Alam Nyo Ba?

Supernatural and The Boys star Jensen Ackles is set to play detective Lucas Davenport in Rules of Prey, an eight-episode crime thriller series that has been greenlit by MGM+. Based on John Sandford’s bestselling Prey book series, Rules of Prey will adapt the very first Lucas Davenport novel, which was published in 1989. Production begins this month in Toronto, with the series set to premiere on MGM+ in the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.

Here is the official synopsis for Rules of Prey:

When an ingenious serial killer begins murdering Minneapolis citizens, Lucas Davenport, a brilliant polymath and unconventional investigator, takes the case, sparking an intense psychological duel with an equally intelligent adversary. As Davenport deciphers the killer’s twisted moral code and personal vendetta, he must match wits with a predator operating by his own rules of justice, risking everything to stop a killer who sees their conflict as the ultimate game.

Ackles stars as Lucas Davenport, described as “a righteous avenging angel whose sharp mind, unconventional approach, and unwillingness to let the law get in the way of justice forced him out of the Minneapolis Police Department.” The actor will also executive produce the series.

“Jensen Ackles’ classic leading man charisma, combined with Bruce Terris’ skillful adaptation of John Sandford’s enduringly popular Prey series is an excellent fit for MGM+,” said Michael Wright, global head of MGM+. “The series delves into the psychological depth and suspense that made Sandford’s novels unmissable reading and continues MGM+’s commitment to bringing classic Hollywood storytelling to modern audiences.”

Bruce Terris (DTF St. Louis, Patriot) created the series and serves as showrunner and executive producer. Charles Gogolak and Matt Leipzig of Modern Literary Arts also executive produce, alongside Howard Braunstein, Michael Jaffe, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, and John Weber. Sandford serves as co-producer. Daniel Sackheim will direct the pilot and second episode while also executive producing.

Rules of Prey further expands Ackles’ relationship with MGM Television and Amazon MGM Studios. He will next star in and produce Vought Rising, reprising his fan-favorite role as Soldier Boy from The Boys. That The Boys prequel is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video in 2027. Ackles is also set to return as Russell Shaw for the fourth season of the CBS series Tracker.

Of course, Ackles is best known for playing Dean Winchester on Supernatural, a role he held for all 15 seasons of the long-running series from 2005 to 2020. He has also played Soldier Boy on The Boys and recently starred in the Prime Video action series Countdown.

Sandford’s Prey series has become a long-running literary franchise. The first Lucas Davenport novel, Rules of Prey, was published in 1989, and there are now 36 books in the series, with Revenge Prey published in 2026. Sandford is the pseudonym of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp.

Rules of Prey is also not the first time one of Sandford’s Davenport novels has been adapted for television. Mind Prey, the seventh book in the series, was turned into a 1999 TV movie starring Eriq La Salle as Lucas Davenport. Certain Prey, based on the tenth book, followed as a 2011 TV movie starring Mark Harmon as Davenport.

This new series is taking a different approach by going all the way back to the beginning with Rules of Prey, the novel that introduced Lucas Davenport. Are you a fan of Sandford’s books, and will you be checking out this Jensen Ackles series? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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If you missed Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma during its theatrical run, MUBI has announced when horror fans will be able to watch Jane Schoenbrun’s new movie from home: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma will stream exclusively on MUBI beginning October 2, 2026.

The film is the third feature from Schoenbrun, the filmmaker behind We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow. It stars Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) in a horror story that takes the familiar slasher movie and turns it into something considerably stranger. Schoenbrun’s film premiered as the opening selection of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it went on to win the Queer Palm.

What is Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma about?

In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a young filmmaker named Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is given the opportunity to resurrect the long-running Camp Miasma slasher franchise. Looking for inspiration for the new movie, Kris tracks down Billy (Gillian Anderson), the reclusive actress who played the original film’s final girl. Their encounter sends the two women into a strange, blood-soaked world of desire, fear and delirium.

The film runs 112 minutes and was written and directed by Schoenbrun.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma reviews

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma has earned a lot of positive attention since its Cannes premiere, with the film currently carrying an 8.0/10 rating from more than 600 MUBI users on MUBI’s international film page.

JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray gave the movie a 7/10 review, describing it as a highly meta take on the slasher genre. In his review, Bumbray praised Schoenbrun’s sense of humor and the movie’s nostalgic affection for the horror films it references, while noting that its increasingly surreal final act could prove divisive.

Bumbray wrote that the movie is more openly entertaining than Schoenbrun’s previous feature I Saw the TV Glow, while also describing it as a deliberately surreal experience that isn’t interested in offering easy interpretations.

Who stars in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma?

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson lead the cast.

The supporting cast includes Amanda Fix, Arthur Conti, Eva Victor, Zach Cherry, Sarah Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Kevin McDonald, Quintessa Swindell, and Jack Haven.

The film reunites Schoenbrun with the horror and coming-of-age themes that have defined their previous work, while placing those ideas inside the framework of a fictional slasher franchise. Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma also features cinematography by Eric K. Yue and music by Alex G.

