Posts Tagged ‘Screen Gems’
Posted by bob in Films, News on August 24th, 2008
As Summer winds down, people are already looking forward to fall and fall releases. Magnolia Pictures just announced a new addition, Toby Wilkins’ Splinter, will open o Halloween. They acquired the independent horror film last year and have just been waiting for a chance to release it. The movie features a virulent virus that takes control over people, giving them a lust for blood.
So, here’s how the most frightening month of the year is shaping up.
On Friday the 10th we get Quarantine, the remake of REC, from Screen Gems.
On Friday, the 24th, Lionsgate unleashes Saw V while Disney rereleases Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D. In limited release will be Universal’s thriller, Changeling. The big event is the limited release of Let the Right One In.
Then, on Halloween itself, Changeling goes into wide release and Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy RockNRolla has an 800 screen rollout from Warner Bros, plus Splinter and Freestyle Releasing’s The Haunting of Molly Hartley.
Posted by bob in Films, News on July 29th, 2008
One the things buzzed about after this weekend’s Quarantine panel was whether or not Screen Gems spoiled the ending with its marketing campaign. One presumes it is spoiled only if you know REC, the original source material the October 10 release is based on.
“No one has seen at the end of our movie,” director John Dowdle told ShocktilyouDrop. “You don’t know how we end it. It’s different. The film, before the additional shooting, at ten minutes started to get into things,” John added. “We felt it would be nice to build a little bit more character time before we crank into it. So we added some more scenes at the fire station, stuff like that.”
Posted by bob in Films, News on July 21st, 2008
Who doesn’t love a movie featuring young freshmen in a dorm? Variety reports that Screen Gems has snapped up Roommate, written by Vertigo Entertainment’s Sonny Mallhi. The report indicates the executive producer wrote the story on spec and put it up for sale under a pseudonym.
About those freshmen? They’re Sara and Rebecca, assigned to the same dorm room, and while things start off well, over time, Rebecca begins to act oddly. She goes so far as to begin targeting Sara’s friends.
The trade reports Mallhi will co-produce with Roy Lee, Doug Davison and Irene Yeung.
Posted by bob in Films, News on July 4th, 2008
Quarantine, the John Dowdle remake of REC, has been shifted on the schedule to October 10, two weeks prior to Saw V, a smart move.
Drag Me to Hell, from director Sam Raimi and his Ghost House Pictures, can be penciled in for May 29, 2009.
Posted by bob in Films, News on June 18th, 2008
Shocktilyoudrop chatted with Brittany Snow about Prom Night’s strong success and the likelihood Screen Gems will want a sequel. She riffed on ideas she’d like to see which sound far better than 1987’s Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II.
“Gosh, if any more people die around that girl, something bad is going to happen,” Snow told the site. “By the end of the movie, I don’t even know what to do with this. Everybody has died…which is really sad that I’ve just told that to everybody who hasn’t seen the movie, but I survive. It was a running inside joke with everybody on set that we were going to have Prom Night 2: Dance of the Dead and everybody who died is going to come back as zombies and we’re going to have a zombie dance. We ended up dancing on set and we had that all planned out. [Director] Nelson McCormick wasn’t big on the idea but I think we’re going to make it happen.
“I don’t think there could be a Prom Night 2 just because everyone’s dead and 2, there’s no prom to be had.”
Posted by bob in Films, News on May 21st, 2008
The Candyman himself, Tony Todd, is in talks to star in the sequel to Dawn of the Dead for producer Richard Rubinstein. Todd also appeared in Tom Savini’s 1990 remake of Rubinstein and George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead so he has more than a passing familiarity with the source material.
As we mentioned a while back, Jake Gyllenhaal will star as the Prince in the video game-to-screen adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Starring beside him in the Jerry Bruckheimer production will be Gemma Aterton (Quantum of Solace). Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is directing film based on the best-selling Ubisoft game. (more…)
Posted by bob in News on May 5th, 2008
Christine Lahti (Jack and Bobby), Bruce McGill (Vantage Point), and Scout Taylor-Compton (April Fool’s Day) have been added to the cast of Obsessed. The Screen Gems film starts shooting today and stars Beyonce Knowles, Ali Larter and Idris Elba. Directed by Steven Shill (The Kill Point) and written by David Loughery (Dreamscape), the story tells of an asset manager stalked by a crazed temp.
Brea Grant (Friday Night Lights) will be seen on the new season of Heroes as a speedster.
Posted by bob in Films, News on April 22nd, 2008
Entertainment Weekly broke the news that still another moldy oldie is getting refurbished. Hell Night, originally released in 1981, is coming via Screen Gems which has specialized in taming the original fare for new audiences. Their success with Prom Night seems to have encouraged them to go trolling for other chillers. The original was from director Tom DeSimone and starred Linda Blair (Exorcist) and no one has been announced as being signed to work on this project. The story has a series of college kids hanging out in an asylum and things go wrong.
Posted by bob in News on April 11th, 2008
The Stepfather will be released on October 16, 2009 by Screen Gems. The thriller stars Christopher Meloni (Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay), Amber Heard (Hidden Palms), Sela Ward (House), Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl), and Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck).
First it was Earth vs. the Moon and now we have an alien invasion of the west coast. Columbia Pictures has optioned a screenplay for Battle: Los Angeles. The script is by Chris Bertolini (The General’s Daughter), and will spotlight a Marine platoon’s attempts to repel invaders from the stars. “I love the idea, and I love the script. I like it all,” Producer Neal Moritz of Original Films told The Hollywood Reporter. “We are going to be in production within six months. What’s attractive to me is that it’s a huge event movie that can be done at a modest scale.”
Steve Alten’s 1997 novel, Meg, has been optioned by Virginia-based Apelles Publishing Inc. along with producer Lawarence Gordon (Die Hard) and Lloyd Levin (Boogie Knights) attached. The novel, about a the 80-foot, 70,000-pound shark, seemed perfect for Hollywood but it defied both Hollywood Pictures and New Line Cinema (which would have used Jan De Bont to direct).
Posted by bob in News on April 9th, 2008
The Spanish horror film REC, being remade in America under the name Quarantine, and its viral campaign has caught our eye. The film’s official synopsis says: “Television reporter Angela Vidal and her cameraman are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers already on the scene in response to blood-curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to find that the CDC has quarantined the building. Phones, internet, televisions and cell phone access have been cut off, and officials are not relaying information to those locked inside. When the quarantine is finally lifted, the only evidence of what took place is the news crew’s videotape.”
The film stars Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) as Angela and Steve Harris (The Unseen) as the cameraman along with Johnathon Schaech (Prom Night), Columbus Short (Studio 60) and Marin Hunkle (2 and a Half Men). It’s been adapted by director John Erick Dowdle (Full Moon Rising) and original screenwriters Jaume Balagueró and Luiso Berdejo.
The Screen Gems film will be released October 17 and for more, check out the MySpace pages.
