Marc Gascoigne Returns to Fighting Fantasy

Fighting Fantasy Logo

Table Top Gaming legend Marc Gascoigne, the author, editor and publishing professional who created book brands such as Black Library,  Angry Robot and Aconyte Books, is now the Brand Manager of the bestselling gamebook series Fighting Fantasy.

Fighting Fantasy creator Sir Ian Livingstone told the press: “We are delighted to have Marc join us to further promote and build Fighting Fantasy worldwide. A respected expert in the genre, he will be an invaluable member of the Fighting Fantasy team. May his STAMINA never fail!”

Marc’s early career was as an editor for the original Fighting Fantasy books back in the ’80s. He returns to the world-famous multi-path adventure book series that is responsible for the thriving brand. New Fighting Fantasy books continue to be published by Scholastic UK.  Fans can also pick up digital and audio editions, role-playing and board games, miniatures, and a growing range of licensed merchandise. There’s even a regular Fighting Fantasy Fest.

Gascoigne’s work will be familiar to many STARBURST readers;  his credits include Judge Dredd,  Shadowrun, Earthdawn and even Sonic The Hedgehog.

Heresy Ends As Space Marine Movie Sequel Announced

Five Space Marine Helmets in a line. Astartes Two Teaser Image Astartes Helmets

Warhammer 40,000’s fictional-historical series, The Horus Heresy, will finally come to an end with the sixty-fifth book in the series, Era of Ruin.

This eight-story anthology will serve as a coda to both The Horus Heresy and The Siege of Terra – two series of books that detail the ‘origin’ of the Warhammer 40,000. The series began in 2006 with Dan Abnett’s Horus Rising.  The details of this galactic civil war between power-armoured trans-human killing machines, half of whom have fallen under the influence of hell-like supernatural force, has taken 18 years to tell, and in addition to the books, they have been board game, miniatures, video games, audio dramas and more produced.

Era of Ruin will feature the stories Angels of Another Age by John French, Fulgurite by Nick Kyme, Fragments (All We Have Left) by Dan Abnett, Ex Libris by John French, System Purge by Gav Thorpe, After the Dawn, the Darkness by Guy Haley, Homebound by Chris Wraight and The Carrion Lord of the Imperium by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

In related news, a trailer for Astartes Two has been released. Astartes was a ground-breaking short film by Syama Pedersen. The first movie was an unofficial fan project that used stunning animation techniques to bring the grim, dark future of Warhammer 40,000 to internet denizens everywhere. Games Workshop (the owners of all things Warhammer)  now host the completed project on their Warhammer TV service.

The sequel, now an official Games Workshop product, looks amazing. Check it out below.

MANTIC LAUNCHES NEW CALENDAR GAMES

Those of us who have just about recovered from 2024’s Christmas may be delighted to hear that Nottingham-based Mantic Games are already planning their list for Santa. They’re launching a new list of Advent Games for 2025, including one themed around the classic video game WORMS. You can check out a Kickstarter here.

Mantic Games has amazing board game calendars and advent-style treats. These full miniature-based board games build up day by day until you have something ready to go on the big day itself, or more realistically, something to play on Boxing Day whilst nursing a hangover. 

Mantic Games are known for their solidly designed fantasy and wargaming models, as well as their tie-in games such as Worms, Halo, Hellboy and The Walking Dead. Last year’s advent included sci-fi action in a cramped spaceship and a fantasy ballroom brawl.

“It was one of those lightning-bolt ideas”, said Ronnie Renton, CEO and founder of Mantic. “We all love playing a new tabletop game together at Christmas, and there’s a real joy in opening doors and collecting things out of an advent calendar in December. So we’ve brought those two things together and created a new winter tradition for tabletop fans everywhere!”

The first new calendar to be revealed is Worms, which follows the very successful collaboration between Mantic and Team 17 on Worms: The Board Game – which launched in the second half of 2024 at retail and almost immediately sold through the first print run. In this gift calendar game, players can expect hilarious weapons, destructible landscapes, and a game packed with turn-based comic mayhem!

UKGE LAUNCHES SIR COATES PAINTING CHALLENGE

Britain’s largest tabletop gaming event, UK Games Expo (UKGE), has announced its own miniature painting contest, the pun-tastic Sir Coates Painting Masters, which will be in partnership with the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy.

The UK leads the world when it comes to painting fantasy and science fiction miniatures in terms of fun if nothing else. The world-famous mini-painting contest,  Golden Demon, has been around since 1987 but is restricted to Games Workshop products only.  UKGE’s new contest opens the playing field to a much broader array of models and ways to paint them.

The competition will be part of UKGE, which is happening at the NEC Birmingham from 30th May to 1st June 2025. It’s open to everyone, regardless of skill and experience. Entries need to be delivered in person at the event.  Every entrant will get a pin badge, with brass badges for finalists and a trophy for the winner. The categories include:

  • Single Miniature: Your usual single figure.
  • Squad/Unit: Three or more models that look like a squad
  • Vehicle: Tanks, spaceships, things that go clank
  • Monster: Dragons, Krakens, huge alien horrors
  • Board Games: Models that come with a board game and are intended for that game.