For Canadian horror fans who have been waiting to see Schoenbrun’s latest film at home, the October 2 MUBI debut provides another chance to visit Camp Miasma. Will you be streaming it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Russell Crowe is still interested in returning as Father Gabriele Amorth for a sequel to The Pope’s Exorcist. While speaking with ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan, Crowe discussed his changing attitude toward sequels and revealed that he has been approached about returning as the real-life Vatican exorcist.

The Pope’s Exorcist is actually one of the rare Crowe movies for which a follow-up has already been publicly announced. Producer Jeff Katz announced in May 2024 that a sequel had been given the greenlight, after Crowe had previously said the movie was intended to launch a trilogy. The latest comments from Crowe don’t announce a new development for the sequel, but they do make it clear that the Oscar-winning actor remains open to reprising the role.

Speaking with ScreenRant, Crowe explained that he spent much of his career deliberately avoiding sequels because they don’t always turn out well. He has since changed his mind after seeing some follow-ups surpass expectations and become iconic in their own right.

“There are certain characters where I’ve been approached about a sequel, like Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist. They want to do another one of those, and that’s such a rich character who wrote 12 books about his experiences, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. So that would be interesting to do.”

Crowe isn’t saying that he’s just been asked whether he would like to make another movie, but he is confirming that the sequel remains something he has been approached about, reiterating that he sees plenty of material left to explore through the character of Father Amorth.

Russell Crowe Has Changed His Mind About Sequels

Crowe’s comments came while discussing the fact that, despite his long career, he has never actually made a sequel to one of his movies. He said that was a conscious decision for the first 20 or 30 years of his career

“Because I grew up in an era where a sequel was always a really bad version of the first one, where the same thoughts and processes and love and focus and attention hadn’t been paid. They were just looking at it as a financial situation: ‘The brand is out there. There’s an audience for it. Make another one.’ So it was always negative, but that’s since changed dramatically, where some of the sequels have gone on to be iconic or legendary over and above the original film. So, yeah, I’m not as closed to it now as I was.”

The Pope’s Exorcist Was Intended to Be the Start of a Trilogy

Directed by Overlord filmmaker Julius Avery, The Pope’s Exorcist was released in 2023 and starred Crowe as Father Gabriele Amorth, the real-life priest who served as the chief exorcist of the Vatican. The movie was based on Amorth’s accounts of his experiences performing exorcisms. Screen Gems had acquired rights connected to Amorth’s life and his memoirs, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, along with other accounts of his work.

Crowe previously said in 2024 that the producers had originally received approval for not just one sequel, but two, with the intention of turning The Pope’s Exorcist into a trilogy. He also said that a change in studio leadership had caused the project to go “around in a few circles.”

A sequel announcement eventually followed. Katz announced that the follow-up was officially happening in May 2024, telling fans to “Gas up your Lambretta” and get ready to ride.

What Could The Pope’s Exorcist 2 Be About?

The first Pope’s Exorcist left plenty of room for another adventure, but Crowe’s comments also point toward the large amount of material available from Amorth’s life. That gives the franchise a way to continue without repeating the premise of the first movie. Amorth could be sent to investigate another supernatural case in another part of the world, allowing a sequel to expand the mythology while still drawing inspiration from the real priest’s writings.

For now, though, there is no new release date or detailed plot information for The Pope’s Exorcist 2. What we do know is that the sequel has previously been announced as greenlit, and Russell Crowe remains interested in getting back on his Lambretta and playing Father Amorth again. Do you want to see the sequel happen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Filmmaker Renny Harlin and producer Johanna Harlin have launched a new podcast called Harlin House, giving movie fans an inside look at filmmaking, Hollywood, and the realities of getting movies made. The podcast is hosted by the married filmmaking team, with Renny Harlin bringing more than 40 years of experience as a director and Johanna Harlin offering her perspective as a producer and creative partner. According to the show’s description, the podcast will explore everything from blockbuster productions and Hollywood personalities to projects that collapse before cameras ever roll.

Harlin House is described as a place where the Harlins will discuss “the stories, lessons, challenges, and realities that rarely make it beyond the industry.” The topics are expected to include filmmaking, creativity, leadership, rejection, ambition, family, and the business of making movies.

The first episode, embedded above, lives up to that promise. Renny Harlin discusses everything from his early days in Hollywood to the many movies that have fallen apart during his career. He estimates that he has seen approximately seven projects disappear each year over more than four decades in the business, explaining how movies can move from a green light to a red light because of financing, casting, scheduling, or any number of other problems.

Harlin goes on to describe being in locations around the world, including Thailand, China, Antarctica, New York, London, and Rome, only to receive a phone call telling him that a production has been delayed. Those delays can stretch from days into weeks or months before a filmmaker finally realizes the movie is not going to happen.

The first episode also offers a glimpse into the Harlins’ life away from movie sets. The couple discuss raising their three young children while simultaneously producing and directing movies, with Johanna joking that “work is our fourth baby.”

Renny also discusses rediscovering his passion for screenwriting. He says that he once lost confidence in his own writing after becoming consumed by the Hollywood filmmaking machine, but Johanna encouraged him to return to it. Harlin describes getting up at 4 a.m. to write and compares the experience of opening a new screenplay to discovering presents under a Christmas tree.

