie and Jurassic World’s Judy Greer as Karen Strode, the daughter of Laurie and the mother of Matichak’s character.

Seemingly titled just Halloween right now, this relaunch for one of the most beloved franchises in horror history has been co-written by Green and Danny McBride, with the legendary John Carpenter involved as an executive producer and creative consultant – in addition to providing the score for the film.

This new Halloween effort will completely ignore anything post-Carpenter’s 1978 original movie, with the film picking up the action several decades from that classic picture and totally ignoring any of the movies since then – even Rick Rosenthal’s Halloween II, which took place on the same night that he came home.

At this stage, Halloween is set for an October 2018 release… and we absolutely cannot wait to see Michael Myers return to cause all kinds of chaos and carnage!

Warner Brothers to Restructure the DC Extended Universe

Justice League Poster

This should likely come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, but Warner Bros. is aiming to restructure their DC Films division.

As per Variety, Jon Berg – the current head of DC Films – is being moved to the position of production partner alongside IT’s Roy Lee. A replacement for Berg is being lined up at the moment, and that person will work with Geoff Johns in overseeing all DC-driven efforts for the studio. This, of course, comes in the aftermath of Justice League hugely underperforming.

At this stage of the game, Justice League is easily the lowest grossing DCEU movie of them all, with its $570 million global box office standing at $100 million less than the previous lowest grossing of the bunch – that being Man of Steel and its $668 million take-home.

In fairness, Justice League wasn’t an absolute stinker and the film actually featured some damn impressive elements. The thing is, despite being ‘okay’, it’s yet another DC Extended Universe effort that’s failed to be truly special and win over the mass approval of fans and/or critics alike. Considering that this was Warner Brothers’ big play, their biggest throw of the dice, their coming together of their top, top talents, the studio can’t help but be disappointed to not see the box office light up for the teaming up of Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and, of course, Superman.

From here, it appears that The WB’s plans involve moving their DC Films division back under their main production arm rather than treating it as a separate entity much like what Disney do with their Marvel Studios’ efforts.

As ever, expect more on all things DECU as they continue to develop.

Tarantino’s STAR TREK to be R-Rated

Quentin Tarantino

This week brought the opinion-splitting news that Quentin Tarantino is tentatively working on a new Star Trek movie. And now, there’s confirmation that the picture is indeed to have a more adult edge to it.

As per Deadline, the film that Tarantino has planned is indeed to be an R-rated affair. In fact, the outlet reports that the rating of the movie was pivotal in QT and Paramount making a deal. To date, all of Tarantino’s movies have been R-rated, and he only agreed to discuss a Star Trek effort if he was afforded the same R-rated classification for the film.

The previous report on all of this revealed that Tarantino and Paramount have had talks about QT steering the new Trek outing. He explained his vision to the studio, who then went about assembling a writing team to flesh out a screenplay. From there, the belief is that Tarantino would direct the movie.

In addition to the rating information, now also comes word on just which writers have been tapped for the picture. It’s believed that The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith, Godzilla vs. Kong’s Lindsey Beer and Iron Man 3’s Drew Pearce have all been lined up to give their own pitch on Tarantino’s tale, with Smith the reported frontrunner to land the gig.

Interestingly, there’s also a slight uncertainty surrounding the timeframe of the movie – as in, yes, it may well pick up the action from 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, but there’s even a chance that the film could follow the timeline of the William Shatner-driven era.

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

Release Date Set for VICTOR CROWLEY

Victor Crowley Poster

With Adam Green having surprised us all with a new Hatchet movie earlier this year, the fourth installment in this genre favourite franchise has now been given a confirmed home release date.

Titled Victor Crowley, the movie has been given a February 6th Blu-ray, DVD and VOD release. Previously, some lucky fans were treated to festival screenings of the film, most notably with Green shocking us all by revealing that the Hatchet 10th Anniversary Celebration announced for FrightFest back in August was really a screening of a new Hatchet movie. Until that point, it had largely been kept hush-hush that Green was even working on a new entry in the series, let alone that the feature was finished and ready to screen!

Starring Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Laura Ortiz, Dave Sheridan and Brian Quinn, the brief synopsis for Victor Crowley reads:

Ten years after the events of the original movie, Victor Crowley is mistakenly resurrected and proceeds to kill once more.

We previously reviewed the film after checking it out at the aforementioned FrightFest, giving it an 8/10 rating. As such, it goes without saying that we’re hugely looking forward to checking out Victor Crowley once again once it hits home release.

Final Season of GAME OF THRONES Confirmed for 2019

Game of Thrones Season 7 Night King

It’s the news all you Game of Thrones fans have been dreaded. Yes, as previously speculated, the next (and final!) season of this genre juggernaut won’t be landing on our screens until 2019.

Initially, the plan was for this final six-episode season to follow the pattern of its predecessors in airing a year after the previous season – this year’s seventh season – but then rumblings came out that had Season 8 instead pegged for a 2019 airing rather than premiering in 2018.

The confirmation of the 2019 return for the show comes from Sansa Stark herself, Sophie Turner. Speaking to Variety, Turner revealed that, yes, Game of Thrones won’t be back until 2019. This doesn’t come as any particular shock, but it just means many fans will spend the entirety of next year pining for a Thrones fix. Still, that at least gives us all a chance to go back and revisit this iconic series in full if you so wish.

While the eighth and final season is only made up of six episodes, the good news is that each outing is a giant-sized one, with it previously said that the shortest of these new episodes will clock in at 80 minutes.

Dexter Fletcher to Direct BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Dexter Fletcher Bohemian Rhapsody

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Bryan Singer had been fired from 20th Century Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and now a replacement has been found.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Dexter Fletcher will take over directing duties, with filming resuming next week. The actor-turned-director popped his directing cherry in 2011 with Wild Bill before following that up with Sunshine on Leith and last year’s Eddie the Eagle.

