| | | | | | Hello there, and welcome for the very first Heat Vision Newsletter of 2026. We know it’s early, but things are looking good for the genre space this year. Check out the movies that are generating major Oscar buzz this year. Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller Sinners and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein are among those at the top of the heap for contenders. Both filmmakers earned DGA nominations. And today, those movies were joined by Zach Cregger’s Weapons (as well as Joseph Kosinski’s F1) on the PGA’s list of nominees for best movie. And consider this: theaters have a fun romp of a horror movie this week. Primate, from Paramount and director Johannes Roberts, is a creature feature with a slasher movie infrastructure. It’s a real squirmy, tense, bananas movie that is best seen in a crowded theater. One of its pluses is that there is little CG in the movie, which used a man in a suit and four different prosthetic heads to bring the killer chimp to life. "Roberts and co-writer Ernest Riera know their B-movie playbook and are not averse to having fun with it," reads THR's review. Well, let's kick things off right this year with a giant of a scoop... —Aaron Couch and Borys Kit. |
THE SCREENWRITERS BEHIND KPOP DEMON HUNTERS HAVE LANDED A GIANT GIG. Like, 50 foot giant. Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan have been tapped by Warner Bros. to write Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Tim Burton’s reimagining of B-movie classic. Released in 1958, Attack told of a wealthy heiress, fresh from a stint at a mental institution, who is turned into a giantess and then deals with her philandering husband and his no-good, money-grubbing floozy. Warners has been developing a remake since 2024. Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn was the previous writer. “We’re obsessed with the idea of a fifty-foot woman wreaking havoc because a man did her dirty,” the duo tell Heat Vision. “We have a feeling a lot of people will relate.” Golden opportunity. |
WELCOME TO THE LAST, "BEST OF LIST" OF 2025. Genre movies, the movies we celebrate and report on, had a banner year, with wildly original horror movies and at least a few good superhero flicks in there (as well as some not super ones.) We’ve tried to watch as much as we could, covering the world and the subgenres. We may have missed some, maybe some of your favorites, so feel free to let us know.
Without further ado, (hopefully, probably?) the last Top 10 movies of 2025 list, Heat Vision style. |
➤The waiting game: it looks like Kathleen Kennedy may make her departure from Lucasfilm official any day now, with Lucasfilm mainstay/Star Wars nerd Dave Filoni and veteran business side exec Lynwen Brennan tipped to co-run the company in a creative/business mind meld. An announcement could happen as early as next week.
➤ PSA: If you’re in L.A., there are worse ways to spend time than checking out Frankenstein: Crafting a Tale Eternal, running until Sunday at NYA Studios West in Hollywood. It’s not too long but a real fun, immersive dive into the making of the movie, with tons of props and costumes. (Hmm. As we go to press, it seems like the exhibit may be now sold out. But try to go anyway.)
➤ Trailer time: They Will Kill You whether you're ready or not; master thespians gotta thesp in Wonder Man; the merry mutants return in Avengers: Doomsday , which folks are saying should have been the first Doomsday trailer (related: How many times can Professor X be killed in these movies?)
➤ Brick business: Lego and Lucasfilm turned Las Vegas’ Sphere into a Lego brick version of the Death Star, letting visitors get into a full-size Lego X-Wing to tackle the trench run. It was all part of the introduction to Lego Smart Play, which will bring Smart Bricks and interactivity to its toys. No screens required.
➤ What a Tangled web: Kathryn Hahn is in talks to play Mother Gothel in the live-action adaptation of the 2010 animated classic, which now has its two leads: Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim.
➤ Maverick move: Tom Cruise visited the set of Star Wars: Starfighter and ended up behind the camera for a lightsaber duel.
➤ Meet Harvey Dent: Sebastian Stan joining The Batman Part II.
➤ Stranger Things have happened: No, there wasn't a secret special final episode of the Netflix show. But there will be a documentary on the final season.
➤ Oh, the horror: website Dread Central has a new owner...the co-founder of its competitor Bloody Disgusting.
Catch up on these Heat Vision interviews...