The couple also talk about some of their upcoming movies. Harlin’s The Beast, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Joel Kinnaman, is scheduled for release in October. He also discusses Black Tides, an ocean survival thriller starring John Travolta, Melissa Barrera, and Ella Bleu Travolta, which is in post-production.

One of the most entertaining stories in the first episode involves the late Val Kilmer and the making of Mindhunters. Harlin recalls Kilmer deciding that his character should wear glasses in the middle of filming a sequence, despite the character not having worn glasses in the previous day’s footage. When Kilmer refused to take them off, Harlin says he finally snapped.

The story leads into a larger discussion about leadership on a movie set and the responsibility of a director to make decisions quickly. Harlin explains that filmmaking requires more than having a creative vision. A director also has to be a leader, communicator, organizer, and businessman capable of making decisions while hundreds of people are waiting for an answer.

The Harlins also discuss the often absurd realities of Hollywood, comparing their experiences to the Apple TV+ series The Studio. Renny says that while viewers might see the series as an exaggerated comedy about the film industry, filmmakers can watch it and recognize situations that have actually happened to them.

The podcast’s central purpose becomes clear toward the end of the episode. Having spent more than 40 years working in Hollywood, Harlin wants to share what he has learned with people who dream of becoming filmmakers. He also opens up about just how difficult his early years in the industry were. He recalls losing his money and credit cards and living in a garage for a year, surviving on a weekly budget of just $5. At one point, he says, he did not even have enough money to call his mother and let her know he was alive.

His advice to aspiring filmmakers is simple: don’t give up and believe in yourself.

“You have to do this for the right reasons. You can’t be doing this because ‘I want to be famous. I want to be rich. I want to win an award.’ You have to do it because you love movies.”

That idea is at the heart of Harlin House, which promises to go beyond the glamour associated with Hollywood and explore what actually goes into building a career in the film industry.

The official description for Harlin House reads:

What really happens behind the doors of Hollywood? Welcome to Harlin House, where legendary filmmaker Renny Harlin and producer Johanna Harlin take you inside the world of movies like you’ve never seen it before. From blockbuster sets and Hollywood personalities to projects that fall apart overnight, Renny and Johanna share the stories, lessons, challenges, and realities that rarely make it beyond the industry. With more than 40 years of filmmaking experience, Renny brings a lifetime of stories from behind the camera. Johanna brings a fresh perspective as a producer, creative partner, and fellow filmmaker navigating the business alongside him. Expect candid conversations about filmmaking, creativity, leadership, rejection, ambition, family, and what it really takes to turn impossible ideas into movies. Whether you love movies, dream of making them, or simply want to know what Hollywood is really like, you’re invited inside. Welcome to Harlin House. The doors are open.

Harlin House is available to watch and listen to on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. New episodes are expected to continue exploring the Harlins’ careers, their current projects, their family life, and the strange realities of making movies in Hollywood. Will you be listening? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Mike

Big things have small beginnings. But Prometheus was a wrecking ball of expectations from the very moment the idea of it burst out of 20th Century Fox. What happens when a legendary director returns to one of the most beloved science fiction franchises ever and then suddenly tells its fans… maybe it’s not a part of that franchise after all?

Did the studio’s intentional vagueness about whether or not Prometheus was part of the Alien franchise backfire and forever haunt the film, not to mention its possible sequels? How did one of the most beautiful and ambitious sci-fi blockbusters you’ll ever see become a point of frustration among so many? This is what happened to Prometheus.

The Origins of Prometheus

As it seems is always the case with the franchise, the tires on a new Alien sequel had been kicked multiple times long before Prometheus gestated. As far back as 2002, Ridley Scott was considering a return to the franchise that, at that point, hadn’t had a new feature film since 1997’s wild-ass Alien: Resurrection. James Cameron considered working with Scott on Alien 5, even going so far as to start work on a script. But when, by 2004, Fox announced they were going forward with an Alien vs. Predator film, Cameron backed out and was done with the franchise for good. Simply because he felt the franchise would never be taken seriously again after such a stunt. You can’t blame him for thinking it, but Cameron would later admit Alien vs. Predator “was actually pretty good” and ranked it third in the franchise at the time.

The franchise then lay dormant until 2009, when Ridley Scott announced that a new Alien movie was again being made. The only problem was that he didn’t want to direct it. The Gladiator director hired a commercial director named Carl Erik Rinsch, which sounded insane. Fox thought so, too. There was also a rumor that Rinsch was romantically involved with Scott’s daughter at the time. But that’s none of our business.

Fox put their foot down and said they weren’t interested in paying the high-end price to make an Alien prequel unless Scott himself planned to direct. Eventually, they worked it out, and Scott agreed to direct himself. We were off.

