Alam Nyo Ba?

One of the biggest news stories on the site in the last few months has been that, after twenty-five years, Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are reuniting for an upcoming Mummy legacy sequel. But before that movie even starts shooting, we have another Mummy movie coming to theaters—and unlike those (really good) adventure movies, this is straight-up horror and definitely ain’t no PG-13.

Indeed, in the Motion Picture Association’s latest ratings bulletin, it was confirmed that Lee Cronin’s The Mummy has nabbed an R-rating for “strong disturbing violent content, gore, language and brief drug use.” Now, it can’t be said that this was unexpected. Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise was R-rated, made close to $150 million on a $15 million budget, so no one ever thought his follow-up would be anything other than R. WB and New Line, who are distributing the film, have also been good about keeping horror fans satisfied with a solid stream of R-rated goods, including Final Destination: Bloodlines, The Conjuring: Last Rites and Weapons. Indeed, R-rated horror is the default now, with the days of bad PG-13-rated studio horror films long behind us.

What’s Lee Cronin’s The Mummy about?

Here’s the official plot: The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.

The film stars Sing Street’s Jack Reynor, Laia Costa (Victoria), May Calamawy (Moon Knight), Veronica Falcón (Queen of the South), Hayat Kamille (Vikings: Valhalla), and May Elghety (Clash).

Is it related to the Universal Mummy movies?

So here’s where it gets a little confusing. While all involved say it has nothing to do with Universal’s franchise, it is produced by Blumhouse, who did some reimagining of classic Universal Monsters horror properties with The Invisible Man and Wolf Man. Yet, this is being put out by New Line. It is still called The Mummy, but the thought is that Lee Cronin’s possessory credit was included in the title in order to keep it separate from the Universal franchise, especially considering that it’s about to become active again. For a while, there was talk that the film was going to be renamed, but hey—it’s a Mummy movie, so you might as well call it The Mummy, right?

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy hits theatres in its R-rated glory on April 17th.

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Up to this point, every episode of The X-Files has first been broadcast on Fox, but it doesn’t look like that will be the case for the series revival / reboot that Creed, Black Panther, and Sinners director Ryan Coogler has been developing. Four weeks ago, it was announced that Coogler’s take on the concept has received a pilot order from the Hulu streaming service, with Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson) on board as the co-lead and Jennifer Yale (The Copenhagen Test) joining the project as showrunner. Now, original X-Files star Gillian Anderson has given the project her endorsement, ensuring fans that the new show is going to be cool.

Reboot

The original run of The X-Files lasted for nine seasons, airing on Fox from 1993 to 2002. There were two revival seasons, which aired on Fox in 2016 and 2018. There have also been two feature films: 1998’s The X-Files and 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

Three years ago, The X-Files creator Chris Carter spilled the beans during an interview on the show On the Coast, revealing that a reboot of The X-Files was in the works, with Ryan Coogler at the helm. A while back, Coogler confirmed to Last Podcast on the Left, “I’m working on X-Files. That’s what’s immediately next… I’ve been excited about that one for a long time and I’m fired up to get back to it, and that, you know, some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f***ing scary.”

Coogler also said that he has spoken with Gillian Anderson, who starred in the original series as Agent Dana Scully, about the project. “She’s incredible, and fingers-crossed there. When I spoke to her, she was finishing [Tron: Ares] up. But, yeah, but we’re gonna try to make something really great… and really be something for the real X-Files fans, you know what I’m saying? And, maybe, find some new ones.”

Coogler has previously let it be known that he was inspired to make Creed because “My father was a big Rocky fan. I’ve been watching these movies as long as I can remember, because he was obsessed with them. We would watch Rocky II and he would cry and stand up and cheer at the same spots, every time.” So when the subject of The X-Files came up during a recent conversation with Variety, he said, “Like my relationship with Rocky with my dad, The X-Files is one of those things with my mom. My mom means the world to me, so this is a big one for me. I want to do right by her and the fans. My mom has read some of the stuff I wrote for it. She’s fired up.“

It was during an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that Coogler said, “It wouldn’t be X-Files if we didn’t do both: we intend on having both monsters of the week and also the overarching conspiracy.“

New Agents

Coming our way from Onyx Collective and 20th Television, the new The X-Files will center on two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents — one played by Deadwyler — who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.

Yale executive produces alongside Chris Carter as well as Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Zinzi Coogler of Proximity Media. The company’s Simone Harris is a co-executive producer. Ryan Coogler will be writing and directing the pilot episode.

Cool

During an appearance at Awesome Con, Anderson confirmed that she has had a few conversations with Coogler about his take on The X-Files, and has even read the pilot script!

Anderson said (with thanks to Deadline for the transcription), that Coogler is “such a cool guy and so talented,” and “the pilot script is really good.”

