| | | | | | Fall is in full swing, and the "Summer of Superman" is officially over. After months of seemingly non-stop DCU, the Peacemaker season two finale hits next week and insiders are happy with the rollout, which has included its audience growing weekly and a strong 96 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The finale will mark the last of the Gunn-verse we'll see until June's Supergirl. But that doesn't mean folks over at DC Studios are sitting idly by. Clayface is currently shooting in London while back home, Supergirl had a quiet screening on the Burbank lot with a select group of executives and a few members of James Gunn's trusted DC stable. Elsewhere, Dwayne Johnson is getting his weekend spoiled by Taylor Swift's surprise movie tied to her new album, which will easily take the No. 1 crown at the box office. But don't worry, we will be hearing much more about The Smashing Machine in the months ahead as he enters a full-on campaign for his first Oscar nomination. And as we were putting together this newsletter came an answer Hollywood has been asking since Final Destination: Bloodlines became an oversized hit: will Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein return to direct or move on to new pastures? Well, the hot duo have opted against returning, with New Line in talks to hire Belgian filmmaker Michiel Blanchart as its new death dealer. Speaking of deathly matters, this first scoop has an extra dose of the undead for your reading pleasure... —Aaron Couch and Borys Kit. |
ZACH CREGGER HAS ADDED THREE NAMES TO RESIDENT EVIL.
The film, which goes into production a few weeks from now in Prague, will feature Severance breakout Zach Cherry, True Detective co-star Kali Reis and Johnno Wilson (I Love That for You).
Austin Abrams, who stole scenes as an unhoused drug addict in Cregger’s hit Weapons this past summer, is leading the feature.
Plot details are being kept under the umbrella but here are some keywords: hapless courier, mysterious package, mutated creatures, corporate conspiracy.
Some luminous casting. |
BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES WAS THE INDIE COMIC HIT NOBODY SAW COMING.
Certainly not writer and artist Patrick Horvath, who launched the book last year and has seen it top 300,000 in sales across its comics and collected editions.
Now the title, described as Dexter meets Richard Scarry, officially has a third volume in the works from publisher IDW. The series is populated by cute and cuddly animals, one of which happens to be a serial killer.
“Back when I was working on the first issue, it was apparent that there was so much more you could do with this world,” Horvath says. “As I started to imagine what the rippling consequences might be for the second volume, I realized it was going to be hard to stop.”
A tabletop RPG game and a card game are also in development, as well as plushies and other merchandizing.
As for Horvath, he’s having a bit of a Hollywood moment, as he was a storyboard artist on this summer’s surprise box office sensation, Weapons, by filmmaker Zach Cregger. And studios are now circling Beneath the Trees for film or TV adaptations.
Horvath’s dark passenger. |
➤ By the numbers: Gunn's Superman draws 13 million views in 10 days of streaming, becomes biggest HBO Max movie launch since Barbie two years ago.
➤ By the numbers two: Alchemised, the romantasy by SenLinYu, has sold 300,000 units in all formats in North America in its first week of publication, making it the fastest-selling adult debut novel since BookScan began record-keeping, says Del Rey/Random House. It's an immediate No. 1 New York Times bestseller, No. 1 USA Today bestseller, No. 1 Los Angeles Times bestseller. Legendary picked up the movie rights a few weeks ago to the book that began as Harry Potter fan-fiction.
➤ There can be only two: Jeremy Irons joins the cast of Highlander, becoming the movie's second main antagonist.
➤ Make it so: Star Trek getting its own customized float for the 2026 Rose Bowl Parade.
➤ Clover Press launches Kickstarter to publish Stan Lee and John Romita’s The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strips in a softcover format with a new line of deluxe slipcase editions.
➤ Speaking of Kickstarter...Mark Millar just launched one for Conquered, a Game of Thrones-meets-Independence Day comic idea he first pitched DC when he was 13.
➤ Trailers: Shelby Oaks finds footage; serial murderer + the writer of Se7en = Psycho Killer.
Catch up on these Heat Vision interviews....
➤ One of Margot Robbie's favorite bands, Thrice, talks to THR's Brian Davids about their new record, Horizons/West, as well as their long-running desire to score and/or soundtrack narrative projects.
➤ James Gunn throws cold water on Brandon Sklenar's DCU Batman casting (or does he?). He also shoots down the possibility of resuming a dangling conflict from The Suicide Squad.
➤ Zach Cregger discusses the script-to-screen changes for his summer hit Weapons, as well as the major contribution Bill Hader made to the narrative.
➤ The Strangers trilogy star Madelaine Petsch wants Lionsgate to release Chapter 3 much sooner than the fall of 2026.
➤ Director Renny Harlin says fan criticism of The Strangers: Chapter 1 led to significant creative overhaul of Chapter 3, including the removal of an Andor actor. |
SHANE BLACK IS HAPPY TO GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE.
The ‘80s wunderkind screenwriter appeared in the very first Predator movie as an actor (longtime collaborator Joel Silver produced). Decades later, he directed The Predator, a 2018 feature that failed to light up the box office and was mired in controversy.
But now, the franchise is hotter than ever, thanks to one man.
“Dan Trachtenberg saved that franchise,” Black tells Brian Davids of the filmmaker behind 2022’s Prey, June’s Predator: Killer of Killers and November’s Predator: Badlands. “I saw Prey, and all I could do was say, ‘Sir, my hat's off.’”
The filmmaker, who is back with the Amazon streaming title Play Dirty, also reveals he still has hopes for a sequel to The Nice Guys, the underperforming but beloved movie starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, and confirms he’s totally done with Lethal Weapon, the franchise that launched his career.
Back in Black. |
WITH GUILLERMO DEL TORO UNLEASHING FRANKENSTEIN THIS FALL, THE STARS HAVE ALIGNED TO MAKE THIS THE SEASON OF DEL TORO.
There are books, retrospectives, and artistic directorships galore. And there was a del Toro auction where the filmmaker sold off numerous items from his celebrated Bleak House art, prop and movie memorabilia collection.
Everything from an original H.R. Giger painting to Charlie Hunnam’s Jaeger drive suits to Pan’s Labyrinth concept maquettes were snatched up by eager collectors.
Seeing as how next week is the Los Angeles premiere of del Toro’s Frankenstein, which is receiving a limited theatrical release Oct. 17 before hitting Netflix Nov. 7, we thought this one was appropriate: the original art for Bernie Wrightson’s chapter 12 plate illustration for a Marvel take on Frankenstein.
Wrightson, the late horror artist who co-created Swamp Thing, spent over seven years creating around 50 detailed pen-and-ink illustrations based on Mary Shelley's original 1831 story.
His goal was to evoke the visual feel of antique woodcuts or steel engravings, inspired by the pen-and-ink masters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
To many, these drawings are the peak of Wrightson’s power. Del Toro certainly agreed, as he had several of them in his collection. This piece also showcased at LACMA, MIA, and AGO as part of the Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters exhibit, which ran 2016-2018.
It sold last week for a monstrous $250,000. |
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