The Prometheus Script

Scott then sat down with writer Jon Spaihts for a meeting. While it seemed as though Spaihts only had a single film credit to his name at that point in the underwhelming Emile Hirsch sci-fi movie The Darkest Hour, his script for the film Passengers (not actually made until 2017) had been on the Black List in Hollywood for some time. The writer, now an executive producer on projects like Dune, was completely unprepared when Scott asked him what he would do with the opportunity to write an Alien prequel. Spaihts quickly racked his brain, spoke for about forty-five minutes, and walked away with the job. He says it was just one of those things where you are asked a question and an idea leaps out of your mouth fully formed. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of us would have completely shit the space bed in that moment and regretted it for the rest of our lives.

Spaihts says that his initial pitch to Scott still forms a large part of Prometheus’s spine, despite the many changes the script would undergo during pre-production. The main thing that Spaihts had won Scott over with was the idea of connecting the Alien saga to humanity. This core concept would turn into a kind of retcon, specifically when it comes to the mystery of the Space Jockey seen in the first film.

In 1979’s Alien, the figure appears as a seemingly organic creature with a chestburster-sized hole in its fossilized body. In Prometheus, they turn the Space Jockey into the armor for the “Engineer” character who lies inside of it. The Engineer is thought to be a part of the species that created mankind and is humanoid in nature. Just big and cooler looking.

After four drafts and a lot of hard work, Ridley Scott announced that the script was done and they were ready to film… before he called Lost creator Damon Lindelof and asked him to look at the script. Lindelof appreciated what Spaihts had accomplished with the script but felt as though it tied too closely to the Alien stories that had come before. He saw many of the previous Alien staples as diluted by overexposure at the time, and if they wanted to make a true prequel that could stand on its own legs, it needed to separate itself from what had come before. He also wanted to incorporate a Blade Runner-type feel into the mix.

Both Scott and Fox agreed, and Lindelof was hired to work on Spaihts’ script. Lindelof gives the credit for what happened the rest of the way to Ridley Scott. He says he simply sat across from Scott for three or four weeks asking him questions and putting his answers to paper. He says, self-deprecatingly, that he more or less just bullied Scott into dictating the movie to him and then putting his own name on it.

If you were confused at the time whether or not Prometheus was actually going to be an Alien film or something else entirely, you weren’t alone. Nor were you wrong.

Lindelof, Scott, and Fox decided to go full light-speed ahead into original-project territory as Lindelof pulled more and more franchise callbacks from the script. The way they saw it, a Prometheus going into a Prometheus 2 was a much better plan than the story of Prometheus ending at the beginning of 1979’s Alien.

The studio also deliberately muddied the waters in its marketing, hoping to drum up more press for the film. Is it an Alien movie? Guess you’ll have to show up at the theater to find out. Which undoubtedly led to some of the backlash the film received from fans when it released. More on that later.

They changed the film’s title from Paradise to Prometheus, worried that the allusion to John Milton’s Paradise Lost would give away too much of the plot. No biggie there; the story had already been referred to in the press as everything from Alien Origins to Alien Zero.

Interestingly enough, in one particular draft of the script, Scott admits that there was a plot line where the Engineers, definitely sick of the humans’ shit at this point, had once sent one of their own down to Earth to try to tame our aggression. But here’s the kicker: It was 2,000 years ago. And they crucified him. If you’re picking up what he’s putting down, that was supposedly Jesus Christ. Scott pulled the thread on that storyline, however, feeling like it was too on the nose.

Either way, the official script, sans Jesus, was finally complete, and it was time to recruit the team that would put it into action.

The Cast of Prometheus

Ridley Scott had originally wanted a $250 million budget and an R rating from Fox, who balked at that large of an expense for an R-rated film. In the end, Scott would receive somewhere around $130 million to create his newest science fiction epic and kind of a maybe about the R rating. This would make it all the more impressive that Scott was able to create such a visually stunning film with such a stacked cast. There’s no $20 million Tom Cruise on the roster or anything… but there’s a lot of talent.

For the true lead, and you could ironically argue the soul of the film, Michael Fassbender could not have been more perfectly cast as David, in a long lineage of fantastic synthetic actors. He carries within his acting bag the ability to be diabolical while maintaining a strange likability amidst all his shenanigans and ominous stares. In one moment he’s watching your dreams and invading your privacy. The next he’s dying his hair and watching Lawrence of Arabia. He’s amazing.

Noomi Rapace plays the female lead, Elizabeth Shaw, who was deliberately written to have a personality far from the original Alien badass, Ripley. Though she does manage to eventually end up half naked and fighting for her life in white linens, their paths to get there and intentions couldn’t have been more different. Though Noomi was tough as nails and looked like she could throw down with an alien if the moment called for it.

Idris Elba doesn’t have nearly enough screen time as Captain Janek, but he makes the most of what turns out to be a charismatic role where, in the end, he is the hero of the day. I would watch a prequel about that guy’s life any day of the week.

Guy Pearce was brought in to play old man Weyland in what one has to imagine was a rather thankless role. “Okay, let’s put you in a shitload of makeup, have you hobble around for a while, and then get your head ripped off.” But whatever floats your boat.

Speaking of thankless, Logan Marshall-Green plays the lead archaeologist and unending douchebag, excitedly running through the film being very punchable. Which, to be fair, is exactly what the role calls for. I think.