“I would say, have an open mind and give it a chance because it’s gonna be f*cking cool. It’s something different. It’s different, and it’s special, so give it a break.“

Are you looking forward to Ryan Coogler’s reboot of The X-Files, and are you hoping that Gillian Anderson will appear on the show as Dana Scully? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Three years ago, Legendary Entertainment’s remake of the infamous 1978 box office hit Faces of Death (get it HERE) went into production in Louisiana, with Barbie Ferreira of the HBO series Euphoria, Dacre Montgomery of Netflix’s Stranger Things, Josie Totah of the recent Saved by the Bell revival, Jermaine Fowler of The Blackening, and singer Charli XCX making up the cast. It’s been a long wait, but the new Faces of Death will be reaching theatres on April 10th – and today, a new red band trailer has dropped online! You can check it out in the embed above.

Reminder

The first Faces of Death was about a pathologist exploring gruesome ways to die via footage purportedly culled from around the world. In reality, most of the death scenes were staged, but no matter, the movie had its producers’ desired effect: outrage, revulsion, banning (although not in 52 countries, as hyped by the film’s makers), and, of course, a money-making hit that spawned sequels and imitators. It was written and directed by John Alan Schwartz, who used multiple pseudonyms for several crew jobs on the flick.

Seven sequels followed over the next twenty-one years. Now writer Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber, the team that brought us the Netflix release Cam, are making the remake for Legendary Entertainment and producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford’s company Angry Films.

New Film

Mazzei and Goldhaber provided the following statement about their approach to the concept: “Faces of Death was one of the first viral video tapes, and we are so lucky to be able to use it as a jumping off point for this exploration of cycles of violence and the way they perpetuate themselves online.“

When it was first announced that Mazzei and Goldhaber were taking on the project, it was said that their story would center on a female moderator of a YouTube-like website whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, who stumbles across a group that is re-creating the murders from the original film. But in the story primed for the digital age of online misinformation, the question is: Are the murders real or fake? 

Murphy and Montford are producing the Faces of Death remake with Divide/Conquer’s Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath. Rick Benattar serves as executive producer, with Cory Kaplan co-producing. Murphy and Montford have been hoping to make a new version of Faces of Death ever since 2006, and for several years they had J.T. Petty attached to write and direct. They started the development process over from scratch when they hired Mazzei and Goldhaber.

Are you looking forward to the Faces of Death remake? Take a look at the new red band trailer, then let us know by leaving a comment below. Here are some character posters to look over while you’re scrolling:

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Six months ago, JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to watch the martial arts thriller The Furious at the Toronto International Film Festival. He gave the film an 8/10 review that can be read at THIS LINK, wrapping up with, “While The Furious lacks the slick polish of the best recent South Korean, Chinese, or Indonesian action blockbusters, it makes up for it in sheer adrenaline and crowd-pleasing ferocity. It’s the kind of movie designed for high-fives in the theatre, where you’ll find yourself grinning like an idiot as wave after wave of mayhem unfolds on screen. I had a killer time with it, and anyone considering themselves a fan of action cinema should put this one very high on their list.” Which is exactly the kind of recommendation that gets me hyped for a movie.

And now, we know when a wider audience is going to have the chance to watch The Furious. Lionsgate has announced a May 29th theatrical release date, and along with that announcement comes the unveiling of a trailer! You can watch it in the embed above.

Cast and Synopsis

Directed by Kenji Tanigaki from a screenplay written by Mak Tin Shu, Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin, and Frank Hui, The Furious has the following synopsis: After the daughter of Wang Wei (Xie Miao) is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself. His only ally is Navin (Joe Taslim) – a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers in this explosive martial arts showdown.

Xie Miao and Joe Taslim star alongside Yang Enyou, Brian Le, Brian Le, and Joey Iwanaga.

Writer Frank Hui produced the film with Bill Kong and Shan Tam. It’s rated R for strong bloody violence and language.

A press release notes that The Furious is “Based on the Character Created by David Morrell,” an author who’s best known for creating the character Rambo in the pages of his novel First Blood.

What did you think of the trailer for The Furious? Are you looking forward to watching this movie in May? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Almost a year and a half has gone by since we heard that Nava Mau, who earned an Emmy nomination (in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category) for her breakthrough performance as the lead character’s love interest Teri in the hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer, had signed on to star in the comedic thriller The Dregs. Now, Deadline reports that The Dregs recently wrapped production – and Mau is joined in the cast by Stephen Lang (Don’t Breathe), Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog), Piper Curda (Hoppers), Maddie Phillips (Gen V), Max Lloyd-Jones (Final Destination Bloodlines), and Charlie Gillespie (Splitsville), among others.