Squires: This category is for entrants 15 years of age and under. Any single miniature can be entered into this category from Monsters, single miniature, or vehicle.

A handy FAQ can be found here. Good luck to any and all entrants.

Start Your Own Droid Army With HASBRO

Star Wars The Phantom Menace fans will be delighted to learn that they, too, can follow in the footsteps of intergalactic businessman Newt Gunray by picking up their own Droid Army. Those clever folk over at  Hasbro Pulse has released a four-pack of Star Wars Prequel-style Battle Droids.

Frequently the punchline of many a Star Wars action scene, this set features four 3.75-inch scale toys, three troopers and one commander. This troop-building pack comes with removable backpacks, droid antennas, and blaster rifles for each figure; ideal for fodder for your Obi-One action figure. And we understand they’re all called Roger.

Also available for pre-order is Electro from the Spider-Man movie No Way Home. This 6-inch figure displays the tougher, edgier version of Max Dillon, aka Electro, from that movie. Marvel fans may also be delighted to learn a fully posable Marvel Legends Professor X is also available; this is Xavier whilst he was exploring the Savage Land, so he’s fully articulated and comes with the proto-type Cerebro helmet.


Check it all out on Hasbro Pulse today.

London Lovecraft Festival returns

With the horrors of a cold, damp, dark and stormy January fading, we march into February prepared to face fresh monstrous horrors, in the form of the returning London Lovecraft Festival. 

Taking over the Drayton Arms Theatre in South Kensington on the 16th and 17th of February, this is the fifth outing for what has become a favourite event amongst fans of all things Lovecraft and theatre. Starburst has attended previous iterations of the festival and had a fantastic, mind-scrambling time, immersing ourselves in the entertainment on offer. 

For 2025, the Festival launches at 2pm on the afternoon of Sunday, February 16th, with the interactive ‘Painting Pickman’s Model’. Director Leo Doulton, who was an Associate Director of immersive horror piece, The Key of Dreams, will lead attendees through a process of creating art, whilst discussing what makes a monster, and, we are promised, other topics that will be of interest to the audience. Described as ‘A Life Drawing Class with a difference’, we’d expect participants to be captivated by the tale Doulton will undoubtedly weave. 

Lovecraft is renowned for his many shorter stories. At 7pm on Sunday, the multi-story ‘Night Beneath the Elder Sign’ will draw a number of these together, with suitable breaks to allow the audience’s heartbeats to settle in between the other-worldly horrors. To start will be ‘Celephais’, interpreted by T L Wiswell, and placed into a background of Gilded Age America with steampunk aesthetics, combined with blitz-era London. This builds on TL’s previous work interpreting ‘The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath’ through shadow puppets at a previous London Lovecraft Festival. As with many works which jumps off from Lovecraft’s original stories, it may sound bizarre, but that’s ultimately the point. ‘Celephais’ is paired with ‘From Beyond’, interpreted by Kai R Hastur, returning to the Festival for the third consecutive year. Audience’s familiar with Kai’s ‘Shroud of Charon’ or ‘The Music of Eric Zann’, will know what a treat they are in for. 

To conclude the Sunday evening, at 9pm, Laurence Ashcroft will read ‘At the Mountains of Madness’. This perennial favourite of Lovecraft fans will be lavishly presented by this ‘old-hand’ Festival performer. 

To conclude the Festival on Monday 17th February, Leo Doulton will return with a second interactive work, ‘The Estate Sale of Randolph Carter’. This sounds deliciously enticing, as attendees are invited to bid “on a variety of occult artefacts found after Randolph Carter’s unfortunate departure from this plane of existence”. Think, the opening of Phantom of the Opera, but with more tentacles. This is a longer event, and somewhat experimental for the Festival, as the event takes over the entire evening. Expect weird items, cosmic horror, and an awful lot of ‘what is that?’ from the assembled participants. 

The London Lovecraft Festival is a must for fans of Lovecraft, horror, and creeping dread. We highly recommend attending – if you dare!

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The Fifth London Lovecraft Festival will be held at the Drayton Arms Theatre in South Kensington London, from February 16th-17th, 2025. Ticket prices range from £12-25.

Programme:

Sunday 16 February

2 PM: Painting Pickman’s Model

7 PM: A Night Beneath the Elder Sign (Celephais and From Beyond)

9 PM: At the Mountains of Madness

Monday 17 February

7:30 PM: The Estate Sale of Randolph Carter 

Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/

Up to date information is here: https://www.facebook.com/londonlovecraft/

Focus Features To Remake Takashi Miike’s AUDITION

audition by takashi miike

A new take on the beloved horror classic, Takashi Miike’s Audition, is currently in the works at Focus Features. Deadline reports that Focus, Hyde Park Entertainment and Mario Kassar Productions are nearing a deal to produce a new adaptation of the 1997 novel by Ryū Murakami, which served as the basis for Miike’s 1999 film.