Where Singer is concerned, Fox moved to fire him from the feature after reported unaccounted absences from set – not to mention regular arguments with star Rami Malek. For Singer himself, he put out a statement earlier this week to say that he had been dealing with an extremely ill parent, which in turn had taken its toll on his own health.

With Malek on board as Freddie Mercury, the rest of Queen is filled out by Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, Gwilym Lee as Brian May and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon.

The current plan is for Bohemian Rhapsody to still be released in December 2018 as initially booked in, and Fox has only further reiterated this by moving so quickly to bring in Fletcher to fill the director’s chair.

IT’s Jack Dylan Grazer Joins SHAZAM!

IT's Jack Dylan Grazer

With Warner Brothers’ Shazam! having now found its two main players, David F. Sandberg’s picture has moved to bring in Jack Dylan Grazer.

As per Deadline, the young IT actor has joined the movie as Freddy Freeman, a key character in the world of Billy Batson and Shazam. You see, Freddy is the best pal of Batson and is pretty much the only person who knows that Billy has the power to transform himself into the heroic Shazam. In fact, as time went on in the comics, Freddy found himself with his own powers and even took over the then-Captain Marvel moniker for a while.

Already on board for the feature are Zachary Levi as Shazam and Asher Angel as the aforementioned Batson. Where the villain of the piece is concerned, the last we’d heard was that Kingsman’s Mark Strong was in talks to play the nefarious Doctor Sivana.

For those not familiar with the superhero Shazam – formerly known as Captain Marvel – the early synopsis for the film should get you up to speed on the basics:

Based on the DC Comics character Shazam, Billy Batson becomes Captain Marvel, the world’s mightiest mortal, when he says the magic word “Shazam!” The name is an acronym for six gods and heroes of the ancient world as well as their attributes. The wisdom of Solomon, strength of Hercules, stamina of Atlas, power of Zeus, courage of Achilles and speed of Mercury.

Despite Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation’s Sandberg horror heavy past, the current plan is for Shazam! to be a bright, uplifting entry in the DC Extended Universe.

With an April 2019 release date planned Shazam! will get rolling early next year.

CBS Puts in Series Order for New TWILIGHT ZONE

The Twilight Zone Rod Serling

Good news for fans of the beloved Twilight Zone, for CBS All Access has moved to put in a full series order of the long-gestating reboot of this fan favourite genre series.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, although no details are known just yet on how many episodes have been ordered or when the show will premiere.

What we do know, however, is that Get Out’s Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions are teaming with Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films to produce the show for CBS. Audrey Chon and Win Rosenfeld will act as executive producers, with Daredevil’s Marco Ramirez serving as showrunner.

The Twilight Zone was famously created by Rod Serling, initially running from 1959 to 1964 and exploring tales of sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Revivals of this beloved show came in 1985 (running until 1989) and in 2002 (lasting for just a year), and, of course, there was the Steven Spielberg-produced Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983.

As ever, expect more on all things Twilight Zone as we get it.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? Set for 2019 Release

It was only last month that we brought news of an Are You Afraid of the Dark? movie moving forward once more over at Paramount, and now the picture has been given a release date.

The last we’d heard on the project was that IT’s Gary Dauberman had been brought in to write the screenplay, and now the studio has booked the film in for an October 11th, 2019 release.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Dauberman recently said, “The show is about the shared experience of telling stories – especially scary ones. We’re going to celebrate that with this movie and honour the darker, scarier tone of the show, which was really groundbreaking for Nickelodeon at the time. I hope the Midnight Society approves.”

No plot details are known at this early stage, and the only other piece of real information is Dauberman will produce alongside Matt Kaplan.

For those not familiar with Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the series was created by D.J. MacHale and Ned Kandel back in 1990, soon being picked up by Nickelodeon in 1991 and then aired across the globe from 1992. The general premise for the show saw the action focussed on a group of teenagers called the Midnight Society, who would meet each week at a secret, creepy woodland location to tell a terrifying (at least it was to our younger selves!) tale based around horror clichés, urban legends or twisted classics of yesteryear. When all was said and done, the series clocked in at an impressive 91 episodes over its seven seasons.

As ever, expect more on this big screen Are You Afraid of the Dark? adap as we get it.

New Details on the DEEP BLUE SEA Sequel

Deep Blue Sea 2 Poster

If you remember back, earlier this year saw news break of a Deep Blue Sea sequel on the way. In fact, at that point, the follow-up to Renny Harlin’s 1999 genre favourite was already secretly shooting over in South Africa. Well, now we have some more solid details on the picture.

To be directed by Tales from the Hood’s Darrin Scott, it’s been confirmed by UHM that Deep Blue Sea 2 has been rated R for “creature violence and gore, and for language” and the straight-to-TV sequel will land on Syfy at a to-be-confirmed date next year. The aptly named Michael Beach will headline the cast, with Danielle Savre, Rob Mayes, Darron Meyer, Kim Syster and Nathan Lynn also on board.

As per Syfy, the early word on the film reads:

The plot kicks off with shark conservationist Dr. Misty Calhoun invited to consult on a top-secret project run by pharmaceutical billionaire Carl Durant (Beach). Calhoun is shocked to learn that the company is using the unpredictable and highly aggressive bull sharks as its test subjects. You can probably guess where this goes next, and Warner Bros. teases some “personality” from the sharks that’ll be menacing these hapless humans.

Despite being a direct-to-TV effort and happening nearly 20 years after the original film, Deep Blue Sea 2 will follow the mythology and narrative established in the first movie.

Considering we have a soft spot for any and all shark pictures here at Moonbase Alpha, this is certainly one we’re hoping can bring some bite to 2018 when it swims to our TV screens.