➤ For his 1,000th (!) interview for The Hollywood Reporter, Brian Davids spoke to Daisy Ridley about her next movie with fellow Star Wars stablemate, Alden Ehrenreich, as well as a bizarre story involving her husband, Tom Bateman, and Adam Driver.
➤ Avatar: Fire and Ash's youngest castmember, Trinity Bliss, started a swear jar for charity on set, charging James Cameron and Sam Worthington $5 per F-bomb.
➤ Anaconda director Tom Gormican had a very difficult time booking a Jennifer Lopez cameo.
➤ If you caught up with Pluribus over the holiday break, check out Davids' comprehensive finale coverage with all the main players: Vince Gilligan, Rhea Seehorn, Karolina Wydra and Carlos-Manuel Vesga. |
WE'RE BARELY INTO THE NEW YEAR, AND WE MAY ALREADY BE SETTING SALES RECORDS.
On Dec. 31, Marvel Comics released Ultimate Endgame No. 1, which marked the beginning of the end of the alternate Ultimate Universe, its line of reimagined heroes such as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Black Panther, Wolverine and more.
Insiders tell Heat Vision that the comic is on track to be Marvel's top-selling book of the last couple of years. Sales figures or order figures have not been revealed.
It helps that the book has friends in high places. Namely, Robert Downey Jr. and Kevin Feige.
Like a modern Willy Wonka hunt, there is a frantic search among fans to find 1 of 1 covers that each man drew for the issue.
You see, as part of Ultimate Endgame No. 1’s release, Marvel debuted its first ever True Believers Blind Bag program, which gives fans a chance to pull one of the book’s rare variant covers, along with 500 special hand-drawn sketch covers by some of Marvel’s top artists.
This includes covers by Downey and Fiege.
Only two of the four Downey covers have been discovered so far. And the hunt for Feige’s continues.(Two of Downey's can be seen in this newsletter, while Feige's can be viewed here.)
Blind bag incentives became a hot sales gimmick for the comic book industry in 2025. DC, Dynamite, Skybound, and IDW used to fuel fan interest and speculation.
Buyers take a chance at buying a title sight unseen, which gives it a fun factor, with the upside being the opportunity to find a rare, and potentially valuable, comic.
Marvel is promising even more sketch covers for its next blind bag program, which will come with the new Daredevil ongoing comic series starting this April.
Happy hunting. |
GREENLAND HAS BEEN IN THE HEADLINES LATELY, AND WE DON’T MEAN THE NEW GERARD BUTLER SEQUEL.
The Trump administration is renewing its efforts in acquiring the Kingdom of Denmark’s autonomous territory. There were even reports this week that U.S. officials are considering $10K – $100K payments to sway Greenlanders toward supporting American annexation.
It’s all noise to Greenland 2 director Ric Roman Waugh, who once again finds a film coming out in odd times. (The first Greenland hit in 2020.) He tells Brian Davids he’s ignoring the headlines, and even plotting a third movie. “I would say we’ve done a really good job of blocking out the noise. We just stuck to our guns,” Waugh says.
Greenland hasn’t fallen. |
SINNERS AND SAINTS SHOWED UP TO SPOTIFY AND THR'S SWANK GOLDEN WEEK NOMINEES NIGHT BASH.
Held Thursday at The Lot, the historic studio lot in West Hollywood, Natasha Lyonne, Odessa A’zion and Drew Starkey were among those who grooved to the jams, of which there were plenty, this being a Spotify party, after all.
The evening’s performance kicked off with Miles Caton, the musician and actor who broke out with Ryan Coogler’s vampire opus Sinners, and who is cruising the highly choreographed and high intensity F1-style circuit that is the award race.
Coogler’s movie is an Oscar contender and Caton last weekend won best young performer at the Critics Choice Awards and this week was nominated for a SAG Award (aka the Actor Award) for outstanding male performer in a supporting role.
Caton held the crowd’s gaze with his rendition of "I Lied to You," which is nominated for a Golden Globe this weekend, and darn if it didn’t feel like he was summoning spirits from across the timelines.
If some of the guests didn’t make it back home last night, it may be because a vampire fanged them up. Anyway, here’s a shot we took from the event. |
| | | |
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire
Thank you to leave a comment on my site