Synopsis

Set in Tuscany, The Dregs marks the directorial debut of writer Connor Martin. The story Martin crafted for this project is said to center on a friends’ trip to the Italian Alps that takes a terrifying turn after they drink a cursed bottle of Grappa.

While most character details are being kept under wraps, Deadline was able to learn that Lang “plays the antagonist, a bitter Alpine waiter whose family recipe for Grappa involves alchemy and witchcraft.“

Cast

In addition to the actors mentioned above, the cast includes Marta Pozzan (Fior Di Latte), Zach Tinker (The Young and the Restless), David Goren (California Schemin‘), Desiree Staples (My Divorce Party), Evan Bittencourt (Sugar), Kheon Clarke (SkyMed), Fletcher Donovan (Love Hard), Quinnie Vu (Fire Country), Benjamin Norris (Never Have I Ever), Maria Grazia Cucinotta (Il Postino), and Mike Stern (Mid-Century), who developed the project and is producing through Astral Plane.

Yasir Anwar, Marco Allegri, and Connor Martin are also producers on the project. Zach Tinker serves as an executive producer alongside Martin Metz, Jacory Gums, Maurice Antonio, Andrew Etzel, Roland Hoch, Elizabeth Mozilo, Joel Michaely, Desiree Staples, and MYRA Productions. Co-producers include Marta Pozzan and Jeremy O’Keefe, while associate producers include Charlie Gillespie, Evan Bittencourt, Ron Rogell, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

The Dregs sounds interesting to me, and I’m definitely on board to watch Stephen Lang play an antagonistic waiter from a family that practices witchcraft. Are you interested in this one? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Sydney Sweeney (Anyone But You, Madame Web) enjoyed the biggest box office success of her career when the “sexy” psychological thriller The Housemaid racked up almost $400 million worldwide in recent months. It’s no surprise that Lionsgate is moving forward with a sequel, with Sweeney returning for The Housemaid’s Secret – and Deadline reports that she’s being joined in the cast by Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man, Roofman).

Michele Morrone (365 Days, Subservience) is also in the cast, reprising his role from the first film.

Creative Team

The Housemaid director Paul Feig returns to the helm for The Housemaid’s Secret. The sequel also has the same line-up of producers: Todd Lieberman of Hidden Pictures; Feig, who produces through his Pretty Dangerous Pictures with his partner Laura Fischer; and Sweeney, through her Fifty-Fifty Films banner.

Screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine returns to write The Housemaid’s Secret. Carly Elter, who oversaw the first movie for Hidden Pictures, is returning as executive producer.

Alex Young of Hidden Pictures will also executive produce. Fifty Fifty’s Kaylee McGregor will co-produce. Chelsea Kujawa and Maria Ascanio are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.

The Housemaid

Based on the novel by Freida McFadden, the first film has the following synopsis: In The Housemaid, Millie (Sydney Sweeney) is a struggling young woman who is relieved to get a fresh start as a housemaid to Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), an upscale, wealthy couple. She soon learns that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.

This one always had franchise potential, as McFadden has written multiple follow-ups to her novel: The Housemaid’s Secret, The Housemaid’s Wedding, and The Housemaid is Watching.

The Housemaid’s Secret

In the sequel,  Millie (Sweeney) returns, taking a job keeping house for a woman she’s never allowed to see — only to discover the truth behind the locked door that threatens to expose secrets far darker than her own.

Erin Westerman, president, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, provided the following statement: “It is a privilege to bring The Housemaid’s next chapter to the screen with Kirsten Dunst. She is an icon. Her career reflects extraordinary range and fearlessness. Opposite the ever-magnetic Sydney Sweeney, she will be an electrifying force in a world where nothing is ever quite as it seems.“

Are you a fan of The Housemaid, and are you glad to hear that Kirsten Dunst is joining Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid’s Secret? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Chris

I love me some damn dirty apes, and I’m not alone. Ever since the first Planet of the Apes movie in 1968, it’s been one of Hollywood’s most consistent (on a quality level) franchises. Think about it. Has there ever really been a lousy Planet of the Apes movie? Not really. Yet, it’s often unheralded when we talk about the great franchises. So, let’s look at the series as a whole, with this Planet of the Apes movies ranked list (from worst to best).

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Tim Burton’s remake of the original 1968 classic is a mixed bag. Mark Wahlberg was a little too green at this point in his career to make a captivating action hero, with him paling compared to Charlton Heston’s powerhouse performance in the original. Nobody can play an astronaut crash landing on a planet of apes like Heston. The film itself is more than a little inconsistent, and I can see why it couldn’t launch a big new franchise for the studio, even if it did pretty well financially ($362 million worldwide). However, the makeup from Rick Baker is incredible, and the fact that it’s the last Apes movie to use the old, practical makeup FX instead of CGI makes it a must-see. Also, it’s one of Paul Giamatti’s favourite roles ever. 