Fellow The Odyssey cast member Charlize Theron plays Weyland’s tightly wound daughter, Vickers. To put it lightly, her personality makes you wonder: “If she’s here, who is running Hell?” And Theron nails it.

There are plenty of other notable and memorable faces throughout Prometheus, such as Benedict Wong and even Patrick Wilson in small roles.

But let’s get into the movie itself.

The Story of Prometheus

The movie opens with some of the most breathtakingly gorgeous landscapes you’ll ever see put to film. A spaceship hovers above as our first look at one of the Engineers comes into frame, looking like the prime-time Shaq of his species, before getting down to his tighty-whities and popping off a Jell-O shot. Only it’s not a Jell-O shot. It is a dangerous black goo that will tear him apart and end up spreading his DNA about like a seed that could quite possibly be the beginning of mankind.

The year is now 2093, and we are on the Scientific Exploratory Vessel Prometheus, brought to you by Weyland Corporation. We’re then introduced to the star of the show in our new synthetic David. I could watch an entire movie just about what he does on that spaceship while everyone else is in hypersleep. He takes in new information, even the dreams and memories of the ship inhabitants while they sleep, which is not cool, and practices his impersonations in front of the mirror while brushing his hair. He’s amazing.

We meet the crew, Weyland’s peachy daughter, and Weyland himself as a hologram because he’s supposedly dead. He looks dead. Even post-mortem, though, he takes a dig at his hot daughter by saying that David is the closest thing to a son he will ever have.

Holloway and Shaw then explain that they are there because they found multiple tablets and drawings from different ancient cultures depicting man worshipping giant beings who point to the stars. They then use these drawings to find the planet he was pointing to and draw a map to Moon LV-223, believing they were being invited to meet their makers.

We learn that David has spent two years studying ancient languages and is confident he will be able to communicate with the Engineers upon arrival.

When they arrive on the awe-inspiring planet, they find a tomb with a giant sculpture of an Engineer’s human-like head and a room full of organic pods before a storm sends them back into the ship, where they examine a severed head they found. Which, of course, explodes into a bunch of nasty goo.

David, secretly running on his own agenda provided by the actually still-living Weyland, takes a drip of the black goo from one of the pods and dips it into Charlie’s drink while Charlie is too busy being a condescending baby to notice.

Meanwhile, these two idiots are left behind and find a snake-like creature. They attempt to radio back to the ship, but no one is there because Idris Elba used reverse psychology and an accordion to convince Vickers into bed. The absolute idiot tries to play with the snake creature, and it turns into some sort of alternate facehugger boa constrictor, breaking his arm. When they try to cut it, it obviously bleeds acid, and the two die seemingly some of the most horrific deaths you could imagine. Conor McGregor’s face is melted off, and the snake-hugger enters the other guy’s body via his mouth. It’s ultra gnarly.

Finally, Charlie gets sick and starts to turn into something even more heinous than he was before. So Vickers takes a flamethrower to him like she’s Leonardo DiCaprio fighting a hippie.

We then find out Shaw is somehow three months pregnant with an alien baby after sleeping with Holloway after he was poisoned. She escapes David, who has unveiled himself as a synthetic psychopath, and jumps into the fancy pod where she commands it to remove the organism from her body. The machine lasers her open, and a Toy Story claw comes down and rips out of the hole in her stomach the most frightening ball of octopus goo you’ve ever seen.

Somehow… Fifield returned and is murdering the hell out of everyone.

Meanwhile, Shaw has stumbled upon the true cause of the mission: the still-alive Weyland asking an Engineer for a longer lease on life.

David, Weyland, a beat-up Shaw, and some muscle head into the darkness to make contact.

Leave it to the smooth and wise Idris Elba to be the voice of reason. He says that this isn’t the Engineer’s home planet. It’s a military installation where they created weapons of mass destruction that turned on them.

They wake up the Engineer, who promptly rips David’s head off and beats Weyland to death with it. So, I mean, I guess he’s pissed.

We find out, as the ground opens up beneath Shaw (or so it seems) that the Engineer is taking off in his own ship. She assumes he’s SO pissed that he’s taking the goo of death and mass destruction to Earth. The only way they can stop it is to sacrifice themselves by using the non-war ship’s propulsion to slam the Prometheus into the Engineer’s ship.

Vickers obviously has no interest in this and hits the escape pod, but Idris and the other two gentlemen don’t even blink. These are just some solid dudes willing to give up their lives to save others. But also, it’s not like Shaw has the best track record with being right. What if he’s just headed somewhere else?

Anyway, they heroically take the ship down, but it falls right on top of Vickers, who apparently doesn’t have the ability to move laterally. Right up there with the IQ of the guy who tried to pet the alien snake.

Now it’s Shaw with an axe and some painkillers like Laurie Strode in Halloween H20 versus her alien baby.

We have a little Alien: Isolation-type moment before the now EXTREMELY pissed-off Engineer shows up to kill Shaw but ends up tangled up with octo-baby and getting… well, face-hugged by it.