Christian Tafdrup, who directed the original version of Speak No Evil, is co-writer the new Audition with Mads Tafdrup, his brother. Though it received 11 nominations at the 2023 Danish Film Awards, Speak No Evil garnered further attention when it was remade by Blumhouse last year, in a film that starred James McAvoy.

The original Japanese horror film follows Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a widower who decides to start dating again. Aided by a film producer friend (Miyuki Matsuda), Aoyama uses auditions for a fake production as a means to screen for a new wife. Then, when Aoyama becomes intrigued by the withdrawn, beautiful, former ballet dancer Asami (Eihi Shiina), they begin a relationship. However, he soon comes to realise that Asami isn’t who she appears to be, leading to some increasingly disturbing scenarios.

Stay tuned for any updates on the upcoming remake as we hear them!

LOCKED Trailer Sees Bill Skarsgård Face Anthony Hopkins

anthony hopkins in sam raimi trailer for locked

Nosferatu and It star Bill Skarsgård stars opposite Anthony Hopkins in the new trailer for horror-thriller Locked, from producer Sam Raimi.

In the film, “When Eddie (Bill Skarsgård) breaks into a luxury SUV, he steps into a deadly trap set by William (Anthony Hopkins), a self-proclaimed vigilante delivering his own brand of twisted justice. With no means of escape, Eddie must fight to survive in a ride where escape is an illusion, survival is a nightmare, and justice shifts into high gear.”

The film hails from Brightburn director David Yarovesky from a script by Michael Arlen Ross. It’s a remake of the Argentinian action thriller, 4X4.

Speaking on the film, Yarovesky stated: “Working with Bill and Anthony was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are two of the greatest living actors, each having brought to life some of the most iconic villains of all time. Now, they’re going head-to-head in a battle of wits — a fight to the death! Together, they are electric! I’m deeply grateful to both of them, as well as to Sam Raimi, for being such incredible creative partners and for trusting me to steer the ship.”

Locked releases in cinemas from march 21st, 2025. Watch the trailer below:

Benny Safdie Joins Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY

benny safdie in christopher nolan film oppenheimer

Actor-director Benny Safdie is reuniting with Christopher Nolan for the filmmaker’s latest project, The Odyssey. The pair previously collaborated on Oppenheimer, in which Safdie portrayed physicist Edward Teller. He joins a stacked cast that includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal.

The feature project is an adaptation of the Greek Epic The Odyssey, by Homer. Universal has described the adaptation as a “mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new Imax film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to Imax film screens for the first time.” Given Nolan’s record for delivering visually staggering pictures, from the imagined, foreign worlds of Interstellar to the sandy scapes of New Mexico, the fact that The Odyssey will wow visually seems a given.

The Odyssey tells of the Greek hero Odysseus and his torturous decade-long journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Along the way, he and his crew face sea creatures, sirens, witches, monsters, and must contend with the interference of gods.

Who will play which roles is being kept top secret. Filming is due to begin in late February.

Benny Safdie was recently seen in the series The Curse, which he co-wrote and co-created with Nathan Fielder. He also completed production co-starring in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2, and will release his solo directorial debut, The Smashing Machine, later this year. He is also known for being half of the directing duo behind Good Time and Uncut Gems, with his brother Josh Safdie.

The Odyssey will release in cinemas July 17th, 2026.

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL Producers To Adapt Horror Comic DUNGEON

comic illustration of dark spaces: dungeon horror anthology

The producers of the acclaimed indie horror Late Night with the Devil will be adapting Dark Spaces: Dungeon, Scott Snyder and Hayden Sherman’s horror comic. Spooky Pictures, the company run by Steven Schneider and Roy Lee, is teaming up with IDW Entertainment on the project.

Published as a five issue miniseries in 2023 and 2024, Dungeon sees its story begin when a family moves from NYC to upstate New York to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. However, their father’s dream of a quiet rural life is shattered when he discovers a dungeon underneath their land, filled with torture devices, weapons, and a threatening message on the wall that reads: ‘Tell No One’. The discovery sets up a paranoid serial kidnapping mystery where no one, not even the father’s child, is safe, and not even the FBI agent assigned to the case can help.

“There’s no shortage of serial killer stories in the marketplace; the challenge is finding one that is both terrifying and goes to places we haven’t seen before,” stated Schneider. “Dungeon is it… And even as longtime fans and producers in the genre, we found ourselves haunted by what we read. This is our Silence of the Lambs and Se7en.”

As well as Late Night with the Devil, Schneider has worked on the Insidious and Paranormal Activity films, as well as having executive produced M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, Split, Knock at the Cabin, and his most recent vehicle, Trap. Roy Lee, meanwhile, is known for his work on Barbarian, the newly-released Companion, and last year’s Strange Darling.