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1972)

In the sixties and seventies, sequels were made differently. The general consensus was always that a sequel would make less money than its predecessor, so the budgets were lower. As the Planet of the Apes series went on at 20th Century Fox, the studio started pumping less and less money into them, and Battle for the Planet of the Apes had a minuscule budget, resulting in the cheapest-looking Apes film of all time and the worst film in the original series. However, it still has Roddy McDowell acting his ass off in the culmination of the original Caesar trilogy. It also has a very eccentric supporting cast, with director John Huston and singer Paul Williams (The Phantom of the Paradise) turning up as Apes. Williams loved playing the part so much that he was known to turn up on talk shows wearing John Chambers’ makeup. Like all the other Apes movies, it made money for Fox, but rather than make an even cheaper sequel, they opted to spin the series off into a short-lived TV series they managed to get McDowell to return for. 

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

When Planet of the Apes was a smash hit, 20th Century Fox immediately committed to a sequel. But, as was the general thinking about sequels those days, it was not designed as an “A-feature” in the vein of the first film. That movie’s director, Franklin J. Schaffner, never considered returning, with him making the Oscar-winning Patton for the same studio instead. The budget was only a fraction of the first film’s, partly because the studio had suffered a series of costly flops. The result is a reasonably cheap-looking film, with TV actor James Franciscus taking over for Charlton Heston in the lead. However, they did manage to entice Heston back for an extended cameo, which allows the film to end on a provocatively gloomy note, making the movie worth watching. This is the only classic Apes movie that didn’t have Roddy McDowell in it, with him shooting another film while doing this – and his absence is sorely felt.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Wes Ball’s entry into the Apes saga is half a great movie. It’s terrific when it focuses on Ape culture and the new characters, such as Owen Teague’s Noa. But, when it starts to emphasize the humans and tee up yet another interspecies war, it becomes more of a mixed bag. We already have a pretty good trilogy on that very topic, so it would be nice to see this potential new series heading in another direction.

Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971)

This one starts on a deceptively light note, with us seeing that Apes Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) escaped the destruction of the planet of the apes (a future version of Earth) and have gone through a time warp that sends them back in time to 1973. Initially, they become celebrities, with the movie adopting a silly, sitcom-style tone, only to take a HARD left turn towards the finale, when it becomes a tragedy that expertly sets the stage for all the movies to come. 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

In my review of Kingdom, I mentioned this movie being a mixed bag, and I was surprised at how upset some folks got with me in the comments, as this is almost universally beloved among fans of the series. I remember it getting more of a mixed reaction when it originally came out, and I stand by the idea that it’s a GOOD film, but the sequels are better. James Franco phones in his performance, but it doesn’t matter in the end because the movie wisely focuses on Andy Serkis, delivering the motion capture performance for our new ape hero, Caesar. John Lithgow is excellent in this as Franco’s dementia-affected father, who becomes a surrogate parent to Caesar, leading to a heartbreaking conclusion.

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

The reboot trilogy ended with this all-out war film depicting how humans lost control of the planet due to their desire to re-establish dominance over the Apes. Some found the film overly self-serious and dark, but it brought the reboot trilogy to an operatic end and gave Serkis a platform to deliver (perhaps) his best mo-cap performance to date. Woody Harrelson also makes one of the most despicable human villains in the series (to date).

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

For me, this stands as the best entry in the reboot trilogy. It was Matt Reeves’ first time making a super large-scale blockbuster, and he does a better job than most other films in the series of juggling the screen time between humans and aes, with Gary Oldman playing the most sympathetic antagonist the series ever had. 

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

While Beneath and Escape the Planet of the Apes were hits, Fox continued slashing every subsequent instalment’s budget. Yet, the silver lining was that the movies were able to tackle riskier material, with director J. Lee Thompson and his writer Paul Dehn making the film a metaphor for fraught race relations in the U.S, with this very much informed by the battle for Civil Rights, the rise of the Black Panthers, and more. The film’s theatrical cut was toned down a bit by Fox, but if you watch it on Blu-ray, you’ll see the legit, uncompromised cut, with it standing as one of the more radical sci-fi films of the era.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Of course, no movie in the series can match Franklin J. Schaffer’s original entry, one of the best science fiction movies ever made. It’s a very influential film, with stunning makeup effects courtesy of John Chambers, a superb musical score by Jerry Goldsmith, and an iconic performance by the great Charlton Heston in the lead. It also has one of the most unhinged, disturbing endings of all time. As good as every other movie in the franchise is, this one is arguably the only true masterpiece of the series. That said, in my opinion, again, there’s never actually been a bad Planet of the Apes movie. 

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