Shaw collects David’s severed head because he tells her he can pilot one of the Engineers’ left-behind ships to go home, but she doesn’t want to go home. She wants to go to the Engineers’ home and ask some questions. Because some people never learn.

Meanwhile, the Engineer gives birth to a kind of cute but mostly scary, almost-Xenomorph that some idiot will probably try to pet eventually. And that’s Prometheus.

The Making of Prometheus

To create the underappreciated landscapes and visuals of Prometheus, the studio began by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire scientists and artists to assemble Ridley’s vision as accurately as possible. Lindelof recalled the first time Ridley took him there, where a team of computer designers was working together behind a locked, foot-thick metal door.

But the legitimate nature of Prometheus didn’t stop there. The film used practical special effects whenever possible and used CGI only when necessary. No more than six green screens were used throughout the entirety of production. And it paid off.

Filming lasted just over 80 days and moved from sound stages in England, where practical sets were built, to Iceland, where the awe-inspiring exterior shots were filmed.

Filming took place at the foot of Iceland’s Hekla volcano during a time when some news reports were saying that the volcano was “about to blow its top any moment.” When asked about this, Scott simply quipped that “if one is afraid of nature in this profession then it would be best to find a different job.”

While Iceland only took up about two weeks of filming and accounted for only around 15 minutes of the film, it remained the soul of the movie and provided some of the most gorgeous landscapes you’ll ever see put to film. The terrain turned out to be a perfect-looking representation of what could have been the beginning of all time. Another glorious shot was taken at the waterfall Dettifoss, one of the most powerful waterfalls in existence.

Scott felt he had a responsibility to Fox to present a PG-13 cut if necessary, but he still filmed Prometheus as he felt the story dictated. This ended up as an R rating due mostly to the alien baby removal via medical pod, which would have been impossible to cut. In the end, Scott was able to present his full Prometheus vision without any cuts being made to the film, and we can all agree it was probably better for it.

The haunting and heroic score for Prometheus was crafted by composer Marc Streitenfeld with a 90-piece orchestra. Streitenfeld says that he wrote the sheet music backward for his orchestra and then flipped it digitally, giving it an unsettling sound. Which is cool as hell.

To build the ships for Prometheus, set designer Arthur Max made digital 3D models and physical miniature replicas of the sets within them. They took rock samples from Iceland to replicate that setting for other shots. Even the vehicles driven on the alien planet were built to look futuristic and to travel across rugged terrain. The alien creatures found on the planet were given biological functions and purposes.

The Engineers’ designs were created by applying bulk aesthetics to live actors to present the eight-foot-tall beings. They used digital effects after the fact to add more emotion to their faces and perfect their look. In short, the Engineers weren’t all natty, but they still looked awesome and are one of the top ten coolest alien renditions ever put on film. If you can call them aliens? They are kind of… us? Anyway.

The Legacy of Prometheus

I don’t know if you remember or not, but the fandom was in a fever pitch back in 2012. The anticipation for Prometheus was insane. Between endless marketing from Comic-Con to online viral campaigns and Alien franchise fans still trying to figure out what the hell this movie was, it felt right up there with something like Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises in terms of anticipation.

Somehow, the film still came up financially short of what the studios’ hopes and dreams held for the ambitious project. Still yet, it wasn’t exactly a financial loss for Fox, pulling in more than $400 million worldwide by the end of its run against a $130 million budget.

Critics were generally positive but noticeably divided. They praised Scott’s visuals, atmosphere, and ambitious ideas about creation and faith, as well as Fassbender’s unforgettable performance as David. But like many fans, they were frustrated by the movie’s unanswered questions and the characters’ dumb decisions.

Many fans were even more annoyed by this. Moments where a scientist tries to pet a space snake, Vickers can’t understand how to maneuver laterally with a spaceship about to crush her, and so on and so forth. But what a lot of fans were mostly unable to get over was their disappointment with a lack of Alien connections and explanations in the script. Some were annoyed and unsatisfied with the unfulfilling answers about the promised origins of their favorite franchise. Some were just confused about what the hell was even happening in that universe. Meanwhile, some were just trying to scream over the noise, but the movie still rocked despite all those, albeit valid, reasons.

In the end, Prometheus immediately came out as one of the decade’s most debated blockbusters. Hell, these days it feels like people are fighting with each other every week about whatever new movie is releasing. But it was a palpable reaction back in 2012.

James Cameron himself noted that he would have changed a thing here or there, as he would with any movie. But he enjoyed the film and felt like it was Ridley returning to science fiction with gusto. I couldn’t agree more.

When you let the expectations melt away and take the film as what it is, Prometheus is one of the most beautiful-looking films I’ve ever seen, asks some really interesting questions about the universe, has some badass creatures in it, and Michael Fassbender’s David. My only complaint is that we never truly received a Prometheus 2.

We DID receive a short prologue before the next sequel, in which we learned that David and Shaw did indeed make it to the Engineer planet. In an amazing-looking scene where the ship hovers above the planet, with Shaw in hypersleep, David walks into frame and says, “Look on my works, ye mighty and despair” like someone who is about to unleash a bunch of black death goo on an entire planet. The line is from an 1818 sonnet titled “Ozymandias,” and the idea, or so it seems, is that David has decided he doesn’t want to meet the Engineers or God. He wants to destroy them with the very black pathogen they created. Perhaps he viewed them as hypocritical, imperfect gods who did not deserve their power. Perhaps he was just pissed that they ripped his head off and beat the shit out of his dad with it. Maybe he just wanted to use their planet to do his experiments and become a creator himself, lording above all other creations.

All we know is that Alien: Covenant did NOT go where many fans of the Prometheus storyline, in particular, were hoping it would. But that’s a story for another day.

And the trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts. And that is what happened to Prometheus.

A couple of previous episodes of this show can be seen below. For more, check out the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel—and don’t forget to subscribe!

The post What Happened to Prometheus? How Ridley Scott’s Alien Prequel Became So Divisive appeared first on JoBlo.

George Lucas’ long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art officially opens to the public this week, and Deadline reports that the museum’s star-studded opening celebration brought together a jaw-dropping collection of Hollywood filmmakers. Among the most notable names in attendance were Steven Spielberg and John Landis, who appeared together in a group photo featuring some of the biggest directors in movie history.

The gathering is particularly notable because Spielberg and Landis have had a complicated history since Twilight Zone: The Movie. The two filmmakers were friends and worked together as producers on the 1983 anthology film, which featured segments directed by Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller. On July 23, 1982, during production of Landis’ segment, actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed in a helicopter accident. Spielberg subsequently ended his friendship with Landis. A 1988 Los Angeles Times report noted that Spielberg had stopped speaking to his former friend following the tragedy. More than four decades later, Spielberg and Landis were among the filmmakers gathered for the opening celebration of Lucas’ museum in Los Angeles.

The impressive group photograph also features Robert De Niro, Tyler Perry, Matthew Robbins, Caleb Deschanel, Nathan Fielder, D.B. Weiss, Ron Howard, Bryce Dallas Howard, Spike Lee, Jon Favreau, Christopher Nolan, Francis Ford Coppola, David Benioff, Lee Daniels, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright, Frank Marshall, Denis Villeneuve, Jon M. Chu, and George Lucas himself.

The event was the culmination of years of work by Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, located in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park, houses more than 40,000 works and was created to celebrate visual storytelling across illustration, comics, photography, painting, and cinema. The museum’s permanent collection includes everything from Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo to comic art and cinematic artifacts.

Hobson told Deadline, “George kept saying, would this person come, do you think this person would come. I said, they would all come, George.” And they certainly did. The opening-night celebration featured a massive Hollywood guest list, including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicolas Cage, Jack Black, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Denis Villeneuve, Spike Lee, Jon Favreau, Christopher Nolan, Queen Latifah, Tyler Perry, and many more.

Lucas’ Star Wars legacy was well represented, with Ford and Hamill among the guests and a substantial area of the museum dedicated to the franchise. The museum’s inaugural cinema exhibition, Star Wars in Motion, features vehicles, props, costumes and illustrations from the first six Star Wars films.

Hobson added, “If critics say that a museum of narrative art is too much like a popcorn movie and not enough like an art film, oh, we like popcorn movies in our family.”

Lucas himself said, “I believe it wholeheartedly that you get to decide what art is.”

The museum’s opening also featured a drone show incorporating images inspired by works in the collection, including R2-D2, Captain America, Banksy, and Frida Kahlo. Oprah Winfrey and Samuel L. Jackson introduced and narrated the presentation, and the evening concluded with a performance by the Black Eyed Peas.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public on September 22, 2026.

Will you be going to the museum? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and while you’re scrolling down, check out this photo, featuring George Lucas and a whole lot of filmmakers – including Steven Spielberg and John Landis:

The post Steven Spielberg and John Landis reunite at George Lucas’ museum opening appeared first on JoBlo.

Tyler

With this weekend’s release of Resident Evil, the argument can be made that Cregger’s version is the greatest video game adaptation of all time. Sure, the competition isn’t exactly fierce, but it’s still an absurdly impressive feat of filmmaking. And it puts those embarrassing Milla Jovovich movies to shame. Cregger was able to show that you don’t need to adapt a video game story, to make a very faithful adaptation. Hell, just look at Welcome to Raccoon City for a reason why just plugging in characters and game plot doesn’t always translate to a great movie. Or even a halfway decent one. But thankfully we’re in a new era.

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that one of the main complaints from game fans was the lack of characters or story beats from any of the games. But does that mean we don’t get any Resident Evil? Absolutely not. The film is absolutely littered with references to the games. But rather than the more “fan film” approach of mentioning a cop named Redfield or a mansion out in the woods, this is really going for the feeling of the games. Cregger said on the promotional tour that he wanted to evoke the same feeling you get when playing the game versus direct story beats. And he absolutely nailed it. I know when I left the theater, my first thought was: I wish that were a game, because I’d love to play it.

So whether you’re a fan of the franchise, or who enjoyed the movie and wants to know more: here are all the Resident Evil Easter Eggs.

Spoilers ahead.

Raccoon City

We don’t get many recognizable names, but obviously, if you’re going to feature a city in a Resident Evil movie, you pick Raccoon City. While the first game took place out in a remote farmhouse, the second game gave us zombie mayhem in the metropolitan city. And it was awesome. To see how much this city is thrown into chaos in such a short amount of time is a terrifying reminder of the fragility of society. I also like the idea Leon and Claire are off dealing with their RE2 shenanigans during the course of this story. Almost feels like if Bryan had gone to the police station, he’d have found them.

Umbrella Corporation

The evil corporation behind the outbreak has become a very large, global operation in the games, which the Paul WS Anderson films really lean into. But I appreciated how much information we don’t actually know about Umbrella in the film. Zach Cherry and Paul Walter Hauser are employees of the company, having worked on the T Virus itself (though it’s not mentioned by name), but we don’t get all the company lore that has gotten pretty convoluted in the games. They’re simply an evil corporation, which is very relevant to 2026.

Progression of Weapons

One basic element of any game is the idea of getting stronger and stronger as you progress. Resident Evil often represents that by providing the player more advanced weapons as the game goes on. You may get a machine gun at some point, but you sure as hell aren’t starting with it. Bryan starts unarmed, then gets a pistol, a shotgun, then a machine gun. Just like the games, ammunition is also extremely limited and can be found in the most random of places (who keeps shells in their underwear drawer?!). It’s just too bad he never comes across a rocket launcher with unlimited ammo. Probably would have resulted in a different outcome.

Typewriter

In the games, Typewriters serve as Save Points for the player. They tend to be safe zones that the player can rest in, unless you’re playing 3 where typewriters exist out of safe zones because “Fuck you, Nemesis.” We get to see a typewriter in the farmhouse that Bryan explores in the beginning. If only he’d stayed in that room to get a little bit of rest. Instead, his avoidance of the room altogether signals to the viewer that this many isn’t going to have a break.

Clocks

During that same farm sequence, we hear the familiar sound of a cuckoo clock. Various clocks were regularly used throughout the franchise as elements of puzzles or secret passageways. These have been featured in nearly every game of the series.

Undead Dogs

When Bryan first enters the farm property, and a dog starts pursuing him, it just feels like a dog protecting its property. Bryan just barely escaping it, only for its head to burst through the barn wall, is one of the best scares of the film. To then have its head split apart and reveal the tendrils beneath is a great way to steadily ramp things up. As seen in the Paul WS Anderson films, these dogs tend to be Dobermans, though the one in the film seems to be a mutt, which is pretty appropriate for a farm dog.

Tendrils

The T-Virus goes unnamed in the film, but there’s no doubt that it’s the culprit behind all these monsters. Resident Evil 4 amped up the regular shambling zombies by giving them these tendrils. So you’d do the usual process of shooting off their head, expecting them to die, only for tendrils to pop out and a continued pursuit. The tendrils themselves are a great way to ramp up the threat even further from a standard shambler. In fact, all the many varieties of zombies are a big reason that this feels like a proper Resident Evil than a random zombie film.

Locks

One of my favorite running gags in the film is Bryan coming across different locks, blocking his path. He tries to shoot them, yet they’re too heavy duty. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come across the same scenario in an RE game, only to think to myself “why can’t I use this gun to just shoot the lock?” Well, apparently I think like Bryan. It’s made even better by the fact that, on the outdoor gate in particular, you can actually see a small diamond, which we also then see on the key when he finds it, meaning they’re a match.

The Puker

I still remember playing Resident Evil 7 for the first time and coming across these fat bastards using projectile acid vomit as a weapon. It’s similar to a zombie from Left4Dead that I always hated, so there was a familiarity there. Also known as Fat Mold, this monster belches and is genuinely disgusting. In the film, it pukes down on the elevator that holds Bryan, dissolving it into little pieces. But it also proves to be quite handy, as Bryan uses it to puke on his pursuer, buying him some time.

Revenant

This creature that stitches itself together using other bodies was first introduced in Resident Evil Revelations 2. In fact, at this point, it’s the monster’s only appearance, which just makes the fact that it’s featured here all the better. The amalgamation of bodies is Society-like in its look, and can feature some genuinely disturbing visuals. Which leads me to…

Stalking Villain

There is nothing that gets my anxiety going more than having a character relentlessly pursue you in a video game. The fact that I can just be minding my own business, picking up a green herb, only for Nemesis to smash through a wall and try to turn me into human paste is a reason I don’t play Resident Evil 3 very much. From Tyrant to Nemesis to Lady Dimitrescu, to all love to make your life a living hell. So it’s awesome to have the Revenant pursuing Bryan throughout the film. Anytime there’s a moment to breathe, he looks around and sees it coming after him, relentless.

I absolutely loved my time with Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil. I had just resigned to the fact that we’d never receive a good film, and was just trying to focus on the video games, which have never let me down (I’ll just ignore 6). So, to get such a high-quality film feels like a pure treat for this Resident Evil fan.

What was your favorite callback to the games? Is there something that I missed? Let me know in the comments below!

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